Post by: Bauglir on July 30, 2011, 09:21:50 pm
Warning: I will probably not maintain this thread, at all. It is entirely possible that I will forget it exists. I'll do what I can, though, if it ever becomes necessary.
Anyway, my question is this. Sometimes, if I navigate to the address of a jpg, Firefox will insist upon opening an "Open with..." window sort of thing where it'll ask me to choose a program or just to save it to my hard drive. I want it to stop doing this, and just display the damn image as it does with most image locations. How do I make this happen? What information do I need to post, if the solution is not immediately obvious? Firefox 5.0, up to date, running on 64-bit Windows 7 Professional.
Post by: Stargrasper on July 30, 2011, 10:20:03 pm
Post by: YouR_DooM on July 31, 2011, 06:15:50 am
I'm normally a very computer savy person and manage to fix even the most annoying bugs, but today I just can't wrap my head around it.
Here is the current status quo: I just opened MSN and Windows Live Mail and here is what presented itself to me. EVERYTHING ELSE works fine. Just these two windows are all washed up. Maybe something with the AERO stuff went haywire? Also note how in pic two the tool bar is perfectly fine...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The incredible thing is that when I mouse over something, the effect goes slightly away and then slowly comes back. I have really no idea what's going on.
EDIT: Installed both again, nothing changes; updated AMD catalyst video drivers to 11.8, still nothing.
Post by: ed boy on July 31, 2011, 07:27:42 am
A couple of weeks ago, however, mouse 1 started becoming intermittent. I would hear the "USB item unplugged" noise, the light on the mouse would go off, and it would stop working. About a second later, The light would come on and it would start working. This would repeat every few seconds, even though the mouse remained plugged in the whole time. This would continue to happen when I changed what USB socket the mouse was plugged into. I managed to find a short term solution by plugging the mouse most but not all of the way in.
I wanted to see if it was to mouse or the laptop that was at fault, so I switched the mice between the two laptops. Laptop A worked fine with mouse 2, but Laptop B was having similar problems with mouse 1. I determined that the mouse was at fault, and chucked it out. That was a week ago.
However, in the past couple days I have noticed similar problems (although to a much lesser degree) when using mouse 2 with laptop A. Is it just coincidence, or is it possible the Laptop A is somehow damaging the mice?
Post by: Stargrasper on July 31, 2011, 12:47:57 pm
'Sup, I'll use this thread too :D
I'm normally a very computer savy person and manage to fix even the most annoying bugs, but today I just can't wrap my head around it.
Here is the current status quo: I just opened MSN and Windows Live Mail and here is what presented itself to me. EVERYTHING ELSE works fine. Just these two windows are all washed up. Maybe something with the AERO stuff went haywire? Also note how in pic two the tool bar is perfectly fine...Spoiler (click to show/hide)Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The incredible thing is that when I mouse over something, the effect goes slightly away and then slowly comes back. I have really no idea what's going on.
EDIT: Installed both again, nothing changes; updated AMD catalyst video drivers to 11.8, still nothing.
It looks to me like Windows is failing to completely load the programs. You've already re-installed the programs and updated video drivers. I'm assuming you rebooted the machine a half dozen times doing the above. I'm also going to assume you've installed the correct graphics drivers. You might want to check that one, though.
Since you seem to have been doing things right, I'm going to suggest you disable Aero for a moment and then try the programs. To do this, go to Control Panel / Personalization and scroll down the list to basic themes. Select one of those (which don't use Aero) and try the programs. Let us know if that fixes things.
I have two laptops, A and B. I also have two mice, 1 and 2. Originally, Laptop A had mouse 1 plugged into it, and laptop B had mouse 2 plugged into it. This worked fine for several months.
A couple of weeks ago, however, mouse 1 started becoming intermittent. I would hear the "USB item unplugged" noise, the light on the mouse would go off, and it would stop working. About a second later, The light would come on and it would start working. This would repeat every few seconds, even though the mouse remained plugged in the whole time. This would continue to happen when I changed what USB socket the mouse was plugged into. I managed to find a short term solution by plugging the mouse most but not all of the way in.
I wanted to see if it was to mouse or the laptop that was at fault, so I switched the mice between the two laptops. Laptop A worked fine with mouse 2, but Laptop B was having similar problems with mouse 1. I determined that the mouse was at fault, and chucked it out. That was a week ago.
However, in the past couple days I have noticed similar problems (although to a much lesser degree) when using mouse 2 with laptop A. Is it just coincidence, or is it possible the Laptop A is somehow damaging the mice?
It's possible the laptop is frying mice. Do other usb devices work alright in the machine? Make sure the computer has the latest device drivers. Make sure there's nothing wrong with the usb ports. How old are the mice? How do you use them? This just feels like a broken wire in the connection problem that would result from worn or misused hardware.
Unplug all usb devices. Go to Control Panel / Device Manager and remove all instances of the hardware in question and reboot. Windows should re-install the hardware devices.
~~~
I'm going to do a little more searching for both of your problems. I'm not happy with either solution, but this was what my intuition and a 30 minute google search came up with.
Post by: Bauglir on July 31, 2011, 03:36:24 pm
I've been using Chromium lately, but I can take a look. Are you saying it loads some images within Firefox but not others? What file formats does it ask you about? Is it actually set to load images automatically in settings?
Yeah, it loads some in the window, but in other cases it'll have a window pop up that asks me to choose a program to open it with or save it. That "You have chosen to open X, what should Firefox do with this file" window. This has only happened with some .jpg files; all other images work correctly, including many other .jpg files. It is set to load images automatically. I'll see if I can't find a link to an image that causes this problem.
Warning: Ponies ahead (http://hphotos-snc6.fbcdn.net/257702_213711625329425_212291658804755_694179_6477836_o.jpg)
Looking at that link, I'm wondering if it's a problem with Facebook or something.
Post by: Stargrasper on July 31, 2011, 04:20:44 pm
I've been using Chromium lately, but I can take a look. Are you saying it loads some images within Firefox but not others? What file formats does it ask you about? Is it actually set to load images automatically in settings?
Yeah, it loads some in the window, but in other cases it'll have a window pop up that asks me to choose a program to open it with or save it. That "You have chosen to open X, what should Firefox do with this file" window. This has only happened with some .jpg files; all other images work correctly, including many other .jpg files. It is set to load images automatically. I'll see if I can't find a link to an image that causes this problem.
Warning: Ponies ahead (http://hphotos-snc6.fbcdn.net/257702_213711625329425_212291658804755_694179_6477836_o.jpg)
Looking at that link, I'm wondering if it's a problem with Facebook or something.
Believe it or not, the link you provided is an exception to the rule. The HTTP Content Header contains 'Content-Disposition:attachment'. This tells the browser that it should not load the file into the browser and instead should download it. The is standard and correct behavior for any browser and you'll find that any browser will download, instead of load, any image with that in the HTTP Content Header.
HTTP Content Header (http://web-sniffer.net/?url=http://hphotos-snc6.fbcdn.net/257702_213711625329425_212291658804755_694179_6477836_o.jpg)
Post by: Bauglir on July 31, 2011, 04:47:12 pm
Post by: YouR_DooM on July 31, 2011, 05:24:00 pm
'Sup, I'll use this thread too :D
I'm normally a very computer savy person and manage to fix even the most annoying bugs, but today I just can't wrap my head around it.
Here is the current status quo: I just opened MSN and Windows Live Mail and here is what presented itself to me. EVERYTHING ELSE works fine. Just these two windows are all washed up. Maybe something with the AERO stuff went haywire? Also note how in pic two the tool bar is perfectly fine...Spoiler (click to show/hide)Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The incredible thing is that when I mouse over something, the effect goes slightly away and then slowly comes back. I have really no idea what's going on.
EDIT: Installed both again, nothing changes; updated AMD catalyst video drivers to 11.8, still nothing.
It looks to me like Windows is failing to completely load the programs. You've already re-installed the programs and updated video drivers. I'm assuming you rebooted the machine a half dozen times doing the above. I'm also going to assume you've installed the correct graphics drivers. You might want to check that one, though.
Since you seem to have been doing things right, I'm going to suggest you disable Aero for a moment and then try the programs. To do this, go to Control Panel / Personalization and scroll down the list to basic themes. Select one of those (which don't use Aero) and try the programs. Let us know if that fixes things.
I finally figured it out. Apprarently the morphological filtering ( or how it's called ) option in the ATI Catalyst has this side-effect. Disabling it fixed it.
Pure luck in disabling that btw...
Post by: Stargrasper on July 31, 2011, 05:34:37 pm
I finally figured it out. Apprarently the morphological filtering ( or how it's called ) option in the ATI Catalyst has this side-effect. Disabling it fixed it.
Pure luck in disabling that btw...
You have no idea just how much tech support is pure luck and guesswork.
Here's the XKCD Tech Support Flow Chart. Note the option "Pick one at random".
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Conrad on July 31, 2011, 09:22:40 pm
Problem:
One computer is invisible to others connected to the modem. All other computers can see each other. I can't see other computers from this one, nor can I see it from others. It claims to be on an entirely different network. Without switching it from wired to wireless, it won't acknowledge that the other network exists.
How it came to be:
My mother called the internet people to fix the internet (was down for unknown reasons). My mother says that the people separated this computer (remotely, never came to the house) from the others to fix it (why?). I called them to get details and they said it was a computer issue and out of their zone.
Why it matters:
We use the 'invisible' computer as the hub of the networking. It's connected to the best printer in the house and we also use it for transferring files between computers.
Possibly useless details:
Invisible computer is a desktop running Windows 7. It also has a wireless card.
Other computers consist of two laptops on Windows 7, a netbook and a laptop on Vista and a desktop on XP.
Post by: Stargrasper on July 31, 2011, 09:48:35 pm
Weird network question.
Problem:
One computer is invisible to others connected to the modem. All other computers can see each other. I can't see other computers from this one, nor can I see it from others. It claims to be on an entirely different network. Without switching it from wired to wireless, it won't acknowledge that the other network exists.
How it came to be:
My mother called the internet people to fix the internet (was down for unknown reasons). My mother says that the people separated this computer (remotely, never came to the house) from the others to fix it (why?). I called them to get details and they said it was a computer issue and out of their zone.
Why it matters:
We use the 'invisible' computer as the hub of the networking. It's connected to the best printer in the house and we also use it for transferring files between computers.
Possibly useless details:
Invisible computer is a desktop running Windows 7. It also has a wireless card.
Other computers consist of two laptops on Windows 7, a netbook and a laptop on Vista and a desktop on XP.
Do all of the computers (including the offender) connect to the same router? How do they connect to it? It's possible you have 2 subnets.
This sounds like a router issue. Try reseting (and possibly factory resetting, there will be a button on the back or bottom for that) the router. Note that if you have special configurations, including encryption (password access), a factory reset will whip it out.
Post by: Bauglir on August 14, 2011, 06:10:11 pm
Post by: Haschel on August 14, 2011, 10:27:55 pm
I finally figured it out. Apprarently the morphological filtering ( or how it's called ) option in the ATI Catalyst has this side-effect. Disabling it fixed it.
And then it was fixed. Funny how that works out.
Post by: Detonate on August 14, 2011, 10:38:09 pm
Post by: Lectorog on August 25, 2011, 08:59:26 pm
The application to run Portal 2 (which I have from Steam) is registering as a virus (or something) from AVG.
I tried to open an unknown file type (a DF file), and for some reason the Portal 2 exe appeared as a possibility. Every time I click on the "dangerous" file or try to open an unknown file, AVG pops up its alarm to tell me that portal2.exe is infected.
What the hell, AVG? Why is this and how do I fix it?
(Note: I'm not sure if uninstalling AVG is an option. I know it sucks, but like I said, this isn't my computer individually.
Post by: Stargrasper on August 26, 2011, 08:26:26 pm
Let's say I have data from a number of experiments, saved in Excel files. How could I use OpenOffice (or LibreOffice, if you prefer) to create the same graph for each experiment? Basically, I want to create a bunch of graphs that are exactly the same, except that the actual value of each data point might change. It would be really handy to be able to do this automatically, because there are potentially hundreds of experiments and 3 to 6 graphs needed apiece.
My idea was to write a shell script that converted all the excel files to calc files. That's trivial to do from the command line (and consequently, from a script). There doesn't appear to be a way to pass a macro command or anything similar from the command line. That means we would need a more complicated script that I'd actually have to research how to do...which I'm not doing unless you can give me a good reason to. Let me know.
How useful is Lavalys' Everest program anymore? I've heard that it was discontinued and a new product had been released in it's place, but it's still pretty useful for me.
I'm not familiar with the software, but most software doesn't automatically stop working when the provider stops supporting it. Just be aware of what you're doing. Usually, there's a reason when providers stop supporting software and there's always consequences of some form or other. Be vigilant and you'll likely be fine.
Alright, AVG's deciding to screw with me. This isn't my individual computer or anything, so I don't know it as well as I should. I hope someone here understands this problem:
The application to run Portal 2 (which I have from Steam) is registering as a virus (or something) from AVG.
I tried to open an unknown file type (a DF file), and for some reason the Portal 2 exe appeared as a possibility. Every time I click on the "dangerous" file or try to open an unknown file, AVG pops up its alarm to tell me that portal2.exe is infected.
What the hell, AVG? Why is this and how do I fix it?
(Note: I'm not sure if uninstalling AVG is an option. I know it sucks, but like I said, this isn't my computer individually.
First, if the exe is being flagged as a virus, it's doing something naughty. Probably trying to write somewhere it shouldn't or trying to transmit something across that internet, which if you didn't explicitly tell it to, AVG might just be panicking. If you're absolutely sure, you could temporarily disable AVG from Tools/Advanced Settings. There may be a way to whitelist specific programs, but I didn't see it in my quick look around.
As for DF files trying to launch portal2.exe...probably those files extension somehow got associated with portal2.exe. Go to Control Panel/Default Programs/Set Associations; from there you can check/modify existing associations. No idea if the unknown file type association will be there, but that seems the most sensible place it would be. ... expecting Windows to be sensible ... hehe ...
Post by: Bauglir on August 26, 2011, 08:50:57 pm
My idea was to write a shell script that converted all the excel files to calc files. That's trivial to do from the command line (and consequently, from a script). There doesn't appear to be a way to pass a macro command or anything similar from the command line. That means we would need a more complicated script that I'd actually have to research how to do...which I'm not doing unless you can give me a good reason to. Let me know.
Fair enough! I don't really have a compelling reason for you to exert that much effort, so I'll do the research myself. Thanks for all your help throughout this thread, by the way, it is impressive.
Post by: Lectorog on August 26, 2011, 08:53:49 pm
As for DF files trying to launch portal2.exe...probably those files extension somehow got associated with portal2.exe. Go to Control Panel/Default Programs/Set Associations; from there you can check/modify existing associations. No idea if the unknown file type association will be there, but that seems the most sensible place it would be. ... expecting Windows to be sensible ... hehe ...No, it's for any unknown file type/extension. If I try to open a file type Windows doesn't know how to open, it pops up a list of programs - Notepad, Paint, Firefox, stuff like that. For some reason, portal2.exe was showing up. It hasn't done that before, nor should it. It was tucked away in Steam's folder labyrinth anyway, so I don't know why Windows would go looking there.
There haven't been any irregularities with the game file before. I haven't played it in a while. I definitely didn't download it infected from Steam, nor could I think of any feasible reason for it to become infected.
I tried restoring the file and it's completely back to normal. The generic .exe icon has been replaced with the game icon, and AVG isn't freaking out. WTF? I'm done trying to understand AVG. It's pretty worthless.
Thanks for your time and answer. Your help here is definitely appreciated.
Post by: Stargrasper on September 12, 2011, 03:27:32 pm
My idea was to write a shell script that converted all the excel files to calc files. That's trivial to do from the command line (and consequently, from a script). There doesn't appear to be a way to pass a macro command or anything similar from the command line. That means we would need a more complicated script that I'd actually have to research how to do...which I'm not doing unless you can give me a good reason to. Let me know.
Fair enough! I don't really have a compelling reason for you to exert that much effort, so I'll do the research myself. Thanks for all your help throughout this thread, by the way, it is impressive.
Okay, a couple of weeks have passed. Did you ever figure out how to do what you needed to do? I haven't looked into this at all, but if you still haven't found a solution (or given up on it), I can start looking. I'm just busier now that classes have started again, so I might not have an answer for you in a day like I did before.
Also, thanks for the compliments guys. I appreciate it. :)
Post by: Bauglir on September 12, 2011, 08:46:46 pm
Yeah, I suck >_______>
Post by: ed boy on September 19, 2011, 08:11:54 pm
I have two laptops - my main laptop and my seconday laptop. I want to hook up the seconday laptop to the main and run a program on the seconday one that lets be toggle between using it on its own and using it as a seconday screen for the main laptop. There are programs out there that do this, but there are problems with the ones that I have been able to find.
The problem stems from the internet. I want to be able to be hooked up to the internet on the main while it is hooked up to the secondary one. However, all the programs that I have been able to find work off the two computers being part of the same LAN. Due to the university internet setup, I can't connect them together over the university network. I could create a lan with the two of them by linking them together by ethernet cable, but that would stop be hooking the main up to the internet. I could hook the main up to the internet and connect the two laptops via wireless, but I have had problems trying to utilize a wired network and a wireless network simultaneously on the main.
So far, I have determined that the best way to link the two together would be via USB bridge cable. However, when hooked together like this, they would not be part of the same LAN, so the software that I have found would not work. Does anybody know of any software that allows this (that is, using the secondary laptop as a second screen, ideally being able to toggle between that and the laptop's own display) over USB connection? Failing that, does anybody know of an approach to the problem which I have not considered?
Post by: Stargrasper on September 20, 2011, 06:17:23 pm
I'm looking at something that suggests using synergy2 (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/) to do this. The process looks fairly straight forward, but I don't have two laptops around to test anything myself.
Since I can't test this, I can really only do limited research on how to pull this off. You'll have to let me know if you think this is what you want. I'll look at other options if you decide this won't work or isn't what you're looking for. Let me know.
Post by: ed boy on September 20, 2011, 07:10:14 pm
Because I will in university accomodation, I won't be able to connect the two over the university network. The laptops don't like being connected to two LANs at the same time, so I can't set up a seperate network between the two. I can connect them through other means, such as via USB, but I don't know if using the second as another screen is possible with such a connection.
Post by: Stargrasper on September 21, 2011, 10:26:00 pm
Post by: Stargrasper on September 27, 2011, 08:54:46 pm
Again, I can't test this, but I'm pretty sure you can accomplish what you want even under your circumstances with SSH or a VPN. I think you can forward the input information across either of those. At least, I know you can forward X across SSH. I'm guessing a VPN is the easiest solution, though. You should be able to just set up a VPN server on one of the machines and a VPN client on the other.
This site (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps5743/Products_Sub_Category_Home.html) should have a lot of useful information and good VPN clients. Supposedly, this (http://openvpn.net/) is a good VPN server.
Post by: Caz on September 28, 2011, 08:06:28 am
Post by: Stargrasper on September 28, 2011, 08:32:54 am
Mostly, just check the weight of the oil you're using and how much you're using and I think you should be fine.
Also note that I'm used to oiling machinery, not fans. I've never had to do more than clean a fan to help it. Try that first.
Post by: Caz on September 28, 2011, 10:22:07 am
I might not be the best person to ask about this because I don't mess with hardware much, but I see no particular harm in that so long as it's not a really big drop of oil. Just remember that the fan is a machine part, not an electronic part. I'm used to using 30W motor oil on spinning parts. I'm a bit busy right now, but I'll actually look into this later today.
Mostly, just check the weight of the oil you're using and how much you're using and I think you should be fine.
Also note that I'm used to oiling machinery, not fans. I've never had to do more than clean a fan to help it. Try that first.
Thanks!
Post by: Aklyon on September 29, 2011, 10:38:34 pm
the XKCD Tech Support Flow Chart. Note the option "Pick one at random".I showed this to someone before, they showed it to someone else who thought it was a joke to get out of fixing their computer for the nth time. ???Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: freeformschooler on October 02, 2011, 03:59:16 pm
I'm running Windows 7 with an ATI Mobility Radeon 4250 card. When I go to right click desktop > Screen Resolution > Advanced settings > Monitor, "hide modes that this monitor cannot display" is greyed out. How can I un-grey it?
Post by: Aklyon on October 02, 2011, 04:03:07 pm
Post by: freeformschooler on October 02, 2011, 04:04:23 pm
Doesn't ATI have a catalyst thing or something that it uses for its options?
Yes, but that doesn't allow me to use unsupported modes, either. I'm using ATI's Catalyst Control Center, by the way. If there's a way to crank up my resolution beyond max on it, I'd love to know.
Post by: Aklyon on October 02, 2011, 04:05:20 pm
Post by: freeformschooler on October 02, 2011, 04:06:33 pm
Post by: Zrk2 on October 03, 2011, 08:20:33 pm
Post by: Seriyu on October 03, 2011, 08:21:24 pm
Post by: Stargrasper on October 03, 2011, 09:09:20 pm
Well, isn't it? This is xkcd (http://www.xkcd.com) we're talking about here. Besides, it's annoying that everyone just assumes I know everything about computers and technology in general. I'm just good to figuring stuff out. Incidentally, I like puzzles. ;)the XKCD Tech Support Flow Chart. Note the option "Pick one at random".I showed this to someone before, they showed it to someone else who thought it was a joke to get out of fixing their computer for the nth time. ???Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Okay now here's a problem.I'm betting this is a driver issue with the monitor and not a graphics card problem. Grab the latest drivers off of the Acer website (http://www.acer.com). You'll find 'Drivers and Downloads' under the Support menu. Let me know if that doesn't work and I'll look for a better answer.
I'm running Windows 7 with an ATI Mobility Radeon 4250 card. When I go to right click desktop > Screen Resolution > Advanced settings > Monitor, "hide modes that this monitor cannot display" is greyed out. How can I un-grey it?
THIS NEEDS ALL THE STICKIES. ALL OF THEM. THE MOST STICKIES. SUPERLATIVE STICKIES. GET THOSE STICKIES ALL UP IN THIS BITCH.Turn off your capslock or I'll thwack you with a big foam cluebat (http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20030211)!
EDIT: Nevermind.Everything good, then? Ask questions if you need to.
Post by: hermes on December 20, 2012, 04:39:04 am
Buy cheap computers every 2 or 3 years .... or .... expensive and stick it out for 5 or more?
I really don't know which way to go. I'd love a more expensive machine, and can afford it just, but for the same price I could easily buy 2 or 3 slower machines so it seems rather extravagent. Which way do you folks recommend?
edit - And what would a 4Gb --> 8Gb RAM upgrade be good for? Even playing games, 4Gb would be enough, right??
Post by: Alastar on December 20, 2012, 08:57:19 am
Moderately high, upgrade whatever become limiting after 3 years does too.
I wouldn't pay through the nose for performance; components will be obsolete on technological standards long before they are too slow.
If you go beyond what's sensible, do it for something other than performance - quality case/body and input devices will remain a pleasure to use. Normally I'd say the same about screens but we may be facing a paradigm shift there soonish.
*
Games don't usually benefit much from additional RAM.
If you're doing demanding audio/video editing or modeling, you probably know. It may be helpful for excessive multitasking (modern browsers can be quite RAM-hungry).
Running your entire system in RAM can be nice - fast and silky smooth, as most jerkiness/poor responsiveness is caused by I/O bottlenecks.
Those aside, 4G ought to be enough for anyone ;)
Post by: hermes on December 20, 2012, 09:03:35 am
Post by: Vespulan on December 20, 2012, 01:39:55 pm
This is a questions I've been meaning to ask for a while, but my families resident Nerd is incomprehensible in this area.
To what extent does Anti-Aliasing actually make a difference?
Now I understand this is a pretty complicated questions because with Nvidia's new tessellation thingies and being all happy about MXSAA the whole subject of Anti-Aliasing is rather blurry, but if you have a 1920x1080p monitor is there any point in putting MSAA any higher than 4x? (If it helps, I'm asking this because having 8x on Skyrim is causing the odd lag spike near fences :D)
Any help would be appreciated, and if you don't understand anything I've just said then please feel free to beneficially criticise me!
Vespulan
Post by: Killjoy on December 20, 2012, 02:44:01 pm
To what extent does Anti-Aliasing actually make a difference?It makes a difference as long as you see a difference.
The need for AA does not really depend on resolution, but on pixel density. The higher DPI, the less need there is for AA. If you are bothered by the noisy edges, then set AA to do a few more samples.
Post by: Vespulan on December 20, 2012, 03:00:54 pm
So there isn't a point where you just stop noticing the difference? I suppose if I'm more distracted by dodging Dragons and swinging axes I won't be paying much attention to fence-posts anyway - Thanks! :DTo what extent does Anti-Aliasing actually make a difference?It makes a difference as long as you see a difference.
The need for AA does not really depend on resolution, but on pixel density. The higher DPI, the less need there is for AA. If you are bothered by the noisy edges, then set AA to do a few more samples.
Post by: darkrider2 on December 20, 2012, 03:28:15 pm
So, if what I'm reading around is correct, PCIE 3 has effectively double the bandwidth that PCIE 2 offers. So does that mean a 384 bit PCIE 2 card has the same bandwidth as a 192 bit PCIE 3 card?
Also, AMD has graphics cards that are listed as using PCIE 3, but no AMD board supports PCIE 3, why is that? Isn't that just guaranteeing that PCIE 3 users will opt for an intel chip & board.
Post by: Vespulan on December 20, 2012, 04:42:33 pm
So, if what I'm reading around is correct, PCIE 3 has effectively double the bandwidth that PCIE 2 offers. So does that mean a 384 bit PCIE 2 card has the same bandwidth as a 192 bit PCIE 3 card?In theory they would have very similar bandwidths, yes, but there are also loads of other factors that change it. For instance, PCIe 3 can throw a lot more information at a GPU than PCIe 2 in half the time because it has more connectors, which will make it a lot faster.
As to the mobo question, it just seems that AMD are treating their motherboards like their drivers (i.e. not updating them at all).
Post by: Tellemurius on December 21, 2012, 01:41:41 am
Post by: hermes on December 21, 2012, 02:55:14 am
Storage capacity is not a big deal for me so 128Gb is enough. Also I want a generally faster experience than at present so I'm leaning towards an SSD, but it is a tad expensive. Anyone have one? In your experience (not theory!) - worth it? Dramatic difference to load times, or not so great? Better battery life?
Post by: Tellemurius on December 21, 2012, 09:35:11 am
Post by: Vespulan on December 21, 2012, 11:44:58 am
Post by: Killjoy on December 21, 2012, 12:09:35 pm
Don't SSD's have a limited amount of re-writes? I know its nearly an unlimited amount, but I still wouldn't trust having my OS on an SSD.To actually hit the rewrite limit, you need to do A LOT of writes. SSD use memory managers that distributes rewrites over all memory cells. Basically it means that if you have your average 128GB SSD, your OS needs to be rewriting data constantly for like 5 or 6 years. So SSD is more than safe for a OS, considering ordinary HDDs usually don't last as long.
Maybe for RAM intensive games, though :PGames that do a lot of harddisk operations will benefit from a SSD. So games like minecraft and the like.
Post by: Vespulan on December 21, 2012, 02:10:47 pm
Thanks! Vespulan
Post by: Aklyon on December 21, 2012, 02:12:13 pm
Post by: Vespulan on December 21, 2012, 02:13:46 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on December 21, 2012, 08:33:13 pm
Just the new ones, I only have two slots on my mobo.i don't much about underclocking memory but it might be fine, at worse the computer will just not turn on, you need to check to see if the memory speed is supported by the motherboard.
Post by: Vespulan on December 22, 2012, 08:16:01 am
Thanks again! Vespulan
Post by: Aklyon on December 22, 2012, 10:05:58 am
Post by: Vespulan on December 22, 2012, 12:34:20 pm
Have you checked pcgamingwiki? They're pretty good at fixing game problems.No such luck. I'm really just hoping someone can tell me the exact ports I need to forward? Thanks for the link though - I don't believe I've never heard of that sire before :D
Post by: Audioworm333 on December 22, 2012, 03:03:57 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on December 22, 2012, 05:49:05 pm
I'm thinking about buying a graphics card with the $50 I just got but I doubt I can finally run Assassin's Creed II and Grand Theft Auto IV without dishing out a good amount more than $50. Is it possible?depends, what resolution are you running them on?
Post by: Aklyon on December 22, 2012, 05:55:54 pm
Post by: Audioworm333 on December 22, 2012, 06:10:10 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on December 22, 2012, 07:07:27 pm
Post by: Audioworm333 on December 22, 2012, 07:32:52 pm
Post by: Bdthemag on December 22, 2012, 10:04:18 pm
Post by: Aklyon on December 23, 2012, 01:30:29 am
Or, are you using your ISP's DNS or an alternate like Google DNS? It could be a ISP problem, not on your end.
Post by: Bdthemag on December 23, 2012, 03:23:32 am
Post by: Vespulan on December 23, 2012, 03:40:58 am
I'm thinking about buying a graphics card with the $50 I just got but I doubt I can finally run Assassin's Creed II and Grand Theft Auto IV without dishing out a good amount more than $50. Is it possible?Do you know which one you're interested in? It's not just the resolution that changes how well the game runs, it's the amount of VRAM (Video Memory) the Graphics card has, the clock speed, it's compatibility with DirectX etc. If you could post a link then it would be easier to say :)
Post by: Aklyon on December 23, 2012, 09:07:47 pm
Not at a college, but the problems stopped a bit ago. Must of been an ISP problem, which is odd because even though I have comcast (Which is the shittiest ISP ever.) I never have any DNS problems.Just because you never have the problem doesn't mean they aren't havening it. ;)
Post by: Tsuchigumo550 on December 25, 2012, 09:15:27 pm
GIANT STRING OF EXPLETIVES.
So now what do? The microsoft .net fixer has done nothing. I need solutions, real solutions, that can actually get this fucking update working.
Post by: Aklyon on December 25, 2012, 09:21:30 pm
Post by: Tsuchigumo550 on December 25, 2012, 10:06:15 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on December 25, 2012, 10:09:33 pm
Post by: Tsuchigumo550 on December 25, 2012, 10:14:30 pm
Post by: Aklyon on December 25, 2012, 10:14:52 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on December 25, 2012, 10:15:52 pm
Post by: Tsuchigumo550 on December 25, 2012, 10:20:44 pm
The program i want to run is in Program Files (x86), if that helps.
Post by: Tsuchigumo550 on December 25, 2012, 10:24:18 pm
Also, wouldn't downloading 4.5 either force me to update to the one I'm missing or do it for me?
That's assuming Microsoft isn't being a complete dick, which means Statement/Question 2 is probably false.
Updating to full 4.0 according to the service tech... which means some random Microsoft help page:
KB2468871v2 does not apply, or is blocked by another condition on your computer.
HA HA HA FUCK YOU TOO.
The other one, the bigger one that I think is actually the right one, is still downloading. Along with Scribblenauts Unlimited on Steam. 12 more minutes to glory. I can do this.
Post by: The Scout on December 25, 2012, 10:25:07 pm
http://www.computerlx.com/print_page.aspx?product_ID=1447 (http://www.computerlx.com/print_page.aspx?product_ID=1447)
http://www.computerlx.com/print_page.aspx?product_ID=1657 (http://www.computerlx.com/print_page.aspx?product_ID=1657)
This worth $300?
Post by: Tellemurius on December 25, 2012, 10:40:44 pm
http://www.computerlx.com/print_page.aspx?product_ID=1263 (http://www.computerlx.com/print_page.aspx?product_ID=1263)on newegg it is.
http://www.computerlx.com/print_page.aspx?product_ID=1447 (http://www.computerlx.com/print_page.aspx?product_ID=1447)
http://www.computerlx.com/print_page.aspx?product_ID=1657 (http://www.computerlx.com/print_page.aspx?product_ID=1657)
This worth $300?
Post by: Tsuchigumo550 on December 25, 2012, 10:50:58 pm
I also can't find where/how to uninstall/reinstall previous updates. I may be going to a specialist for this...
Post by: Tellemurius on December 26, 2012, 10:14:49 am
Post by: Tsuchigumo550 on December 26, 2012, 10:21:52 am
So I'm going to nuke anything dealing with 4.0 then let Steam work it's magic again.
Post by: Tellemurius on December 26, 2012, 10:27:51 am
Post by: Tsuchigumo550 on December 26, 2012, 12:29:59 pm
Well, all is well, it seems. Oh. Don't have a "defused doused nuclear rocket donkey", it crashes the game.
Post by: foil on December 27, 2012, 08:04:54 am
Hmmm. Now it's trying to do something similar with Direct X but nothing has popped up telling me it's working. Errr, not sure what's happening with Super S
Well, all is well, it seems. Oh. Don't have a "defused doused nuclear rocket donkey", it crashes the game.
What about all the .net updates in the "optional" tab in Windows Update?
Post by: Tsuchigumo550 on December 27, 2012, 07:59:57 pm
Post by: rutsber on December 28, 2012, 03:21:48 am
Post by: Vespulan on December 28, 2012, 03:34:30 am
If I reinstall Windows 7 on an ssd, do I need to reinstall all of my programs? Or would I just be able to copy the stuff from program files on the old drive to program files on the new drive? I'm thinking I'll have to reinstall everything but I thought I should ask before I went through the work.You should be able to copy it all across - think of it (in the most unethical way possible) as torrenting a file/folder; it's basically just copying it from the server to the client. When I replaced my super-dodgy Windows XP install with a Windows 7 and copied it (and all the programs) across to a new HDD, everything worked fine. You may want to defrag the SSD afterwards though because big moving can throw files all over the place, and that can slow things down a l o t.
Post by: foil on December 28, 2012, 09:01:22 am
Post by: Vespulan on December 28, 2012, 09:15:29 am
I think a lot of things will need reinstalled as a load of config stuff is usually written to the registry.If it's just Windows 7 again then wont all the roots to the registry stay the same?
Post by: foil on December 28, 2012, 10:03:34 am
I think a lot of things will need reinstalled as a load of config stuff is usually written to the registry.If it's just Windows 7 again then wont all the roots to the registry stay the same?
No as the configs and hives and etc etc will be in the old registry on the old drive/install. You cant cut n shut 2 registry together really and just copying over the new one with the old will break the windows install.
Some simple things will keep on working but most things wont.
Steam game installs is one thing i think you can recover/check integrity without having to redownload everything.
Post by: Tellemurius on December 28, 2012, 10:17:10 am
You need to reinstall the OS unfortunately, SSDs require TRIM command from windows 7 and i know thats not installed automatically, also you need to switch your SATA controller to either AHCI or RAID mode to utilize all of the SSD functions. Also, NEVER EVER DEFRAG SSDs, they are suppose to do that internally.If I reinstall Windows 7 on an ssd, do I need to reinstall all of my programs? Or would I just be able to copy the stuff from program files on the old drive to program files on the new drive? I'm thinking I'll have to reinstall everything but I thought I should ask before I went through the work.You should be able to copy it all across - think of it (in the most unethical way possible) as torrenting a file/folder; it's basically just copying it from the server to the client. When I replaced my super-dodgy Windows XP install with a Windows 7 and copied it (and all the programs) across to a new HDD, everything worked fine. You may want to defrag the SSD afterwards though because big moving can throw files all over the place, and that can slow things down a l o t.
Post by: Vespulan on December 28, 2012, 10:38:20 am
Really? Oops :P But surely defragging it wouldn't do it any harm?Also, NEVER EVER DEFRAG SSDs, they are suppose to do that internally.If I reinstall Windows 7 on an ssd, do I need to reinstall all of my programs? Or would I just be able to copy the stuff from program files on the old drive to program files on the new drive? I'm thinking I'll have to reinstall everything but I thought I should ask before I went through the work.You should be able to copy it all across - think of it (in the most unethical way possible) as torrenting a file/folder; it's basically just copying it from the server to the client. When I replaced my super-dodgy Windows XP install with a Windows 7 and copied it (and all the programs) across to a new HDD, everything worked fine. You may want to defrag the SSD afterwards though because big moving can throw files all over the place, and that can slow things down a l o t.
Post by: Tellemurius on December 28, 2012, 10:42:12 am
Well you will eat up the write cycles and Windows is stupid doing defrags. flash memory is very finicky, their memory controllers really do alot of work to maintain the block for example Garbage Collecting (deleting partial blocks and refilling them with other partial blocks to make a full one), what you see on that monitor isn't really the true story of the SSD :PReally? Oops :P But surely defragging it wouldn't do it any harm?Also, NEVER EVER DEFRAG SSDs, they are suppose to do that internally.If I reinstall Windows 7 on an ssd, do I need to reinstall all of my programs? Or would I just be able to copy the stuff from program files on the old drive to program files on the new drive? I'm thinking I'll have to reinstall everything but I thought I should ask before I went through the work.You should be able to copy it all across - think of it (in the most unethical way possible) as torrenting a file/folder; it's basically just copying it from the server to the client. When I replaced my super-dodgy Windows XP install with a Windows 7 and copied it (and all the programs) across to a new HDD, everything worked fine. You may want to defrag the SSD afterwards though because big moving can throw files all over the place, and that can slow things down a l o t.
Post by: Akura on December 28, 2012, 12:55:54 pm
Also, any reccomondations for the $40 and under range for this?
Post by: Tellemurius on December 28, 2012, 01:32:32 pm
its small but it will work with all of the latest technology and its Buffalo and they are a really good company.
Post by: Lightningfalcon on December 31, 2012, 12:02:45 am
Post by: Tellemurius on December 31, 2012, 01:37:09 am
If i were you, save up some money and get the new AMD laptops, its not a big jump in processing speed but its graphics are good for the price.
Post by: Vespulan on January 01, 2013, 06:07:41 am
Vespulan.
Post by: Trapezohedron on January 01, 2013, 11:43:50 am
There's a stupid .wav file, that for some reason corrupted itself out of its brains and now I can't delete it.
If I try to delete the file directly, it just loops on "Preparing to Delete" or something like that, but never does. Explorer tries to analyze the file and fails, and thus never carries out the whole deletion thing.
If I try to delete the folder containing it, it says that one of the files is currently in use with another program, but I tried checking task manager and found nothing.
Can't rename or move it even. It's dead weight.
Tried virus scanners and chkdsk, all to no avail. Also on Windows 7.
Post by: Aklyon on January 01, 2013, 11:51:51 am
Post by: Vespulan on January 01, 2013, 12:05:18 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on January 01, 2013, 01:16:04 pm
Can anyone suggest a good Voice over IP phone service for a landline? I've looked at three options: Voipfone, Vonage and Voiptalk, but I was wondering if anyone had any experience and could give me a more educated opinion? THANKS!Magicjack, sounds weird but it works man.
Vespulan.
Post by: Trapezohedron on January 01, 2013, 09:14:20 pm
Have you tried killing it with other programs besides Explorer?
Downloaded a file shredder to take care of it. Didn't work; the thing just broke itself and crashed.
Have you restarted since it popped up? If you turn the computer off it'll make sure the program is killed if anything is still using it.
Yeah, and nothing happened unfortunately. This is what's making me feel odd about it, since usually, these files just fix themselves after a reboot.
Post by: Tellemurius on January 01, 2013, 09:31:49 pm
Post by: Trapezohedron on January 02, 2013, 09:13:55 am
A bit of searching has revealed that it's related to this. (http://forum.image-line.com/viewtopic.php?t=45999) I will try to use some of the solutions within.
Seems to be an FL Studio-centric error. :/
Post by: Tellemurius on January 02, 2013, 10:38:20 am
Post by: Vespulan on January 02, 2013, 01:32:31 pm
Right Click doesn't work. And cpu usage goes up to 100%.How do you mean Right-Click doesn't work? You don't get any type of menu at all? ...And have you got 'view hidden files and folders' enabled?
Post by: Trapezohedron on January 02, 2013, 05:11:46 pm
do you have FL Studio?
I neglected to mention it, but yeah, I do.
Right Click doesn't work. And cpu usage goes up to 100%.How do you mean Right-Click doesn't work? You don't get any type of menu at all? ...And have you got 'view hidden files and folders' enabled?
When I try right-clicking something, nothing happens. Also, when I try to delete the file, it just gets stuck on "preparing to calculate..." with no progress whatsoever.
Post by: Tellemurius on January 02, 2013, 05:22:49 pm
Post by: Descan on January 02, 2013, 10:59:40 pm
Of course, all the hard ware is different, so I need to reset/restore/whatever my hard drive.
I just don't know how, or what disks I'll need, if any. :c
Post by: Tellemurius on January 03, 2013, 01:12:37 am
Post by: Descan on January 03, 2013, 01:15:26 am
Post by: Tellemurius on January 03, 2013, 01:24:44 am
The windows 7 installer will give you the option to format your hard drive.
Post by: Descan on January 03, 2013, 01:33:20 am
Windows 7 was installed on the laptop as it came.
How do I find out what the product key is, and how do I make sure it works?
Post by: Alastar on January 03, 2013, 02:38:07 am
It may be on the computer, usually the back. If you have a physical install medium, it may be on the case.
Use the key of the computer you plugged the hard drive into, not the one the hard drive came from. Preinstalled Windows licenses are usually specific to the machine they came on (defined by the mainboard, with some additional restrictions).
Post by: Descan on January 03, 2013, 02:44:44 am
Post by: Tellemurius on January 03, 2013, 09:16:34 am
Post by: Descan on January 03, 2013, 04:10:58 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on January 03, 2013, 04:22:10 pm
Post by: Descan on January 03, 2013, 04:48:34 pm
Don't want to reformat my hard drive before I verify it'll work.
Now I just need to get a copy of Windows 7 I can install...
Post by: Tellemurius on January 03, 2013, 05:10:12 pm
Alright, I'll call them and verify that the code I have will work.
Don't want to reformat my hard drive before I verify it'll work.
Now I just need to get a copy of Windows 7 I can install...
Umm well find a ISO of the OS and burn onto a disk like here's a site for windows 7 http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/ (http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/)Microsoft isn't going to help you if you ask them, they will give you shit for using a key on a different system.
The windows 7 installer will give you the option to format your hard drive.
Post by: Descan on January 03, 2013, 06:37:14 pm
And yeah, I know where to get a copy of Windows 7 to reinstall with.
Post by: HFS on January 04, 2013, 01:36:44 am
Problem is I can't put the old hard drive where the hard drive is supposed to go, physically, as it's basically separated from the rest of the case via a piece of metal (and not enough space on top due to the CD drive), so I placed it inside the case.
This still ok? There's a vent right in front of it, but it's not blocking it.
Post by: Tellemurius on January 04, 2013, 11:09:50 am
Post by: foil on January 05, 2013, 12:18:20 pm
The guy I talked to didn't give me shit. I sent them an e-mail asking them if they can unblock the Key, and we'll see in a few days. >w<
And yeah, I know where to get a copy of Windows 7 to reinstall with.
The only way the key wont work is if its stolen or incorrect.
The key is basically a legal unlock code for windows and will only fail if blocked.
You might need to phone up the automated activation line which takes 2 minutes, or you might not even need to input the key if its saved in the bios like on most laptops these days.
Post by: Trapezohedron on January 05, 2013, 12:41:41 pm
FL Studio 10 has problems with Windows 7 64bit, specifically in the exporting of .wav files with slice markers saved. As such, I'm now stuck with an immoveable object in my HDD, because I can't rename it, move it, rename the folders above it, move the folders above it or even delete it (with stuff such as Malwarebytes FileAssassin).
Attempting to click the thing will get Windows stuck on an infinite preview loop, trying to understand the file and of course failing indefinitely. Can't even check file properties. Guess a whole disk wipe is needed to kill it, and I'm absolutely not doing it with my important files stuck in this computer.
Post by: Aklyon on January 05, 2013, 12:44:40 pm
Post by: Descan on January 05, 2013, 01:45:23 pm
I was using the wrong key, but I found the right one hiding under the battery. The one I was using was the key used by the manufacturers...The guy I talked to didn't give me shit. I sent them an e-mail asking them if they can unblock the Key, and we'll see in a few days. >w<
And yeah, I know where to get a copy of Windows 7 to reinstall with.
The only way the key wont work is if its stolen or incorrect.
The key is basically a legal unlock code for windows and will only fail if blocked.
You might need to phone up the automated activation line which takes 2 minutes, or you might not even need to input the key if its saved in the bios like on most laptops these days.
Post by: foil on January 05, 2013, 02:21:25 pm
Fuck.
FL Studio 10 has problems with Windows 7 64bit, specifically in the exporting of .wav files with slice markers saved. As such, I'm now stuck with an immoveable object in my HDD, because I can't rename it, move it, rename the folders above it, move the folders above it or even delete it (with stuff such as Malwarebytes FileAssassin).
Attempting to click the thing will get Windows stuck on an infinite preview loop, trying to understand the file and of course failing indefinitely. Can't even check file properties. Guess a whole disk wipe is needed to kill it, and I'm absolutely not doing it with my important files stuck in this computer.
Download Process Explorer from Microsoft and search for the file and whats holding the lock on the file then close the handle.
procexp.exe
http://live.sysinternals.com/
Post by: Tellemurius on January 05, 2013, 02:56:14 pm
Post by: Trapezohedron on January 05, 2013, 07:51:33 pm
Have you tried killing it in Safe Mode? (with or without FileAssasin)
Yeah. Didn't work.
Fuck.
FL Studio 10 has problems with Windows 7 64bit, specifically in the exporting of .wav files with slice markers saved. As such, I'm now stuck with an immoveable object in my HDD, because I can't rename it, move it, rename the folders above it, move the folders above it or even delete it (with stuff such as Malwarebytes FileAssassin).
Attempting to click the thing will get Windows stuck on an infinite preview loop, trying to understand the file and of course failing indefinitely. Can't even check file properties. Guess a whole disk wipe is needed to kill it, and I'm absolutely not doing it with my important files stuck in this computer.
Download Process Explorer from Microsoft and search for the file and whats holding the lock on the file then close the handle.
procexp.exe
http://live.sysinternals.com/
Sure, will try this, but I doubt this will work.
File does create a lot of lag, but only if you touch it.
Try that first, if that doesnt work, we are gonna have to go into the registry :/
:/
I feared I might have to do this.
Post by: Aklyon on January 05, 2013, 08:18:43 pm
1. Reboot.
2. Rspecialized tools
3. Registry shenanigans
4. Reformat.
Having to go past the halfway point is usually a bad omen for the rest of your files.
Post by: foil on January 06, 2013, 02:18:52 am
IF the file write issue happened during a hang or lag it might have scribbled on the drive a bit. Scanning the disk for errors might fix it too if not to do with locks or permissions or etc etc.
Post by: Trapezohedron on January 06, 2013, 09:40:16 am
Post by: JWNoctis on January 06, 2013, 11:28:50 am
Might be a freakish file permission mess-up, assuming that your file system is NTFS.
Post by: foil on January 06, 2013, 09:46:45 pm
http://lockhunter.com
Post by: Tsuchigumo550 on January 06, 2013, 11:39:40 pm
Post by: Trapezohedron on January 07, 2013, 03:10:41 am
idk if this would be any use.
http://lockhunter.com
tried before; doesn't work
will try the rest later
Post by: Tellemurius on January 07, 2013, 08:06:21 am
But how would you even use the registry to delete it? I've never done anything outside of a tiny area, so I don't know the full power of the registry, but still.we wouldn't delete the registry, instead we would find the file association and change it to the default system.
Post by: ScriptWolf on January 07, 2013, 08:39:44 am
I'm currently within a VPN in Linux
My task is to find the DNS server of this network and then ask it for a zone transference giving me the names of the other servers on said network. I'm fucking stumped help please.
I also have to then reconfigure my roslv.conf to match the networks DNS
If someone helps me I will ship you a beer
Post by: Tellemurius on January 07, 2013, 10:01:02 am
Post by: ScriptWolf on January 07, 2013, 10:12:15 am
And yeah I meant resolv.conf I have managed to find the file thank you :)
Ok so I have found the adapter which is Tap0 but I can't see to find the DNS stuff anywhere for the VPN ( it's a large lab for a course I'm taking ) and I seem to only be stumbling along my own DNS.
Post by: Tellemurius on January 07, 2013, 10:20:49 am
Post by: ScriptWolf on January 07, 2013, 10:53:37 am
I have done host commands and nslookup on these but I get nothing
The exercise is :
Log on to the offensive security labs. Identify the DNS servers and domain name and confined your resolv.conf file appropriately. Attempt to perform a zone transfer for the local network. Identify all th DNS names or the networked computers. Log this information in your THINC.local lab pentest report.
I looked in the student forums and a admin said that : if you read the course manual carefully, you will find the domain name is provided to you in the exercise instructions.
God I'm stumped I'm ripping my hair out right now
Post by: Tellemurius on January 07, 2013, 10:57:32 am
man at this point i cheat and pull a DNS from windows instead, you will have to configure your conf through console in order to have the settings to stick.
Post by: ScriptWolf on January 07, 2013, 11:03:55 am
Post by: ScriptWolf on January 07, 2013, 11:19:24 am
Post by: Tellemurius on January 07, 2013, 12:02:45 pm
Post by: zombie urist on January 07, 2013, 09:54:59 pm
Post by: Aklyon on January 07, 2013, 10:02:51 pm
Post by: JWNoctis on January 07, 2013, 11:34:23 pm
A capacitor could have failed, and I've seen plenty of this happening on the public computer of my campus - after a summer break about 40% of them refused to turn on with failed capacitor in their power supply. A laptop shouldn't be that much different as similar capacitors can be found both in the adapter and computer itself.
Post by: zombie urist on January 08, 2013, 12:12:22 am
In the few weeks or so before it broke completely, it worked but made really loud noises all the time.
The computer still turns on fine, but the monitor shows a white screen. The keyboard lights and other lights function as normal.
Post by: Tellemurius on January 08, 2013, 12:17:51 am
I'll check the beeping thing tomorrow, as I can't access it now.welp that sounds like heat suffocation and the motherboard died.
In the few weeks or so before it broke completely, it worked but made really loud noises all the time.
The computer still turns on fine, but the monitor shows a white screen. The keyboard lights and other lights function as normal.
Post by: zombie urist on January 08, 2013, 12:20:51 am
Post by: Tellemurius on January 08, 2013, 12:22:10 am
Well fuck. Do you think its worth tinkering with then?umm sure you can use it for target practice
Post by: Aklyon on January 08, 2013, 01:10:28 pm
You could probably also use it to hit people with.Well fuck. Do you think its worth tinkering with then?umm sure you can use it for target practice
Post by: Arni on January 08, 2013, 04:31:52 pm
I got meself a new motherboard and Windows 7 on a SSD. My old Harddisk i intend to use as Storage disk. I just left it with the Vista partition. I never had any problems with the Harddisk.
But now it's overheating (shutting down to prevent physical damage) when I close the computer case (the HDD has space for 1 more HDD above and below)
It seems it just speeds up to maximum speed quite a lot for no real reason and stays at 100% speed which causes the heat.
Any Ideas what could be the cause?
Post by: Tellemurius on January 08, 2013, 05:29:43 pm
Post by: JWNoctis on January 08, 2013, 10:08:57 pm
Did you add any thermal grease between the CPU and the heatsink? Or did you
Something does not sound right here.
Post by: GuardianTempest on January 10, 2013, 08:00:44 am
And another thing, is there a program or something to monitor whoever is connected so I can check if any neighbor got lucky with the password guessing? I don't like people seeping my wi-fi (though I was guilty of it for a brief period before discovering the cable has enough length to reach my laptop from my retired desktop).
Post by: JWNoctis on January 10, 2013, 10:15:53 am
About the next question, you can usually check connected devices on the router's configuration page. While other methods exist, this is the most reliable one. Also, use strong password and WPA2 encryption. Some routers -not really sure about this, but at least mobile hotspots do- might also support device whitelisting, but that might cause inconvenience if, for example, your or your family's friends come for a LAN session or something.
Post by: Aklyon on January 10, 2013, 10:21:51 am
Post by: miauw62 on January 10, 2013, 02:15:56 pm
Either way, as some of you may know, I got a samsung galaxy tab 7.0 for Christmas, yay!
Except... Not really. It now lacks sound. Well, it doesn't lack sound, but every sound is replaced by loud and sharp screeching. Turning silent mode on only works for touch sounds, and not for youtube videos or games. Turning the volume down doesn't help either. I have restarted it several times. This is annoying as fuck because it means that my tablet has basically been reverted to a mobile browser wherever I have a wifi network avaiable.
There don't seem to be many solutions that I can find for this online... So, can anybody help me?
Post by: Aklyon on January 10, 2013, 03:32:45 pm
As to the question, have you tried hitting the speakers or resetting it? Does the sound change if you plug in headphones of any kind?
Post by: Akura on January 11, 2013, 12:21:01 pm
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1470389&SRCCODE=WEBGOOPA&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCV1-CjCE&gclid=CMCw9uXdvbQCFYp_Qgodhz8A3w (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1470389&SRCCODE=WEBGOOPA&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCV1-CjCE&gclid=CMCw9uXdvbQCFYp_Qgodhz8A3w)This was a waste of money. Had no range whatsoever. Could rarely detect the neighbor's router, something that's at the very most 10-15ft away, and only for a second or so before it lost signal. [/isnothappyandhopesTigerdirect'sreturnpolicyworkshere] >:(
its small but it will work with all of the latest technology and its Buffalo and they are a really good company.
I was looking maybe something like this (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2543347&CatId=2702), although with this particular one, I do not know if I have a PCI-e slot for something like this. Maybe this (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3246388&csid=_61), which specifically states a 400 meter range, since I know I have a spare PCI slot.
Post by: Tellemurius on January 11, 2013, 03:25:32 pm
oh, well hell would i know you would be borrowing internets :Phttp://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1470389&SRCCODE=WEBGOOPA&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCV1-CjCE&gclid=CMCw9uXdvbQCFYp_Qgodhz8A3w (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1470389&SRCCODE=WEBGOOPA&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCV1-CjCE&gclid=CMCw9uXdvbQCFYp_Qgodhz8A3w)This was a waste of money. Had no range whatsoever. Could rarely detect the neighbor's router, something that's at the very most 10-15ft away, and only for a second or so before it lost signal. [/isnothappyandhopesTigerdirect'sreturnpolicyworkshere] >:(
its small but it will work with all of the latest technology and its Buffalo and they are a really good company.
I was looking maybe something like this (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2543347&CatId=2702), although with this particular one, I do not know if I have a PCI-e slot for something like this. Maybe this (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3246388&csid=_61), which specifically states a 400 meter range, since I know I have a spare PCI slot.
pci would be fine just it adds a little work to the cpu. You should search for a MIMO wireless adapter as that would increase your range and bitrate.
Post by: Tellemurius on January 11, 2013, 03:25:49 pm
oh, well hell would i know you would be borrowing internets :Phttp://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1470389&SRCCODE=WEBGOOPA&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCV1-CjCE&gclid=CMCw9uXdvbQCFYp_Qgodhz8A3w (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1470389&SRCCODE=WEBGOOPA&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCV1-CjCE&gclid=CMCw9uXdvbQCFYp_Qgodhz8A3w)This was a waste of money. Had no range whatsoever. Could rarely detect the neighbor's router, something that's at the very most 10-15ft away, and only for a second or so before it lost signal. [/isnothappyandhopesTigerdirect'sreturnpolicyworkshere] >:(
its small but it will work with all of the latest technology and its Buffalo and they are a really good company.
I was looking maybe something like this (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2543347&CatId=2702), although with this particular one, I do not know if I have a PCI-e slot for something like this. Maybe this (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3246388&csid=_61), which specifically states a 400 meter range, since I know I have a spare PCI slot.
pci would be fine just it adds a little work to the cpu. You should search for a MIMO wireless adapter as that would increase your range and bitrate.
Post by: JWNoctis on January 11, 2013, 11:02:32 pm
And I bet things like this, beyond its purpose, is also violating a RF emission control regulation or two. Not that anyone would care, at least for now.
Post by: Tellemurius on January 12, 2013, 01:25:50 am
I knew of one of my classmate that had a similar contraption with a very large, like 20*15*3cm antenna housing that can detect wireless network of our school's library with a slant range of about 400 meter and the target network inside the building. However he still got frequent disconnects. Too many interfering networks from the dormitoriy blocks that's also in the antenna's beam.was it a cantennna?
And I bet things like this, beyond its purpose, is also violating a RF emission control regulation or two. Not that anyone would care, at least for now.
Post by: JWNoctis on January 12, 2013, 04:20:19 am
Did I mention the university's main office is also in the beam, and is closer? No wonder that thing's almost useless - too much cross-network interference. There must be hundreds of them.
Post by: miauw62 on January 12, 2013, 06:29:56 am
I suppose tablets are the same kind of tech, but I wouldn't call it a computer really ;)I have restarted it several times, and if I plug in headphones it doesn't even do anything. The sound keeps coming out of the speakers.
As to the question, have you tried hitting the speakers or resetting it? Does the sound change if you plug in headphones of any kind?
Didn't try a factory reset tough. Mayby taking the battery out would help, but I have no idea how to open it so I can take the battery out.
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 12, 2013, 10:49:10 am
Post by: JWNoctis on January 12, 2013, 10:54:46 am
I suppose tablets are the same kind of tech, but I wouldn't call it a computer really ;)I have restarted it several times, and if I plug in headphones it doesn't even do anything. The sound keeps coming out of the speakers.
As to the question, have you tried hitting the speakers or resetting it? Does the sound change if you plug in headphones of any kind?
Didn't try a factory reset tough. Mayby taking the battery out would help, but I have no idea how to open it so I can take the battery out.
If a factory reset won't work, then it's probably time to find your invoice.
Minor audio issue. When ever I plug headphones into my desktop (front or back, using both headsets and pure headphones) I get a fairly audible feedback noise through said headphones, which grows more prominent when I move the mouse. I had thought it to be feedback from my wireless mouse or CB transmissions, but the problem persists with a wired mouse in a different house. I've muted the microphone input without improvement.
Try a different headphone, reinstall soundcard driver, and try again.
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 12, 2013, 10:56:11 am
Post by: JWNoctis on January 12, 2013, 11:07:32 am
Anything beyond this is likely hardware-related.
Post by: Tellemurius on January 12, 2013, 11:11:57 am
Post by: ScriptWolf on January 16, 2013, 01:51:37 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on January 19, 2013, 08:10:12 pm
Post by: foil on January 19, 2013, 08:50:19 pm
If its not the hard drive failing, i think you just need a fresh install from a proper Windows install disc.
Post by: Tellemurius on January 19, 2013, 10:21:03 pm
It's 3 years old, mind you. And it came with the OS pre-installed... though I do have a repair disk and a back-up, so getting around that is easy. And I did do a system recovery and hard drive format. Twice on the recovery, actually... and it's not the hard drive. I've experienced hard drive failure before, and this isn't it.depends, that much corruption means something borked hardware wise either the drive got kicked or a power failure gone wrong. wipe it and see what happens.
Post by: Tellemurius on January 19, 2013, 10:55:17 pm
Post by: foil on January 20, 2013, 10:05:34 am
I did a wipe, both intentionally and unintentionally... Combofix accidental wipe, then an actual wipe as I did a system image recovery. It didn't fix anything.Maybe its a faulty restore or backup disc then if System recovery is getting loads of missing file errors on the backup media.
Download a new copy from here and do a fresh install, not a recovery or backup restore with all the crapware on it.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/
If 4GB ram or under use 32 bit and get correct version i.e. Home Premium/ Pro/ Ultimate etc etc that will work with the key on the sticker on computer.
Just use Microsoft iso to dvd/usb tool to burn it to disc/usb, format the drive duing setup and rock on.
Post by: Aklyon on January 20, 2013, 10:33:56 pm
Post by: foil on January 21, 2013, 01:33:55 pm
No need, managed to access it. Delete the volume, re-created it, and will now format.
Mind and download a proper copy of Windows and dont use the broken recovery or backup thats failed many times in the error logs.
Post by: Tellemurius on January 21, 2013, 05:50:54 pm
Post by: miauw62 on January 24, 2013, 01:35:51 pm
Post by: Aklyon on January 24, 2013, 03:09:08 pm
Post by: Bauglir on January 25, 2013, 12:56:45 am
Alright, I need some advice. I have a quite decent (runs skyrim at High and PS2 at low, minecraft with max settings and mods.) laptop, but it starts REALLY slowly. I have tried removing things that don't look essential with Starter, but is there anything else I can do?All I can think of is to try running standard cleaners, such as CCleaner, and defragging in the hopes that it's just clutter. This is probably a bullshit idea, but see if you can add the task manager to the startup programs so you can examine resource usage as quickly as possible?
Post by: foil on January 25, 2013, 11:44:41 am
My laptop cold boots from hibernate with 5400rpm hard drive at same speed as mates laptop cold boots from scratch with a SSD, boot anim doesnt even have time to complete before going to desktop.
Also is it Vista or Win 7 u have?
Post by: Akura on January 25, 2013, 12:00:46 pm
Not sure what's causing it. Might be a virus, since it first did it while watching a bootlegged copy of a movie, and it's been doing it since. Avast hasn't found anything, although it's out of date and updating is a pain in the ass right now(connction drops, resulting in restarting the file download).
Post by: miauw62 on January 25, 2013, 02:34:45 pm
Use hibernate maybe?7. I have tried removing many things from startup with starter some time ago. I ran CCleaner for my registry tough, and it seems to be pretty fine now. Thanks.
My laptop cold boots from hibernate with 5400rpm hard drive at same speed as mates laptop cold boots from scratch with a SSD, boot anim doesnt even have time to complete before going to desktop.
Also is it Vista or Win 7 u have?
Post by: Tellemurius on January 26, 2013, 12:56:37 am
This is an issue that's been annoying me for a while. Every time at startup, after logging in and loading the desktop, I get a couple of error messages saying that Superfetch has stopped working. This, unfortunately, also takes other things like Windows Aero and WLAN(wireless networking) services with it. Attempts to restart Superfetch(both manually and automatic) fail for a while, then all of a sudden it comes back, brining Aero and WLAN back with it.run a sfc scan and see what happens (remember to run the cmd as admin)
Not sure what's causing it. Might be a virus, since it first did it while watching a bootlegged copy of a movie, and it's been doing it since. Avast hasn't found anything, although it's out of date and updating is a pain in the ass right now(connction drops, resulting in restarting the file download).
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 26, 2013, 04:28:55 pm
Post by: miauw62 on January 26, 2013, 04:48:40 pm
Do you have Steam running on Startup? I find that to be a huge sluggard. Besides that, having multiple things open at the same time can lag you much more than opening them one-at-a-time. There is a program called StartupDelayer that provides this functionality.I removed steam from startup. Mainly because it tends to bork if I start it up too early.
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 26, 2013, 04:55:49 pm
Post by: Aklyon on January 26, 2013, 07:36:17 pm
Post by: Twiggie on February 01, 2013, 03:40:26 pm
I recently rebuilt my computer, so that may be part of the problem.
Because it's only games that crash, and the windows error reporter sometimes (SOMETIMES) mentions a DirectX dll, I thought it might be something to do with that - possibly something related to dxdiag showing DirectX 11 installed when my graphics card (9600GT) doesn't support it. OTOH I read that it shouldn't matter since it's fully backwards compatible. (And apparently Planetside 2 runs on 9.0c anyway)
I have overclocked my CPU (i5-3570k) but I haven't seen it go above 60C when I'm playing games. I have Windows 7 64bit and 8GB memory.
I'm really stumped. Mainly because it lets me play, and then crashes. If the games refused to start it'd be a simpler problem I suspect.
please help :<
Post by: Aklyon on February 01, 2013, 04:03:42 pm
Post by: Twiggie on February 01, 2013, 04:44:24 pm
I hit the verify integrity button from steam, its adding something now so hopefully that will fix GRID at least. OTOH I've already reinstalled PS2, so idk if it will work for that :/
Post by: Akura on February 02, 2013, 01:20:01 pm
Where my computer is right now, I can find only one network in range - my next-door neighbor, although I rarely one or two other wireless networks, but these disappear in a couple of seconds most of the time. When I move my computer to the other side of my room, I pick up a few more, but most of those also disappear pretty quickly, except the next-door neighbor's, and all of them(again, except the neighbor's) seem to depend on precisely where I have the antenna oriented.
One of the networks is an unsecured network I'm trying to get, but even if I find it, it cannot connect. Windows Diagnostic Tool says something like "unknown reason"(..."I don't know" is the best possible response from a diagnostic tool, isn't it?), that the computer isn't in range(incorrect considering I can find it, and with a decent signal strength besides), or that there's simply no response. At first I thought it might be possible that this network is blocking me somehow(I'm doubting it, but not saying impossible at this point), but I've gotten the same errors when trying one of the other, password-protected networks, before it asks for a password.
So, right now it looks like interference, and I'm assuming from the next-door neighbor's router, since that's the only one I usually see. Is there anything I can do?
Post by: Twiggie on February 02, 2013, 01:36:40 pm
Post by: Akura on February 02, 2013, 02:26:24 pm
your router should automatically change channels when it detects interference. have you tried wiring into your router and changing the channel manually?
Not *my* router.
Post by: miauw62 on February 02, 2013, 02:50:11 pm
Do you have iTunes at startup?I don't even have iTunes. Whenever I want music I use youtuberepeat.
I'm having some hanging issues too. My computer just hangs for a few minutes, and everything is back to normal.
Post by: Sappho on February 03, 2013, 03:08:49 pm
Any idea what could be causing this? It wasn't that the keyboard was dead - the computer was clearly receiving the signal that each key was pressed, since I heard that soft sound every time. But nothing happened. Even the caps lock key on the keyboard didn't light up when I pressed it - although the Fn keys for brightness and sound and ejecting the CD drive worked fine.
I've got a Dell XPS 15z (much to my regret, not nearly worth the money) and Windows 7. Any ideas at all? If this happens again I want to know if there's a way to fix it without restarting - and of course, better yet would be to make sure it doesn't happen at all.
Post by: Tsuchigumo550 on February 03, 2013, 06:53:17 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on February 03, 2013, 11:44:02 pm
Post by: Sappho on February 04, 2013, 12:26:36 am
It seemed to me to be a software rather than a hardware problem. The clicking noise indicated that the computer did know I was pressing the buttons, just refused to accept the input. And the brightness/volume/eject/etc. keys worked fine. I just couldn't input into any software. I felt like maybe I had accidentally pressed some combination of keys that disabled the input, but no idea what they were. I tried every key on the thing and none of them worked.
I've found similar problems by searching Google but they were always permanent, not fixed by rebooting, and the answer generally seemed to be reinstalling keyboard drivers. Right now the keyboard is working just fine, like nothing ever happened...
Post by: Tellemurius on February 04, 2013, 12:32:40 am
Post by: Sappho on February 04, 2013, 10:08:52 am
hmm, fresh install of windows then?
Oh dear god don't say that. I had my last computer for 4 years without needing to reinstall. I don't have an external hard drive or any other way to back up my files while I reinstall. I don't want to do that without absolute necessity.
One thing I'm pretty sure of, I've been thinking about it and I believe the last time this happened, I was playing Dungeons of Dredmor through Steam. This time, Steam was open in the background, and when I tried to shut down the computer at last, I had to wait a few minutes while Windows complained that Steam was not responding. Is it possible this is the culprit? I've noticed some overall glitchy behavior on the computer since installing Steam just before Christmas. Is this common? Is the program unstable? Am I better off playing my games without having the Steam interface open?
Post by: Tellemurius on February 04, 2013, 10:17:19 am
Post by: Sappho on February 04, 2013, 11:01:44 am
I told the Windows add/remove programs dialog to "repair" my installation of Steam. It ran a progress bar and then closed. I also set Steam to not run when the computer starts up. I don't use it that often. So if this happens again and Steam is closed, I'll know it's not Steam causing the problem. Then maybe I'll consider borrowing an external hard drive from someone and doing a clean install of Windows I guess.
Thanks for the help so far. It's only happened twice. Maybe it won't happen again. I hope not!
Post by: Alastar on February 04, 2013, 12:50:45 pm
Some Linux on a bootable USB stick is dead useful even if you aren't proficient or interested in it for everyday use (data recovery, some repairs that require no knowledge beyond how to use google, having a system with critical programs and settings on someone else's machine, getting around permission problems...)
Post by: Sappho on February 04, 2013, 03:00:55 pm
I've never used Linux. It sounds good in principle, but the few times I tried to get it, I could never figure out how to make it work. That was a few years back though. Is there any simple way to use it now? Also, how much HD space does it take up? I tend not to have too much open due to always obtaining large video files (and slowly deleting them to make space). I could really use with a nice big external hard drive, but they cost money, and money is less than abundant in my life at the moment.
Post by: Descan on February 04, 2013, 03:07:30 pm
I don't even know if that's possible, let alone how you would do it.
Post by: Alastar on February 04, 2013, 07:31:02 pm
Yeah, I don't generally have things like that lying around. Also, I don't know how to reproduce the problem. Still not sure what caused it. I've been using my computer at least 3-6 hours per day (much more on weekends) and it's only happened twice in the past couple of months. Once I restart, the problem is fixed, so I don't think a second OS would be of use in this case. : / In fact, the only reason it's really a problem at all is that if I'm playing DF and it happens, I have no way to save my game. Is there any possible way to get the menu open and save the game without a keyboard? I don't have an external keyboard.Isn't the current world updated continuously so that you can copy it to a backup folder via the mouse?
Quote
I've never used Linux. It sounds good in principle, but the few times I tried to get it, I could never figure out how to make it work. That was a few years back though. Is there any simple way to use it now?These days, most work straight from the installation medium so if you just want it for emergencies you don't need to install anything.
If you want it as an option for a daily OS, hardware detection is generally good and installation easier than Windows. With the mainstream distributions you get a fairly complete system - things like drivers, codecs, flash, an office suite, multimedia stuff, image manipulation included. Everything should be done in about half an hour, no upgrade marathons or driver hunts.
On the downside, default Linux installs are usually not tweaked for laptops: Power saving features tend to be disabled, enabling them may be a little newbie-unfriendly. Certain GPU and wireless chipsets may not work out of the box although this has supposedly become quite rare.
One of the most popular versions:
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
Installation instructions applicable to most others.
Quote
Also, how much HD space does it take up? I tend not to have too much open due to always obtaining large video files (and slowly deleting them to make space). I could really use with a nice big external hard drive, but they cost money, and money is less than abundant in my life at the moment.Varies a lot because Linux is so modular. Useful systems start at around 100MB installed, the full-featured ones can set you back 5GB.
Linux programs tend to be built on common libraries, the latter already has many of them so won't grow much even if you install a lot of seemingly heavy applications.
Linux deals with NTFS well enough that you'll probably just keep your data on the Windows partition.
Post by: Blargityblarg on February 04, 2013, 09:03:50 pm
All I could think of would be an external macro-program that you open with your mouse and use with your mouse that does the keystrokes necessary to save your DF game.
I don't even know if that's possible, let alone how you would do it.
Onscreen keyboard? Default as part of windows, look in the accessibility bit of control panel
Post by: Max White on February 11, 2013, 06:10:36 pm
Post by: Aklyon on February 11, 2013, 06:15:07 pm
What site should one use if one were wishing to quickly and easily legally upload some files to be publicly shared without registration and all that junk?Mediafire is good if you have an account, the public others need no registration.
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 11, 2013, 06:27:06 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on February 11, 2013, 06:47:44 pm
What site should one use if one were wishing to quickly and easily legally upload some files to be publicly shared without registration and all that junk?dropbox is nice enough to just you need to setup a account and you can give a public link to people
Post by: Aklyon on February 11, 2013, 07:50:55 pm
Post by: Chiefwaffles on February 17, 2013, 03:17:21 am
The power LED lights up just fine when I plug it in, yet when I turn on the computer, the computer turns on for less than a second, then turns off. I'm assuming this is an issue with the power supply. Yet with all my attempts, I can't find the correct power usage for these parts. Could anyone please tell me the power usage of the listed parts? Thanks.
Spoiler: Computer Specifications (click to show/hide)
(Are there any other high energy consumption items I'm missing?)
Post by: Tellemurius on February 17, 2013, 04:06:13 am
edit: what kind of ram do you have?
Post by: gimlet on February 17, 2013, 11:44:16 am
Post by: MaximumZero on February 17, 2013, 07:39:11 pm
I have 8GB of RAM now. Maximizing my RAM will cost about $90. That'll give me 16GB. Is it worth it?
Video card: How does the Radeon 7850 HD stack up?
Power supply: Is 500W enough?
Money: Do I upgrade the computer while I have the money, or do I save it for more important things?
Post by: Aklyon on February 17, 2013, 07:45:47 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 17, 2013, 09:00:24 pm
The videocard you suggested isn't bad for the price, according to the specsheet I'm looking at. This is, however, an area where extensive research is recommended. It's also a lot more power than is strictly needed for anything current.
As for Ram, 8gb is quite probably adequate for gaming. For the most part, that much memory is only needed for extensive video or photo editing, or 3D modelling. It will help with anything, but it's a safe place to skimp on a budget.
Post by: MaximumZero on February 17, 2013, 09:08:20 pm
I assume its a given you're using 64-bit, MZ?Yes. I'm on 7 Home Premium 64 bit.
If it's a high-quality brand, and you're running a fairly bare system (1xHDD, 1xOptical, 1xGPU), then 500w is probably adequate. If it's a no-name that came in a prebuilt or with a case, junk it. More than any other component, brand-names matter with PSUs.Grazi. The power supply in question is actually the one I'm looking at implementing, however. The 300W that came in my prebuilt (yeah, yeah, I know, custom is always better. HP just happened to put it together for cheaper than I could buy the parts for,) just isn't going to cut it.
The videocard you suggested isn't bad for the price, according to the specsheet I'm looking at. This is, however, an area where extensive research is recommended. It's also a lot more power than is strictly needed for anything current.
As for Ram, 8gb is quite probably adequate for gaming. For the most part, that much memory is only needed for extensive video or photo editing, or 3D modelling. It will help with anything, but it's a safe place to skimp on a budget.
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 17, 2013, 09:15:56 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on February 17, 2013, 09:33:21 pm
Post by: darkrider2 on February 17, 2013, 09:45:38 pm
the HD 7850 is great for 1080p gaming, you can easily run alot of games at 60fps from high to ultra settings. for ram 8gb is good enough for anything, i only ran into problems when i start getting memory leaks and such but other than that no reason for 16gb.
That's what I have. Its awesome.
Post by: MaximumZero on February 17, 2013, 09:55:37 pm
Post by: darkrider2 on February 17, 2013, 10:24:31 pm
Post by: gimlet on February 17, 2013, 11:06:17 pm
Post by: Chiefwaffles on February 18, 2013, 02:09:22 am
Thanks.
Post by: Absolute Niro on February 18, 2013, 04:41:52 pm
Processor: Intel® Core i7-2700K
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-P45, Socket-1155
RAM: Crucial DDR3 BallistiX Sport 1600MHz 8GB
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660Ti 2GB PhysX CUDA
Storage: 1TB
Comes with a normal DVD burner and 500W power supply. I've no experience with PC building and I'd rather not spend several hours on making one anyways so I'm really just looking for the best premade available in Norway, where Alienware and all the big PC builders from the US aren't available.
Post by: Tellemurius on February 18, 2013, 04:49:54 pm
Post by: Absolute Niro on February 18, 2013, 04:52:11 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on February 18, 2013, 05:14:51 pm
Post by: Absolute Niro on February 18, 2013, 05:18:58 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on February 18, 2013, 05:43:36 pm
I've no idea if I've even done that on my current PC. Might that be why Control Panel says only 1,75 of my current 2,0GB RAM is usable? :-[that... usually means something is wrong with your ram, probably a block or two have failed. run a memtest86+
Post by: Absolute Niro on February 18, 2013, 05:53:33 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on February 18, 2013, 06:46:30 pm
Eh, I don't have Memtest on my PC and I don't really wanna go through all the steps when I'm probably replacing it soon anyways. Not like the extra 0.25GB memory would make a huge difference anyways.yea not really but if you aint getting getting a quarter of a ramstick something is wrong.
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 18, 2013, 07:40:26 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on February 18, 2013, 07:46:42 pm
THat's quite normal, actually. Virtually all onboard video cards use a portion of the system RAM rather than having a dedicated video memory.oh i forgot about that :P
didnt know it can actually account for that though
Post by: MaximumZero on February 28, 2013, 04:59:28 pm
Only two of my monitors will work at any given time. I can run the monitors in any configuration of two, but all three? Nope. They're all 20" 1600x900 monitors. I don't get it. I beseech thee, Bay12, what the fuck am I supposed to do here?
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 28, 2013, 05:25:22 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on February 28, 2013, 05:32:49 pm
I'm afraid that Windows only allows two monitors per video card, no matter the number of connections.Dude, what? My girlfriend runs 3 on Win7. For whatever reason, my compy just isn't cooperating.
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 28, 2013, 05:36:40 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on February 28, 2013, 05:41:20 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 28, 2013, 05:45:27 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on February 28, 2013, 05:55:50 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 28, 2013, 05:57:03 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on February 28, 2013, 06:00:35 pm
I got that. My point was that my manual states that it is an inherent OS limitation that cannot be altered by choice of card.That's weird as hell.
Post by: Descan on February 28, 2013, 06:04:50 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on February 28, 2013, 06:39:29 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on February 28, 2013, 07:07:03 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on February 28, 2013, 07:45:48 pm
I have 1 HDMI, 1 DVI, and one DVI-HDMI to HDMI-Active MiniDisplayport Adapter.http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx (http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx)
i don't see a DVI-HDMI cable in that list. What type of DVI cable do you have, DVI-D or DVI-I?
Post by: MaximumZero on February 28, 2013, 09:01:56 pm
PC > PNY miniDisplayPort to HDMI > HDMI to DVI-D cable > monitor.
I know it works, as it'll work independently or with either other monitor as a pair. It just won't run all three at once.
Post by: AlwayzL3git on February 28, 2013, 09:45:27 pm
"Ethernet" doesn't have a valid IP configuration
HELP!
Post by: Tellemurius on February 28, 2013, 10:18:19 pm
I should rephrase that. I have:That combo there breaks the active chain, i suggest shopping here www.monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com)
PC > PNY miniDisplayPort to HDMI > HDMI to DVI-D cable > monitor.
I know it works, as it'll work independently or with either other monitor as a pair. It just won't run all three at once.
I just got a computer with Windows 8 and the internet has worked fine until now. Whenever I diagnose the problem, it says:have you restarted the computer first?
"Ethernet" doesn't have a valid IP configuration
HELP!
Post by: AlwayzL3git on February 28, 2013, 10:28:21 pm
I have been trying all day to fix it, so yes. I've tried setting a static IP, which didn't work either.I should rephrase that. I have:That combo there breaks the active chain, i suggest shopping here www.monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com)
PC > PNY miniDisplayPort to HDMI > HDMI to DVI-D cable > monitor.
I know it works, as it'll work independently or with either other monitor as a pair. It just won't run all three at once.I just got a computer with Windows 8 and the internet has worked fine until now. Whenever I diagnose the problem, it says:have you restarted the computer first?
"Ethernet" doesn't have a valid IP configuration
HELP!
Post by: MaximumZero on February 28, 2013, 10:54:16 pm
What was the IP you set?I have been trying all day to fix it, so yes. I've tried setting a static IP, which didn't work either.I should rephrase that. I have:That combo there breaks the active chain, i suggest shopping here www.monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com)
PC > PNY miniDisplayPort to HDMI > HDMI to DVI-D cable > monitor.
I know it works, as it'll work independently or with either other monitor as a pair. It just won't run all three at once.I just got a computer with Windows 8 and the internet has worked fine until now. Whenever I diagnose the problem, it says:have you restarted the computer first?
"Ethernet" doesn't have a valid IP configuration
HELP!
Post by: AlwayzL3git on February 28, 2013, 10:55:41 pm
something like "192.168.1.94" I just put in something random like that. It's back on automatic now though...What was the IP you set?I have been trying all day to fix it, so yes. I've tried setting a static IP, which didn't work either.I should rephrase that. I have:That combo there breaks the active chain, i suggest shopping here www.monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com)
PC > PNY miniDisplayPort to HDMI > HDMI to DVI-D cable > monitor.
I know it works, as it'll work independently or with either other monitor as a pair. It just won't run all three at once.I just got a computer with Windows 8 and the internet has worked fine until now. Whenever I diagnose the problem, it says:have you restarted the computer first?
"Ethernet" doesn't have a valid IP configuration
HELP!
Post by: MaximumZero on February 28, 2013, 10:59:48 pm
DCHP usually is for the best, unless you have a specific use in mind, or are a super-networker. Pray tell, did that fix the problem?something like "192.168.1.94" I just put in something random like that. It's back on automatic now though...What was the IP you set?I have been trying all day to fix it, so yes. I've tried setting a static IP, which didn't work either.I should rephrase that. I have:That combo there breaks the active chain, i suggest shopping here www.monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com)
PC > PNY miniDisplayPort to HDMI > HDMI to DVI-D cable > monitor.
I know it works, as it'll work independently or with either other monitor as a pair. It just won't run all three at once.I just got a computer with Windows 8 and the internet has worked fine until now. Whenever I diagnose the problem, it says:have you restarted the computer first?
"Ethernet" doesn't have a valid IP configuration
HELP!
Also:
That combo there breaks the active chain, i suggest shopping here www.monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com)I was afraid of that. So, I just ordered a DVI-DVI cable and a converter, and I'll send the ones I have back. Hopefully, that will resolve the problem.
Post by: foil on March 03, 2013, 04:47:46 pm
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2670838
Post by: Vespulan on March 03, 2013, 04:57:01 pm
Post by: Funk on March 03, 2013, 05:43:27 pm
the reason i need them is i have had to change my hard drive over to a different pc, due to a failing video card.
Post by: Akura on March 22, 2013, 11:52:30 am
According to this (http://www.etcwiki.org/wiki/Motherboard_2_Digit_BIOS_POST_codes_in_hex) this means: "21-2F Initialize and enable EISA slots 1-15."
I have no idea what this means or what to do about it. Granted, that seems to be an addon that goes in the PCI slot, but my motherboard seems to have it built-in.
Post by: Vespulan on March 22, 2013, 12:03:08 pm
My computer isn't starting anymore. It turns on, but nothing happens, not even POST.If you feel technologically magic, check connections from the Motherboard to see if anything's loose. Start ruling stuff out like PSU, GPU, RAM. You can also tell what the problem is by the number of *beeps* the computer emits when you hit the 'ON' button, but if it isn't even reaching that stage it sounds like a BIOS problem...
Post by: Akura on March 22, 2013, 12:20:19 pm
Post by: Vespulan on March 22, 2013, 12:32:51 pm
My computer doesn't beep when it turns on ever. Once in a blue moon it might, but that's not a normal(or problematic) occurance.Is it a custom-built model? I know some manufactures don't bother with the mini-speaker things, but normally there's a single or double beep to tell you everything okay. Have you check the connections by the way?
Post by: Tellemurius on March 22, 2013, 12:37:28 pm
first pull out all pci/pcie cards from the motherboard, unplug everything that isn't a video cable or the keyboard. power cycle to check if works, if not continue on.
Then take out all but one of the ram chips, test each slot to make sure. if none of those work either the psu or the motherboard crapped.
Post by: Akura on March 22, 2013, 01:23:49 pm
I should be able to replace the PSU, but the motherboard will likely pose a problem, financial and/or technical.
Hopefully it won't come to that, though.
Post by: Tarran on March 22, 2013, 09:33:53 pm
Nevermind, figured it out. Apparently instead of Photo Viewer windows was using "Windows Live Photo Gallery". Photo Viewer doesn't have the retarded shadow.
Post by: Tellemurius on March 23, 2013, 11:43:57 am
:-\Akura searching up that error code i pulled this up from the EVGA forums http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1458214&mpage=1 (http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1458214&mpage=1)
I should be able to replace the PSU, but the motherboard will likely pose a problem, financial and/or technical.
Hopefully it won't come to that, though.
check the video card, if you can't pull video from another video card or monitor then its definitely the psu, if it was the mobo you would get a different error/ nothing at all.
Post by: Vespulan on March 23, 2013, 12:08:22 pm
I had a similar problem to the one described in that forum post - I'd over-heated one of my HDDs whilst playing Empire:Total War and the computer shut itself down, stupidly I switched the PSU off to stop it damaging anything and it blew itself (don't wanna go through THAT again :D) but I don't know whether Akura had a shutdown...? And the beeps that guy mentions sound familiar.:-\Akura searching up that error code i pulled this up from the EVGA forums
I should be able to replace the PSU, but the motherboard will likely pose a problem, financial and/or technical.
Hopefully it won't come to that, though.
Post by: Ricky on March 24, 2013, 11:50:30 am
if you guys need more info please ask. HDD is called ST310005 28AS
Post by: Aklyon on March 24, 2013, 12:10:45 pm
Post by: Ricky on March 24, 2013, 12:42:59 pm
Have you tried chkdsk, or one of these (http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/tophddiag.htm)?thanks for the link.
After running the seatools it found a few errors, where it told me to run a Seatools for DOS (http://www.seagate.com/support/internal-hard-drives/consumer-electronics/ld25-series/seatools-dos-master/), although i haven't any idea how to go around that. :l
Post by: Vespulan on March 24, 2013, 12:44:22 pm
Post by: Ricky on March 24, 2013, 12:53:03 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on March 24, 2013, 03:13:57 pm
Those errors only popped up if a SMART scan came back with a negative.
run this http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html (http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html)
and send me back all the Attribute Names that have been flagged and their corresponding color.
Post by: Akura on March 25, 2013, 12:37:58 pm
Post by: Sensei on March 25, 2013, 09:04:18 pm
Turned out the graphics card burned out. According to the guy at the repair shop, the card I had(ATI Radeon 4800s) has a tendency to do that. And then he sold me an nVidia card of roughly the same capabilities for $70.Y'know, I had the same thing happen with a similar ATI card, only much more dramatically; I had the screen go totally garbled and colorful.
Post by: Sigulbard on March 26, 2013, 09:22:23 am
Post by: Vespulan on March 26, 2013, 09:35:12 am
Wouldn't it be more adequate to post your tech problems to a tech oriented forum? TomsHardware, for example.Shhh, Bay12 has an awesome tech-base :P
Post by: Aklyon on March 26, 2013, 09:48:28 am
Post by: MaximumZero on March 26, 2013, 10:40:54 am
Wouldn't it be more adequate to post your tech problems to a tech oriented forum? TomsHardware, for example.I tried that. Posted my problem and basically got, "Sucks to be you," as a reply. *shrugs*
Post by: Akura on March 26, 2013, 11:52:51 am
Actually, that's how my problem started. It did that, I restarted, then dead card.Turned out the graphics card burned out. According to the guy at the repair shop, the card I had(ATI Radeon 4800s) has a tendency to do that. And then he sold me an nVidia card of roughly the same capabilities for $70.Y'know, I had the same thing happen with a similar ATI card, only much more dramatically; I had the screen go totally garbled and colorful.
Post by: freeformschooler on March 27, 2013, 12:05:09 am
EDIT: It was an obscure firmware issue. Apparently they screwed with the bios at the service depot. I updated it and it recognized the card properly again. All is working.
EDIT2: Or not. 3d games still won't run and youtube is still giving the problem. Looking into this... I detest graphics card problems.
Post by: Tellemurius on March 27, 2013, 01:03:35 am
Post by: freeformschooler on March 27, 2013, 10:09:47 am
Post by: Tellemurius on March 27, 2013, 11:50:01 am
I think you're right about the catalyst thing, actually: I'll try to downgrade to 11 later on. For the time being, removing Catalyst 12 manually then having windows search for drivers itself seems to have fixed the 3d/youtube problem.ok you are running the default drivers for windows, that should be fine but gaming shouldn't be working...
Post by: foil on March 28, 2013, 11:29:16 am
Also never use Windows Updates for drivers, they are usually very out of date and missing 2/3 of the features.
Post by: Tellemurius on March 28, 2013, 11:49:28 am
Does the laptop have dual graphics chips? One for low power usage and one for gaming?a HD4250 ATI chip? very very doubtful :I
Also never use Windows Updates for drivers, they are usually very out of date and missing 2/3 of the features.
Post by: Lightningfalcon on April 02, 2013, 06:15:22 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on April 02, 2013, 06:49:19 pm
Can someone give me a ballpark figure for how much a decent gaming computer would cost? I don't need it to run Crysis on maximum settings, just be able to play modern games at a decent setting, along with being able to be upgraded as time goes on, since Intel laptops suck at that job. I'm starting to feel like every time I turn my Xbox on that it's going to die, and due to some recent events I've managed to save up almost 400 bucks, along with finally being able to get semi-unlimited internet access, as long as I stay up REALLY late.i suggest either the AMD HD 7950 or the nividia ti660 can crank the game around medium and high settings fine (Crytek has once again created another engine of deathwork for computers :D). Highly recommended to get quad core for this game as crysis 3 utilizes all cores available. Since money is going to be a issue with this build i suggest going for a full AMD build. Yes their processor sucks for singlethreading but their multithreading is a blast and 8 cores for 200 bucks who the hell is complaining. Since my build was around 750 bucks with a HD7770 prepare to go out of your way of 900 dollars for a Crysis box.
Post by: Lightningfalcon on April 02, 2013, 07:00:59 pm
Sorr, meant I'm not meaning to run Crysis at all, really. It would be nice, but it's not neccasary.Can someone give me a ballpark figure for how much a decent gaming computer would cost? I don't need it to run Crysis on maximum settings, just be able to play modern games at a decent setting, along with being able to be upgraded as time goes on, since Intel laptops suck at that job. I'm starting to feel like every time I turn my Xbox on that it's going to die, and due to some recent events I've managed to save up almost 400 bucks, along with finally being able to get semi-unlimited internet access, as long as I stay up REALLY late.i suggest either the AMD HD 7950 or the nividia ti660 can crank the game around medium and high settings fine (Crytek has once again created another engine of deathwork for computers :D). Highly recommended to get quad core for this game as crysis 3 utilizes all cores available. Since money is going to be a issue with this build i suggest going for a full AMD build. Yes their processor sucks for singlethreading but their multithreading is a blast and 8 cores for 200 bucks who the hell is complaining. Since my build was around 750 bucks with a HD7770 prepare to go out of your way of 900 dollars for a Crysis box.
Would I be able to lower the cost by cannibalizing an old computer? I know I won't be able to use a graphics card or mother board from it, but can I use other things from it?
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 02, 2013, 09:43:04 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on April 03, 2013, 12:24:52 am
Post by: ed boy on April 03, 2013, 02:06:18 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on April 03, 2013, 04:39:46 pm
The backspace key on my laptop just broke. Since it's a laptop, it has a bunch of extra keys which I never use, such as an eject key and a menu-opening key. How do I map one of these to be my new backspace?umm you can't..... not in windows
Post by: Aklyon on April 03, 2013, 06:33:48 pm
Post by: Sigulbard on April 04, 2013, 04:43:35 am
Post by: foil on April 04, 2013, 07:01:09 am
Post by: Descan on April 04, 2013, 08:10:35 am
Might even be cheaper for you, sir.
Post by: ed boy on April 04, 2013, 06:23:37 pm
Post by: foil on April 06, 2013, 07:32:45 am
Post by: gman8181 on April 06, 2013, 10:24:08 am
So opinions? Should I just get something a little less new with windows 7 or something else entirely?
Post by: Tellemurius on April 06, 2013, 10:27:01 am
I'm getting a new desktop computer and was wondering if windows 8 is as bad as some people make it out to be. I'll primarily be doing work related stuff, quickbooks, writing documents, etc along with some games like DF and other strategy ones but nothing too intense.If the new start menu bugs the hell outta you i would suggest getting your hands on Start8 (5 bucks but vastly superior over classic shell) to the original start menu back.
So opinions? Should I just get something a little less new with windows 7 or something else entirely?
Post by: Vespulan on April 06, 2013, 11:13:02 am
I'm getting a new desktop computer and was wondering if windows 8 is as bad as some people make it out to be. I'll primarily be doing work related stuff, quickbooks, writing documents, etc along with some games like DF and other strategy ones but nothing too intense.In my personal opinion, Windows 8 has a horrible GUI and they've restricted User Accessibility LOADS, but if you just stuck the classic shell over the top then I imagine it would be pretty fast - I hear Microsoft claim Windows 8 handles drivers better... I don't believe a word of it :P
So opinions? Should I just get something a little less new with windows 7 or something else entirely?
From a money point of view, if the older one is cheaper get it because a lot of the newer ones expense will be stuff for Windows 8.
Post by: Aklyon on April 06, 2013, 08:21:02 pm
Its new.
It will come with a prebuilt computer most likely.
It looks pretty good on tablets.
Cons:
Win7 has much more compatibility due to existing for longer.
You have to either use the other option you're given (classic shell) or pay $5 to change your desktop if you don't like it.
Its basically Win7.5 with a bunch of absurd UI choices for no particular reason, some performance tweaks, some driver promises, and slightly more money than Win7 probably.
The last of both sections may or maynot include opinion.
Post by: Alastar on April 08, 2013, 06:06:27 am
Things that suck (more)now:
Stylistically out of place fondleslab UI elements (start screen, charms bar)
Ergonomically out of place fondleslab UI elements (same)
Leftover bling on the desktop that clashes with the new aesthetic
Even more duplication in settings screens.
Weird locations for basic functions. Weirder than "click Start to shut down".
Even more overactive services that are a pain to get rid of if you'd like your OS to PLEASE STOP TRYING TO HELP.
Things that still suck:
Icons: Every historic Windows UI style is represented.
Settings layout: You can enable feature x here, but to disable it you have to go somewhere else.
Settings hierarchy: Click on something completely unrelated on the way (at least searching usually works now)
Font rendering (harsh and distorted is justifiable - this allows things to at least be very sharp. Inconsistent rendering between different font formats isn't)
Things that don't suck but tick many people off:
Overall aesthetic is simpler and cleaner, signage rather than faux glass. I like it better - less fancy but more honest and utilitarian.
Start screen instead of the classic Start menu - fullscreen so more disruptive and makes some concessions to touch devices, but has some advantages even for pure desktop users (like much better keyboard interaction).
Focus on the touch-friendly UI and the Windows Store make some people nervous that the platform will become less open and that the desktop is going to become a second class citizen.
Things that suck less than they used to:
Performance and stability. They cheat on startup (default "shutdown" is a partial hibernate), most other things one would notice have genuinely improved.
Indexing and search-based launching/system administration have become much, much better. Since Windows settings screens seem to have been designed by hateful bureaucrats in all versions, the latter is very important to me and alone offsets all the design niggles above.
*
If you want to use Windows, I'd recommend Windows 8. Many little details are tacky, but most are superficial and can be dealt with if they bother you.
Personally, I prefer Linux and definitely recommend giving it a try. It's a little different (more technical and modular, focused on Free and Open Source Software). Whether it is a good choice depends a little on your needs. While you can run much Windows-Only software through a compatibility layer, there are often some rough edges. If free alternatives are an option (e.g. LibreOffice, a TeX solution, GnuCash), things become much more pleasant - you get your software through your distribution's own repositories, with patches to make things work more consistently, and they're kept up to date along with your OS.
Since most popular versions can be downloaded for free and give one access to a decent application suite straight off a CD or flash drive, it's good to have one lying around and know the basics. Useful for troubleshooting/data recovery if something goes wrong with one's primary OS.
If you want to make a full switch, one of the biggest initial hurdles can be overwhelming choice:
You can choose your own GUI, as minimalistic or sophisticated as you wish. I've tried over a dozen and stuck with a fairly obscure one.
There are a good half dozen major distributions which vary slightly in their priorities: Ubuntu is accessible and consumer-friendly, Debian is rock solid and sensible, Arch and Gentoo revel in nerdy details... most people start off with a less technical one like Ubuntu or Linux Mint.
Post by: Vespulan on April 09, 2013, 12:22:46 pm
Ubuntu is accessible and consumer-friendly, Debian is rock solid and sensible, Arch and Gentoo revel in nerdy details... most people start off with a less technical one like Ubuntu or Linux Mint.No love for Xubuntu? :D How does Windows 8 deal with Flash-Memory storage? I remember my brother's friend plugging an 8GB USB into a Windows 7 machine and the BIOS then refusing to start... I was assuming both Drivers and Memory issues would just get worse in Windows 8.
Post by: Alastar on April 09, 2013, 03:09:19 pm
No love for Xubuntu? :D
Well, that's just Ubuntu with a more conservative default interface. User-friendly and sensible, but in my opinion a little boring as a first introduction.
Certainly better suited than my favourite (Arch Linux is a pain to set up if you aren't familiar with Linux already, FVWM is a ridiculously flexible interface but the defaults seem unchanged from 1993).
Quote
How does Windows 8 deal with Flash-Memory storage? I remember my brother's friend plugging an 8GB USB into a Windows 7 machine and the BIOS then refusing to start... I was assuming both Drivers and Memory issues would just get worse in Windows 8.Sure it's a fault of the operating system rather than, say, removable drives having priority in BIOS settings?
Driver situation with Windows 8 is quite good - as should be expected since under the hood little has changed since Vista. Not perfect though, automatically installed drivers may be suboptimal (seems Microsoft isn't overly enthusiastic to support cross-platform OpenGL rather than their proprietary API... what a surprise)
Post by: Vespulan on April 09, 2013, 03:19:55 pm
Well we tested it afterwards and if I remember correctly it turned out the RAM was trying to use the USB Drive to do basically everything, and they ended up blowing that by opening all the desktop icons at the same time... Eurgh, I remember having to uninstall all of my OpenGL versions manually because Windows installed them all to the wrong place after my Brother (Same one^^^) ran a 3D water-shader on my computer in OpenGL...No love for Xubuntu? :DQuoteHow does Windows 8 deal with Flash-Memory storage? I remember my brother's friend plugging an 8GB USB into a Windows 7 machine and the BIOS then refusing to start... I was assuming both Drivers and Memory issues would just get worse in Windows 8.Sure it's a fault of the operating system rather than, say, removable drives having priority in BIOS settings?
Driver situation with Windows 8 is quite good - as should be expected since under the hood little has changed since Vista. Not perfect though, automatically installed drivers may be suboptimal (seems Microsoft isn't overly enthusiastic to support cross-platform OpenGL rather than their proprietary API... what a surprise)
Post by: Kicior on April 19, 2013, 08:03:59 am
Close combat 2 (a bridge too far) "can't find one or more registry keys" when installed on Windows 7 but works just fine on Vista after running this registry script
Code: [Select]
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Close Combat]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Close Combat\2.00]
"PID"="00000-000-0000000-00000"
"ScreenX"="800"
"ScreenY"="600"
"Version"="2.0"
"IType"=hex:01,00,00,00
"GameSpeed"=hex:01,00,00,00
"ShowDSAlert"=hex:01,00,00,00
"ShowQuickHelp"=hex:01,00,00,00
"PlaySounds"=hex:01,00,00,00
"PlayMusic"=hex:01,00,00,00
"PlayVideos"=hex:00,00,00,00
"FCopy"=hex:00,00,00,00
"SMethod"=hex:00,00,00,00
"Save"=hex:00,00,00,00
"ShowTrees"=hex:01,00,00,00
"StaticFPS"=hex:0a,00,00,00
"InstalledFrom"=".\\"
"Launched"="1"
"VersionType"="RetailVersion"
Halp?Post by: Aklyon on April 19, 2013, 09:34:15 am
Post by: Kicior on April 19, 2013, 11:09:31 am
Post by: foil on April 20, 2013, 10:03:18 am
Download procmon from Microsoft, run it then run the game and let it record what it does. After it crashes or exits, go to procmon and stop recording/capturing and filter the results by the game exe name. Just look at the last few events for reg access and it will tell you where it was looking for things and what it couldnt find.
Post by: Tellemurius on April 20, 2013, 11:35:58 am
I don't know if it fits into "generic advice" but...change REGEDIT4 to Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
Close combat 2 (a bridge too far) "can't find one or more registry keys" when installed on Windows 7 but works just fine on Vista after running this registry scriptCode: [Select]REGEDIT4Halp?
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Close Combat]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Close Combat\2.00]
"PID"="00000-000-0000000-00000"
"ScreenX"="800"
"ScreenY"="600"
"Version"="2.0"
"IType"=hex:01,00,00,00
"GameSpeed"=hex:01,00,00,00
"ShowDSAlert"=hex:01,00,00,00
"ShowQuickHelp"=hex:01,00,00,00
"PlaySounds"=hex:01,00,00,00
"PlayMusic"=hex:01,00,00,00
"PlayVideos"=hex:00,00,00,00
"FCopy"=hex:00,00,00,00
"SMethod"=hex:00,00,00,00
"Save"=hex:00,00,00,00
"ShowTrees"=hex:01,00,00,00
"StaticFPS"=hex:0a,00,00,00
"InstalledFrom"=".\\"
"Launched"="1"
"VersionType"="RetailVersion"
Post by: Bdthemag on April 20, 2013, 05:45:32 pm
Being rather poor, I'm unable to buy a new computer. So tell me, am I absolutely fucked in terms of my CPU? Or could it potentially be something else?
Post by: Tellemurius on April 20, 2013, 06:54:37 pm
So, I consider myself rather acquainted with computers, but I'm absolutely clueless on things regarding the actual insides of the computer. But basically, I've had a laptop for a good year and a half which is a dell inspirion. Now, I've been playing a variety of low-requirement games ever since I've got it, but in the past few months the performance in these games has dropped quite drastically. I'm thinking it might be a problem with my CPU, seeing as the games I play are usually not very graphics intensive but CPU intensive (Such as grand strategy games.) Could this mean my CPU is finally dying on me? I sort of suspect it because this thing used to heat up like crazy when everything was working fine, and I have a feeling that could of damaged it (Although again, this is just an assumption since I know only the basics.)mobile cpus are design to throttle themselves when theres too much heat which is where you can see alot of performance drops. Circulation is key to any lifetime of a laptop and a clogged cooling port spells death, blow it out with a air duster.
Being rather poor, I'm unable to buy a new computer. So tell me, am I absolutely fucked in terms of my CPU? Or could it potentially be something else?
Post by: Bdthemag on April 20, 2013, 07:09:50 pm
Yeah, I was sort of thinking that might of been the problem since it'll shut off once it starts getting more active. I'll open it up later today and see if that improves it, which it probably will because I'm an idiot and haven't cleaned it out in a year and a half.So, I consider myself rather acquainted with computers, but I'm absolutely clueless on things regarding the actual insides of the computer. But basically, I've had a laptop for a good year and a half which is a dell inspirion. Now, I've been playing a variety of low-requirement games ever since I've got it, but in the past few months the performance in these games has dropped quite drastically. I'm thinking it might be a problem with my CPU, seeing as the games I play are usually not very graphics intensive but CPU intensive (Such as grand strategy games.) Could this mean my CPU is finally dying on me? I sort of suspect it because this thing used to heat up like crazy when everything was working fine, and I have a feeling that could of damaged it (Although again, this is just an assumption since I know only the basics.)mobile cpus are design to throttle themselves when theres too much heat which is where you can see alot of performance drops. Circulation is key to any lifetime of a laptop and a clogged cooling port spells death, blow it out with a air duster.
Being rather poor, I'm unable to buy a new computer. So tell me, am I absolutely fucked in terms of my CPU? Or could it potentially be something else?
Post by: noppa354 on April 21, 2013, 07:36:18 pm
Post by: Tarran on April 21, 2013, 09:14:10 pm
Might be something worth trying.
Post by: Lightningfalcon on April 28, 2013, 10:39:07 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on April 29, 2013, 12:24:35 am
Anyone know a good place to download an IDA, a good binary exploitation tutorial, and a good script exploitation tutorial?there better be a good reason you are asking for a disassembly instructions......
Post by: Lightningfalcon on April 29, 2013, 05:59:53 am
I actually need it for a competition my school is in. They provide us with programs, and tell us what information we generally need, and give us some clue on how to get it. Since two of the categories are script exploitation and binary exploitation, I assume we need to know that, and one of the big point questions wants us to download an IDA.Anyone know a good place to download an IDA, a good binary exploitation tutorial, and a good script exploitation tutorial?there better be a good reason you are asking for a disassembly instructions......
Post by: foil on April 29, 2013, 07:46:34 am
https://www.hex-rays.com/products/ida/index.shtml
Post by: hermes on April 29, 2013, 08:42:06 am
So, two questions; what's the safest way to get at those files? and what's the cheapest way to get at those files?
I'm thinking I really need to invest in a virus checker, but I don't really want to pay continuously for one.
Post by: Aklyon on April 29, 2013, 09:20:41 am
Otherwise, free AVs like Avast or MSE would probably work.
Post by: foil on April 29, 2013, 09:45:00 am
Any modern antivirus you installed in Win 8 will stop any ancient viruses left on it from ages ago.
Post by: hermes on April 29, 2013, 11:31:29 am
Post by: Akura on May 03, 2013, 06:13:42 am
I know I can go right in the registry and do it, but I don't really want to do that.
Post by: Descan on May 03, 2013, 06:54:39 am
First half is in the registry, the second half is using applications to disable but not entirely remove them, (or so I gathered from a quick perusal).
Post by: foil on May 03, 2013, 07:00:06 am
In the "Explorer" tab everything in the context menu is listed and you are able to untick them to remove them.
Just make sure you remove the correct things lol.
Post by: quinnr on May 05, 2013, 09:18:21 am
I actually need it for a competition my school is in. They provide us with programs, and tell us what information we generally need, and give us some clue on how to get it. Since two of the categories are script exploitation and binary exploitation, I assume we need to know that, and one of the big point questions wants us to download an IDA.Anyone know a good place to download an IDA, a good binary exploitation tutorial, and a good script exploitation tutorial?there better be a good reason you are asking for a disassembly instructions......
Hey, I was in that! You should totally PM me and tell me how you did.
Post by: Akura on May 06, 2013, 05:39:15 pm
I have good speed, I've seen it go up to 1Mbit/s before and maybe faster than that, but usually it's in the 200kbit/s-400kbit/s range. It generally has a good signal, Windows consistently having 4 of 5 bars, and the program that came with my wireless card shows 70%-80% or better.
The problem is, every minute or so, it just stops. Packets stop transmitting, as pinging the router's IP address(or anywhere else but my own IP adress) times out(ping times are otherwise excellent). I'm not sure if this an issue with the router I'm connected to, or something in between. I've looked up similar issues with packet loss like this, but nothing that was suggested has worked.
It's... acceptable for web browsing, but not at all for gaming(Shores of Hazeron is the only one that works well enough, but that's because SoH lags worse than I do). I sometimes have to refresh a web page, and videos are a little problematic, though.
Post by: Tellemurius on May 06, 2013, 06:18:49 pm
Got a problem with my internet connection. Yes, I've been complaining about it for awhile. Here's what I know:how much ping are you getting?
I have good speed, I've seen it go up to 1Mbit/s before and maybe faster than that, but usually it's in the 200kbit/s-400kbit/s range. It generally has a good signal, Windows consistently having 4 of 5 bars, and the program that came with my wireless card shows 70%-80% or better.
The problem is, every minute or so, it just stops. Packets stop transmitting, as pinging the router's IP address(or anywhere else but my own IP adress) times out(ping times are otherwise excellent). I'm not sure if this an issue with the router I'm connected to, or something in between. I've looked up similar issues with packet loss like this, but nothing that was suggested has worked.
It's... acceptable for web browsing, but not at all for gaming(Shores of Hazeron is the only one that works well enough, but that's because SoH lags worse than I do). I sometimes have to refresh a web page, and videos are a little problematic, though.
Post by: Akura on May 06, 2013, 07:04:55 pm
Most round-trip times were between about 1-5 milliseconds. The first 4 pings timed out, probably at the end of one of these periods of packet loss, and one ping took 1500ms round-trip. Average was 18ms, but that's probably due to that one 1500ms pingtime.
Result of 100 pings to google.com:
No packet loss this time. Minimum time, 12ms, maximum 1300ms(again one ping), average was around 20ms.
Post by: nenjin on May 06, 2013, 08:42:23 pm
Does the problem happen on anyone else's PC that connects through that router, or just your's?
Post by: Akura on May 06, 2013, 09:13:10 pm
Is this a PC with an integrated wireless adapter, a laptop with the same, or something with an actual network card?Actual network card. Can't answer the other one, since I'm the only one in the house with a computer. That said, when I was setting up my sister's netbook around Christmas, I was able to connect to it without any significant problem that I remember.
Does the problem happen on anyone else's PC that connects through that router, or just your's?
Post by: nenjin on May 06, 2013, 11:09:54 pm
Post by: Akura on May 07, 2013, 05:00:16 am
Age of the network card? Those are getting a bit rare these days, so my money would be on that being the culprit. I say that having done none of the other process of elimination steps though, like looking into your router settings (which, I dunno, I doubt your step-dad would let you f with.)I got it a couple of months ago.
And it's not mine, nor my stepdad's router, so I doubt I can get to the settings. As far as I know, it's a "public" router.
Post by: Aklyon on May 07, 2013, 07:26:49 am
Post by: foil on May 07, 2013, 11:15:28 am
If its the wifi signal that keeps cutting out, some routers wifi "mode N" is broken and wont keep things connected for long. Best thing for this is to turn off mode n and limit the connection to mode g..
You will need to download an instruction manual to find out where to do this.
Post by: nenjin on May 07, 2013, 12:26:59 pm
Post by: Akura on May 07, 2013, 04:24:00 pm
Figures that it might be a traffic jam ::).
There are two other routers in range of the same manufacturer and using the same channel, but the both are secured and have Mode N enabled. That shouldn't be a problem, though. Should it?
Post by: Aklyon on May 07, 2013, 05:13:11 pm
Post by: Akura on May 08, 2013, 05:00:29 pm
If it's not, is there possibly one that is?
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 08, 2013, 05:05:03 pm
But what do you mean about your motherboard lacking "cables"? Do you mean that you don't have a free SATA port, or that your PSU doesn't have a SATA power free?
Post by: Akura on May 08, 2013, 05:10:02 pm
I don't really care too much about the data speed, since I intend to just use it for making backups and such. I've still got the old DVD drive, which works just fine, it only lacks the ability to write.
Post by: Tellemurius on May 08, 2013, 05:26:25 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 08, 2013, 06:06:24 pm
Neither. It uses a different (http://www.newegg.com/IDE-Cables/SubCategory/ID-2818?Tid=16765) type of cable.Your motherboard is IDE? The two technologies ran alongside one another for a long, long time, and anything made in the last 5 years (at least) should have both (or just SATA). Are you sure you don't have a SATA somewhere on there?
I don't really care too much about the data speed, since I intend to just use it for making backups and such. I've still got the old DVD drive, which works just fine, it only lacks the ability to write.
Post by: Akura on May 08, 2013, 06:08:36 pm
Motherboard might be older than 5 years. I built this computer 4 or 5 years ago.Neither. It uses a different (http://www.newegg.com/IDE-Cables/SubCategory/ID-2818?Tid=16765) type of cable.Your motherboard is IDE? The two technologies ran alongside one another for a long, long time, and anything made in the last 5 years (at least) should have both (or just SATA). Are you sure you don't have a SATA somewhere on there?
I don't really care too much about the data speed, since I intend to just use it for making backups and such. I've still got the old DVD drive, which works just fine, it only lacks the ability to write.
Post by: Tellemurius on May 08, 2013, 06:14:35 pm
...Damn, that's actually more expensive than the burner. But the cheaper one's I've looked at are not particularly good according to their reviews. However, on some of the customer reviews for the one on Newegg(same model and price), it says that the power cable and data cable don't fit next to each other.yea its alot, you could ask to do a trade in or either a external or a ide versionMotherboard might be older than 5 years. I built this computer 4 or 5 years ago.Neither. It uses a different (http://www.newegg.com/IDE-Cables/SubCategory/ID-2818?Tid=16765) type of cable.Your motherboard is IDE? The two technologies ran alongside one another for a long, long time, and anything made in the last 5 years (at least) should have both (or just SATA). Are you sure you don't have a SATA somewhere on there?
I don't really care too much about the data speed, since I intend to just use it for making backups and such. I've still got the old DVD drive, which works just fine, it only lacks the ability to write.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 08, 2013, 06:14:56 pm
Post by: Bauglir on August 15, 2013, 06:12:53 pm
Post by: Sensei on August 15, 2013, 06:55:44 pm
Post by: NES630 on August 16, 2013, 09:18:33 pm
Oh, and the proposed motherboard is ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z.
I'm new to this, so if anything I said is facepalm, bear with it.
Post by: acetech09 on August 17, 2013, 02:05:26 am
Interested in building a gaming rig with potential Christmas money. Keep in mind, this is hypothetical. This is a rig I'm building with limited funds and sanity in mind, so the processor is going to be AMD. I got told by a person who does repairs for various machines that a Phenom II Series might be better than FX Series 8 Core... true?
Oh, and the proposed motherboard is ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z.
I'm new to this, so if anything I said is facepalm, bear with it.
You lost me at AMD. Sorry.
Post by: Pnx on August 17, 2013, 02:47:46 am
Like, sometimes I think they were nearly half the price.
I'm aware that Intel has been blowing AMD out of the water with the performance of their latest high end stuff, but if you're looking for value for money, especially if you're not interested in overclocking, AMD seems like a better choice right now.
Post by: Vespulan on August 17, 2013, 03:03:04 am
Quote from: NES630 link=topic=90025.msg4502538#msg4502538 date=137670In5913
I got told by a person who does repairs for various machines that a Phenom II Series might be better than FX Series 8 Core... true?The AMD Phenom II range is the best thing to come out of AMD for a long while. They can give the i5 a run for it's money whilst also being half the price, but I'd strongly recommend going that little bit extra to get four or even six cores on it (So AMD Phenom II x4/x6).
I've always preferred Gigabyte motherboards, but only because they do a brilliant Micro ATX range, and I like to keep my desktops small :P ASUS are a good brand if this is your first time building a PC.
Post by: Tellemurius on August 19, 2013, 10:47:27 am
Word of advisement, make sure you have a later board revision of their motherboards, first revisions are terribad, my current mobo was a first z77 and it cant handle any type of overclocking, it doesnt like me changing a milivolt :PQuote from: NES630 link=topic=90025.msg4502538#msg4502538 date=137670In5913I got told by a person who does repairs for various machines that a Phenom II Series might be better than FX Series 8 Core... true?The AMD Phenom II range is the best thing to come out of AMD for a long while. They can give the i5 a run for it's money whilst also being half the price, but I'd strongly recommend going that little bit extra to get four or even six cores on it (So AMD Phenom II x4/x6).
I've always preferred Gigabyte motherboards, but only because they do a brilliant Micro ATX range, and I like to keep my desktops small :P ASUS are a good brand if this is your first time building a PC.
Post by: Owlbread on August 21, 2013, 09:04:47 am
I've been trying to split the HDD into 4 partitions - 1TB for the first three, then another partition made of whatever else is left. Now, in my attempts to create said partitions I've discovered that having bought a 4TB HDD I can't even use 2TB for two partitions (I can only get 1023.90gb at best in my second partition). The rest of the space, a whole 1678 gigabyte, is just sitting there, unable to be allocated. The first two partitions are, annoyingly, "primary" partitions but I don't know how to change that. In the "manage" menu I get 2047.90 gigabytes to play with 1678.02 next to it.
I'm using windows 7.
Post by: Tellemurius on August 21, 2013, 11:55:41 am
Well, I've bought a 4TB HDD for my computer along with an SSD. My SSD is where I've installed my OS, so the computer boots from there. My HDD is basically for everything else.need to repartition it with one primary and a second logical partition, the Logical acts as a secondary partition table.
I've been trying to split the HDD into 4 partitions - 1TB for the first three, then another partition made of whatever else is left. Now, in my attempts to create said partitions I've discovered that having bought a 4TB HDD I can't even use 2TB for two partitions (I can only get 1023.90gb at best in my second partition). The rest of the space, a whole 1678 gigabyte, is just sitting there, unable to be allocated. The first two partitions are, annoyingly, "primary" partitions but I don't know how to change that. In the "manage" menu I get 2047.90 gigabytes to play with 1678.02 next to it.
I'm using windows 7.
Post by: Owlbread on August 21, 2013, 11:57:34 am
Post by: Tellemurius on August 21, 2013, 12:26:15 pm
Would it be possible to turn my "system reserved" partition into my primary partition and use the rest as secondary ones? Also, how would I go about doing this?You should not touch that partition thats a Shadow VS filesystem for windows unless you are going to wipe the drive. Best partition tool to use is partition magic suite.
Post by: Owlbread on August 21, 2013, 12:33:05 pm
You should not touch that partition thats a Shadow VS filesystem for windows unless you are going to wipe the drive. Best partition tool to use is partition magic suite.
What is the purpose of the "primary" partition? Do the characteristics of the drive change much depending on that classification? You see, if they don't and it's just a formality, I'd probably devote 100mb to it and turn the rest into secondary partitions. Would you be able to tell me how to create a secondary partition in the Windows 7 storage manager or are you more experienced with different programs?
Post by: Tellemurius on August 21, 2013, 12:49:34 pm
windows disk manager sucks i use linux based disk programs for partition management.You should not touch that partition thats a Shadow VS filesystem for windows unless you are going to wipe the drive. Best partition tool to use is partition magic suite.
What is the purpose of the "primary" partition? Do the characteristics of the drive change much depending on that classification? You see, if they don't and it's just a formality, I'd probably devote 100mb to it and turn the rest into secondary partitions. Would you be able to tell me how to create a secondary partition in the Windows 7 storage manager or are you more experienced with different programs?
explaination of disk partition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning)
Post by: MadMalkavian on August 25, 2013, 10:29:28 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 25, 2013, 10:35:22 pm
That said, the game in question MIGHT work. System requirements are highly speculative anyway, and the developer PROBABLY factored Windows overhead into the proposed specs. DEdicating one core to the game might give it enough power. Bit of a crapshoot, though.
Post by: MadMalkavian on August 25, 2013, 11:02:22 pm
No. They can run threads in parallel if the game is optimized for that (most aren't), and you can run Windows (and misc. processes) on one core while running the game on the other, but you can't just add the two speeds together.
That said, the game in question MIGHT work. System requirements are highly speculative anyway, and the developer PROBABLY factored Windows overhead into the proposed specs. DEdicating one core to the game might give it enough power. Bit of a crapshoot, though.
It looks like an old buddy of mine from some years back lied to me then. Thank you for the information.
Post by: quinnr on August 26, 2013, 12:53:46 am
EDIT: Yay, Google. Answers need not apply.
Post by: acetech09 on August 26, 2013, 06:46:02 pm
So, do chargers for laptops and other electronic devices typically pull the same amount of power when they are not charging? Just curious. And trying to prove someone wrong, maybe.
EDIT: Yay, Google. Answers need not apply.
The answer is simple, if you consider the First law of Thermodynamics.
Post by: NES630 on August 26, 2013, 08:10:33 pm
Word of advisement, make sure you have a later board revision of their motherboards, first revisions are terribad, my current mobo was a first z77 and it cant handle any type of overclocking, it doesnt like me changing a milivolt :PQuote from: NES630 link=topic=90025.msg4502538#msg4502538 date=137670In5913I got told by a person who does repairs for various machines that a Phenom II Series might be better than FX Series 8 Core... true?The AMD Phenom II range is the best thing to come out of AMD for a long while. They can give the i5 a run for it's money whilst also being half the price, but I'd strongly recommend going that little bit extra to get four or even six cores on it (So AMD Phenom II x4/x6).
I've always preferred Gigabyte motherboards, but only because they do a brilliant Micro ATX range, and I like to keep my desktops small :P ASUS are a good brand if this is your first time building a PC.
My target motherboard is the ASUS Crosshair V Formula Z... I've heard good things about it.
Post by: foil on August 27, 2013, 02:02:01 pm
I've got a question about dual-core processors. If both cores each clock in at 2.13Ghz does that mean that together they clock in at 4.26Ghz and as a result can meet the system requirements of a game that requires at least 2.50Ghz to run on Windows 7?
What was the game and cpu you have?
Post by: Bauglir on August 27, 2013, 08:31:40 pm
Post by: MadMalkavian on August 29, 2013, 09:51:27 pm
It doesn't matter anymore as the plans to purchase a computer this September have fallen through. I'm going to wait until around November or December then get an Alienware computer for $700-$900. Also the game was The Sims 3, which is a game I've been wanting to play since it was released but have been unable to because my current machine cannot even install it.I've got a question about dual-core processors. If both cores each clock in at 2.13Ghz does that mean that together they clock in at 4.26Ghz and as a result can meet the system requirements of a game that requires at least 2.50Ghz to run on Windows 7?
What was the game and cpu you have?
I've got a different question now anyways. Flash keeps crashing whenever I watch a Youtube video in Firefox. What do I do to fix this? If it helps I just reinstalled Direct X from the June 2010 distribution and before that I disabled NoScript because it was messing up on another website.
Post by: Owlbread on August 29, 2013, 09:54:08 pm
Post by: Darkmere on August 29, 2013, 09:56:02 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on August 29, 2013, 09:57:19 pm
Post by: MadMalkavian on August 29, 2013, 10:19:10 pm
You could buy an Alienware computer, but have you considered building one yourself? You might be able to get a better computer, exactly the way you like it, for less money.I don't trust myself enough with computers to build one. Maybe upgrading the video card or slotting in a WiFi card but building one is something I don't think I'm qualified to do. I would rather not risk breaking the parts or screwing something up and just buy a computer that does what I want it to do.
Also by that logic I should do what I wanted to do in the first place and buy this computer from TigerDirect (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7769105&CatId=2628) and just slot in a new video card later. However my mother, who is the one helping me save up the money for a new computer, advised me against that, and based on my experience with used computers and messing with computer hardware I'm inclined to trust her judgement.
Also don't worry about the Firefox problem. I managed to fix it by shutting down a program that was conflicting with Firefox and it's piece of shit plug-in container. I miss Firefox 3.5 right about now.
Post by: Owlbread on August 29, 2013, 10:31:57 pm
Honestly, don't underestimate yourself. Building a computer is something everyone should do at least once, I think. It helps you to understand what's inside your computer, and you don't feel like going inside it is such a big undertaking, and best of all your computer will be exactly the way you want it and you will save money.
Post by: MadMalkavian on August 29, 2013, 11:01:54 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on August 29, 2013, 11:33:15 pm
I'm not going to build a new computer. I don't trust myself to do such a thing without breaking something or wasting money. Money might be something a normal person doesn't have to worry about but when you live on $866.40 USD a month it's kind of important that you don't take any chances with your money. I'm sorry but no amount of pep talk or coercion will convince me that it would be a good idea to do such a thing.My brother that doesnt know anything about computers built his :P
Post by: MadMalkavian on August 29, 2013, 11:36:31 pm
Post by: Owlbread on August 30, 2013, 04:59:24 am
I'm not going to build a new computer. I don't trust myself to do such a thing without breaking something or wasting money. Money might be something a normal person doesn't have to worry about but when you live on $866.40 USD a month it's kind of important that you don't take any chances with your money. I'm sorry but no amount of pep talk or coercion will convince me that it would be a good idea to do such a thing.
Your choice, I live on less than that and I spent nearly £2000 of savings on a computer and assembled it myself. You won't break anything (it's just like lego for adults), but it's your choice.
Post by: MehMuffin on August 30, 2013, 08:05:16 am
I built a computer for the first time last week (I've barely even held a screwdriver before, I can't change a plug let alone a motherboard) and I'm using it right now to post this. It is not nearly as hard as you think, and I had a lot of money on the line too if I messed up. Just get some very, very patient friends who can talk you through it step by step, take anti static precautions and just work your way through it.
Honestly, don't underestimate yourself. Building a computer is something everyone should do at least once, I think. It helps you to understand what's inside your computer, and you don't feel like going inside it is such a big undertaking, and best of all your computer will be exactly the way you want it and you will save money.
Most of the parts are also less easily damaged than most guides make them seem. When I built mine with help from one of my friends we realized at the end that my case (NZXT Switch 810) which we had been using for grounding the whole time didn't have conductive paint, and didn't actually ground. And the static didn't break anything at all.
Post by: Aklyon on August 30, 2013, 08:11:30 am
Post by: Owlbread on August 30, 2013, 12:30:38 pm
I'm sure people here will be more than willing to talk you through it step by step, and hell, if you can't do it get someone you know to help you. It's simple enough that a child could do it with an adult's assistance/supervision, so I'm sure you will be able to do it too.
Post by: MadMalkavian on August 30, 2013, 04:33:24 pm
I'm sure people here will be more than willing to talk you through it step by step, and hell, if you can't do it get someone you know to help you. It's simple enough that a child could do it with an adult's assistance/supervision, so I'm sure you will be able to do it too.I have to be honest with you. I don't trust the people here at Bay 12 to help me with such a thing. I don't trust most people in general to help me with anything. Most of the time I don't even ask for help when I could really use some because I don't trust people. I maybe trust my mother enough to ask for help but outside of her I don't ask people for help unless I'm really stuck on something.
It's a thing that I am working on getting past, though the same thing is also why I don't have friends or even know anyone. I'm isolationist and borderline xenophobic at worst, standoffish and unwilling to trust at best. Probably has something to do with my PTSD but like with the other things I am diagnosed with it's going to take me a lot of my life to work on these issues so I can trust people. I'm not used to having nice things or getting help or being treated kindly because of how I'm used to receiving just the opposite in my dealings with other people.
I just want to get a computer that will do what I want it to do. At this time that would be The Sims 3, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a handful of "obscure Japanese games" and maybe recording Let's Play videos for me to upload on Youtube. Maybe World of Darkness Online or The Elder Scrolls Online as well. I just want a computer that does what I want it to do and without the complicated bullshit involved with building one from scratch.
I mean, I've been stuck with a computer from 2001 since 2008 and I don't know heads or tails of these newfangled things that people talk about these days. I don't think I could learn either because thanks to my Autism I have a really hard time understanding most anything that doesn't click the right way with my brain. This newfangled stuff doesn't click.
I'm sorry for letting this out but I think it has to be said. I'm going to lie down now as I've had an emotionally exhausting day and I need to rest before I start feeling suicidal again. Have a good afternoon.
Post by: Owlbread on August 30, 2013, 04:36:01 pm
Post by: Bauglir on August 31, 2013, 01:30:19 am
Post by: Alastar on August 31, 2013, 05:19:50 am
You can live cheaply and have nice things, but that may require working on certain skills, with corresponding risks.
Can't afford ruining meals as I learn to cook -> keep buying overpriced junk food
Can't afford ruining something building my own PC -> keep buying overpriced weirdly put-together computers, to be replaced when a component fails/becomes obsolete.
*
For computers, this used to be a no-brainer, but no more. The average off-the-shelf PC is ok-ish value for money these days, building your own is most interesting for people who know exactly what they want to spend their money on.
Some examples: Pre-assembled near-silent builds tend to be priced as premium products, if that matters to you building your own is much cheaper. If you care about a nice responsive system in everyday use instead of raw power, spring for a Solid State Drive... doesn't apply much to gamers on a budget. You may have obscure needs (Dwarf Fortress is limited by a fairly odd metric - RAM latency. If you want to run non-Windows operating systems, you may pick hardware based on how well it's supported there).
Of course, much of the time you can satisfy many of your needs in a pre-assembled build. I'd advise against Alienware though - they are still living on the reputation from a bygone era.
*
Last but not least: Even if you don't build your own, get comfortable replacing some components. More RAM is often a cheap high-impact upgrade, graphics cards obsolete much more quickly than CPUs.
Post by: MadMalkavian on August 31, 2013, 10:25:00 am
Yeah, that's fine. It seems weird to have nearly a page of people telling you how easy it is to build a new computer when you've said that's not the point and you're not interested in doing it.I think it's weird that I ask for help with Firefox and Flash and what I get in return is advice on how to build my own computer that I didn't even ask for. It's just a reminder to me though as to why I should keep my mouth shut sometimes.
I suppose much comes from MadMalkavian stating s/he's living on a somewhat tight budget.Money is indeed very tight for me. I'm unable to work due to both some brain and nervous system stuff as well as due to some psychological problems. The result is I live on about $866.40 USD a month. Sure, I now get some additional benefits which make money less tight but that only comes up to about $200 a month which I could save for such a thing. Add in the factor that is my representative payee, whom I have because I am unable to manage my own money, and things get interesting. She is helping me save up for a new computer, but at this time I have half the mind to say fuck it and just buy an XBOX 360 or some sort of console system because computers are too damn complicated these days.
You can live cheaply and have nice things, but that may require working on certain skills, with corresponding risks.
Can't afford ruining meals as I learn to cook -> keep buying overpriced junk food
Can't afford ruining something building my own PC -> keep buying overpriced weirdly put-together computers, to be replaced when a component fails/becomes obsolete.
For computers, this used to be a no-brainer, but no more. The average off-the-shelf PC is ok-ish value for money these days, building your own is most interesting for people who know exactly what they want to spend their money on.
Some examples: Pre-assembled near-silent builds tend to be priced as premium products, if that matters to you building your own is much cheaper. If you care about a nice responsive system in everyday use instead of raw power, spring for a Solid State Drive... doesn't apply much to gamers on a budget. You may have obscure needs (Dwarf Fortress is limited by a fairly odd metric - RAM latency. If you want to run non-Windows operating systems, you may pick hardware based on how well it's supported there).
More stuff that I don't know nor understand. Once again more reason why I shouldn't take the risk of building a new computer myself.
Of course, much of the time you can satisfy many of your needs in a pre-assembled build. I'd advise against Alienware though - they are still living on the reputation from a bygone era.Then I do not know who to purchase from as outside of Alienware the only brand I know is Compaq. This however is something I can research.
Last but not least: Even if you don't build your own, get comfortable replacing some components. More RAM is often a cheap high-impact upgrade, graphics cards obsolete much more quickly than CPUs.I can do upgrades but only as far as the video card. I don't trust myself with RAM.
Post by: Tellemurius on August 31, 2013, 10:49:33 am
Post by: MadMalkavian on August 31, 2013, 11:17:28 am
Alright what is the cheapest price and the highest price you would pay for a PC and would you want it as a laptop or desktop?Well I'll have $300 saved up by September 1st so $250 is about what I could pay if I get it next month. Otherwise I'll have $500 saved up in October, $700 saved up in November, and $900 saved up in December. If I get a computer in October I could spend about $450 at most, while if I get one in November or December I could spend about $650 or $850 at most. I say this because of course I would have to factor in the shipping and handling as well as various taxes for the computer itself.
I would like for it to be a desktop but a laptop is also doable if it can play the games I will want it to play. I want to be able to play The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and The Sims 3 as those are the only professionally developed PC games that have come out in the past five years which I want to play. Everything else I want to play is on the XBOX 360, the PS3 or the 3DS.
Now I can do upgrades if I have to. To rephrase myself earlier I'm comfortable upgrading parts as long as I can research what needs to be done and such. In fact my original plan was to get a computer from TigerDirect for $200-$250 and just upgrade the video card later, but my payee advised me against that. I might be able to convince her that it's a good idea but I did say to her in case if I forget to not let me change her mind on this subject.
Anyways thanks for your help and I'm sorry if I was kind of an asshole the past day or two. I've been dealing with some depression stuff but that's no reason to take it out on you guys.
Post by: Owlbread on August 31, 2013, 11:50:13 am
Post by: Tellemurius on August 31, 2013, 11:57:20 am
Quad core with Internal graphics 640 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227479 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227479)
That top one will get you started right away with a small gaming machine while the bottom one you will need to put a graphics card.
Frankly at 550 bucks its a good start build into modern times but you would need to upgrade both the power supply and graphics card if you want to start pushing over 720p graphics down the road but this will let you play skyrim at least will need to tone it down some for good framerate. but hell upgrading from a old machine 10+ years you'll know the difference.
(note do not get that rebate for the pc unless you are getting the extended warranty, fun fact with rebates as you turn them in it voids the warranty)
Post by: MadMalkavian on August 31, 2013, 01:33:49 pm
dual core with GT630 graphics 550 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227495 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227495)
Quad core with Internal graphics 640 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227479 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227479)
That top one will get you started right away with a small gaming machine while the bottom one you will need to put a graphics card.
Frankly at 550 bucks its a good start build into modern times but you would need to upgrade both the power supply and graphics card if you want to start pushing over 720p graphics down the road but this will let you play skyrim at least will need to tone it down some for good framerate. but hell upgrading from a old machine 10+ years you'll know the difference.
(note do not get that rebate for the pc unless you are getting the extended warranty, fun fact with rebates as you turn them in it voids the warranty)
I'll keep those in mind. Thank you for the recommendations and such. I hope I can be patient enough to save up the money for one of them. Part of why I haven't gotten a new computer yet is I have problems with being patient with the whole saving money bit, especially when I don't have much to begin with and especially when my perception of time is really off due to various memory problems and such. Have a good day.
I think people understand now that you've made it clear that you have autism, so we're not going to get frustrated with you or think you're an asshole.It still wasn't any excuse for me to be mean to you guys or have that kind of hostile tone with my posts. It wasn't the right thing to do, and I was taught that you're supposed to do the right thing in life. I still think my apology was necessary because of that. However thank you for your understanding. I appreciate it.
Post by: Facekillz058 on September 01, 2013, 10:53:38 am
I'm in the market for a new graphics card right now, but I have a few questions.
1. How do I even tell which ones are compatible with my set up and which ones aren't?
2. Are there any brands that are cheap, but still able to play current gen games decently?
3. Any little things I need to look out for when finally picking one out?
Thanks for your time, ladies and gents.
Post by: Aklyon on September 01, 2013, 11:25:33 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on September 01, 2013, 11:30:18 am
Hello everyone.The most important factor is your PCI express slot version. The best way to determine that is to Google your motherboard product number. Other than that, you'll have to compare your power supply output to current load + the requirements of the card. Also, if you have an Intel processor, get a Nividia card, while it's better to get an ATI if you have an AMD processor. They're more likely to play nice that way.
I'm in the market for a new graphics card right now, but I have a few questions.
1. How do I even tell which ones are compatible with my set up and which ones aren't?
Quote
No. While there are high-end and low-end brands (seperate from the chipset, as generally the two big companies sell chipsets to middlemen that build cards out of them), the price-to-performance ratio is fairly flat.
2. Are there any brands that are cheap, but still able to play current gen games decently?
Quote
3. Any little things I need to look out for when finally picking one out?
The physical size of the card is the big one. Medium-to high-end GFX cards are often quite long, and generally take up two slots, meaning that if you have an expanison slot directly below your PCI express slot, you will lose that slot.
As for specific reccomendations, I suggest this site.
http://www.maximumpc.com/best-of-the-best
They have editor's picks in budget, mid-range, and price-no-object categories for all PC components.
Post by: Facekillz058 on September 01, 2013, 12:37:19 pm
Also, can everything be explained to me like I'm 5? I don't actually understand much of the computer terminology.
Thanks again.
Post by: MaximumZero on September 01, 2013, 12:43:20 pm
My current card is a ATI Radeon HD 4350.Well, since my kid just turned five, I'll give it a shot.
Also, can everything be explained to me like I'm 5? I don't actually understand much of the computer terminology.
Thanks again.
The first thing you should do is find out what motherboard you have. The type of card you can buy depends on the slots you have on your motherboard, as well as its actual physical size. You need to look for PCI Express [number]. That will tell you what kind of video slot you have available on your board. For the most part, you should look up individual benchmark numbers for the card you're interested in. Some cards are actually better for things like cryptography than graphics. Generally, the higher the price, the better the performance, but after a certain point, the video cards are going to stop getting better at what you want them to do, and start getting more specialized.
Post by: Tellemurius on September 01, 2013, 12:49:15 pm
Post by: Facekillz058 on September 01, 2013, 01:03:39 pm
My current card is a ATI Radeon HD 4350.Well, since my kid just turned five, I'll give it a shot.
Also, can everything be explained to me like I'm 5? I don't actually understand much of the computer terminology.
Thanks again.
The first thing you should do is find out what motherboard you have. The type of card you can buy depends on the slots you have on your motherboard, as well as its actual physical size. You need to look for PCI Express [number]. That will tell you what kind of video slot you have available on your board. For the most part, you should look up individual benchmark numbers for the card you're interested in. Some cards are actually better for things like cryptography than graphics. Generally, the higher the price, the better the performance, but after a certain point, the video cards are going to stop getting better at what you want them to do, and start getting more specialized.
How do I find out what motherboard I have?
Post by: MadMalkavian on September 02, 2013, 12:27:26 am
My current card is a ATI Radeon HD 4350.Well, since my kid just turned five, I'll give it a shot.
Also, can everything be explained to me like I'm 5? I don't actually understand much of the computer terminology.
Thanks again.
The first thing you should do is find out what motherboard you have. The type of card you can buy depends on the slots you have on your motherboard, as well as its actual physical size. You need to look for PCI Express [number]. That will tell you what kind of video slot you have available on your board. For the most part, you should look up individual benchmark numbers for the card you're interested in. Some cards are actually better for things like cryptography than graphics. Generally, the higher the price, the better the performance, but after a certain point, the video cards are going to stop getting better at what you want them to do, and start getting more specialized.
How do I find out what motherboard I have?
You can either do a search for the make and model of the computer you have or you can use a program like Speccy, which will tell you just about everything you need to know about your computer in most cases. You may find Speccy here (http://www.piriform.com/speccy).
Post by: nogoodnames on September 04, 2013, 04:49:10 pm
I'm looking for something around $500-800. Not too expensive, but powerful enough to last me the next few years and run the occasional big studio AAA game at an adequate level.
Here are a few I was looking at, to give you an idea.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Any suggestions or advice is appreciated.
Post by: Tellemurius on September 04, 2013, 09:48:07 pm
Post by: MadMalkavian on September 05, 2013, 02:19:07 pm
I was thinking of purchasing this computer right here from Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883256582). It's a HP DC7900 with a Core 2 Duo 3.00 GHz, 4GB of RAM, a 750GB HDD, and while it's not listed after research and looking things up at HP's website I'm certain this model has an Intel GMA 4500 integrated graphics card. I wanted to go with this one since it would be a big improvement over my current machine but I thought I'd ask for your input just in case if there is a better one out there that I could get.
Any suggestions or advice will be appreciated, but please keep in mind that my budget is $300 USD and I don't have the luxury of waiting anymore.
Post by: Descan on September 05, 2013, 02:38:23 pm
And make sure whatever computer you get can be upgraded. Since you have to buy it now, when you have more money (I.E. the money you were saving) you can use that to upgrade the card and hard-drive and all the other fangled devices.
I don't know 'nough 'bout computers to say whether that is the best you'll be able to find, but I figured I'd offer that advice that you may or may not have taken into account, ye?
Post by: MadMalkavian on September 05, 2013, 02:51:07 pm
If someone can however recommend a better machine I'd be interested in checking it out. My budget is $300 USD. I've also got to make my final decision by Friday as that's when my payee is going to decide whether or not she'll give me my money for this when she goes to the bank on Sunday.
Also thanks for your advice Descan. I appreciate it.
Post by: Descan on September 05, 2013, 02:52:08 pm
Post by: MadMalkavian on September 05, 2013, 02:58:22 pm
It's very hard to upgrade a laptop, so I'd stick with a desktop. >_>
Yeah in hindsight I probably should stick with desktops. I'll redact that bit about laptops.
Post by: Owlbread on September 05, 2013, 03:11:10 pm
Post by: MadMalkavian on September 05, 2013, 03:30:55 pm
MadMalkavian, I can only say that if there is any way for you to wait until December to buy a computer or find another computer to use temporarily, please take that option. The kinds of computers you're going to buy for 300 dollars are nowhere near good enough to be able to do what you want to do.
Neither of those are options right now. I may not have a computer by the middle of the month if things keep going on how they are with this machine I am typing from. Plus almost nothing released after 2006 interests me in regards to video games so it's alright if I don't have the best equipment.
Post by: Lord Shonus on September 06, 2013, 12:23:08 am
Post by: MadMalkavian on September 06, 2013, 01:24:35 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on September 06, 2013, 01:52:54 pm
I don't buy it Betty. You haven't heard the horror stories I've heard about Best Buy and their GeekSquad.Geeksquad's warranty is actually nice as they ususally will just toss the junk and let you go pick out a new one.
Post by: MadMalkavian on September 06, 2013, 02:29:19 pm
I don't trust Best Buy or Geeksquad. I'm going to leave it at that.I don't buy it Betty. You haven't heard the horror stories I've heard about Best Buy and their GeekSquad.Geeksquad's warranty is actually nice as they ususally will just toss the junk and let you go pick out a new one.
Post by: Tellemurius on September 06, 2013, 02:46:17 pm
Believe me, i know the stories you are talking about and i worked on a machine that was from an aftermath of a geeksquad repair recently. The employees could care less for repairs and alot of it is a joke, for the warranty though its quick and easy for them as corporate manages most of that so they throw away the crap one and grab a new one off the shelf and hand it, just hope they dont need to do a data transfer.I don't trust Best Buy or Geeksquad. I'm going to leave it at that.I don't buy it Betty. You haven't heard the horror stories I've heard about Best Buy and their GeekSquad.Geeksquad's warranty is actually nice as they ususally will just toss the junk and let you go pick out a new one.
Post by: Lord Shonus on September 06, 2013, 05:04:11 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on September 06, 2013, 05:11:33 pm
Here (http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13029_ca/13029_ca.PDF) is everything you'll ever want to know about it.
Post by: MadMalkavian on September 06, 2013, 07:20:43 pm
Believe me, i know the stories you are talking about and i worked on a machine that was from an aftermath of a geeksquad repair recently. The employees could care less for repairs and alot of it is a joke, for the warranty though its quick and easy for them as corporate manages most of that so they throw away the crap one and grab a new one off the shelf and hand it, just hope they dont need to do a data transfer.I don't trust Best Buy or Geeksquad. I'm going to leave it at that.I don't buy it Betty. You haven't heard the horror stories I've heard about Best Buy and their GeekSquad.Geeksquad's warranty is actually nice as they ususally will just toss the junk and let you go pick out a new one.
Well that is a little more reassuring then. The data transfer bit might be a problem as I have a data cap on my internet and don't like replacing everything all the time. Still, Best Buy had worse deals than Newegg or TigerDirect from what I saw. Just my opinion of it at least.
I wasn't referring to Geeksquad at all. I was referring to replacement warranties (where you just get a new product off the shelf), which come free for a set period with every product (unless you open the case) and can be extended for a small charge. It is by far the best option for low-end equipment.
I was considering getting a replacement warranty but I was also going to talk to my payee about saving up about $500 USD within the next few months "just in case". Not certain which one I'm going to do yet because I'm more sold on making the purchase from TigerDirect or Newegg than Best Buy considering I've done business in the past with both TigerDirect and Newegg and have been satisfied with the results.
I go into Best Buy and they treat me like I'm some inbred hillbilly mongrel that doesn't know what they are talking about. Not very pleasant I tell you what.
@MadMalkavian: The reason you didn't find that on HP's website is because it's actually a business-class machine.
Here (http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13029_ca/13029_ca.PDF) is everything you'll ever want to know about it.
Yeah thanks for refreshing my memory. I was right, it does have the Intel GMA 4500, the cost-reduced version of the Intel GMA X4500, with compatibilities with DirectX 10, 4.0 Shaders and Open GL 2.1 - good enough for what I want to do at the present, which is play the following games...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And a smattering of other video games that I likely forgot about or will just barely meet the minimum system requirements for. In hindsight I don't even really want to play The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The only things that would get me into those two games are if I get to talk to my younger brother more often about The Elder Scrolls and if I can get past the fact that they fucked everything up in those two games just with the changes between Morrowind and Oblivion alone. Even then I plan on getting an XBOX 360 so I can play video games that my computer would be unable to play, such as Fable II, Blazblue and Record of Agarest War. Might as well pick up Oblivion and Skyrim for that as well.
Now to all of you I will concede that I may be willing to give Best Buy a chance thanks to what Lord Shonus and Tellemurius have said. It all depends on whether the warranty from TigerDirect or the warranty from Best Buy is a better deal. I appreciate your input and I'm sorry if I'm just a little too tsundere for this part of the forum.
Truth be told I was asking for input and opinions rather than advice because I don't ask for advice from people on the internet as that lead me to being doxed one time and receiving a dozen packages about a Missionary position, recruitment calls from the Church of Scientology, and one thirty-five year old schizophrenic who has a beef jerky fetish saying he wanted to make love to my butt. I know you guys won't do that but I'm not really willing to trust people on the internet like how I used to. I thank you for your input and opinions however and I appreciate them very much so. I'm going to now check out the pricing between TigerDirect and Best Buy for the HP DC7900 as it turns out both sites have the same variant available for sale. Have a good evening.
Post by: Descan on September 06, 2013, 07:33:40 pm
Post by: MadMalkavian on September 06, 2013, 07:56:24 pm
I have no idea how advice is so special that it would lead to all that, while opinion/input wouldn't.
I don't know either. I think it's because when you ask for advice you might be inclined to follow it while if you ask for someone's opinion or input you might be persuaded to their view or you might not. Again, I'm sorry if I stepped on any toes and I do appreciate everyone's input.
Also I checked out Best Buy. It turns out they were sold out of the computer and didn't have the others available from what I could see but I'm able to get a one-year extended warranty from Newegg on a similar variant of the model I linked to you guys. I thank you once again for your help and your input. However, I was supposed to make my mind up by Friday and seeing as it is that I have now made up my mind on what I want to get.
Once more have a good evening and I'm sorry if I stepped on any toes.
Post by: Baffler on September 07, 2013, 10:29:27 pm
Post by: MadMalkavian on September 09, 2013, 04:50:22 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on September 09, 2013, 05:00:17 pm
I've got a couple quick questions. With 3.00Ghz, 2GB of RAM and an Intel GMA 4500 will I be able to run The Sims 3? Also how much RAM will the Intel GMA 4500 have after it borrows some from the system RAM?the GMA4500 will take half of that ram, I had troubles running the first and second game with that chip so really doubt 3 would run well or at all.
Post by: MadMalkavian on September 09, 2013, 05:28:33 pm
Well that's fine by me. I was going to buy some additional RAM and eventually upgrade the video card anyways. Plus I optimize every computer I can get my hands on for performance by editing the registry and tweaking various options as well as disabling any unnecessary services in order to free up resources and such.I've got a couple quick questions. With 3.00Ghz, 2GB of RAM and an Intel GMA 4500 will I be able to run The Sims 3? Also how much RAM will the Intel GMA 4500 have after it borrows some from the system RAM?the GMA4500 will take half of that ram, I had troubles running the first and second game with that chip so really doubt 3 would run well or at all.
Thanks for the help. Just to clarify though does that mean the Intel GMA 4500 will have 1GB of RAM? I'm sorry if this question is redundant. I'm in a lot of pain today so it's kind of hard to understand things.
Post by: Tellemurius on September 09, 2013, 05:30:06 pm
sorta depends on the bios setting, i seen it range from 512 to 1428Well that's fine by me. I was going to buy some additional RAM and eventually upgrade the video card anyways. Plus I optimize every computer I can get my hands on for performance by editing the registry and tweaking various options as well as disabling any unnecessary services in order to free up resources and such.I've got a couple quick questions. With 3.00Ghz, 2GB of RAM and an Intel GMA 4500 will I be able to run The Sims 3? Also how much RAM will the Intel GMA 4500 have after it borrows some from the system RAM?the GMA4500 will take half of that ram, I had troubles running the first and second game with that chip so really doubt 3 would run well or at all.
Thanks for the help. Just to clarify though does that mean the Intel GMA 4500 will have 1GB of RAM? I'm sorry if this question is redundant. I'm in a lot of pain today so it's kind of hard to understand things.
Post by: MadMalkavian on September 09, 2013, 05:47:08 pm
Yeah I had heard that Dynamic Video Memory Technology does that but I wanted to be sure. I'm a little wary about messing with the BIOS though as I've made computers inaccessible without that even being my intention by going into there.sorta depends on the bios setting, i seen it range from 512 to 1428Well that's fine by me. I was going to buy some additional RAM and eventually upgrade the video card anyways. Plus I optimize every computer I can get my hands on for performance by editing the registry and tweaking various options as well as disabling any unnecessary services in order to free up resources and such.I've got a couple quick questions. With 3.00Ghz, 2GB of RAM and an Intel GMA 4500 will I be able to run The Sims 3? Also how much RAM will the Intel GMA 4500 have after it borrows some from the system RAM?the GMA4500 will take half of that ram, I had troubles running the first and second game with that chip so really doubt 3 would run well or at all.
Thanks for the help. Just to clarify though does that mean the Intel GMA 4500 will have 1GB of RAM? I'm sorry if this question is redundant. I'm in a lot of pain today so it's kind of hard to understand things.
Either way thanks for the help. Even if I can't play The Sims 3 I'll still be able to play most of the other games I want to play or at least play at this time better than this old steam-powered toaster can since most of the games I like are from 2005 and prior. Still going to get those upgrades though since I want to play some of the games that came after that. I'll ask you guys about that video card and RAM upgrade stuff when the time comes. Thanks again for the help.
Post by: Jelle on September 13, 2013, 04:49:41 am
So I've got this desktop, about 3 years old and pretty worn through extensive use. I fear this last hot summer didn't do it any good either and it seems the hardware is about ready to fall apart. I should be upgrading soon anyway but would prefer to hang on to it a little while longer.
Anyway here's the problem. Every time I boot it up a first time it eventually crashes, with a bluescreen if I'm lucky. After that it goes through some difficulty loading the operating system (windows 7) so I run a system restore and all is gravy again. Naturally not a healhy thing for an operating system to require repairs on a daily basis, already had to do one clean install after it got borked up beyond repair.
After that all seems to be just fine. Usually no crashing at all for the entire session after I went through the repairs. Soon as it shuts down and reboots though, back to step 1.
So what part of my pc do you guys figure could cause this if it were broken? Bios loads without a problem. If it's my hard disk I could replace it with a spare, wich I'll be trying once I get an os installed on it. But I'm no hardware expert so I'm just sort of wildly guessing.
Post by: Alastar on September 13, 2013, 05:45:57 am
A few things you may want to try:
Reset the BIOS (most have this option in the BIOS setup screens, hard way to do it is detaching the battery from the motherboard).
Check for faulty RAM - if you have several modules, boot up with only one of them.
Check temperature readings... fans may be clogged, thermal paste may have dried up.
Update drivers, unplug anything added shortly before the problems started.
Try another operating system, most Linuxes will boot from a CD or a stick into a usable environment. You can run hardware diagnostics from there, or simply use it normally to see if anything fails with useful error messages.
Post by: Lord Shonus on September 13, 2013, 03:33:13 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on September 13, 2013, 03:45:26 pm
Post by: Jelle on September 15, 2013, 06:03:27 am
With no further information, we're flailing around blindly, nothing useful from the Bluescreen information?Just the usual 'unexpected error, shut down to prevent damage, contact your sys admin, check for any hardware changes yadayada'. When it doesn't bluescreen the screen will usually rip whatever colors it was displaying in horizontal bands or flat out go dark and reboot immediatly. Don't know if that signifies anything particular.
at this point i do see bluescreen from either coming from the RAM or the hard drive, maybe a good format will fix it straight.Yeah that would get it running again for some time, until recurring crashes fudges it up again. Have already formatted and clean installed some time earlier, think it was about a month ago.
Post by: Tellemurius on September 15, 2013, 11:48:14 pm
Post by: Facekillz058 on October 12, 2013, 12:29:48 pm
Whenever my Processer is under the slightest of loads my sound gets mega staticy/I don't even know what to call it.
It's never done this before,
Fix how do? :(
Post by: gimlet on October 12, 2013, 12:37:42 pm
Post by: Facekillz058 on October 12, 2013, 12:51:41 pm
EDIT: A computer restart seems to have fixed the problem. Derp.
Post by: Chiefwaffles on October 13, 2013, 08:35:43 pm
I have Win7 64bit, a Cisco AE6500 router, as of this moment a Netgear A6200 USB network adaptor (also tried with an onboard Atheros adaptor and an older cisco one.) Running the troubleshooting function when the network is unidentified results in 1-2 of the following error messages.
Quote
-The Default Gateway is not ConfiguredI've tried searching it, restarting the adaptor and router, along with trying a static IP (which made it not able to connect to the network)
-The Default Gateway is not available
-Device did not have set IP
-"Wireless Connection 5" does not have a valid IP configuration
My computer seems to be the only one experiencing these problems (is custom built), with every now and again another computer not seeing the network for a couple minutes, or a problem similar to that.
Post by: Tellemurius on October 13, 2013, 10:50:15 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 03, 2013, 06:04:37 pm
Post by: foil on November 05, 2013, 04:24:04 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 05, 2013, 04:52:43 pm
Post by: Aklyon on November 05, 2013, 05:04:16 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 05, 2013, 05:41:41 pm
Post by: Eric Blank on November 05, 2013, 09:47:48 pm
Spoiler: direct explanation (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: actual component specifications, in case they're helpful (click to show/hide)
Ultimately, I do have the option of replacing the machine as a whole, but if all I really need to do is isolate and replace one component, that'd be much preferred.
Post by: Sensei on November 06, 2013, 03:44:32 am
Post by: gimlet on November 06, 2013, 09:01:26 am
Just to make sure I have the latest utilities, I update the utilities disks with the latest manufacturer's test programs - for those look at the brand of disk you are having a prob with, go to their site, look around the support section for their disk test utility. If you can't find it post the brand (and ideally model) and I'll try to find a direct link.
In linux, the command I use to test drives is "badblocks", although there's a couple other shorter tests and SMART diagnostics available through the gui - these are a good 1st start, they'll show blatant problems. Badblocks will test every sector on the drive. Using badblocks usually needs you to open a shell window and type in some stuff on the command line, it's not hard at all.
Post by: Sensei on November 07, 2013, 01:38:01 pm
TL:DR, I occasionally hear the click of death but it goes away when I restart, and the last time it happened was worse than before. Should I be worried? I also feel like if I try to get the drive replaced on warranty right now, it'll show up at Lenovo's support place and not have any problems and they won't replace the drive.
Post by: Tellemurius on November 07, 2013, 03:54:05 pm
Post by: gimlet on November 08, 2013, 07:53:10 pm
The other thing to think of running is "memtest" - memory does go bad and it can cause all kinds of flaky behavior.
PS: Back up your important stuff NOW.
Post by: Rolepgeek on November 11, 2013, 12:46:17 am
So I start playing a Star Wars RPG, it gets me excited about Star Wars again, I want to play KotOR, I install both, try and start up KotOR 1, and it tells me I don't have the right OS.
What.
This is the saved report when it says I don't have the goods.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Anyone able to help?
Post by: Tellemurius on November 11, 2013, 01:33:25 am
Post by: HFS on November 11, 2013, 01:33:30 am
Post by: Tellemurius on November 11, 2013, 01:46:34 am
Post by: Sappho on November 15, 2013, 01:53:15 pm
I have tried to use Process Explorer to find the culprit using some instructions I found online, but I couldn't find anything. I can't play games, I can't type, I can't do anything. Can someone please help me? How the hell do I figure out which program is doing this so I can kill it?
ARGH that's about ten times now, I'm going to throw this fucking thing against the wall! Please help me!
Post by: Aklyon on November 15, 2013, 02:06:44 pm
Post by: Sappho on November 15, 2013, 02:09:01 pm
Apparently this is a common problem in Windows 7. Wheeeeee.
Edit: Ha. I noticed Windows pestering me for updates, as it almost always does. I told it to go ahead and update, and it seems to have stopped. I'll keep watching in case it was something else, but maybe it was stupid Microsoft itself sabotaging me...
Edit 2: I spoke too soon. It's still happening. Advice still sought. : (
Post by: Aklyon on November 15, 2013, 03:40:56 pm
Post by: Sappho on November 15, 2013, 03:52:51 pm
It seems to have stopped for the moment. I'm letting Windows install all its updates, then I'll see if it stops completely. I've disabled windows automatically checking for updates from now on. I've also disabled automatic updates on everything else I could think of that might have them. If this doesn't do it, I'm nearly ready to just wipe out the computer and do a complete re-install from scratch.
Post by: foil on November 16, 2013, 10:35:11 am
Post by: MaximumZero on November 16, 2013, 11:06:10 am
Go to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER]>Control Panel>Desktop
Look for an entry with the name of "ForegroundLockTimeout". It's probably set to 0. Set it to 200000, and restart the computer.
Post by: Sappho on November 16, 2013, 12:55:01 pm
I have turned off automatic Windows updates. I told it not to even check for them anymore. Now I have a big irritating red warning X at the bottom-right of my screen all the time because my system is so horribly at-risk, but at least I am able to type and play games again.
Post by: Aklyon on November 16, 2013, 12:57:58 pm
Post by: Sappho on November 16, 2013, 03:06:55 pm
There should be a setting named something like 'Automatically check but do not install updates'. It will pester you from time to time about actually updating, but it neither freaks out with the red X nor interrupts you with sudden updates.
That's what I had it set on when this problem started. It seems it had checked and found updates, and I ignored it like I always do because in my experience, updating a perfectly functional system tends to cause problems. For some reason after I restarted, (presumably) the update checker started stealing focus from my programs. Or maybe it was stealing focus because it wanted to install and I was ignoring it. The strange thing is, aside from the small icon in the tray that is always there and I always ignore, there were no notifications or anything. Just a background process stealing focus.
Post by: MadMalkavian on November 16, 2013, 05:36:15 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on November 17, 2013, 06:49:40 am
Post by: MadMalkavian on November 17, 2013, 03:24:50 pm
How much is the bank?Well to be honest I'm going to have to save up either way but at this time I don't know how much I could save up. Perhaps $40 USD a month at most. I might not even be able to start saving until after Christmas and I'd like to get it before May 2014 and preferably by March or April 2014.
Still got to talk to my payee about the damn thing but I'll likely have $120-$160 to save for it if she isn't already saving some of my money to begin with. In hindsight I might be asking too early, but it's never a bad thing to plan ahead. Let's just say my limit is $120 USD to start with, not factoring in sale pricing or current savings.
Post by: Tellemurius on November 17, 2013, 05:58:21 pm
Post by: MadMalkavian on November 18, 2013, 05:40:39 am
HP DC7900 is a slim factor case so you can only shove in low profile cards, limits you alot unfortunately as AMD and Nvidia has not provided much in this size. Nvidia has about 2 decent cards sitting around the 50 to 90 range, for AMD they still have a bunch of small cards in stock and the best one for gaming 7750 sits around 100-130ish.What cards would these be if you mind me asking?
Post by: Tellemurius on November 18, 2013, 03:45:20 pm
Nvidia
GT620 52 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130814 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130814)
GT640 85 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500308 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500308)
I did not post the GT630 as there are some misconceptions thats its either an 620 overclocked card or a underclocked 640
AMD
6570 55 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127611 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127611)
7750 90 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202002 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202002)
theres probably cheaper versions of these cards too just newegg's site is really stupid for search and for most parts these cards are usually just renamed as the years go on with no improvements and these are the few cards that actually are new.
Post by: Bauglir on November 19, 2013, 02:58:58 am
Post by: MadMalkavian on November 19, 2013, 06:48:42 am
lets seeThank you. The AMD Radeon 6570 looks like the one I want to get, but the problem is that my HP DC7900 has a 240-watt PSU and a 400-watt PSU is recommended for said graphics card. Would I still be able to install an AMD Radeon 6570 graphics card into my HP DC7900 without having to upgrade the PSU, or will I have to upgrade the PSU as well? It does say on this comparison site that the AMD Radeon 6570 requires 27 watts of the PSU's total to run if that helps.
Nvidia
GT620 52 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130814 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130814)
GT640 85 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500308 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500308)
I did not post the GT630 as there are some misconceptions thats its either an 620 overclocked card or a underclocked 640
AMD
6570 55 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127611 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127611)
7750 90 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202002 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202002)
theres probably cheaper versions of these cards too just newegg's site is really stupid for search and for most parts these cards are usually just renamed as the years go on with no improvements and these are the few cards that actually are new.
Post by: foil on November 19, 2013, 08:20:06 am
lets seeThank you. The AMD Radeon 6570 looks like the one I want to get, but the problem is that my HP DC7900 has a 240-watt PSU and a 400-watt PSU is recommended for said graphics card. Would I still be able to install an AMD Radeon 6570 graphics card into my HP DC7900 without having to upgrade the PSU, or will I have to upgrade the PSU as well? It does say on this comparison site that the AMD Radeon 6570 requires 27 watts of the PSU's total to run if that helps.
Nvidia
GT620 52 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130814 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130814)
GT640 85 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500308 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500308)
I did not post the GT630 as there are some misconceptions thats its either an 620 overclocked card or a underclocked 640
AMD
6570 55 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127611 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127611)
7750 90 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202002 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202002)
theres probably cheaper versions of these cards too just newegg's site is really stupid for search and for most parts these cards are usually just renamed as the years go on with no improvements and these are the few cards that actually are new.
You would be better spending more on the 7750 imo. The 6 series cards were pretty poor performers and the 6570 would struggle with any modern games even at low resolutions. The 7750 will have roughly double the performance of the 6570 and is based on a much more modern tech.
Post by: foil on November 19, 2013, 08:24:03 am
Does Youtube alter its available quality settings and buffer speed based on the browser it detects you using? I've disabled every plugin I have and every feature I can think of being relevant in Comodo Dragon, and I'm still barred from quality settings higher than 360p on most videos, regardless of the settings actually available (as verified in Firefox and Chrome). I also gave Iron a try, same restrictions. I seem to be able to get access to better quality by blocking the appropriate IP address, but I can't find a consistent range, and it varies from video to video, making this incredibly tedious.
The resolution options usually get greyed out if your internet is slow/lagging. I get this at peak times when i cant watch 1080p, it will start for a few seconds then drop to 720 or lower and greys out the other options.
Does this happen in other browsers or can you watch 1080p fine without it dropping resolutions?
Post by: Caz on November 19, 2013, 09:18:52 am
Post by: Bauglir on November 19, 2013, 10:07:04 am
Yeah, in other browsers I can watch 1080 with no problems. In this one, they're not even grayed out - they don't even appear.Does Youtube alter its available quality settings and buffer speed based on the browser it detects you using? I've disabled every plugin I have and every feature I can think of being relevant in Comodo Dragon, and I'm still barred from quality settings higher than 360p on most videos, regardless of the settings actually available (as verified in Firefox and Chrome). I also gave Iron a try, same restrictions. I seem to be able to get access to better quality by blocking the appropriate IP address, but I can't find a consistent range, and it varies from video to video, making this incredibly tedious.
The resolution options usually get greyed out if your internet is slow/lagging. I get this at peak times when i cant watch 1080p, it will start for a few seconds then drop to 720 or lower and greys out the other options.
Does this happen in other browsers or can you watch 1080p fine without it dropping resolutions?
EDIT: Also, IP blocking no longer seems to help at all. And the problem is consistent across all Chromium distros.
Post by: Aklyon on November 19, 2013, 12:29:17 pm
Post by: Bauglir on November 19, 2013, 12:45:07 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on November 19, 2013, 04:16:26 pm
For those who have a SSD - Is the speed upgrade worth the cost?Thousand times yes, 12 second bootup from Windows 7? can't say no to that. At most 128gb is a good buy and just dedicate it for your OS.
Thank you. The AMD Radeon 6570 looks like the one I want to get, but the problem is that my HP DC7900 has a 240-watt PSU and a 400-watt PSU is recommended for said graphics card. Would I still be able to install an AMD Radeon 6570 graphics card into my HP DC7900 without having to upgrade the PSU, or will I have to upgrade the PSU as well? It does say on this comparison site that the AMD Radeon 6570 requires 27 watts of the PSU's total to run if that helps.
Honestly most computers will not take much of the psu, your computer i could see at max burn up 100w with mobo cpu and hard drive. The extra wattage is there as space as capacitors age and lose their rating. Now i do see psus for your box floating around on ebay that are rated for 365w so upgrades do seem to exist if you want the bigger card.
Post by: MadMalkavian on November 20, 2013, 02:48:26 pm
What's an SSD and should I get one for my HP DC7900?For those who have a SSD - Is the speed upgrade worth the cost?Thousand times yes, 12 second bootup from Windows 7? can't say no to that. At most 128gb is a good buy and just dedicate it for your OS.
Thank you. The AMD Radeon 6570 looks like the one I want to get, but the problem is that my HP DC7900 has a 240-watt PSU and a 400-watt PSU is recommended for said graphics card. Would I still be able to install an AMD Radeon 6570 graphics card into my HP DC7900 without having to upgrade the PSU, or will I have to upgrade the PSU as well? It does say on this comparison site that the AMD Radeon 6570 requires 27 watts of the PSU's total to run if that helps.
Honestly most computers will not take much of the psu, your computer i could see at max burn up 100w with mobo cpu and hard drive. The extra wattage is there as space as capacitors age and lose their rating. Now i do see psus for your box floating around on ebay that are rated for 365w so upgrades do seem to exist if you want the bigger card.
So get a bigger PSU or don't get a bigger PSU? I don't understand what you are saying outside of I'll have to replace my computer eventually.
Post by: Tellemurius on November 20, 2013, 02:51:21 pm
Post by: Aklyon on November 20, 2013, 03:01:32 pm
Post by: MadMalkavian on November 20, 2013, 03:04:15 pm
i dunno what your needs are for the graphics card, theres so much you can really do with prebuilt computers these days.Most of what I do with a computer is play older games and largely 2D indie games. Most modern AAA game I play is Civilization V, which is the only game my computer has problems with graphically. The rest of the AAA games I've seen released these days either don't interest me or disgust me more than several things I'm not allowed to talk about here.
Honestly, graphics don't matter to me for the most part. I just care about framerate and gameplay. I want a dedicated graphics card so I can get better performance than this integrated graphics chipset I am using. Unless the modern graphics can pay my bills, cook me meals and give my meatbag body some loving I don't care for them. I just want my games to run as fast as my machine can allow them to, that's all.
An SSD is a large-scale usb drive, basically. More expensive than a standard hard drive, smaller amount of space, much faster.
Sounds like a rather bourgeois frivolity, unless if you're talking about external harddrives. You essentially mean a very fancy USB stick right?
Post by: Tellemurius on November 20, 2013, 03:13:31 pm
Scratch that i got word that 7750s can consume as much as 50w from the box, if thats the case you are more than good to get one of those :P
Post by: MadMalkavian on November 20, 2013, 04:07:26 pm
a very fancy stick that over-exceeds 6GBps bandwidth ;)An issue with Civ5 is that it requires a quadcore processor, gfx isnt much of a problem as your mouse isn't sync with the graphics processing on the map. If at this point i recommend the Nvidia GT640 then, it consumes at much 40w so you won't have to replace the psu, its the best you would get out of this box.
Scratch that i got word that 7750s can consume as much as 50w from the box, if thats the case you are more than good to get one of those :P
So get the AMD Radeon HD 7750? I don't think I could do that seeing as it is sold out. Also you're telling me that I will never meet the recommended system requirements of Civilization V unless I purchase a new computer? I might as well not bother getting a dedicated graphics card then and instead just invest in something else a little less futile. Thanks for the information.
Post by: Tellemurius on November 20, 2013, 04:43:52 pm
Post by: MadMalkavian on November 20, 2013, 05:40:06 pm
you can still carry over the 7750 (yea you will have to look for another one), but really you do need a new box in the end. Core 2s are at the end of their lives, to me they are still good but its the future and my i3 can do alot more than your processor.
Well fuck that. I had to save up for six years just to get this computer I have right now. I'm not getting another one until this one starts to break. I have to live within my means after all, and seeing as I've lived in poverty all of my life I might as well have outdated equipment. I don't want to talk about this any more as I'm starting to get very negative thoughts about it that if I utter will get me banned. Just know that I can't get a new machine anytime soon because unlike the bourgeois that seem to populate Western civilization I have to live within my means.
Post by: Tellemurius on November 20, 2013, 06:10:43 pm
Post by: MadMalkavian on November 20, 2013, 06:35:53 pm
Windows 8.1 seems to be having more quirks even than 8. Some of my company's software had to be run in compatible mode to guess what: windows 8 :I ........ gee thanks microsoft.Yeah, I still wish I was using Windows XP, but I had to switch to Windows 7 with this computer I have right now. If I ever have to switch to Windows 8 after trying to figure out how to help my friend with his problematic laptop I may just go into console gaming.
Post by: Caz on November 20, 2013, 09:17:43 pm
Sounds like a rather bourgeois frivolity, unless if you're talking about external harddrives. You essentially mean a very fancy USB stick right?Lol wut. As much as any good PC component is, I guess.
Thousand times yes, 12 second bootup from Windows 7? can't say no to that. At most 128gb is a good buy and just dedicate it for your OS.
This was pretty much the plan. I wanted to get one to put the system and mostly-used files on, but I heard there were problems with the limited write cycles etc. That was a couple years ago, though. Now they're a bit cheaper and easier to get into, I might have to get one for Christmas. :)
Post by: Tellemurius on November 20, 2013, 10:01:48 pm
Post by: Caz on November 20, 2013, 10:07:22 pm
they will die by the same rate as hard drives nowadays so its nothing new really (also all by now have built in features to prolong lifetime so nothing you got to worry), the only thing difference is the constant new iterations each year.
Cool, it's definitely time for an upgrade then. Thanks.
Post by: Alastar on November 21, 2013, 08:35:55 am
Windows is much smoother and more responsive with an SSD, boot times are also much improved (moderately if you cheat: Windows 8 closes applications, then hibernates when it claims to shut down).
Responsiveness is the big deal to me, much more powerful computers than my little ultrabook feel annoyingly jerky to me. This CAN be fixed to some extent via settings, but involves things Windows isn't really designed for.
My ageing desktop is even smoother though, and boots in ~10s anyway... despite using an old-fashioned 10,000rpm hard drive. Arch Linux, non-standard i/o scheduler optimised for desktop responsiveness, dynamically compressing everything on the hard drive, putting performance-critical stuff in RAM. (so disk performance becomes less of a bottleneck, at the expense of some additional CPU/RAM use... still frugal compared to Windows or OSX).
*
Short version: You don't need a SSD. But it's the easiest way to get a buttery smooth user experience, recommended if you're picky and don't like to tinker.
Post by: MaximumZero on November 21, 2013, 08:58:50 am
Post by: Owlbread on November 21, 2013, 02:35:37 pm
Post by: Il Palazzo on November 21, 2013, 04:32:03 pm
I think I'm getting there, but I'm stuck on this instruction:
Quote
Give your access point a private IPI just can't make sense of the text. Where do I set that private IP? On the same screen where I disable DHCP? How does it make it easier to log back to the access point? Why do I need to use another computer?
Once you've disabled DHCP, you can reconfigure the LAN interface to use a private local IP address that won't conflict with the router. It's a good idea to do this so that you can easily log back into the AP later to adjust settings. To find out what the reserved range is for your new router, you should go to another computer and visit its configuration screen. Typically Linksys and D-Link routers use a range of 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.99 for the reserved IP addresses. It is very important that the address you choose for your AP is outside the range that your new router assigns to DHCP clients. It's worth logging into the new router to check; if you get the IP wrong, it will make your network very unreliable. You'll also need to fill in a few other settings to tell your new AP how it can connect to the Internet at large--namely DNS server, default gateway, and subnet mask. If it's required, you can use your ISP's DNS servers, or simply point the AP toward 8.8.8.8, which is Google's DNS server. Your default gateway should be the new router's IP address--typically 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1. Subnet mask is typically 255.255.255.0.
If anyone can at least paraphrase the instructions in even more layman's language than that, I'd be grateful. This is the first time I have anything to do with configuring a router, so forgive me for being dense.
Post by: Owlbread on November 21, 2013, 05:38:21 pm
To be honest I really want to just build a laptop but I'm stuck in the old computer-brand world as things are at the moment.
Post by: Aklyon on November 21, 2013, 05:54:20 pm
For customizing/building a laptop, I remember dell having that as a possibility for some specific laptops a few years ago, not sure if it still happens.
Post by: jaass on November 21, 2013, 06:06:36 pm
Post by: Owlbread on November 21, 2013, 06:12:43 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on November 21, 2013, 06:16:31 pm
Hey guys, I need a bit of a helping hand. I've been following this guide(http://www.tested.com/tech/298-how-to-use-an-old-router-to-expand-your-wi-fi-network/) to extend the range of wifi provided by my landlord.What brand of router do you have? Each brand has its own 192.168.*.* page, and each one has stuff in different places.
I think I'm getting there, but I'm stuck on this instruction:QuoteGive your access point a private IPI just can't make sense of the text. Where do I set that private IP? On the same screen where I disable DHCP? How does it make it easier to log back to the access point? Why do I need to use another computer?
Once you've disabled DHCP, you can reconfigure the LAN interface to use a private local IP address that won't conflict with the router. It's a good idea to do this so that you can easily log back into the AP later to adjust settings. To find out what the reserved range is for your new router, you should go to another computer and visit its configuration screen. Typically Linksys and D-Link routers use a range of 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.99 for the reserved IP addresses. It is very important that the address you choose for your AP is outside the range that your new router assigns to DHCP clients. It's worth logging into the new router to check; if you get the IP wrong, it will make your network very unreliable. You'll also need to fill in a few other settings to tell your new AP how it can connect to the Internet at large--namely DNS server, default gateway, and subnet mask. If it's required, you can use your ISP's DNS servers, or simply point the AP toward 8.8.8.8, which is Google's DNS server. Your default gateway should be the new router's IP address--typically 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1. Subnet mask is typically 255.255.255.0.
If anyone can at least paraphrase the instructions in even more layman's language than that, I'd be grateful. This is the first time I have anything to do with configuring a router, so forgive me for being dense.
On my Netgear, it's under Advanced>Setup>LAN Setup>IP Address
Post by: Il Palazzo on November 21, 2013, 06:25:16 pm
What brand of router do you have? Each brand has its own 192.168.*.* page, and each one has stuff in different places.It's a Technicolor(192.168.1.254)
On my Netgear, it's under Advanced>Setup>LAN Setup>IP Address
Post by: MaximumZero on November 21, 2013, 06:36:43 pm
Should be Home Network>Interfaces>LocalNetwork>Configure>IPAddress/Mask, per their site.What brand of router do you have? Each brand has its own 192.168.*.* page, and each one has stuff in different places.It's a Technicolor(192.168.1.254)
On my Netgear, it's under Advanced>Setup>LAN Setup>IP Address
Post by: Il Palazzo on November 22, 2013, 04:03:42 am
Post by: Bauglir on November 23, 2013, 08:08:20 pm
I've confirmed that the devices work on other computers. Moreover, the external hard drive (which has a bootable Linux installation) boots just fine on my laptop, but not on my desktop, where I'm presented with naught but an ever-blinking text entry cursor (and no ability to enter text). The first time I tried this, I got a grub error message of some kind, but foolishly neglected to write it down. It's been unwilling to reappear, but at the time I was certain that this meant the USB port itself was functioning in some capacity, since there's no way the bootloader could've gotten far enough to throw an error otherwise. It does still recognize the existence of the hard drive before failing to boot it. Now, I'm no longer sure.
However, I feel like this can't be a straightforward hardware issue. USB ports on the opposite side of my case are nonfunctional as well, and they all function well enough for Windows to realize something's plugged in, although they're almost always Unknown Device, and it can't seem to tell when they're removed. I'm considering trying to reinstall the BIOS, but my scant knowledge of what that is tells me that this is a tremendously poor idea if I'm not sure it will fix the problem, and I'm not even 100% sure how to go about doing it.
Halp?
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 23, 2013, 08:32:26 pm
Post by: Bauglir on November 23, 2013, 10:06:08 pm
Meanwhile, my last reboot apparently bricked the OS beyond System Restore's ability to fix, which has led to the absolute stupidest trick I've ever had to pull (which is to say, I yanked the hard drive out of a handy laptop, shoved it in so that I could boot from the Linux install on that, and am now copying files over).
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 23, 2013, 10:17:25 pm
Post by: Il Palazzo on November 25, 2013, 11:44:20 am
Quote from: http://www.tested.com/tech/298-how-to-use-an-old-router-to-expand-your-wi-fi-network/
Once you've disabled DHCP, you can reconfigure the LAN interface to use a private local IP address that won't conflict with the router. It's a good idea to do this so that you can easily log back into the AP later to adjust settings. To find out what the reserved range is for your new router, you should go to another computer and visit its configuration screen. Typically Linksys and D-Link routers use a range of 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.99 for the reserved IP addresses. It is very important that the address you choose for your AP is outside the range that your new router assigns to DHCP clients. It's worth logging into the new router to check; if you get the IP wrong, it will make your network very unreliable.I don't get it. The address range is 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.253, and the factory set gateway address is 192.168.1.254, so it's already outside the reserved range, right? If I change it, I can no longer log in to the router's config page.
Should I leave it as it is? Should I change it, and if yes then to what value?
Quote
You'll also need to fill in a few other settings to tell your new AP how it can connect to the Internet at large--namely DNS server, default gateway, and subnet mask. If it's required, you can use your ISP's DNS servers, or simply point the AP toward 8.8.8.8, which is Google's DNS server. Your default gateway should be the new router's IP address--typically 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1. Subnet mask is typically 255.255.255.0.For the love of me, I can't find where I can chage these settings. They should be still on the router's config page, right?
Any help highly appreciated.
Post by: Aklyon on November 25, 2013, 11:56:10 am
As to DNS, there might be a separate config page for them.
Post by: Il Palazzo on November 25, 2013, 11:57:55 am
If you change the router's ip address, you need to login to that ip to access it, since its changed.That's what I thought. I changed it from the default 192.168.1.254 to 192.168.1.255, and couldn't log in to either address as a result. Also, I don't understand what am I doing here/why it is important.
Post by: Descan on November 25, 2013, 01:32:15 pm
I was thinking of going for great-to-excellent tiers, around there, shopping around for better price/performance ratios but using the guide as a... well, guide.
But first I gotta know if the guide is actually good? And if the kind of specifications it lists in the various tiers seem to belong.
Post by: freeformschooler on November 25, 2013, 01:42:08 pm
Can you guys tell me if this guide is good at what it's saying it's good at? (http://www.logicalincrements.com/)
I was thinking of going for great-to-excellent tiers, around there, shopping around for better price/performance ratios but using the guide as a... well, guide.
But first I gotta know if the guide is actually good? And if the kind of specifications it lists in the various tiers seem to belong.
It looks fine, but it doesn't discriminate much. When you've got an AMD HD9001 video card, the difference between 6GB and an extra $whatever for 8GB is not so big. All depends on what you're going to be using the computer for.
Also, the higher tiers are primarily NVidia cards which, while awesome, are often equivalent to some AMD card or other at a lower price (you make up the cost in driver configuration woes).
Post by: Descan on November 25, 2013, 01:47:46 pm
Other than that, it's mostly Youtube, forum browsing, and
Post by: gimlet on November 25, 2013, 08:07:26 pm
Well, shit. I suppose I'm looking at buying a new case, then? It'll be a bitch to move everything over, but I suppose it'll at least be relatively cheap, as far as computer parts go.
Meanwhile, my last reboot apparently bricked the OS beyond System Restore's ability to fix, which has led to the absolute stupidest trick I've ever had to pull (which is to say, I yanked the hard drive out of a handy laptop, shoved it in so that I could boot from the Linux install on that, and am now copying files over).
Well, the usb ports directly on the motherboard might still work, inconveniently located on the back of the case though. If they do, a ghetto solution would be to buy a couple of cheap usb extension cables (monoprice.com, or look for ones on newegg with free shipping unless you're ordering other stuff),snake them around the front, and plug stuff into those. If you buy something like a hub it's starting to approach the cost of a new case though.
And #2 is a GREAT reason to keep a Live Linux on a usb stick around, even an ordinary distro has lots of tools, or something with a bit more like System Rescue CD. Or something like Ultimate Boot CD or Hiren's Utilities, that you can stick the various manufacterer's DOS based utilities on too... Having those available has made some potentially time-sucking problems much less painful.
Post by: Sensei on November 29, 2013, 01:40:25 am
Any idea what could possibly be causing this? I suspect it's maybe related to the laptop's tendency to want to use the intel graphics, but I'm not sure how that could just be happening with certain monitors. I'm pretty stumped.
Post by: gigaraptor487 on November 29, 2013, 01:36:47 pm
Just a few guesses, since it could be dozens of things.
Post by: Bauglir on November 30, 2013, 02:16:03 am
And #2 is a GREAT reason to keep a Live Linux on a usb stick around, even an ordinary distro has lots of tools, or something with a bit more like System Rescue CD. Or something like Ultimate Boot CD or Hiren's Utilities, that you can stick the various manufacterer's DOS based utilities on too... Having those available has made some potentially time-sucking problems much less painful.I want you to think about what my problem was, and how it would affect my ability to use a flash drive. Hint: I plugged the laptop hard drive into the SATA cables I have in the desktop.
I actually keep a couple of those things around for exactly that reason.
Post by: gimlet on November 30, 2013, 08:00:44 am
Post by: Sappho on November 30, 2013, 11:23:48 am
ARG I'm getting very frustrated. Some background process on my Windows 7 machine is constantly stealing focus from whatever I'm using. This only just started happening yesterday, which happens to be the first time I actually restarted the computer in a long while. So something took effect at restart that I now can't seem to track down. Even while I've been typing this, the window has lost focus THREE TIMES and I had to re-focus on the text box to keep writing.
I have tried to use Process Explorer to find the culprit using some instructions I found online, but I couldn't find anything. I can't play games, I can't type, I can't do anything. Can someone please help me? How the hell do I figure out which program is doing this so I can kill it?
ARGH that's about ten times now, I'm going to throw this fucking thing against the wall! Please help me!
I can't believe this. It's happening AGAIN. I have completely disabled Windows Update and it's not even running as a background process. I have disabled everything except system programs on startup. I've tried using Process Manager again, watching for any programs opening or closing when focus gets stolen, but nothing. There's NOTHING there. I'm at my wits' end.
The only thing I can possibly think of that might be messing around with things is McAfee Security Center, but that's been on here since I got the computer a year and a half ago, and it's never caused a problem. Should I get rid of it? What else could it possibly be? The only programs I've installed are games, and they're all DRM-free ones from GOG and Humble Bundles. I can't imagine any of those are messing with my computer...
Post by: Telgin on November 30, 2013, 02:15:51 pm
Anyway, the first step I'd take in diagnosing this problem is to restart the computer in safe mode. If it still happens in safe mode, then that indicates that something is wrong with the OS. Likely a virus if it is. If it doesn't happen in safe mode, then that would definitely indicate a wayward program installed somewhere, also likely a virus, that is causing it.
You can check what programs are set to start by running the program msconfig from the Run dialog (Windows Key + R), then click the Startup tab. If you see anything listed under your user's directory, it's automatically suspicious. Doubly so if it's got a seemingly randomly generated name. You can try disabling some programs from here and restarting to see if that makes it stop. If you're unlucky and can't fix it that way, then running something like Spybot Search and Destroy or another dedicated anti-malware program might help locate it.
Post by: Sappho on November 30, 2013, 02:36:46 pm
I have already gone into msconfig and looked through the list of startup programs. Nothing in the user directory. I've already disabled everything except system programs. Basically, if it's not from Dell, Microsoft, Intel, Realtek (for audio), Apple (for Quicktime), or Cypress (for my trackpad), it's disabled. I've just disabled McAfee as well. I've been wanting to just get rid of it for ages, but the computer came with a year's premium subscription, and I figured it can't hurt to leave it on until it expires.
It's actually not happening very much at the moment. Only every now and then. It was happening a lot earlier, but it seems to have slowed down considerably. Of course, I did close a whole bunch of programs, so I might have gotten the main culprit. (On the other hand, it is still happening sometimes - does that mean there are TWO things doing this???) I do recall that one of the programs was an Adobe updater - it wouldn't surprise me if that was the problem. I've disabled all Adobe software at startup, but somehow it always seems to get opened eventually and it wants to update.
(http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx3bcfrUxE1r9pgsuo1_500.png) (http://honestslogans.com/post/15101631780/adobeacrobat)
Also, the first time this happened, I completely disabled Windows Updater. Not only was it not to update automatically, but I set it to not even check for updates at all, ever. I got an annoying red X in my tray, but it was worth it, because that seemed to stop the focus-stealing for a while. Today, I turned on my computer and... the red X was gone. And updater had mysteriously opened itself, and I had a notification that new updates were downloaded and ready to install. What the HELL is that about? (I turned it off again, but somehow I doubt it will stay off.)
Okay, so as soon as I figure out how to start into safe mode, I'll try that.
EDIT: Wow. Turns out it's still F8, after all these years. Everything seemed OK in safe mode, so that's a relief. About to do a malware scan, but I've already run them a few times since this started happening, so I don't expect to find anything. It seems likely that it's just some random program trying to do automatic updates even though the first thing I do on every program I install is DISABLE automatic updates. We live in an age where software does whatever the hell it wants to, giving only passing lip-service to ideas such as user controls and options. Everything is constantly talking to its mommies and daddies, delivering all the info they ask for, adding more and more crap to your computer that you never wanted to begin with...
Worth noting is that even in safe mode, McAfee still ran on startup. I disabled it in msconfig, but it seems to run independently of the regular startup procedure. I have no idea what the deal is with that, or how to stop it. Maybe I should just uninstall it completely. If it lets me...
EDIT2: Spybot Search & Destroy didn't find anything but tracking cookies, although the scan only took about 3 seconds, so I don't think it was scanning very much. I'll fiddle with it, or get another program to scan the whole computer. I'd rather not go through a McAfee scan, since those take hours and hog the whole system until they're done... Maybe overnight, if I don't find a better option.
EDIT3: HouseCall did a proper scan, no threats found. I'll leave it at that for now. It hasn't happened since the last restart. Maybe it was just Adobe or something. Fingers crossed that it doesn't start up again...
Post by: MaximumZero on December 01, 2013, 12:52:54 am
Post by: Sappho on December 01, 2013, 03:44:09 am
Did you try the registry edit I posted last time? Also, get ahold of MalwareBytes if you can. It's wonderful.
I don't know how to registry edit, and last time it stopped, so I didn't get as far as trying that. If it happens again, though, I'll give it a try.
It's funny, every time something goes wrong on my computer I get recommendations for antivirus and antimalware software, but never once has any of those things actually found anything. The problem has always been something wrong with Windows itself, or a non-virus program just acting funny. In fact, I don't think I've had a single virus or malware problem in the 5 years since I said goodbye to my last desktop computer (when I moved to Europe), and simultaneously started using Firefox with NoScript for all untrusted web sites.
Post by: MaximumZero on December 01, 2013, 11:39:31 am
In the right window, double click ForegroundLockTimeout. In the box that pops up, change whatever number to 20000. Close everything, and bask in the glory of your fixed computer.
Post by: GreatWyrmGold on December 04, 2013, 08:47:48 am
For reference, my OS is Windows 8.1. Or perhaps what the most recent one is, I don't actually pay that much attention to that sort of stuff.Someone thought it was malware, and that I should just uninstall Chrome, run malwarebytes, and reinstall. This leads to two questions: Is this probable, and is malwarebytes safe? (Probably, but it doesn't hurt to check...)
I use Google Chrome, and it usually serves me well. Last night, though, it reloaded after a crash...as some kind of app instead of the windowed program it normally is. All the tabs from all my windows were in one "window," which was...inconvenient. It also made quickly switching between pages a difficult task.
This morning, searching for a solution, I discovered an option that said "Relaunch Chrome on the desktop," and clicked it. The app closed, and...nothing. I reopened Chrome, got a blank page. Not even a "Your last session ended improperly. Would you like to get all those tabs back, some of which you were working on something in and would be saved if Chrome was working like it has been ever since you started using it?" kind of message.
So. Two questions.
1. How do I get Chrome back to the desktop mode?
2. Can I get those tabs back? If so, how?
Post by: MaximumZero on December 04, 2013, 08:51:28 am
Post by: GreatWyrmGold on December 04, 2013, 10:15:06 am
Post by: gimlet on December 04, 2013, 02:45:15 pm
Oh, if you haven't done much since you lost the tabs, they MAY be in the Last Session/Last Tabs file - I've copied those over Current Session/Current Tabs in the past to get 'em back...
I should install that session manager thing, the last time I looked there weren't any great ones but that one sounds promising.
Post by: Jelle on December 06, 2013, 09:30:02 am
It had been bluescreening on nonpaged area errors a lot so I took a look wether something was wrong with my ram and sure enough one of them had significant dust build up. Decided I should clean it up and see if that's what had been causing the problems. Took both out and cleaned the dust off, along with the video card and cpu fan and heatsink, wich also had significant dust buildup.
However after reinserting all my desktop would no longer boot. Gave a three long beep error on post, wich I'm failry certain is a memory problem. After removing and inserting my ram a couple more times it stopped giving an error message but would not start up at all, the shutting down and restarting every two to three seconds. It did manage to start up and give the option to boot further once, but I neglected to check the information on screen.
Removed all the power cords from the mobo and removed the battery to try and reset bios or something (I have no idea how to do this really) but now it's back to the same error on post. Not sure what to try next. Could be that both of my two sticks of ram died but it seems unlikely. I don't have any spare ram to try with. Video card can't be it either, it fails to boot using the in built one to. Advice on how to proceed?
Post by: Tellemurius on December 06, 2013, 01:11:08 pm
Hardware problem with my desktop.Try putting only one memory stick in at a time that way you can determine if they did crapped out.
It had been bluescreening on nonpaged area errors a lot so I took a look wether something was wrong with my ram and sure enough one of them had significant dust build up. Decided I should clean it up and see if that's what had been causing the problems. Took both out and cleaned the dust off, along with the video card and cpu fan and heatsink, wich also had significant dust buildup.
However after reinserting all my desktop would no longer boot. Gave a three long beep error on post, wich I'm failry certain is a memory problem. After removing and inserting my ram a couple more times it stopped giving an error message but would not start up at all, the shutting down and restarting every two to three seconds. It did manage to start up and give the option to boot further once, but I neglected to check the information on screen.
Removed all the power cords from the mobo and removed the battery to try and reset bios or something (I have no idea how to do this really) but now it's back to the same error on post. Not sure what to try next. Could be that both of my two sticks of ram died but it seems unlikely. I don't have any spare ram to try with. Video card can't be it either, it fails to boot using the in built one to. Advice on how to proceed?
Post by: Jelle on December 06, 2013, 05:46:37 pm
Try putting only one memory stick in at a time that way you can determine if they did crapped out.Tried this but results were very inconsistent. Wether or not it failed at post seemed random regardless is wich one or both I used.
Post by: Tellemurius on December 07, 2013, 01:58:40 am
Next thing to try is find someone else's ram and swap it, truly then you can either figure out your ram is crap or the motherboard is dying.Try putting only one memory stick in at a time that way you can determine if they did crapped out.Tried this but results were very inconsistent. Wether or not it failed at post seemed random regardless is wich one or both I used.
Post by: Jelle on December 07, 2013, 04:37:07 am
Seems to be starting up now, see what it does.
Also looking back on my previous posts, damn so many typos. That's what you get when the hands can't keep up with the thougths I suppose. :-X
Edit: Huzzah posting from desktop! Now to see if it still crashes.
Post by: Caz on December 07, 2013, 10:08:59 am
Solved the problem it seems, I just wasn't inserting the ram modules propperly. Been to long since I opened 'er up, I forgot you really need to insert those things tight.
Seems to be starting up now, see what it does.
Also looking back on my previous posts, damn so many typos. That's what you get when the hands can't keep up with the thougths I suppose. :-X
Edit: Huzzah posting from desktop! Now to see if it still crashes.
There should be two plastic clips that click into place over the corners of the ram chip if it's inserted correctly. Looks like you fixed it though. :)
Post by: NullForceOmega on December 11, 2013, 05:13:54 pm
approx. 5 months ago I moved from southwest Michigan to central Michigan (Lansing/East Lansing), and purchased a wireless adaptor for my PC. We are currently using AT&T (no alternative, don't even ask) as our service provider, for two months I had no problems with the network, connection, download/upload speed, everything ran fine. Early last month my system was infected by malware, first crypto-locker (crushed by Malware Bytes, lost some files tho'), then by the FBI Moneypak virus (new variant, really effed things up bad), after intensive work the virus was removed completely. The only other major change during this period was upgrading from the free version of Malware to the full version (with active protection). There are four additional computers in the household, they have NO difficulty with the network (I am dead serious, I can be lagging to hell and my roomate's systems are all running perfectly). I have attempted repositioning the computer, I have installed the latest drivers (again dead certain), I have tried literally every single thing I can think of and NOTHING is improving the latentcy. I am using a TP-LINK TL-WN851ND adaptor, it worked before, it does not work now. The part is inexpensive, and I can likely replace it without difficulty, but I'd like to see if anyone can help me figure out what's up first.
Holy sh*t EDIT: And literally within a few hours of posting I find the answer myself, when Malwarebytes performed a system restoration it reset all of my various adjustments to install state, of all the possible things this could have been it turns out that the issue was Windows automatically shutting down the device when it had low load. TLDR: EFF you Windows.
Post by: foil on December 12, 2013, 06:48:39 am
It will keep you clear of bad websites and blocking ads will stop the biggest route to infection out there atm.
Post by: jaass on December 13, 2013, 04:40:57 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on December 14, 2013, 12:48:33 am
Okay guys, this is a strange problem with my wireless internet, I'm going to be as detailed as I can be.Huzzah, another Michiganite!
Michigan
Post by: miauw62 on December 14, 2013, 05:18:45 am
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html
I can also say that MBAM is incredibly reliable and useful. I recommend having an installer laying around or just having it installed. Doesn't take up anything but disk space and it may save your ass one day.
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 28, 2014, 06:19:00 pm
Post by: Telgin on January 28, 2014, 06:27:32 pm
On the other hand, it probably has a repair partition and some method of resetting it to factory condition. Sometimes that's an option during boot up, but other times it's handled through a utility that came installed with the computer somewhere.
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 28, 2014, 06:51:05 pm
Is there any way to determine if it's an OEM?
Post by: Tellemurius on January 28, 2014, 07:04:22 pm
Windows 7 itself the keys were much easier to handle, both OEM and Retail used the same media to install but technically OEM is only allowed one install and Retail is allowed a lifetime of activation. If you had problems with either keys, Microsoft will only help activate retail keys, for those with OEMs that can be easily remedied by notifying the microsoft rep that you had a mobo replacement and usually they just activate it for you.
Post by: foil on January 29, 2014, 11:49:43 am
Ive used the same Win 7 SP1 iso for years in many computers needing the crapware and bloat removed you get on new pc's, some activate straight away and some need over the phone activated tho all have worked.
Download the correct iso from here and burn it to disc.
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/14709-Windows-7-Digital-River-direct-links-Multiple-Languages-X86-amp-X64/page60
Post by: Sensei on January 30, 2014, 06:48:51 pm
I started out a thread a while ago for this, but since I'm down to one last part choice I figured I'd just ask here. My stated objective is to get a computer that can smoothly run (40 FPS) pretty much all non-crysis games that are out right now at least at 1280x1024, as cheaply as possible, for my girlfriend, with 1920x1080 capability being a bonus.
So far I've got:
-MicroATX case w/two fans
-530W Rosewill PSU (enough for Intel or AMD CPU)
-8GB DDR3 RAM
-Radeon HD 7790
-HDD and ODD from another computer
So for reference, I've spent about $250 so far with some careful shopping.
Originally I had decided a Pentium G2130 (http://tinyurl.com/lvf7eos) dual-core processor would do nicely along with a cheap ASRock B75 mobo. Using the deal I found on the processor, the pair would come to $130 with shipping. However, browsing around benchmarks, I found that Tomb Raider (one game she plays a lot) dropped low enough in FPS to be difficult to play (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ivy-bridge-wolfdale-yorkfield-comparison,3487-16.html) in some spots with a similar processor, the G2020. As much as I like the notion of only spending $130 on the CPU/mobo, I can probably afford to spend more, but most CPUs aren't on sale like the G2130 I found. Vexingly, I can't seem to find good Tomb Raider benchmarks (it seems to be the most CPU-limited game I'm looking at by far) for the G2130 or a lot of the other CPUs I might be looking at.
So, given that, I'm trying to decide what I should do here:
-Stop worrying about the G2130, which I'd do if I knew it could handle Tomb Raider with some settings turned down (but being a CPU problem I doubt that)
-Get an OC'able processor (not sure what to choose here, and I'm limited by the 530w PSU and Micro-ATX case)
-Consider AMD cards, such as the A4 760k or FX-4130 (not sure how much better these are?)
-Get a more expensive Intel CPU, like the i3-3220 or i3-4130
-I'm not too worried about sockets, but I do wonder if the FM2 socket is worth it, being that it seems to be mostly APUs
So yeah, mobo+cpu combos in the $130-200 range. Recommend me some. Target is "always above 40FPS on Tomb Raider", although I don't really know if that should scale with any in-game settings.
Post by: jaass on January 30, 2014, 07:43:10 pm
Edit:
Here is http://pcpartpicker.com/ (http://pcpartpicker.com/).
Post by: Sensei on January 30, 2014, 08:02:28 pm
That power supply is really cutting it close if you are going to overclock a CPU. Don't get a dual-core you will be replacing that in a couple of years since Quad-Cores are becoming more standard in the industry now. Avoid AMD CPUs they are kind of crap for gaming, get a Intel CPU that is around 3.0 GHz and you should be able to run most games today.The PC Part Picker link isn't a lot of help. I'm mostly interested if anyone has any of the CPUs I'm looking at or can make a good suggestion from experience. My options are pretty much either "quad core" or "intel", not both, as quad core intels start at $180 w/o mobo. I also feel pretty weird spending twice as much on the CPU as the graphics card for a gaming computer.
Edit:
Here is http://pcpartpicker.com/ (http://pcpartpicker.com/).
Post by: MaximumZero on January 30, 2014, 09:52:02 pm
Avoid AMD CPUs they are kind of crap for gaming...Er, my PhenomIIx6 1045T Black Edition paired with a Radeon HD 7850 would beg to differ. The setup isn't terribly overkill, but I can play pretty much everything I want to on Max graphics with no problem (unless I toss a hundred or so rockets at KSP, and that's the physics engine, not the rig.)
Something like this mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128651) and this processor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113291) should do the trick just fine, although they combine to be at the top of your budget.
Post by: Tellemurius on January 30, 2014, 10:43:26 pm
no god no one touch that Zambezi, they were noted to be even horrible compared to the 1045T :/Avoid AMD CPUs they are kind of crap for gaming...Er, my PhenomIIx6 1045T Black Edition paired with a Radeon HD 7850 would beg to differ. The setup isn't terribly overkill, but I can play pretty much everything I want to on Max graphics with no problem (unless I toss a hundred or so rockets at KSP, and that's the physics engine, not the rig.)
Something like this mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128651) and this processor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113291) should do the trick just fine, although they combine to be at the top of your budget.
pay the extra 50 for a 8320, at least get your 8 cores out of this.
Post by: Sensei on January 31, 2014, 01:33:23 am
no god no one touch that Zambezi, they were noted to be even horrible compared to the 1045T :/If Zambezi is horrible, I might consider the FX-4300 which has Vishera architecture and is within my budget ($102 at outletpc). I'm not even considering eight cores- remember, this is a budget gaming PC. That means cheap, and not video editing. Quad core is ample for me.
pay the extra 50 for a 8320, at least get your 8 cores out of this.
Still, I'm not sure if it's worth it compared to a comparable-priced i3. AMD users also often cite the ease of overclocking, which my PSU gives me limited room for.
Edit: I have another question, all the AM3+ motherboards say they support 1600mhz RAM as an overclock, and not being supported by default. Would I have to fiddle with things/see increased power requirements to take full advantage of the RAM I already have, which is 1600mhz?
Post by: MaximumZero on January 31, 2014, 07:37:00 am
Post by: jaass on February 01, 2014, 01:29:05 am
Edit: I have another question, all the AM3+ motherboards say they support 1600mhz RAM as an overclock, and not being supported by default. Would I have to fiddle with things/see increased power requirements to take full advantage of the RAM I already have, which is 1600mhz?
There is really no point of overclocking RAM it might give you tiny FPS boost but all it really does is create more heat.
Post by: Sappho on February 01, 2014, 04:00:38 am
So is there a way to do it? An extension, a setting, anything? I use Chrome for email, tumblr, Bay12, and a few other things. I use Firefox for any sites I don't fully trust, with NoScript to block all scripts I don't explicitly authorize. I have a feeling it would be easier to stop gifs on Firefox than Chrome, but it's SO SLOW when I try to do stuff like loading email and tumblr on it.
Post by: Descan on February 01, 2014, 04:03:05 am
Post by: Sappho on February 01, 2014, 04:12:32 am
Post by: Descan on February 01, 2014, 04:18:13 am
Can't really help you with the log-in thing, though. There are some extensions where you just drag them in to your extensions page and they install, not through the chrome store, but I don't know if this one is one of those, if it has another website that lets you download the extension directly.
Post by: Sappho on February 01, 2014, 04:58:33 am
EDIT: Aha, it's in the "updates" part of the description, that's why I didn't see it. Also, it appears I can, in fact, enable it without signing in to Chrome. Unfortunately, it seems that "stopping" the GIF in this case means "removing the image completely." Where there used to be animated GIFs, there are now just blank spaces. I want to see the images, but only one frame of them... I guess I'm out of luck there.
Post by: MaximumZero on February 01, 2014, 12:06:15 pm
In Firefox, you have to go to the about:config, and change image.animation_mode to "none".
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Chrome has this functionality yet.
Post by: Sensei on February 05, 2014, 06:36:03 pm
As an upgrade for an obscenely old computer, he got a Radeon HD 6450 with no fan. The latest drivers are in use. It regularly crashes, triggering a VPU reset. This rudely interrupts games and (less often) regular activity.
So far, we've determined:
-The latest drivers are installed (and uninstalled, and reinstalled, and checked for corruption, and reinstalled again)
-The card is not too hot, GPU-Z says it only gets up to 43C
-Disabling VPU reset didn't fix anything
-The card is not overclocked
-The card is probably not underpowered, as it has about a 30watt TDP, which is lower than that of the previously installed Nvidia 8400GS. A previous attempt to overclock the card definitely underpowered it, as green artifacts were visible on screen, a symptom which does not occur in the regular crashes (it just freezes followed by a VPU reset).
-Downclocking the card from 625 MHZ to 550 MHZ and VRAM from 600 MHZ to 550 MHZ didn't help
-Unfortunately, the card is just a few days past the one month amazon return period
-Tried turning it off and on again
Other info:
Windows XP
320 Watt PSU, old, but ran a slightly higher TDP GPU okay earlier
Weird Dell motherboard from 2003 or something
Pentium 4 CPU
Are there any other good fixes for this issue that anybody knows about? Is the hardware just probably faulty?
Post by: Lightningfalcon on February 05, 2014, 06:48:23 pm
Post by: foil on February 05, 2014, 07:36:39 pm
How do you check if a graphics card is compatible with a computer setup?
Mostly 3 things.
Check the slot is compatible, agp, pci express etc etc..
You have a big enough power supply to power it, will be listed on a sticker on it.
Make sure it will fit in the case if getting a huge card or have a tiny case.
Also although it wont affect the thing working, its worth checking the card isnt overkill. No point sticking a $700 card into a $50 2005 cpu computer or etc etc as a weak cpu would never be able to feed a huge card properly and will end up not being used to full potential.
Post by: Sensei on February 05, 2014, 07:56:53 pm
How do you check if a graphics card is compatible with a computer setup?Almost all graphics cards use PCIe, which should be on your motherboard unless it's incredibly old or a specialized workstation motherboard. You'll also need to be sure you have enough power. It's pretty uncommon for a graphics card to not even work with a given PC.
Of course, if your graphics card is way more powerful than your CPU, like Foil said, it will be bottlenecked and you won't get your money's worth out of it.
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 05, 2014, 08:03:41 pm
Post by: gimlet on February 05, 2014, 10:06:54 pm
Post by: Sensei on February 06, 2014, 01:00:31 am
Just to make SURE it's not heat, you might try blowing a big fan on the card/motherboard while you're testing it - box fans are kinda handy for this although cyclone fans seem to move more air. Remember the temperature reported is only where the temperature sensor is, and there could be another component on the card overheating. Although at 43C that's not TOO likely, it's one of the easiest things to try...Tried running it with the case open and a desk fan blowing on the card, didn't seem to help whatsoever.
Post by: gimlet on February 06, 2014, 03:09:47 am
HD 6450 requires:
Minimum 1GB of system memory - presume you have at least this much?
pci-e x16 slot - the mobo slot *is* x16 right? It'd be unusual if it wasn't, but who knows with Dell...
and recommends:
400 Watt or greater power supply recommended - although you had a higher power requirement card work, so your PSU PROBABLY has enough power. But, if it's the one that came with the PC it could be an older ATX level or something so it can't be ruled out completely. If nothing else makes any difference you could TRY it with a higher rated PSU if you have access to one...
Also it is pcie version 2.1. The wiki article on pci-e http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express says about pcie version 2.1: "Unfortunately, the increase in power from the slot breaks backward compatibility between PCI Express 2.1 cards and some older motherboards with 1.0/1.0a, but most motherboards with PCI Express 1.1 connectors are provided with a BIOS update by their manufacturers through utilities to support backward compatibility of cards with PCIe 2.1." - so you might want to look for any bios updates available for your motherboard. Now the older the motherboard, the hairier updating the bios was, and having a power glitch or something interrupt the process can make the motherboard unbootable which is a colossal pain in the ass, so I personally almost never update bios except on brand new pc's where there's not much at risk, or unless the bios update looks like it's really really required to fix something. Still, the other card was presumably drawing MORE power thru this same pci-e slot so even this doesn't sound so likely.
One tip I ran across researching the card said "go into the video driver control panel and click "reset to default" - it apparently changes some setting you can't affect through the gui" - I'd probably try that first just 'cause it's the easiest and looks the least risky...
Also you do have the latest Directx installed? If nothing else helps you might try uninstalling and re-installing Directx to make absolutely sure...
And, as usual, it'd be worth running a memory diagnostic overnight just to rule that out - it can be the cause of many a flaky problem. Burn memtest86 to a bootable USB or a CD and let it run overnight...
Post by: Sensei on February 06, 2014, 04:17:09 am
*I know because had to reinstall it after the hard drive crashed. What a nightmare getting all the updates on...
Post by: hachnslay on February 13, 2014, 12:06:18 pm
I know most of them, but it is a major inconvenience, since i am trying to start a forum game.
Browser: Google Chrome
Anybody got a simple solution for it?
Post by: Guardian G.I. on March 01, 2014, 03:10:58 pm
What's wrong? The operating system works fine and doesn't freeze.
Post by: Telgin on March 01, 2014, 08:11:26 pm
Do you really need to do something complicated in the BIOS that this is preventing? If there's a newer version of the BIOS you could try flashing it, but I really wouldn't unless you need to. There's always a small risk of bricking the motherboard when you try that.
Post by: MaximumZero on March 01, 2014, 09:03:23 pm
One of my computers has a problem - if I enter BIOS (pressing Del during PC startup) and wait for a couple of minutes, the monitor automatically turns goes into energy saving mode and the computer completely freezes - it doesn't respond to keyboard commands and reset or power buttons. After turning the monitor off and on, it displays the message "No video input". The only way to break it out of that state is pulling the power plug out of the socket.If there are multiple video card slots, try the one for onboard? It may be defaulting to that for some reason. I mean, don't hold your breath for a fix, but hey.
What's wrong? The operating system works fine and doesn't freeze.
3 or 4 Updates ago the buttons that insert BBC in the "Post Reply" screen stopped working.Check your Java settings?
I know most of them, but it is a major inconvenience, since i am trying to start a forum game.
Browser: Google Chrome
Anybody got a simple solution for it?
Post by: Sappho on March 06, 2014, 11:41:59 am
Post by: Aklyon on March 06, 2014, 11:45:50 am
Post by: Anvilfolk on March 06, 2014, 12:39:30 pm
Especially if they're image PDFs rather than actual text PDFs. Good luck though!
Post by: Sappho on March 06, 2014, 01:41:04 pm
Post by: XXSockXX on March 06, 2014, 01:50:38 pm
Post by: zubb2 on March 07, 2014, 04:16:52 pm
Currently got it hooked to my massive flat throught the hdmi out port. This is the model with the rareish hdmi in port that can be used to use the laptop as a monitor by
an xbox lets say.
Short of sawing the monitor off and taping a small flat to it, what do I do to fix it.
Use tiny words.
EDIT: I used device manager and the stock software auto updated from the web.
Also I restarted the thing using my flat as the monitor and the stock laptop monitor works now.
I work on computers by yelling at them and hoping they work as well as many questions, I think it just needed to reset or something after being updated cause it works now.
Thanks anyway.
This is a good thread.
Post by: Tellemurius on March 07, 2014, 04:25:59 pm
Post by: Lightningfalcon on March 07, 2014, 09:04:10 pm
What do you need to connect a computer to a wireless network, exactly? There is already a router set up, so all I need is something to connect to it.
Post by: Aklyon on March 07, 2014, 09:17:54 pm
My computer is finally working after have to have TWO bad parts sent back and replaced(and I think the RAM is bad too but I haven't checked yet). So, question....Wireless card or USB dongle. Or the wireless parts inside of laptops.
What do you need to connect a computer to a wireless network, exactly? There is already a router set up, so all I need is something to connect to it.
Post by: zubb2 on March 07, 2014, 10:22:48 pm
A restart fixes it, but I have to plug it into the flat to do that.
Again what I did was go to device manager and I auto updated the radeon graphics card 6870 HD I think.
How I fix?
Post by: Aklyon on March 08, 2014, 12:57:18 am
Post by: Kadzar on March 08, 2014, 04:00:59 pm
Lately I've been noticing my laptop's fan runs a lot when I watch videos on it for extended lengths of time. I've had it for a bit more than a year, I think, in a household with many pets, so I figured it could probably use some cleaning. Problem is I've never used compressed air to clean out a computer before.
I picked up some Maxell Blast Away Multi-Purpose Cleaner (http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/maxell-blast-away-multi-purpose-duster/ID=prod3373991-product) since it came up in a search for compressed air and it was something I could pick up without having to travel out of town. After getting it trying it out on a table and being shocked by liquid coming out of it (which seems to be condensed water vapor or something which goes away after spraying it a bit and which the directions did actually warn about), I got a bit paranoid about using it.
I've sprayed the table to see if it develops a sticky residue like I read about in a review that may not have even been for this particular product which I can't find anymore and could just have been caused by incompetence on the part of the reviewer. The directions on the can say not to use it on camera lenses; does that mean it leaves a residue or are they maybe just sensitive to being dislodged by strong blasts of air? I don't know. It says it contains a bitterant; could that cause problems? Why do they even need to put a bitterant in the thing if they make me show my i.d. when I buy it? Is that the sort of America we really want to live in?
So, yeah, I'm a bit anxious about this whole canned air thing, since this is the only computer I own and I don't want to accidentally void my warranty or possibly do something worse. Does anyone know anything about the product I intend to use or can recommend another one highly enough that it would be worth travelling and spending more money to get something better? (If it can't be purchased at something like Walmart or Target or whatever, it's likely going to take me at least 45 minutes to get there, and I don't personally have access to any sort of online monies, so it better be very much worth my while to do so.) And any tips about the actual use of canned air would likely be appreciated.
Post by: MaximumZero on March 08, 2014, 04:21:05 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 08, 2014, 07:20:10 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on March 09, 2014, 09:24:59 am
Post by: Aklyon on March 09, 2014, 09:28:00 am
Before you open any case, you should should be shutting down the computer. And unplugging it. And waiting a few minutes before you touch anything. And grounding yourself first.Taking a look before you touch things doesn't hurt either.
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 09, 2014, 02:34:27 pm
Before you open any case, you should should be shutting down the computer. And unplugging it. And waiting a few minutes before you touch anything. And grounding yourself first.Of course. I was referring to the air from the can spinning the blades, not the fan being on.
Post by: MaximumZero on March 09, 2014, 03:19:18 pm
Absolutely. Not really as much of an issue if you just knock the heat sinks out, though.Before you open any case, you should should be shutting down the computer. And unplugging it. And waiting a few minutes before you touch anything. And grounding yourself first.Of course. I was referring to the air from the can spinning the blades, not the fan being on.
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 09, 2014, 03:20:41 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on March 09, 2014, 08:06:54 pm
Post by: gigaraptor487 on March 24, 2014, 07:36:17 am
I have a slight dilemma with accessing my SVN from school. I have established that they seem to have blocked the ssh and telnet ports, however it would be nice to work on my projects and break and lunch as we have access to computers then rather than placing it on a USB.
Any ideas?
Post by: Tellemurius on March 24, 2014, 11:17:33 am
Hello,Does FTP still work?
I have a slight dilemma with accessing my SVN from school. I have established that they seem to have blocked the ssh and telnet ports, however it would be nice to work on my projects and break and lunch as we have access to computers then rather than placing it on a USB.
Any ideas?
Post by: Lightningfalcon on April 01, 2014, 05:11:22 pm
EDIT: I've been able to get the sound working on my earphones. Still can't get sound anywhere else. Also, I am using a TV for both my audio and my video, so that might possibly be part of the problem.
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 01, 2014, 07:07:47 pm
On my new computer I am unable to get the sound to work. My current setup is a DVI to VGA cord for the video. For audio I have some 3.5mm cable to the red/white cable adapter. I installed the audio drivers but that still doesn't work. My graphics card has a mini HDMI port. Would a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable carry sound and video?
EDIT: I've been able to get the sound working on my earphones. Still can't get sound anywhere else. Also, I am using a TV for both my audio and my video, so that might possibly be part of the problem.
Your computer is probably set to use the HDMI (which will carry sound and video) as the default sound device. I'm not sure what OS you're running, but on Windows 7 you change this by going to the control panel, picking "sound," then right clicking on "speakers" to "set as default device". Win8 is probably similar.
Post by: Tellemurius on April 02, 2014, 09:52:47 am
Post by: Lightningfalcon on April 02, 2014, 12:15:48 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on April 02, 2014, 12:51:42 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 02, 2014, 03:53:09 pm
I managed to hook up speakers that I "borrowed" from my dads computer, and that worked. The problem is probally with hooking it up to a TV.
Are you sure that you're putting the audio into the correct input on the TV? Those things are often horribly labeled.
Post by: Lightningfalcon on April 02, 2014, 08:35:41 pm
The only thing I haven't tried is putting the white cords in the red slots and the red cords in the white slots. I have four different sets that I can plug it into, so that was something I spent a bit of time on.I managed to hook up speakers that I "borrowed" from my dads computer, and that worked. The problem is probally with hooking it up to a TV.
Are you sure that you're putting the audio into the correct input on the TV? Those things are often horribly labeled.
i had the same issue like this days ago, your graphics card has to be able to see the hdmi device as a tv else it wont output audio.What settings would I need to use to do that?
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 02, 2014, 08:44:38 pm
Post by: Lightningfalcon on April 02, 2014, 08:49:45 pm
Are you sure that your 1/8th" to RCA works? Those can be a pain in the ass to deal with, and you're much better off just using HDMI.No idea. I'm planning on getting a mini-HDMI to HDMI cord tomorrow, and until then I'm using a set of regular speakers.
Post by: Tellemurius on April 02, 2014, 09:04:56 pm
honestly i do not remember, all of my stuff detects automatically so im assuming it reads off the digital board.The only thing I haven't tried is putting the white cords in the red slots and the red cords in the white slots. I have four different sets that I can plug it into, so that was something I spent a bit of time on.I managed to hook up speakers that I "borrowed" from my dads computer, and that worked. The problem is probally with hooking it up to a TV.
Are you sure that you're putting the audio into the correct input on the TV? Those things are often horribly labeled.i had the same issue like this days ago, your graphics card has to be able to see the hdmi device as a tv else it wont output audio.What settings would I need to use to do that?
Post by: Skyrunner on April 04, 2014, 11:15:37 am
So when I change user to ZNC from skyrunner (who was the original admin on the Linux Ubuntu machine), the pretty green text and directory information all disappears. Does anyone know how to make it come back? :(
Post by: Alastar on April 04, 2014, 11:43:00 am
If you want to look at this in detail, I recommend using the Arch Wiki entry for the relevant shell (this should work for pretty much any *nix, Arch is a somewhat geeky Linux distro known for its good documentation), then go to the manpages of the commands mentioned there that apply to your case.
If you just want to set it up like skyrunner, copy their .bashrc or .zshrc into your home directory.
Post by: Kilojoule Proton on April 05, 2014, 02:47:12 am
Is this a placebo and a post hoc fallacy or does it have some possibility of actually maintaining the connection?
Post by: SharpKris on April 05, 2014, 05:08:13 am
Post by: crazysheep on April 05, 2014, 07:22:09 am
Post by: Tellemurius on April 05, 2014, 10:15:25 am
Recommendations would vary based on what you're comfortable with, but I hear the Moto X is a pretty decent mid-range Android smartphone..Moto X is great for any newbies coming in, for Windows Phone 8 anything above Nokia 600s are good to use.
Post by: Rose on April 05, 2014, 10:34:04 am
Post by: miauw62 on April 05, 2014, 12:05:42 pm
I'd certainly recommend Android over Windows Phone, though.Recommendations would vary based on what you're comfortable with, but I hear the Moto X is a pretty decent mid-range Android smartphone..Moto X is great for any newbies coming in, for Windows Phone 8 anything above Nokia 600s are good to use.
Post by: Tellemurius on April 05, 2014, 01:32:58 pm
Windows Phones ARE for complete noobs though, its alot easier to jump in plus Microsoft put in tons of work to minimize any UI lag so response time is tremendously amazing for even the low ends. Your only issue will always be the small app stores compared to everyone else but honestly i found all the same apps i ever needed in between android, IOS, and Win Phone 8. Android is a very powerful platform but unless you are like me and like to spend time in terminals and recovery boots, its just any other phone operating system.I'd certainly recommend Android over Windows Phone, though.Recommendations would vary based on what you're comfortable with, but I hear the Moto X is a pretty decent mid-range Android smartphone..Moto X is great for any newbies coming in, for Windows Phone 8 anything above Nokia 600s are good to use.
Post by: Aklyon on April 05, 2014, 04:02:41 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on April 05, 2014, 04:53:33 pm
Whether or not Windows Phone is great, its still rather limited in apps and in how likely it is anyone you know actually has one. I'll second Android.I live in a field of iphones so anything else is rare :P
Post by: Skyrunner on April 05, 2014, 10:41:05 pm
This wasn't a problem for my older server :< Any pointers as to where the problem is?
(I know that only TCP is open for ports 6666-6667 as well as 22).
Post by: Tellemurius on April 06, 2014, 12:02:09 am
Post by: Skyrunner on April 06, 2014, 12:33:16 am
Post by: Tellemurius on April 06, 2014, 01:51:54 am
Post by: Skyrunner on April 06, 2014, 02:58:07 am
Post by: gimlet on April 06, 2014, 09:50:46 am
Post by: Tellemurius on April 06, 2014, 11:05:43 am
Post by: kaenneth on April 06, 2014, 08:14:37 pm
That seems like heat isn't making its way out of the cpu efficiently, should I get my cpu heatsink/fan re-thermal pasted/re-seated? or is it fine? (Intel i5, not overclocked)
Post by: Tellemurius on April 06, 2014, 08:36:20 pm
My (desktop) CPU temp is 80-85c, case temp is 29-31cyea that sounds like your heatsink needs to be reseated badly. do you feel heat blowing off of it?
That seems like heat isn't making its way out of the cpu efficiently, should I get my cpu heatsink/fan re-thermal pasted/re-seated? or is it fine? (Intel i5, not overclocked)
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 06, 2014, 08:41:21 pm
Post by: kaenneth on April 06, 2014, 09:39:29 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 06, 2014, 10:18:21 pm
Post by: Rose on April 06, 2014, 10:48:03 pm
Post by: gimlet on April 07, 2014, 07:35:32 am
Post by: jetex1911 on April 09, 2014, 08:40:23 pm
Post by: Aklyon on April 09, 2014, 08:49:24 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on April 09, 2014, 10:37:55 pm
Post by: Aeax on April 13, 2014, 10:12:45 pm
I have a router linksys WRT160Nv3
It seems pretty straightforward and easy to follow when I'm doing the settings in the router. Just write the port number and then write the computer to direct it to. I've also tried this with my brother's computer, and its the same thing. I have gotten port forwarding working before, but after a period where my dad changed the password (forgot it >.>) and then reset the router, its no longer working.
Could you guys give me any advice on what I'm doing wrong? I'll try and tell you the information I know.
Post by: MaximumZero on April 13, 2014, 10:39:13 pm
Go to Settings
Go to Advanced
Go to Port Forwarding
Enter IP addresses
Save
Done
Post by: Aeax on April 13, 2014, 10:55:35 pm
Gone into my router, added the port in TCP and UDP to my local ip address. I've tried turning the router to default settings and adding the ports, but that doesn't seem to make a difference.
I've allowed an exception through my firewall.
Post by: gimlet on April 13, 2014, 11:03:35 pm
Post by: Aklyon on April 14, 2014, 08:31:32 am
Post by: Sappho on April 19, 2014, 03:47:26 am
There has to be some way to fix this. Can anyone help?
Post by: Skyrunner on April 19, 2014, 04:16:32 am
Post by: Sappho on April 19, 2014, 04:49:18 am
It's just really irritating. There are so many junk folders in my documents that I can't easily find the things I put in there on purpose. This never used to happen. Saves used to go in the game folders. What the hell happened?
The current guilty parties are:
Botanicula
Broken Sword - Director's Cut
Driftmoon
Dungeons of Dredmor
Proteus
Puzzler
Redshirt
Rogue Legacy
Cthulhu Saves the World
everything by Spiderweb Software
Children of the Nile
Under the Ocean
That's a lot of garbage folders. When did this become the norm?
Post by: Skyrunner on April 19, 2014, 05:54:13 am
Looking at my own Documents, I have
Universe Sandbox
a MyGame folder that holds 5 games (I'm cool with that)
a Robot Entertainment folder
Telltale Games folder
Algoodoo
Under The Ocean Alpha 1
Mabinogi
Other, non-games program directories in Documents are
Visual Studio 2013
Visual Studio 2010
Processing
Vega phone backups
mekia ebook reader
Native Instruments
Cakewalk
ezPDF Reader 2.0
Netbeans
Origin Lab
Finale
Adobe
Visual Studio 2008 (?! I don't even have it)
So basically all programs like to stick stuff into Documents.
(If I was a cheap game programmer, I'd hardcode the save folder to My Documents instead of putting in an easy registry thing to change it. :P Don't take my word for it, though! Some games might actually have a save directory redirection feature.)
Post by: Sappho on April 19, 2014, 06:51:32 am
This just seems like really shitty behavior from the developers. They have their OWN folder for ALL their shit. Why can't the saves and such go in there as well? I remember all games saving to their own folders, somewhere in Program Files usually. THAT is the folder that belongs to programs. "My Documents" is supposed to be mine to organize and use how I please.
It feels invasive, like they've decided that even though they live in the apartment down the hall, they still have the right to keep their food in my fridge. Yes, they have their own fridge, but they want to use MINE. And they're perfectly happy to shove all my stuff out of the way in order to do it.
So I guess I'll give up on this and make a new folder to keep all my personal stuff in. It's a bit of a pain in the ass to have to re-work the folders and shortcuts on my computer, but damn it, I want my documents folder to be tidy!
Post by: Skyrunner on April 19, 2014, 07:03:55 am
Post by: XXSockXX on April 19, 2014, 07:20:42 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 19, 2014, 10:03:02 am
At the time, it made a great deal of sense, and was quite popular. Granted, it would have been better to add an extra folder to keep things seperate (putting all the game saves and app data there), but that's an understandable oversight.
Post by: Sensei on April 22, 2014, 12:15:08 am
Is there any recourse available when the manufacturer completely fails to fix a card? The whole thing was a complete waste of time and money, I still have an expensive paperweight and I paid for shipping too. Currently, with appropriate drivers, the computer goes to a black screen and usually shuts down when the graphics card is under any stress. Is there some fix I might be missing? Do I have any options other than just buying another graphics card?
Post by: Telgin on April 22, 2014, 07:27:45 am
I'm not sure if you've got many other options. You say other cards work, but have you used any that require the same level of power? It could be that your power supply simply isn't up to the challenge.
Post by: Jelle on April 22, 2014, 08:20:53 am
Suggested course of action?
Post by: Sensei on April 22, 2014, 08:37:16 am
You could try just RMAing it again. It's unlikely but possible they just sent you another dud. I once went through a rash of dying hard drives in a laptop where I had to RMA 3 back-to-back to get one that worked.They purport to have "repaired" the card, rather than replaced it. I don't imagine they would do different a second time, and I'm hesitant to spend more money on shipping and wait another three weeks if it's going to be the same damn thing again.
Post by: foil on April 22, 2014, 11:44:08 am
One of my fans stopped working, big one on the side panel. Without it my case overheats quite a bit. The thing had been struggling a bit before it stopped working, sometimes requiring a little push to get it started, so I'm guessing it's showing its age. I can verify it is recieving power, it's just not getting it to spin.
Suggested course of action?
You could replace it, fans cost under £5 for generic no brand ones.
Might just be clogged with dust too and needs a clean.
Post by: Telgin on April 22, 2014, 12:08:35 pm
You could try just RMAing it again. It's unlikely but possible they just sent you another dud. I once went through a rash of dying hard drives in a laptop where I had to RMA 3 back-to-back to get one that worked.They purport to have "repaired" the card, rather than replaced it. I don't imagine they would do different a second time, and I'm hesitant to spend more money on shipping and wait another three weeks if it's going to be the same damn thing again.
Ah, yeah, I missed the part about it being repaired. It's possible that contacting their support and explaining the situation might get you somewhere, but I'm pretty doubtful. Do they actually have separate channels for repairing vs. replacing defective equipment, or is their option?
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 22, 2014, 04:05:14 pm
Post by: Sensei on April 23, 2014, 05:21:54 am
In my experience dealing with component companies, "repaired" usually means "we replaced it, but we don't want to admit it because the customer expected to get mostly the same thing back" especially with things like graphics cards that are so integrated tracking down the bad part is a bitch and a half. Know a guy who sent his in repair, and it wasn't even the same model (was the slightly better model, so no complaints) that he got back, although they claimed it was a repair.This is sort of what I expected to happen, but as far as I can tell it's the same card; a Radeon HD 7790, which is a card they no longer manufacture (and I'm loathe to replace since it's been climbing in price for a while). When I get the opportunity I'll check if the serial number is the same- if it's not, I guess I did get a dud twice and it's worth trying again. If it's the same, then one presumes they'll be just as incompetent in repairing it the second time as the first.
Post by: Sappho on April 24, 2014, 01:28:03 am
So on a regular basis, the internet goes down. Sometimes for just a few minutes, sometimes for an hour, sometimes for a day. Seems completely random. This has been happening for many months (I've lost track of how long, at least a year, probably longer). Every time it happens, I try to contact tech support (which, I was promised when I signed the contract, should always be available in English), but every time I call I get a recorded message saying sorry, there are no English-speaking representatives available right now. Sadly, my Czech is not good enough when it comes to tech stuff for me to get help without English.
So this morning it happened again. I finally, miraculously, managed to get an English speaker on the phone. I'm pretty sure he's the only English speaker in the whole company, because I recognized his voice from the last time I managed to get through. He took my info, did some tests, and finally declared that everything on their end was working perfectly. He had me reset the modem twice, but there were still no results, so finally he decided it must be my modem that is causing the problems. He suggested I try getting a replacement cable today and see if it fixes the problem, and if not, then I must buy a new modem which, naturally, is no longer under warranty.
Now, I'm extremely confused. If the modem was broken, wouldn't it be... BROKEN? How can a modem connect 90% of the time but randomly disconnect for periods of time, then reconnect? Hardware experts, can you confirm that this is possible or likely? Because this has been going on for so long, I have a hard time believing the problem is on my end. It seems to me that if there were something wrong with the modem, it would be more consistent. (Furthermore, this has been happening for so long that if I had managed to get through to tech support earlier, the fucking thing would still have been under warranty.)
I'm not sure what to do. I'm looking for alternative ISPs, but so far I haven't found anything.
Post by: Sensei on April 25, 2014, 08:56:15 am
Post by: Tellemurius on April 25, 2014, 09:44:26 am
Post by: Sappho on April 25, 2014, 01:43:48 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on April 29, 2014, 01:57:26 pm
EDIT: or if you have recent expensive router i do know some of those have the feature to do WoL via remote admin console.
Post by: Delta Foxtrot on April 29, 2014, 06:47:16 pm
Secondly, I've figured that the best way to insure compatibility with older games is partitioning a separate OS/harddrive space for "retro" gaming. Are there any hardware considerations to be made prior to purchasing or is that something I can worry about once I have my new machine?
Third, if I do get a secondary OS for those games that hate 64bit vistas or whatever kids these days play with, would I be better served by XP, some linux or something else? I know linux has some compatibility options (Wine?) but I have no idea if it's as good as the real deal.
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 29, 2014, 06:56:29 pm
Vista is absolutely pointless. It's next on the decommission chain (now that XP is unsupported, Vista is now the oldest supported OS), and has no compatibility advantages.
As for 7 vs 8, 8 is nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be, but offers absolutely nothing 7 doesn't, and has a number of fairly small annoyances. You're better off with 7.
Post by: Aklyon on April 29, 2014, 07:20:58 pm
Post by: miauw62 on April 30, 2014, 08:59:53 am
Post by: Tellemurius on April 30, 2014, 09:16:01 am
Post by: Akura on May 01, 2014, 01:46:09 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on May 01, 2014, 02:56:05 pm
Post by: MagmaMcFry on May 04, 2014, 05:39:15 am
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 770
CPU: Intel i5 4570
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming
RAM: 16GB
HDD: 1TB
HSF: 212 Evo
Power: Rosewill Capstone-650
Case: Corsair 400R
Any obvious improvements/suggestions there?
Post by: Rose on May 04, 2014, 05:46:36 am
Post by: MaximumZero on May 04, 2014, 07:20:37 am
I want to build myself a computer. Since I have no experience at all with self-made computers, I went to http://www.logicalincrements.com/ (http://www.logicalincrements.com/) and just picked everything from the Excellent row, trying to pick those things that would be more suited to upgrading in the future. Here's my list:It really all depends on how much money you want to spend, man.
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 770
CPU: Intel i5 4570
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming
RAM: 16GB
HDD: 1TB
HSF: 212 Evo
Power: Rosewill Capstone-650
Case: Corsair 400R
Any obvious improvements/suggestions there?
Post by: MagmaMcFry on May 04, 2014, 09:26:09 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 04, 2014, 11:39:07 am
The other factor you're ignoring is heat. Not so much for the component's sake as for yours. High end rigs dump huge amounts of waste heat into a room, and this can make things rather uncomfortable for anyone in the same room. A friend of mine currently runs a secondary air conditioner (despite having central air) to make his computer room bearable, and is planning to drill holes in his wall to allow placing the computer in another room's unused closet.
Post by: Aklyon on May 04, 2014, 11:48:34 am
Post by: Sensei on May 04, 2014, 12:44:25 pm
I wouldn't worry about waste heat TOO much, since it's an intel rig and you're not overclocking.
Post by: Descan on May 04, 2014, 12:52:28 pm
Is there any other components I should make sure to focus my money on? Like, is the CPU hard to upgrade as well? Power supply?
Thanks for the Toms Hardware rec, too~
Post by: Sappho on May 05, 2014, 01:03:42 am
Now, leaving aside the fact that the site knew how big the file would be before allowing me to spend 4 hours uploading it, because there's clearly nothing I can do about this trap to get people to waste their time and then feel obligated to provide personal information so it wasn't wasted after all, should I give them my phone number? This is Google we're talking about. (Ah, remember the days before Google owned everything and we were all "yay Google!"...)
On the one hand, they already know just about everything about me. There's no real getting around that. I use Gmail, I used to use Google Docs (and now my new job is switching everything in the company over to Google as well), I use Chrome for some things. But my phone number... That's always been something I don't connect to the internet in any way, shape, or form. I've always known that anyone who has my number actually knows me. If I give it to Google...
I tried using a free online SMS service but it didn't work. Apparently Google can tell what kind of phone service it's sending to and requires a real-life phone.
Has anyone else "verified" their Youtube/Google accounts with a phone number? Is it okay to do this? Did you start getting calls from telemarketers? What are they going to do with my number? I don't even see any privacy policy on the phone verification page to vaguely reassure me that they won't be selling my info...
Post by: crazysheep on May 05, 2014, 02:11:47 am
Has anyone else "verified" their Youtube/Google accounts with a phone number? Is it okay to do this?Well, since I own an Android phone with Gmail, Google now has my phone number. No, I haven't had telemarketers call randomly.
Post by: Skyrunner on May 05, 2014, 08:35:52 am
Post by: Aklyon on May 05, 2014, 08:44:50 am
Post by: Sappho on May 05, 2014, 09:35:54 am
Post by: Tellemurius on May 05, 2014, 11:16:24 am
Youtube just let me upload a huge video. It took more than 4 hours because my upload speed maxes out at about 15 kb/s. When it was finally done, it said "oh, sorry, your video is too long. BUT you can keep it anyway if you just give us your phone number."The two step verification process from Google is somewhat ok, if you get the verification popup on a google login it just simply sends you a text with the code nothing else. My only gripes is dealing with that as a android dev and the stupid phone is locked for receiving sms messages :P
Now, leaving aside the fact that the site knew how big the file would be before allowing me to spend 4 hours uploading it, because there's clearly nothing I can do about this trap to get people to waste their time and then feel obligated to provide personal information so it wasn't wasted after all, should I give them my phone number? This is Google we're talking about. (Ah, remember the days before Google owned everything and we were all "yay Google!"...)
On the one hand, they already know just about everything about me. There's no real getting around that. I use Gmail, I used to use Google Docs (and now my new job is switching everything in the company over to Google as well), I use Chrome for some things. But my phone number... That's always been something I don't connect to the internet in any way, shape, or form. I've always known that anyone who has my number actually knows me. If I give it to Google...
I tried using a free online SMS service but it didn't work. Apparently Google can tell what kind of phone service it's sending to and requires a real-life phone.
Has anyone else "verified" their Youtube/Google accounts with a phone number? Is it okay to do this? Did you start getting calls from telemarketers? What are they going to do with my number? I don't even see any privacy policy on the phone verification page to vaguely reassure me that they won't be selling my info...
Post by: Delta Foxtrot on May 06, 2014, 05:58:42 pm
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'll mostly be gaming with it. It'd be nice if I could upgrade it a bit in a few years to keep it topical. I expect to be able to overclock it a bit if the mood strikes me. My biggest doubt is probably about cooling and PSU.
Thanks for any assistance.
Post by: crazysheep on May 07, 2014, 01:10:35 am
I use the exact same model of heatsink, so I can check whether it fits a 1150 mobo when I get back later (I use it with a 1155 mobo). The major issue for me with this heatsink is its size: it doesn't fit into my case, which has a side fan, so I had to shuffle the fan frame around so that everything could fit inside.
Post by: Tellemurius on May 07, 2014, 10:42:44 am
I'd say everything except the PSU and cooling looks decent - you might want to consider cranking the PSU up to 600W if you can afford the upgrade, just for insurance.1150 matches the same die size as 1155 so the cooler is compatible.
I use the exact same model of heatsink, so I can check whether it fits a 1150 mobo when I get back later (I use it with a 1155 mobo). The major issue for me with this heatsink is its size: it doesn't fit into my case, which has a side fan, so I had to shuffle the fan frame around so that everything could fit inside.
Post by: GodlyTeapot on May 08, 2014, 12:16:36 pm
Help me bay12, you're my only hope. ;)
Post by: i2amroy on May 08, 2014, 01:23:57 pm
Post by: GodlyTeapot on May 08, 2014, 02:05:52 pm
Post by: Aklyon on May 08, 2014, 02:23:05 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 08, 2014, 02:58:48 pm
Post by: gimlet on May 08, 2014, 03:23:43 pm
http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=X54H&p=3&s=362 under "LAN" (since you said windows 7 64 bit).
ED: Updated 'cause he did say win7 64 bit not 32 bit.
Post by: Sappho on May 09, 2014, 12:47:31 pm
Is there any possibly way around this? Is there any service that would let me keep this email address without having to use the webmail application? I mean, I can set up the mail to forward to another address, but I still have to have all outgoing mail for work coming from the business address. If I forward it to my current gmail address, outgoing messages will be from gmail, which for some reason I can't understand is not acceptable. Is there a way to forward the mail to another address and have outgoing mail still coming from the work address? Also, apparently I MUST use the company signature line (including an image which doesn't display on the webmail site) in all outgoing mail, so that's an issue too...
Post by: Aklyon on May 09, 2014, 12:57:27 pm
Post by: Sappho on May 09, 2014, 01:13:10 pm
I'm also fighting a battle against Office 2010. They insist on saving all documents in .docx format. You know, the format that only exists to force users to purchase a newer, uglier, less functional version of the software that has worked just fine for ages. Obviously it doesn't make any difference to them if I send them files in .doc format, but I'll have to find a way to convert all the .docx ones they send me. I think OpenOffice can do that, can't it? Or maybe there's a simple conversion program somewhere. I haven't looked into it yet. Open to tips. They can install Office 2010 on my computer over my cold fucking corpse.
Of course, that doesn't save me from having to use 2010 when I'm actually in the office, where I'll be doing most of my work. I think I might just haul my laptop in every day and connect that way. The software they have on their systems is just... just the worst possible versions of all types of software. I can't even conceive of how they have managed so far. I mean, it's not an office full of stuffy old lawyers or something, people who didn't grow up with computers. Just about all of the people working there seem to be under 40. So how is it possible that they never learned good software from bad? That new =/= better? My frigging grandmother knows better. The other girl who's starting with me has a mac, and they all panicked when they heard that because they thought that meant she couldn't use FTP. Seriously. They were discussing the possibility of lending her a work computer, so that she could use their FTP software. And when I said not to worry, she could do it with loads of different programs including a simple browser extension, they all looked at me suspiciously, like I was stirring up trouble or something.
I'd like to reform all their computers, but somehow it seems to me I should probably wait until I've been working there a while before doing that. This one guy already seems annoyed with me for refusing a free copy of Word 2010 and not coming to the training day dressed in a pantsuit. I've been to this office several times before, to chat with them, submit articles, and do voice work, and everyone has always been laid back and friendly, dressed in normal, comfortable clothes. Suddenly it's super-formal out of nowhere, and it's really making me nervous. If I'm expected to be super-formal with the handful of people I'll be working with nearly every day, I will hate this job. I am not that kind of person, and people like that make me uncomfortable.
Post by: Aklyon on May 09, 2014, 01:17:24 pm
Post by: Sappho on May 09, 2014, 01:21:14 pm
Thanks for all the quick feedback, guys. And sorry for the bits of grouchy ranting. I just feel like I've been on the wrong end of a bait-and-switch with this new job... : /
Post by: Aklyon on May 09, 2014, 01:23:25 pm
Post by: Kadzar on May 09, 2014, 02:08:05 pm
Post by: Sappho on May 09, 2014, 02:20:11 pm
It asked me for my email address and password. Then it just... set it up. I clicked a button, and there's my inbox. It took less than a minute, no thinking required. I think... I think we live in the future, guys. I think magic exists.
If it's possible to do it through Gmail as well, I might use that when I'm in the office. Or maybe I'll just use that altogether, though I'd have to sober up and spend some time setting it up, have one browser for my personal email and another for my work... Anyway, good to know there are options.
Now to check out LibreOffice and see how it works. Even if I hate it, at least I can use it to convert their stupid .docx files into something that makes me a little less ragey.
EDIT: Hm... LibreOffice lacks one important feature, which OpenOffice also lacks. I cannot set the row height in the table properties. Say, for example, I want to make a table where every row is 3 cm. I can't do it. I have to manually click and drag the table borders and try to make it the size I want (it never comes out perfect this way). Word has a setting in the table properties where I can type in the row height, easy peasy. I've never understood why the Open programs never carry that over.
I suppose I won't be using tables too much for my new job, and if it comes up I can just convert the documents to .doc and use Word. Now, if I can just find a way to sneak this program on to the work computers, maybe I won't get too angry at my new job.
Post by: Aklyon on May 09, 2014, 02:29:11 pm
Also, I'd second Kadzar's suggestion of 'send yourself a test email'.
Post by: Alastar on May 09, 2014, 04:13:54 pm
EDIT: Hm... LibreOffice lacks one important feature, which OpenOffice also lacks. I cannot set the row height in the table properties. Say, for example, I want to make a table where every row is 3 cm. I can't do it. I have to manually click and drag the table borders and try to make it the size I want (it never comes out perfect this way). Word has a setting in the table properties where I can type in the row height, easy peasy. I've never understood why the Open programs never carry that over.
Maybe I misunderstand you, but in my version it works as I'd expect it to:
Select the rows you want to adjust, right click. Row -> Height -> uncheck "Fit to size", enter desired height.
Post by: Sappho on May 10, 2014, 02:40:01 am
EDIT: Hm... LibreOffice lacks one important feature, which OpenOffice also lacks. I cannot set the row height in the table properties. Say, for example, I want to make a table where every row is 3 cm. I can't do it. I have to manually click and drag the table borders and try to make it the size I want (it never comes out perfect this way). Word has a setting in the table properties where I can type in the row height, easy peasy. I've never understood why the Open programs never carry that over.
Maybe I misunderstand you, but in my version it works as I'd expect it to:
Select the rows you want to adjust, right click. Row -> Height -> uncheck "Fit to size", enter desired height.
Aha! I've never formatted tables by right-clicking. I've always gone through the table properties menu. It never would have occurred to me to right-click the table and format it there. Thanks a lot! So in that case, it looks like this software should do everything I need it to. : )
Post by: Arx on May 13, 2014, 10:31:24 am
Post by: Alastar on May 13, 2014, 06:20:41 pm
Post by: Aklyon on May 13, 2014, 06:40:30 pm
Post by: AndClayton on May 13, 2014, 07:16:54 pm
But...the TV also has a VGA hookup on it...
Is there any way possible I could get some dual monitor going with an actually computer monitor?
I guess the technical question would be is there any way a TV can /output/ a VGA signal, the same signal it's receiving from the HDMI from my laptop.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 13, 2014, 07:18:58 pm
Post by: AndClayton on May 13, 2014, 07:19:48 pm
Is there possibly a device that could hook up via HDMI to my laptop, and from that device route it to VGA/HDMI inputs? Like, plug device into laptop, plug tv/monitor into said device.
Is that a thing? Is the technology there?
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 13, 2014, 07:21:17 pm
Post by: AndClayton on May 13, 2014, 07:37:34 pm
Anybody have some suggestions for what to populate me secondary monitor with? I was going to use the "Widgets" that come with Windows 7, but they are pretty...ugly lol. Any cool informational displays for CPU/GPU temperature, ect. monitoring?
And is there a way to have my secondary display use a different wallpaper from the primary?
Post by: Aklyon on May 13, 2014, 07:41:56 pm
Post by: Rolepgeek on May 13, 2014, 08:29:16 pm
Right now, it's interyield, adsdelivery1.com, and 'you might enjoy reading' that I can see.
Post by: gimlet on May 13, 2014, 08:30:24 pm
CPU temp I just use "Core Temp" and have it display in the System Tray.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 13, 2014, 08:45:22 pm
And is there a way to have my secondary display use a different wallpaper from the primary?
If you're running Windows, I recommend Displayfusion (http://www.displayfusion.com/).
Post by: AndClayton on May 13, 2014, 10:02:26 pm
I got Rainmeter and a good skin to go with it, as well as Displayfusion.
Everything works like a charm.
Now I just have to get used to having information ticking in my peripheral while I play games haha.
Post by: MaximumZero on May 13, 2014, 10:13:29 pm
Anyone have advice for how to get rid of some adware? I've done everything I can think of or search for, and these bloody few remaining adware things just refuse to die. They seem practically invisible, other than the part where they're stupidly obnoxious.HitmanPro, free edition. Make a boot USB, and crush it before it starts up.
Right now, it's interyield, adsdelivery1.com, and 'you might enjoy reading' that I can see.
Post by: vagel7 on May 16, 2014, 11:11:31 am
1. Must be travel friendly, as in light and with a long battery life, approx 13 inches.
2. A high to a very high quality keyboard as I do a lot of typing now and the quantity will just increase further with uni.
3. A high definition screen
4. Good amounts of CPU and RAM for some programming and some games for when I am bored.
5. Built well, so it would survive my 3-5 years of uni and not become obsolete.
My current favourite is the Macbook Air. As it is very travel friendly with about 12 hours of battery and it is very light. Macs also have good keyboards.
My budget is somewhere around 1500 euros. So please, suggest to me some high functionality laptops that meet my requirements as best they can.
Post by: Descan on May 16, 2014, 11:17:30 am
(Like, if you know of a laptop I can get that can fulfill a Biomed Eng. undergrads needs for 200 bucks, I swear I'll be your undying manlove slave. :v)
Post by: Tellemurius on May 16, 2014, 12:13:22 pm
edit: http://www.mysn.de/detail.asp?bestellnr=SCHENKER-S403-GT&userid=723043319&KategorienOrder=010;030;060;010;010 (http://www.mysn.de/detail.asp?bestellnr=SCHENKER-S403-GT&userid=723043319&KategorienOrder=010;030;060;010;010) 14in there
Post by: gimlet on May 16, 2014, 01:29:42 pm
- a pretty beefy desktop gaming system/workstation with a 24" hi-res monitor and full sized keyboard and mouse
- a slim netbook or converting tablet that would be easy to carry and take notes on, and even run light/medium games and apps. 9-10" or so means you can slip it in a vest or coat pocket, 13" means lugging a bag which makes it easier to forget, and more likely to be left behind when you don't think you'll need it but later you find you do.
I personally do it this way, the laptop to do all I want was crazy expensive, and I'm already mortified every time I drop/bump my netbook, which happens fairly frequently :p Having 2 means kind of a pain keeping em sync'd, but if you set it up right you're also backing up your stuff as you go, which is a HUGE plus for me ('cause otherwise I almost never get to it). You're way more "future proof" too, because it's easy and WAY cheaper to upgrade the desktop system. And "desktop" doesn't have to mean a monster - if you really want some portability, you can fit it in a slim case that could fit in a backpack, even with the monitor and keyboard.
Even if you decide "must all be in laptop" I really recommend getting the desktop monitor and keyboard, and docking it when you're at home - the difference in keyboards and screen real estate is HUGE. And you can still get a small tablet or big smartphone.
Post by: Tellemurius on May 16, 2014, 01:32:08 pm
Post by: vagel7 on May 16, 2014, 02:21:28 pm
I need a lot of battery, because I don't want to worry about finding a socket when on route. I specifically don't want a gaming laptop because those things usually weight a ton, generate a lot of heat and are probably pretty noisy.
Sorry, if that wasn't clear before. But pretty much yeah, I don't need to fully use up that budget.
Post by: Tellemurius on May 16, 2014, 03:02:14 pm
i7 model with nvidia graphics, review websites say you can get around 7 hours of roaming websites and office work. Closest i can recommend for getting a good ultrabook with some gaming capabilities than some macbook.
Post by: quinnr on May 16, 2014, 03:03:34 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on May 16, 2014, 03:24:31 pm
Post by: quinnr on May 16, 2014, 05:41:14 pm
Also, quick rant...I was totally okay with Windows 8. I wasn't thrilled, but it wasn't as horrible as I expected. However, what is the use of having a Safe Mode if you can't activate it without a working, booting Windows installation? That doesn't help me at all >_<
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 16, 2014, 06:03:04 pm
Post by: DrKillPatient on May 21, 2014, 12:19:42 am
Post by: BFEL on May 21, 2014, 06:43:01 am
Specific game is Crusader Kings 2, if that helps any.
Post by: miauw62 on May 21, 2014, 06:44:02 am
Alternatively, use Greenshot.
Post by: Lightningfalcon on May 21, 2014, 08:01:44 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on May 21, 2014, 08:17:53 pm
Post by: Aklyon on May 21, 2014, 08:28:42 pm
Post by: Rose on May 22, 2014, 01:03:04 am
Post by: Tellemurius on May 22, 2014, 10:25:14 am
Post by: Sappho on May 22, 2014, 01:56:14 pm
This computer cost me about $1500. I expected that for that price, I would get a good machine. (To be fair, the hardware is good, it's just put together in a way that prevents it from functioning properly.) This time around, I am going to do some very serious research so I don't get burned again.
Obviously this is a bit of a long-term question, and surely some things will change between now and when I have the funds to make this purchase. But I want to have an idea now of approximately how much I will need to save up. Keeping in mind that I live in central Europe, where electronics are FAR more expensive than in America (and I'll have to adjust my expectations accordingly), and also I don't really have the option of going to a brick-and-mortar store to talk to humans about the possibilities (language barrier), I'm hoping to at least find a ballpark figure.
Here's what I need. I want a computer that can run most current-generation games. I'm not generally a player of AAA titles and I prefer simple, 2d graphics to 3d ones, but I'm finding that recently, even 2d games tend to make my computer overheat. They're all using fancy graphical effects that take loads more computer power than I would have expected. The other day I tried playing Little Inferno on a whim, and after about 20 minutes the computer overheated and the game crashed. Now, it may be true that the game was actually trying to crawl out of the computer and set me on fire, but that doesn't seem the most likely explanation, and this has happened many times with other games that I never would have expected to need so much computing power. Starbound is a big offender, as are even many Mumjo Jumbo casual games, all the Bit.Trip games, Morrowind, Civ IV... I find that pretty much any new game is likely to cause problems. In the summer, when it's really hot, even with a cooling pad with an active fan I can't play games at all.
I also need to be able to do video work. I occasionally get a job as a VJ (video jockey - I create visuals on-the-fly to match live music and DJs, which takes an enormous amount of processing power). I assume that the kind of hardware needed for games will line up nicely with the hardware for video.
Ideally, I really need a laptop. The video work requires me to take the computer with me, and although my current computer is capable of doing this (I've managed it a few times so far), it tends to overheat after a few hours at most and I have to shut down the video for it to cool off. If I'm going to buy a new computer, it should be able to really replace this one fully. I know that makes it harder to keep cool and probably more expensive, but... it's what I need. And I tried to build a computer myself once and it did NOT go well. I don't have the skills, so I really need something I can just turn on and use.
Also important is a lot of USB slots. As many as possible. And HDMI, though I think that should be standard now. I know that's pretty specific stuff, but it's also pretty critical. I need about 4 USB slots just to use my standard hardware (and right now I've only got 3, so I constantly have to swap stuff out).
So... Can anyone suggest a ballpark figure for this sort of machine? Minimum to get the job done, and maybe a mid-range figure if I find I have enough money? I would go and look at specific models, but based on the result of my last self-researched purchase, I obviously suck at that, so if anyone wants to point out any specific possibilities as a reference, that would be awesome.
Post by: Tellemurius on May 22, 2014, 02:13:38 pm
low end http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152559 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152559)
For the USB situation most i seen on laptops is three and manufacturers will not put on more. since USB 3.0 is on steriods anyways you be better off buying a decent hub for around 40 bucks.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 22, 2014, 03:17:11 pm
Compare this model (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103854) to the high end laptop Tell linked, and the performance advantage becomes clear. I'm not sure how much an equivalent will cost you in your location, but the relative difference should be very similar.
Post by: Tellemurius on May 22, 2014, 03:35:29 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 22, 2014, 03:41:13 pm
Post by: crazysheep on May 23, 2014, 03:55:15 am
Post by: Sappho on May 23, 2014, 08:06:40 am
I appreciate the suggestion to make a desktop portable, but I think we have different definitions of "portable." I live in an apartment on the 3rd floor of a building with no elevator. I have no car. Everything I transport must be something I can carry up and down the many stairs to my apartment, steps on the tram or metro (and something that is easily taken on crowded public transportation without damage or theft), and into the bowels of whatever warehouse I'm playing at. I usually have to walk at least a mile or two in addition to all the stairs and public transport. 8 kilos would give me a sore back-knees for days (I very rarely carry more than 4 or 5 max, and even that is strenuous). And the risk of damage during a trip like that is uncomfortably high. Furthermore, most places I play only have a very tiny area for the VJ to set up. Like, a tiny cage in the back somewhere. Sometimes it's difficult even to wedge a laptop in areas like this (I have a 15" screen and even that is sometimes a little too wide). The idea of hauling in a desktop computer (plus a screen, which I would need) is just... I can't imagine doing it. Maybe next time around.
$1000 doesn't sound bad for a good gaming computer though. I paid 50% more than that for the piece of shit I have now.
I don't suppose there's any way to remove the sweet, powerful hardware from a laptop and put it in another chassis that actually allows air to flow through it, can be opened (and the battery replaced) without power tools, and isn't coated with chrome-colored paint that rubs off on your hands?
Post by: Tellemurius on May 23, 2014, 09:38:07 am
Thanks for the suggestions so far. I'll have a look at these options and do some math.Not really, vary few laptops are customizable themselves in the first place and with the recent move to the ultrabooks its going to be tougher, since i dunno how your laptop is designed i wouldn't bother else risk breaking the stupid thing.
I appreciate the suggestion to make a desktop portable, but I think we have different definitions of "portable." I live in an apartment on the 3rd floor of a building with no elevator. I have no car. Everything I transport must be something I can carry up and down the many stairs to my apartment, steps on the tram or metro (and something that is easily taken on crowded public transportation without damage or theft), and into the bowels of whatever warehouse I'm playing at. I usually have to walk at least a mile or two in addition to all the stairs and public transport. 8 kilos would give me a sore back-knees for days (I very rarely carry more than 4 or 5 max, and even that is strenuous). And the risk of damage during a trip like that is uncomfortably high. Furthermore, most places I play only have a very tiny area for the VJ to set up. Like, a tiny cage in the back somewhere. Sometimes it's difficult even to wedge a laptop in areas like this (I have a 15" screen and even that is sometimes a little too wide). The idea of hauling in a desktop computer (plus a screen, which I would need) is just... I can't imagine doing it. Maybe next time around.
$1000 doesn't sound bad for a good gaming computer though. I paid 50% more than that for the piece of shit I have now.
I don't suppose there's any way to remove the sweet, powerful hardware from a laptop and put it in another chassis that actually allows air to flow through it, can be opened (and the battery replaced) without power tools, and isn't coated with chrome-colored paint that rubs off on your hands?
I've skimmed through the past posts on proper SSD usage, and I'm still confused, so any advice is appreciated. Here's my situation: I've got Windows 7 installed on a HDD, and I've just gotten myself an SSD, so I'd like to migrate the OS onto the SSD. Since the SSD shipped with some software for managing files, should I just use that to manage the OS migration, or not?You're just in luck i just migrated my SSD last night after many agonizing hours :P
I used Todo Backup Free to clone the disk partitions to my SSD, afterwards you have to unplug the old hard drive and run your windows installation disc to repair the boot sector. Also you need to change the sata mode to AHCI or RAID in your computer's bios to fully utilize the SSD functions.
Post by: crazysheep on May 23, 2014, 10:19:20 am
Thanks a tonne, Tell :3
Post by: Tellemurius on May 23, 2014, 10:41:13 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 23, 2014, 03:55:17 pm
I appreciate the suggestion to make a desktop portable, but I think we have different definitions of "portable." I live in an apartment on the 3rd floor of a building with no elevator. I have no car. Everything I transport must be something I can carry up and down the many stairs to my apartment, steps on the tram or metro (and something that is easily taken on crowded public transportation without damage or theft), and into the bowels of whatever warehouse I'm playing at. I usually have to walk at least a mile or two in addition to all the stairs and public transport. 8 kilos would give me a sore back-knees for days (I very rarely carry more than 4 or 5 max, and even that is strenuous). And the risk of damage during a trip like that is uncomfortably high. Furthermore, most places I play only have a very tiny area for the VJ to set up. Like, a tiny cage in the back somewhere. Sometimes it's difficult even to wedge a laptop in areas like this (I have a 15" screen and even that is sometimes a little too wide). The idea of hauling in a desktop computer (plus a screen, which I would need) is just... I can't imagine doing it. Maybe next time around.
Of course what is suitable for you depends on your situation (although I would point out that the idea I suggested involved everything being on wheels, so you wouldn't be carrying anything except on stairs). If it isn't practical, it simply isn't practical.
Post by: miauw62 on May 24, 2014, 04:12:28 am
The A504 could probably be what you're looking for, unless you want a big screen, in which case it'd probably be the A704. The laptops are customizable, too.
http://mysn.eu/xmg-a504
I haven't had this laptop for long, so I can't tell you about overheating issues. It doesn't get warm at all right now, but dust buildup and age can do terrible things to a laptop.
Post by: Sappho on May 24, 2014, 04:40:02 am
Post by: miauw62 on May 24, 2014, 06:27:56 am
If you're looking for a laptop in the 1000-1500 euro range, XMG seems to be a good choice. I bought one myself recently, a 1500 euro A704 (Although it's very easy to make it a bit cheaper, by not buying 16 gigs of RAM, for example :P Just minor downgrades like a slightly smaller HD or something). Both the A704 and A504 come with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M (Which, as far as I can tell, is the newest mobile GeForce card) and are fairly customizable. If they're too expensive, the company provides other series too. I haven't had any issues with overheating and it runs most things pretty smoothly so far. The A704 has 4 USB ports, one of which is on the right and one of which is a hybrid with some other sort of port, I assume the A504 is similar in that regard.. Schenker's support when I ordered the P703 (that had just gone out of stock in favor of the P704) was fairly good. I'd recommend this company, I haven't been able to find anything better in Europe. (out of europe things just get insane shipping costs)
Post by: Sappho on May 24, 2014, 06:54:39 am
Looking at the big electronics company for CZR, these seem to be pretty good deals, and I'd be able to afford one after a couple months at my new job... Any thoughts/warnings? I'm afraid the English site is mostly machine-translated but it should be understandable. These are all from the "gaming notebook" section of the site.
http://www.alza.cz/EN/lenovo-ideapad-y510p-black-d508317.htm
http://www.alza.cz/EN/toshiba-satellite-p50-a-13c-stribrny-d488341.htm (this one has 4 USB slots!)
http://www.alza.cz/EN/lenovo-ideapad-z710-black-d481317.htm
http://www.alza.cz/EN/asus-n56vv-s4027h-d458882.htm (also 4 USB and other useful ports)
Post by: miauw62 on May 24, 2014, 07:20:37 am
Post by: Tellemurius on May 24, 2014, 11:11:53 am
Thanks for the recommendation. It's hard for me to think in euros (I earn Czech koruny, the exchange rate is something like 28 kc to 1 euro), but the last time I was looking for computers, anything decent I could find locally was around 50,000 kc (nearly twice what I paid for this computer). In any case, it sounds like prices have gone down a bit in the last 2 years, so I'll have to hope that I'll be able to afford something without having to save for another year...the Y510p is the most powerful out of that group but the most expensive (2xgraphic cards), Asus looks good enough but that 740m is pretty weak for AAA gaming. Again for USB ports get a USB hub, those are so much cheaper to deal with nowadays (I have to use one cause my laptop only comes with 2 ports)
Looking at the big electronics company for CZR, these seem to be pretty good deals, and I'd be able to afford one after a couple months at my new job... Any thoughts/warnings? I'm afraid the English site is mostly machine-translated but it should be understandable. These are all from the "gaming notebook" section of the site.
http://www.alza.cz/EN/lenovo-ideapad-y510p-black-d508317.htm
http://www.alza.cz/EN/toshiba-satellite-p50-a-13c-stribrny-d488341.htm (this one has 4 USB slots!)
http://www.alza.cz/EN/lenovo-ideapad-z710-black-d481317.htm
http://www.alza.cz/EN/asus-n56vv-s4027h-d458882.htm (also 4 USB and other useful ports)
Post by: Sensei on May 30, 2014, 01:27:51 am
So, I think I can recommend the ideapad, Lenovo seems to build their stuff well. Also, it will handle any game you want it to run with freaking two 755m's. The RAM and CPU will also carry your video editing. That does seem like a lot of power, so you should check reviews to see if it overheats or anything, but if it's like my older model it will have a monster heat sink on it (oh yeah, if I have one complaint, it's a little heavy but this is what we call a "Desktop replacement"). Sucks that you bought a Dell laptop before, those things are awful. A friend of mine got one of those, after a couple years of use (and yes, cleaning the fans) it overheats too much to run basically anything.
If you do get the ideapad, one caveat, it has both integrated and Nvidia graphics to save power some of the time. HOWEVER, it will often use the integrated graphics when running a game Nvidia has never heard of before, which is relatively often for me. You can just right click the program and choose "run with... Nvidia HD Graphics", as well as set that to be the default for that program. Another caveat is that I've heard SLI rigs can have occasional weird problems in general, and require a little more user input to run well. I haven't personally used one before.
Post by: AndClayton on May 30, 2014, 10:00:33 am
I ask because it's tedious trying to play video games without it plugged in. Having to alt-tab out just to check the remaining battery life is annoying and sometimes messes up my game lol.
Post by: Tellemurius on May 30, 2014, 10:10:37 am
Post by: MaximumZero on May 30, 2014, 11:51:10 am
Post by: Astral on June 01, 2014, 04:43:20 pm
Question 2: How does reformatting affect a secondary drive? I currently have an SSD as the main Windows installation location, and another 1 terabyte HDD. Will reformatting remove all content from that as well?
I'm currently doing prep work, such as downloading drivers and programs I currently use, as well as making backups of files, so I won't need it until next weekend.
Post by: Aklyon on June 01, 2014, 06:32:00 pm
Reformatting one drive affects that drive, unless you've split up one physical drive into several letter drives for some reason. You have to reformat both to reformat both.
Post by: MaximumZero on June 01, 2014, 07:01:13 pm
Post by: Aklyon on June 02, 2014, 08:37:53 am
Post by: kinglog on June 02, 2014, 01:39:49 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on June 02, 2014, 02:30:18 pm
I haven't tried this but this will export all your sms messages to either a text or csv file.
Post by: quinnr on June 02, 2014, 09:26:41 pm
Question for you all: Does anyone know a way to pull SMS/Text messages from a phone (android) to pc? I may need to do so for court.
There are also forensics tools that can directly pull them from the phone. A quick Google search brought this one up. (https://viaforensics.com/resources/tools/android-forensics-tool/) but I'm not sure how difficult they are to use.
Post by: Tellemurius on June 03, 2014, 01:23:40 am
They aren't but that one costs money while mine is free.Question for you all: Does anyone know a way to pull SMS/Text messages from a phone (android) to pc? I may need to do so for court.
There are also forensics tools that can directly pull them from the phone. A quick Google search brought this one up. (https://viaforensics.com/resources/tools/android-forensics-tool/) but I'm not sure how difficult they are to use.
Post by: quinnr on June 03, 2014, 05:41:24 am
They aren't but that one costs money while mine is free.Question for you all: Does anyone know a way to pull SMS/Text messages from a phone (android) to pc? I may need to do so for court.
There are also forensics tools that can directly pull them from the phone. A quick Google search brought this one up. (https://viaforensics.com/resources/tools/android-forensics-tool/) but I'm not sure how difficult they are to use.
Huh. I could have sworn the website said it was free. Ick, yeah, do that!
Post by: foil on June 03, 2014, 11:15:40 am
Or copy and paste them in Android from sms and email them to yourself.
Post by: Tellemurius on June 03, 2014, 11:27:04 am
Post by: MaximumZero on June 03, 2014, 11:56:36 am
Post by: Sensei on June 07, 2014, 10:06:53 pm
I suspect that the card just isn't fixed (there's been an improvement, it used to crash almost immediately) since this computer works great with a similar card I borrowed. I also downloaded the latest appropriate drivers.
However, I'd really like to find out that this is my fault and reparable. Is there any driver/clock setting I may have missed which would result in these symptoms?
Post by: Tellemurius on June 08, 2014, 01:47:56 am
I recently received my video card back from ASUS for the second time, allegedly having been repaired. This time it runs for a short while, properly, before the screen begins to flicker black every few seconds. This will continue for a while before the card gives out, showing only occasional noise. GPU-Z indicates it's not getting over 50C during this.i assume sufficient power?
I suspect that the card just isn't fixed (there's been an improvement, it used to crash almost immediately) since this computer works great with a similar card I borrowed. I also downloaded the latest appropriate drivers.
However, I'd really like to find out that this is my fault and reparable. Is there any driver/clock setting I may have missed which would result in these symptoms?
Post by: Sensei on June 08, 2014, 11:25:42 am
Post by: gimlet on June 08, 2014, 04:44:16 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on June 08, 2014, 06:30:50 pm
Post by: foil on June 09, 2014, 08:23:01 am
Post by: Sensei on June 10, 2014, 04:20:46 pm
Post by: Jelle on June 11, 2014, 02:56:04 am
What do?
Post by: miauw62 on June 11, 2014, 07:21:15 am
Post by: Sensei on June 11, 2014, 04:30:41 pm
-Actually, it does have problems when just hanging around in windows/firefox after a while, where it flickers to black, and later artifacts occur and the whole system crashes.
-My PSU provides 41A along the 12v rail.
-The CPU has a requirement of 100 watts and the video card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121846&cm_re=hd_7790-_-14-121-846-_-Product) has a power consumption of up to 150 watts. I think this means that those two components on the 12v rail have a requirement of 250 watts/ 12 volts = 20.83 amps?
-The video card has a P4 connector, not sure if that changes anything.
-The computer has a single hard drive, disc drive and network card, which shouldn't consume obscene amounts of excess power.
So, either my math is wrong (please do correct me) or this thing should not be suffering power issues.
Post by: Lord Shonus on June 11, 2014, 05:24:40 pm
Post by: Sensei on June 11, 2014, 07:18:06 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on June 11, 2014, 08:36:52 pm
Post by: Karkov on June 12, 2014, 07:57:37 pm
So, I did some more research on the video card issue:
-Actually, it does have problems when just hanging around in windows/firefox after a while, where it flickers to black, and later artifacts occur and the whole system crashes.
I used to have a graphics card that did this to me, but only during intense gaming sessions. It was usually brought on by overheating due to poor ventilation, ended up getting a new case and a new graphics card.
I also had a computer where it had power issues, but it didn't do anything like artifact-ing on me while I was playing, everything just suddenly didn't have enough power and the whole system would reboot while I was doing something strenuous.
My history with this stuff says it's overheating, not PSU issues, but before you go replacing the graphics card/case it's always good to check if it's a driver issue.
Post by: Imperial Guardsman on June 12, 2014, 08:36:22 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on June 12, 2014, 08:58:47 pm
Post by: Imperial Guardsman on June 12, 2014, 09:02:16 pm
Are you talking about the integrated graphics?Yes.
Post by: miauw62 on June 13, 2014, 05:20:50 am
Post by: foil on June 15, 2014, 08:45:34 am
A P4 connector is for powering the cpu.
Post by: Sensei on June 15, 2014, 03:11:25 pm
Are you sure its a p4 connector on the gpu and not a 6 or 8 pin pcie power connector?Well correction, it is a 6-pin. My derp. I had the right thing plugged into it though. Like I said, I ran a 7770 on this computer successfully, which basically the same card at a lower clock rate.
A P4 connector is for powering the cpu.
I'm quite confident it's not power, or drivers, and as it stands I've ordered an R7 260x (which is basically a re-branded version of the 7790 card I already have), as a replacement. I'll get back to you on how well it works.
Post by: Graknorke on June 24, 2014, 01:27:34 pm
It won't recognise or play sound through any ear/headphones I plug into the audio jack. Though it will recongise that something is in there and mute the speakers. I've tried all the usual things; reinstalling drivers, Windows updates, turning it off and back on again, but none of that fixed it. Actually looking at it seems to think that the jack on the side of the laptop is still outputting to the speakers, and I don't know why it would be doing that.
Thing is though, it all works fine when I boot Ubuntu on the same laptop. So it's not a hardware problem.
halp i am not good at computer
Post by: Arx on June 24, 2014, 01:36:21 pm
Post by: Graknorke on June 24, 2014, 01:39:32 pm
Does your computer do two separate volume settings for seaker and headphones? I know mine does.I don't think it does, but even if it did, it's just not recognising that there is an audio device in the audio jack. No notification, nothing in the sound section of the control panel, nothing.
Post by: miauw62 on June 24, 2014, 01:50:39 pm
That's usually where I have to fiddle to make new headphones work.
I need some advice of myself.
I've been setting up a small server for myself with SSH and a webserver.
The problem is that, even though this is just for me, I also want it to be accesible from the internet.
HOWEVER, most of the default ports (HTTP, SSH) seem to be below 1023, and I can only forward ports from 1024 and above on the control panel that my internet provider gives me.
This makes things very annoying because I'll have to tell everyone "you have to type :3000 behind the domain name to connect else it won't work"
Is there any way around this?
Post by: Graknorke on June 24, 2014, 02:19:34 pm
Did you try right-clicking the volume button and then clicking on "Playback Devices" in the menu that pops up?Yes, many times. Windows just doesn't register the headphones being plugged in, regardless of which headphones they are (I've tried three).
That's usually where I have to fiddle to make new headphones work.
Post by: Aklyon on June 24, 2014, 02:22:44 pm
Also, this is the headphone jack, not a microphone jack, right?
Post by: Graknorke on June 24, 2014, 02:23:41 pm
Have you tried restarting to see if windows will pick them up then?1: Many restarts, no different. Windows still consistently fails to pick up on the headphones
Also, this is the headphone jack, not a microphone jack, right?
2: Definitely is, although neither one works
EDIT: Okay after reinstalling the audio drivers yet again I can get Windows to acknowledge when I've plugged/unplugged something into the audio jack. Still doesn't detect the device and will try and play through the speakers though.
EDIT2: Okay, Windows is now fixed after reinstalling drivers a whole load more times and running some more Windows updates. I have no idea why it worked this time but hey, I'm not complaining if the magic box decides to work.
Post by: MaximumZero on June 24, 2014, 09:27:01 pm
Post by: Karkov on June 24, 2014, 09:36:58 pm
I doubt it will be a very big thing; depends on the amount of security you're wanting to put on there, along with the hardware on the other side.
Post by: BFEL on June 28, 2014, 08:11:37 am
Specifically hours long gifs that usually look just like the unsuspecting persons normal desktop image and then for a few seconds turn into a smile.jpg or similarly creepy image.
I want to make someone think their computer is literally haunted.
Post by: Graknorke on June 28, 2014, 08:15:51 am
So does anyone know if its possible to use gifs as wallpaper/desktop image?Well on a cursory search I found this (http://www.bionixwallpaper.com/index.html) program that claims to be able to set animated gifs as the desktop background, this (http://www.bionixwallpaper.com/downloads/Animated%20Desktop%20Wallpaper/index.html) looks to be a tool from them that does only that as well. The website looks a bit sketchily cheap but you can't expect much from a website for a free thing, and there doesn't seem to be anyone complaining about it being secretly malware so I'd say it's legit.
Specifically hours long gifs that usually look just like the unsuspecting persons normal desktop image and then for a few seconds turn into a smile.jpg or similarly creepy image.
I want to make someone think their computer is literally haunted.
Post by: Tellemurius on June 28, 2014, 10:35:08 am
Depends on the router/switch on the other side, along with wiring and traffic on said wires. Also dependent upon the encryption used on the VPN tunnel, though that's not too terrible since there's a bunch of VoIP calls made on encrypted tunnels all the time now anyway.Be warned though do not use a wireless connection unless you got a beefy wifi. VPNs will crawl if you got a crappy/slow connection.
I doubt it will be a very big thing; depends on the amount of security you're wanting to put on there, along with the hardware on the other side.
Post by: MaximumZero on June 28, 2014, 11:03:48 am
Am hardlined into 100/1000 router. Should do it.Depends on the router/switch on the other side, along with wiring and traffic on said wires. Also dependent upon the encryption used on the VPN tunnel, though that's not too terrible since there's a bunch of VoIP calls made on encrypted tunnels all the time now anyway.Be warned though do not use a wireless connection unless you got a beefy wifi. VPNs will crawl if you got a crappy/slow connection.
I doubt it will be a very big thing; depends on the amount of security you're wanting to put on there, along with the hardware on the other side.
Post by: Akura on June 28, 2014, 07:40:41 pm
The other issue is with Chrome and Orbit downloader. Although Orbit works for file downloads in Chrome, none of its bits that download Flash objects work. Orbit apparently doesn't detect anything. Orbit works fine for IE, however, for those few things that do work.
Post by: Aklyon on June 28, 2014, 07:53:15 pm
Post by: Akura on June 28, 2014, 07:58:15 pm
Have you updated Flash? (and aren't blocking flash objects with some sort of plugin or activex)Flash has been updated, problem existed both before and after update. As far as I can tell, it's not being blocked by anything, either.
Post by: Aklyon on June 28, 2014, 08:07:16 pm
Post by: Akura on June 28, 2014, 08:18:11 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on July 01, 2014, 07:49:46 pm
What did I do wrong?
Post by: Karkov on July 01, 2014, 07:56:02 pm
If it persists, possibly get a different splitter?
Post by: MaximumZero on July 01, 2014, 08:01:48 pm
Post by: Karkov on July 01, 2014, 08:08:29 pm
(Also, just as a side note, Xbox headsets have been really bad on call quality when people have used them. Had a friend who used one for almost a year and it basically drove me up the wall every time I got on call with him. Really annoying loud pitched buzzing sound all the time. Proprietary things do weird stuff to computers when plugged in.)
Post by: MaximumZero on July 01, 2014, 08:48:59 pm
(As for your side note, I can't complain about free stuff.)
Post by: gimlet on July 01, 2014, 09:28:49 pm
THe other thing is to check if the headset is compatible - I wasn't clear from your description, but doublecheck that it has a 4 pin output if it's supposed to be stereo headphones + mic. If it's for a proprietary phone system, say, it may not use the same standards.
Ed to ad references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3.5mm_audio_jack
http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/accessories/connect-compatible-headset
I just went through this trying to get the right y cable to let me use audio headphones + a mic on a 2.5mm phone jack :p
Post by: MaximumZero on July 01, 2014, 09:31:53 pm
That's what I have.
Post by: gimlet on July 01, 2014, 09:40:24 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on July 01, 2014, 09:41:47 pm
This one. Mine's black, though.
Post by: gimlet on July 01, 2014, 09:50:03 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on July 01, 2014, 09:55:18 pm
Post by: PyroDesu on July 02, 2014, 02:14:11 am
The issue revolves around the CPU. At first, I was considering an AMD FX series - 8-core processors (note - only 4 L2 chaches - the second guy said they're basically half-sized compared to other cores), and would probably get one with at least 4GHz. This was encouraged by a friend who happens to own one and loves it. Then Kriellya told me that with what they knew, it's roughly equivalent to an Intel i7 core that's hyperthreaded, and that the i7 is going to be more efficient with non-multicore capable programs. Then a guy I know personally who's also fairly knowledgeable about these things told me that I would be wasting money (and computing power) going with an i7, and recommended an i5 (and use money saved to possibly upgrade my graphics card up from a 560Ti to something with a bit more punch (though this card's been running everything I want at max anyway)).
I want to build a computer that will hopefully last a long time - and by last, I mean perform with gratuitous power. Any help?
And, cost-wise, I'm looking at the following:
AMD FX-Series: $170-200, possibly $270 if I want to go up to 4.7GHz (depends on the cost once I have everything else sorted, as does things like a new graphics card)
Intel i7: $320 (which nets 3.7GHz)
Intel i5: $250 (3.4GHz)
This does not include motherboard costs, which are somewhat more for Intel chips, such that I can find.
Post by: Tellemurius on July 02, 2014, 10:04:25 am
Post by: Sensei on July 04, 2014, 01:46:04 am
If you're not doing heavy video editing or the like, you're probably going to just be best off getting the i5. Really serious streaming, compiling etc might justify the extra cost of the i7 but you do not need that games. Most programs right now won't use the full power of the 8-core FX series, if you're big into video editing and your program does effectively utilize 8 cores, you might consider it, but the intels will be better for gaming.
Really, the i5 is all you need right now. The i7 is really fast though, so if you want to splurge it will get you a lot of longevity.
Post by: PyroDesu on July 04, 2014, 10:58:09 am
And while I'm familiar with AMD's ability to heat a room (I am making sure to invest in a good cooling system anyway), I'm trying to get the most powerful equipment I can while it still being of halfway decent quality and somewhat cheap - the total budget for this computer is >$1500, and to be honest, the FX chips are cheaper than the i5 chips, when the motherboard cost is taken into account - totalling $350 for the end-all-be-all FX I could get (and I can go about $70 cheaper), and $370 for a moderate-power (comparatively) i5.
Post by: Sensei on July 04, 2014, 11:23:07 am
You should also keep an eye on the TDP, it may be that the intel processor saves you money on the PSU front. That said if you just want something cheaper it's not like the FX is going to disappoint. I recommend this guide (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html) when trying to find a cost-effective processor.
Post by: PyroDesu on July 04, 2014, 02:22:58 pm
TDP is no issue - I ran into power problems when I got my graphics card to take over from an integrated chip - the sound of it whining and then dying wasn't fun. I (rather, my dad, who technically owns this computer, but not the current PSU (I hope he's saved the old one somewhere) or graphics card) ended up getting (my money, his choice of PSU) a 600W unit. Even with the most power-hungry chip that I'm looking at, I'd still be using less than half of my supply.
Post by: Thief^ on July 07, 2014, 05:36:27 am
I know I like to harp on about it, but PSU wattages are notoriously unreliable. You really want it to be rated as sustaining 600W and not peaking at 600W (which normally means sustaining 300W, which may be too weak). If it has an official 80+ efficiency rating sticker it will be fine (one of the requirements of an 80+ rating is >= 80% efficiency on a sustained 100% load), or if it's a decent brand, otherwise all bets are off.
Post by: Sensei on July 08, 2014, 04:32:44 am
Post by: Skyrunner on July 08, 2014, 04:40:27 am
Also, I got me some compressed air, but why does it look like it sprays water? @_@
Post by: Kadzar on July 08, 2014, 09:34:21 am
Post by: Aklyon on July 08, 2014, 10:37:35 am
Post by: Karkov on July 08, 2014, 01:42:37 pm
Also on Skyrunner's question about PSU's being expensive, they're usually about a third or less of the cost of a newer, top end GPU.
Post by: Tellemurius on July 08, 2014, 04:32:44 pm
Post by: Skyrunner on July 08, 2014, 08:11:43 pm
Post by: Karkov on July 08, 2014, 08:14:36 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on July 08, 2014, 09:54:46 pm
But if it sprays water is it ok to use near electronics?Very fine, vapor isn't going to fry your motherboard that fast, you're more likely to give it electrostatic discharge.
Post by: penguinofhonor on July 08, 2014, 11:11:45 pm
I have an LED monitor (Pavilion 23bw) and... something bad just happened. It made a click noise, the left third or so of my screen got shaded red, and the image on that third got burned into the screen a bit.
Post by: Karkov on July 08, 2014, 11:48:37 pm
I think you might be out a monitor. :-X
Post by: MaximumZero on July 09, 2014, 12:02:56 am
Post by: Tellemurius on July 09, 2014, 12:12:46 am
Post by: MaximumZero on July 09, 2014, 12:14:27 am
Post by: Karkov on July 09, 2014, 12:15:45 am
Post by: BFEL on July 09, 2014, 06:56:46 am
I've noticed a lot of games have that annoying "to access the cheat console, go to properties and change the path to include (cheat)" or whatever, but the thing is, I buy most (all) my games off Steam now, and because Steam tends to give everything its own launcher, that method doesn't work for the games I'm getting.
So anyone know how to enable the cheat console on Steam games like this?
Post by: crazysheep on July 09, 2014, 07:14:58 am
Post by: miauw62 on July 09, 2014, 08:11:14 am
Post by: BFEL on July 09, 2014, 10:19:51 am
So...what the hell am I doing wrong?
Post by: Tellemurius on July 09, 2014, 01:32:48 pm
Post by: penguinofhonor on July 09, 2014, 02:26:34 pm
Post by: BFEL on July 09, 2014, 03:39:06 pm
Nothing really, the problem is actually Steam, the exe that DA uses is gimped due to steam DRM. Best thing i would do is disable updates for DA and find a no cd patch for DA. I had to do this in order for me to run mods.
Ok, wow that sucks.
And is there one of those patches that ISN'T Malware and/or trying to shove another unzip program down my throat? :P
Post by: Tellemurius on July 09, 2014, 04:29:22 pm
Post by: Karkov on July 09, 2014, 05:01:28 pm
I have no idea what you guys are on about. ???
EDIT: GameFAQs actually has a tutorial on how to do it, just follow that and you'll be able to use the developer console in game. Most of the modding, in my experience, was just unzipping files into the correct data folders. Didn't have to do anything to change the EXE at all.
Post by: Tellemurius on July 09, 2014, 05:50:59 pm
Uh, I didn't have trouble modding DA:O on steam, found it pretty easy to be honest. And using the developer console was merely changing one of the configuration files thrown into your Documents folder. The only problem is that DA:O has an invisible Command Console during game. Normally anyway. You can make it to where it has a physical appearance later.one of my mods required to patch the exe for UI changes, Steam DRM would flag it as some violation error and would automatically do a repair install.
I have no idea what you guys are on about. ???
EDIT: GameFAQs actually has a tutorial on how to do it, just follow that and you'll be able to use the developer console in game. Most of the modding, in my experience, was just unzipping files into the correct data folders. Didn't have to do anything to change the EXE at all.
Post by: Karkov on July 09, 2014, 05:57:51 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on July 09, 2014, 06:01:37 pm
Huh, never had that problem myself. Then again I'm pretty sure I stayed away from UI changes. What exactly were they changing on the UI, out of curiosity? It doesn't sounds like something you'd need to change the EXE for.I can't remember exactly the mod but added in a crafting UI to make your own weapons.
Post by: Karkov on July 09, 2014, 06:10:34 pm
Weird that it changed the EXE then, that'd make it incompatible to any other mods that tried that, or certain versions of DA itself.Huh, never had that problem myself. Then again I'm pretty sure I stayed away from UI changes. What exactly were they changing on the UI, out of curiosity? It doesn't sounds like something you'd need to change the EXE for.I can't remember exactly the mod but added in a crafting UI to make your own weapons.
Yeah, most mods don't do that so it should be fine for modding for 99% of the time (I'm trying to figure out why they didn't just change one of the skills or something to create your own weapons, and then just find recipes around. Not really understanding why they went out of their way to change an EXE. Huh)
Post by: Jopax on July 13, 2014, 01:54:04 pm
Basically, the RAM on my desktop has gone to shit, memtest has told me that. And it kept crashing whenever anything memory intensive happened. Now, there are two 2 gig chips and I had no idea wether both of them were gone or just one. So I randomly took one out and it worked, it worked for several hours while downloading some big things (something that would crash it earlier) and didn't crash a single time. Great, problem fixed, atleast temporarily before I get replacements. It worked this morning too, quite nicely. Then I went out for several hours and my dad used the computer and it didn't work anymore. In fact, it crashed several times within several minutes. I shuffled the chips a bit, putting in the one I took out, putting them both in and now it seems to be fucked completely beacuse windows won't even start it just revs the fans several times before throwing out a corrupt file warning and just standing like that until I shut it down.
Now, I'll be getting replacement RAM in the next few days but I'm wondering wether or not this will keep happening, or heck, I'll even have to reinstall windows again it seems :C
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 13, 2014, 01:58:34 pm
Post by: Jopax on July 14, 2014, 08:08:47 am
Any reccomendations for the livecd thing? I've never used anything like that so I have no idea what goes. Also if it's possible to get one that's compatible with USB booting that'd be great.
Post by: Aklyon on July 14, 2014, 09:37:51 am
Post by: miauw62 on July 14, 2014, 10:02:03 am
It's more of a rescue CD than something to use as an actual OS, though, and I had issues with getting internet connection on miniXP.
Post by: Jopax on July 14, 2014, 11:32:59 am
Which is rather simple, I have no idea why I'm doing Linux (for the first time ever) to accomplish this :S
Post by: gimlet on July 14, 2014, 03:02:05 pm
Post by: gigaraptor487 on July 14, 2014, 05:45:13 pm
Can you help me?
Post by: PyroDesu on July 14, 2014, 11:45:13 pm
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Also, would it be worth swapping the CPU up to an i7 (Intel Core i7-4820K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor, Asus P9X79 LE ATX LGA2011 Motherboard), which would cost an additional $200, or going with a video card upgrade, which would cost an additional $150 (Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card), or even both?
Post by: crazysheep on July 15, 2014, 12:02:35 am
@pyro: I don't see any glaring problems with that setup (although liquid cooling sounds like overkill if you're not overclocking), but regarding your upgrade questions: what are you planning to do with your rig?
Post by: PyroDesu on July 15, 2014, 12:11:09 am
That second part would have been an absurd thing to say at one point.
And the liquid cooler is from when I was planning for an AMD chip. If it's too much overkill, I can get rid of that (or, swap it out with something, or whatever).
Post by: Tellemurius on July 15, 2014, 12:23:52 am
Netgear gigabit card is old and expensive, advised going with the cheaper PCIE compatible Intel NIC cards.
As for your CPU upgrade theres no point going to the extreme models if you are not going for a Hexacore cpu, advise staying with at most a i7-4790K with corresponding Z97 motherboard.
Post by: crazysheep on July 15, 2014, 12:28:53 am
Now, if you're not planning to do overclocking (at all), then the liquid cooler is overkill. You could either stick with the stock cooler, or get an air cooler which will provide the same cooling for cheaper.
I also realised that you didn't include a spinning disk HDD in your build. Is that intentional?
And I'll echo what Tell mentioned about the network card. It's quite likely that the built in stuff for your motherboard will be enough..
Post by: PyroDesu on July 15, 2014, 12:42:24 am
There is a spinning disc hard drive in the plan - it's a Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (I probably will never need this much, but it's actually fairly cheap). Might've accidentally deleted that line when I was cleaning up what I copy/pasted over.
Thanks for catching the wired adapter as not needed - that's nixed.
The 4790K is actually more expensive (and more powerful, from what I can tell) than the 4820K - and those hexacores would put me way overbudget. And on the motherboard, do you mean X79? Like the one I listed?
What's wrong with Thermaltake cases?
And yeah, I'll ditch the liquid cooler. The stock cooler that comes with the i5 2550K (if I stay with i5) should do.
Post by: crazysheep on July 15, 2014, 01:17:50 am
Note: I already own the 560. And the power supply.Ah. That power supply looks ok, and I think since you're not buying the 560 it should serve you for the next.. year I think? I'd speculate that it'll be the first part you'll be looking to upgrade later on.
There is a spinning disc hard drive in the plan - it's a Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (I probably will never need this much, but it's actually fairly cheap). Might've accidentally deleted that line when I was cleaning up what I copy/pasted over.
-snip-
The 4790K is actually more expensive (and more powerful, from what I can tell) than the 4820K - and those hexacores would put me way overbudget. And on the motherboard, do you mean X79? Like the one I listed?
-snip-
And yeah, I'll ditch the liquid cooler. The stock cooler that comes with the i5 2550K (if I stay with i5) should do.
Your current spinning disk HDD should be fine, no problems there.
The 4790K uses an LGA1155 socket, and thus cannot fit the LGA1150 socket in the motherboard you listed above - you'll have to get a motherboard with the right socket, hence Tell suggesting a Z97 mobo. Also, the 4790K is the latest generation (Devil's Canyon) processor, which makes it more expensive.
Post by: Tellemurius on July 15, 2014, 01:26:11 am
Post by: PyroDesu on July 15, 2014, 01:38:54 am
And I'd been looking at chips without integrated graphics specifically (had a bad experience with that on this computer), which seems to be why I missed the i5-4690K. Also, my resource is telling me that the i7-4790K uses a LGA1150. And, of course, the Intel page on it doesn't say.
Post by: crazysheep on July 15, 2014, 02:18:25 am
And I'd been looking at chips without integrated graphics specifically (had a bad experience with that on this computer), which seems to be why I missed the i5-4690K. Also, my resource is telling me that the i7-4790K uses a LGA1150. And, of course, the Intel page on it doesn't say.Sorry, I got that ass backwards. You're right, the i7-4790K uses LGA1150. The mobo you listed above uses LGA1155. Either way, they're incompatible..
Post by: gimlet on July 15, 2014, 06:45:18 am
If you're splashing out $1100, might as well spend another $50 and get a 24" monitor, it really does make a HUGE difference.
Make sure you get the OS through MS student program, you should be able to save a few bucks
Yuck on the PSU, IMO, at LEAST look for one with 80PLUS certification, something like Corsair or even Rosewill if you don't want to spend the money to get a top brand like a Seasonic. Even a Seasonic is only $70 or so if you get the one that's on sale at newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151137 although there are usually *way* better sales if you can wait a little. The newegg reviews on that TR2 are not so great...
And yea, looks like the i5-4690k is about the same price as the i5-2550k, but should get at least 15% better base performance. I don't know how the OC compares though. Note that the 4690k is a LGA1150 socket.
If you're not gonna OC you *really* don't need the liquid cooling, stock will be fine. Wait for a sale and catch a Hyper212 for $20 and that will take you pretty far.
Do you live in/near a city with a Microcenter? They have pretty good in-store-only CPU+mobo bundle pricing, worth checking out. For example the i5-4690k is $200 + say Asrock Z97 Extreme4 $104 = $305, lots of other mobo choices.
Post by: crazysheep on July 15, 2014, 08:19:18 am
Post by: PyroDesu on July 15, 2014, 09:03:24 am
Microsoft doesn't appear to sell Windows 7 itself anymore, student program or no - all I saw was upgrade packs for 8 (8.1, whatever).
I'm not actually sure whether the listed PSU is the same - and I can't be until I unmount the thing from this computer (some idiot threw away the packaging and other materials, it seems. And the information sticker, if there is one, is on the side that faces away from the access panel).
And yeah, looks like I will go for the i5-4690K, if I don't go i7 (though I still don't like having a chip with integrated graphics, me having my own card notwithstanding). Looking for a motherboard, again, is irritating, though.
Already ditched the liquid cooling.
Nearest Microcenter to me is in Atlanta (which is in another state from me entirely). Not happening.
Post by: gimlet on July 15, 2014, 09:50:06 am
Ahh you're saying you have that PSU already? If so then yeaaaaah, it wouldn't be a crime against humanity if you used it for a while. Make a note to shop sales hard though, especially around Black Friday.
And you have the graphics card too? 'cause it would be interesting to see how far you could get with just the integrated graphics - I bet pretty far for daily use and non-uber games, they've come a long way.
Post by: PyroDesu on July 15, 2014, 10:06:23 am
ROAD TRIP! Yeah not worth it for just one system :( Although if your parents or whatever do live near one, you can reserve and even pay for the stuff online and all they have to do is pick it up and ship it to you. Yeah shipping will kill a lot of the savings and returns/exchanges would be a hassle, oh well.
Ahh you're saying you have that PSU already? If so then yeaaaaah, it wouldn't be a crime against humanity if you used it for a while. Make a note to shop sales hard though, especially around Black Friday.
And you have the graphics card too? 'cause it would be interesting to see how far you could get with just the integrated graphics - I bet pretty far for daily use and non-uber games, they've come a long way.
I recall using the integrated graphics on this thing.
I already own a video card for good reason. And the integrated stuff still pesters me - I'm not sure if all the software for it is gone, despite my combing through.
Also, how does a Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI motherboard sound for the i5-4690K?
Post by: gigaraptor487 on July 15, 2014, 10:08:33 am
@gigaraptor: Have you tried going into Device Manager to disable the device and/or roll back the drivers?
Irritatingly enough it doesn't show up, and I am unwilling to plug it in again after it caused a blue screen (also doesn't help it is in a skip at the moment). Also, I managed to locate the background processes it was running for it, disable and deleted their exes and my machine is essentially running at the same speed it was before without fault. This sys files are another issue however but they don't appear to be causing any noticable problems.
Post by: crazysheep on July 15, 2014, 10:59:53 am
Hopefully that works for you then :)@gigaraptor: Have you tried going into Device Manager to disable the device and/or roll back the drivers?
Irritatingly enough it doesn't show up, and I am unwilling to plug it in again after it caused a blue screen (also doesn't help it is in a skip at the moment). Also, I managed to locate the background processes it was running for it, disable and deleted their exes and my machine is essentially running at the same speed it was before without fault. This sys files are another issue however but they don't appear to be causing any noticable problems.
Post by: Tellemurius on July 15, 2014, 11:54:34 am
Post by: PyroDesu on July 15, 2014, 02:54:24 pm
Nah, it's too close to budget, and I can be happy with an i5 if I've been happy with an Athalon for all these years.
One last time before I make the purchase, what's supposedly wrong with Thermaltake cases? You mentioned they were bad before, Tell.
Post by: Tellemurius on July 15, 2014, 05:53:05 pm
Post by: PyroDesu on July 15, 2014, 06:16:23 pm
They are cheap quality, my old one the front panel broke when i tried to remove it first time, the window was easily scratched and didn't had much room for cable management, paint scratches off like nothing. I go for a Corsair or a Cooler Master case.
How about a Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus, or Corsair SPEC-02?
Post by: nenjin on July 15, 2014, 06:22:54 pm
Just bought this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352029) for my brother and his fiance's wedding gifts, because there were about 10 of them sitting around up for grabs at work and I snaked the last one. So I figured they should have a matching set.
Post by: Tellemurius on July 15, 2014, 09:49:07 pm
Both are great brands I lean with the Cooler Master for the rebate but those are good enough. Just be forewarned those glass windows scratch easily so don't lay the computers down on that side.They are cheap quality, my old one the front panel broke when i tried to remove it first time, the window was easily scratched and didn't had much room for cable management, paint scratches off like nothing. I go for a Corsair or a Cooler Master case.
How about a Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus, or Corsair SPEC-02?
Post by: PyroDesu on July 15, 2014, 11:06:10 pm
Now, to await the arrival of all the parts.
EDIT - You know what's fun? A whole bunch of parts arriving at different times. My case and SSD are here already, my mobo and probably some other bits arrive tomorrow, and my CPU? 6 days from now, according to the shipping information.
Post by: Tawa on July 18, 2014, 09:32:44 pm
Trying to copy a Collected Works of Lovecraft ebook to my Kindle Fire on a Linux machine.
No matter where I look, my Kindle won't show up on my file system to copy stuff onto it.
Help?
Post by: Tellemurius on July 18, 2014, 09:59:53 pm
((Unrelated))Check to see if you have USB storage mode on for the Kindle Fire, make sure its unlocked when you connect. Thats all i can think of.
Trying to copy a Collected Works of Lovecraft ebook to my Kindle Fire on a Linux machine.
No matter where I look, my Kindle won't show up on my file system to copy stuff onto it.
Help?
Post by: gimlet on July 19, 2014, 08:53:22 am
Post by: miauw62 on July 19, 2014, 10:03:29 am
Post by: MaximumZero on July 19, 2014, 11:36:10 am
Post by: gigaraptor487 on July 19, 2014, 01:11:04 pm
Post by: Sinistar on July 20, 2014, 04:36:46 pm
So, recently I bought a pair of new drives, one SSD and Seagate's new 1TB SSHD.
Just a week ago, last Sunday - Monday night, strange things started happening. I stopped playing Mount and Blade: WFaS after few hours, and suddenly the whole system came to a complete, utter stop. And when it came back to good few seconds later, another such freeze followed shortly. In the end, I chose to shut it down the hard way. Over the next few days, troubles sometimes seemed non-existent, sometimes repeated after playing M&B again. Freezing to a point task manager won't even show up, and when it does, suddenly everything works again. I sometimes saw Windows' WerFault.exe appear in TM, but no actual "this application has stopped responding" window. Sometimes troubles stopped after restart/shut down and power on later, sometimes they persisted even though the computer was shut down for a longer period, so I am excluding overheating of (nearly) any sort. I modified the system according to this guide (everything but step 9) (http://www.maketecheasier.com/12-things-you-must-do-when-running-a-solid-state-drive-in-windows-7/), thinking it might be SSD (boot drive) problem. Seemed fine for a day, then again the same. Also clean installed GPU drivers, thinking that might be the problem since no freezing was noticed when running things like browser instead of a game (though M&B isn't that demanding...). Still nothing.
But yesterday I started to hear strange clicking sound. I payed no attention to it at first, but today I finally realized this does come in fact from my SSHD. And it doesn't sound like something normal.
And thing is, I have Steam on it. So I unplug the drive, run SSD only, and voila, no problem detected so far. Only thing bothering me is apart from one game of LoL I didn't run anything graphically demanding yet.
I did a lot of search on the net over last couple of days, but couldn't get any definite answer what might be the problem until today. Now, the symptoms are almost similar to those of hard drive failure I experienced just few weeks ago. The freezing started to appear even during the gameplay and today Windows run automatically disk check of D: (SSHD) after a hard reset I was forced to do in the morning. Did quite some deleting, fixing and recovering, but nothing really changed. Still, I'm not sure, so here are my actual answers:
1. Is it possible a failing PSU is causing power fluctuation so that in a setup of one boot and one storage drive the storage one misbehaves to the point of freezing entire system and making just too many clicking sounds?
2. Could a failing GPU be the cause?
3. Could the failing moba be the cause? I noticed once during one of the general instability periods the writing speed of plugged-in USB stick went drastically down to the point of more or less stopping (though it DID copy from SSHD so...)
4. Or is it really that supposedly brand new SSHD just dying on me?
Might also ask on official Seagate forums though. Might also run official Seagate check disk tool. But I'm asking because, as I said, couldn't get a definite answer on the net and this is the first place I'd ask if any of you just had a similar experience with ANY of the above things failing or just some general suggestions. Thanks.
Post by: Jopax on July 20, 2014, 04:58:39 pm
Guess what.
The fucker is bluescreening again :I
Right now actually, it's been stuck on the BS for several minutes, dumped 60% of the memory to disk and it just stopped there.
Post by: PyroDesu on July 20, 2014, 07:59:13 pm
Post by: gimlet on July 20, 2014, 08:02:02 pm
And you ever test the whole disk drive? At a MINIMUM get the manufacturer's diagnostics and see if there are any reported SMART errors, and run the SMART tests.
I personally always boot a Linux LiveCD USB stick and run a full badblocks test on every new disk I get - it takes about 1 day per Terabyte of disk, but it's worth it to save HOURS AND HOURS of troubleshooting frustration later on, plus whatever spooky problems it might cause. Plus I can easily swap the disk during the return period. And I can run the more rigorous "destructive" badblocks, since there's no data on it yet, but even running the non-destructive one is a simple way to eliminate on potential problem.
After those 2 things, ugh, I guess try looking in the event logs to see if there are any clues in there, if you find something promising google it and see if you can get more info...
Then, maybe, boot a LiveCD and run some stress tests, that way you can at least start to narrow it down to the hardware since you will eliminate your Windows installation from the puzzle.
Post by: sjm9876 on July 21, 2014, 03:40:35 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 21, 2014, 03:56:11 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on July 21, 2014, 05:55:46 pm
Post by: Lightningfalcon on July 21, 2014, 11:44:22 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on July 22, 2014, 12:01:51 am
I'm getting ready to set up a VMware windows workstation, which I will use as a playing bed. In all likelihood, I see it being infected with a great multitude of viruses and trojans. Are there any precautions that I should take to prevent possible contamination with the other computers in my house? I've used VMware many, many times before, but it was always with premade images that had no chance of affecting the computer we were using it on.Either to give it its own separate internet connection or make sure none of your drives are viewable in the virtual machine you should be fine.
Post by: Jopax on July 23, 2014, 03:48:29 am
Cue the PC crashing during the formatting and now just sitting there, quietly buzzing but completely unresponsive.
Seriously tempted to just give it to a shop so they can fuck around with it instead of me, but they've done a shoddy job of fixing it before so that's not much of an option :I
Oh well, not like I have anything better to do than spend the day troubleshooting this thing (I do actually but hey, who the fuck needs birthday presents anyways)
Edit:
Also, on startup, it occassionally throws out a "DQS training failed on previous boot, reversing to slower DRAM speed" message, I'm thinking it's related to the crashing but I'm not entirely sure.
Post by: Thief^ on July 23, 2014, 08:59:00 am
EDIT: Make sure the settings for RAM in the bios match the specs for the RAM you're using.
Post by: gimlet on July 23, 2014, 10:15:22 am
I'll list 'em again, so maybe other people in this situation might learn:
manufacturer's SMART diagnostics
Linux LiveCD on bootable USB has memtest and badblocks. Especially since you already nuked it, the very thorough "destructive" flag for badblocks is worth the time to test the whole drive.
If that all works, stress/heat test the CPU and then memory with Prime95, and then the graphics card with something like Furmark or Valley.
OCCT,which I have not used but hear good reports on, has a test that will stress the CPU and GPU simultaneously. If you can run this for a while then your Power Supply is probably OK (warning, this has been reported to kill cheap PSUs)
If you get a new computer, or new parts, it's WELL worth investing the time to do this stuff while you're still in the return period, before trusting hundreds of hours of work to potentially dodgy hardware. In the last few years, about 15% of the memory and 20% of the disk drives I bought (all new, not used) fail the diagnostics right out of the box.
Sorry for the rant :p But let me mention my other pet peeve - if you're building your own, spend $2 on ebay and buy a piezo speaker (look for "motherboard speaker" or "motherboard piezo speaker" so you can listen to the bios beeps and maybe get a clue to what's failing instead of dead silence).
2nd ED: The memtest/drive diagnostics are OK on laptops, but I'd skip or SEVERLY limit the CPU/GPU stress tests because laptops have notoriously awful cooling, and this is just asking for trouble. Even if you're monitoring the temperatures carefully, it's a definite risk.
Post by: Sinistar on July 23, 2014, 11:24:46 am
-snip-Yeah, that's what I was/am afraid of too.
However.
Run official disk check from Seagate (SeaTools for DOS) and the disk passed the extended test with flying colors.
What's more, today and yesterday I decided to try and reproduce that system freeze while running SpeedFan and DPC Latency Checker AND while playing M&B: WFaS (as this was where the problems were first encountered). And not only did I not discover anything out of ordinary (running M&B windowed, checking stats at the same time), the drive was more silent than priest's buttocks during the mass. Tried the same thing today but run M&B fullscreen for few hours and still nothing (if we discard one unusually high DPC reading, but even so, I didn't notice anything while playing... unless if for whatever reasons it happened while I was away at lunch and the computer was more under no load whatsoever)
Hummm. I'll go run memtest next then I guess I'll try just everything gimlet has suggested. Nothing to loose.
Thanks both for the info.
edit: Well shiiiieeeet. Memtest passed 4 times in a row without an error.
Post by: Elvang on July 25, 2014, 02:22:54 am
Looking around, the Western Digital Reds seem to be the best right now, but are listed as NAS drives. Can they be used in towers like regular drives? If not, I wouldn't mind trying a NAS setup, since I'm interested in some redundancy and the drives will be mostly used to backup files from a couple LAN PCs. Any recommendations would be appreciated, as my hard drive experience starts and stops with a handful of Western Digital Blacks and Blues that have toughed it out solo in towers over the years.
My motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157304) supports RAID 0/1/5/10, as far as I can tell, and my case and power supply have room (though I may need a more powerful PSU depending on the drives, I'd want to get another fan as well); I've got a 1TB on one of the two SATA III's right now with 3 3.5" drive bays left, so if I wanted RAID inside I assume I'd go RAID 5 with 3 drives on my unused SATA II's(4)?
Post by: Thief^ on July 25, 2014, 08:33:38 am
In my experience, one of the contributors to reliability is the number of "platters" in the drive. If you are familiar with the concept of RAID-0, and you think of a hard-disk as being a raid-0 of the internal platters, you'll see some of the reason. As each platter can only hold so much, a higher-capacity drive will necessarily have more platters, and be less reliable as a result. A while back, the best single-platter drive was a 500GB Samsung Spinpoint (F3?), now apparently Western Digital do a range of single-platter 1TB drives, which may explain the advice you've seen for the 1 TB Western Digital Red, and the high failure rate you've found for >1TB drives.
EDIT: If you're making a raid set, RAID 5 most definitely offers the best balance between redundancy, cost and capacity, although it can use a fair amount of cpu when doing heavy writes (and can be quite slow reading/rebuilding after a disk failure).
Post by: Jopax on July 27, 2014, 04:24:19 pm
So the instal was somewhat successful. The Windows worked and all, but one partition is inaccessible. As in, I formatted and deleted it and it didn't allow me to make it a partition again, spewing out some error message.
So I finally got Hirens and tooled around with it for most of the day, mostly to no success (because they either didn't work or I used them improperly, which is somewhat wierd since I followed the instructions for the most part), then I ran the manufacturer HDD test it had and it did two tests (the whole, check and attempt to fix thing) turning up zero issues.
So, once again, I try to install Windows to get the inaccessible partition and it now does so without trouble. Except it BSOD's during installation and now is giving me shit again and refusing to boot at all.
Edit: Also no sign of anything remotely similar to DQS in the BIOS, so I have no idea what the hell am I supposed to do in regards to that.
Post by: Tellemurius on July 27, 2014, 09:04:22 pm
"NAS drives" are just normal drives rated for more use, (generally by using alternate components themselves rated for more use, but the same fundamental design), they should be fine in a desktop.No do not use the Red drives in a desktop. Those hard drives are designed to be put in a NAS system where they are always on, the constant spindowns from idling is bad for these drives and alot of people complained about them failing early. Just stick with the Blue or Black series.
In my experience, one of the contributors to reliability is the number of "platters" in the drive. If you are familiar with the concept of RAID-0, and you think of a hard-disk as being a raid-0 of the internal platters, you'll see some of the reason. As each platter can only hold so much, a higher-capacity drive will necessarily have more platters, and be less reliable as a result. A while back, the best single-platter drive was a 500GB Samsung Spinpoint (F3?), now apparently Western Digital do a range of single-platter 1TB drives, which may explain the advice you've seen for the 1 TB Western Digital Red, and the high failure rate you've found for >1TB drives.
EDIT: If you're making a raid set, RAID 5 most definitely offers the best balance between redundancy, cost and capacity, although it can use a fair amount of cpu when doing heavy writes (and can be quite slow reading/rebuilding after a disk failure).
Post by: Thief^ on July 28, 2014, 11:53:06 am
No do not use the Red drives in a desktop. Those hard drives are designed to be put in a NAS system where they are always on, the constant spindowns from idling is bad for these drives and alot of people complained about them failing early. Just stick with the Blue or Black series.
Quoting Western digital themselves: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=810&utm_source=WD%20Red%20redirect&utm_medium=collateral&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=product
"Specifically designed and tested for small office and home office, 1-8 bay NAS systems and PCs with RAID."
Post by: Tellemurius on July 28, 2014, 01:25:42 pm
Oh so the computer is going to be used as a NAS? No? Still not recommending.No do not use the Red drives in a desktop. Those hard drives are designed to be put in a NAS system where they are always on, the constant spindowns from idling is bad for these drives and alot of people complained about them failing early. Just stick with the Blue or Black series.
Quoting Western digital themselves: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=810&utm_source=WD%20Red%20redirect&utm_medium=collateral&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=product
"Specifically designed and tested for small office and home office, 1-8 bay NAS systems and PCs with RAID."
Every hard drive can RAID, its down to the motherboard and controller cards for support. It still doesn't mean its a good idea to shove this hard drive into a computer THAT WILL CONSTANTLY GO OFF AND ON IN ITS LIFETIME. A NAS is an always on infrastructure where the disks are constantly spinning even at idle, Desktops are designed to spin down the disks when idling, its BAD for the Red series. The increased lifetime was designed in mind for machines that will not be turned off, unless this computer is going to be on forever with heavy I/O workload do not buy this.
Post by: Thief^ on July 29, 2014, 05:13:50 am
If you can find any evidence that using a Red drive in a PC will cause it to fail sooner than e.g. a WD Blue, I'd love to see it. All I've seen is speculation, confirmation bias and small-sampling error. e.g. My red failed in my pc after a week! I heard reds fail in pcs, so I replaced it with a blue, and it's been fine so far! therefore reds fail in pcs more than blues! Ugh no, that's one sample, and likely just a normal case of early-life failure that happens to all electronics...
EDIT: I'm not saying that excessive power cycling won't damage a hdd, just that normal desktop use should be fine. Unfortunately all the hard data I can find is based on datacenters, where drives aren't spun up/down often, and no tests on desktops.
The best paper on the subject is google's, which claims that high power cycle counts was only correlated with a 2% increased failure rate in drives 3+ years old, but that that could be a reverse causality (more problems mean they need to be restarted more, rather than more restarts causing more problems).
http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en//archive/disk_failures.pdf
Post by: Tellemurius on July 29, 2014, 11:17:07 am
If WD are willing to say it was designed for "PCs with RAID", I find it hard to believe it will have trouble with normal PC use. They didn't say "servers" after all, they said "PCs". I've seen people online who've had a red replaced under warranty despite using it in a normal PC (and not even in raid) so WD are clearly willing to guarantee a red will last 3 years even in a normal PC. (They only guarantee their Blue/Green drives for 2 years)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_recovery_control#Desktop_Computers_and_TLER_Effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_recovery_control#Desktop_Computers_and_TLER_Effect) Not fail persay but an issue with NAS associated drives. Point I'm making they are not designed for normal desktop use, IT DOESN'T SAY ANYWHERE on their website for their normal desktop use, Why would you put them in a normal desktop? Software RAID alone is crap and is error prone, You can expand storage space but do not expect the reliability, it puts the I/O workload on your CPU making it more bottlenecked with other tasks. "PCs with RAID" is a 300+ dollar controller card slapped on your PCI-E slot which a normal user DOESN'T have.
If you can find any evidence that using a Red drive in a PC will cause it to fail sooner than e.g. a WD Blue, I'd love to see it. All I've seen is speculation, confirmation bias and small-sampling error. e.g. My red failed in my pc after a week! I heard reds fail in pcs, so I replaced it with a blue, and it's been fine so far! therefore reds fail in pcs more than blues! Ugh no, that's one sample, and likely just a normal case of early-life failure that happens to all electronics...
EDIT: I'm not saying that excessive power cycling won't damage a hdd, just that normal desktop use should be fine. Unfortunately all the hard data I can find is based on datacenters, where drives aren't spun up/down often, and no tests on desktops.
The best paper on the subject is google's, which claims that high power cycle counts was only correlated with a 2% increased failure rate in drives 3+ years old, but that that could be a reverse causality (more problems mean they need to be restarted more, rather than more restarts causing more problems).
http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en//archive/disk_failures.pdf
WHY am I fighting about this? You are trying to tell me all hard drives are all the same. They're not, WD specifically designs their lines to depending on the needs along with Seagate, Samsung, and Toshiba. WD RED is for SMB and low enterprise usage for NAS (NAS NAS i mean the website screams this out)Environments. BLUE is used for the normal desktop usage but has the flexibility to be used for any tasks depending on the user level. BLACK is another level of their BLUE drives that has met their specifications on performance and reliability, they got the longest warranty to prove that(5 years). GREEN drives are designed for archival purposes as they spin-down faster than any of their drives to be "energy efficient" and probably the worst drives ever to use for a RAID array.
Post by: LordSlowpoke on July 29, 2014, 02:59:34 pm
i've been tasked with finding out what the fuck takes up so much space on a given partition in windows 8
it's not a system partition which makes it all the more confusing
so instead of being a productive member of society i'm going to ask you whenever there's a good way of finding out the size of a directory without fucking around rightclicking properties all over the place because i assume all the junk files are in one place tia
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 29, 2014, 03:14:23 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on July 29, 2014, 04:11:56 pm
Post by: LordSlowpoke on July 29, 2014, 04:24:46 pm
yes let's just drop temp files in the same directory the exe is in and never clean it up
like what the hell
nyway thanks m8s
Post by: Thief^ on July 30, 2014, 12:36:08 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_recovery_control#Desktop_Computers_and_TLER_Effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_recovery_control#Desktop_Computers_and_TLER_Effect) Not fail persay but an issue with NAS associated drives. Point I'm making they are not designed for normal desktop use, IT DOESN'T SAY ANYWHERE on their website for their normal desktop use, Why would you put them in a normal desktop?I notice that that wikipedia article also has an almost complete lack of citations/references, particularly the bit you are referring to.
Software RAID alone is crap and is error prone, You can expand storage space but do not expect the reliability, it puts the I/O workload on your CPU making it more bottlenecked with other tasks.In what way is it error prone? You can argue power failure issues all you want but if the power goes out in the middle of a write you are going to lose any data that's not been sent to the hdd (controller) yet regardless. Battery backing on professional controllers just allows you slightly improved performance by being able to treat data as flushed to disk once it reaches the card, instead of requiring it to be physically written to disk (which takes many milliseconds longer).
As for the increased CPU usage, I believe I mentioned that myself (although it's only really relevant for parity raid, e.g. raid-5.)
"PCs with RAID" is a 300+ dollar controller card slapped on your PCI-E slot which a normal user DOESN'T have.Again I don't see them saying this. They say "PCs with RAID". How's that so hard to take at face value?
WHY am I fighting about this? You are trying to tell me all hard drives are all the same. They're not, WD specifically designs their lines to depending on the needs along with Seagate, Samsung, and Toshiba. WD RED is for SMB and low enterprise usage for NAS (NAS NAS i mean the website screams this out)Environments. BLUE is used for the normal desktop usage but has the flexibility to be used for any tasks depending on the user level. BLACK is another level of their BLUE drives that has met their specifications on performance and reliability, they got the longest warranty to prove that(5 years). GREEN drives are designed for archival purposes as they spin-down faster than any of their drives to be "energy efficient" and probably the worst drives ever to use for a RAID array.Sure the different drives are designed for different purposes, and WD themselves say one of the purposes the Red is designed for is "PCs with RAID". I'm inclined to believe the maker of the drive here. They even list them if you go to "Internal Storage - Desktop" in the site's menu, and there it says "Designed for: Desktop RAID": http://www.wdc.com/en/products/internal/desktop/
I would recommend the black for the warranty, but WD themselves say: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=760
Quote
Recommended use
WD Black hard drives are tested and recommended for use in PCs, high-performance workstations, all-in-one PCs, gaming PCs, game consoles, home media PCs and notebook computers.*
*Desktop drives are not recommended for use in RAID environments, please consider using WD Red hard drives for home and small office, [...]
Although I admit that given the warranty on the Black, I'm not sure why the Red is more recommended for RAID. Is it purely the TLER? The black even supposedly has a the same MTBF as the Red, and the same vibration reduction technology. People online seem to be suspicious that the black and red are the same hdds with different firmware. I'm not really sure why you'd want a hdd with a shorter warranty if you are worried about reliability (which you must be if you're considering raid in the first place).
Post by: Tellemurius on July 30, 2014, 06:11:07 pm
Post by: PyroDesu on July 30, 2014, 07:59:18 pm
Is this something I should be worried about? (Well, obviously I'm worried enough to ask)
Looks like the raw numbers are actually pretty meaningless for those. I'm good.
Post by: Sappho on July 31, 2014, 03:25:54 am
I've been assigned a webmail address for my new job. The UI for the webmail makes me want to gouge my own eyes out, so I set it up to work through Thunderbird instead, using IMAP. So far this has been working fine, working from home on my own computer. However, tomorrow I start actually working in the office, on their computers, and I don't think I'll be permitted to install an email client and configure it for myself.
I figured I would just make a gmail account and use that. I made the account and started fiddling with settings. I can't find any way to access the work account. I set it up so that outgoing messages from the gmail account will be sent from the work account, but I can't IMPORT the messages through IMAP. It will allow me to use POP3, but I tried setting that up and nothing is happening. On the settings screen it says "importing messages" with a note that it can take several days for them to appear.
The webmail, of course, has NO option for forwarding messages. Is there a way I can directly link the gmail to the IMAP, the same way Thunderbird does? Basically using the gmail UI but the webmail server? If I have to use that webmail, I might cry.
EDIT: Aha, nevermind! The POP3 started working. Looks like I might have to manually tell Gmail to check the messages periodically, but that's not the end of the world. Far better than having to use the webmail...
Post by: Azerty on August 01, 2014, 06:28:37 pm
because of the inability to access to a wired internet connexion from my pre-2009 Amilo, I settled for a D-Link WLan device, for which I had to reinstal a badly instaled driver.
Now, the device works but, after a length of time ranging from one hour to three hours, my computer become unable to access the WiFi network I habitually use but still print others, forcing me to access this network by switching for another computer.
How do I can solve this problem of inability to access to a network from a computer when, with all others are fine with it?
Thank for your help!
Post by: gimlet on August 01, 2014, 07:04:43 pm
Anyway, until you can find a more permanent fix, I'd sure try the rebootski.
Post by: MagmaMcFry on August 01, 2014, 07:06:30 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on August 01, 2014, 07:29:26 pm
Post by: Azerty on August 02, 2014, 06:19:49 am
Yeah, I get a similar issue when connecting my laptop to a certain network. Disabling and reenabling wireless usually does the trick.
Yeah, removing and putting back my WLan device does the trick, but it last only for 15-30 minutes; after this, the OS (Windows 7) first says no networks are detected and then print other networks ecept the mine, wjhich I can access from another computer.
I would like to have a definitive, final solution to this problem.
Post by: Sappho on August 02, 2014, 07:30:11 am
I no longer get any warning. It goes from everything functioning perfectly fine, to OFF. Instant shutdown. No beeps, no freezing, no slowing down, nothing.
It's going to be a few months before I can save up enough for a new computer. Until then I don't want to spend any more money trying to salvage this pile of horse shit, but I have JUST bought Minecraft after ages of wanting it, and now I can't play it at all. It's not even hot in my apartment (about 26 C). Obviously something inside this thing has gotten worse. I'm just at a total loss.
The laptop is already propped up several inches above a USB-powered fan on a cooling pad, with even more air space under that. The bottom of the computer is ironically quite cool, even when it's overheating. The heat is on the top. (See the thread I linked in the beginning for images of the inside of the computer to understand why). I obviously need a way to keep the top of the computer cool, as a temporary measure so I can play my new game. For the first few days I had it, it ran just fine (once I turned the graphics options all the way down). Now it's suddenly only letting me play about 10 minutes before shutting down without warning. I'm starting to wonder if my 7-year-old cheap laptop might be able to run Minecraft at all... That one doesn't get hot...
I'm considering going out and buying a small fan today, to try to blow the air over the top of the keyboard and keep it cool. However, I'm flat broke for at least another week or two and I can't afford much. I also have extremely little space where I could put a fan. And no available power outlets nearby. So I'd have to buy a power strip as well, I guess. This is going to be problematic.
Does anyone else have any other suggestions? I'm starting work again, these are my last days of freedom, and if I can't use them to play Minecraft I might murder someone.
Just a reminder: this computer cost $1500. ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS.
EDIT: Just to review, in case anyone is not up to date: the computer is designed not to be opened. I have managed to get it open a few times, trying to clean out dust. There was NO dust inside. NONE. Because the air doesn't circulate inside at all, the dust can't even get inside. So please don't suggest cleaning the dust out. Not going to work, I'm afraid.
Post by: LordSlowpoke on August 02, 2014, 07:54:46 am
rule of thumb is it should be replaced every two years, and i browsed over to that thread you made, it's from july 2013 and says you bought it last year
please don't use your computer if it overheats to the point of automated shutdown you are already damaging something
Post by: Sappho on August 02, 2014, 08:06:13 am
The thing that really confuses me is that there is no lag in the game. The computer has *always* lagged when it's overheating in the past. Horribly.
If I took this machine to someone who fixes computers (I have no idea where I'd find someone like that, I'll have to ask around, there are no big chain computer repair shops or anything like that here), and asked them to replace the thermal paste, about how much should that cost? Bearing in mind that the machine is designed never to be opened. I've already broken off one or two of the little clips that hold it together, trying to get it open the first time.
The thing is, this machine absolutely has to last me at least another 2-3 months. I'm about to hook up my decrepit old machine and see if I can get it to run Minecraft...
Post by: LordSlowpoke on August 02, 2014, 08:17:46 am
which is as difficult as remembering which screws go where more or less
unless they fucked up the interior too in which case WHY
you literally need to take off the old paste and apply the new one, with a razor or something of that nature preferably then put the whole thing back together
thermal paste is dirt cheap by itself, something ten bucks per 4 gram for silver-based stuff? which i recommend you use, although people might have objections to that (which i'm itching to hear out, i never really had explained to me why silver is bad)
if the screws are all "special tool" bullshit you might need to take it to someone who has such tools which most of the time defaults to the manufacturer or people with their certificates
Post by: Sappho on August 02, 2014, 08:26:31 am
I tried to build a computer once. I'm so clumsy that I bent one of the pins on something or other, and the first time I started the machine, the motherboard fried. There was a big black mark in the middle of it. I'm not doing this myself.
I'm sending messages to friends asking if anyone knows anyone who can fix it. I just need to know how much it should cost so I don't get totally ripped off.
Post by: LordSlowpoke on August 02, 2014, 08:37:16 am
Post by: Sappho on August 02, 2014, 09:03:32 am
By the way, my old laptop is willing to run Minecraft if the settings are all at their absolute lowest, though it does lag and jerk slightly from time to time. Amazing that a 7-year-old machine that only cost $200 when it was new can run the game, but my very expensive and only 2-year-old machine can't handle it on the same settings...
Post by: MaximumZero on August 02, 2014, 01:58:58 pm
Post by: Sappho on August 02, 2014, 02:10:44 pm
I'm asking around now, trying to find someone trustworthy who could open it up and figure out what can be done. So far no luck... All my meatspace friends are mostly hippies and almost none of them know anything about computers. They don't even use them very much, except for *shudder* Facebook. But I'll keep looking... Maybe I'll take the computer to work with me on Monday. There must be someone in the office who's good with hardware... They've got a few big computer machines of some sort with big fans mounted on them to keep them cool, so presumably that's a server, which means there has to be a hardware person somewhere to look after it.
Worst case scenario, I did find an ad on the local expats web site for a computer expert who speaks fluent English and has mostly very good reviews for his service, so if I have to, I'll call him and see what he can do.
I'm afraid there's not much that *can* be done, though. As I've said before, this computer has had overheating problems literally since the day I bought it. Sure, some things might have gotten worse with time, but it's not like it's possible to make the computer *not* run hot.
Oh how I look forward to my new high-powered desktop gaming rig... I hope I can save up enough soon...
Post by: Sinistar on August 02, 2014, 02:21:24 pm
In this past few days, things have been running so-so. I have yet to run those additional test, but I started to run Process Hacker instead of Task Manager. I'll come back to that later. Anyways, I installed Sims 2 (on SSHD) thanks to that Origin giveaway and first thing that happened when running it for the first time was a massive freeze-up first on the very starting loading screen and then on main menu when scrolling through available neighborhoods. So I though maybe my GPU is the cause after all, seeing how in the past few months I successfully overheated it for quite a few times due to fan problems (but that's a story for another time). But after that and during when playing Sims in the next few days, troubles are more or less gone. Still occasional long lag and from time to time inability to run both a web browser and Sims at the same time (despite being able to do that just fine for the most of the time). I'm blaming either RAM, GPU, CPU, mobo or even corrupted Windows install at this point. I ignore that SSHD for now ESPECIALLY since occasionally that lag was present even when running stuff that's JUST on my main SSD (but SSHD still connected).
However, just this evening, I switch to my other Vista account and try to run Sims from there. Same lag as the first time when I run it on another account. What's more, one or two dreaded clicks from SSHD. But eventually it comes through. I switch accounts again and decide to check some stuff on SSHD just because. Guess what, freeze again. And again, one or two clicks. So I'm running PH during that time and I'm checking the graphs. CPU and I/O are particularly noteworthy, I think. Here's a snapshot of I/O:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The CPU one looks kinda similar but basically the extreme spikes you see is the moment when the system "wakes up", and during the freeze I/O and to some extent CPU are basically zero. And after that few spikes, I can browse SSHD more or less normally again.
SO I might be reading this stuff wrong and chasing ghosts here but my guess is it IS the SSHD problem after all. The reason why it works ok for most of the time is because of it's SSD part - I played Sims ok for few days as the loaded in SSD part but the HDD really is faulty. But that's my guess.
I'll be running those other test tomorrow for sure, but I'd still like to hear if anyone has an opinion on this.
Sappho: from the information you've given, I'd go as far as to say your computer seems overheat-prone by default. If you say the insides are so cramped the air can't even circulate there... sounds to me lake a design fault. I hope I'm wrong though, this is just a wild guess I have. I know it doesn't help much. :(
A fan cooling the upside sounds like a most plausible plan at that point indeed. Though a crazy idea I have is to make a (few) hole(s) at left and right side and then put a fan on one side so it hopefully forces a circulation inside... but yeah, that's a bit crazy.
Post by: MaximumZero on August 02, 2014, 02:22:32 pm
Post by: Sappho on August 02, 2014, 02:38:41 pm
@Sappho: Hm. Sounds like one of your fans isn't firing up properly, and is probably defective. Defects happen...frequently (http://gizmodo.com/5576237/dell-knowingly-sold-118-million-computers-with-a-97-failure-rate) with Dell. If you have an IT department at work, definitely see them first and let them know that your computer issues are hindering your ability to work for your company (even if they're not.) Give them puppy dog eyes if you have to. If you decide to go to the freelance tech, see if you can get him to run a diagnostic check/estimate for either very little or free (if he figures out the problem, it's likely you'll come back to him. I always ran basic diagnostics for free.)
Believe me, I am now well aware of Dell's issue with defective parts. I wish I had known before. I'll never buy another Dell again under any circumstances. Worst computer I've ever had by far. But I think we determined (the last time I brought this topic up, about a year ago) that it's not a failure so much as horrible design/engineering. I got it when it was new, and there weren't any reviews out for it yet, but now there are many, many, many reports of people who have had overheating problems with the XPS right out of the box. (Those fortunate enough to live in the country where it was bought usually say they returned it, lucky bastards.) This machine has a beautiful Intel i7 processor (the main reason I bought it), but that sort of thing produces a lot of heat, and there's no way for the heat to really get out of the case. There seems to be one single rinky-dink little fan inside, not exactly ideally placed to keep anything cool. The heatsink is also apparently just stupidly placed (though I don't know anything about that, people's response to the pictures I posted in the old thread was pretty unanimous). So the heatsink isn't really designed to work in any significant way.
It seems the most I can hope for is to keep it from actually shutting down while I play a little Minecraft, possibly by having someone who knows what they're doing do a proper clean-out and maybe replace the thermal paste if that helps at all. I'm quite upset that I can't seem to play multiplayer. By the time I can afford a new computer, I won't have the time to play anymore, because I'll be working all the time to pay for the new computer. : (
My company definitely doesn't have a "department" for anything. There are about 8 people in the office at a time. But I figure one of them probably is in charge of the computers and might possibly know something about hardware. If not, I'll see about the freelance guy. I'll definitely get an estimate up front before letting him touch the computer. Here's hoping I can find someone else first, since that guy apparently has quite high prices (hard to do anything about that, since he's offering English service in a non-English country).
Were there any other possible ways to reduce the heat? I remember someone saying something about underclocking, but I never followed up on that. Is that a thing? What is it, how is it done? And is an external fan likely to actually make a difference? Should I invest in that, with my dwindling summer funds?
Also, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has tried to help me with this problem. I know I've been ranting about it for over a year now, in various parts of the forums, and I'm sure everyone is sick of hearing about it. As a teacher, I just don't get enough money to deal with this kind of issue, and I spent nearly 2 months' salary on this thing.
Post by: MaximumZero on August 02, 2014, 02:53:38 pm
Another way to achieve a pseudo-underclock is to go into your control panel>power>advanced>processor power management>maximum processor rate, and set it to something like 80%. Here's a video. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj6QfkTi1AY) It's not 100% effective, but it should help a little bit.
Post by: Sappho on August 02, 2014, 02:58:04 pm
Post by: Sappho on August 04, 2014, 05:19:30 am
However, I've already come across a problem. The documents we use often contain phonetic (IPA) characters for pronunciation guides. These characters are not showing up properly in the documents. I'm just getting garbled boxes and squiggles. Also, when I send revised documents back to other editors to look at, sometimes the documents are glitchy. I'm saving everything in Office 2003 (.doc) format, but my boss already had one problem with an error message showing up when she opened one of these documents saying it was corrupted, and it was causing problems when she tried to use track changes.
Does anyone know enough about LibreOffice to help me figure out a way to make this work? Am I going to be forced to use *shudder* Office 2007? I would be happy to use 2003, but everyone in this office saves everything as .docx, so I had to get LO in order to open those.
Post by: LordSlowpoke on August 04, 2014, 05:25:22 am
you most likely want unicode
Post by: Sappho on August 04, 2014, 05:59:40 am
encoding problem
you most likely want unicode
looks like the special characters aren't a problem; coworker said my edited docs still display fine on her screen. Still slightly worried about the "corrupted" file. It's only happened once. Hopefully it won't happen again.
Another question about this computer, while I'm here. It runs really, REALLY slow. I figured it must just be very old, but I had a look at the system specs and it's got an i5 processor and 8 gigs of RAM. I'm not doing anything complicated with it, and it was freshly wiped and reinstalled with Windows just before I started using it. Any ideas why it would be running so slow? It takes several minutes to start up... And when I first open a program, the whole system stutters for a few minutes while it gradually loads such CPU-intensive items as the font library...
Post by: MaximumZero on August 04, 2014, 06:45:34 am
Post by: Zangi on August 05, 2014, 01:09:22 pm
Current:
Code: [Select]
Intel Core i7-2670QM
4GB
Nvidia GT 525MGot this baby for about 1.2k... May of 2012 (Might have been expensive for spec and time?)What I'm looking at:
Code: [Select]
Intel Core i7-4810MQ
8GB
Nvidia GTX 860M
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834233049versusCode: [Select]
Intel Core i7 4700HQ
12GB
Nvidia GTX 860M
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152558Pricing is roughly the same... hopefully, either is a better buy and will last me 3-4 years instead of 2.Yea, I play games on it, also like to load up tons of tabs, while playing games. I've found that 4GB has been lacking, since resource manager shows my memory easily being maxed and roughly 1 GB is used on passive stuff.
I also move around often enough for it to be worth being a laptop... rather then setting up an extra rig or 2 in other places... or lugging one around.
EDIT: Added links to laptops. I'm not the most savvy shopper when it comes to laptops.
Post by: Karkov on August 05, 2014, 04:12:20 pm
The only thing I can really find that's better about the other one is that it has a slightly faster processor, which can be fixed on the other one simply by overclocking it anyway.
EDIT: Also, MSI is a well-known gaming brand. I don't know who GIGABYTE is in terms of gaming brands.
Post by: MaximumZero on August 05, 2014, 04:27:04 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 05, 2014, 04:42:55 pm
Alternatively, if I could find an old broken IBM, that might work as well. I've always had a fondness for the clunky beige look.
Post by: MagmaMcFry on August 05, 2014, 04:48:37 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 05, 2014, 04:53:57 pm
Post by: Karkov on August 05, 2014, 05:00:16 pm
I was more referring to grounding requirements and having adequate shielding to protect the components from ambient EM radiation. Not certain what the requirements for those are. Also need to know if it's possible to rig the computer to a toggle switch instead of a button (my guess is probably not).
On the toggle, probably not.
Post by: gimlet on August 05, 2014, 05:51:52 pm
Or, hey, who really needs a case? http://springfieldpc.dyndns.org/shimmie/post/view/313 and
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Quote
I haven't heard of anyone using a switch to turn on a computer, though that's not to say that it hasn't been done.You can actually do it with a screwdriver, just short out the right 2 terminals on the motherboard - I've done this for mobos not in a case. Or, you can buy the switches for a couple bucks - look for "pc motherboard switch" on ebay or whatever. I settled on buying a bunch of these for the bitcoin mobos I don't have in cases, 'cause the screwdriver is a pain in the ass. While you're on ebay, buy a "pc motherboard speaker" so you can use the beep codes to help debug why your new frankenstruction won't boot. ;D
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 05, 2014, 06:01:17 pm
I want something that looks like this:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Instead of this:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: MagmaMcFry on August 05, 2014, 06:25:48 pm
I was more referring to grounding requirements and having adequate shielding to protect the components from ambient EM radiation. Not certain what the requirements for those are. Also need to know if it's possible to rig the computer to a toggle switch instead of a button (my guess is probably not).For grounding, you can just run some wires to everything you need grounded. To protect against EM radiation, you could just inlay your case with metal foil. As long as you don't short-circuit anything, there is literally nothing you can do wrong. But I don't think the shielding is really necessary.
Post by: Sappho on August 06, 2014, 02:25:56 am
It's probably running a bunch of shit in the background like vnc. Type msconfig into the search bar in the start menu to see what's starting up with the machine.
I've just done this and I don't see anything out of the ordinary. The only programs on startup are:
HP Beats
ESET Smart Security
3x Intel Common User Interface
IDT PC Audio
Google Drive
Skype
IconUtility
I have to use skype and google drive for work, and I'm not allowed to mess with the antivirus. But should anything on that list cause the computer to run extremely slowly on startup? I mean, I literally click the start menu and wait 5 minutes for it to load.
After everything is loaded, it mostly runs okay. But anytime I open a new program, and obviously every time I start up the computer, everything just freezes for several minutes before it starts to run properly...
Post by: Aklyon on August 06, 2014, 08:46:06 am
The rest are either already accounted for in your post or are generically named and probably won't effect startup the way you've described it.
Post by: Sappho on August 06, 2014, 09:08:12 am
Maybe it's a hardware problem? It's so strange. Starting a program for the first time since the last shutdown is always sluggish, but once programs are open they run just fine. I've never seen this happen before.
Post by: Aklyon on August 06, 2014, 09:18:38 am
Post by: Sappho on August 06, 2014, 09:47:24 am
I guess I must have downloaded a virus on all those web sites I shouldn't have been on. Like Bay12 and Google Drive.
Ah, the joys of working with people who are clueless about computers.
It could very well be the antivirus software. They are super-paranoid about viruses and have everything turned up to max, no matter how much I assure them I'm not going to get a horrible virus, that I've used the same computer for 7 years and never gotten one (despite all the activities of questionable legality I get up to on that old machine).
Post by: Aklyon on August 06, 2014, 09:54:53 am
So she now assumes that any slowness is because I "downloaded a virus." She suggested that's also the reason why my emails are appearing as "read" instead of "unread" in Thunderbird.Um.
..Um.
Aren't emails supposed to show as read? The unread ones you haven't seen yet. I know this has nothing to do with your problem Sappho but that is a new level of cluelessness to me. :o
Post by: Sappho on August 06, 2014, 10:13:13 am
EDIT: Quick update on the overheating beast, the guy who said he can replace the thermal paste didn't have time today, so I just cracked it open myself (dear LORD it is ridiculous getting this thing open) just to check for dust clogging. I hadn't checked it in a year, after all.
As before, there was almost no dust at all inside. Only a tiny bit of extremely fine dust (the only kind that can get into this nearly airtight box). I didn't have any canned air, so I wiped off the fan blades and then just blew through the vent, dislodging the small amount that was there. It's worth noting that my apartment has a lot of (cat) hair flying around all over the place which gets into everything, but there wasn't a single strand of it inside the computer. I closed it back up (nearly as difficult as getting it open) and turned it back on, and the temperature hasn't changed a bit. Still holding steady at 50-60 degrees C (when idle). Wheeeeee!
I'll let you all know what happens when we change the thermal paste. Although the guy says he has 2 kinds and he's not sure what kind mine will need. How does one determine what type of thermal paste one needs?
Post by: MaximumZero on August 06, 2014, 12:01:44 pm
What does HP Beats do, and is it necessary as a startup application?HP Beats controls a separate equalizer and the functionality of a music suite that I wasn't horribly impressed with. The equalizer works really well, but Windows comes with one built in. That said, if you're running the dv or m series laptops, shutting off Beats may shut down your subwoofer and extra speakers. (Some of the dv and m series machines are equipped with four speakers in the front, and they all have a mini-subwoofer on the bottom.)
The rest are either already accounted for in your post or are generically named and probably won't effect startup the way you've described it.
EDIT: -snipsnop-That means that you're getting next to no airflow through the machine, which is why it's overheating. Have the tech-dude you're working with check to see if the fans are running under load. Also, thermal paste is thermal paste. It doesn't really matter which brand you go with because you're not uber-overclocking your machine, and a 1-2C difference likely won't matter.
Post by: Sappho on August 06, 2014, 12:03:08 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on August 06, 2014, 12:08:06 pm
OEM versions of Windows come absolutely loaded with bloatware from the manufacturers.
Post by: Gentlefish on August 06, 2014, 07:10:56 pm
So, what's a decent, cheap-ish video card?
Post by: MaximumZero on August 06, 2014, 08:26:38 pm
So uh. I just need input on getting a graphics card. It doesn't have to be a beast of a card, and I'd prefer something cheaper; I just want something that, along with my intel quadcore chipset and 8gb RAM, will let me play graphics-heavy games like Murdered: Soul Suspect and even just Skyrim on at least medium setting. It gets all choppy on me in those games (Dwarf Fortress has a better FPS by far than those games on my computer)What's our budget?
So, what's a decent, cheap-ish video card?
Post by: Gentlefish on August 06, 2014, 11:50:15 pm
Post by: LordSlowpoke on August 06, 2014, 11:56:55 pm
small difference between the two, but i think these give the most bang for your buck
you can go for a r9 270x for 30 bucks more than the x-less version but if you can figure out how to overclock it without burning the card to smithereens for less it's not worth it
remember to check if your mobo's compatible
Post by: PyroDesu on August 07, 2014, 10:48:55 am
He keeps getting seemingly random disconnects from the house network - we're fairly sure it's not his WiFi card, nor the router itself, since replacing either of them hasn't fixed the issue before. One thing that he's noticed recently (now that he's taken the time to look) is that just before a disconnect, his network use goes up to 100%, from wherever it was.
Post by: Aklyon on August 07, 2014, 10:50:42 am
Post by: PyroDesu on August 07, 2014, 11:31:37 am
Post by: LordSlowpoke on August 07, 2014, 11:44:36 am
i recommend you get yourself one of these devices (http://www.telerik.com/fiddler) and check if there's a specific address corresponding to the web use spike
if there is, you can probably track down the application responsible
if isn't, it's probably hardware but i can't be 100% sure
Post by: Sappho on August 08, 2014, 05:53:40 am
Any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions would be most welcome. Meanwhile, I'll try to convince the senior editor that I should start doing a monthly video game review for our YouTube channel, and that I'll need a new computer to do it... Maybe she'll agree to pay for part of it...
Thanks guys! Hopefully this ordeal is finally drawing to a close.
Post by: Sinistar on August 08, 2014, 06:13:41 am
So today I got back my DVD drive that I sent to repairs as it also seemed to have broke down just a month ago. So guess what, after month of not hearing absolutely anything from them, I get it back and they say "It's working fine. No problem detected". Huh? I connect it to computer, start-up and no grinding noise I heard a month ago, it plays CD's just fine and everything seems fine. Gundammit?
But it get's better.
Yesterday, my problematic SSHD decided it either won't let my computer boot or it will take ages to boot and then work just as slowly and with a lot of clicking sounds so long as it is connected.
So after connecting DVD drive I decide to see how the SSHD is handling this.
Bullshit, everything works just gundammn fine gunndammit.
I copy last few essential folders on backup drive I bought few days ago without any problems (and at about 3x the usual speed). I think maybe it's that SSD part of hybrid drive to "blame" for this? So I run Steam, which sent my computer to a clicking-time standstill last time I did that. Fine, fine, fine. Run a game. Fine. Run a game I didn't run in a long time. Fine. Run a CPU intensive game I didn't run in a while. GUESS WHAT. FIIIIINEEEEEE.
All the while I get the messages about windows defender and search index service shutting down over the span of few minutes. And a day before that, various "Could not read from referenced memory" messages connected either to ATI's CCC (?), winlogon.exe (!) or Avira's Systray (!!!).
And all I did today with SSHD was connect it with a different power cable and different SATA port&cable. But DVD is connected with the same ones drive was yesterday yet it works fine.
I am now severely confused. Is this some sort of a virus? Failing mobo SATA ports/cables??
Sappho: forgot if you mentioned that already, sorry, but is this fan on a GPU? Because in that cause maybe there's some GPU's manufacturer software that can help? If not, maybe SpeedFan (http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php) can help? I didn't fiddle much with it, but there does seem to be "advanced fan control" option... But that's mostly just me shooting in the dark, if this is connected to some hardware issue as you say, I have no freakin idea what to do, sorry. :-\
Post by: MaximumZero on August 08, 2014, 06:52:54 am
-snip-The very first thing that I would recommend is Speedfan. Fairly simple and straightforward, and free.
Post by: Sappho on August 08, 2014, 07:22:48 am
Dell. It's going to be a new curse word for me.
I suppose the fact that the thing is meant not to be opened is a clear sign that Dell never expected people to put these machines to any real use. We're not supposed to keep it long enough to replace the battery or clean out the fans. People who knew what they were doing returned the computers immediately (unless they were trapped in another country like me), and people who didn't know what they were doing would never realize there was a problem to begin with.
So now it comes down to surviving until I can afford a new machine. I'll cross my fingers and hope that I can get the company to pay for part of it, or at least to give me an advance on some of my future salaries so that I don't have to wait as long.
While I'm here, I'd like to ask you all for an expert opinion. I've learned some hard lessons with this piece of garbage, but I still don't know the first thing about hardware. What do you all think of this machine? I should be able to afford it relatively soon (2, maybe 3 months) and it looks like a good one to me.
http://www.alza.cz/EN/acer-aspire-tc-603-d455101.htm
There's also this one, which is quite a bit more expensive. Is it worth waiting an extra month to buy, or will I be fine for games with the other one? I do want a *good* gaming PC, but it doesn't have to be absolutely top of the line. If it will run Skyrim and Minecraft with good graphics options, then I'll be satisfied.
http://www.alza.cz/EN/asus-g10ac-d1637826.htm
There are some really good prices on Dell machines with good hardware, but I think I've learned my lesson about those bastards.
Thanks a lot, guys!
Post by: gimlet on August 08, 2014, 08:58:17 am
One reason I HATE laptops, if the tiniest thing breaks or doesn't work right, you're screwed. In a desktop there's an assload of power connectors and options to add fans and improve cooling. Even switching cases is pretty easy and damn decent cases can be had for $50 - try doing ANYTHING for $50 with a laptop :p
Post by: Sappho on August 08, 2014, 09:22:27 am
Any thoughts on the two models I posted? Is the cheaper one good enough, or do I need to wait an extra month to afford the more expensive one?
Post by: PyroDesu on August 08, 2014, 10:06:15 am
If you're going desktop, I can recommend building it, if you can source parts where you are. Otherwise, ASUS is good.
Post by: LordSlowpoke on August 08, 2014, 10:07:24 am
Post by: MaximumZero on August 08, 2014, 10:08:13 am
Also: Acer is crap, generally. Steer clear. ASUS parts are mostly amazing, and I haven't seen a ton of issues with their PCs.
Post by: LordSlowpoke on August 08, 2014, 10:24:15 am
most of that is tax
vOv
Post by: Sappho on August 08, 2014, 11:25:27 am
The ASUS is a lot more expensive than the Acer. Can anyone give me any specifics on what makes them better? On why it's worth waiting an extra month with the overheating laptop of death?
EDIT: What about this one? http://www.alza.cz/EN/asus-cm6431-cz005s-d616967.htm
Post by: LordSlowpoke on August 08, 2014, 11:56:04 am
you usually get too much ram, or a cpu that's far more powerful than the gpu, or a case that's got shit-tier airflow, or a psu that will blow a week past warranty
if you can help it, don't do it
the guy who helped you with your laptop should know enough to build you a pc for a small fee, and again while i have no idea how czechian prices work it should be less than what a shop would slap onto the bill for that
thing is - you have to buy the parts yourself, else you run into the same problem as the first line, guy'll try to make mad dollops off of you
Post by: Sappho on August 08, 2014, 12:04:26 pm
The one I just linked is an ASUS, similar in price to the Acer I linked before. It looks quite good to me. I'm here, asking you guys who are more knowledgeable about hardware than me, if it looks like a good computer or not. That's all I need to know.
I am aware that custom built computers can be much better than store-bought ones. They can also be piles of shit with no warranty. I'm quite pleased that you would build one rather than buy one. That's wonderful. Good for you. There is nothing you can say that will change my mind, unless you want to hand deliver me a custom-built one within the next two months.
I am not building a computer. I am buying one. I know that often the prebuilt ones are not great. That's why I'm asking for your opinions before I buy one. These are my options. Is the cheaper ASUS good enough to run current games with decent graphical options, or do I need to wait a month to save up for the more expensive one? That is my only question.
Thank you.
EDIT: Here's a convenient link comparing the two options side by side. Is the more expensive one really worth it? http://www.alza.cz/EN/porovnani.htm?c=TA226m3;TA226i5e;
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 08, 2014, 12:08:29 pm
In the case of the specific machine linked, it is a really good machine, but I don't know what 19,990 somethings is in any currency I'm familiar with, so I don't know if it's a good price.
EDIT: As for the comparison, they're actually pretty close to the same specs. The more expensive one has a much worse case, a larger hard drive, and integrated USB 3.0, while the cheaper one has more video ram (but possibly a slightly worse video card). Again, it's hard to judge without being familiar with the currency, but the larger hard drive and USB 3.0 would be very, very handy.
Post by: Sappho on August 08, 2014, 12:20:28 pm
In general, electronics tend to be more expensive here than elsewhere, though that has gotten better in recent years. I have no idea how much this would cost in another country, but this electronics store, Alza, is widely regarded as the cheapest around. I might be able to save a few hundred crowns if I really dig around elsewhere, but it's not likely, and this store also has pretty good service in case anything goes wrong, so I'll probably go with them. At the very least, if I get a machine and it turns out to be garbage, I can easily return it or exchange it there.
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 08, 2014, 12:26:42 pm
Well, either would probably run the majority of games in a playable state, so it comes down to whether or not you need the higher USB speed or the hard drive capacity. If those aren't useful to you, get the cheaper one. Either should suit your needs well enough for a few years.
Post by: Sappho on August 08, 2014, 12:32:51 pm
I do plan to get a drawing tablet eventually. But I would imagine that 2.0 would be enough for that...?
Thanks very much for all the helpful replies. The end of my laptop nightmare is in sight!
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 08, 2014, 01:05:11 pm
Post by: Sappho on August 08, 2014, 02:35:33 pm
I think I'll be able to afford it in October, unless I can persuade my boss to help out in some way. Many, many thanks for all the patient answers to my questions. I will dream of my new computer every night until i finally have enough money to buy it...
Post by: MaximumZero on August 08, 2014, 07:21:40 pm
What about Acer makes them no good?It's mostly quality of parts used, but there are other issues. They're also e-machines, the revamped Gateway, Escom, and the revamped Packard-Bell. Acers are cheap because they cut so many corners that their boxes should be spheres. I've seen several machines, not just a few, with missing/screwed up drivers right out of the box when setting them up on the shelves. Their customer service is beyond terrible (although you have B12 tech support.) Acer machines are built to be fairly inexpensive when compared to similar builds. Since you're going desktop, I'd look into ASUS, iBuyPower, MSI, Lenovo, and HP (although I will admit that I'm biased toward HP. Take this recommendation with a grain of salt. My HP has been a real workhorse, although I have upgraded the power supply and video card.)
Post by: Gentlefish on August 08, 2014, 07:31:56 pm
Post by: gigaraptor487 on August 08, 2014, 08:49:40 pm
Post by: Gentlefish on August 08, 2014, 09:13:39 pm
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Rose on August 08, 2014, 10:06:54 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on August 08, 2014, 10:09:03 pm
Post by: Rose on August 08, 2014, 10:12:20 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on August 08, 2014, 10:50:31 pm
Post by: Sappho on August 09, 2014, 02:41:09 am
What about Acer makes them no good?It's mostly quality of parts used, but there are other issues. They're also e-machines, the revamped Gateway, Escom, and the revamped Packard-Bell. Acers are cheap because they cut so many corners that their boxes should be spheres. I've seen several machines, not just a few, with missing/screwed up drivers right out of the box when setting them up on the shelves. Their customer service is beyond terrible (although you have B12 tech support.) Acer machines are built to be fairly inexpensive when compared to similar builds. Since you're going desktop, I'd look into ASUS, iBuyPower, MSI, Lenovo, and HP (although I will admit that I'm biased toward HP. Take this recommendation with a grain of salt. My HP has been a real workhorse, although I have upgraded the power supply and video card.)
Sounds like Dell, then. I'm glad I asked on here. I might have gotten that Acer.
I'm definitely going to get the cheaper ASUS, in that case. I keep the store page for it open in a tab for me to look at hungrily whenever I have to put a damp cloth on top of my computer and use a fan to blow cold air over it (ie whenever I play a game).
Mmmmmm, delicious future computer... (http://www.alza.cz/asus-cm6431-cz005s-d616967.htm)
Post by: miauw62 on August 09, 2014, 05:46:58 am
Definitely agree with you, there. Unless you're doing something like cryptography, you don't need a $400 video card.Or cryptocurrency mining, if you're into useless money :V
My Acer worked quite nicely for several years, but it may have been the exception. It turned into a radiator at the end of it's life, though (damaging the video card in the process, I'm afraid. Not that it really matters anymore)
Post by: Daonitre on August 10, 2014, 08:17:32 am
Definitely agree with you, there. Unless you're doing something like cryptography, you don't need a $400 video card.Or cryptocurrency mining, if you're into useless money :V
...
We play Dwarf Fort -might as well be cryptography in some cases (I like having 500+ chicks, 200+ dogs, and lots of water generators/turning cranks as often as possible)
As for BitCoin (which I'm sure you're talking about) both of the major cities near me (Central Texas) accept it as currency at the day's current rate and give a discount for using it over Dollars... hardly useless (though these days just farming it will take too long to make it worthwhile). Oh, and you now have to report it on your taxes ;D Cause you know, currency intended to be anonymous should be reported. /cough
As for the person posting the picture of the PCI-e, please check the motherboard manual... it'll have a full layout and avoid any chance of ill advice that might slip through here. For all I know you were trying to point out the internal Aux In port on the sound card. Not likely, but possible.
...what am I doing here... back to the Fort side for me :)
Post by: miauw62 on August 10, 2014, 08:52:01 am
You can't use your GPU for DF as far as I know, so not really :VDefinitely agree with you, there. Unless you're doing something like cryptography, you don't need a $400 video card.Or cryptocurrency mining, if you're into useless money :V
...
We play Dwarf Fort -might as well be cryptography in some cases (I like having 500+ chicks, 200+ dogs, and lots of water generators/turning cranks as often as possible)
As for BitCoin (which I'm sure you're talking about) both of the major cities near me (Central Texas) accept it as currency at the day's current rate and give a discount for using it over Dollars... hardly useless (though these days just farming it will take too long to make it worthwhile). Oh, and you now have to report it on your taxes ;D Cause you know, currency intended to be anonymous should be reported. /cough
As for the person posting the picture of the PCI-e, please check the motherboard manual... it'll have a full layout and avoid any chance of ill advice that might slip through here. For all I know you were trying to point out the internal Aux In port on the sound card. Not likely, but possible.
...what am I doing here... back to the Fort side for me :)
And Bitcoin is prone to suddenly crashing and such and you're usually not getting much out of it without hardware built for it, so I ment something more along the lines of mining other coins (litecoin, doge, etc) and then converting those to BTC.
Post by: Daonitre on August 10, 2014, 09:37:29 am
You can't use your GPU for DF as far as I know, so not really :V
And Bitcoin is prone to suddenly crashing and such and you're usually not getting much out of it without hardware built for it, so I ment something more along the lines of mining other coins (litecoin, doge, etc) and then converting those to BTC.
Good points. I swear there was a thread a few years ago about transferring some CPU processes to the GPU though, probably used an additional program to redirect. This computer still feels so beast I don't notice the difference anyway, built it myself Dec 2012 for 1700 after everything. :D
Technical Tricks (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Technical_tricks)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
NO! Why am I back here again... ducks back to fort
Post by: redwallzyl on August 10, 2014, 12:13:45 pm
model
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
im also wondering how i could find out if there is a better one that it can be replaced with.
Post by: Tellemurius on August 10, 2014, 05:14:01 pm
So say lets go for OEM replacement
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W014M8024 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W014M8024) WD black, same specs for 60 bucks
Hybrid drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178339 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178339) Seagate Hybrid Drive, basically has a huge buffer which can help alot times alot without the SSD price. 75 bucks
SSD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=20-148-820 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=20-148-820) Extreme loading speeds but pricey for the storage size. 112 bucks
Post by: Descan on August 11, 2014, 09:53:10 pm
Well, Laptop. I'm commuting to university so I'll need something to travel. Touch-screen/pen-screen would be stellar so I can take quick notes, like a foldable/detachable one? Doesn't need to be *extremely* powerful but it is an engineering program so there are probably some programs it'll need to run.
And on a budget. :v
I was thinking an Asus, I've seen some semi-comparable (2.20 ghz duo core VS 1.8 quad-core for example, same hard-drive size and such, for anywhere from 350 to 550 bucks. I would *prefer* something in that range, but it might be stretchable up to 700 or 800.
ANY HELP IS APPRECAMATED
Post by: MaximumZero on August 11, 2014, 10:05:44 pm
Also, I thought you wanted to do brain doctoring?
Post by: Descan on August 11, 2014, 10:38:01 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on August 11, 2014, 10:55:04 pm
Post by: crazysheep on August 11, 2014, 11:19:40 pm
At least that should help narrowing down your specs a little.
Post by: Astral on August 13, 2014, 11:38:00 pm
I previously used Daemon Tools Lite, but from what I hear they are plagued with malware, adware and spyware on install, so I'm loathe to install it on my month fresh computer after a reformat.
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 13, 2014, 11:43:25 pm
Post by: Rose on August 14, 2014, 12:09:23 am
You do have to deselect a bunch of adware in the install, though.
Post by: Sappho on August 14, 2014, 03:02:00 am
Post by: Thief^ on August 14, 2014, 05:39:01 am
(Windows 7 added the ability to burn ISOs natively I think, I don't know if it can create ISOs natively yet)
Post by: miauw62 on August 14, 2014, 06:40:09 am
I use Daemon tools because it was the first x64 one out there, and I stuck with it.Even if you deselect all the adware, it still drops some.
You do have to deselect a bunch of adware in the install, though.
Don't use Daemon tools.
Post by: aenri on August 14, 2014, 11:55:09 am
What are people using to mount ISO files these days? I'm mainly looking to reinstall Warcraft 3 and the expansion using my (legitimate) ISO files and CD keys that I have had for years, mainly for the feeling of nostalgia and trying to recall details of things from old maps for use in the new Source 2 engine via DotA 2.
I previously used Daemon Tools Lite, but from what I hear they are plagued with malware, adware and spyware on install, so I'm loathe to install it on my month fresh computer after a reformat.
WinCDEmu (http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/) it is FOSS, so it satisfies my inner Richard Stallman. Also Daemon Tools is bloatware since the Chinese bought it out.
Post by: Tellemurius on August 14, 2014, 12:35:51 pm
Jesus they need to hire a new web designer, that website looked so fake i swear it was trying to install adware XDWhat are people using to mount ISO files these days? I'm mainly looking to reinstall Warcraft 3 and the expansion using my (legitimate) ISO files and CD keys that I have had for years, mainly for the feeling of nostalgia and trying to recall details of things from old maps for use in the new Source 2 engine via DotA 2.
I previously used Daemon Tools Lite, but from what I hear they are plagued with malware, adware and spyware on install, so I'm loathe to install it on my month fresh computer after a reformat.
WinCDEmu (http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/) it is FOSS, so it satisfies my inner Richard Stallman. Also Daemon Tools is bloatware since the Chinese bought it out.
Post by: MaximumZero on August 14, 2014, 09:14:23 pm
Post by: Astral on August 15, 2014, 05:24:36 pm
I tried taking a look at Microsoft's own Virtual CD Panel, which according to their website works on Windows 7 (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=38780), but I couldn't get it to work.
Post by: PyroDesu on August 15, 2014, 07:19:05 pm
might be something software-shaped
i recommend you get yourself one of these devices (http://www.telerik.com/fiddler) and check if there's a specific address corresponding to the web use spike
if there is, you can probably track down the application responsible
if isn't, it's probably hardware but i can't be 100% sure
So yeah, my brother's browser doesn't like programs intercepting his web traffic or something to that effect.
Post by: Descan on August 16, 2014, 10:23:09 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on August 17, 2014, 01:35:08 am
So I was thinking of this one. It's refurbished, so you know, that's a minus, but otherwise, I think it'll last me at least the four years of university...? (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834257833)My brother bought that for a laptop, its ok just never expect recent AAA games to run. I would actually hold off for a bit cause AMD is releasing their new line of APUs at the moment for laptops. Maybe you can snag some newer tech.
Post by: Descan on August 17, 2014, 12:24:31 pm
You realize I'm on a budget, yes?So I was thinking of this one. It's refurbished, so you know, that's a minus, but otherwise, I think it'll last me at least the four years of university...? (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834257833)My brother bought that for a laptop, its ok just never expect recent AAA games to run. I would actually hold off for a bit cause AMD is releasing their new line of APUs at the moment for laptops. Maybe you can snag some newer tech.
So if I can get something of that level for that price, it's better.
Or else I would get something else, probably lower quality, at 400, 500 dollars.
I would not be able to afford a new computer at the same level with a new AMD.
Post by: Tellemurius on August 17, 2014, 01:09:58 pm
Post by: Descan on August 17, 2014, 01:11:16 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 17, 2014, 04:14:03 pm
Post by: Sinistar on August 19, 2014, 05:36:11 am
The problem I'm having is a ridiculous and currently unexplained slow-downs all members of our household have been experiencing over the past week. There have been some troubles for a month or so, but never so noticeable. It basically every second, every day sometimes that at random and for random times our net just becomes incredibly sluggish, like some of us would run a torrent program but without any set limits. Such programs are used regulary, but we have agreed on each user setting certain limits...
I was mucking around with WireShark, but as I understand it that single-computer only. Tried to tackle PRTG (http://www.paessler.com/router_bandwidth_monitor) but I find it extremely confusing. Also found NetFlow (http://www.manageengine.com/products/netflow/) but I dunno, all this sites seem somehow... ad-aware-y. Might just be paranoid. Also tried logging on router directly, but offers no traffic monitoring tool nor did I find any firmware upgrade for it.
So anyways - should I stick with PRTG some more? Or what? Btw, I'm running Vista.
Post by: Thief^ on August 19, 2014, 09:42:03 am
Have you tried rebooting the router when it happens? Simple home routers can be overloaded by the number of connections involved in bittorrent (or if they're terrible, normal use) and they won't recover until the connections expire, potentially hours later (even if the connections are closed).
I used to have a belkin router that had to be rebooted every 12 hours to function normally...
Post by: wobbly on August 19, 2014, 10:40:51 am
Post by: LordSlowpoke on August 19, 2014, 10:48:44 am
Post by: wobbly on August 19, 2014, 11:13:40 am
malwarebytes in safemode
Cool. Cheers. Um, would probably take your advice if I actually knew what it was. Or maybe not. Who knows?
Post by: Sensei on August 19, 2014, 02:01:27 pm
Post by: wobbly on August 20, 2014, 12:14:16 pm
Post by: Sappho on August 28, 2014, 09:07:14 am
I discovered just yesterday that all this time, even though I have an Nvidia Geforce GT 525M video card, my system has been running all my games with the piece-o-shit integrated Intel graphics chip. Two years! Two years of that card just sitting there idle while I suffer under shitty graphics settings!
So I figured out how to enable the Nvidia card as the default and opened up Minecraft. It does look nicer, that's for sure, and it can handle higher settings than before. However, I still can't turn them up very high without the game lagging horribly. So now I'm confused all over again. What is it, exactly, that my system is lacking? The temperature has dropped dramatically over the past few weeks, so the machine isn't overheating anymore -- the highest it's gone is 75 C, which is perfectly safe. So why is the video lagging when I try to turn up the settings?
If I'm reading the specs correctly, the video card has 4 GB of available graphics memory and 2 GB of DDR3 dedicated video memory (not sure what those numbers mean, to be honest). The computer has a 2 GHz Intel i7 processor and 8 GB of RAM. Isn't that... isn't that pretty decent? Shouldn't that be able to at least run Minecraft at default settings without it choking?
Can someone help me understand what is making my games run slow? When I bought the computer, a friend with much better knowledge of hardware than me assured me that for the price of $1500, this looked like an amazingly powerful machine. Yet it runs like a pile of garbage. I had assumed all this time that it was merely the overheating issue messing everything up, but now I'm not so sure. Most of the time now, it stays around 60C even when I'm playing games.
I really want to use this beautiful shader pack in Minecraft, but it just won't work. I mean, it works fine, but it feels like I'm playing the game in slow motion. It's just not usable.
Post by: Rose on August 28, 2014, 09:11:29 am
Post by: Sappho on August 28, 2014, 09:52:55 am
And I'm using the "lite" version. Although I just realized I neglected to install Optifine. I will have to try that and see if it helps.
But even shaders aside, I can't even run Minecraft with the "normal" render distance. I have to turn it down to "short" or it lags horribly, even with all other graphics options set to low and no texture pack. I will have to try Skyrim or something and see how that runs...
EDIT: UGH. Installing Optifine is such a pain in the ass. I'm running the hungry life in the woods modpack through the Technic launcher, and I can't figure out how the hell to add Optifine to that, since it doesn't use the official Minecraft launcher. I don't suppose anyone knows how to do that? If not, I'll move this question to the Minecraft thread...
Post by: Thief^ on August 28, 2014, 11:00:44 am
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_500M_.285xxM.29_Series
says it's similar to a desktop GT 530, which retails for <$50.
In a desktop, an upgrade to a GeForce GT 740 (<$90) or better would net you 3x the performance (or much more for only a little more money above that). In a laptop you're stuck with what you have.
(generally, speaking, the 2nd digit onwards of a gpu is how good it is, higher is better. In your case: 25)
Post by: Sinistar on August 28, 2014, 12:43:40 pm
Post by: Sappho on August 28, 2014, 01:12:54 pm
Post by: Sinistar on August 28, 2014, 01:24:38 pm
OR you could also check Nvidia's page if they have any sort of "scan for drivers" tool there for you to download, or you could just search for drivers on their page directly.
Post by: aenri on August 28, 2014, 02:45:11 pm
As far as I can tell, the drivers are set to update automatically. I haven't actually seen any updates, though, so I guess I'm not sure. All this time, I didn't even realize my Nvidia card wasn't being used, so what do I know, really. Is there a way I can check?
You can use this - http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us (http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us)
There is dropdown list and also smartscan
EDIT: So I checked it out - and this (http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/77227) is the newest driver for that particular GPU. It will also probably install some kind of automatic updater for Geforce drivers.
Post by: Sappho on August 28, 2014, 03:29:30 pm
Actually, while I'm thinking of this, how good is the graphics card on this computer? It's the one I'm planning to buy. Will it be good enough to run Minecraft with shaders and mods? If not, I may actually wait another month or so so I can get a better one... http://www.alza.cz/EN/asus-cm6431-cz005s-d616967.htm
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 28, 2014, 04:30:02 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on August 28, 2014, 04:45:00 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on August 28, 2014, 09:52:49 pm
My drivers appear to be updated. So: shitty graphics card is the winner! Well, I got Optifine installed, so tomrorow I'll see if I can get the shaders to work at all. If not, it's just one more reason to look forward to buying a new computer... Just a couple of months, now...http://www.alza.cz/asus-cm6830-cz002s-d616968.htm (http://www.alza.cz/asus-cm6830-cz002s-d616968.htm)
Actually, while I'm thinking of this, how good is the graphics card on this computer? It's the one I'm planning to buy. Will it be good enough to run Minecraft with shaders and mods? If not, I may actually wait another month or so so I can get a better one... http://www.alza.cz/EN/asus-cm6431-cz005s-d616967.htm
Dunno why thats cheaper but its a definitely better card than yours
Some bit more expensive but powerful machines
http://www.alza.cz/EN/alza-gamebox-gtx760-w8-1-d2122662.htm (http://www.alza.cz/EN/alza-gamebox-gtx760-w8-1-d2122662.htm)
I recommendhttp://www.alza.cz/EN/alza-gamebox-270-w8-1-d2144626.htm (http://www.alza.cz/EN/alza-gamebox-270-w8-1-d2144626.htm)
This one i would recommend for smaller http://www.alza.cz/EN/alza-gamebox-nvidia-little-monster-reloaded-lvl-2-d2139648.htm (http://www.alza.cz/EN/alza-gamebox-nvidia-little-monster-reloaded-lvl-2-d2139648.htm)
Post by: Gentlefish on August 28, 2014, 09:53:29 pm
Is there a big difference between this card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202090&cm_re=AMD_R9_270-_-14-202-090-_-Product) or this similar, but cheaper card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202096&cm_re=AMD_R7_265-_-14-202-096-_-Product)? is there any reason for someone like me, who doesn't overclock their graphics card, to get the slightly more expensive one, even if for just the extra cooling?
Post by: Tellemurius on August 28, 2014, 10:00:07 pm
270 has more cores and a higher clock, shit for 10 bucks more i just go for the big one.
Post by: Gentlefish on August 29, 2014, 12:25:13 am
wow a 10 dollar difference? O_o AMD you ain't even trying anymore.
270 has more cores and a higher clock, shit for 10 bucks more i just go for the big one.
All right, it's done, this is the one I'm getting. Thanks for the help guys.
Post by: Sappho on August 29, 2014, 12:35:19 am
My drivers appear to be updated. So: shitty graphics card is the winner! Well, I got Optifine installed, so tomrorow I'll see if I can get the shaders to work at all. If not, it's just one more reason to look forward to buying a new computer... Just a couple of months, now...http://www.alza.cz/asus-cm6830-cz002s-d616968.htm (http://www.alza.cz/asus-cm6830-cz002s-d616968.htm)
Actually, while I'm thinking of this, how good is the graphics card on this computer? It's the one I'm planning to buy. Will it be good enough to run Minecraft with shaders and mods? If not, I may actually wait another month or so so I can get a better one... http://www.alza.cz/EN/asus-cm6431-cz005s-d616967.htm
Dunno why thats cheaper but its a definitely better card than yours
Some bit more expensive but powerful machines
http://www.alza.cz/EN/alza-gamebox-gtx760-w8-1-d2122662.htm (http://www.alza.cz/EN/alza-gamebox-gtx760-w8-1-d2122662.htm)
I recommendhttp://www.alza.cz/EN/alza-gamebox-270-w8-1-d2144626.htm (http://www.alza.cz/EN/alza-gamebox-270-w8-1-d2144626.htm)
This one i would recommend for smaller http://www.alza.cz/EN/alza-gamebox-nvidia-little-monster-reloaded-lvl-2-d2139648.htm (http://www.alza.cz/EN/alza-gamebox-nvidia-little-monster-reloaded-lvl-2-d2139648.htm)
The Alza ones are ones made by the store. It would be like buying a "Best Buy" brand computer. I've been avoiding those because of questionable quality, and my local friends agree that they're probably not the best option.
The first one is cheaper because it has an i5 processor. I've only been looking at computers with i7. What's more important, the video card or the processor?
Yeah, that's a pretty beasty video card. I know you're probably not going to be able to completely off the wall expensive, but I ran across this (http://www.alza.cz/hp-envy-phoenix-810-200ncm-d1639669.htm), too.
I'd have to save up for quite a lot longer to get that one. Also, isn't the graphics card less good than the one I had picked? I've never used AMD, but at any rate the video card has less memory than the Nvidia one. What is it about this computer that makes it worth almost twice the price?
If I get the cheaper one I've been looking at, what will be the limiting factor? The RAM? Or the video card? Or something else? Whatever it is, I'm assuming I'll be able to upgrade it later, when it becomes necessary - is that right?
Thanks a lot guys. This is really super helpful.
Post by: Tellemurius on August 29, 2014, 12:58:34 am
and host servers.
The GT640 is a constantly refreshed graphics card that's over 5 years old. Its performance is subpar compared with the GTX650 and the 4GB memory is a large gimmick for such a weak card.
The R9 270 is technically also a refresh but only about 2 years old. Its performance is on par with an GTX660 and can hold itself for 1080p gaming for a while.
Post by: Sappho on August 29, 2014, 01:21:57 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 29, 2014, 02:00:25 am
Post by: Thief^ on August 29, 2014, 03:59:19 am
isn't the graphics card less good than the one I had picked? I've never used AMD, but at any rate the video card has less memory than the Nvidia one.Video card memory has precisely zip to do with its performance :D
You need a minimum amount to run a game, and after you have that any extra will just go unused.
If you want a good reference for performance, look up the model on wikipedia's big lists and look at the Processing Power / GFLOPS (FMA / single precision) (not "GFLOPS/W") column: nVidia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_600_Series) AMD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units#Volcanic_Islands_.28Rx_200.29_Series)
Here are some numbers:
GT 525M: 230.4 GFLOPS
GT 640 4GB: 691.2 GFLOPS (there are many different GT 640 variants listed, but only one is available with 4GB ram)
GTX 650 2GB: 812.54 GFLOPS
GTX 760 2GB: 2257 GFLOPS
AMD R9 270: 2304 GFLOPS
Performance in games pretty much directly scales with the graphics card's processing power (GFLOPS), so that should give you some idea.
Post by: Sappho on August 29, 2014, 04:08:39 am
isn't the graphics card less good than the one I had picked? I've never used AMD, but at any rate the video card has less memory than the Nvidia one.Video card memory has precisely zip to do with its performance :D
You need a minimum amount to run a game, and after you have that any extra will just go unused.
If you want a good reference for performance, look up the model on wikipedia's big lists and look at the Processing Power / GFLOPS (FMA / single precision) (not "GFLOPS/W") column: nVidia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_600_Series) AMD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units#Volcanic_Islands_.28Rx_200.29_Series)
Here are some numbers:
GT 525M: 230.4 GFLOPS
GT 640 4GB: 691.2 GFLOPS (there are many different GT 640 variants listed, but only one is available with 4GB ram)
GTX 650 2GB: 812.54 GFLOPS
GTX 760 2GB: 2257 GFLOPS
AMD R9 270: 2304 GFLOPS
Performance in games pretty much directly scales with the graphics card's processing power (GFLOPS), so that should give you some idea.
Aha. That makes it much clearer, thank you.
What about this one, as a sort of middle ground option? http://www.alza.cz/asus-g10ac-d1637826.htm
I think I could afford that one by November, December latest... Le sigh... At least time goes by quickly.
Post by: Thief^ on August 29, 2014, 06:12:46 am
Thankfully the difference in this case* isn't massive, only 16% less powerful, but I thought I should point it out.
*(unlike the GT 730, where the "128-bit DDR3" version is 268.8 GFLOPS vs 692.7 for the "64-bit DDR3" and "GDDR5" versions, which is less than half as powerful but named the same for no clear reason. They're all retail cards as well, it's not an OEM vs retail difference in that case.)
After all that... Yes that's a very nice PC.
EDIT: Just found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaROVgNrOyw
Might be relevant?
Post by: Sappho on August 29, 2014, 07:06:37 am
...and there's one of the great tricks computer builders use to save money: The GTX 760 (OEM version) is a less powerful card than the GTX 760 (retail version), but has the same name. That computer has the former, which is 1896 GFLOPS vs 2257 of the retail card. In this case you can tell by the ram, the OEM version is available in 1.5 GB and 3 GB, the retail one in 2 GB and 4 GB (yes this means the 2 GB card is better than the 3 GB one). This is one of the advantages of looking at the wikipedia listing, benchmark tests normally only test retail cards so you'd get an inaccurately high impression.
Thankfully the difference in this case* isn't massive, only 16% less powerful, but I thought I should point it out.
*(unlike the GT 730, where the "128-bit DDR3" version is 268.8 GFLOPS vs 692.7 for the "64-bit DDR3" and "GDDR5" versions, which is less than half as powerful but named the same for no clear reason. They're all retail cards as well, it's not an OEM vs retail difference in that case.)
After all that... Yes that's a very nice PC.
EDIT: Just found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaROVgNrOyw
Might be relevant?
Well, in that video, the card certainly seems to run just fine, although it's obviously not using any shader packs or anything like that.
In any case, the GTX 760 (any version) seems to be a lot more powerful than the GT640. The real question is, is it enough of a difference that it's worth paying almost 50% more for it (bearing in mind that this will be a difference of at least one, possibly two months of work in order to afford it)? Will the cheaper one run Minecraft with high graphics settings and a shader pack? If it will, I may go with that one for now, and save up for a better card in the future, since that seems to be the only major difference between the two machines. I mean, is that stronger video card alone worth another half a month's salary, all by itself? And do I actually *need* it to do what I want to do?
EDIT: Actually, I found a video for that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYGTLF_7EKg
It seems it will run, although it's really just at the limit with a good shader pack. I could use a "lite" shader pack and I imagine it will work fine. This would allow me to get the computer at least a month or two sooner, and during that time I can actually be using it and enjoying it, and later on I can always save up for a new video card if I decide I really need it to be that fancy.
Thoughts?
Post by: Sappho on August 29, 2014, 07:21:49 am
However, that AMD card, on its own, costs less than 5,000 kc: http://www.alza.cz/EN/amd-radeon-r9-270-graphics-card/18854783.htm
In which case, I will not only be able to get my computer sooner if I go with the cheaper one, I'll also be able to get the AMD card in the future -- and in total, it will cost me LESS money than getting either of the more expensive computers.
Am I missing anything here? Or has that information just made my choice very easy?
Post by: Thief^ on August 29, 2014, 09:15:25 am
At that price, you could even have someone else put in the card for you, and it still work out much cheaper.
Post by: Sappho on August 29, 2014, 10:08:35 am
EDIT: Building an *entire* computer is different than upgrading a video card, though. I tried it once, bent a pin, and when I powered it on, everything fried instantly. Not ever doing that again! So much money down the drain...
Post by: Jopax on August 29, 2014, 10:23:29 am
Post by: Sappho on August 29, 2014, 10:26:43 am
Post by: MaximumZero on August 29, 2014, 10:26:52 am
I think I could probably manage installing a video card. Doesn't it just come down to "take out old card, put new one in slot"? If not, then yeah, I'd have someone do it for me. : ) But anyway, that's a long ways down the road. I'll be happy if I can play Minecraft with the distance settings up to "far" and all the smooth lighting effects.Turn computer off, unplug computer from power, ground yourself on something metal (get rid of static electricity,) open the case, unplug card, pull card out, put new card in, make sure it fits right, plug in new card, close case, plug computer back in, turn computer on, play.
EDIT: Building an *entire* computer is different than upgrading a video card, though. I tried it once, bent a pin, and when I powered it on, everything fried instantly. Not ever doing that again! So much money down the drain...
Post by: Rose on August 29, 2014, 10:34:53 am
wonder why there's no video, lookup the motherboard's beep codes, re-insert the videocard, re-insert all the ram, rage, despair.I think I could probably manage installing a video card. Doesn't it just come down to "take out old card, put new one in slot"? If not, then yeah, I'd have someone do it for me. : ) But anyway, that's a long ways down the road. I'll be happy if I can play Minecraft with the distance settings up to "far" and all the smooth lighting effects.Turn computer off, unplug computer from power, ground yourself on something metal (get rid of static electricity,) open the case, unplug card, pull card out, put new card in, make sure it fits right, plug in new card, close case, plug computer back in, turn computer on, play.
EDIT: Building an *entire* computer is different than upgrading a video card, though. I tried it once, bent a pin, and when I powered it on, everything fried instantly. Not ever doing that again! So much money down the drain...
Post by: Jopax on August 29, 2014, 10:51:18 am
Blogger? That one is very easy to use, and free, though it is controlled by Google, so beware!
Eh, they have most of my stuff and so far have done nothing with it, I'll give it a shot, thanks :D
Post by: Caz on August 29, 2014, 12:51:46 pm
Post by: Karkov on August 29, 2014, 01:19:19 pm
Also, from what I've seen, they're still coming out with faster versions of DDR3, so that'll probably delay the process as well.
*Technology meaning the 128-bit OS at this point.
Post by: MagmaMcFry on August 29, 2014, 01:28:05 pm
I think Clockwork Empires is the first thing to actually begin using more than one core on your CPU at onceDude, multithreading was implemented and used decades before multicore CPUs even existed.
Post by: Karkov on August 29, 2014, 01:38:36 pm
(though don't quote me on that. I could just be thinking gaming technology)>_> I don't even know, man. All that I know is most games (maybe not all programs per se) don't use multi-threading to the best of their abilities. I've seen a ton of them just snag one core and sit there and chew on it all day, instead of the sane way of divvying itself out over multiple.
Post by: Descan on August 29, 2014, 01:43:11 pm
Post by: MagmaMcFry on August 29, 2014, 02:39:48 pm
It may be sane in terms of processing, but it's insane to code. Like literally, eldritch beings look at multi-core coders and go "Dude. Chill."Adding a worker thread or five to speed up strongly separated tasks is easy to code, and a hierarchical setup of threads is okay too, but never shall you ever make two threads that both need to know about each other and try to make them do any task faster than a single thread would.
Post by: Azerty on August 31, 2014, 04:48:40 pm
On the computer I'm using because the WLan Device was shutting down because of overheating on my main computer, the battery refuses, since yesterday, to charge, even if the operating system read a value lesser than 100% to the battery's charge.
Data:
- Operating system: Windows 7
- Computer: HP EliteBook 6930p
Post by: Sappho on August 31, 2014, 05:02:12 pm
If it's not old and the battery isn't damaged or worn out, then I'm afraid I don't know.
Post by: Azerty on August 31, 2014, 06:24:38 pm
How old is the computer, and how old is the battery? My old laptop (6 years old) doesn't really charge anymore. Batteries have a finite lifespan. I just have to leave it plugged in all the time to use it.
If it's not old and the battery isn't damaged or worn out, then I'm afraid I don't know.
This computer was handed to me, brand new, in 2009.
(Aside note, my main laptop, which has no WiFi access without a WLen device, came to my house in 2009 as second hand - its BIOS is from 2005 and its battery was already worn out.)
EDIT: The battery lost 5% of power during Saturday and Sunday, which will give to the battery 40 days before being down.
Post by: Thief^ on September 01, 2014, 03:55:44 am
Anyone know when DDR4 ram-using motherboards will appear?
Anywhere between 2-10 years.Now: https://www.google.co.uk/#q=ddr4&tbm=shop&tbs=vw:l,cat:289
Depends on when we get a 128-bit OS and everything starts upgrading to match it. So far there haven't been many pieces of software that even need that level of technology.*There will likely never be a 128-bit* OS for home use. 64-bit is already such an insane space (it's not double the 32-bit limit of <4GB, it's squared). The most powerful supercomputer in the world has 1 PB of RAM (that's one million gigabytes), which only requires 50 bits to address. You would need a computer 16,000 times the size before the 64-bit limit became a problem!
*Technology meaning the 128-bit OS at this point.
*measuring by address space. If you want to measure register size instead, we're already past 128-bit: The most recent cpus have 256-bit vector registers (4x64 bit / 8x32 bit).
I think Clockwork Empires is the first thing to actually begin using more than one core on your CPU at once (though don't quote me on that. I could just be thinking gaming technology)The xbox 360 was a 3 core / 6 thread machine, so as a result pretty much every game that came out on it will use more than one core, even in the PC port. Unreal Engine 3 did, so pretty much every game made with that will use multiple cores. What games are struggling with is pushing past the "easy" method of putting each main game system onto a thread: Game logic, rendering, physics, audio, data streaming... That only takes you so far and scales really badly. Taking any one of those subsystems and making it multithreaded? That's hard.
and I still haven't heard of anything other than a Minecraft server using over 4 GBs of RAM.The reason for that is that so many gamers still have 32-bit PCs. You wouldn't want to exclude a large chunk of your market, it might impact sales. That said, Minecraft itself needs 64-bit Java to run reliably on Far render distance, especially if you play with mods.
Also, from what I've seen, they're still coming out with faster versions of DDR3, so that'll probably delay the process as well.They are all non-standard. The fastest official DDR3 specification is DDR3-2133. Anything higher is not guaranteed compatible.
Post by: Azerty on September 01, 2014, 07:18:52 am
EDIT: This problem diseappeared as mysteriously as it appeared after I made my hand wander anew below by computer - anew because, while, at Saturday, I serarched for the button to activate WiFi, I too wandered my hand below.
Post by: gimlet on September 01, 2014, 10:06:14 am
Post by: Azerty on September 01, 2014, 02:01:52 pm
Some laptops have logic to save wear and tear on the battery by not charging it until it goes below X% discharged. Otherwise apparently all the tiny discharge/recharge when you leave it plugged in for a long time wear the battery out quicker. So possibly that's what's happening?
My laptop normally charge even for 1% missing in power.
And this problem came back - maybe because my computer is very hot.
Post by: Sappho on September 02, 2014, 12:46:20 pm
Starting a few days ago, every time I start up my computer I get an error message saying Windows Desktop Gadgets has stopped working, followed by the error message "The Instruction at 0xf3513edb refrenced memory at 0xffffffff. The memory could not be read."
I've tried Google, but nothing works. I actually do use the gadgets: the weather, currency converter, and CPU/RAM monitor. I know there are other programs that can do these things, but having them all in one place was very convenient. I don't understand what went wrong. I haven't really changed anything in the system. I've restarted many times, but nothing works. Even if I try to open the Desktop Gadgets window in the control panel, I get the error message displayed above.
Any ideas?
Post by: MaximumZero on September 02, 2014, 01:02:21 pm
Post by: Thief^ on September 02, 2014, 01:07:06 pm
Have you tried increasing your virtual memory (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/change-virtual-memory-size#1TC=windows-7)?That's irrelevant. It's most likely just a bug in the gadgets. Possibly investigate if it's possible to reset them?
Post by: Sappho on September 02, 2014, 02:08:52 pm
EDIT: Windows Movie Maker is now giving me a similar error when I try to open it. Normally I don't use it (I have Premiere CS5), but I was trying to convert something quickly that Premiere was having trouble opening, and it won't open. Ahhhh, Windows. Aren't you just delightful.
Post by: Tellemurius on September 02, 2014, 08:39:38 pm
It doesn't seem to be. All the reports I've been able to find of other people having this problem get the same answer: "system restore." Nooooooope.Recommend System Restore as it sounds like a system DLL issue.
EDIT: Windows Movie Maker is now giving me a similar error when I try to open it. Normally I don't use it (I have Premiere CS5), but I was trying to convert something quickly that Premiere was having trouble opening, and it won't open. Ahhhh, Windows. Aren't you just delightful.
Post by: Thief^ on September 03, 2014, 03:49:37 am
All the reports I've been able to find of other people having this problem get the same answer: "system restore." Nooooooope.
As an alternative to system restore, try this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833
Post by: Sappho on September 03, 2014, 05:46:03 am
All the reports I've been able to find of other people having this problem get the same answer: "system restore." Nooooooope.
As an alternative to system restore, try this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833
Thanks for that. I'll have a look when I get home. I'm not going to do a system restore; I'd lose too much and can't be sure of getting everything properly backed up first. Considering I only need to last a few more months with this machine, it doesn't seem worth it.
EDIT: Well, I ran the scan and it didn't find any problems. I suppose I give up for now. I don't know what happened. I haven't done anything to the system...
Post by: ancistrus on September 03, 2014, 11:04:14 am
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The screen freezes and I have to reset.
The first picture shows the screen moments after freezing.
The second picture shows how it looks like several seconds later.
Eventually the screen goes almost completely white.
The symptoms, especially the weird horizontal line, seem to be always the same.
I obviously couldn't make a screenshoot of a crashed computer screen so i drew it.
Does anyone recognize this problem?
Post by: aenri on September 03, 2014, 11:14:24 am
Hi, lately when I play games, and only when I play games I experience this:Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The screen freezes and I have to reset.
The first picture shows the screen moments after freezing.
The second picture shows how it looks like several seconds later.
Eventually the screen goes almost completely white.
The symptoms, especially the weird horizontal line, seem to be always the same.
I obviously couldn't make a screenshoot of a crashed computer screen so i drew it.
Does anyone recognize this problem?
Graphic card overheating, possibly? It also could be GPU driver's fault, if you changed them. We will need more info about PC - the specs (CPU, GPU, the other stuff) also which games and is it random or more likely after some time spent playing game?
Post by: ancistrus on September 03, 2014, 11:47:03 am
Graphic card overheating, possibly? It also could be GPU driver's fault, if you changed them. We will need more info about PC - the specs (CPU, GPU, the other stuff) also which games and is it random or more likely after some time spent playing game?
Afaik it is completely random.
The games that crashed my computer in this manner so far were half life 2, europa universalis 3, age of empires 2, baldurs gate.
DF never does it.
Sorry for being so extensive, but I am not sure what to look for.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: aenri on September 03, 2014, 11:57:32 am
...
Well, we could start with upgrading your graphic drivers - they are from 2007, which is... pretty old.
Here (http://www2.ati.com/drivers/legacy/13-9-legacy_vista_win7_32_dd_ccc_whql.exe) are the latest (2013) drivers for that HD2400 card. I have that page bookmarked, because my notebook has HD2600 which is also really old card :).
For some offtopic -
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Sappho on September 04, 2014, 01:28:11 am
The new computer I'll be getting will come with Windows 8. Is that any better? I hope to Armok it isn't worse... Maybe it's time for me to learn how to use Linux... although I'd still need Windows for many things. : /
Post by: Thief^ on September 04, 2014, 05:39:08 am
What the fupping frig... How is it that Windows Defender and Windows Firewall keep turning themselves back on? I turn them off, everything is fine for a month or two, then suddenly they're back on again without my consent. What the crap? Windows Update occasionally does the same thing, too.Never heard of that, sorry. But then I have all those turned on myself (windows update turned down to let me tell it when to install (e.g. at shutdown time) rather than at the default 3am (which actually means during startup the following day when I really want to use the pc...))
The new computer I'll be getting will come with Windows 8. Is that any better? I hope to Armok it isn't worse... Maybe it's time for me to learn how to use Linux... although I'd still need Windows for many things. : /Yes, it's better. The new start "screen" instead of menu takes a little getting used to and many people dislike it, but if you tell it to boot directly to the desktop and use taskbar pinning of programs you'll almost never use it anyway. Make sure you install the 8.1 update if it doesn't come with it.
Windows Defender in 8 is a full virus checker, and a really good one at that (it's a renamed Microsoft Security Essentials, not related to Windows 7's defender at all).
Windows Firewall is also much better than it's normally given credit for, if you stick "advanced" into your start menu search box and click on "windows firewall with advanced security" you get the "advanced" interface, which is fantastic and puts pretty much all 3rd-party firewalls to shame (though obviously it's not for all users, it's quite complex).
Post by: Sappho on September 04, 2014, 07:05:30 am
EDIT: Also, it turns out that at work, my shiny new freshly reinstalled system has a pirated copy of Windows 7 on it. I keep getting nag windows telling me I need to get a legit version, and all my settings are undone every few minutes, so I can't customize anything. I know that software piracy is not something advocated on this site, but this is absolutely beyond my control -- the boss refuses to buy a legit copy of windows for me to use. If anyone has any thoughts on how to solve this situation, feel free to PM me... Thanks guys.
Post by: Aklyon on September 04, 2014, 07:32:50 am
Also yes, Microsoft Security Essentials works perfectly fine without pestering.
Post by: Sappho on September 04, 2014, 08:35:43 am
Post by: Thief^ on September 04, 2014, 09:18:48 am
Hm... I generally just keep the firewall off when I'm at home, and use Avast! for antivirus purposes. Could it be true that Microsoft actually made security software that actually works? Without pestering me with warnings and confirmations every five minutes? Can anyone confirm this?Yep. It's fantastic. See also SmartScreen (new in Windows 8 ): Checks new programs against the (huge) Microsoft software database to find trusted/dodgy/unknown software, and act as appropriate. Far more accurate than virus scanning :)
Defender is more of a backup to that, really, despite being one of the best virus scanners on the market.
EDIT: Also, it turns out that at work, my shiny new freshly reinstalled system has a pirated copy of Windows 7 on it. I keep getting nag windows telling me I need to get a legit version, and all my settings are undone every few minutes, so I can't customize anything. I know that software piracy is not something advocated on this site, but this is absolutely beyond my control -- the boss refuses to buy a legit copy of windows for me to use. If anyone has any thoughts on how to solve this situation, feel free to PM me... Thanks guys.Anonymously report them to the appropriate authority. As a developer, I'm of the opinion that pirating software isn't really ok, but I understand it for individuals as some stuff is (stupidly IMO) beyond the budget of a lot of individuals. For businesses however, there's no excuse. If you can afford to pay a salary you can afford to buy a software license.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/piracy/reporting/us.aspx
https://reporting.bsa.org/r/report/add.aspx?src=us&ln=en-us
(they may ignore it if it's only the one license)
Post by: Sappho on September 05, 2014, 01:24:52 am
I'm considering trying a boot loader, but I'm worried about either damaging files, or getting caught by Microsoft. : / What's worse, it doesn't even seem to be possible to buy a key for 7 anymore. Trying to do so on the Microsoft web site just takes me to a page advertising how much better 8 is and pushing me to upgrade. I can't find anywhere to just buy a replacement key for 7... : /
EDIT: Wait, can a key be used more than once? Maybe I could try my key from this computer. It's only been used once...
Post by: Rose on September 05, 2014, 01:27:29 am
Post by: Sappho on September 05, 2014, 02:36:41 am
Japa, could you possibly PM me with some details about such utilities? I don't want to anger the almighty Toad by discussing illicit activities out in the open.
Post by: Lord Shonus on September 05, 2014, 02:51:38 am
Post by: Thief^ on September 05, 2014, 11:30:51 am
In a larger company, I might do just that. I don't think it's feasible where I am, though. There are only about 10 people in this company, and I'm the only one with a pirated copy of Windows. If they got reported, it would be pretty obvious who did it. Having only just started this job and still trying to prove myself, it would not look good if I went behind their backs and reported them for software piracy. I do really love this job and I don't want to screw it up.How about telling them it's making it difficult for you to work? They don't have to buy you a legit version if they really don't want to (but come on, it's not that expensive) bit they should at least properly crack it for you...
Post by: Sappho on September 05, 2014, 12:20:42 pm
The guy who's directly above me in the pecking order said he'd try to convince the boss to get a legit copy for me, but basically he said nope, not giving money to Microsoft, and my boss sort of shrugged and said sorry, there's nothing I can do. I suppose I could ask permission to crack it myself, though I have a feeling they won't want me to do that out of fear for all the sensitive data that would be at risk. We use Google Drive for everything, so if something bad gets on one computer, everything could be fucked. Now, I think that using Google Drive for an entire business is an incredibly stupid idea, and we've already had several problems with it, but there's no convincing my boss that we should stick to FTP and normal file sharing even though most of us think that would be a much better system.
Le sigh. Again, I really do love my job. I get to write articles about video games and books and psychology and all kinds of fun stuff, and they're even letting me start my own YouTube channel where I review games officially for the magazine. But there are definitely some things that are kind of shitty.
Post by: Gentlefish on September 05, 2014, 06:57:45 pm
Post by: Alastar on September 06, 2014, 03:27:48 am
Not sure I'd recommend it to someone with no prior Linux experience thoug: She might need to use software not available/annoying to run on Linux, and the company may regard it as an unwanted complication. If interested, she could bring it up as a legal alternative that doesn't require any license fees, and see what reaction this gets.
Post by: Sappho on September 06, 2014, 03:37:08 am
Although one of the other people in the office asked if she could use her Mac, and they said no, because they weren't sure she'd be able to use all the software. But the only software I need for the job is Thunderbird, Chrome, LibreOffice (everyone else uses Microsoft Office 2010 but FUCK THAT), Skype, FileZilla, and Google Drive, all of which will presumably run on Linux without any complications, as long as the file extensions when I create documents are all the same. I'm a magazine editor, so all I mostly do is write and edit Word documents, which are stored on Google Drive, and communicate with Skype (which I hate but I can't get them to switch to anything better) and email.
They might say that they need all the computers the same, in case someone else needs to use mine. But I could counter that we already have a "guest editor" computer available, and that no one knows how to use my software anyway (they all use MS Office for mail and documents and Total Commander for FTP and all seem very nervous about me using other programs that they've never used before).
But I'll ask, and see what they say. I should make sure I know how to install it first, though. Can anyone point me to a good tutorial?
I should also probably wait until a day when I have time to mess around with it. At the moment I'm snowed under with work that they want me to get done ASAP (even though we have a month before it goes to print).
EDIT: Damn it, I'm getting more Microsoft glitches on my home computer. Now I can't access help files in Windows programs; it crashes immediately. Is there any way to fix all these problems (Windows Live Movie Maker and Desktop Gadgets crash when trying to open as well) without a system restore? I have no idea what caused this problem. The only thing I've installed recently, besides some Minecraft stuff, is Hamachi... Oh, and Letter Quest, a $1 game I grabbed off of IGS (not on Steam). I think that's everything...
Post by: Alastar on September 06, 2014, 11:59:47 am
Hm... That's not a bad idea at all. I don't have any experience with Linux, though. Is there an easy way to install it?Dead easy. If you want to retain Windows, you may have to make some free space for it (shrink the partition Windows is installed on from within Windows).
Linux is very modular though, you don't install "Linux", but a particular distribution. For a first attempt, I'd recommend Ubuntu or Linux Mint for a moderately fast machine (there are leaner alternative if your computer is underpowered or you simply consider most modern OSes bloated and excessive. Crunchbang is a very usable middleweight.). Detailed instructions are on the distribution's download pages.
Quote
Although one of the other people in the office asked if she could use her Mac, and they said no, because they weren't sure she'd be able to use all the software. But the only software I need for the job is Thunderbird, Chrome, LibreOffice (everyone else uses Microsoft Office 2010 but FUCK THAT), Skype, FileZilla, and Google Drive, all of which will presumably run on Linux without any complications, as long as the file extensions when I create documents are all the same. I'm a magazine editor, so all I mostly do is write and edit Word documents, which are stored on Google Drive, and communicate with Skype (which I hate but I can't get them to switch to anything better) and email.Sounds fine. Biggest problem should be MS Office and LibreOffice compatibility (MS Office formats are the equivalent of requiring all correspondence to be submitted spelled phonetically, with a Swahili accent, in Cockney Rhyming Slang). But if you use the former anyway that's not a concern.
Quote
They might say that they need all the computers the same, in case someone else needs to use mine. But I could counter that we already have a "guest editor" computer available, and that no one knows how to use my software anyway (they all use MS Office for mail and documents and Total Commander for FTP and all seem very nervous about me using other programs that they've never used before).Installation is so easy you won't need a tutorial. One nice thing about Linux is that most distributions work as live systems - you can use them directly off a CD or USB drive, most distribution come with basic things like a file manager, office package, image editor etc. out of the nonexisting box.
But I'll ask, and see what they say. I should make sure I know how to install it first, though. Can anyone point me to a good tutorial?
I should also probably wait until a day when I have time to mess around with it. At the moment I'm snowed under with work that they want me to get done ASAP (even though we have a month before it goes to print).
There is a speed penalty, but it's good enough to get a good first impression and check whether the distribution works well with your hardware without any fiddling.
Post by: Aklyon on September 06, 2014, 12:23:21 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on September 06, 2014, 12:30:36 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on September 06, 2014, 04:45:17 pm
Post by: Sappho on September 07, 2014, 05:59:44 am
Sappho, keys are reusable no matter what system. The trick is that Microsoft doesn't know that. If they ever ask what work was done with the computer just say you had warranty work done and the motherboard was replaced.
Anything that involves calling MS is pretty much out of the question. My computer is American and I'm trying to unlock an installation on a Czech computer, halfway around the world. I did try putting in my key and it said it wasn't a valid key, so I gave up. If I can't get Linux to run (or can't get them to allow me to use Linux), I'll just have to crack the installation of Windows. Those seem like the only two options for having a working system AND keeping my awesome job. : )
Post by: Arx on September 07, 2014, 12:23:29 pm
Thanks for all the tips, guys. I think I will give Linux a try, as long as I can keep Windows as well. I'll have to see how much hard drive space is on the computer. I know it has an i5 processor and a reasonable amount of RAM, so hopefully it can handle it.
MATE Mint runs fine on the machine I have taken to calling a toaster, with 2 gigabytes of RAM and 1.5 gigaHertz CPU.
Post by: MitchTheLich on September 07, 2014, 12:35:32 pm
Post by: Sappho on September 07, 2014, 01:34:52 pm
RemoveWAT is your friend!
I've heard bad things about that, actually. Not at all sure it's a good idea. From what I've heard, it hasn't even been supported for years, and people sometimes get nabbed by Microsoft for using it (something I can't risk at work).
In other news, my internet was out ALL FUCKING DAY today. I spent half the day trying to get tech support on the phone and getting the same recorded message over and over, "we're sorry, we don't have any English-speaking representatives available right now. Please leave your name and number and we'll call you back." I left only one message. After that, I didn't trust myself not to make death threats. This connection goes down all the frigging time, and they refuse to help me with it. When I signed the contract, they promised me 24-hour tech support in English. Fortunately, my contract runs out in another month or two. I can't wait to cancel this crap and sign up with another company that comes highly recommended by a coworker and actually *does* have English tech support.
So I think Linux is sounding like the way to go at work (I'm starting to consider using it at home as well -- does everything Minecraft-related run ok on it? What about Adobe Premiere?). I've heard of Ubuntu, so I'm guessing it's probably the most popular and, hopefully, therefore the simplest to set up? I don't know when I'll have time to do it, since I need to finish my current project first, but that's the plan, anyway. We'll see what my boss says about it...
Post by: Arx on September 07, 2014, 01:48:45 pm
As for installation, Mint was a matter of pushing the obvious buttons. Others shouldn't be worse.
Post by: Sappho on September 07, 2014, 02:10:01 pm
Post by: Rose on September 07, 2014, 02:12:38 pm
Post by: Arx on September 07, 2014, 02:26:53 pm
Especially premier software by a big-name company.
Post by: Sappho on September 08, 2014, 02:22:28 am
I got ahold of tech support for my ISP this morning. They said they can see all the outages on their history of my connection, but that it's not their fault. Their service is not going down, they said. In fact, they told me exactly the same thing they told me last time I complained about this (over a year ago): it must be my router.
Naturally, the warranty on my router is expired, so I'd have to buy a new one (not cheap, and I'm still saving up for my new computer). Before I invest in this, I want to check with you guys: is it really my router? Can that really be the case? This has been happening for over a year, and the outages are very irregular. Sometimes it will work fine for weeks. Sometimes it will go down for five minutes, five times in a single day. Yesterday, it was out for eight hours, then came back up and has worked perfectly since then.
I can't think of anyone who might lend me a spare router to check with. I could buy one and, if the outages continue, return it, but that's a lot of hassle and risk. So should I take that risk? Is it likely to solve my problems? Or are they feeding me a load of nonsense hoping to squeeze more money out of me?
Post by: LordSlowpoke on September 08, 2014, 02:57:00 am
did you do anything to the signal cable since it was installed? it's plausible that the parameters are all fucky
next time it happens, try unplugging it completely, waiting circa five min and plugging it back in
Post by: Sappho on September 08, 2014, 04:56:00 am
I haven't done anything to it, other than unplugging and restarting it many times. The thing that doesn't make sense to me is that this only happens some of the time. Most of the time it works just fine. If it was a problem with the router, wouldn't the interruptions be consistent? This ISP is famous for shitty customer service, so I don't trust their assessment at all unless someone here can confirm it. On the other hand, if I can fix the problems simply by buying a new router, it's definitely worth it...
Post by: Vattic on September 09, 2014, 02:39:17 pm
Post by: Sappho on September 09, 2014, 03:25:15 pm
Wish me luck, friends.
Post by: Sinistar on September 10, 2014, 03:27:53 pm
Monitoring the router traffic unsurprisingly requires the router to provide that ability. If you have a normal home router, you quite simply can't.
Have you tried rebooting the router when it happens? Simple home routers can be overloaded by the number of connections involved in bittorrent (or if they're terrible, normal use) and they won't recover until the connections expire, potentially hours later (even if the connections are closed).
I used to have a belkin router that had to be rebooted every 12 hours to function normally...
So I'm here again with the same problem, that is, our router traffic getting absolutely blocked.
The problem seemed to go away for some time but it's back again. The problem is it's present at very irregular intervals. What I did figure out or at least I have a strong suspicion is the problem appears to be one of the computers connected to router. I did some research and it seems quite possible that computer has some sort of trojan/virus that is raping our net. I personally do not have access to that computer so I can't check it myself, though Malwarebytes and some other program I can't remember right now scans were performed, to no obvious positive resaults. Here's my two questions then:
1) So is there any way I can check if my assumptions are right with some sort of software? I've just discovered Snort (https://www.snort.org), what's up with that?
2) What about changing router? Is there some commercial router that can monitor web traffic in real-time and doesn't cost an arm and a leg? Can't find anything at the moment. I don't need something complicated, no long-term data storage, just something that tells me how much any and all users contribute to traffic. Something that would also show what programs exactly are connected to net would be even better, but that's probably in the domain of ISP companies/NSA and the likes.
Post by: Karkov on September 10, 2014, 03:41:34 pm
As to capturing packets and identifying specific programs? Not really. You can see what kind of traffic is floating around and make educated guesses that way though. Just be careful when using Wireshark, catching public packets outside of your network, which it can do, is prosecutable in a court of law.
Post by: Thief^ on September 11, 2014, 03:54:15 am
Post by: Sinistar on September 11, 2014, 04:46:47 am
That's why I'm suspecting something nasty, something that somehow overrules all other connections, is on that computer.
That or the owner is lying to me but I'd like to believe this is not the case. So that's why I'm asking if there's some sort of software to make me 100% certain about this. :-\
Karkov: tried using Wireshark in the past, but found it too confusing. I might wanna try it again though. Thanks for suggestions.
Post by: Thief^ on September 11, 2014, 05:45:00 am
I still bet some kind of bittorrent client.
Post by: Gentlefish on September 11, 2014, 06:58:14 pm
Is there something I've done wrong? I've uninstalled the intel HD graphics driver on two separate occasions, but even after ensuring after reset that it's off, when I power up my new GPU, neither the on-board VGA socket nor the DVI sockets on my new card work.
Post by: Karkov on September 11, 2014, 07:06:29 pm
Post by: Gentlefish on September 11, 2014, 07:14:20 pm
Post by: Karkov on September 11, 2014, 07:25:43 pm
If it's absolutely not displaying anything at anytime, then I really want to say it's a defect with the card or the port on the card that you're trying to plug the cables into. It might also be the fault of the slot that the card is plugged into (although I doubt that since the card switches off the integrated GPU, meaning that something is at least getting transferred). Kinda hard to be able to test stuff without physically being able to manipulate it.
Post by: Gentlefish on September 11, 2014, 07:31:52 pm
I mean, the fans on the GPU spin up on power up so it's getting power and -is- getting read by the machine which shuts down the iGPU. It's just... Not giving anything out through either DVI slot.
Post by: Sappho on September 21, 2014, 03:28:43 pm
I updated my NVIDIA Geforce drivers to the latest version, trying to fix some of the glitchiness in my computer. It did actually fix some things: the desktop gadgets and other Windows programs started working again. However, other things broke. Adobe Premiere started having big problems, and RaidCall crashed on launch. So I rolled back to a slightly earlier version of the drivers. RaidCall works now, along with Minecraft, everything quite smooth -- but OBS no longer works. When I try to run it, I get the error "could not get DXGI adapter." A quick look at the Googles tells me this has something to do with DirectX, and also that at least one other person encountered the same error by updating NVIDIA Geforce drivers (but the issue was not solved).
I'm getting a bit frustrated with this video card. I know it's not exactly high-end, but how is it that new drivers keep breaking things? Anyone have a recommendation on how to fix this? I really need OBS to work. My main activity when playing Minecraft is making videos, so that has to work. It worked fine before, but now I don't know what set of drivers I was using (I think they were quite old). Do I just have to install one set after another until I find one that works? (FYI I did a clean install of the drivers, removing the previous version first.)
Post by: Aklyon on September 21, 2014, 03:38:38 pm
Post by: Sappho on September 21, 2014, 04:09:49 pm
Post by: Gentlefish on September 21, 2014, 04:57:29 pm
New MOBO on the way from newegg now.
Post by: Karkov on September 22, 2014, 12:34:42 pm
Post by: Gentlefish on September 22, 2014, 07:35:05 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on September 23, 2014, 12:06:57 am
Post by: Gentlefish on September 23, 2014, 12:30:49 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on September 23, 2014, 05:47:01 pm
Post by: Gentlefish on September 23, 2014, 07:28:26 pm
Post by: i2amroy on September 23, 2014, 07:49:18 pm
Is there a way to make programs default to looking in their own directory for files? I prefer self-contained organization (as an example, my DnD folder (with all the images I use for Maptool) is in C:\Games\DnD, with TokenTool in C:\Games\DND\Tokentool) to having everything throwing everything in Documents for the sake of portability and having it look neater. I assume that it's some Windows default setting to have everything look in "C:\Users\User\Documents" first, is there a way I can just change it to "\" (look in the folder you're in) or ".." (look one folder up)? Windows 7.Really depends on the programs that you are using. Each program will be coded to look in specific places for things, and if they don't find them there they will freak. Some programs let you change those places, but many do not (or already just look where they are installed). There isn't any sort of "generic setting for all programs" though, so if that's what you were hoping for you are out of luck.
That said a fair number of programs automatically look in the files they are in, so unless it made another folder somewhere else it should be fine just dragging it to it's new location.
(Unless you are talking about the "open a file" window, which is a completely different story.)
Post by: Lord Shonus on September 23, 2014, 09:06:47 pm
Post by: Vattic on September 24, 2014, 02:25:16 am
That said a fair number of programs automatically look in the files they are in, so unless it made another folder somewhere else it should be fine just dragging it to it's new location.I was under the impression that this was not the case these days with the programs folders on Windows having more restrictive file permissions.
Post by: Thief^ on September 24, 2014, 04:15:15 am
Wonderful. Going to be taking it back to radioshack, but is there a reason for a mobo to show signs of power and not actually respond to the power switch? I'm positive I had everything plugged in, but the bottom row of stuff was hard for me to decipher.
It probably means that you haven't plugged the power switch in correctly. Those pin headers are a pain to work out, sometimes.
What model's the motherboard? We might be able to help.
Post by: LordSlowpoke on September 24, 2014, 04:48:57 am
last time i took the mobo out it took me so long to get the pins right that i were close to shouting what people in infomercials do, at least i had the pin box layout device printed out underneath it in font so small i had to take a picture of it with eightfold zoom to see them worth a damn
that's just random whining though, my issue is that select programs (f.ex. firefox, byond, others) take aeons to start up as in at all
malwarebytes in safemode gave nothing, though for some reason flicking the network card on and off makes firefox start on an at all basis and then it works fine? mysterious shit, i'll give more data once i get home
oh, and the os is win8 32bit, it's not my own rig so
Post by: gimlet on September 24, 2014, 09:35:13 am
The MOST important one when you're putting together a PC is the speaker connection - hook up a speaker (piezo speaker is like $1-$2 on ebay search "motherboard speaker") and you can hear the boot "beep codes" - this can VERY often point right to why a PC won't boot. I really really really REALLY recommend everyone putting together a PC (or even working on one much) installs one of these, it has the potential to fix that "uhh why won't it boot" immediately. And you really only ever need to buy 1 in your entire life, just keep stealing it back whenever you get rid of that pc, attach it to the next.
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but is there a reason for a mobo to show signs of power and not actually respond to the power switch?Please give more description of exactly what happens: Do the motherboard lights come on? Does the cpu fan start? Does it stay on?
Make SURE the memory and video card are really seated firmly, especially the memory takes a lot more force than you'd reasonably expect. Sometimes I put it in before mounting the motherboard because I don't like how much the motherboard flexes while doing it. Or slide a wooden dowel under the mobo to support it under the memory while inserting.
And you attached the 4 pin power cable above the CPU right?
Post by: Akura on September 24, 2014, 02:00:50 pm
Post by: Gentlefish on September 24, 2014, 07:24:46 pm
It's an Acer H61M-E mobo, a little smaller than I thought, heh. I had to swap around the SATA cables for my HDD and DVD-drive so the inlines plugged into the motherboard for my graphics card to even fit right.
Post by: gimlet on September 24, 2014, 09:44:27 pm
It should all have been diagrammed in the mobo manual, that thing is really worth a read...
Post by: Gentlefish on September 24, 2014, 09:51:57 pm
The actual name of the pins now that I'm home is called the "front panel connector".
Post by: gimlet on September 24, 2014, 09:54:21 pm
I assume it's an "ASUS H61M-E" not Acer? If so there's a copy of the manual at http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/H61M-E/E9094_H61M-E.pdf
Post by: Gentlefish on September 24, 2014, 10:04:55 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on September 26, 2014, 05:13:07 pm
Problem: When I plug in the headphone and USB, they work fine as headphones. When I plug in the microphone cable, all hell breaks loose. Echoing and static are loud and dominant, no matter which mic jack I use. Wat do? I just want to yell at pubscrubs on TF2 and do silly things with vocaroo. Halp, internets!
Post by: Carnwennan on September 27, 2014, 09:41:11 pm
Unfortunately, I've moved into Uni halls of residence and, for some reason, they've decided to block all gaming-related websites for all students (this includes steam, which I'm not at all happy about since it means I can't play the games I payed for). They also blocked teamspeak, so I can't play with my friends. What I wanted to know was if anyone could recommend a proxy service or something that would let me get around the block.
Post by: Carnwennan on September 27, 2014, 09:42:01 pm
Post by: i2amroy on September 28, 2014, 01:14:44 pm
Which is the way a lot of things like proxies and for end up working as, they won't be able to totally stop you or see what you are doing, but they can certainly tell that you are doing something that they would probably disapprove of (and which may lead to punishments on its own).
My best advice would be to look around and see if you can find a restaurant with free wifi to eat at on Friday nights, or possibly look into setting up a gathering system with your phone (which may cost extra depending on your phone provider, model, etc.).
Post by: gimlet on September 28, 2014, 02:06:33 pm
Post by: Carnwennan on September 28, 2014, 02:36:12 pm
I don't have a smartphone but I've been thinking of upgrading anyway, so if I can't find anywhere I'll get a contract I think. I think I can set something up as to not eat too much bandwidth on the phone...
Again, thanks for the advice!
Post by: gimlet on September 28, 2014, 02:55:32 pm
Lots of alternatives in here: http://lifehacker.com/5974761/how-to-choose-the-fastest-cheapest-and-most-reliable-mobile-hotspot-to-stay-connected-everywhere-you-go/all although it's a few months old...
Post by: Tellemurius on September 28, 2014, 03:23:03 pm
Post by: i2amroy on September 28, 2014, 04:51:24 pm
Post by: Carnwennan on September 28, 2014, 05:22:48 pm
Post by: Aklyon on September 28, 2014, 07:13:44 pm
Post by: Kadzar on September 28, 2014, 08:58:39 pm
Post by: Gentlefish on September 28, 2014, 10:44:04 pm
Is it possible for my front panel connectors to be incompatible? That's the only other reason other than a DOA motherboard that I can think of for NOT HAVING MY FUCKING POWER BUTTON WORK.
I mean, I'm going to probably end up taking everything back to Radioshack to get it all tested. But. Seriously. It shouldn't be this hard.
Post by: gimlet on September 29, 2014, 12:08:57 am
Oh, option 2 is to swap the way the reset and power switches are connected - you can use one as the other, there's not really an electrical difference just the confusion when you try to remember which is which...
Post by: Gentlefish on September 29, 2014, 12:11:45 am
Post by: gimlet on September 29, 2014, 12:19:43 am
- didn't attach the 4 pin power connector near the cpu
- memory not fully seated, or in wrong slots (ie 2 sticks should be in A1 and A2, not A1 and B2, (depending on how the manual labels 'em)) Always try it with just 1 stick, in the mem slot closest to the cpu
- video card or other pcie card not fully seated
- bad memory - tough to test it if it won't boot at all though... ED: Try 1 stick as above, then any others 1 by 1....
ED2: And make sure it's not displaying to onboard video if it has one, a lot do that and you have to explicitly tell them to use a video card.
So what happens - does the cpu fan start? Or nothing?
Post by: Gentlefish on September 29, 2014, 12:40:24 am
-Memory's fully seated. I'm not gentle on pressing down.
-No pcie cards put in (this time around)
-Memory's all good. I'm using it all on the old MoBo I'm trying to replace.
It's simply not turning on. No beeps, no whirring fans. Simply no response from the power button.
Post by: gimlet on September 29, 2014, 12:58:29 am
If the power supply has a 115-220 switch, make sure it's in the right position, that's kind of rare now though, they all auto-sense.
No motherboard speaker hooked up right? If you're gonna be in Radio Shack, I think they're like $5 or so - ask for "motherboard speaker", then you can listen to the beep codes, that can really save time narrowing down boot problems. Or $1/$2 on ebay, but you'd have to wait a bit.
Oh, last simple (ugly) possibility is a bent pin on the cpu. I fixed one once that wasn't TOO far off, never succeeded with one that was seriously bent but other people apparently have.
Post by: Gentlefish on September 29, 2014, 01:51:55 am
And none of the pins -appear- to be bent. And it's not like the motherboard itself isn't receiving power. There's one place where it asks for a screw but there isn't a hole behind it on the case but that's just because it's a smaller board than the one in there, it otherwise fits perfectly. It couldn't be that one screw could it? And it'd at least complain about missing a CPU fan and not just start up right? I'd get some sort of error instead of it flat out refusing to power on?
Post by: Carnwennan on September 29, 2014, 08:13:03 am
Can't you just use another VoIP service, like Skype or whatever?
We've got another guy in our group that can't connect to Skype well, and Google Hangouts is just as bad, TS was the best for everyone.
Post by: gimlet on September 29, 2014, 11:02:39 am
Quote
It couldn't be that one screw could it?No, you can leave a few out.
Quote
beeps on startup.Yay! Thank you for having a mobo speaker :D How many beeps? And distinguish between long and short beeps, there's a difference. If it's just one beep (normal start up) then hmmm. Otherwise, what brand/model mobo, the codes are different between manufacturers.
Quote
And it'd at least complain about missing a CPU fan and not just start up right? I'd get some sort of error instead of it flat out refusing to power on?I didn't understand this bit - are you saying you don't have a CPU fan? Actually I think it won't start if the CPU fan isn't plugged in to the CPU Fan connector, I think I remember that from when I plugged a cpu fan into the wrong header - it really HAS to go specifically into the one labelled "CPU Fan". Hmm although ASUS looks like they have a "CPU Fan" beep code - so yeah, ASUS should give the beep code error. Also make sure there's nothing keeping the CPU fan from spinning, wires get caught in there annoyingly easily :p
I asked about the CPU fan spinning 'cause there's a difference between the 3 cases: CPU fan never spins, CPU fan starts for a second then stops, and CPU fan starts and keeps running.
Post by: Gentlefish on September 29, 2014, 01:37:02 pm
Post by: Karkov on September 29, 2014, 01:40:14 pm
Post by: Gentlefish on September 29, 2014, 02:56:00 pm
Post by: gimlet on September 29, 2014, 10:57:34 pm
Then yea taking mobo/PSU to be tested is probably the least annoying next step...
Ed: You're 100% sure the cpu and mobo are compatible right? The only other thing I could think of is that slightly older mobos sometimes need a bios flash to use newer cpus, that's a colossal PITA catch-22...
Post by: Gentlefish on September 29, 2014, 11:06:24 pm
Post by: gimlet on September 29, 2014, 11:53:26 pm
What is the mobo model and cpu, anyway? You can google to see if people have been having these kinds of problems with that combination.
Post by: Chattox on October 02, 2014, 04:40:27 pm
I currently have 6GB of what I assume is DDR3 RAM, but I have no idea of specifics. It's in 3 sticks of 2GB, leaving one slot of 4 open which I'm told isn't a great thing to do anyway. I want to upgrade, most likely to 2 sticks of 4GB, but I have no idea what my motherboard is and isn't compatible with.
According to the manufacturer's website (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3653#sp), my motherboard can support up to 1333MHz of whatever it is, but the lowest I can find on my components seller of choice is 1600MHz. Will this still work?
Specifically, I'm looking at this (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-033-TG&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517). Can my motherboard support this RAM?
Post by: Thief^ on October 03, 2014, 03:38:50 am
So yes, it should work.
Your motherboard's manual (available for download (http://download.gigabyte.ru/manual/mb_manual_ga-p67a(ph67a)(ph67)-ud3_e.pdf)) will say which two slots you should use first. It'll either be the two closest to the cpu, or first and third.
EDIT: I looked, on page 16 of the manual it has a table titled "Dual Channel Memory Configurations Table" which says to use slots 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 if you're using two modules.
Three modules (like you had) will most likely have disabled dual-channel mode, which will have unnecessarily halved your performance :)
Post by: Chattox on October 03, 2014, 06:50:50 am
which will have unnecessarily halved your performance
...This explains so much. Ordering that RAM now, thankyou so much :D
Post by: gimlet on October 03, 2014, 08:37:38 am
Also the cheap way to upgrade would be to buy 1 more stick of the 2G - but you really want the same brand/same exact model of memory that's in there already. The only downside is that it will fill all 4 slots, but you'll probably not be adding more memory for a while after you've got 8G.
And whichever mem you pick, DO run a memtest on it when you get it - at least a few hours and preferably overnight, that way you can find if it's got a problem while you're still in the return period... Easiest way is to DL a Live Linux like Ubuntu, or something like Hirens Boot CD with a bunch of utilities. You don't have to boot to linux, the memtest should be right on the boot menu.
Post by: Chattox on October 03, 2014, 09:50:11 am
EDIT: I assume I couldn't leave 2 sticks of 2GB in to get 12GB, could I?
Post by: gimlet on October 03, 2014, 10:13:29 am
You really need something bootable, like a USB stick or cd/dvd, because memtest runs instead of an operating system so you can't start it from Windows. There should really be zero possibility of any kind of damage from booting from a Live Linux/Hirens type utility USB/cd/dvd - just don't run the dangerous stuff that makes changes to your system, stick to harmless diagnostics like memtest.
Actually, memtest86+ has a thing to create a bootable USB stick, that is probably the best option, you don't need to download a gigabyte of linux or utilities you're not interested in - http://www.memtest.org/ downloads, "Auto-installer for USB Key (Win 9x/2k/xp/7) *NEW!*".
You *might* be able to do that to get 12G, but it's recommended not to mix different models of ram. And going from 8G->12G almost certainly won't give you much gains, unless you're running one of a few very specific memory-hungry applications. Oh and you do have a 64 bit version of Windows right? Otherwise it's only gonna use (a bit less than) 4G no matter how much physical ram you put in...
Post by: Chattox on October 03, 2014, 10:38:20 am
Heh, you say "ancient", I say "burned in and known to work" ;D Really, if it's working it's good, buying even the fastest possible brand new memory would only have a small potential performance improvement.
You really need something bootable, like a USB stick or cd/dvd, because memtest runs instead of an operating system so you can't start it from Windows. There should really be zero possibility of any kind of damage from booting from a Live Linux/Hirens type utility USB/cd/dvd - just don't run the dangerous stuff that makes changes to your system, stick to harmless diagnostics like memtest.
Actually, memtest86+ has a thing to create a bootable USB stick, that is probably the best option, you don't need to download a gigabyte of linux or utilities you're not interested in - http://www.memtest.org/ downloads, "Auto-installer for USB Key (Win 9x/2k/xp/7) *NEW!*".
You *might* be able to do that to get 12G, but it's recommended not to mix different models of ram. And going from 8G->12G almost certainly won't give you much gains, unless you're running one of a few very specific memory-hungry applications. Oh and you do have a 64 bit version of Windows right? Otherwise it's only gonna use (a bit less than) 4G no matter how much physical ram you put in...
Yeah, 64-bit here. I'll try Hirens again, thanks :)
Post by: MrWiggles on October 03, 2014, 11:29:33 am
And for whatever reason the built in keyboard stopped working. So I got a usb one, as short term solution. But the built in one was giving a lot of eranious input.
So I went to the device manager, and tried to disable the ps/2 keyboard. That wasn't selectable. So I uninstall its driver...
And that seem to have just disabled any keyboard inputs and now the mouse thinks its left click is a right click.
How fucked am i?
Post by: miauw62 on October 03, 2014, 01:17:09 pm
And MrWiggles, unless you have a driver CD, probably very.
Post by: Tellemurius on October 03, 2014, 01:45:12 pm
Also, I've heard being said that it's better to have 4/8/16 gigs of RAM than 6/12. Not sure how true it is, though. I have 16 gigs.Considering those that use the 6/12/24 scheme are Triple Channel controllers i highly doubt it since they have access to more bandwidth than a dual channel controller that dominates the mainstream market.
And MrWiggles, unless you have a driver CD, probably very.
Post by: Sappho on October 04, 2014, 02:14:49 am
Interestingly, the built-in speakers work fine, as do my external speakers. I only encounter a problem when I try to plug in the headset. It won't recognize it at all, neither the headphones nor the microphone. I need to record a video for work today (absolutely must have this done) and I can't. It's a very serious problem. Any advice or suggestions are gratefully accepted... I already tried uninstalling and reinstalling the audio drivers to no avail.
EDIT: After further testing, it seems that it's the microphone jack that's broken. If I plug in speakers or headphones, they work fine, but the moment I plug in the microphone, both jacks go dead.
EDIT2: Okay, downgrading the NVIIDA drivers seems to have solved the Realtek problem, although one of my desktop gadgets is now broken again. It's astonishing how thoroughly these drivers can mess up my system. I keep hearing from everyone how important it is to have the most up-to-date video drivers... Apparently not if you use the NVIDIA Geforce.
Post by: Thief^ on October 06, 2014, 04:56:30 am
EDIT: I assume I couldn't leave 2 sticks of 2GB in to get 12GB, could I?
If you put the two 4GB in the first and third slots (i.e. the first slot of each channel) and the 2GB sticks in the other two, then it should not only work but also keep dual-channel mode enabled :)
Ideally you want to match the ram timings, but most decent motherboards should take the lowest common denominator between mismatched ram anyway.
Post by: Chattox on October 06, 2014, 08:41:33 am
Also, not a single blue-screen so far, which I thought was down to my harddrive but was apparently my RAM. Thanks a ton, guys :)
Post by: miauw62 on October 06, 2014, 09:48:52 am
Post by: Thief^ on October 06, 2014, 09:59:37 am
Post by: Rose on October 06, 2014, 10:22:44 am
Some of it is shared, though.
Post by: Thief^ on October 07, 2014, 04:24:10 am
Post by: Kingbodz on October 07, 2014, 06:52:04 pm
Post by: Gentlefish on October 07, 2014, 07:04:54 pm
Post by: Chattox on October 13, 2014, 07:59:58 am
Thanks again :)
EDIT: Okay, so I'm looking at getting 2 of these (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-010-AO&groupid=17&catid=949). They come with a DVI-D connection, and after some googling it appears that you can plug a DVI-D into a DVI-I socket and have it work fine, which would allow me to have both monitors plugged in via DVI-D, in theory. Would this work?
Post by: miauw62 on October 13, 2014, 09:25:03 am
E.g. Both the MBR and partition table are fucked.
What do?
Post by: MagmaMcFry on October 13, 2014, 10:23:59 am
Hey-ho, I'm back with my quest to slowly upgrade my computer! This time, multiple monitors. My graphics card (http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-760/specifications) has 1 dual link DVI-I, 1 dual link DVI-D, one HDMI, and one DisplayPort, for plugging displays into. I currently have a relatively crappy no-brand 22" LCD TV as my monitor, which is plugged into the HDMI port. What do I need to do to get 2 displays working? Get a dedicated monitor (as opposed to a TV) and plug it into one of the other slots, or will I have to buy 2 PC monitors and replace the current TV? If so, which outputs do I hook them up to?You can use any monitor with any other monitor, there are no conflicts possible. For the outputs, there are adapters that convert pretty much everything to everything else, and you can use any combination of outlets from your graphics card.
Thanks again :)
My computer won't boot due to disk corruption, the disk doesn't register as bootable anymore. Hiren's MiniXP doesn't show any programs due to a bug, and the fucked disk prevents any Linux distro from booting since it can't read sector 0.Replace the disk with a new one, install a fresh OS on the new disk, then reinstall your old disk alongside the new disk and transfer all your important data to the new disk. Should work, I've seen it work before. If it somehow doesn't, you need a professional disk recovery service.
E.g. Both the MBR and partition table are fucked.
What do?
Post by: Chattox on October 13, 2014, 11:06:00 am
You can use any monitor with any other monitor, there are no conflicts possible. For the outputs, there are adapters that convert pretty much everything to everything else, and you can use any combination of outlets from your graphics card.
Oh sweet, in that case I'll just get one for now and use it with my current TV. Thanks! :)
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 13, 2014, 11:14:04 am
Post by: Chattox on October 13, 2014, 11:15:40 am
One thing to be aware of is that a lot of TVs, for some reason, are limited to the very low 1024x768 resolution on their "PC Input" port (despite even VGA being able to handle much higher), so it's a good idea to never use more than one TV as a monitor, and always hook up the one TV via HDMI.
My TV is hooked up by HDMI, and has a native resolution (according to Windows) of 1660x900. Would this be ok to dual screen with?
Post by: miauw62 on October 13, 2014, 11:26:28 am
Any chance to recover the disk itself or is it fucked? This computer is a laptop. It does have two HD slots, however.My computer won't boot due to disk corruption, the disk doesn't register as bootable anymore. Hiren's MiniXP doesn't show any programs due to a bug, and the fucked disk prevents any Linux distro from booting since it can't read sector 0.Replace the disk with a new one, install a fresh OS on the new disk, then reinstall your old disk alongside the new disk and transfer all your important data to the new disk. Should work, I've seen it work before. If it somehow doesn't, you need a professional disk recovery service.
E.g. Both the MBR and partition table are fucked.
What do?
And any flavor of Linux (tested so far: puppy, parted Magic, Debian) refuses to boot on a livecd (well, USB) with this disk in, so I'm not so sure if I'd have much luck if it was running from another disk rather than a flash drive, so I'm not sure if it's going to be easy to recover the data...
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 13, 2014, 11:29:13 am
One thing to be aware of is that a lot of TVs, for some reason, are limited to the very low 1024x768 resolution on their "PC Input" port (despite even VGA being able to handle much higher), so it's a good idea to never use more than one TV as a monitor, and always hook up the one TV via HDMI.
My TV is hooked up by HDMI, and has a native resolution (according to Windows) of 1660x900. Would this be ok to dual screen with?
Of course. What I was meaning was that a lot of TVs have a port labled "PC", which is usually limited to a very low resolution, and should never be used. In other words, use your DVI port for your second monitor.
Post by: aenri on October 13, 2014, 11:45:42 am
Any chance to recover the disk itself or is it fucked? This computer is a laptop. It does have two HD slots, however.My computer won't boot due to disk corruption, the disk doesn't register as bootable anymore. Hiren's MiniXP doesn't show any programs due to a bug, and the fucked disk prevents any Linux distro from booting since it can't read sector 0.Replace the disk with a new one, install a fresh OS on the new disk, then reinstall your old disk alongside the new disk and transfer all your important data to the new disk. Should work, I've seen it work before. If it somehow doesn't, you need a professional disk recovery service.
E.g. Both the MBR and partition table are fucked.
What do?
And any flavor of Linux (tested so far: puppy, parted Magic, Debian) refuses to boot on a livecd (well, USB) with this disk in, so I'm not so sure if I'd have much luck if it was running from another disk rather than a flash drive, so I'm not sure if it's going to be easy to recover the data...
are you sure you are booting the usb and not the hdd? what does the pc say when you try to boot usb?
there is no real way that corrupted HDD MBR prevents use of USB booting. I have successfully booted linux from usb on pcs that didn't even have HDD.
Post by: miauw62 on October 13, 2014, 11:56:25 am
Post by: Rose on October 13, 2014, 12:17:27 pm
Up how annoying this is depends on the person and budget, though.
Post by: miauw62 on October 13, 2014, 12:49:20 pm
E: Puppy insists on looking in disk drives for puppy files, but I ran out of empty disks a while ago. So it can't find the files it needs to boot, since I can only boot it from a USB. It takes ages to look for said files, however, and I will interpret that optimistically.
E2: after much struggling I managed to get puppy to boot from USB. But it can't seem to find or mount the HD...
Post by: LordSlowpoke on October 13, 2014, 03:30:56 pm
did you make sure all the cables are set up correctly and the drive is actually detected by the motherboard during post
you might have to pop the laptop open and see whenever something managed to dislodge itself
speaking of popping it open, take the drive out, put another in if you have one, and run the broken one as an external?
i mean assuming the bastard isn't the kind that you can't open without a ridiculous set of screwdrivers because fuck the customer
then you can pretty much reset the mbr using tools like windows' bootrec (if it recognizes the drive via usb)
Post by: miauw62 on October 14, 2014, 09:13:09 am
Also I'd need to actually be able to run Windows to run bootrec, eh?
Post by: LordSlowpoke on October 14, 2014, 09:36:38 am
there's nothing that could have disconnected any cables.
yeah, no
do not assume things, no matter how trivial
been told that in the sad thread once and it was even on topic
and speaking of something different you seem to have skipped over this here part
speaking of popping it open, take the drive out, put another in if you have one, and run the broken one as an external?
then you can pretty much reset the mbr using tools like windows' bootrec (if it recognizes the drive via usb)
if you don't have an external sleeve, just plop it into the second slot and set the other one to first boot priority if your bios isn't a piece of shit that doesn't allow you to change anything
Post by: miauw62 on October 14, 2014, 10:50:05 am
E:
Anyway GParted sees the entire disk as unallocated, puppy won't let me access the files within and testdisk errors too.
;_;
Post by: Thief^ on October 14, 2014, 12:44:05 pm
DVI is the oldest, but that doesn't mean it's bad. DVI-D is digital only, and DVI-I is digtal and analogue, although the only real use of the analogue signal is a DVI->VGA adapter. Single-link (rare now) only handles up to 1920×1200 @ 60Hz, which is barely above 1080p, dual-link enables resolutions of up to 2560×1600 @ 60Hz, which handles almost everything except 4k.
HDMI is compatible with DVI, but extends the signalling to be able to do 2560×1600 @ 60Hz over a single link (as a result there's no such thing as dual-link HDMI) as well as carry audio. As it's compatible, the majority of DVI ports actually carry HDMI signals these days, making HDMI and DVI basically the same thing.
DisplayPort is the newest, and is compatible with HDMI, and by extension DVI (if the port is "dual-mode", which is likely). The newest version of DisplayPort is somewhat insane, it enables resolutions of up to 5120×2880 (aka 5k) @ 60 Hz with monitors, or up to 8k (7680×4320) @ 60 Hz with TVs, or also stereoscopic 3d (or VR) @ 4k 60Hz (per eye, aka 120Hz).
Most displays (except 4k) are HDMI, so due to all the inter-compatibility you can use pretty much whichever cable and adapters you like and it will use a HDMI signal :)
(excepting VGA of course. Never use VGA with a digital monitor)
Post by: Thief^ on October 14, 2014, 12:49:22 pm
Wait fffuuuck I mistook the network boot for the HDD.
E:
Anyway GParted sees the entire disk as unallocated, puppy won't let me access the files within and testdisk errors too.
;_;
Disk is fucked. Sorry.
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 14, 2014, 01:08:25 pm
Post by: Sinistar on October 14, 2014, 02:43:28 pm
Wait fffuuuck I mistook the network boot for the HDD.
E:
Anyway GParted sees the entire disk as unallocated, puppy won't let me access the files within and testdisk errors too.
;_;
Disk is fucked. Sorry.
Let me just share my experience with HDD failure - happened to me during summer, most likely because of hardware failure but still. complete Windows crash, couldn't re-install, any disk check tool reported the type of registry errors that meant hdd is more or less toast. So I bought new one, installed windows on that one. It turned out, the old disk could still be read... just, well, not always and not perfectly and incredibly slow. My point is, prepare for the worse, but maybe not all is lost.
Post by: Chattox on October 15, 2014, 07:45:02 am
Post by: Sinistar on October 15, 2014, 12:09:25 pm
Now, my question - motherboard beeping.
Ever since summer, when I changed hdd and reinstalled Windows, occasionally this horrible cacophony of constant beeping being emitted from mobo occurs at start-up. So, like, I turn the power on, but instead of start-up sequence (we are talking cold start-up here; happened on restart too sometimes), a black screen and constant beeping. It's been a long time since this happened and even when it did it occurred very rarely. But just yesterday on start-up I went into BIOS to check booting settings, changed absolutely nothing, hit save&exit button, computer restarts...and beeping. I force shutdown it by holding power on button. Restart, come as far as user profiles screen (using Vista), bsod and I think beeping again. However, shut down and restart again, this time no bsod and everything normal again.
So a quick search tells me this could be either memory failure or BIOS failing due to hardware failure. Thing is, this occurs so rarely I can't quite pin-point the possible culprit. So what do you guys think - what should I do, how should I do it? And what else could also be a problem?
Post by: LordSlowpoke on October 15, 2014, 02:36:22 pm
the beep code will tell you what exactly is wrong with the system
if it doesn't do "unspecified" in which case vOv
Post by: miauw62 on October 16, 2014, 10:12:27 am
rip in pizza toppings
Post by: Gentlefish on October 16, 2014, 08:09:50 pm
1) My goddamn front panel button fucking didn't match the power pins.
2) Apparently, on this MoBo you can actually put in the 4-pin power connector at a 90 degree wrong angle.
So we fixed 'er up, got a new button from radio shack, and of course I grab a momentary switch.
Now I get to pull a wire from the button during start-up like some kind of bomb-defusing badass.
Post by: Sappho on October 20, 2014, 02:46:31 pm
I have DSL, the fastest available in my area. I pay for 3 Mbps, and I get about 200 kbps. On a *really* good day, I might get 300. Never any more than that.
I looked at another DSL company and punched my address in their web site. The fastest they offer for my area is 2 Mbps, which I figure translates to "at least as slow as it is now, if not slower." At least that would be cheaper.
Worst of all is the upload speed. I rarely get more than 10 kbps. Considering the fact that I regularly upload videos to YouTube (and have to leave my computer on all night to do so), this is ridiculous. I can hardly handle playing online games. I certainly can't host any. It's driving me nuts. I'm all set and ready to buy this new computer in December, as soon as I get paid, but I still won't be able to get faster internet.
The thing is, I live near the center of the city. I'm in a touristy area. Prague Castle is right around the corner. I'm not on the outskirts here. I'm not in a suburb. I can't understand why the speed is so slow.
The customer support for my current ISP is practically non-existent. They're one of the biggest phone/tv/internet companies in the country, but they have one single guy who speaks English, who is not often there when I try to call for help. Even when I get the guy on the phone, he's terribly unhelpful. When I tell him my internet goes down all the time, he insists that everything looks fine on their end and tries to sell me a new modem. (My modem is new. There's nothing wrong with it.) The one time I got them to send a technician to have a look, the guy came 4 hours early, when I was still at work, said "everything looks fine to me" (without going into the building), left, and refused to come back.
There is a cable internet company here, but they don't offer service to my address. I'd be willing to invest in having them install cable in my building, if it meant I could have fast internet, but there doesn't seem to be any option to do so. Again, I am very close to the center of the city.
Any ideas on anything I can do to increase my internet speed, short of moving? I'm really settled here and I love my apartment and the area where I live. There's a park outside my window. I don't want to leave. At the same time, I'm pulling my hair out here. : (
Post by: Arx on October 20, 2014, 02:49:52 pm
Post by: Sappho on October 20, 2014, 02:57:55 pm
Post by: Sinistar on October 20, 2014, 03:20:03 pm
Also, what about malware or any unwanted program slowing you down? Probably a long shot because I don't think malwares leave such obvious traces but try using programs like NetBalancer or NetLimiter, to see what exactly is using your net...
Then again, it's entirely possible that ISP's thing. It could be they are just a dirty, money grabbing company that cut corners and are not in fact even able to provide such high speeds but because they paid certain people/have market dominance, no one can do a thing about them. Dunno what situation is like in Poland, but it wouldn't surprise me. It's sad times we live in. :-\
That's all I can think of, sorry.
Post by: Sappho on October 20, 2014, 03:29:02 pm
The ISP says that I'm at the maximum distance from their hub or whatever it is, so I get the slowest possible speed. It doesn't make sense to me that I'd be so far away, since I'm near the center of the city. The vast majority of people in Prague (it's Czech Republic by the way, not Poland) have MUCH faster internet than me. It does seem to have to do with my physical location. But most people have the option to get cable. I have no idea why it's not available where I am.
It would be one thing if it was a "you get what you pay for" situation, but I'm paying for max speed and no limits. I'm willing to pay more, but they won't offer me anything faster.
I was hoping maybe someone could suggest ways I could speed up the internet, if maybe there's something I could physically do (or hire someone to do) that would make it faster. I have no idea, for example, if the internet cable is coming into the building alongside electrical wires or something that might interfere with it. On the other hand, if I try to get someone to come and check, it will be difficult to do. And I don't own the building, so I can't really change anything physical without the landlord's permission...
Why would cable service not be available at my address? Is it likely that I could pay them to install it? Or is it a bigger issue than that?
Post by: Karkov on October 20, 2014, 03:36:59 pm
On the distance away from the hub thing, ISP's will put relay stations and things wherever they can, if they can't get to the center of the city (because real estate prices are usually their highest there), then they'll put them anywhere else they can and be done with it. Then again that doesn't really make sense with DSL because you should be getting the full speed anyway.
Post by: Rex_Nex on October 21, 2014, 12:51:59 am
I don't want other devices on my wireless network to have priority over my network traffic. Mostly for gaming reasons - if I have a video streaming on my phone, I want it to have minimal interference with whatever data I'm streaming on my PC. Is this possible to do right?
The one thing I've tried is router QOS (using netgear), which doesn't seem to actually do anything. Another device being particularly bandwidth hungry will absolutely decimate the connection, even though I've given my MAC the highest priority.
Post by: Thief^ on October 21, 2014, 03:17:59 am
Not sure there's much else you can do.
Post by: aenri on October 21, 2014, 04:40:55 am
No wireless. Hardline from the computer to the router. And it's the same speed with all computers. It's definitely not a software issue. The physical connection is slow.
The ISP says that I'm at the maximum distance from their hub or whatever it is, so I get the slowest possible speed. It doesn't make sense to me that I'd be so far away, since I'm near the center of the city. The vast majority of people in Prague (it's Czech Republic by the way, not Poland) have MUCH faster internet than me. It does seem to have to do with my physical location. But most people have the option to get cable. I have no idea why it's not available where I am.
It would be one thing if it was a "you get what you pay for" situation, but I'm paying for max speed and no limits. I'm willing to pay more, but they won't offer me anything faster.
I was hoping maybe someone could suggest ways I could speed up the internet, if maybe there's something I could physically do (or hire someone to do) that would make it faster. I have no idea, for example, if the internet cable is coming into the building alongside electrical wires or something that might interfere with it. On the other hand, if I try to get someone to come and check, it will be difficult to do. And I don't own the building, so I can't really change anything physical without the landlord's permission...
Why would cable service not be available at my address? Is it likely that I could pay them to install it? Or is it a bigger issue than that?
AFAIK if you are too far away from DSLAM - that's Telekom hub for DSL internet, you are pretty much out of luck with ADSL. I would search around for wireless ISPs (f.e. http://www.cznet.cz/cenik.html (http://www.cznet.cz/cenik.html), they seem to have wirelessly covered the whole of Prague). Maybe there is one in your area. About fiber optics - Do you live in a flat? Or a house? If it's latter, probably some provider could hook you up, but it would be prohibitively expensive. If it's former you could share the costs with other residents and you could get some kind of price reduction, but it will be a long process.
Post by: Rex_Nex on October 21, 2014, 12:21:56 pm
QOS is the answer, but it sounds like the implementation in your router is lacking.
Not sure there's much else you can do.
Damn, as I thought. Alrighty!
Post by: Sappho on October 21, 2014, 01:24:04 pm
No wireless. Hardline from the computer to the router. And it's the same speed with all computers. It's definitely not a software issue. The physical connection is slow.
The ISP says that I'm at the maximum distance from their hub or whatever it is, so I get the slowest possible speed. It doesn't make sense to me that I'd be so far away, since I'm near the center of the city. The vast majority of people in Prague (it's Czech Republic by the way, not Poland) have MUCH faster internet than me. It does seem to have to do with my physical location. But most people have the option to get cable. I have no idea why it's not available where I am.
It would be one thing if it was a "you get what you pay for" situation, but I'm paying for max speed and no limits. I'm willing to pay more, but they won't offer me anything faster.
I was hoping maybe someone could suggest ways I could speed up the internet, if maybe there's something I could physically do (or hire someone to do) that would make it faster. I have no idea, for example, if the internet cable is coming into the building alongside electrical wires or something that might interfere with it. On the other hand, if I try to get someone to come and check, it will be difficult to do. And I don't own the building, so I can't really change anything physical without the landlord's permission...
Why would cable service not be available at my address? Is it likely that I could pay them to install it? Or is it a bigger issue than that?
AFAIK if you are too far away from DSLAM - that's Telekom hub for DSL internet, you are pretty much out of luck with ADSL. I would search around for wireless ISPs (f.e. http://www.cznet.cz/cenik.html (http://www.cznet.cz/cenik.html), they seem to have wirelessly covered the whole of Prague). Maybe there is one in your area. About fiber optics - Do you live in a flat? Or a house? If it's latter, probably some provider could hook you up, but it would be prohibitively expensive. If it's former you could share the costs with other residents and you could get some kind of price reduction, but it will be a long process.
I'm trying to understand that CZNET site... According to their availability page, they don't cover my part of Prague. They cover 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10. I live in 6. : /
I live in a flat in an old building. Most of the people living here are members of the landlord's extended family. They're all old and not interested in internet except for basic email and such. So I suppose installing something better will be out of the question.
I will try to look into more wireless possibilities. I've heard there are a few companies that do that, but I've also heard that they generally have high prices and low limits, which wouldn't be very useful for me. I don't really understand how the wireless stuff works, though. What am I connecting to? Does it depend on my computer having wifi? Because my current computer has barely functional wifi capabilities, and the computer I'm going to buy doesn't have any at all.
From what I understand from the machine translation, this actually looks quite good: http://www.airwaynet.cz/internetove-pripojeni/tarif-490/
It appears you need some kind of modem, but they loan them for free. The monthly price is lower than I'm paying now (not by much, but that doesn't matter if I'm getting better speed) and they say there are no limits. Would I really get the speed they're advertising there? What does it depend on? I've heard of these companies, but I really don't know anything about how they work, and I don't think I know anyone who currently uses one. The neighbor I had who used it was buying his through the phone company, which is notoriously terrible. This looks a lot nicer, if it really works...
They have a form where you can check availability at your address, so I've sent an inquiry. I guess I'll get an email from them soon. This could be really nice, if it really works...
Post by: MaximumZero on October 21, 2014, 02:12:46 pm
Aside note: Bing Translate is a lot better than I thought it would be.
I have my fingers crossed for you, Sappho.
Post by: Sappho on October 21, 2014, 03:02:51 pm
That would actually be a pretty decent price here in the States. ~$22/mo for not terrible internet speeds is definitely doable. From what I gather, they're a cable internet company. Not sure if you'd use the wi-fi router or not, but hey, free router and free installation. Do you have any cable jacks in your place?
Aside note: Bing Translate is a lot better than I thought it would be.
I have my fingers crossed for you, Sappho.
There is no cable connection here at all. That's the original problem. If there was a cable connection, I'd have cable internet already. : /
The Airwaynet company seems to be mobile internet. From what I've managed to translate, they'd put an antenna on the roof and the internet would come in that way. They have lower bandwidth options that apparently don't require a modem, but I have no idea how it all works or how reliable it would be. I wish I knew someone who used their service, so I could ask if it actually works. Also, I suppose I'd need the landlord's permission to do this...
In any case, it seems even mobile internet is hard to find in my area. What the hell... It's a large, very wealthy residential area near the center of the city. How is it possible that there isn't high speed internet available here?
(By the way, I know it would be cheap in the USA, but cost of living is lower here -- and so is salary. What I earn in a month here wouldn't even be enough for rent in the USA. So it's not as cheap as it sounds. And right now, I'm paying more than that for VERY terrible internet...)
Post by: Rex_Nex on October 21, 2014, 04:47:43 pm
Post by: Aklyon on October 21, 2014, 04:50:26 pm
Post by: Sappho on October 22, 2014, 01:44:29 am
Sappho's new computer was going to be a laptop of somekind, right? I thought those (that are recent enough at least) all had some sort of wifi receiver builtin.
No, it will be a desktop.
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 22, 2014, 01:51:43 am
Post by: Sappho on October 22, 2014, 02:04:49 am
I decided on this one: http://www.alza.cz/EN/asus-cm6431-cz005s-d616967.htm
I don't see anything about wireless on there anywhere...
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 22, 2014, 02:30:44 am
Post by: aenri on October 22, 2014, 09:18:42 am
...
From glancing at their page AIRWAYNET company offers wireless connection (they have covered with 5GHz this parts of Praha 6 - (Střešovice, Břevnov, Veleslavín, Dejvice, Bubeneč, Baba, sídliště Baba, Bílá Hora, Malý Břevnov). AFAIK it works through wifi receiver (antenna), which they will provide to you. It will connect to their private network and get internet from there (their network is connected to internet by fiber optic cable). They are going to put an antenna on the roof of the building, so you will most definitely need the agreement from the owner of the building. Before signing the contract with them, I would have them test the strength of such connection (speed) in your place.
If you need help translating some pages of other czech ISPs, I can help anytime.
Post by: Aklyon on October 22, 2014, 09:40:07 am
Ah. Well in that case, Rex is right about the USB wifi receivers. Desktops can also use PCI-E ones, but that involves opening the case up.Sappho's new computer was going to be a laptop of somekind, right? I thought those (that are recent enough at least) all had some sort of wifi receiver builtin.
No, it will be a desktop.
Post by: Sappho on October 22, 2014, 11:04:58 am
...
From glancing at their page AIRWAYNET company offers wireless connection (they have covered with 5GHz this parts of Praha 6 - (Střešovice, Břevnov, Veleslavín, Dejvice, Bubeneč, Baba, sídliště Baba, Bílá Hora, Malý Břevnov). AFAIK it works through wifi receiver (antenna), which they will provide to you. It will connect to their private network and get internet from there (their network is connected to internet by fiber optic cable). They are going to put an antenna on the roof of the building, so you will most definitely need the agreement from the owner of the building. Before signing the contract with them, I would have them test the strength of such connection (speed) in your place.
If you need help translating some pages of other czech ISPs, I can help anytime.
Thanks. I'm in Hradčany, but hopefully close enough to Bubeneč that it would work... I still haven't gotten a response from them about whether it's available here. I really hope so...
Post by: Sappho on October 24, 2014, 05:19:22 am
I remember that this used to be an option, you could choose square or circle, but now it seems to be automatically circle. On the Youtube channel, it appears as a square, but on Google+ it looks like a retarded circle missing pieces (our logo is square). I could shrink the logo so it fits inside the circle, but then the Youtube version would be too small.
I will save my seething rage to take out on a brick wall when I get home from work today. For now, can I just ask if any of you know a way around this? Youtube takes priority, so I'm not shrinking the logo, but we have to make the G+ page look nice as well. Is there any way to fix this? Also, what the fuck kind of fucking bullshit is this? Most logos aren't circles. They encourage businesses to set up G+ sites, but then fuck around with their fucking design and give them no control over it.
Correction: MOST of my rage will be saved for the brick wall. Some of it may leak out now.
Post by: BFEL on October 24, 2014, 06:30:06 am
However, I think I now know what is wrong. I finally connected the dots and looked in the "Processes" tab of my task manager.
What I found is...unpleasant.
There are about 68 processes running as I type this, and I would be lying if I said I knew what any of the little bastards do.
What I DO know is that ONE set of these is throwing my CPU Usage from 1-12% up to 50-100%
On its own.
Well, assisted by...and there it just did it while I was watching, the little bastard FUCKIN REPLICATES ITSELF.
The process(es) in question is "dllhost.exe" with a description of "COM Surro..." (that's all I can get from the description)
Its little self replicated buddies are "dllhost.exe*32" and each one nets between 2000 and 200000 K of memory allocation.
I can delete the problematic little replicants, but the main file isn't being so cooperative. "The operation could not be completed. Access is denied"
So, questions: (1.What the fuck is this shit? (2.How the fuck do I get the "access" to delete the little fucker? (3.Would deleting said fucker do damage to my system somehow? I wouldn't THINK so, seeing the havoc it causes by being active (They just replicated again and spiked me to 100% Usage) but should probably check just to be sure.
EDIT: Oh, and I just realized tons of other shit has the "*32" line after exe...one of which supposedly from my antivirus, one is from dropbox, and two are from Internet Explorer....and one from Spybot...I don't really know WHAT I should be deleting here, other then the little dllhost replicants.
Background: I use Windows 7, Avast antivirus, and have run multiple scans from Malwarebytes and Spybot Search and Destroy that all failed to pick this up.
Post by: MaximumZero on October 24, 2014, 06:52:32 am
Post by: BFEL on October 24, 2014, 06:53:30 am
Sounds like you have a COM Surrogate hijack. Have you tried running something like the (free) boot version of HitmanPro?
No I have not. I'll go try that.
Post by: Thief^ on October 24, 2014, 07:01:27 am
What I DO know is that ONE set of these is throwing my CPU Usage from 1-12% up to 50-100%
On its own.
Well, assisted by...and there it just did it while I was watching, the little bastard FUCKIN REPLICATES ITSELF.
The process(es) in question is "dllhost.exe" with a description of "COM Surro..." (that's all I can get from the description)
Its little self replicated buddies are "dllhost.exe*32" and each one nets between 2000 and 200000 K of memory allocation.
I can delete the problematic little replicants, but the main file isn't being so cooperative. "The operation could not be completed. Access is denied"
So, questions: (1.What the fuck is this shit? (2.How the fuck do I get the "access" to delete the little fucker? (3.Would deleting said fucker do damage to my system somehow? I wouldn't THINK so, seeing the havoc it causes by being active (They just replicated again and spiked me to 100% Usage) but should probably check just to be sure.
Background: I use Windows 7, Avast antivirus, and have run multiple scans from Malwarebytes and Spybot Search and Destroy that all failed to pick this up.
It's a bit of a red herring. DllHost is a system executable, designed to run dlls. Dllhost itself doesn't do anything, it's essentially a container for other things. Unfortunately the task manager doesn't understand this so it blames dllhost for what the dll is doing. As a result viruses often abuse dllhost to appear legit in task manager :)
Then again, you also get viruses using the name of a system component, without actually being said system component, in order to appear to be legit. Could be either here.
To aid in working things out, I recommend you go to "View->Select Columns" in task manager, and turn on "Image Path Name" and "Command Line". The first will tell you if it's the real system dllhost.exe running (it should be in Windows/System32 or Windows/SysWOW64 if it is), the 2nd will tell you what dll it's running that's causing you so much trouble. If you can't identify it, post again here and we'll investigate for you.
68 processes isn't many, I currently have 136 - about half of which are chrome.exe!
EDIT: Oh, and I just realized tons of other shit has the "*32" line after exe...one of which supposedly from my antivirus, one is from dropbox, and two are from Internet Explorer....and one from Spybot...I don't really know WHAT I should be deleting here, other then the little dllhost replicants.The *32 means it's a 32-bit program. It's nothing to worry about.
Post by: BFEL on October 24, 2014, 09:25:48 am
Its kinda a dick like that.
Post by: Carnwennan on October 25, 2014, 03:08:45 am
I want to use the formula (a*b*c)/(8*d/1.3) in excel, but cell d is from is using the lookup() function- the formula keeps inputting it as (a*b*c)/(8*"d"/1.3) and the formula breaks. How do I fix this?
E: figured it out, it was because I like to add commas to 100,000's and stuff, my bad!
Post by: Sappho on October 26, 2014, 01:22:00 pm
So I turned over the keyboard and opened it up (there were 15 screws!!!), more carefully dried out the inside. I haven't opened up a keyboard in a long time and was surprised to see it looked different than I expected. There's a sheet of plastic with circuitry embedded in it. Under that, there are little rubber cup things on each key that went everywhere when I peeled the plastic layer off. I wiped everything down so it all looked totally dry, but it looked like possibly some of the liquid might have made it between the layers of plastic around the edges, causing the circuits to short out. I tried to put it all back together and, of course, it was even worse than before when I plugged it in. Had to restart the computer again after removing it.
I now have it standing up, leaning against a box near the heater (but not too close). I just want to check that I haven't messed anything up here. I was pretty careful about the placement of those rubber cups, so hopefully I didn't make it worse. Presumably there is, indeed, liquid in the circuitry. I'll leave it to dry overnight, but do I need to do anything else? I can easily buy a new keyboard on my way home from work tomorrow, but I'd hate to do that and then get home and find out it works again. On the other hand, I'm typing on my laptop keyboard right now, and my wrists hurt already just from writing this message. It's just about the worst-designed keyboard in history. It looks like this:
(http://cdn2.ubergizmo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/dell-xps-15z-01.jpg)
So much for playing Minecraft tonight!
Post by: gimlet on October 26, 2014, 01:36:41 pm
Post by: Sappho on October 26, 2014, 01:38:29 pm
Is there any chance I ruined anything by opening it up?
Post by: gimlet on October 26, 2014, 06:40:38 pm
Post by: Sappho on October 27, 2014, 01:23:16 am
EDIT: If I plug in the keyboard then unplug it, the system is messed up and needs to be restarted. Clicking a link opens it in a new tab. Clicking a folder on the computer opens up a new window. This behavior continues even without the keyboard plugged in. I tried opening a notepad document and typing, and most of the buttons did nothing. some buttons caused it to either tab in or go to a new line. No text, though. Maybe I should just buy a new one... It's not expensive, though it's a shame to waste it if I can fix it... : /
Post by: MaximumZero on October 27, 2014, 01:27:46 am
Post by: Sappho on October 27, 2014, 01:58:40 am
In any case, I have to go to work in about 20 minutes, so all I have time for now is to open it up, try to put it somewhere the cat can't get to it, and hope that drying it out while I'm working will be enough... If it doesn't work when I get home I can try something else.
Thanks!
Post by: Baffler on October 27, 2014, 12:10:24 pm
Post by: Thief^ on October 27, 2014, 12:14:28 pm
That's all there is to it.
Post by: Baffler on October 27, 2014, 12:17:59 pm
It works! Thanks man.
Post by: Sappho on October 27, 2014, 12:54:01 pm
EDIT: Nevermind, I seem to have gotten it. The trick was to prop up the edges of the keyboard on some empty tomato paste cans (secured with blu tak so they wouldn't slide around), so all the keys were hanging down (like they're unpressed). All the little rubber cups dropped nicely into the holes, and I was able to screw the back on without any further problems. Everything seems to work okay now.
Hooray! I spilled coffee all over my keyboard and then I saved it!
EDIT2: My computer desk is going to smell like coffee forever!
Post by: Thief^ on October 28, 2014, 02:39:41 am
I filled mine with Apple juice last time, that was a pain to clean...
Post by: MaximumZero on October 28, 2014, 11:21:32 am
Also, you can't buy rubbing alcohol here, it's illegal.Wait, wut? What the hell?
Post by: Sappho on October 28, 2014, 11:41:05 am
Post by: Sinistar on October 28, 2014, 12:58:26 pm
So just a couple of hours ago, YouTube was working perfectly fine for me. But as of few minutes ago, anything YT related (first page, search resault, bookmarked video ANYTHING), crashes my Pale Moon plugin container. I am at a loss here as to what's wrong because in these past hours I didn't even use Pale Moon. And I've updated all the plugins as soon as these troubles began, to no result. AND Firefox works perfectly fine.
???
edit:
Hmmm, never mind, seems like cold booting the pc did the trick. Sigh, I am sure there is some rational explanation to this, but sometimes some things make me think computers are in fact run by tiny magical creatures and spirits, who follow their own rules which only by coincidence align with the wishes of us mortals. Most of the time.
Post by: Gentlefish on October 28, 2014, 05:04:10 pm
Well that's interesting.
So just a couple of hours ago, YouTube was working perfectly fine for me. But as of few minutes ago, anything YT related (first page, search resault, bookmarked video ANYTHING), crashes my Pale Moon plugin container. I am at a loss here as to what's wrong because in these past hours I didn't even use Pale Moon. And I've updated all the plugins as soon as these troubles began, to no result. AND Firefox works perfectly fine.
???
edit:
Hmmm, never mind, seems like cold booting the pc did the trick. Sigh, I am sure there is some rational explanation to this, but sometimes some things make me think computers are in fact run by tiny magical creatures and spirits, who follow their own rules which only by coincidence align with the wishes of us mortals. Most of the time.
Every program you run is handled by an elf. Fun fact. Also actually a true fact.
Post by: Recluse on November 05, 2014, 02:52:11 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on November 05, 2014, 11:33:25 pm
Except emails, which are handled by daemons.Well that's interesting.
So just a couple of hours ago, YouTube was working perfectly fine for me. But as of few minutes ago, anything YT related (first page, search resault, bookmarked video ANYTHING), crashes my Pale Moon plugin container. I am at a loss here as to what's wrong because in these past hours I didn't even use Pale Moon. And I've updated all the plugins as soon as these troubles began, to no result. AND Firefox works perfectly fine.
???
edit:
Hmmm, never mind, seems like cold booting the pc did the trick. Sigh, I am sure there is some rational explanation to this, but sometimes some things make me think computers are in fact run by tiny magical creatures and spirits, who follow their own rules which only by coincidence align with the wishes of us mortals. Most of the time.
Every program you run is handled by an elf. Fun fact. Also actually a true fact.
Post by: choppy on November 07, 2014, 01:14:21 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on November 07, 2014, 10:37:56 pm
Post by: gimlet on November 08, 2014, 12:03:51 am
After you put it in, if it boots run memtest to make sure there's no errors in the ram - google for instructions on how to run it on an imac, it looks like it's not hard to do.
Ground yourself before you touch anything inside the case - usually it's enough to touch a non-painted part of the case. Whatever you do don't shuffle across the carped in your socks and then shoot sparks at chips on the mobo :D
Post by: choppy on November 08, 2014, 03:16:09 am
My ram knowledge for Apple only goes back to 2011. My only suggestion is you done bent a pin or some shit. Do you still have the recovery disc?i might have the disc but i will have to see if it would use a external disc bay. (the one that is built in is dead as well)
as for the RAM sticks i have made sure that it in as far as it would go. sadly it still will not receive input from the keyboard. (I tried to boot it into single user mode)
anyway thanks for the advice, and I am sorry that I kind of ramble in my posts.
Post by: gimlet on November 08, 2014, 08:44:18 am
And I have to repeat, 'cause I've done it myself repeatedly, even if you *think* the ram is pushed in as far as it goes, try again pushing harder with something bracing the mobo. And LOOK at it from the side to make sure it's not crooked, and looks like it's all the way in. Because it really takes a scary amount of force to get it in there most of the time....
Post by: Rose on November 14, 2014, 10:22:23 am
You just have to push the clamps closed.
If you're pushing the clamps closed by pushing just on the ram stick, you're doing it wrong.
Post by: MaximumZero on November 14, 2014, 06:49:26 pm
Post by: crazysheep on November 15, 2014, 10:25:48 pm
What I've tried (and failed) to fix this issue:
reinstalling OBS
rolling back nVidia drivers
reinstalling nVidia drivers
reinstalling nVidia updater software (GeForce Experience)
Any chance someone could lend a hand to troubleshoot this issue?
Post by: Sappho on November 16, 2014, 10:48:29 am
EDIT: Rolling back my video drivers fixed it. I'm getting awfully tired of doing that. Just a few more weeks until my new computer!!!
Post by: Bauglir on November 16, 2014, 12:33:01 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on November 16, 2014, 01:23:40 pm
So, uh, OBS has stopped playing nicely with my steam games. I can't stream stuff from the game window without the game crashing. This wasn't a problem before today.Hmm, possibly DirectX is being retarded. Check to make sure you are on 9 or 11. I know OBS has issues with me using Mantle on my games. Have you tried doing windowed mode?
What I've tried (and failed) to fix this issue:
reinstalling OBS
rolling back nVidia drivers
reinstalling nVidia drivers
reinstalling nVidia updater software (GeForce Experience)
Any chance someone could lend a hand to troubleshoot this issue?
Post by: crazysheep on November 16, 2014, 10:30:04 pm
Hmm, possibly DirectX is being retarded. Check to make sure you are on 9 or 11. I know OBS has issues with me using Mantle on my games. Have you tried doing windowed mode?I'll check which DirectX I have when I get back later. Windowed mode seems to work, though, it doesn't force the game to crash. Will update later tonight.
EDIT: dxdiag tells me I'm running DirectX 11. Also, windowed mode works, so I might just stick with windowed mode as a workaround for now.
Post by: Sappho on November 19, 2014, 02:11:05 pm
I just want a program that will make the screen darker, not change the color. I've found a few programs that will dim all programs other than the one you're working in, but I need the whole screen to be darker.
Post by: Thief^ on November 19, 2014, 03:21:35 pm
That said it sounds like a bit of a fault if it's that bright.
Post by: Sappho on November 19, 2014, 03:57:49 pm
The NVidia panel has an option to turn down brightness, but it does it in a strange way which messes with the gamma and the colors. I'm hoping there's another way...
Post by: Azerty on November 20, 2014, 08:27:23 am
Since several weeks I am forced to update manually Firefox on my other laptop because it didn't work automatically, especially since, when I go to the update page of Firefox it prints my navigator is up to date.
(For info I'm under 33.0.3 while the latest version is 33.1)
Post by: i2amroy on November 20, 2014, 09:30:32 pm
Chrome is behaving strangely lately - often, clicking on a link will greet me with a blank white page, as though the browser just decided not to load anything. Refreshing fixes it, but it's annoying as hell. Any idea what's up? There are no error messages or other diagnostics I can think of, so if it's not a known quirk then it's probably unfixable. Windows 7 64-bit, Chrome (and Chrome derivatives through Chromium) is the only browser that seems to be displaying this problem (or else it just has stopped happening in the last hour since I started checking possible problem sources).That sounds a lot like it's trying to load something and either being stopped by something else or just loading really slowly (which could be an internet problem, but since you mention it only happens in chrome I'm guessing that isn't it). I'd try disabling all of your extensions (private mode is a good quick flip for that unless you've changed settings) to see if one of them is interfering with the page loading process by trying to modify content or some other shit like that.
Post by: My Name is Immaterial on November 27, 2014, 03:52:16 am
Look, I'm gunning for D&D Tools, but I'm too embarrassed to come out and admit it.
Post by: My Name is Immaterial on November 28, 2014, 02:35:53 am
Post by: Arx on November 28, 2014, 06:37:58 am
It works. What website do you want?
Post by: rabidgam3r on November 28, 2014, 11:26:52 am
So recently a cat bit the end of the USB for my drawing tablet. I don't want to just throw it away, but the USB doesn't fit anymore, being bent out of shape. Any ideas on how to fix that?
Post by: Thief^ on November 28, 2014, 11:46:21 am
Post by: My Name is Immaterial on November 28, 2014, 03:00:18 pm
I saw yesterday, but wasn't on a Linux machine at the time. I'll help you if trying to get the program to run doesn't make me want to kill myself. :PThank you so much! Dndtools.eu, if its not too much trouble!
It works. What website do you want?
Post by: Thief^ on November 28, 2014, 03:15:19 pm
Post by: My Name is Immaterial on November 28, 2014, 03:25:12 pm
Post by: Arx on November 29, 2014, 04:59:23 am
Edit [10:16 GMT]: It's not archived, apparently. I'll see if Warrick manages anything new after chugging away for another while (doesn't cast me anything), but it's giving me a lot of 'Unable to download... Resource not archived' messages, along with a number of other oddities.
Edit [10:29 GMT]: Oh it, is. There's a bunch of stuff coming down.
Edit [10:40 GMT]: At this rate, I'll have it for you by Christmas. It's got to the Abolisher class, so far.
Edit [11:29 GMT]: Day Two of my endeavor. No water anywhere in site (hehe). I have not even passed all the 'A' classes. This may be my last entry for some time.
Edit: [12:11 GMT]: My poorly-bred horse canters more slowly than I walk. Milestones indicate I have traveled less than ten megabytes from my start point.
Edit: [12:33]:
That's fine. I don't need that.
How sure are you? Half the useful stuff was stored in a database. The Spells/Level 9 page for the Agent Retriever looks like this:
Quote
D&Dtools
Feats. Spells. Prestige Classes. And more!
Loading
Home (1)
Rulebooks
Feats
Spells
Classes
Skills
Contact Us
Staff
» Classes » Agent Retriever » level 9 spells
All social disabled (faster)
(Rank whole site)
Agent Retriever level 9 spells
More spell levels: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
‹‹ previous 1 next ›› (total 0 items)
Items per page:
Spell name Spell School V S M AF DF XP Rulebook name Edition
‹‹ previous 1 next ›› (total 0 items)
Items per page:
Comments on the whole site
But the class information is intact - skills, features, hit dice, etc. I don't think the style sheet was archived anywhere, though - it's all default formatted html.
Edit [15:08 GMT]: [CHRISTMAS INTENSIFIES]
Edit [15:48 GMT]: Up to Bear Warrior. I'm going to have to work out how to pause this at some point, because I'll want my Windows partition tomorrow afternoon. Hm.
Edit [17:57 GMT]: Bone Knight. It might make it up to 'g' by tomorrow afternoon.
Edit [19:26 GMT]: All the way up to Ci. Will leave it running overnight.
Post by: miauw62 on November 29, 2014, 07:55:32 am
You could try asking around and see if you can find somebody that has it.
Post by: Arx on November 29, 2014, 08:05:59 am
Post by: Bauglir on November 29, 2014, 11:30:28 am
So I'm pretty sure I knocked some piece of hardware loose, but I can't figure out which one (unless I knocked some piece of the motherboard proper loose, in which case I'm well and truly fucked). I'm off to try my RAM sticks one by one in case one of them is busted, but let me know if you have any ideas.
Post by: Arx on November 29, 2014, 11:35:39 am
Post by: Bauglir on November 29, 2014, 11:51:00 am
Post by: Arx on November 29, 2014, 11:53:43 am
Post by: Bauglir on November 29, 2014, 01:34:50 pm
Post by: My Name is Immaterial on November 29, 2014, 04:27:54 pm
Didn't the shutdown page say that several users had copies of the DB?It did. I found it. I feel dumb.
You could try asking around and see if you can find somebody that has it.
-snip-And now that I did what I should have, and just found the database, I feel like a dick for making go to all that effort for nothing. Thanks a bunch, either way! Sorry about it.
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 01, 2014, 05:11:54 am
Post by: Sappho on December 02, 2014, 10:55:24 am
...But the one I picked out a few months ago is no longer available. D:
So I need to pick a new one. Any feedback on these will be greatly appreciated!!!
http://www.alza.cz/acer-aspire-tc-605-d2259550.htm
http://www.alza.cz/asus-m70ad-d2266022.htm
http://www.alza.cz/acer-aspire-predator-g3-605-d2265668.htm
http://www.alza.cz/asus-m70ad-d2266023.htm
This link has them all compared side by side, but I don't know if it works universally or if you have to be logged in to my account: http://www.alza.cz/EN/porovnani.htm?c=TC045h4i3o;TA226g2;TC013e4c5i;TA226g4;
EDIT: I've narrowed it down to these two.
http://www.alza.cz/asus-m70ad-d2266022.htm - ASUS M70AD
This one has a slightly better processor, massive hard drive, but apparently a lower-end video card (NVIDIA Geforce GTX 745, 4 GB RAM) and less RAM (8 GB).
http://www.alza.cz/acer-aspire-predator-g3-605-d2265668.htm
This one has a slightly lesser processor, half the hard drive size (but still plenty big enough), but a higher-end video card (NVIDIA Geforce GTX 760, 1.5 GB RAM) and double the system ram (16 GB).
I don't know enough about video cards to know whether the video RAM is important or not. The second one also has "1152 pieces stream processor," whatever that means. I know that having twice the RAM is very good. Overall, I'm guessing the second one is the better choice, but I have no experience with Acer. Good quality?
There's also another version of the first one (the ASUS) with double the RAM, but it's the most expensive option I'm looking at.
Any help/recommendations/info is greatly appreciated! Thanks guys!
Post by: Thief^ on December 02, 2014, 12:27:26 pm
The "1152 pieces stream processor," is literally how many processing cores are on the GPU. People are normally surprised when they hear this, given that CPUs (as opposed to GPUs) are normally in single-digit number of cores. The 745 for comparison has 384 (although not directly a comparable number, because they are operating at a ~25% faster clock speed).
The cpu may be worse, but it's still plenty good enough. If you can get an SSD to use for your windows drive (a 120 GB one is relatively cheap these days and is plenty for windows, but you'll likely need to relocate games to another drive if you want to install more than a couple), you'll see a huge improvement to startup time and general responsiveness as well. I'd recommend the Samsung 840 (link) (http://www.alza.cz/samsung-840-evo-series-basic-120gb-7mm-d459293.htm) series, but any ssd is an amazing improvement over an old-fashioned spinning disk.
Post by: Sappho on December 07, 2014, 02:20:20 am
I've got one more concern, though. I'm buying this computer in the Czech Republic, but I need the OS to be in English. Anyone have any experience with buying computers internationally? Can I choose the OS language when I first start it up? Or will I have to go there in person and specifically order an English operating system? My Czech is pretty good, but I do not want my computer to be in Czech. When I'm fighting with system settings is not the time to be learning more Czech.
Post by: Rose on December 07, 2014, 02:31:53 am
Post by: aenri on December 07, 2014, 02:59:17 am
Thanks for that info, Thief. It looks like I'm going with this one: http://www.alza.cz/acer-aspire-predator-g3-605-d2265668.htm
I've got one more concern, though. I'm buying this computer in the Czech Republic, but I need the OS to be in English. Anyone have any experience with buying computers internationally? Can I choose the OS language when I first start it up? Or will I have to go there in person and specifically order an English operating system? My Czech is pretty good, but I do not want my computer to be in Czech. When I'm fighting with system settings is not the time to be learning more Czech.
From their page : "Unless otherwise specified, the assembly is delivered to a Czech localization."
You should write to Alza that you specifically want English Windows. Probably somewhere in ordering process, you should have space for your comments. Or just email them with your order number.
Keyboard is pretty standard for Czech, it just has one more set of characters on right side.
Post by: Sappho on December 07, 2014, 04:49:12 am
I already have a keyboard, so that's not an issue. Czech keyboards can be kind of a pain in the ass, though, to be honest. Most of the keys are in the same place, and if you set the system to EN keyboard it works fine, but some of the symbols on the right (near the enter and right-shift keys) tend to be shuffled around to different places. The keyboard I have is an "international" QWERTY. It has all the Czech symbols printed on the keys to the right of the English standard letters and symbols (as well as some other symbols from different languages), but all the other keys are in the normal places. (It was cheap, too!)
Also, apparently they have a lot of Christmas specials going on, and if I buy the computer during the sales, I also get a free gaming mouse and a 60-day return period (instead of the normal 2-week return period). So that's pretty cool.
I've decided to hold off on actually buying it until mid-week. I've got a letter from the foreigner police waiting for me at the post office, and I want to make sure it's nothing life-altering before dropping 30,000 kc (about $1500) on a computer and a new monitor.
For the monitor, I'm planning to just get something cheap. I've been using laptops for so long that I really, really don't need anything big or fancy. Is there anything I should watch out for, or is it safe to just get a cheap one?
Post by: miauw62 on December 07, 2014, 08:13:03 am
Post by: Mokkun on December 07, 2014, 10:42:17 am
Got a anoyance problem whit my storage/div use machine Whit Windows 7 (Old mainboard and tons of HDDs, not main use machine). I recently to not have a Wifi-router somewhere bought a Wireless card (TP-Link 300mbs Wireless N Adaptor A PCI card) and installed, and thru a program called Connectify hotspot to set up a wifi to use for my phone/tablet/3DS/etc. It kind of works rather well exept one thing, the machine keeps re-enabling powersave on that card making the card turn off after some time. Powerplan have been changed to maximal performance, as there are no disable, advanced setting for wireless card is also set to maximal performace.
Operating System is Windows 7 32-bit.
Second, anyone know of a decent TV-recording card for DVB-T whit ability for Decoding card (Have a CAM module to insert card into). Preferably thru Windows media center, it got such nice coop whit Xbox360 streaming (only thing I use that xbox for), Currently got a Hauppage WinTV HVR-5500 Model 121xxx, it do not cooperate whit the USB Hauppage decoding module, and it require 32bit over 64 bit OS..
Thanks in advance.
Post by: Rose on December 07, 2014, 10:57:34 am
I went down to their distribution center / showroom today and just asked. They told me that when you buy a new computer from them, the first time you start Windows, you can choose your language. The guy was confident that the version of windows they ship everything with comes with all the standard European languages, though you can only choose once and then you can't change it later. If I get it home and that turns out not to be the case, I can return it, no questions asked.
That's actually wrong.
Unless their windows is drastically different from my copy of windows 8, you can add as many languages you want, and switch between them with just a restart.
At least, I was able to change my windows to hindi for a test.
Post by: ancistrus on December 09, 2014, 12:35:11 pm
The thing is, this was accomplished purely by trial/error method and I had no idea what I was doing. Can someone actually tell me if it at least makes some sense? Hardware is really not my area.
Post by: Rose on December 09, 2014, 01:05:23 pm
And since Windows uses the card for everything, it effects the desktop too.
Post by: Sensei on December 09, 2014, 01:22:49 pm
Post by: Gamerlord on December 10, 2014, 03:09:45 am
Post by: Thief^ on December 10, 2014, 04:14:13 am
Post by: Gamerlord on December 10, 2014, 04:18:43 am
Quote from: DirectX Setup
Setup could not download the file. Please retry later or check network connection.
It then closes and the installer says 'Installation End' 'Installation Failed' and that's it.
Post by: Thief^ on December 10, 2014, 04:39:34 am
Post by: Gamerlord on December 10, 2014, 04:43:18 am
Post by: Thief^ on December 10, 2014, 04:46:24 am
Under: "Additional information"
There's this:
Quote
The DirectX End-User Runtimes installer (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=56511&clcid=0x409) contains all of the components installed by the Web Installer in a single package and is recommended for those users that do not have an Internet connection during installation."Given that it's having trouble connecting to the internet during the install, could you try this "offline" version?
Post by: Gamerlord on December 10, 2014, 04:58:39 am
EDIT: Where do I install the files? Just anywhere?
Post by: Thief^ on December 10, 2014, 05:11:54 am
Post by: Gamerlord on December 10, 2014, 05:20:48 am
EDIT: YES NOW CRUSADER KINGS II IS WORKING.
Post by: Sinistar on December 14, 2014, 05:37:21 am
Quote
Display driver amdkmdap stopped responding and has successfully recovered.
This is the message I've occasionally been getting during the past week. Completely random at first, happened only once while playing The Witcher 1 but I've played it many more hours before and after this message without problems so I just assumed it was something random.
But lately this kept popping up while playing Dawn of War 2. How and what usually happens is my screen goes black and if I ctrl+alt+del it takes a long time and after that usually I manage to get to task manager and desktop where this message pops up. If I try to return to the game it just tilts completely (black screen, any sort of sound that was playing goes into a crazy, short loop) and hard boot is required. Happened a few times game just tilted instantly, couldn't even reach desktop.
Now, I'm sorta familiar with this tilting as I've been having GPU over-heating problems for the last couple of months (and such exact tilts happened then) so I just assumed this has to do with over-heating again... only the GPU didn't feel that hot to touch and °C wasn't that high according to SpeedFan. And all that "amdkmdap" things was new too.
But just few moments ago it crashed again while trying to run Salem... which is a Java-client-based MMO, so not really GPU intensive.
I'll go clean install GPU drivers as this is one of the suggestions I could find on the net, but tell me - how big is the possibility my GPU is irreversibly broken after all? With all that overheating I was just waiting for something like this to happens... :-\
edit:
Speaking of broken GPU - say I'm in the market for a new one. Any useful sites for comparing different GPUs? Quick search tells me there seems to be a lot of them but are there any that really stand out or it just doesn't matter?
Also - my current GPU is ATI HD4870 with 512MB DDR5. It served me great for what I needed her. Say I'd like to just have something like that, but newer. Any cheap new GPU out there that'd offer the same power as this years old one? I haven't really been paying attention what's going on on GPU market at all for last few years, but I mean, technology probably advanced forward enough I could get just cheaper HD4870 equivalent these days... right?
Well, I'm open to suggestions.
Post by: Thief^ on December 14, 2014, 08:59:22 am
If you were looking at nVidia, a 750 Ti is 1306 GFlops of processing power, as well as being more power/heat efficient than the other 700s (it's actually a trial of the Maxwell architecture used in the 900 series, rather than the Kepler architecture used in the rest of the 700s) making it a very quiet card.
Post by: Sensei on December 14, 2014, 01:10:53 pm
Post by: Sinistar on December 14, 2014, 02:58:24 pm
Thanks both for answers. I've checked suggested GPUs, HD7770 seem to be out of stock around here, but R7 250X seems quite interesting. Even more so, give nVidia's 750 costs +20€ more. It might not seem that much, but I'm a bit on a short budget.
Post by: gimlet on December 14, 2014, 07:01:25 pm
Post by: Sensei on December 15, 2014, 03:05:38 am
Well, did clean drivers install and everything seems to be working normally... played DoW2 and Salem for a while with no problems. We shall see what time brings.IIRC those are literally the same card, the R7 250X is just a rebranded HD7770 (or 7750 or something).
Thanks both for answers. I've checked suggested GPUs, HD7770 seem to be out of stock around here, but R7 250X seems quite interesting. Even more so, give nVidia's 750 costs +20€ more. It might not seem that much, but I'm a bit on a short budget.
Post by: Thief^ on December 15, 2014, 05:39:10 am
IIRC those are literally the same card, the R7 250X is just a rebranded HD7770 (or 7750 or something).I've checked the specs, this seems to be true! Same architecture, same core count, same clock speed.
It actually happens a fair amount, especially with lower-end cards (below ?50 or ?500 by name) e.g.:
The GeForce GT 730 (128-bit DDR3 version, there are multiple cards with the same name that are actually totally different cards because stupid) is a rebranded GeForce GT 630, which is itself a rebranded GeForce GT 430. The 720 (which doesn't appear to be a rebrand) is actually more powerful than this variant of the 730.
Just to confuse matters the 64-bit DDR3 version of the GeForce GT 730 is actually twice as powerful as the 128-bit version - It's a rebranded Geforce GT 630 rev 2, which is actually a 600-series GPU and not a rebrand of an older one.
*sigh*
Post by: Sensei on December 15, 2014, 12:35:56 pm
Post by: flabort on December 16, 2014, 10:28:02 pm
But I just want someone to check it over to see if it fits my needs, or if I'm unbalancing it too much.
My current computer is kind of roasted, at least the GPU is fried from overheating from overstressing. It wasn't built to handle most games. Of course DF runs fine, but I kind of wanted to play some other games too. And my cooling fan runs CONSTANTLY, and LOUDLY. And it's also a laptop, so not designed for anything intense in the first place.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Aklyon on December 17, 2014, 12:23:53 am
Post by: caleb on December 17, 2014, 11:11:51 pm
Post by: Thief^ on December 18, 2014, 02:25:46 am
So I initially couldn’t get video from my card (MSI R9 290x) only onboard, got that squared away with a bios setting(Legacy something or other). Moved computer to different area then card is recognized but shows an error in windows (Code 52 shows on onboard also). Apparently I have too many gpu cores(8 on processor and whatever many on card) for windows to manage effectively but there is a fix that is supposed to override it(6xgpu), that has borked my shit to where even the onboard video is jacked up. Can’t display 3d shit or anything complex. Any suggestions?Well that's not quite accurate, you have far more GPU cores than that. Not sure what this "fix" is. My recommendation would be to disable the onboard graphics altogether, and/or disable hybrid crossfire/dual graphics if your onboard is AMD (same idea).
Edit: the internet seems to think reinstalling your graphics driver will help.
Post by: MagmaMcFry on December 18, 2014, 09:35:14 am
So I initially couldn’t get video from my card (MSI R9 290x) only onboard, got that squared away with a bios setting(Legacy something or other). Moved computer to different area then card is recognized but shows an error in windows (Code 52 shows on onboard also). Apparently I have too many gpu cores(8 on processor and whatever many on card) for windows to manage effectively but there is a fix that is supposed to override it(6xgpu), that has borked my shit to where even the onboard video is jacked up. Can’t display 3d shit or anything complex. Any suggestions?Did you plug your monitor into your graphics card? Because if you plugged it into the motherboard it'll only use the onboard graphics.
Post by: ancistrus on December 19, 2014, 01:43:43 pm
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
METHOD:REQUEST
PRODID:Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
yadda yadda lots of stuff
I determined that this is some stupid outlook thing, but I am stuck now, googling this issue is difficult.
Tried moving the thing into a text file, saving it as ics, but then it says that outlook cannot import file.
Is there an easy way to display it? Id rather not download some obscure programs that are not guaranteed to work anyway.
Post by: Rose on December 21, 2014, 09:32:28 am
Post by: Sappho on December 23, 2014, 09:00:31 am
First off, the display looks hideous. I assume this is because, for the moment, I'm having to run the VGA through an HDMI converter, because this computer doesn't come with a VGA port. Well, that's not technically true. There's a VGA port, but it's disabled. I apparently need DVI to use this computer, which is something that was not advertised when I got the machine (it explicitly said that it has a VGA video port). I think the HDMI-VGA adapter reduces the quality of the video output, and I'm stuck with it until I get an adapter for DVI (really would prefer to wait until after Xmas before going back to the electronics store).
Then there's the problem of Windows 8. It is just so hideous. I've already downloaded a 3rd party program to make me a start menu, and am in the process of installing another program that will enable custom themes and make the computer look like Windows 7. Any other tips here are welcome.
The biggest problem, now, is the flashing. Every time the window pops up asking for admin permission to change something on the computer (happening often, of course, since I'm trying to set this thing up), the monitor flashes on and off a few times. No idea what's causing that, but it's really irritating.
Finally, Acer keeps putting icons on my desktop. I keep deleting them, and it just puts them back a few minutes later, even though I'm not touching the programs they lead to. Is it safe to just uninstall all the Acer crap and be done with it? I'm a little nervous, because this machine didn't come with a recovery disc. Or any discs. Nothing. It came with nothing. Just a tower, a single slip of paper that said "plug in the mouse and keyboard, then the power cord, then the monitor, then turn it on," and some styrofoam. Not even a disc with drivers on it. Makes me very nervous. I had this problem with Dell, but I expected better from Acer, especially considering how insanely expensive this machine was.
I didn't realize Windows 8 was so incredibly hideous, not to mention completely different from every other version of Windows ever made. I had heard that it was better, but so far, I'm extremely put off. I don't see any improvements, just a lot of changes for change's sake. I wanted new hardware, but I most certainly did not want my entire system to feel different. I actually liked Windows 7. Vista may have been terrible, but 7 was fine. What on earth is all this crap. Please help.
Post by: Thief^ on December 23, 2014, 09:07:14 am
Windows 8 does have a lot of improvements, the new task manager is great. But people cannot get past the stupid start screen and metro apps (great for a 10" touch screen, crap for a >20" non-touch desktop). All of which is fixed in Windows 10 :)
Windows 8 should have the ability to make a restore disk if you want one. Drivers should all be available online, so you should be fine to uninstall any Acer software.
Post by: Sappho on December 23, 2014, 09:11:06 am
Regarding the flashing, check the uac options, you can set it to not darken the screen which is considered slightly less secure but exists for exactly this kind of reason!
What are uac options and where do I find them?
Thank you.
Post by: Thief^ on December 23, 2014, 09:20:27 am
Post by: Sappho on December 23, 2014, 09:24:49 am
I'm now concerned that the quality problems with my monitor may be because the monitor itself is just cheap. I'm going to brave the Xmas crowds and get that adapter, and hopefully that will help... But if it still looks like this, I'll have to return this monitor and get a better one. Man, I just spent so much money on this computer, I don't have much left for a monitor... But this is truly ugly. The colors look all bleached out. Desaturated, even. The whole point of the new computer was to get *better* video... I had no idea a cheap monitor could destroy the color so much. And I mean, when I say cheap, it wasn't *that* cheap. 2000 kc, or about $100...
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 23, 2014, 09:28:55 am
Post by: MaximumZero on December 23, 2014, 09:33:08 am
Also, here (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/how-do-i-change-the-behavior-of-the-user-account-control-message) is info on changing how User Account Control works.
Post by: Sappho on December 23, 2014, 09:34:22 am
But if it doesn't work, I'll have to return this monitor after Christmas and scrape together the money for a better one. So much hassle... I was really looking forward to this thing turning on and looking all shiny and awesome. Instead it's hideous in every possible way...
Downloading Steam right now so I can at least test out a game and see how the video runs. Fingers crossed. I literally dropped my entire savings on this machine, and now I'm feeling sick to my stomach thinking that it might not actually work out...
Post by: MaximumZero on December 23, 2014, 09:35:47 am
Post by: Sappho on December 23, 2014, 09:43:39 am
Most of the ratings on that site (where I bought it) are positive, but the only review I could find on another site was negative. So now I just don't know. I guess I'll just go get the adapter and cross my fingers. Everything looks all washed out right now. The gray, wet, dead skies over Prague outside my window look more vibrant than the color on this monitor.
Post by: MaximumZero on December 23, 2014, 09:45:47 am
Page 31 has color settings on it.
Post by: Sappho on December 23, 2014, 09:53:37 am
The user manual! (http://download.p4c.philips.com/files/2/203v5lsb26_10/203v5lsb26_10_dfu_eng.pdf) Maybe there'll be something useful in there.
Page 31 has color settings on it.
Definitely not the right manual. My menu has no down arrow. There is only one button on the monitor, and when I press it I get a menu with icons for power (literally, to turn the monitor off, you have to press it then wait 5 seconds for it to select "power" and turn off), brightness, contrast, "auto" resolution, language, info, and exit menu. I think I got shafted. No color options whatsoever. : (
Looking at the document title, this is for the 203V5. I have just the 203V. Apparently there's a big difference between the two?
I'm going to brave the electronics store for a converter before it gets too late. Wish me luck. Make sacrifices to Armok.
EDIT: Well I went and stood in line and waited for about 45 minutes, but finally I got my adapter. Brought it home, plugged it in, and... it doesn't work. If I push really hard, the monitor gets the signal for a few seconds, but when I let it go, it loses it. And the little screws that are supposed to hold it in are NOT LONG ENOUGH. Finally, it stopped working altogether, even when I pushed it in. It looks like one of the pins in the adapter is shorter than the others -- no idea if it's supposed to be that way, or if I broke it by trying to make it work, or if it's just defective. I'm sure as hell not going back to wait in that line again to get a new one.
So I'm stuck like this. I didn't even get a good enough look to tell whether the video quality was any better. So I'll have to return it after Christmas, get a new one (a different one, that is, with screws that are long enough), and hope it makes a difference.
This is just a nightmare. Merry Christmas...
Post by: Thief^ on December 23, 2014, 03:28:53 pm
Post by: Sappho on December 23, 2014, 04:02:22 pm
I have two weeks to return the monitor for a full refund, no questions asked, according to Czech law. I bought it Sunday, so I have a little time to consider my options. I definitely need to return the crummy adapter, though. It'll be fun doing that right after Christmas, when everyone is returning unwanted gifts. But worse things have happened. It was cheap, anyway. 100 kc (about $5). So if I wuss out on returning it, it's not a huge loss.
Just read back over what I wrote in my last post... Okay, I've been very stressed lately. Might be getting deported, etc. Plus, two trips to the big electronics store the day before Christmas (Czechs open presents on Christmas Eve) was a bit hard on my senses. Apologies for the melodrama. Having a subpar monitor is clearly not a nightmare. It's just an annoyance.
Post by: MaxLVB on December 26, 2014, 02:24:38 am
Well, I tried out some games, and they work brilliantly. Max settings on everything. The only thing that lagged a bit was a massive Minecraft modpack. Vanilla Minecraft works perfectly with max graphics settings. The monitor is kind of shitty, but the games are still beautiful. Actually, this monitor seems really similar to the one I had on my old old laptop (6 years old, and it was cheap when I bought it). It just has that dingy sort of washed-out look. I guess I took it for granted that my laptop had an HD screen. I had forgotten that there were screens that didn't support HD (actually, I hadn't realized they still even made them). My laptop may have been shit in many ways, but it did always have a very nice screen. In any case, I'll survive with this until I can get a better one, and I probably shouldn't be rushing to return it and buy a nicer one, since I really did just spend all the money I had on the computer itself.
I have two weeks to return the monitor for a full refund, no questions asked, according to Czech law. I bought it Sunday, so I have a little time to consider my options. I definitely need to return the crummy adapter, though. It'll be fun doing that right after Christmas, when everyone is returning unwanted gifts. But worse things have happened. It was cheap, anyway. 100 kc (about $5). So if I wuss out on returning it, it's not a huge loss.
Just read back over what I wrote in my last post... Okay, I've been very stressed lately. Might be getting deported, etc. Plus, two trips to the big electronics store the day before Christmas (Czechs open presents on Christmas Eve) was a bit hard on my senses. Apologies for the melodrama. Having a subpar monitor is clearly not a nightmare. It's just an annoyance.
New to the forum, and subscribed just to post this reply:
Adjusting the Philips 203V and V5 monitor can be easily done with the Smart Control software that comes on the install CD with the monitor.
It can also be downloaded from here:
http://www.portrait.com/dtune/plp/enu/upgrade.html (http://www.portrait.com/dtune/plp/enu/upgrade.html)
It downloads the Premium version, but will only install the Lite version as the monitor doesn't have all the hardware the premium version supports. It also installs the drivers for the monitor.
I just bought this monitor a few days ago, and out of the box the display is washed out and 'muddy', as it's using the default windows drivers. Once smart control is installed there's a marked improvement in the display and tweaking it with smart control improves it even more. You can even set up/switch between your own monitor profiles depending of what you're currently doing on your computer, (photo editing, playing games, watching streaming videos, etc.)
There's no way it can be described as a 'top notch' monitor, but it's a good basic general purpose one at a reasonable price.
Post by: Sappho on December 26, 2014, 05:45:02 am
The display seems to be slightly better, but it's still a little washed out, and the software doesn't seem to be working properly. The options to change the colors and whatnot are all grayed out. My only options are "preferences" (no options for actual image quality there) and "help." Any idea why I can't access the options I really need?
Post by: Thief^ on December 26, 2014, 05:50:42 am
Is the monitor VGA-only?
Post by: Sappho on December 26, 2014, 05:56:12 am
Are you still using a HDMI -> VGA adapter? That may be why (both the greyed options and the washed-out look).
Is the monitor VGA-only?
I am, yeah. It just occurred to me that may be the cause of my troubles. I think most stores are still closed today, so I'll have to face the crowds tomorrow to get a VGA-DVI adapter. Yes, the monitor is VGA only.
New problem now... I just tried to open Scrivener and it didn't work. It opened as a background process, but it's not opening the actual program. It was working fine the last time I used it... Two days ago, I think? I've installed a lot of things since then, though, this being a new computer and all, so I have no idea what's causing the problems. : / I have all my writing stored in Scrivener, so... Need to get that working. Guess I'll try uninstalling then reinstalling, but other suggestions are most welcome.
EDIT: Nope, still won't work. This is definitely a problem. Google is useless, not helping at all. What on earth could be causing it to open as a background process, but not open the program so I can use it? I've never encountered this before... : / Please help!
EDIT2: Oh my god. It's the monitor driver. I uninstalled the SmartControl software, and now Scrivener works fine. Well, shit. Not sure what to do about this. Maybe I'll try the driver again when I have a VGA-DVI adapter, and see if it works then. If not... I may actually have to get a new monitor instead. Damnit.
Post by: Thief^ on December 26, 2014, 09:48:28 am
Post by: Sappho on December 26, 2014, 10:36:15 am
Post by: Thief^ on December 26, 2014, 01:00:58 pm
(The bundled software is often a bit crap)
Post by: MaxLVB on December 26, 2014, 02:50:10 pm
Doesn't seem to be. When I uninstalled the software, it automatically uninstalled the driver. I'll poke around and see if I can figure out a way, though.
Load the CD and start Windows Explorer
1. Open The PC directory
2. Open the Drivers directory
3. Open either Windows 7 or the Windows 8 directory
4. Select the .inf file
5. Right click and select install.
If you re-install the Smart Control software it will re-install the drivers as well, even when they're already installed.
Have you downloaded and installed the latest version of Smart Control to see if that fixes the conflict with Scrivener? Is Scrivener up to date?
Going back to one of your previous post's, you say the computer has a VGA port but it's disabled. This means it's most likely just switched off in the Bios.
Have you checked the computer manual, as it should have a section on setting up/turning on or off the various display options such as DVI, HDMI, or VGA.
For example, the computer I'm using has HDMI, DVI, and VGA ports, and if I wanted to, the Bios will allow me to connect all three types of monitors at the same time, simply by turning on all three display ports.
Post by: Thief^ on December 26, 2014, 03:37:29 pm
(The answer is because HDMI has a royalty fee)
Post by: Sappho on December 26, 2014, 04:27:38 pm
It's funny, I had no idea whatsoever that VGA was even outdated. I've had nothing but a laptop for so long (and I don't own a TV), I had never even heard of DVI until I was trying to set up this computer. The VGA port is indeed hooked up to onboard graphics, and apparently, to use it, I'd have to completely disable the video card. So I'll have to get a new converter (after returning this non-functional one) and hope it works out. If it doesn't, I'll have to spring for a newer monitor, I guess.
Post by: Rose on December 27, 2014, 04:29:30 am
Post by: Sappho on December 27, 2014, 04:40:14 am
Did you buy the computer pre-built, or build it yourself? Because graphics cards usually come with a dvi to vga adapter.
Pre-built, and it definitely didn't come with anything. Not even a system restore disc or a Windows CD.
UPDATE EDIT: The screen was starting to turn off and on a lot, even while playing games, presumably due to the adapter. So I decided, hell with it, and I returned it and got this one: http://www.alza.cz/21-5-benq-gw2255-d428023.htm
First of all, holy SHIT is it amazing. It's huge, and the colors are just unbelievable. Best quality display I've ever owned, and hardly cost any more than the shitty one I just returned.
The downsides are that, 1) when I returned the old one, the guy found a *tiny* scratch on the side, declared it "used" instead of "new" and deducted 300 kc (about $15) from the money I got back, and 2) the damn thing doesn't come with a DVI cable. It has the capability, but only comes with a VGA cable. So I'm still using the adapter, and still getting the flashing now and then. I'll have to go back and buy a new cable for the friggin' thing.
Still, for the money, if you're looking for a new display, this one is truly lovely. It's like the difference between a 56k modem and broadband.
Post by: Arx on December 31, 2014, 03:04:04 pm
Post by: Rose on December 31, 2014, 09:51:39 pm
Post by: gimlet on December 31, 2014, 09:58:56 pm
Post by: Arx on January 01, 2015, 06:00:47 am
Post by: PyroDesu on January 04, 2015, 03:03:32 pm
Are we thinking in the right direction?
Post by: Arx on January 04, 2015, 03:06:02 pm
Post by: PyroDesu on January 04, 2015, 03:07:48 pm
That sounds like overheating to me. I don't know that much about this, though.
Said he didn't hear any abnormal fan noise, it died quietly. If it were overheating, I'd expect the fans to go nuts before it went out (then again, I've had fans go nuts when there wasn't enough power in a PC, so...).
Post by: Thief^ on January 04, 2015, 03:10:31 pm
Post by: PyroDesu on January 04, 2015, 03:13:54 pm
Unless a fan is faulty? Specifically, the CPU or motherboard chipset fan (if it has one).
To his knowledge, they were operating normally.
Post by: Thief^ on January 04, 2015, 03:17:51 pm
Post by: PyroDesu on January 04, 2015, 03:19:38 pm
Does the PSU contain a fan? Is that working? Does the computer turn off faster after it's gone off once? That would definitely suggest something overheating.
Yes, probably (again, he said he didn't notice anything wrong, and a bad fan would have a sound change), no idea but it did go off faster with a heavier load, though it failed even if he used it lightly for a while.
It's hard to troubleshoot when all I have is his recollection.
Post by: Thief^ on January 04, 2015, 03:25:01 pm
Post by: Sensei on January 04, 2015, 06:27:42 pm
Post by: gimlet on January 04, 2015, 07:31:01 pm
When it dies, does it give the blue error screen or just go black?
Post by: PyroDesu on January 04, 2015, 08:33:29 pm
Run one of those little apps that shows the CPU temperature - like coretemp or speedfan. It's the easiest and cheapest first step to take, since you can do it for free in a few minutes. Well worth a few minutes to rule out something simple like a loose CPU heasink or failing fan...
When it dies, does it give the blue error screen or just go black?
Just went black, as far as I know.
And he's not big on the idea of powering it on at all. He's afraid it'll end up frying something important. I'd try testing with a known good PSU, but said PSU is in use already.
Post by: Sensei on January 05, 2015, 04:30:15 am
Well, starting it up is probably the easiest thing to do. Failing that you'll have get a multimeter and check all the pins on the PSU. I would say though, if you didn't fry it already, you're not too likely to fry it by running it once or twice more.Run one of those little apps that shows the CPU temperature - like coretemp or speedfan. It's the easiest and cheapest first step to take, since you can do it for free in a few minutes. Well worth a few minutes to rule out something simple like a loose CPU heasink or failing fan...
When it dies, does it give the blue error screen or just go black?
Just went black, as far as I know.
And he's not big on the idea of powering it on at all. He's afraid it'll end up frying something important. I'd try testing with a known good PSU, but said PSU is in use already.
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 08, 2015, 02:30:32 am
Post by: MaximumZero on January 08, 2015, 02:37:33 am
Post by: Sensei on January 08, 2015, 03:13:14 am
Post by: PyroDesu on January 08, 2015, 10:46:09 pm
Wonder what I can do with the old, possibly bad one (which turned out not to be what I thought it was - I thought it was a Thermaltake TR-2, turns out to be an Ultra LSP).
Post by: Astral on January 09, 2015, 12:35:42 am
My computer decided to crap out during the middle of a bit of post-work Battlefield 4, giving the dreaded black screen of death, something I haven't experienced since prior to reformatting around 6 months ago. It was working fine, until the FPS dipped to about 1, then I lost everything and couldn't even Ctrl+Alt+Del my way out.
Restarting brings me to the default Windows "Welcome" screen, which displays a bit of text for a split second then freezes, with the cursor still controllable. It does not progress past this blue screen, simply displaying the Windows 7 Professional logo at the bottom.
I am able to boot into safe mode, and even with Networking, so that's a small measure of comfort.
Heat does not appear to be an issue. The computer is dusted and cleaned on a semi-monthly basis, mainly due to the presence of a cat that frequents the room.The CPU is a water cooled i7, and ASUS' BIOS utility didn't reveal any heat issues upon restart. The only major change to the system was upgrading from a pair of nVidia GTX 560s to a single 970. The PSU is a sturdy 850 watt unit, and I am well under that number for power usage for my computer. Power surge should similarly be out of the question, as I have it hooked up to a decent UPS, and no other devices in my house were affected.
I've unplugged all non-essential peripherals to no effect.
I believe the error to be with nVidia's graphics drivers, so I'm attempting a clean install of a previous version. System Restore got stuck at the Initializing stage for 10 minutes, and as such appears to be useless.
Any additional advice or ideas towards fixing this issue would be appreciated.
Edit: I'm able to boot normally now, though it takes about a minute, which is about a minute longer than it used to take as my system drive is an SSD. I'm running some diagnostics to see what might have caused it in the meantime.
Post by: Tellemurius on January 09, 2015, 02:35:50 am
Post by: Wolfkit on January 09, 2015, 01:22:59 pm
Post by: Arx on January 09, 2015, 01:27:14 pm
Post by: Thief^ on January 09, 2015, 01:31:07 pm
Speaking as someone who has no real experience with Linux (not counted whatever variant they installed on those shitty EEEs my highschool had, good Armok those were terrible)That was probably xandros. I had Windows 7 on my eee, that was actually pretty good. Any other linux would probably have been good too!
[...] yet needs to dual boot Linux to run some software for an astrophysics internship this coming semester, what would you recommend? I am fairly computersavy and am perfectly comfortable using command line.I second Linux Mint. On the graphical side, it's like what Ubuntu used to be before it tried to become MacOS. On the commandline side, it's basically the same as Ubuntu, i.e. "Debian but actually up to date".
Post by: miauw62 on January 09, 2015, 02:29:49 pm
Post by: Aklyon on January 09, 2015, 03:57:45 pm
Post by: gimlet on January 09, 2015, 04:13:46 pm
If you do decide to do surgery on your running system, **backup anything important first** it's still a risk no matter how simple it looks, especially when you're mucking with the partition table. And pre-make some recovery tools, bootable CD or USB with utilities - like Hiren's Boot CD/Ultimate Boot CD. Having a laptop or another computer will be handy for websearching for help just in case too...
Post by: Arx on January 09, 2015, 04:22:11 pm
If you know someone who uses Mint, you can ask them to write an ISO to a USB drive for you.
Post by: Aklyon on January 09, 2015, 05:07:40 pm
Post by: Astral on January 11, 2015, 07:38:43 am
Mainly, I'm going to be using it to play modded Minecraft (FTB Resurrection), so 4GB of RAM minimum is a must, as is 64-bit and a decent processor. A decent graphics card may help, and nVidia if possible only because I'm most familiar with them (but it doesn't look like they tend to have any mobile solutions). Windows 7 would be preferable, but I suppose it could be time for me to familiarize myself with Windows 8, as I've heard it's not as bad as Microsoft's track record would usually indicate for their even numbered release, particularly on a mobile device.
My preferred price would probably be in the below $400 range.
Any manufacturers to stay away from? Any that people love? These are also things that I'd like to know.
Any suggestions? These are some of the ones I've been looking at so far:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Thief^ on January 11, 2015, 10:48:05 am
That said, out of the ones you've posted links for the 2nd easily has the most powerful CPU.
Post by: gimlet on January 11, 2015, 11:06:27 am
The 2nd one has intel graphics, beware. Look up the graphics chips on a benchmark site too - actually for a quick comparison this hierarchy chart is handy: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html and the cpubench guy has http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/
For a little step up, how about
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-259-543
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232278
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834259885
which look like they have a lot of the same issues - intel graphics, or integrated graphics, but at least a bit more cpu beef...
Post by: Astral on January 11, 2015, 06:46:56 pm
Integrated graphics will be a problem at my low price ranges, but as I said it's mainly to play Minecraft with, which shouldn't rely on much more than raw CPU power and RAM. I might get some other light gaming in, as I have a few untouched Steam games that should be within the low spec requirements of a computer on this end of the weak side.
Post by: PyroDesu on January 11, 2015, 10:48:46 pm
EDIT: Now that I've fond the manual for what I think is the right mobo type, I think that the first code may be it reporting a base 64k RAM failure (which I think means one or more sticks is dead), and the seconds is I derped up reseating the sticks. Maybe.
Post by: Sappho on January 12, 2015, 01:41:51 am
Nothing could really compare to my desktop's current specs without going into ridiculous price ranges. 16 GB RAM, nVidia 970, i7 3820 @ 3.6 GHz... it runs Minecraft servers on FTB packs alongside the client and graphically intensive games like Battlefield 4 without a hitch.
Integrated graphics will be a problem at my low price ranges, but as I said it's mainly to play Minecraft with, which shouldn't rely on much more than raw CPU power and RAM. I might get some other light gaming in, as I have a few untouched Steam games that should be within the low spec requirements of a computer on this end of the weak side.
As someone who was stuck playing Minecraft on a laptop, I can assure you that the video card *is* important to Minecraft. I had an i7 and 8 GB of RAM, but a low-end NVIDIA card, and I could never run Minecraft on anything but very low settings. The main problem was the view distance. I could never put it above short. With mods, I had to set the view distance at the absolute minimum, and I couldn't run larger modpacks at all. Trust me, it's not fun to play on the shortest view distance. You can hardly see anything. And even then, I still got frequent lag. I'd see if you can test out the game on the computer you want before spending the money, or at least make sure you get a good return policy in case it doesn't work.
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 12, 2015, 01:49:20 am
Post by: Thief^ on January 12, 2015, 02:21:30 am
Edit: I should test it on my laptop, it's got one of the low-end AMD APUs.
Post by: Azerty on January 13, 2015, 03:10:49 am
Since yesterday, I cannot access to icons on my desktop nor open files and applications by using the "Start" menu and, when I enter "explorer" in the cmd console, I receive the message "Illegal operation attempted on a registry key that has been marked for deletion;" when I rebooted yesterday, the problem was settled but it rebegin today.
How could I resolve the issue permanantely?
Post by: Sensei on January 13, 2015, 04:38:02 pm
Nothing could be easy, could it? My brother's computer is now failing POST - earlier today, it was giving 3 short beeps, pause and repeat, I reseated the RAM and now it's generating a short followed by a long, pause and repeat. Mobo is Foxconn. I can't find anything myself, anyone know what's probably having the issue?Just seat the sticks carefully and test them one by one. If you have another computer that works, test with a stick of ram from that. If it keeps having problems you're either not seating it right or the mobo socket is bad. Also make sure you're using the right socket when the sockets aren't all full.
EDIT: Now that I've fond the manual for what I think is the right mobo type, I think that the first code may be it reporting a base 64k RAM failure (which I think means one or more sticks is dead), and the seconds is I derped up reseating the sticks. Maybe.
Post by: PyroDesu on January 14, 2015, 04:11:46 am
Nothing could be easy, could it? My brother's computer is now failing POST - earlier today, it was giving 3 short beeps, pause and repeat, I reseated the RAM and now it's generating a short followed by a long, pause and repeat. Mobo is Foxconn. I can't find anything myself, anyone know what's probably having the issue?Just seat the sticks carefully and test them one by one. If you have another computer that works, test with a stick of ram from that. If it keeps having problems you're either not seating it right or the mobo socket is bad. Also make sure you're using the right socket when the sockets aren't all full.
EDIT: Now that I've fond the manual for what I think is the right mobo type, I think that the first code may be it reporting a base 64k RAM failure (which I think means one or more sticks is dead), and the seconds is I derped up reseating the sticks. Maybe.
Funnily enough, tried that a day or two ago. All of the sticks seem to be good (though with one of them, while passing POST, it didn't boot up entirely), as do all the sockets. Though now when we put in more than two (he has 4 2 gig sticks) and attempt to turn it on, it says that the CPU fan is dead (which it clearly isn't).
Something tells me that his motherboard is on the way out, though I won't be sure until we've gone over the whole thing with a can of air (the only reason we haven't yet is my brother insists it's not the issue (though you should see his CPU heatsink. Put simply, you can't tell the fins apart, it's so choked with dust)) and try once more.
Post by: Sensei on January 15, 2015, 03:39:39 pm
(though you should see his CPU heatsink. Put simply, you can't tell the fins apart, it's so choked with dust)) and try once more.Oh.
I'd put pretty good odds he's already ruined something important then, either the motherboard or the CPU.
Post by: Azerty on January 17, 2015, 12:34:50 pm
I would like to know if "C:\Program Files\003\buuoujqmrk32.exe" is a malware.
Post by: Graknorke on January 17, 2015, 02:59:41 pm
Post by: miauw62 on January 18, 2015, 06:52:13 am
googling "is [filename] malware" will always turn up "yes". try using a virus scanner.
Post by: Tellemurius on January 18, 2015, 12:46:07 pm
Hello,thats malware, just delete it and be done with it.
I would like to know if "C:\Program Files\003\buuoujqmrk32.exe" is a malware.
Post by: Guardian G.I. on January 22, 2015, 06:41:57 am
I installed its drivers in Windows XP Mode (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/install-and-use-windows-xp-mode-in-windows-7). However, I can't connect the scanner to the virtual Windows XP: Windows Virtual PC also displays it as an unknown device, trying to connect it to Windows XP through Virtual PC (USB - Attach...) brings up an error message.
What should I do: try connecting the scanner through other means, try it in a different virtualization program, or simply buy a new scanner?
Post by: Rose on January 22, 2015, 11:09:48 am
Post by: Thief^ on January 22, 2015, 11:23:40 am
Failing that, you probably need a new scanner.
Post by: PyroDesu on February 03, 2015, 02:49:56 pm
Post by: Thief^ on February 03, 2015, 03:08:55 pm
The 660 is slightly old now, still good but you might consider the 750ti instead, similar performance IIRC and a hell of a lot quieter.
Post by: PyroDesu on February 03, 2015, 03:17:41 pm
I'd personally drop the soundcard and replace the WiFi USB poppet with a proper WiFi card with antennas. Or just cable the damn thing to the router for a fraction of the cost and better reliability.
The 660 is slightly old now, still good but you might consider the 750ti instead, similar performance IIRC and a hell of a lot quieter.
The capture card specified having a sound card, he decided on the USB WiFi (and has no access to an ethernet port - we're both college students, but when they renovated his dorm they stripped out the ethernet ports).
As for the GPU, I've seen a lot of stuff saying the 660 is better.
Post by: Aklyon on February 03, 2015, 03:20:30 pm
Post by: Thief^ on February 03, 2015, 03:22:25 pm
As for the capture card, won't the onboard sound be fine? Dedicated sound cards are pretty much considered a great aste of money these days
Post by: PyroDesu on February 03, 2015, 03:37:35 pm
The laptop's WiFi likely has a very tall antenna each side of the screen. Much better than a raisin-sized USB thing.
As for the capture card, won't the onboard sound be fine? Dedicated sound cards are pretty much considered a great aste of money these days
I've no idea. And as far as I'm aware, he doesn't either. I think he wants to play it safe.
And another reason for the USB thing is he isn't even sure if we could stick another PCI card in there and have it fit with his case. If we can, I'll advise him to get the card when I meet him for payment this afternoon (If he's even ordered the parts yet, he ordered them today).
EDIT: I don't suppose anyone here knows how to check what wifi protocol a network is using? I need to know if the campus network operates on ac before I can tell him to get a PCI network card.
Post by: Tellemurius on February 04, 2015, 04:46:07 am
The laptop's WiFi likely has a very tall antenna each side of the screen. Much better than a raisin-sized USB thing.
As for the capture card, won't the onboard sound be fine? Dedicated sound cards are pretty much considered a great aste of money these days
I've no idea. And as far as I'm aware, he doesn't either. I think he wants to play it safe.
And another reason for the USB thing is he isn't even sure if we could stick another PCI card in there and have it fit with his case. If we can, I'll advise him to get the card when I meet him for payment this afternoon (If he's even ordered the parts yet, he ordered them today).
EDIT: I don't suppose anyone here knows how to check what wifi protocol a network is using? I need to know if the campus network operates on ac before I can tell him to get a PCI network card.
You can pull up the network details or hover your mouse over the wireless icon in the taskbar and it will tell you the wireless protocol.
Post by: PyroDesu on February 04, 2015, 08:10:12 am
The laptop's WiFi likely has a very tall antenna each side of the screen. Much better than a raisin-sized USB thing.
As for the capture card, won't the onboard sound be fine? Dedicated sound cards are pretty much considered a great aste of money these days
I've no idea. And as far as I'm aware, he doesn't either. I think he wants to play it safe.
And another reason for the USB thing is he isn't even sure if we could stick another PCI card in there and have it fit with his case. If we can, I'll advise him to get the card when I meet him for payment this afternoon (If he's even ordered the parts yet, he ordered them today).
EDIT: I don't suppose anyone here knows how to check what wifi protocol a network is using? I need to know if the campus network operates on ac before I can tell him to get a PCI network card.
You can pull up the network details or hover your mouse over the wireless icon in the taskbar and it will tell you the wireless protocol.
Doesn't tell me what protocol is being used, with either Windows 8 or Ubuntu. Just says 802.11 and the name of the network, respective to the network.
Not that it matters now. Dude's trying to pull out entirely because he had a little trouble finding a part.
Post by: Aklyon on February 04, 2015, 08:32:48 am
Post by: PyroDesu on February 04, 2015, 09:10:41 am
That doesn't sound like a very confident dude.
He was confident enough to give me 30 down of 100, when I had told him it was nonrefundable.
He's asking for a refund though, so I'm not sure if he read that part...
Post by: wierd on February 05, 2015, 05:05:44 pm
If the card is a dual protocol mode card (B/G/N, or B/G, or A/N, or something newer like H), there will be a mode selector in there too.
You can force a card out of "auto mode" and into a specific version of 802.11x this way, so say a BGN card will ignore crappy B protocol APs. (Or, even only connect to N APs)
(http://i.stack.imgur.com/d8RnL.png)
Post by: ShadowHammer on February 05, 2015, 10:35:29 pm
I just noticed this now, but it seems to have been going on for a little while, as the disk space has dropped from ~25 or 30 GB free to about 4 GB. I assumed I had just not checked in a a while and this was my messy self gradually using up space; however, in the past hour(ish) I've lost almost 0.3 GB seemingly spontaneously.
Things I can recall doing during the hour in which 0.3 GB evaporated:
-Browsed the internet (no sketchy sites or anything - these forums, xkcd.com, various statistics/news websites doing research)
-Typed up said research in a word document (16 KB)
-Made several images with paint.net (combined size of maybe 100 KB) and used a my space generator (http://www.myspacegens.com/handler.php?gen=animatedimage&p=view) (non-sketchyness not assured, but I've used it before with no ill effects) to create a few .gifs with them (downloaded said .gifs, total size ~15 KB).
-Attempted to play KSP, but upon it finishing the loading screen, a windows dialog box popped up, informing me that I should shut down the program to conserve memory, which I did.
-Skype and stickies have been open the whole time, as per usual.
Does anyone have advice on figuring out the issue here? Should I just clean up unnecessary files and hope the 0.3 GB disappearing was just a mistake between keyboard and chair?
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 05, 2015, 10:41:33 pm
Post by: Rose on February 05, 2015, 11:38:29 pm
Post by: wierd on February 06, 2015, 04:36:48 pm
(Funny thing-- NTFS likes to put metadata into the MFT, but it never wants to delete it afterwards...)
I have seen MFTs get to be over 10gb in size. On a drive that has had EVERY FILE deleted. (Was previously full.)
sysinternals has a tool to check information about the MFT.
http://metadataconsulting.blogspot.com/2014/05/hoe-to-determine-windows-master-file.html
Post by: foil on February 06, 2015, 06:08:51 pm
Post by: ShadowHammer on February 06, 2015, 09:07:43 pm
Run SpaceMonger or TreeSizeFree to figure out what's taking up the space. It's possible that the usage is just normal bloat, but it's also possible you may have a worm or something.Thanks for the advice; I tried TreeSize Free, and it turned up something peculiar (note that, due to my general unfamiliarity with computers, these "peculiarities" may not actually be abnormal).
TreeSize Free tells me that my drive is 121 GB, but at the bottom, it also says I only have 116 GB. Also, all the files it displays under Local Disk only add up to about 94 GB when I add them together manually. Is this normal?
It also showed that WinSxS is over 20GB, and I have been having a slight issue recently wherein I am always told that a new update for windows is available. However, when I restart the computer to allow it to update, it says it is doing so, but the update-indicator-icon-thingy beside the shutdown button doesn't go away. This process is repeated every time I attempt to get this update to install.
I guess I'll try to clean up WinSxS and see if it is the cause of either or both problems.
It could also be abnormally large MFT, if it is an NTFS volume.I checked this, but it's only 424 MB. Thanks for the advice anyway, though.
(Funny thing-- NTFS likes to put metadata into the MFT, but it never wants to delete it afterwards...)
I have seen MFTs get to be over 10gb in size. On a drive that has had EVERY FILE deleted. (Was previously full.)
sysinternals has a tool to check information about the MFT.
http://metadataconsulting.blogspot.com/2014/05/hoe-to-determine-windows-master-file.html
Have you turned on Backups and forgot about it?I don't believe so, but it's definitely possible. How would I check?
Post by: gimlet on February 07, 2015, 12:22:52 am
One thing I periodically do is search for big files - use the windows search, put a big number in the "search options -> size" like 50000 Kbytes, will find all files 50,000,000 bytes or larger, then see what the heck those are - is it something I downloaded and forgot about, is it some huge error log something is creating, whatever.
Other things to check - empty the recycle bin, clean out your TEMP directory, check what files your antivirus program might have put in quarantine. At various times each of those things used up a scary amount of my disk space. Oh, and Chrome, which not only loves to use up all my RAM but it likes to keep a copy of every update it ever made - I had well over 1G of those at one time too.
Post by: wierd on February 07, 2015, 09:46:05 am
FAT based filesystems tend to use 4k allocation units for drives up to 20gb in size, then use 16k, or 32k cluster sizes for very very large disks.
The big bloat in the filesystem is the MFT table when using NTFS. It is the journal, metadata repository, and inode chain storage system for NTFS. When you start using things like Alternate Data Streams (ADS), and other whizbang features of NTFS volumes, the MFT can grow to gargantuan sizes. Normally this isn't a problem, but I have seen it happen more than once on volumes that get a lot of traffic. (Lots of files written then deleted, with the drive pushed to being nearly full repeatedly.)
As for the WinSxS folder, Microsoft has a support article on the matter.
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2795190
This is probably the source of your size incongruity. Looks like NTFS hardlinks, and the way the explorer shell accounts for them are to blame. Really, a hardlink should only consume an additional 512 bytes-- just enough for the inode allocation and metadata, but microsoft apparently doesnt know how to do symbolic linking the right way.
Post by: ShadowHammer on February 08, 2015, 05:38:00 pm
-snip-After running Disk Cleanup as recommended by Microsoft to deal with WinSxS, I have ~32 free GB... even though it didn't actually do anything about the size of the WinSxS folder ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Thanks for the link.
Unfortunately, a new problem has arisen: the amount of free space is fluctuating seemingly at random, by up to 2 GB at a time. It's possible that this was the "disappearing memory" problem all along, and I just happened to check it when it was at low points in the fluctuation. Oh well, it isn't actually causing issues now, so that's good.
-snip-Alright, makes sense.
I will keep these suggestions in mind and hopefully get some time and motivation to do them, thanks for the advice.
Post by: Azerty on February 12, 2015, 12:20:25 pm
I've a serious issue with my computer (OS: Windows 7 Ultimate), related to this one (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=90025.msg5949074;topicseen#msg5949074):
since mid-january, sometimes, after a variable length of time, my GUI completly stops working: I cannot open an icon of the Desktop and, when I try to open explorer in cmd.exe, I run into the "Registry Key" issue, but I can open other files while using cmd; this problem resolves itself after rebooting.
These last days it got more serious: now, when I boot, explorer is not launched automatically and, even after I launched it with taskmgr, I cannot even open any file nor run an application because of issues of "image", thing which already happened once before I did a system restaure.
Even after I run a scan with Avast! and I delete the malware found, the issue still remains.
Each time I attempt to open regedit or regedt32, I open the executable file content as if it was a text file, complete with the "This program cannot run in DOS mode" message inside the text.
I lastly noticed more noise from the processor and, from taskmgr, more UC use than usual.
I would like to find a way to fix permanentely the issue, without system restaure every two weeks.
Post by: Thief^ on February 12, 2015, 12:22:37 pm
Post by: dennislp3 on February 12, 2015, 05:19:21 pm
Worse yet is that sometimes these things attach themselves to critical files or registry entries which means when they are cleaned off the PC then the PC is essentially rendered crippled in some manner because of compromised or missing files.
Long story short...yes...reinstalling windows is your best and likely only bet.
I would advise you use Firefox with ad block plus and the pop up blocker add-on. that is the combination I use to prevent most of that stuff as well as a few other add-ons.
You get those things from clicking on or downloading things and the best bet to ensure you don't get them is to just be smart and careful about what you click on and download. I have not had a virus or malware in years just by taking a few simple precautions and being careful with what I download.
Post by: miauw62 on February 13, 2015, 06:09:14 am
There's this new thing that's in beta called HerdProtect (http://www.herdprotect.com/) which seems pretty cool. Apparently it doesn't clean up the infections entirely yet though (e.g. if a virus disables task manager, you'll have to clean up with MBAM to re-enable it).
If nothing else helps, there's always ComboFix (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/combofix/), but it's sort of a weapon of last resort and MAY cause your computer to not work properly afterwards.
Post by: Azerty on February 13, 2015, 12:01:53 pm
And I heard deleting WinZipper could mess up with explorer.exe; could someone tell me how to remove safely this application from my computer? And could these application caused this issue about esplorer.exe?
Post by: wierd on February 13, 2015, 01:15:17 pm
Hunt down each and every .exe and .dll file associated with that garbage, then in safe mode you should apply a filesystem security exclusion on them FORBIDDING them from having execute, assigned to the EVERYONE group. After that, when you try to boot in normal mode for removal, (so you have full access to the registry) they wont be able to execute any of their code, and wont be able to hook those services to use against you.
BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THE DENY ATTRIBUTE, ESPECIALLY ON THE "EVERYONE" GROUP!
Deny takes priority over Allow, even when explicitly assigned!! *ONLY* do this to the application's exe and dll files!
Post by: Levi on February 13, 2015, 01:42:13 pm
Edit: Also is there a way to prevent my taskbar items from popping up a preview whenever my mouse hovers over them?
Edit 2: Starts pulling hair out. I swear I had gotten rid of the dumb new start menu and the charms, but I rebooted and they all seem to be back. Any ideas how to kill all these things. I miss XP. >:(
Edit 3: I think I got my start menu back(thank god).
Edit 4: Oh god now I can't paste a file from one folder to another, it claims the drive is "Unavailable" but its clearly on crack. How on earth did Microsoft think it was a good idea to release this crap?
Post by: dennislp3 on February 13, 2015, 04:21:45 pm
Post by: Aklyon on February 13, 2015, 04:23:37 pm
Post by: Thief^ on February 13, 2015, 04:25:31 pm
At least Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for Windows 8 users, so those that hate the start screen can have a traditional start menu again.
Post by: Levi on February 13, 2015, 04:27:41 pm
As for Edit 4... that's not a normal Windows 8 thing, that's a PC problem...
I think it might have something to do with admin privileges and copying from a network drive. Its stupid though, because I can copy other files into that folder just fine, just not ones from the network drive. God I wish we used linux here.
Edit: Seems I can copy the files to the c:/temp/ folder, and THEN copy them to the intended folder. For reasons?
Edit 2: Okay, I think I've fixed most of the annoying things and only wasted about 1 day on it. :P
Post by: Sappho on February 13, 2015, 06:42:24 pm
Anybody happen to know how to turn off forever the Windows 8 "search pane"? I had to upgrade to windows 8 at work and literally everything is enraging me.
Edit: Also is there a way to prevent my taskbar items from popping up a preview whenever my mouse hovers over them?
Edit 2: Starts pulling hair out. I swear I had gotten rid of the dumb new start menu and the charms, but I rebooted and they all seem to be back. Any ideas how to kill all these things. I miss XP. >:(
Edit 3: I think I got my start menu back(thank god).
Edit 4: Oh god now I can't paste a file from one folder to another, it claims the drive is "Unavailable" but its clearly on crack. How on earth did Microsoft think it was a good idea to release this crap?
I feel your pain. I recently got a new computer with Windows 8. Fortunately, following the instructions on this page allowed me to make my new computer feel more or less like my old Windows 7 one: http://blog.laptopmag.com/make-windows-8-like-windows-7
It doesn't fix everything, but it fixes most of it. Gives you a normal start menu and gets rid of all the hideous crap that 8 comes with.
Post by: Azerty on February 13, 2015, 07:11:56 pm
I have stuck with windows 7...and I likely will for a very long time...windows 8 is just...eww from all experiences I have had with it
Windows 7 remains a good basic Winsods OS - in fact, XP could be considerated as enough.
As for Edit 4... that's not a normal Windows 8 thing, that's a PC problem...
At least Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for Windows 8 users, so those that hate the start screen can have a traditional start menu again.
Don't you want to wait the big bugs are ironed before jumping?
Post by: Aklyon on February 13, 2015, 07:52:13 pm
Post by: Thief^ on February 14, 2015, 02:53:30 am
Edit: Also, it's worth knowing that "mainstream" support for Windows 7 has ended already. It's only getting security updates from now on, and as such definitely won't be getting Direct X 12.
Post by: miauw62 on February 14, 2015, 04:23:00 am
Doesn't get rid of the charms thingie, sadly.
Post by: Aklyon on February 14, 2015, 09:34:12 am
Edit: Also, it's worth knowing that "mainstream" support for Windows 7 has ended already. It's only getting security updates from now on, and as such definitely won't be getting Direct X 12.That is, to be honest, completely irrelevant to me until something interesting comes out that needs dx12. Most of the things I've played still have a dx9c mode, for pete's sake.
Post by: Azerty on February 14, 2015, 10:29:14 am
Wel, the fre win10 suposedly is available for the whole first year, plenty of time to wait for the launch to be cleaned up if you realy want to get 10
Maybe running it in a virtual machine before deciding to sign up for the beta.
Post by: miauw62 on February 15, 2015, 05:47:30 am
Post by: Rose on February 15, 2015, 07:19:11 am
Post by: BFEL on February 15, 2015, 10:45:44 am
This coincides with another issue (that would normally be considered unrelated, but showed up at EXACTLY the same time) where I can't get sound on Roosterteeth videos. Only videos on their site. Its weird and frustrating.
Do note that these started when I got a CPU cycle eating virus that I have been unable to remove, so I'll understand if this is just unfixable, but would like some suggestions nonetheless.
Post by: dennislp3 on February 16, 2015, 12:28:54 pm
Post by: Levi on February 16, 2015, 12:51:23 pm
So I'm an admin user. I have a bunch of external usb harddrives. For some bizarre reason they have all been mounted as read-only(why???). You'd think being an administrator would let me write anyway but no. >:( So I finally figure out how to change ownership of one particular drive to "Everyone", and try to change permissions to give write access, and it starts okay but part way through it starts failing to assign write access. (Failed to enumerate objects in the container. Access is denied asshat) I friggen need access to my files, I've got work to do.
This OS really is a massive pile of garbage. I never had these problems on XP.
Edit: Finally got it working. Now I just have to perform an elaborate voodoo dance for the next two drives. :P I apparently missed some checkbox the first time that would propagate the user ownership to all the individual files in the folder.
Post by: Thief^ on February 16, 2015, 01:01:26 pm
What filesystem is the drive formatted with?
Post by: Levi on February 16, 2015, 02:20:48 pm
It boggles the mind.
Post by: Thief^ on February 16, 2015, 02:42:14 pm
Edit: if you only need PATH to propogate to one program (eg a cmd.exe window) you should just be able to restart that one program.
Post by: ShadowHammer on February 16, 2015, 03:44:50 pm
To reiterate it, the space on my hard drive seems to be magically disappearing; last night, I had 21 GB left, and this morning, I have 19.6. To clarify, I am not looking for suggestions on how to free up space; instead, I would appreciate advice about what could be using the space and how I would stop it from doing so.
Spoiler: More Information (click to show/hide)
Post by: Levi on February 16, 2015, 03:49:13 pm
Edit: if you only need PATH to propogate to one program (eg a cmd.exe window) you should just be able to restart that one program.
Yeah, that is all I need, but it doesn't seem to happen in windows 8 for some reason. It works fine to do that in every other version of windows I've used.
Edit: Okay, I found a method that seems to work. Got to alt-ctrl delete and kill all explorer tasks(Annoying, but better than closing all my windows), and then use task manager to run a new instance of explorer.
Edit2: Apparently its only the PATH variable that suffers from this. I was able to change some others just fine.
Post by: Thief^ on February 16, 2015, 03:50:52 pm
I'm back again, as it turns out my previous problem is not fixed after all.Run windows repair using a windows install disk. Something's clearly hosed.
Post by: Gentlefish on February 16, 2015, 06:15:35 pm
-snop-
Is it a solid state or a disc drive?
This is actually pretty important. Solid state drives can only handle so many R/W operations before the storage starts to fail.
Post by: ShadowHammer on February 16, 2015, 07:23:05 pm
It is a disc drive.-snop-
Is it a solid state or a disc drive?
This is actually pretty important. Solid state drives can only handle so many R/W operations before the storage starts to fail.
Would this have any undesirable side effects? Also, what do I do if I can't find a windows install disc?I'm back again, as it turns out my previous problem is not fixed after all.Run windows repair using a windows install disk. Something's clearly hosed.
Post by: miauw62 on February 17, 2015, 05:27:08 am
End the Explorer process and then restart it using run. It's faster.Edit: if you only need PATH to propogate to one program (eg a cmd.exe window) you should just be able to restart that one program.
Yeah, that is all I need, but it doesn't seem to happen in windows 8 for some reason. It works fine to do that in every other version of windows I've used.
Edit: Okay, I found a method that seems to work. Got to alt-ctrl delete and kill all explorer tasks(Annoying, but better than closing all my windows), and then use task manager to run a new instance of explorer.
Edit2: Apparently its only the PATH variable that suffers from this. I was able to change some others just fine.
E:
AFAIK, those sketchy names are probably legitimate.
Anyway, looks like the bloat is mostly restore points and shadow copies, according to this thread:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1813658/reduce-size-system-volume-information-folder.html
Post by: Sappho on February 17, 2015, 09:45:25 am
Post by: Rose on February 17, 2015, 11:03:13 am
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=usb+sound+card
they seem pretty cheap.
Post by: Sappho on February 17, 2015, 11:43:27 am
Post by: wierd on February 17, 2015, 11:46:49 am
Post by: Sappho on February 17, 2015, 12:25:19 pm
Anyway, it turned out that the "free software" my keyboard came with is essentially a demo, but I didn't find that out until I'd invested several days in learning how to use it, then got a notification window when I tried to add a 5th track that I am limited to 4. That's not nearly enough to do anything I want to do. So now I have to find new software anyway. After spending so much time learning this one, I'm sorely tempted to "obtain" the full version via potentially questionable methods. Turns out it's 500 euros for the full version! I could barely afford the 50 pounds for this keyboard, which I probably wouldn't have bought if it hadn't conned me by claiming to come bundled with fully-functional software... >: /
Post by: Azerty on February 17, 2015, 01:41:05 pm
AFAIK Windows mainly does updates during shutdown/startup, so it's a good idea to restart your computer every now and then. (I always fully shutdown my computer when I go to bed, and I've never had issues with Windows Update :P)
It's just I've the impression the complete shutdown of the GUI and, indeed, the quasi-bricking of the OS happened after the update, so I've blocked any updates for the time being and I'm using hibernation since Thursday.
Post by: ShadowHammer on February 17, 2015, 10:54:36 pm
E:Thanks! This seems to have to have worked! I'll make sure to keep an eye on it, but I do believe my Hard Drive usage is holding steady now.
AFAIK, those sketchy names are probably legitimate.
Anyway, looks like the bloat is mostly restore points and shadow copies, according to this thread:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1813658/reduce-size-system-volume-information-folder.html
Post by: Azerty on February 18, 2015, 12:45:09 pm
Post by: dennislp3 on February 18, 2015, 02:37:29 pm
Post by: Aklyon on February 18, 2015, 02:46:15 pm
Post by: Azerty on February 18, 2015, 03:34:39 pm
If you're wary about rebooting you probably should get your important stuff backed up anyway.
I've a 9 Go library of books and Alpha Centauri whose CD I cannot find in the place where I put it with other CDs - the lase problem could resolve itself.
And could the harddisk be harmed by the numerous writings of the hibernation?
Post by: Astral on February 18, 2015, 09:57:54 pm
I ask because I want to play with a Verizon program, to see if it actually works as intended, but am a bit iffy when it comes to programs that claim to run diagnostics that I couldn't do myself with some sleuthing and command prompt usage.
Post by: Rose on February 18, 2015, 10:15:36 pm
If you're wary about rebooting you probably should get your important stuff backed up anyway.
I've a 9 Go library of books and Alpha Centauri whose CD I cannot find in the place where I put it with other CDs - the lase problem could resolve itself.
And could the harddisk be harmed by the numerous writings of the hibernation?
Rebooting doesn't hibernate. they're different things.
Post by: i2amroy on February 19, 2015, 03:24:36 pm
Quick question: Does anyone know of a program, preferably free or open source, that can "jail" an application when installed, to view what changes it makes when it does so? This is on Windows 7,The word you are looking for is "sandbox". That said sandboxie (http://www.sandboxie.com/) might be what you are looking for. There's a paid version, but the free version is almost identical and if you are just doing it for personal use there's no need to get the paid license.
I ask because I want to play with a Verizon program, to see if it actually works as intended, but am a bit iffy when it comes to programs that claim to run diagnostics that I couldn't do myself with some sleuthing and command prompt usage.
Post by: Zrk2 on February 20, 2015, 12:56:03 am
I'm on my shitty laptop. I had to leave my beautiful new desktop in Prague when I got deported. I probably won't see it again for another 2.5 months. I'm broke and homeless, living on a friend's sofa, so I'm really limited to the hardware I have. I guess there is no other way around this problem... : /
If I may, how did you get deported?
Post by: dennislp3 on February 20, 2015, 04:08:07 am
Post by: Sappho on February 20, 2015, 05:00:38 am
I'm on my shitty laptop. I had to leave my beautiful new desktop in Prague when I got deported. I probably won't see it again for another 2.5 months. I'm broke and homeless, living on a friend's sofa, so I'm really limited to the hardware I have. I guess there is no other way around this problem... : /
If I may, how did you get deported?
Bureaucracy. I wrote an 8-page explanation of the whole story which I will send to anyone who wants to read it, but essentially, the foreigner police gave me the wrong information *on multiple occasions*, leading to a mistake in my paperwork. Then they rejected my application and said it was my fault because I couldn't prove they had given me the wrong information. I appealed, and they simply ignored the appeal and let my exit order run out, and I had to leave. I have to hide out in Scotland now until May, when I can finally go home. I'll have to start over with a new visa application and lose the 3.5 years of progress towards the 5 year residence that would have allowed me to apply for permanent residence.
I am not happy. Also Scotland sucks.
Post by: Azerty on February 20, 2015, 01:49:11 pm
If you're wary about rebooting you probably should get your important stuff backed up anyway.
I've a 9 Go library of books and Alpha Centauri whose CD I cannot find in the place where I put it with other CDs - the lase problem could resolve itself.
And could the harddisk be harmed by the numerous writings of the hibernation?
Rebooting doesn't hibernate. they're different things.
I just wanted to know if using hibernation, i.e. writing the latest session on my hard disk, could make it used prematurely.
Post by: PyroDesu on February 20, 2015, 04:30:27 pm
I'm in a spot for a while with WiFi, but no ethernet ports.
My desktop has no wireless card (I won't be here by the time anything ships and with all the crap winter storm Neptune dumped on us, going and getting a cheap USB wifi stick is not an option).
I want to connect to the WiFi with my laptop, then use an ethernet cable to pass the internet connection through to my desktop. Basically using it as a wireless card. This is theoretically possible using the built in Internet Sharing Connection.
I finally got the desktop to recognize the laptop as having a valid IP (this was a battle all in itself), but it still refuses to actually share the connection. (For that matter, the desktop considers my laptop a 'unidentified public network') The network diagnostics finds nothing at all wrong.
I have tried basically every solution Google has shown me, from the Windows help site to various forums. I've tried editing the ICS program to delayed startup (and turning it off and on again), which is the most often suggested fix.
I'm stuck - can anyone here help? And don't say that I should just use the internet on the latptop - browsing is basically all it's good for.
Post by: Thief^ on February 20, 2015, 04:49:22 pm
Post by: PyroDesu on February 20, 2015, 08:29:10 pm
I don't have the instructions to hand, but perhaps try "bridging" the Ethernet and WiFi together on the laptop instead.
And it works first time.
Now I'm annoyed I spent all that time in frustration.
Post by: redwallzyl on February 20, 2015, 08:54:01 pm
Post by: dennislp3 on February 20, 2015, 10:40:08 pm
Chances are that the cold caused moisture to condense and short the computer...that is just a guess though
Post by: redwallzyl on February 21, 2015, 06:55:16 pm
Post by: Thief^ on February 22, 2015, 03:10:51 am
Most electronics can survive very low temperatures.
Post by: Azerty on February 23, 2015, 07:23:53 am
after observating, during the week I used the "Hibernation" mode isntead to shut down, I decided to test a reboot last Friday.
End result: the day after, the issue with the complete shutdown of the GUI system, along with the file system, went back and I had to do a system restore by the F8 mode, since which I am using back "Hibernation."
At last I know now the issue is linked with the booting process.
Post by: Thief^ on February 23, 2015, 08:21:42 am
Post by: wierd on February 23, 2015, 11:09:33 am
That way other updates will install, but not the system hosing one.
Post by: Jack_Bread on February 27, 2015, 08:31:47 pm
I don't have any backups(Don't judge me! There're very few things on my computer I care about keeping in the first place!) and trying to run Window's backup thing gives me this error:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It's still running fine, but I'm naturally concerned about restarting it. I've already got everything important in a flashdrive.
I don't have much of what happened, as I mindlessly clicked through the first couple of errors without fully understanding them. It sounds like my shit's fucked, though. How can I get more details on this?
Here are couple of other issues I've been having for my computer for the past while that may be related:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: wierd on February 28, 2015, 12:26:21 am
The issue with the corrupted downloads folder can probably be resolved by forcing a chkdsk /f /x /r on the volume, and allowing it to run at next full reboot.
detailed step by step instructions on how to do that, if needed (http://robotbutler.org/article/11)
The /x flag tells windows to unmount the volume first, if necessary, and the /r flag tells it to aggressively check every single sector for being defective before passing health check. IT WILL TAKE FOREVER TO COMPLETE THE CHECKING. Just a heads up on that.
The error message you received appears related to volume shadow copy service being turned off. I don't consider it being turned off a bad thing. Unless you have a bunch of users all manhandling your stuff, changing and deleting files all the time, keeping things mirrored on a flash disk is a perfectly good backup solution. Volume shadow copy allows you to keep "Point in time" backups of frequently changed files. Think "Office Politics" with people all manhandling the same spreadsheet all day. It isn't really meant for system backups.
Post by: Jack_Bread on February 28, 2015, 01:03:33 am
My main concern is that my hard disk is fucked, according to my computer. I'm concerned about turning it off, as it had told me to make a backup, repair or replace my hard disk, and restart the computer. I wanted to know if I could get more info from my computer about this.
Post by: wierd on February 28, 2015, 01:37:22 am
Basically, the metal platters inside the unit itself are beginning to wear. The areas with wear sufficient to cause "unreliability" are not trustworthy, and such areas are starting to crop up. Windows probably has noticed that it cant read certain disk structures reliably, because they are stored on affected sectors.
Having a corrupted folder is a strong indicator of having a serious underlying problem. (NTFS is a journaled filesystem. Random acts of filesystem corruption that used to happen in the windows 98 era, simply dont happen now. There's a safety blanket baked into the filesystem to prevent that from happening. When it happens now, it';s because "Yo, Some REAL SHIT is going down!" with the insides of the hard disk. (Either you dropped it on the ground while it was running, it's just getting old, or there was a major power interruption while it was doing something important, etc...)
If chkdsk reports any bad sectors after the aggressive scan I suggested, it means your HDD is genuinely on its way off this mortal coil. Getting the unreliable sectors marked BAD by the filesystem will keep windows from using them again, and is a stopgap measure. More sectors will go bad pretty soon, and the drive's integrity will continue to degrade. Replacement is the best solution in that case. It could just be general filesystem corruption and not physical HDD deterioration though. Pay attention to the results of the scan.
Post by: Thief^ on February 28, 2015, 04:16:19 am
If you do replace the hard disk I'd highly recommend reinstalling windows on the new disk rather than trying to clone the failing disk. You can use the above to possibly get a genuine install again!
Post by: Jack_Bread on February 28, 2015, 05:11:15 am
I'm concerned about turning it off, still, but it looks like I will have to if I want to run a chkdsk. Ah well. I'm not particularly rough with my computer, but I still do move it about a bit and I've rarely dropped it. Likely getting old. Also, this is a good reason for me to finally upgrade to an SSD for this thing, too.
PS I've never noticed that license key, there. That's nice to know!
Edit: Hm... just followed the instructions on that site to do the chkdsk and restarted my computer and it restarted without doing anything special. I think this was happening when I was trying to work out my corrupted downloads folder.
Post by: wierd on February 28, 2015, 12:02:35 pm
another way to get it to run without windows running (so it can actually fix things) is to boot on your pirate install cd.
Use the first part of this tutorial to get to the command prompt (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/windows-7-recovery-environment-command-prompt/) THEN run chkdsk /f /x /r from there.
Post by: ShadowHammer on February 28, 2015, 05:01:39 pm
Details:
It says that no networks are available, when there are actually several.
The troubleshooter encounters an error when I try to launch it.
The physical wifi switch is on.
The iPad that I am using to make this post is having no difficulty connecting to the wifi.
I have tried:
-restarting the computer
-manually adding a network
-running the troubleshooter
-turning the physical switch off and back on
I know that this is a pretty general problem, but does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it?
Post by: Wolfkit on February 28, 2015, 05:51:43 pm
Post by: ShadowHammer on February 28, 2015, 06:41:44 pm
I googled it, and, guessing at it, checked the device manager > network adapters. It claims that my Wireless Network Adapter is working properly but the Teredo Tunneling Adapter is not. After much google-fu, I failed to solve the Teredo problem. The error with it is code 10: device cannot start.
I attempted to follow to advice on the third post of this page (http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/microsoft-teredo-tunneling-adaptercode-10/fe2a30a7-bb4e-49db-9e74-6800c5191604), but:
I cannot do step 1 - when I type "netsh" into CMD, it gives me the "netsh is not recognized as..." message, and nothing happens.
I'm uncertain about doing step 2 - if I uninstall and delete the network adapter, will I be able to reinstall it without internet?
Post by: Insanegame27 on February 28, 2015, 08:12:26 pm
Who decided to put the fan underneath the laptop where it sits on the table? It's only other cooldown method is were the fan blows the air out, and that only gets hotter and hotter. I actually got a burn from touching it once, before I turned it off
second, linked to the first: why does it overheat so quickly? it used to be able to sit on the table and not overheat at all.
Third, how can I stop it overheating?
Post by: gimlet on February 28, 2015, 09:11:29 pm
4 books, 1 under each corner leaving the center open
a window screen on top of some books
(the above are gonna be inconvenient 'cause it will slide around unless you nail or glue it all together. You can make stuff slide less if you get some plastic or rubber sheets with some friction - like the "no slide" tablecloths or those rubber things you can put on top of your car dashboard to keep stuff from sliding around, etc)
4 rubber feet glued to a board so the rubber feet fit under the corners of the laptop
a box fan facing upwards (max cooling heh)
Post by: i2amroy on March 01, 2015, 01:46:59 am
Also while disassembling your computer sounds scary, it's remarkably easy to do. Just make sure you have a set of small screwdrivers, a clean table to work on (and possibly something to hold the small screws) and then follow the instructions here (http://www.insidemylaptop.com/how-to-disassemble-acer-aspire-5742-series-laptop/) until you feel you've disassembled it enough to get all the dust out.
Post by: MaximumZero on March 01, 2015, 03:44:57 am
Post by: Arx on March 01, 2015, 08:14:54 am
Pertinently, it has 2GB of RAM. This means that running Windows 7, Firefox, MS Word and MS PowerPoint all at the same time is enough to reduce it to continual freezing. Task manager informs me that I'm near-constantly at max RAM usage and almost never above 50% CPU; with nothing running except all the standard Windows processes, it's at over 50% RAM usage.
I assume at this point another gigabyte or two of RAM will be useful? It's a 64 bit system, so it can certainly address that much.
Post by: Aklyon on March 01, 2015, 08:38:50 am
Post by: Arx on March 01, 2015, 09:01:19 am
Post by: Aklyon on March 01, 2015, 10:33:57 am
Post by: wierd on March 01, 2015, 10:43:58 am
using an aftermarket cooling pad can help tremendously.
Post by: PyroDesu on March 01, 2015, 08:57:52 pm
I have an easily accessible empty RAM slot. It's just a question of getting the right type of RAM (I'm pretty sure I can do that) and if the RAM will actually help. I'm pretty sure it would, but I thought I'd check before sinking a few hundred currencies into another gig or two.
By all means, stick another 2 gig stick in. Or a 4 gig, or whatever you can afford. Not doing so means your computer is probably using bits of the hard drive as psuedo-RAM (which would cause the freezes), and that's not very good for disk life, as well as being slow. Nowadays, I'd say 4 gigs is probably the minimum, if not for operating at all, then for operating well. More RAM will increase performance further (to a point), but 4 is serviceable.
Post by: wierd on March 01, 2015, 09:10:41 pm
The only way to keep it from happening is to put gobs and gobs of ram in, then actually disable the swapfile completely. Windows will complain mightily if you do, but that's what you have to do.
Post by: Aklyon on March 01, 2015, 10:44:30 pm
Post by: flabort on March 02, 2015, 12:26:59 am
The thing is it reaches the 100ºC mark almost every time I use it. That's the temperature water boils. And simply running something small, Windows Media Player comes to mind, as do DF, Team Fortress 2, Civ V, Minecraft, Spider solitare, etc. will increase it's temperature from 60º to 80-101º.
I've asked my dad for help opening the case to blow out the fan, but he hasn't responded positively to the request yet. Nor do I have access to compressed air, and the computer doesn't even start the fan until it reaches 90º.
I've even tried using power-settings to limit my CPU's processing speed to about 40%, and while it delays the overheating by a minute or two, it actually seems to be the GPU producing most of the heat and other problems; I can't access it to slow it down through control panel.
Post by: alexandertnt on March 02, 2015, 12:44:44 am
Post by: Sappho on March 02, 2015, 04:14:54 am
Post by: Sensei on March 02, 2015, 04:30:51 am
Speaking of spaceheater laptops, mine reached the 99ºC point today without shutting down, but had it gone up just one more degree, my computer thinks it's a great idea to blackout; if I didn't monitor the core temperature via Afterburner, it would be without warning.Is it a dell laptop? A friend of mine had a dell where the thermal paste kinda dried up and became less effective after a couple years of use and over the course of a couple months it went from "runs really hot" to "overheats and shuts down shortly after loading windows". It was really dusty, but only replacing thermal paste solved the issue. Towards the end before we tried new thermal paste, he was running it with the bottom of the case off, propped up with a desk fan for cooling.
The thing is it reaches the 100ºC mark almost every time I use it. That's the temperature water boils. And simply running something small, Windows Media Player comes to mind, as do DF, Team Fortress 2, Civ V, Minecraft, Spider solitare, etc. will increase it's temperature from 60º to 80-101º.
I've asked my dad for help opening the case to blow out the fan, but he hasn't responded positively to the request yet. Nor do I have access to compressed air, and the computer doesn't even start the fan until it reaches 90º.
I've even tried using power-settings to limit my CPU's processing speed to about 40%, and while it delays the overheating by a minute or two, it actually seems to be the GPU producing most of the heat and other problems; I can't access it to slow it down through control panel.
Post by: Thief^ on March 02, 2015, 04:37:29 am
the computer doesn't even start the fan until it reaches 90º.
That's not great. Try checking the bios settings to see what temperature the fan is set to run at, or even disable fan speed control altogether (which should make it run at full power all the time).
Post by: dennislp3 on March 02, 2015, 01:14:55 pm
Opening the laptop and cleaning it with compressed air should be the first step and could very possibly be all it takes to fix it...after that it is likely just the thermal paste.
If you can't or don't want to open it just using compressed air on all the openings should still clean out a good deal of dust and possibly fix the problem.
Post by: ShadowHammer on March 02, 2015, 06:55:42 pm
Anyways, I am thinking of wiping my laptop (clean Windows reinstall). I have two questions about this: should I do it? and a question about backing up (see below for actual question).
Should I do it?
Why I think I should:
-Viruses. Despite hours of work and many antivirus programs trying to clean it, adware persists, and there may be spyware that I am unaware of.
-This
Linkissue. I think that the gradual loss of memory is continuing (but I'm not sure). Possibly also due to malware.
-It has gradually slowed down over time, and presumably a clean start would speed it up, right?
-Recently, it has started telling me that I am not running genuine windows, although I am. Not a problem in itself, really, but possibly indicative of another issue?
-Most recently, it has just stopped recognizing wifi networks as existing, so I can't access the internet.
-I can't get Windows updates. This is unrelated to the lack of internet, as it was happening for a while before that.
-I don't have a whole lot to lose, unless I manage to completely screw up the reinstall. All the files I want to keep are either on an SD card or can be re downloaded at will (ie steam games).
Why I think I maybe shouldn't:
-I make not certain that the memory loss issue is actually continuing. I might put this off another day to make sure.
-I don't need to wipe it to speed it up; I could probably just go about cleaning it of bloat myself. That would take a lot of work though, and I've tried without success before.
-Just doing windows repair might solve the "not genuine windows" problem, but I haven't tried.
-The internet issue may be a hardware problem, but I don't think it is.
-I may completely screw up the reinstall. Somehow.
-Also, I may have forgotten to put something important on the SD card. Which brings me to the second question...
Backing stuff up.
Background information:
I was planning to back up the whole hard drive on the Internet, but with my internet connection having failed, I can no longer do so.
However, I recently discovered that I have a second partition on the laptop with practically nothing on it and three times the amount of space as the drive I'm currently using. I have no idea why, but I thought previously that the blue file names meant it was just linking to other areas of the drive or something. Looking it up, it turns out that those are just automatically compressed files. :-[
Obviously, I can't just move my stuff over to that partition; otherwise, I'd just be taking all the viruses 'n stuff and putting them somewhere else. This is where my actual question comes in.
Actual question:
Can I set it up so that I can create a copy of all the things on my computer, put it on the second partition, and have it so that nothing there has permissions to do anything?
In case that doesn't make sense, basically, I want to be able to recover everything if I need to, but I don't want the bad stuff to be able to mess with my other stuff after I wipe the main partition.
I hope that that last question wasn't phrased too poorly, and thanks in advance for any and all advice.
Post by: Aklyon on March 02, 2015, 09:38:47 pm
Post by: flabort on March 02, 2015, 10:50:42 pm
Is it a dell laptop?Fraid not. Or maybe it's a good thing? Dunno.
Acer Aspire V3-551
What's the GPU? NVIDIA GPU's with Optimus should let you set it up so programs use only the integrated GPU. AMD GPU's might have something similar, but I don't really know anything about them.Apparently the reason I can't access a GPU from software is the CPU is a GPU. Or something.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: PyroDesu on March 02, 2015, 11:20:54 pm
What's the GPU? NVIDIA GPU's with Optimus should let you set it up so programs use only the integrated GPU. AMD GPU's might have something similar, but I don't really know anything about them.Apparently the reason I can't access a GPU from software is the CPU is a GPU. Or something.Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Specs for the Acer Aspire V3-551 shows you should have an AMD Radeon HD 7640G Graphics chip integrated into the CPU, no discreet card.
Post by: wierd on March 03, 2015, 12:44:10 am
Not only is it an AMD based toaster oven heating element, It has a GPU on-die. Such things NEED high quality heat elimination to avoid literally melting off the ball grid array holding it down. (No, seriously. That's what the RROD in early xbox 360s was all about! They had a shared heatsink design.)
Replacing the thermal paste, cleaning the heatsink's radiator fins with a dry toothbrush, and blowing out the fan assembly are the prescribed actions here. Normally, these kinds of mass-manufactured devices have a thermally conductive pad installed, which becomes less thermally conductive after about 2 years or so of use. Replacement with actual metalic thermal conductivity paste (Like say, Arctic Silver) does WONDERS.
Post by: Insanegame27 on March 03, 2015, 01:20:27 am
Post by: wierd on March 03, 2015, 01:30:07 am
Personally, I try to avoid Acer, Compaq, and HP (their consumer stuff is shit-- paradoxically, their server stuff is OK.)
More keen to purchase Toshiba, Asus, and the like.
I have however owned a Toshiba with an AMD toaster oven CPU in the past. It would burn my legs with its cookie cooking thermal exhaust very frequently.
In this case though, the system is "normal", but does not kick on the fan until "ZOMG! THE NUKES ARE GOING OFF!" happens. That's a thermostat sensor problem, probably attributed to shitty system design. (Acer related is a definite possibility.) However, even without the fan blowing, the heat sink SHOULD be diffusing a great deal of the heat if the thermal paste is worth a shit.
Replacing the thermal paste, and setting the fan to always on should fix the problem. (unless acer was so horribly incompetent that they selected a heatsink/heat diffuser tube assembly that cant diffuse that much heat, regardless of air speed)
Post by: alexandertnt on March 03, 2015, 01:32:42 am
Did you use to have these heat problems when the computer was new? If not, then it's likely the fan is just clogged and/or the thermal paste needs replacing, in which case wierd's advice should largely fix the problem.
Post by: Thief^ on March 03, 2015, 09:13:47 am
Actual question:
Can I set it up so that I can create a copy of all the things on my computer, put it on the second partition, and have it so that nothing there has permissions to do anything?
In case that doesn't make sense, basically, I want to be able to recover everything if I need to, but I don't want the bad stuff to be able to mess with my other stuff after I wipe the main partition.
One option would be to take an image of the hard-disk, that way it can be restored identically to how it was. Any viruses will be backed up into the system image as well, but won't be able to get out by themselves.
Windows has the ability to make a system image built-in, go to Control Panel -> "Backup your Computer" (Backup and Restore) -> Create a system image (on the left). Creating the system repair disk will allow you to boot and restore the system image if you need to.
There's also the normal Windows Backup, which is file-by-file and allows you to recover individual files (while still sealing in any viruses).
Post by: ShadowHammer on March 03, 2015, 06:19:14 pm
Awesome, thanks.Actual question:
Can I set it up so that I can create a copy of all the things on my computer, put it on the second partition, and have it so that nothing there has permissions to do anything?
In case that doesn't make sense, basically, I want to be able to recover everything if I need to, but I don't want the bad stuff to be able to mess with my other stuff after I wipe the main partition.
One option would be to take an image of the hard-disk, that way it can be restored identically to how it was. Any viruses will be backed up into the system image as well, but won't be able to get out by themselves.
Windows has the ability to make a system image built-in, go to Control Panel -> "Backup your Computer" (Backup and Restore) -> Create a system image (on the left). Creating the system repair disk will allow you to boot and restore the system image if you need to.
There's also the normal Windows Backup, which is file-by-file and allows you to recover individual files (while still sealing in any viruses).
Post by: flabort on March 04, 2015, 12:09:55 am
Absolutely not. I could run BORDERLANDS 2 and TF2 for hours on end (not 15 minutes) when it was new. Well, except for the game wasn't out yet, I don't think.
Did you use to have these heat problems when the computer was new? If not, then it's likely the fan is just clogged and/or the thermal paste needs replacing, in which case wierd's advice should largely fix the problem.
I'll look into the thermal paste, but I'll still need to ask my dad about opening up the case.
Post by: miauw62 on March 04, 2015, 07:40:38 am
Post by: flabort on March 04, 2015, 11:13:04 pm
Definitely investing on good cooling when I get a new computer. Except for the crashing and over-heating, this one's really good though.
Post by: wierd on March 05, 2015, 02:36:25 am
They are just known to break down and stop working like they should after a few years. The laptop manufacturing industry flat out does not care about this, because they expect you to junk it and buy the new shiny anyway. Proper thermal joint compound will out perform the silly thermal pad in ways that are empirically measurable in very meaningful ways. Good compound will last for many many years without incident.
Post by: i2amroy on March 05, 2015, 04:19:02 am
In this case though, the system is "normal", but does not kick on the fan until "ZOMG! THE NUKES ARE GOING OFF!" happens. That's a thermostat sensor problem, probably attributed to shitty system design. (Acer related is a definite possibility.) However, even without the fan blowing, the heat sink SHOULD be diffusing a great deal of the heat if the thermal paste is worth a shit.I know that there are a fair number of programs out there that let you manually control your fans, and many of them let you set it to scale automatically on a certain sensor from X temperature to Y temperature. If the problem is just that the fans aren't turning on you can probably use one of those to force them to turn on when they should be.
Post by: alexandertnt on March 05, 2015, 05:29:03 am
Yeah... I can go shopping for the thermal paste tommorow, my dad has an air compressor so when he has the time he says he'll help me with blowing the dust out, but I just experienced another crash... sigh.
Definitely investing on good cooling when I get a new computer. Except for the crashing and over-heating, this one's really good though.
The general recommendation is to get a gaming PC, with a nice big case and nice large low RPM fans for good cooling and easy maintenance, and a non-gaming laptop for any portable computing. A laptop will last a good time if its hardware isn't being taxed to hell all the time :P
Though this depends on your circumstance.
Post by: miauw62 on March 05, 2015, 10:45:21 am
I don't think I could use SpeedFan to control the fans on my Aspire, though. It didn't detect them.In this case though, the system is "normal", but does not kick on the fan until "ZOMG! THE NUKES ARE GOING OFF!" happens. That's a thermostat sensor problem, probably attributed to shitty system design. (Acer related is a definite possibility.) However, even without the fan blowing, the heat sink SHOULD be diffusing a great deal of the heat if the thermal paste is worth a shit.I know that there are a fair number of programs out there that let you manually control your fans, and many of them let you set it to scale automatically on a certain sensor from X temperature to Y temperature. If the problem is just that the fans aren't turning on you can probably use one of those to force them to turn on when they should be.
Post by: wierd on March 05, 2015, 11:10:05 am
Seriously, this standard has been around since the 90s. (http://www.acpi.info/) and manufacturers STILL dont' follow it?
The reason why your fan control chip didnt show up, was because it is non-ACPI compliant.
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 05, 2015, 06:52:45 pm
Post by: flabort on March 05, 2015, 07:21:34 pm
Yeah, as I said I am using Afterburner to monitor my heat, and said program is theoretically capable of detecting and setting clock speed and fan speed, but the fan setting bar is greyed out, and the clock-speed bar jumps back to where it was when I try to change it.I don't think I could use SpeedFan to control the fans on my Aspire, though. It didn't detect them.In this case though, the system is "normal", but does not kick on the fan until "ZOMG! THE NUKES ARE GOING OFF!" happens. That's a thermostat sensor problem, probably attributed to shitty system design. (Acer related is a definite possibility.) However, even without the fan blowing, the heat sink SHOULD be diffusing a great deal of the heat if the thermal paste is worth a shit.I know that there are a fair number of programs out there that let you manually control your fans, and many of them let you set it to scale automatically on a certain sensor from X temperature to Y temperature. If the problem is just that the fans aren't turning on you can probably use one of those to force them to turn on when they should be.
Post by: flabort on March 05, 2015, 10:24:35 pm
Post by: wierd on March 06, 2015, 12:29:20 am
Post by: flabort on March 06, 2015, 12:49:34 am
PLEASE tell me you replaced it with proper thermal joint compound, and NOT another horrible thermal conductive pad--- PLEASE!Ayup:
Like say, Arctic Silver
Hasn't gone above 54 this whole time, thanks. :)
Post by: wierd on March 06, 2015, 12:56:35 am
You see what I mean now about those pads "Breaking down", right? They get "Crispy", "Crumbly", and basically ineffective for the intended purpose about 2 years into service. Proper thermal compound on the other hand, can faithfully serve for over a decade.
In short, the thermal goo, (especially if you used arctic silver) will last longer than your laptop will continue being serviceable. (It will become too obsolete to be useful before that thermal compound stops working.)
Post by: Thief^ on March 06, 2015, 01:44:46 am
Post by: Azerty on March 16, 2015, 08:37:34 am
I finally decided to just nuke the whole thing and to reinstall Windows.
Could you indicate me if I should use Avast and Malwarebytes to prevent further infection and, given my WiFi connexion is getting slow, how to make sure my USB key on which I intend to put the installers for these anti-viruses doesn't infect my laptop.
Post by: Reelya on March 16, 2015, 10:39:43 am
As for infected USB sticks, are you sure that's happening? I remember having that problem once but many years ago. It was common on earlier builds of Windows XP which would automatically run autorun code from a USB stick, but was patched so that autorun didn't work like this any more. It's unlikely that you'd have a boot-infected USB stick now if you're using Windows 7 or 8. Just install the virus software, update the definitions, then scan and clean the USB stick just to be sure.
Post by: wierd on March 16, 2015, 11:13:53 am
As well as avast and malwarebytes, set up your admin account, then make a user account with no admin rights. Always use the user account except when installing new software. That's another line of defense - attackers will often hijack the user permissions of the account running the code, so if you don't have more privileges than needed for day to day operations, you will get less attacks.
As for infected USB sticks, are you sure that's happening? I remember having that problem once but many years ago. It was common on earlier builds of Windows XP which would automatically run autorun code from a USB stick, but was patched so that autorun didn't work like this any more. It's unlikely that you'd have a boot-infected USB stick now if you're using Windows 7 or 8. Just install the virus software, update the definitions, then scan and clean the USB stick just to be sure.
There is malware that reflashes the firmware inside the usb stick, making it into a very hard to clean infection vector. It does not need to tamper with the filesystem on the drive, it rewrites the drive's firmware and then does nasty things with USB protocol vulnerabilities.
sadly, other than religious zeal against plugging random usb drives in? no real solution.
Post by: miauw62 on March 16, 2015, 12:18:59 pm
Post by: wierd on March 16, 2015, 12:27:24 pm
Ars has an article on this type of thing.
http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/07/this-thumbdrive-hacks-computers-badusb-exploit-makes-devices-turn-evil/
This kind of thing is indeed encountered in the wild.
https://www.infopackets.com/news/9370/badusb-attack-now-wild-exploits-follow
Post by: Reelya on March 16, 2015, 01:07:53 pm
BadUSB did not involve governments or criminals, so there's no evidence that criminals reverse-engineered any intelligence agency code in this case.
If you have any info about it being utilized by real criminals since the researchers deliberately leaked the code, let me know. Also I think it needs to be targeted against devices with specific firmware already. e.g. the articles mention targeting a specific manufacturer. This might actually be more difficult for criminal gangs to turn into a catch-all hack than expected since they'd need to do considerable development work and testing to get it to work against different models of usb device.
http://www.wired.com/2014/11/badusb-only-affects-half-of-usbs/
Apparently 1/2 the USB controller chips on the market are potentially hackable. BadUSB doesn't work on the others. It's hard to tell which chip each device uses though, apparently. Maybe someone will develop tools for that.
I've looked around for some evidence of it's actual use as an attack, I found nothing. I think it's in the potential attack basket, but not a risk worth freaking out over right now.
Post by: wierd on March 16, 2015, 01:22:22 pm
There was also the Sony Rootkit that got turned into criminal malware shortly afterward as well.
The lesson here is to not create malware, and to not create systems that ware easily penetrated.
Those are both things that governments have difficult times understanding. They create malware to get into systems of other countries, and they demand easy access vulnerabilities to be baked in to allow them to monitor systems "For law enforcement purposes"-- which ultimately makes them vulnerable, and pathetically so.
Take for instance, the weakness in RSA keypair generation that caused such a stink recently, because the NSA insisted on using a dodgy method of producing entropy to make the keys that allowed them to crack keys made with it.
So while BadUSB is was not made by governments, it *IS* an example of criminals picking up tools and making them their own, and government created tools are no exception to malware makers picking up and using whatever is useful to them.
Post by: Reelya on March 16, 2015, 01:23:55 pm
Have you got some articles on that, that I'm missing?
Even guys who sell BadUSB-proof drives (which is bullshit since 50% of existing controller chips are immune anyway) don't mention actual attacks in their adverts:
http://www.ironkey.com/en-US/solutions/protect-against-badusb.html
Like I said, for BadUSB specifically, there is zero evidence of attacks going on or criminals utilizing it. Otherwise, the people making actual money off anti-BadUSB protection would at least highlight these risks.
Post by: wierd on March 16, 2015, 01:31:10 pm
http://www.ps3-chips.com/
Since the USB driver stack lives in kernel space in most OSes, including linux, something like BadUSB could be used to gain very low level access to the system when done right-- which is exactly what the PSJailbreak exploit did/does.
Post by: miauw62 on March 16, 2015, 02:22:43 pm
Malicious BIOS code, for example, isn't actually all THAT powerful. The main thing here is that the interrupt handlers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrupt_handler) live on the BIOS, so you could hijack these and do nasty stuff. But it's VERY low-level and thus very specific to hardware (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIH_(computer_virus)).
Post by: Thief^ on March 17, 2015, 07:15:06 am
As well as avast and malwarebytes, set up your admin account, then make a user account with no admin rights. Always use the user account except when installing new software. That's another line of defense - attackers will often hijack the user permissions of the account running the code, so if you don't have more privileges than needed for day to day operations, you will get less attacks.That's exactly what UAC does on Windows Vista onwards, presuming you haven't disabled it...
You log in as your "admin" account, but all software runs with regular "user" permissions unless you specifically allow it to run as admin.
Post by: Cheesecake on March 21, 2015, 06:24:04 am
Specs: (I don't know how to copy paste them from the control panel to here, so I just wrote them down. Tell me if I missed something important you guys need.)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4200U CPU @ 1.60GHz 2.40 GHz
Installed memory (RAM): 8.00 GB
System type: 64-bit Operating System, x64-based processor.
My laptop has two graphics cards for some reason. In dxdiag it shows Intel Integrated Graphics (or something like that) and I also have Nvidia Geforce 740M. (Maybe the problem with games is that they use the Intel graphics card instead of the Nvidia?)
I don't know if that's good for a gaming laptop. Sometimes games like Skyrim run smoothly (even modded). Other times it's really laggy (even without mods). I need advice please. Thanks in advance!
Post by: miauw62 on March 21, 2015, 06:28:58 am
1. Right-click on your desktop
2. Select "Nvidia control panel"
3. Go to "Manage 3D settings" on the sidepane
4. Make sure you're on global settings
5. In the dropdown box of "preferred graphics processor" select "High-peformance Nvidia processor"
Now everything should use your graphics card instead of the integrated intel graphics. Maybe that helps. Skyrim has a tendency of being choppy, ask around in the Skyrim thread in OG for help.
Post by: dennislp3 on March 21, 2015, 07:35:33 am
Hi guys. I don't know why my laptop is slow at running games (and other stuff as well, especially start-up). I bought it to be used as a gaming laptop.
Specs: (I don't know how to copy paste them from the control panel to here, so I just wrote them down. Tell me if I missed something important you guys need.)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4200U CPU @ 1.60GHz 2.40 GHz
Installed memory (RAM): 8.00 GB
System type: 64-bit Operating System, x64-based processor.
My laptop has two graphics cards for some reason. In dxdiag it shows Intel Integrated Graphics (or something like that) and I also have Nvidia Geforce 740M. (Maybe the problem with games is that they use the Intel graphics card instead of the Nvidia?)
I don't know if that's good for a gaming laptop. Sometimes games like Skyrim run smoothly (even modded). Other times it's really laggy (even without mods). I need advice please. Thanks in advance!
You have 2 videocards because Intel processors come with graphics chipsets in then now...this is for businesses and stuff like that...just buy a processor and not have to worry about a graphics card or anything.
The Geforce 740M might be part of the problem. Geforce gaming cards start at X50 and above (750-760 etc) so dont it expect to hold up to games with high requirements
Post by: Reelya on March 21, 2015, 07:47:10 am
make sure to close as many apps as possible when running intensive games, there could be background tasks taking up memory. Also, uninstall apps you don't need / never use. Clutter is never good for performance.
Possibly, install an SSD hard-drive in case a shitty slow main drive is keeping things slow. This works best if you can fit two drives in though, one for the C-drive and a bigger cheap one for data. Can possibly work with a fast SSD and use external 1 or 2TB hard-drive for storage.
Did you buy this new or already used? In that case, maybe you need the software tuned up. get ccleaner at the very least even if it's new, run that to remove junk files.
Post by: Cheesecake on March 21, 2015, 07:55:56 am
Post by: thedrelle on March 21, 2015, 08:01:41 am
your on a laptop. If it's been on for any period of time, it has gotten warm, and as a result, the cpu and gpu has been slowed down to minimize system damage. That may be why sometimes it seems to be very laggy when playing a game. Make sure when you want to play, your laptop has been off and is in a cool place. Also, to not treat it like it's namesake. DO NOT put your laptop on your lap, or on blankets, or any kind of fabric. The vents on the bottom get blocked, airflow is reduced, and the laptop gets hotter faster. Also it is sucking lint which quickly clogs the heat sinks, killing airflow and ruining you cpu/gpu.
Second thing: go to control panel, system, advanced system settings. In the advanced tab click on performance settings, and then go to the advanced tab(again). Look at your virtual memory, click on the change tab. If the paging file is currently allocated at less than 2 gigs, then you should go in and reallocate it to a higher value, at or above the reccommended number. This will improve how fast your system loads content in a game, and help it run smoothly all the time.
Post by: Wolfkit on March 21, 2015, 08:33:55 am
1. Don't use it on beds, etc. If you want to use it on a bed, then buy a cooling pad/laptop stand. This lifts it off of the bed to provide more airflow, and often has a fan in it to help cool the laptop.
2. Dust may have accumulated inside. Buy a can of canned air, and use it to clean out your laptop.
Post by: i2amroy on March 21, 2015, 04:20:15 pm
Second thing: go to control panel, system, advanced system settings. In the advanced tab click on performance settings, and then go to the advanced tab(again). Look at your virtual memory, click on the change tab. If the paging file is currently allocated at less than 2 gigs, then you should go in and reallocate it to a higher value, at or above the reccommended number. This will improve how fast your system loads content in a game, and help it run smoothly all the time.I'm not sure you're understanding the paging file correctly. The paging file is used to store things that you aren't currently using much to free up the RAM for other uses. As such it's only really needed to the extent that you are going to be running things beyond your current amount of RAM. With 8 GB, it's probably likely that you don't need much of a paging file, since if you were running that many programs your computer is probably going to be running hella-slow just on the processing end anyways.
More information on the paging file (http://lifehacker.com/5426041/understanding-the-windows-pagefile-and-why-you-shouldnt-disable-it).
Post by: Reelya on March 21, 2015, 04:30:42 pm
You can always turn virtual memory completely off, reboot and try Skyrim without any paging file activated. Things will be fast, but you might get system out-of-memory errors if you're exceeding the 8GB of physical RAM you have. Ctrl-Alt-Del can tell you what's using memory. Browsers are the usual culprit for RAM hogs. Make sure to turn your browser off before running games. Lagginess could happen if you exceed physical RAM and the system starts shunting stuff back and forth to disk to "pretend" there's more RAM. Look out for the HDD light always being on. That's a giveaway that memory is depleted, and that state, called drive thrashing, causes a lot of wear and tear on the physical media.
Post by: i2amroy on March 21, 2015, 04:45:30 pm
That's the thing. I upgraded my PC from 4GB to 12GBs of RAM and completely turned the paging file off. Paging is slow, plus it causes wear and tear on your HDD. If you run out of paging memory, things just won't run at all, rather than "runs, but slow". If you can get away with it, run your games with no paging file activated.An important note from that article I linked is that you should always have the paging file on, even if only for a minuscule amount, because there are a fair handful of microsoft programs that will crash and start throwing up weird errors if you turn it off completely (regardless of if they are actually using it or not). Of course it's up to you, but I figured it was worth mentioning.
Post by: Reelya on March 21, 2015, 04:48:16 pm
Post by: Sensei on March 21, 2015, 10:37:51 pm
My laptop has two graphics cards for some reason. In dxdiag it shows Intel Integrated Graphics (or something like that) and I also have Nvidia Geforce 740M. (Maybe the problem with games is that they use the Intel graphics card instead of the Nvidia?)Didn't we have this conversation in the Cities thread or something? This sounds extremely like failure to utilize the Nvidia card, I have a similar laptop and making sure games are always using the Nvidia GPU and not the Intel GPU can be a huge hassle. I have a Geforce 660M, an older card, and I've never encountered a game that I can't at least run 30 FPS on low settings (except an early build of EQ Landmark).
I don't know if that's good for a gaming laptop. Sometimes games like Skyrim run smoothly (even modded). Other times it's really laggy (even without mods). I need advice please. Thanks in advance!
Whenever you encounter a game Nvidia might not have heard of (which sadly includes a lot of high profile indie releases) make sure you find the executable (file with a name like game.exe), right click it, and set it to run with the Nvidia graphics card. Games with multiple executables because of a launcher or the like make this more difficult, but basically, you just want to find all the executables and set them to run with Nvidia by default. Sometimes setting the default GPU doesn't stick (very frustrating) but you can at least usually get them to run with your Nvidia card by choosing it each time you start the game.
If you have some games that run great and some that inexplicably don't, this is probably your issue. If you have games run great sometimes and not other times, it might be a heat or power issue (my laptop throttles WAY down when not plugged in, so I always plug it in to play games).
Post by: Audioworm333 on March 23, 2015, 04:43:22 pm
So today my old, beat-up keyboard was discarded in favor of a new one, plus another one for when this one inevitably gives up the ghost. I've gotten used to the ritual of having to mess with the drivers whenever I get a new keyboard/whatever before it finally works, so I was doing that. However, in a klutzy move I managed to accidentally disable my mouse drivers, and my keyboard still wasn't working, and since I couldn't use either one of those I couldn't even move to the on-screen keyboard. I tried rebooting, but now I'm just stuck in the start-up screen.
What should I do? Is there anything that can be done now? Did I just permanently fuck up my ability to use my computer with one dumb mistake?
Post by: Reelya on March 23, 2015, 04:47:14 pm
Looking around, some people with similar issues have used a windows install disk and system restore.
Post by: Audioworm333 on March 23, 2015, 04:50:54 pm
Have you tried booting into safe mode? Click F8 as the OS loader starts. idk, but I've never owned a keyboard or mouse that needed anything except the generic drivers so I can't help you further with this.
As I said, the keyboard isn't working. That's the reason I've gotten into this mess. But thanks anyway; any attempts to help are much appreciated.
(I am also posting this from a laptop in case anyone's wondering.)
Post by: Reelya on March 23, 2015, 04:51:31 pm
If you can't get into safe mode then your issue isn't drivers. It's the BIOS keyboard settings. So go fix up your BIOS. That doesn't even have drivers.
Post by: Audioworm333 on March 23, 2015, 04:58:54 pm
Post by: Audioworm333 on March 23, 2015, 05:11:20 pm
Post by: Aklyon on March 23, 2015, 05:12:31 pm
Post by: Reelya on March 23, 2015, 06:05:16 pm
You can find device manager via the control panel. Another way is to right-click on a "Computer" / "My Computer" or equivalent icon, and click Properties. The computer's Properties panel contains many useful links.
The easiest way to get things working is to just delete all drivers for keyboard and mouse, then reboot with normal mode. Windows should auto-detect everything and load generic drivers (the same ones that are working perfectly well in Safe Mode ;) ). IDK, but I would never add a driver for a keyboard. I have never needed to do that in any version of Windows since Windows 3.1. Unless it's some amazingly cool special gaming keyboard that actually needs a driver, you should always just use the default Windows drivers. Special disks that come with hardware? See if it runs without that shit first before adding more crap to your system. More often than not, they're not needed and it's just another thing that can go wrong.
Post by: Audioworm333 on March 23, 2015, 06:24:35 pm
When I press F8 it takes me to a black screen with white text that show info about my PC and a thing reading Press Esc For Startup Menu. Well, I press ESC but can't seem to find any way to make the PC go into safe mode from there.
Post by: Reelya on March 23, 2015, 06:40:31 pm
Windows 7:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ss/safe-mode-windows-7.htm
Windows 8:
http://www.howtogeek.com/107511/how-to-boot-into-safe-mode-on-windows-8-the-easy-way/
Post by: Aklyon on March 23, 2015, 06:45:37 pm
Post by: Reelya on March 23, 2015, 06:48:30 pm
Well perhaps I haven't been clear enough. Here's what's happening...
When I press F8 it takes me to a black screen with white text that show info about my PC and a thing reading Press Esc For Startup Menu. Well, I press ESC but can't seem to find any way to make the PC go into safe mode from there.
That doesn't sound right. There shouldn't be ANY info about your PC in the F8 boot menu. Are you sure you're not just looking at the boot screen there? Does Esc give you the BIOS screen where you see stuff about your CPU and Hard-drives? If so, you're in the wrong place totally.
You need to click F8 after the hardware tests but just before the OS loads. It's in that split second between the hardware information on screen, but just before the windows logo appears. Do not hit ESC, just tap F8 every half a second or so. If it gets to the graphical windows loading screen, then you missed the moment where you need to click F8.
This will give you the Windows 7 boot loader where you can choose how to start windows.
You can also deliberately cause the machine to reboot/crash during windows loading (just nuke it with the power button/reset button or CTRL-ALT-DEL while windows is trying to start up). If you do that, then windows will detect that it failed to boot, and take you to the recovery screen by itself.
Post by: Audioworm333 on March 23, 2015, 06:53:49 pm
Post by: Aklyon on March 23, 2015, 07:01:23 pm
Post by: Audioworm333 on March 23, 2015, 07:16:58 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on March 23, 2015, 07:38:27 pm
Win8+, Mac and Linux/Unix (all for a long time now) use UEFI instead of BIOS, because UEFI is more refined and can do more with hardware.
Post by: Reelya on March 23, 2015, 07:51:29 pm
It's simple. If you have windows 7
1) turn on computer
2) keep tapping F8. don't fucking touch any other key. This is probably where you are screwing up. Don't hit Esc. That is to get into the low-level hardware settings, it's not a Windows thing. The hardware menu comes up first no matter what you do, it gives you time to access it by hitting Esc. after that Windows boots, and Windows gives you a short time to click F8 and get into the Windows loader screen. but you have to NOT enter the hardware manufacturers setting screen to get to that point.
3) assuming you only clicked F8, and didn't click any other key, you will end up on windows boot loader screen.
4) if you didn't see a boot loader screen, and windows 7 graphical logo appears, you didn't press F8 at the right time. reboot the computer and go back
to step 1.
5) Pick Safe Mode option from Windows 7 boot menu.
6) Windows will load but there will be "safe mode" written in the corners.
7) go to device manager, completely delete entries for mouse and keyboard (don't "disable" just remove them).
8 ) reboot normally. Windows should detect the mouse and keyboard.
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 26, 2015, 11:41:35 pm
Post by: Thief^ on March 27, 2015, 01:34:58 am
Most routers don't have the ability to check what computers on the network are accessing, unfortunately.
Post by: wierd on March 27, 2015, 03:24:14 am
Post by: i2amroy on March 27, 2015, 04:56:05 pm
wireshark may be helpful. If you know what kind of traffic is involved (HTTP, etc..), then put a device into promiscuous mode on your end, and start sniffing traffic. That should let you know which device is producing traffic.Yeah, if you can't track it down any other way this is generally the way to go, though be warned that there's quite a lot of options and things you can do in wireshark that won't make sense unless you know exactly what you are doing, so don't be afraid to check for a tutorial on how to capture stuff.
Post by: My Name is Immaterial on March 28, 2015, 05:56:33 pm
I've tried reinstalling the charging drivers, but to no avail.
Anyone have any ideas?
Post by: Reelya on March 28, 2015, 06:06:17 pm
I keep getting emails from my ISP about a possible malware infection, but the email doesn't give enough details to track it down (although the site it appears to be linking to is consistent with an infection), and Malwarebytes doesn't find anything on any of my computers. Is there a trace tool to figure out what devices on my LAN tried to access a given IP, or some other effective detector that might help?
If you know the IP address, you can also try redirecting that address to 127.0.0.1 in your windows "Hosts" file, which is in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc. The "Hosts" file was the precursor to DNS servers in general, and it's sort of a legacy thing that's stuck around in Windows. It converts IP addresses before they get sent out.
Post by: Aklyon on March 28, 2015, 06:48:26 pm
My (Windows 8, Lenovo) laptop cannot read the charge on my battery. When plugged in, it says that it is 'Plugged in, but not charging'. When unplugged, it says that there is 'Unknown [amount] remaining'.How old is the battery? The last time I'd seen 'Plugged in, not charging' my battery was soon not charging at all, as it was dead.
I've tried reinstalling the charging drivers, but to no avail.
Anyone have any ideas?
Post by: My Name is Immaterial on March 28, 2015, 06:49:30 pm
It's ~7 months old.My (Windows 8, Lenovo) laptop cannot read the charge on my battery. When plugged in, it says that it is 'Plugged in, but not charging'. When unplugged, it says that there is 'Unknown [amount] remaining'.How old is the battery? The last time I'd seen 'Plugged in, not charging' my battery was soon not charging at all, as it was dead.
I've tried reinstalling the charging drivers, but to no avail.
Anyone have any ideas?
Post by: Aklyon on March 28, 2015, 06:54:20 pm
Post by: My Name is Immaterial on March 28, 2015, 07:12:44 pm
Post by: Reelya on March 28, 2015, 07:29:23 pm
Post by: alexandertnt on March 29, 2015, 03:45:07 am
The last time I had this problem, the adaptor socket in my Dell laptop was damaged and it wouldn't properly identify the adaptor (despite still powering it) and thus refused to charge. I fixed it by super-gluing the plug back together.
Post by: Vector on March 29, 2015, 01:23:37 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 29, 2015, 03:41:38 pm
The steps here (http://www.wikihow.com/Install-Windows-from-a-USB-Flash-Drive) should help you prepare a USB stick for reinstallation. In theory, you would be able to do a full format and wipe as part of the installation process, but I've had trouble with that in the past, so I always partition it seperately.
Post by: Vector on March 29, 2015, 03:48:40 pm
Post by: DJ on March 29, 2015, 03:51:39 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 29, 2015, 03:53:33 pm
So, for clarity, I'm wiping it so that I can give it to someone else who needs it. I don't have any way to directly connect the two machines--say, via a USB--or else I would just run an eraser from my Windows 7 box to kill the Vista box. I don't need to partition the drive--there's just one drive, and it needs to be wiped.
I find partitioning to be the most reliable way of wiping a disc, as something always seems to go wrong when I format without repartitioning first. DJ's suggestion of a Linux USB distro is a good one, but I'm Linux-illiterate, so I can't help there.
Post by: Vector on March 29, 2015, 04:17:44 pm
Post by: My Name is Immaterial on March 29, 2015, 06:32:00 pm
Download BatteryInfoView (http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/battery_information_view.html) and it should display various bits of information about your battery, including its capacity, cycle count and wear level.Well, that's not really helpful, per se. It says that the battery wear level is 100%, which is, while inaccurate, possibly helpful.
The last time I had this problem, the adaptor socket in my Dell laptop was damaged and it wouldn't properly identify the adaptor (despite still powering it) and thus refused to charge. I fixed it by super-gluing the plug back together.
Other than that, I'm getting the same readings as before.
Post by: wierd on March 30, 2015, 12:10:11 am
http://www.dban.org/
It is DoD certified data erasure. Much more aggressive than a simple format. Quick, easy to use. Boot, choose nuke. that simple.
Post by: Vector on March 30, 2015, 12:32:40 am
Post by: wierd on March 30, 2015, 12:44:49 am
Something like LiLi (linux Live USB creator) should be able to do it pretty effortlessly, and is free software.
uNetBootin is supposedly able to do it too, but I have never had good luck with unetbootin.
I make live USB sticks out of linux install disc images all the time with LiLi.
Post by: Tellemurius on March 30, 2015, 02:10:44 am
Unfortunately, DBAN would not put itself on my USB no matter how many different ISO-to-USB programs I used (I tried four or five). It looks like there's a commercial alternative that they're trying to promote which does let you mount onto USB, but I didn't have that option and needed to get the whole damn thing done by this evening after having wasted most of yesterday trying to fuck about with DBAN. So, instead I used Partition Wizard and wrote over the drive 7 times with that, which I assume will be enough.
7 times? a single pass with zero write out would have been plenty.
Post by: Sinistar on March 31, 2015, 06:32:38 am
Anyways, last time I asked here I've been suggested either Radeon's R7 250X or nVidea's 750 Ti. I can get a 2GB DDR5 250X for just about 120€ at lowest. However, I've spotted 260X and getting a 2GB version would make my pockets emptier for about 142€ which is just about what I'm prepared to give. Meanwhile, cheapest 750 Ti around here is 166€ so unless there is some real incentive to spend further 20/40€, I'd rather stay with Radeon (my current GPU is 512MB HD4850, for reference)
So here are two questions: 260X worth that extra ~20€ over 250X?
AND
Should I pay attention to which company is producing this cards? 250X I'm eying is from Gigabyte, 260X from Sapphire.
Post by: Thief^ on March 31, 2015, 08:16:16 am
Should I pay attention to which company is producing this cards? 250X I'm eying is from Gigabyte, 260X from Sapphire.Yes, but those are both good.
Post by: Gentlefish on March 31, 2015, 04:53:05 pm
Post by: Reelya on March 31, 2015, 06:03:42 pm
Unfortunately, DBAN would not put itself on my USB no matter how many different ISO-to-USB programs I used (I tried four or five). It looks like there's a commercial alternative that they're trying to promote which does let you mount onto USB, but I didn't have that option and needed to get the whole damn thing done by this evening after having wasted most of yesterday trying to fuck about with DBAN. So, instead I used Partition Wizard and wrote over the drive 7 times with that, which I assume will be enough.
7 times? a single pass with zero write out would have been plenty.
Writing once with random bits will definitely make the data unrecoverable. There is a theoretical chance that someone could extract the data with a magnetic force microscope, but this is only theoretical and only practical for really ancient drives that had low data densities. In fact there have been exactly zero accounts of anyone doing this on any drive, ever (http://www.howtogeek.com/115573/htg-explains-why-you-only-have-to-wipe-a-disk-once-to-erase-it/). So it's "possible" in a science fiction sense, but it's never actually been done and there are no labs or methdology on how someone would steal your over-written data. So, unless you have the Men In Black after your drive, ready to cart it off to some super-secret lab we don't know about using undocumented technology, one pass with random bits is plenty. Here's someone who looked into the data recovery claims closely:
http://www.nber.org/sys-admin/overwritten-data-guttman.html
Even the cops don't have access to any tech to recover overwritten data.
Post by: Aklyon on March 31, 2015, 08:16:35 pm
Post by: wierd on March 31, 2015, 09:19:30 pm
I havent seen any mice with that level of durability in more recent offerings though.
If you dont mind the idea of old roller balls, ebay can probably hook you up. IMHO, one of those and an IBM model M (original) keyboard can survive even the angry german kid.
Post by: gimlet on March 31, 2015, 09:36:50 pm
Post by: wierd on March 31, 2015, 11:25:42 pm
It's a very no-nonsense mouse. But again, vintage equipment, and NOT infrared laser.
Naturally, microsoft does not make these anymore, which is why it has that vintage yellow plastic shell. (They were brilliant shiny white when new. Good, hard, durable ABS.) They weigh a good 170g, Enough that if you swung it by the cord and hit somebody, you could very well kill them. (and the mouse would survive.)
The fact that these things are STILL kickin it, despite being upwards of 20 years old, should speak volumes about their durability.
Post by: Aklyon on March 31, 2015, 11:53:07 pm
I'd rather not go thaaat far for a durable mouse though, heh. Not sure if I even have a PS/2 port on here.
Post by: Vector on March 31, 2015, 11:58:26 pm
Post by: wierd on April 01, 2015, 12:51:25 am
So its essentially the gameboy of vintage mice? :)
I'd rather not go thaaat far for a durable mouse though, heh. Not sure if I even have a PS/2 port on here.
Amusingly, since it is also serial device, one could put a USB to Serial cable on, then attach the mouse to that. ;)
{no, I am not serious about that-- but it probably would work.}
That was the "Second generation" microsoft mouse. The first generation ones were so clunky, that I dont even feel the need to mention them except for how awkward they were. Literally painful to use and hold. Terrible things. This was the start of MS's push into ergonomic interface devices. While it does not look terribly so in the picture, think about it in comparison to........ The horror in the spoiler below.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The third generation of microsoft mice were noticeably more ergonomically contoured, but were "Too" ergo for left handers, since they had a kind of swept design.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
That was the tail end of the 1990s there though, to early 2000s. After that, computers were becoming more mainstream commodities, and the desire to make 'Cheaper!' products overrode the previous market niches that computer electronics held in industrial, scientific, and university settings where investment into computer electronics was crazy expensive, and people expected good durable goods, and were willing to pay for them. As a consequence, as things become "cheaper", they were substantially less well constructed, and that's where the garbage interface devices we have now came from. The innards of mice from that era, and this era, are strikingly different.
These days you have those thin little reed style switches that break/jam up, resulting in the need for a replacement. Compare to the button switches found in older, more vintage devices.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Things back then were designed to last, and last a very VERY long time. These days, "Product Lifecycle Managment" is part of the business strategy, and devices are PURPOSEFULLY made to be of inferior workmanship to earlier models.
Post by: Thief^ on April 01, 2015, 01:44:45 am
(http://www.mikesaysmeh.com/uploads/2011/09/vg85191_123950-Gadget32-Intellimouse_b.jpg)
Microsoft Intellimouse
Post by: Azerty on April 03, 2015, 03:39:06 pm
My computer finally recovered from the infection, after nuking the hard drive and reinstalling Win7.
The CPU consumption is now at levels from before the infection - around 5% and below 25%.
Having tested Malwarebytes on another computer and installled here, I would like to know what is the better antimalware between Security Essentials and avast?
Post by: Aklyon on April 03, 2015, 03:41:55 pm
Post by: i2amroy on April 03, 2015, 05:15:42 pm
1) Go into preferences and click "silent/gaming mode"
2) Register a junk email and use it for an avast account to stop the unstoppable pop-ups at the low price of 1 extra click every year.
Personally I've been using Avast, and I haven't seen a pop-up in over a year now. Security Essentials is a miniscule bit faster for disk access, but that's about the only real difference. That said they both still suffer from several other problems that all antivirus software suffers from (inability to catch the latest real threats, cause slowdown, etc.). Personally my biggest suggestion if you want to make sure your computer is safe is to make a second user account without administration privileges and use that for your everyday work. It means that any time you want to install something you will need to manually type in your administrator password (maybe a couple of times, since Microsoft has made some rather stupid decisions on the running as administrator front), but short of large-scale emulation it's one of the best defenses that you can run on your computer; it will stop most of the worst things (like rootkits) in their tracks unless you specifically give them the go-ahead (which I hope you are intelligent enough to not do :P).
Post by: Azerty on April 03, 2015, 05:18:42 pm
And could someone says me what is causing the larger than "usual" work from ventilators I am hearing?
Post by: Thief^ on April 04, 2015, 01:46:50 am
That said, do create a limited user for anyone else using the PC who you can't trust not to run "tits.png.exe" as admin. And for gods sake change the options in explorer to not hide file extensions.
Post by: wierd on April 04, 2015, 05:16:55 am
It needs an option for "Stop hiding system files in explorer, but dont show them on the desktop", because telling it to stop hiding system files makes every instance of "Thumbs.db" visible, EVERYWHERE. That includes the copies in the local user's desktop folder, and the one in the all users desktop folder. Bullshit.
Leaving the "hide system files" option enabled makes it VERY hard to tell if you have all the MSVC libs installed, or other redistributable runtimes in there-- Or even hunt down all the parts of your typical network worm infector. But microsoft seems adamant that improving the user's education is less desirable than just putting big assed mittens on them instead, and tailors their OS accordingly.
Every version since windows 2000 has steadily removed features essential to proper home system administration, in the holy name of "User experience."
All microsoft needs to do is re-release a more modern version of tweak-UI that enables "Real computer expert mode" that takes the damned mittens off, and doesn't break the shit out of everything in the process.
Forcing everyone to have to act like special needs children fresh off the short bus is demeaning to everyone. They should stop that shit.
Post by: PyroDesu on April 05, 2015, 08:11:37 pm
Which is better, the occasional unexpected shutdown from lack of power, or a battery backup that delivers power with an up to 45% harmonic distortion (but is standby)?
Post by: Rose on April 06, 2015, 05:37:01 am
If they're a daily occurrence, then get plenty of backup.
Post by: PyroDesu on April 06, 2015, 09:39:01 am
Post by: wierd on April 06, 2015, 11:54:36 pm
I burned through I dont know how many ATX power supplies growing up before finally shelling out the dough for a UPS.
The UPS is expensive, but will help prevent power supply damage (and damage to your computer's electrolytic capacitors that control CPU and RAM voltages, as well as prevent brownouts to your HDD, causing data loss/corruption of data in the write buffer, and subsequent FS corruption), and will ultimately save you a great deal of headache and money in the long run.
A reserve capacity of 15 minutes would probably work just fine. That's enough time to safely down the computer in the event of an outage, and unless your power is absurdly unstable, should be enough buffer to let your computer work during brownouts/irregular power conditions.
Post by: Sappho on April 11, 2015, 06:00:34 pm
So is their site just broken? Is there any chance it will change if I try again tomorrow, or should I just call and "politely" request a disc over the phone (I really don't trust myself not to scream at them given all the bullshit I've had with this piece of garbage computer)?
Fun fact: When you look in their support FAQ for info about recovery discs (specifically, "why didn't my computer come with an OS disc?"), their explanation is that they "know how complicated it can be keeping track of discs" so they've just decided not to ship them with new computers anymore. DEATH TO DELL
Post by: Aklyon on April 11, 2015, 06:09:28 pm
Also if that page doesn't end up working out, theres a way to make one yourself, or a windows usb drive similar to a linux one.
Post by: Sappho on April 11, 2015, 06:12:54 pm
Once I get back to Prague in a month, I'll have my new desktop, but I still use this computer for VJing and it would be really nice if I could have it clean and fresh instead of puttering along constantly threatening to die.
EDIT: By the way, this computer has Windows 7. Not sure if it's possible to make your own OS disc for this, but it'd be cool if it was. It'd have to be a DVD though - I don't have any spare USBs, and I'm not about to sink any more money into it. I know I can get one from Dell if I hassle them, just hate to have to go to all this effort for something they should have given me in the first place.
Post by: Aklyon on April 11, 2015, 06:22:51 pm
If you don't get one from dell, you want a DVD (and computer that can burn DVDs) or a usb drive, this tool (http://wudt.codeplex.com/), and the iso file you need is on this page. (http://mirror.corenoc.de/digitalrivercontent.net/) You also need a valid product key of course, theres probably one on the bottom if its a laptop. (MS also has an official page (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery) for ISO downloads now, but I looked through my bookmarks first)
Post by: Sappho on April 11, 2015, 06:43:48 pm
I was talking about windows 7, yep.
If you don't get one from dell, you want a DVD (and computer that can burn DVDs) or a usb drive, this tool (http://wudt.codeplex.com/), and the iso file you need is on this page. (http://mirror.corenoc.de/digitalrivercontent.net/) You also need a valid product key of course, theres probably one on the bottom if its a laptop. (MS also has an official page (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery) for ISO downloads now, but I looked through my bookmarks first)
That is awesome to know. Thanks a lot. I'll see if I can get a disc from them first (would be less hassle), but I can burn a DVD instead if necessary.
Post by: Graknorke on April 15, 2015, 07:12:11 pm
Honestly I'm not sure which I'd go for. Leaning towards the 970 just because of things I've heard about problems installing drivers on AMD cards, but all of those are from years ago so much not be relevant any more.
EDIT: Though actually I could wait for the Rx 300 series to launch and maybe pick up a second-hand 290x, where the price difference would way offset any performance issues. Maybe even a 295x2.
Post by: Sensei on April 17, 2015, 03:08:47 am
Post by: Donuts on April 17, 2015, 05:01:08 am
On a more serious note, isn't an R9 kinda overkill? I use a 7850 and it's doing just fine. That, and it has the typical AMD bang-for-your-buck.
Post by: Graknorke on April 17, 2015, 07:05:15 am
Post by: Donuts on April 17, 2015, 07:24:55 am
The r9 is no more overkill than the 970 would be. Though what I'm mostly concerned about is the potential beginning of a trend with GTA V, for games with higher VRAM requirements than 3GB.I only commented on the R9 because most of my experience is with AMD cards. All I know about Nvidia is that my first Nvidia card broke after a few weeks.
Post by: Rose on April 17, 2015, 07:32:10 am
Post by: Graknorke on April 17, 2015, 07:54:40 am
I only commented on the R9 because most of my experience is with AMD cards. All I know about Nvidia is that my first Nvidia card broke after a few weeks.I've heard a lot of horror stories from both sides, if I listened to all of them I'd never get anything done :P But as far as my cards go I think that I'll hold out for the launch of the Rx 300 series, see if prices of the 200s drop by enough to make it worth it. They probably will.
Post by: Donuts on April 17, 2015, 08:37:28 pm
You should just buy a Titan X, with 10.5 whole gigs of RAM!I only commented on the R9 because most of my experience is with AMD cards. All I know about Nvidia is that my first Nvidia card broke after a few weeks.I've heard a lot of horror stories from both sides, if I listened to all of them I'd never get anything done :P But as far as my cards go I think that I'll hold out for the launch of the Rx 300 series, see if prices of the 200s drop by enough to make it worth it. They probably will.
Post by: flabort on April 19, 2015, 11:26:46 pm
So my brother owns this LG LED Smart TV (Which is sort of a computer, has all of the parts). When we connect it to power, it powers itself on and displays the giant LG symbol, then goes black, then the indicator light for "Off but receiving power" lights blinks twice, then the whole process repeats. Multiple times. We can power it down by holding the power button on the TV, but any attempt to power it back on are met with the same response as plugging it in.
What I think happened was that the TV overheated and melted the power supply together (which is a common problem among LG smart TVs), which requires us to send it back to LG and get a new one. However, my brother is insisting that it can be fixed in house without calling any techs in, by us, without opening up the TV because "it's obviously not that, <Flabort>, shut up and help look this problem up, get Dad to help".
Edit: And the warranty was up 2 months ago.
Post by: Thief^ on April 20, 2015, 03:33:30 am
Post by: wierd on April 20, 2015, 01:26:04 pm
Sometimes these devices can have the firmware updated via a USB device inserted into the port. see if you can find such a beast, and give that a try.
Post by: Azerty on April 21, 2015, 01:19:55 pm
Sorry with bothering you with yet one more question about my laptop, but I wanted to get an answer to another "mystery."
Since some days, I hear sometimes a light, small "whizzling", additional to the fans' noise; moreover the units LED is sometimes clignoting, although it could be caused by the fact there is two virtual optical disk drives, among whose one hold a .tmp files*, besides the real one.
* My father installed Encyclopedia Universalis, along the .iso for the confirmation, while reinstalling Windows 7; this could make the computer think one drive is active.
NOTES:
My laptop is a HP EliteBook 6930p, the CPU is a two-cores Intel Core Duo P8400 (32-bits) and the harddisk is a ATA Hitachi HTS54321 SCSI; I received it around the end of the year 2009.
EDIT: Added bit about fans
Post by: wierd on April 22, 2015, 12:02:54 am
(sorry, I have no idea what "clignoting" is, and I cant seem to get much from context here.)
Using a virtual drive shouldn't cause much, other than HDD access lights to blink. (the virtual disk stores its data inside a disc image, stored on the hard disk. When the virtual drive is accessed, it reads out of that image file, which is an HDD read. So-- Blinky blinky.)
Now then.
Does the sound come out of the system speakers, or does it come from some specific place underneath the keyboard somewhere?
Post by: Azerty on April 22, 2015, 05:25:06 am
It's doing--- what?
(sorry, I have no idea what "clignoting" is, and I cant seem to get much from context here.)
Using a virtual drive shouldn't cause much, other than HDD access lights to blink. (the virtual disk stores its data inside a disc image, stored on the hard disk. When the virtual drive is accessed, it reads out of that image file, which is an HDD read. So-- Blinky blinky.)
Now then.
Does the sound come out of the system speakers, or does it come from some specific place underneath the keyboard somewhere?
The noise must coming from below the keyboard, since I desactivated the sound on my laptop.
Can this come from the other fans below? I just ran chkdsk without finding any defectuous place on the hard disk.
Post by: Thief^ on April 22, 2015, 08:54:48 am
Chkdisk won't necessarily find errors if the hard disk fixes them itself by re-reading or other methods. Chkdisk can only report two kinds of errors: hardware errors the hard-disk admits to, and corrupt filesystem data (which almost never happens now that Windows uses a self-healing filesystem).
Windows these days will automatically run disk maintenance (e.g. defrag) when the pc is idle, which can cause hard-disk noises and a flickering access light when you're not using the computer. In Windows 7, you can see when maintenance is running from the "Action Center" flag in the system tray, or in the action center itself.
Post by: Azerty on April 22, 2015, 10:37:13 am
Laptops normally only have one fan. Other than the fan, they often have two other "spinning" devices, the hard-disk and the optical drive. Other than the speakers, there should be no other sources of noise, so it has to be one of those.
Chkdisk won't necessarily find errors if the hard disk fixes them itself by re-reading or other methods. Chkdisk can only report two kinds of errors: hardware errors the hard-disk admits to, and corrupt filesystem data (which almost never happens now that Windows uses a self-healing filesystem).
Windows these days will automatically run disk maintenance (e.g. defrag) when the pc is idle, which can cause hard-disk noises and a flickering access light when you're not using the computer. In Windows 7, you can see when maintenance is running from the "Action Center" flag in the system tray, or in the action center itself.
Maybe I noticed this noise since last Monday, when I changed the place where I put my laptop from a "filled" furniture to an open office, which could make me more notice this noise, along with the one caused by the secong opening in the bottom.
Post by: Azerty on April 23, 2015, 05:05:51 am
How can I resolve the issue, so as to keep my drive the longer I am able?
Post by: Thief^ on April 23, 2015, 05:07:34 am
Post by: Azerty on April 23, 2015, 07:13:51 am
"Mofilla" or "Mozilla"? Mozilla is Firefox and Thunderbird, if you run either of those then that's your culprit.
It's Mozilla - sorry for the typo.
And how can I reduce the amount of data written to the disk by Firefox?
Post by: Thief^ on April 23, 2015, 08:30:27 am
More seriously, I don't know, but you have some information you can google search with now.
Post by: Reelya on April 23, 2015, 09:59:58 am
Remove unnecessary drivers and devices. Delete unused programs. Disable start-up programs that you don't use all the time. Close programs when not in use. Also, run CCleaner.exe regularly to clear out junk files / browser cache. If you delete your browser history and browser cache frequently, that's less stuff that FireFox is constantly checking. The more active software and stuff your PC is looking through, the more RAM used and the more hard-disk usage."Mofilla" or "Mozilla"? Mozilla is Firefox and Thunderbird, if you run either of those then that's your culprit.
It's Mozilla - sorry for the typo.
And how can I reduce the amount of data written to the disk by Firefox?
For the browser, don't have multiple tabs opened at once, and close other programs completely before using the browser. And/or, add more RAM to your laptop. I'm guessing the problem is actually that your software load is exceeding RAM capacity, causing the computer to offload data to the drive, which also slows things down.
Post by: aenri on April 23, 2015, 10:22:34 am
Post by: wierd on April 23, 2015, 11:16:35 am
One could also set the windows TEMP and TMP environment variables to point there (since the drives can be created at boot time) and further reduce wear on an SSD.
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=356046
Post by: Reelya on April 23, 2015, 11:41:30 am
So it's critical to determine whether it's a memory paging issue or a browser cache issue. The ramdrive idea is only good if you have a lot of memory that never gets used, i.e. you have at least 8GB. if you have less than 4 GB of RAM i think excessive paging would be the more likely culprit.
Post by: Aklyon on April 23, 2015, 11:44:18 am
Post by: Reelya on April 23, 2015, 11:50:46 am
Well the thing only has 2GB of RAM according to these specs I looked up. These days, 2GB is really pushing things. That laptop can support up to 8GB RAM by upgrading. But that would have to be weighed against just getting a new laptop, which are pretty cheap these days. On ebay, the cheapest 8GB for DDR2 / laptop are about $160. So not really much less than buying a whole new entry-level laptop. Hence, it's not economically viable to upgrade the RAM in an old laptop like that, so software-level tweaking will be better.
It's probably the paging memory problem. Too much software loaded and/or too many tabs at once. Use CTRL-ALT-DEL and task manager to view which processes use the most memory, then try and close a few. You can also use CCleaner.exe to disable optional things from loading at boot time. This can declutter things. It's also possible to remove FireFox add-ons and see if any of those take up a lot of memory.
Another option in the long run is to try running Lubuntu or another minimal Linux install on old laptops. That can extend their useful life since custom Linux builds can be much more efficient than Windows. But it will have more of a learning curve as you get used to how linux does stuff with the file system.
Post by: wierd on April 23, 2015, 12:29:23 pm
Out of the box, you get tmpfs support, (INSTANT ramdisk baby-- ONLY the size you need too! Grows and shrinks automagically! Can be configured in /etc/fstab!) You get zram support if you feel the need to enable it, you get real symbolic links and other fun with mount points that you can exploit (see the tmpfs statement with fstab, but you can do SOOO MUCH with this, including having your SSD be on /, and your /home directory be on some other medium that is more write tolerant, /var on tmpfs, etc) More control over how swap is used, etc.
On windows, allocating a teeny tiny ramdrive (200ish mb) and turning on NTFS compression on it before setting firefox and whatever other temp files the system wants loose on it, is about all you can do to keep windows from attacking your ssd relentlessly.
Post by: Azerty on April 25, 2015, 05:34:47 am
Remove unnecessary drivers and devices. Delete unused programs. Disable start-up programs that you don't use all the time. Close programs when not in use. Also, run CCleaner.exe regularly to clear out junk files / browser cache. If you delete your browser history and browser cache frequently, that's less stuff that FireFox is constantly checking. The more active software and stuff your PC is looking through, the more RAM used and the more hard-disk usage."Mofilla" or "Mozilla"? Mozilla is Firefox and Thunderbird, if you run either of those then that's your culprit.
It's Mozilla - sorry for the typo.
And how can I reduce the amount of data written to the disk by Firefox?
For the browser, don't have multiple tabs opened at once, and close other programs completely before using the browser. And/or, add more RAM to your laptop. I'm guessing the problem is actually that your software load is exceeding RAM capacity, causing the computer to offload data to the drive, which also slows things down.
The amount of used RAM during a normal session don't go above 1,5 Go and is more around 1 Go.
Post by: SquatchHammer on April 25, 2015, 06:08:03 pm
Post by: Rose on April 25, 2015, 11:10:38 pm
That should give you a list of all partitions in your computer, and let you resize them.
Post by: Thief^ on April 26, 2015, 02:03:59 am
Post by: SquatchHammer on April 26, 2015, 12:15:12 pm
Disk management doesn't allow you to resize a partition so the free space is before it (needed if you want to make the first partition bigger), and it doesn't allow you to move them around either. You need a 3rd-party partition management tool...
First off, is it legal. Second, why the ...? Is it because there's no 3rd-party tool you could reconmend?
Post by: Aklyon on April 26, 2015, 12:17:14 pm
Post by: wierd on April 27, 2015, 10:37:52 am
There's a tool called partition magic. It is NOT free. It IS VERY OLD. It works. It has a nice little GUI that lets you easily resize partitions.
The alternative, is to use the command line tool called diskpart, (It's a standard feature of windows) and tell it to shrink and grow partitions. This is a big PITA.
Only follow the section dealing with the resize command!! The first parts deal with formatting!! (http://windowsitpro.com/systems-management/formatting-and-resizing-partitions-diskpart)
Caveats: Allocated space for a partition must be contiguous. Shrunk space comes off at the END of the partition. You need to shrink a partiation that is right next to the partition you want to grow for this to work. If you have more than 2 partitions, this can get tricky.
Post by: gimlet on April 27, 2015, 05:33:26 pm
If you do insist on resizing, just a reminder to make sure you have your windows install disk and key just in case...
Post by: SquatchHammer on April 27, 2015, 08:57:01 pm
Just remember, every time you muck with something basic like partition structure, there's a chance something will go wrong and you could lose data. Are you really gonna back up all your stuff? The much safer course is to find some big files/directories and just move those, stuff in the Download directory is usually a big candidate for that. Or games - delete a couple you haven't been playing lately, reinstall it on the other partition later if you do want to play it again.
If you do insist on resizing, just a reminder to make sure you have your windows install disk and key just in case...
I figured to start moving bigger files over to the bigger side, like all the world of tanks/warplanes/ships files over.
Post by: wierd on April 28, 2015, 02:40:21 am
DEFRAGMENT BOTH VOLUMES FIRST.
Why:
Windows' filesystems like to write data all over the goddam place. Like I stated in the caveat, only space at the ends of partitions can be reallocated like this. If data is shotgunned all over the drive, then you cant reallocate contiguous blocks of free space from one partition to another. DEFRAGMENT FIRST. ALWAYS. This consolidates free space at the end of the partition, making it less risky to resize. ALWAYS DEFRAGMENT FIRST.
Post by: Thief^ on April 28, 2015, 04:17:50 am
Moving the end of a partition (shrinking/growing) is really safe. Moving the start of the partition (what you need to do to move free space from one partition to another) is the risky thing.
Post by: Donuts on April 28, 2015, 04:29:45 am
Post by: Thief^ on April 28, 2015, 04:37:55 am
If you have a dual-channel ram motherboard (normally indicated by having two different colours of ram socket) then it's a good idea to buy matching pairs of ram sticks. They don't have to be "dual channel kits", as long as you buy two matching singles.
Note: Some Intel cpus have a triple-channel ram controller, and so work best with matched triplets of ram.
Post by: Donuts on April 28, 2015, 04:38:47 am
"Dual-channel" is a property of the RAM controller in the CPU/motherboard, not the RAM itself. RAM sometimes comes in "dual-channel kits", but all that means is two of the same ram stick in one packet, there's nothing special about them.I meant a dual-kit. What I'm considering is to just buy a single stick, then later grab another of the same model if I need more.
If you have a dual-channel ram motherboard (normally indicated by having two different colours of ram socket) then it's a good idea to buy matching pairs of ram sticks. They don't have to be "dual channel kits", as long as you buy two matching singles.
Note: Some Intel cpus have a triple-channel ram controller, and so work best with matched triplets of ram.
Edit: There's also the issue of 8/16GB, since 8GB seems to be rapidly becoming the standard, but 16 feels like overkill. But then again, I could just buy more.
Post by: Thief^ on April 28, 2015, 04:42:30 am
If you mean adding/upgrading one stick to a setup that is currently dual-channel, I'd advise against it, it will half your ram performance compared to what you had before, as well as possibly causing one or more ram sticks to be outright ignored by the controller.
Post by: Donuts on April 28, 2015, 04:43:51 am
Post by: Thief^ on April 28, 2015, 04:47:39 am
If you only have two slots, your best bet is probably going to be getting an 8 GB stick, and to try running it at the same time as your current 4 GB stick - worst case it won't run both at once and you can pull the 4 GB stick, more likely it will run both at single-channel speed, which is all you had before anyway. Then upgrade the other slot to 8 GB later on.
Post by: Donuts on April 28, 2015, 04:49:45 am
Edit: More stupid questions. 8GB single channel @1866MHz or 16GB dual channel @1600MHz?
Post by: Thief^ on April 28, 2015, 07:15:37 am
EDIT: To clarify: the 1866 MHz ram probably has higher timing than the 1600 MHz stuff to compensate for the higher speed, giving the same overall latency. After that it just boils down to total speed, which will be higher with 2x1600 MHz than 1x1866MHz. If you're familiar with hard-disks, think of dual-channel as a two-disk RAID-0 set, vs a single drive.
EDIT2: Though if you can buy two of the single 8GB 1866 MHz sticks...
Post by: wierd on April 28, 2015, 07:28:00 am
Dual channel memory accesses allow bigger writes and reads, sure-- but they also permit the reduction of CPU waitstates on read and write operations by combining operations to spread over the dual memory channel. (EG, you can read a value from memory for X thread, while also reading a value from memory for Y thread, at the exact same time, thus allowing both thread X and thread Y to run fully concurrently, instead of waiting to get to the memory bus sequentially.)
Post by: Donuts on April 28, 2015, 08:07:59 am
Post by: Azerty on April 30, 2015, 11:04:38 am
I would like to know how to make sure the following script update correctly the exiting value to the current value of the internal temperature:
Code: [Select]
@echo off
for /f "skip=1 tokens=2 delims==" %%A in ('wmic /namespace:\\root\wmi PATH MSAcpi_ThermalZoneTemperature get CurrentTemperature /value') do set /a "HunDegCel=(%%~A*10)-27315"
echo %HunDegCel:~0,-2%.%HunDegCel:~-2% Degrees CelsiusWhen I enter the following script:
Code: [Select]
wmic /namespace:\\root\wmi PATH MSAcpi_ThermalZoneTemperature get CurrentTemperatureI get five values, whose I extract the mean to get a value wildly different from the one given by the first entry (for exemple, now, after four hours of use, the first return 21.05 °C and the second gives 25.65 °C).
And can a laptop be expected to go above 35 °C after eight hours of use?
(Yes, I know about SpeedFan but I want to try to do something simpler before installing a program)
Post by: ShoesandHats on May 07, 2015, 09:51:01 pm
Post by: wierd on May 08, 2015, 12:14:27 am
Those had this kind of "plastic blister bubble" over the speaker coil system, with the foam over the top of that. If this bubble got scrunched, it would get deformed, and the audio quality went all to shit.
Spoiler: Looks like this (click to show/hide)
If that's what you have, then you need to try to un-deform the bubble. It will probably never sound the same again, but you can get some of the range back by "sucking" on the blister, to pop it back into shape. Just don't pop it!
Post by: ShoesandHats on May 08, 2015, 08:52:12 am
Post by: gimlet on May 08, 2015, 10:59:06 am
Post by: Sappho on May 10, 2015, 08:23:21 am
In the last few months, it's been chugging slowly to a halt on a regular basis. If I plug in a USB mouse or external hard drive, it can take several minutes to recognize it, even after a fresh restart. In general, it runs so slowly that you can't really do anything with it. She says this morning she couldn't get it to start up at all (after it being fully powered down the night before). She says "I pressed F12 to go into the boot menu and it runs a diagnostic or something, and it said something about a driver error." (She doesn't know anything about computers and I can't be there to look at it myself, but I told her from now on she should write down error messages.)
Right now it's running, albeit horribly slowly. I'm pretty sure she doesn't have much of any excess programs and bloatware and stuff (at least she didn't last time I looked at it, which was long after this problem started.) I know that she has McAfee antivirus, which I would prefer she didn't, but it would be nearly impossible to get rid of at this point since I can't just sit down and clean the whole system out myself. Can anyone suggest what we should do to figure out what the problem is?
I'm going to have her clean out the dust today and see if that helps, but the computer doesn't seem to run terribly hot. Just sloooooow.
EDIT: I just got my hands on the computer and looked through it. I don't see any programs installed that shouldn't be, nothing in startup on msconfig.exe that shouldn't be there. I installed CoreTemp and the temperature hasn't gone over 50 C. I changed her power options so that it hibernates instead of sleeping and told her to shut it down more often. I think the problem may just be that she was leaving it in sleep mode for weeks on end. We're going to try to clean out the dust now. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome, but hopefully it will run a little better now.
Post by: wierd on May 10, 2015, 11:36:46 am
as for sluggishness... Windows PC? they get that way over time. registry get fat and bloated, software leaves little weedy bits behind when uninstalled, browser hijacks leave crap behind, etc.
Usually a fresh reinstall after backing up documents, pictures, and music is what the doctor ordered.
Post by: wierd on May 10, 2015, 11:38:24 am
as for sluggishness... Windows PC? they get that way over time. registry get fat and bloated, software leaves little weedy bits behind when uninstalled, browser hijacks leave crap behind, etc.
Usually a fresh reinstall after backing up documents, pictures, and music is what the doctor ordered.
Post by: Arx on May 10, 2015, 11:47:10 am
Post by: wierd on May 10, 2015, 12:05:42 pm
Laptops usually have the option to create recovery disc sets based off their recovery partition, which puts the thing back at "Factory fresh" (ahem) condition, complete with the same copy of windows it had when you powered it on.
That's still much more fresh than a 3 year old install.
Post by: Thief^ on May 10, 2015, 01:01:19 pm
That said, it's worth checking:
1: Ram use. An older laptop may not have enough ram for modern use, especially if it was cheap when new. If you go over 100% ram use it'll start thrashing the hard-disk, which is never good for performance.
2: Hard-disk health via SMART. This may need to be enabled in the BIOS.
3: overheating/dust as already mentioned.
Post by: Sappho on May 10, 2015, 01:55:11 pm
I told her that the best thing to do would be backup and reinstall, but I don't have time to do it for her. I'm leaving the country tomorrow, hopefully for good this time. She definitely can't handle doing it herself, so I suggested she take it to a computer repair shop and have it cleaned out, both the dust in the case and a fresh copy of Windows. She complains that she can't afford it, but I told her that's the best I can do for her.
It seems the problem is mostly on startup. She says when she restarts, it takes forever to load windows. I told her I've already cleaned everything out of the startup that I could, and she just needs to shut it down more often and probably get a fresh copy of windows.
I thought of RAM use but I'm actually not sure how to check it. How do I do that?
Post by: Arx on May 10, 2015, 02:00:53 pm
Post by: Arx on May 10, 2015, 02:02:04 pm
Post by: Aklyon on May 10, 2015, 03:37:16 pm
Post by: gimlet on May 10, 2015, 05:26:06 pm
Post by: Sappho on May 10, 2015, 05:33:44 pm
I checked the memory use and it's very low. So I don't know what the problem is, really. If I were her, I'd just wipe and reinstall Windows, but she's not capable of doing that herself, so she'll just have to suffer until she can afford to pay someone to do it (or, better, get a new computer that isn't such a piece of junk).
Post by: Azerty on May 11, 2015, 11:47:12 am
Try to run the following script, with administrative rights enabled:
Code: [Select]
wmic diskdrive get statusIf it returns another signal than "OK" then S.M.A.R.T. is saying the drive is dying.
Post by: Sappho on May 11, 2015, 12:33:57 pm
Post by: quamzie on May 11, 2015, 01:25:19 pm
Post by: Rose on May 12, 2015, 03:54:15 am
Does she ever get any bluescreens?
Post by: Aklyon on May 12, 2015, 09:47:30 am
Sometimes internet connection suddenly gets cut off. The methods of tech support like : removing cablle for ten seconds and putting it back/ rebooting computer work, but those disconnections tend to be annoying. Also, the problem is not in cable disconnecting. Can anybody give some advice on this?How old is your router? I had a similar problem before and we fixed it by replacing the router with one that wasn't so old verizon had stopped requiring returns on it.
Post by: Sappho on May 12, 2015, 11:20:52 am
It's been sitting there with it's hideous green Windows 8 screen and text that says "Keep your PC on until this is done. Installing update 1 of 9..."
No progress bar, no estimated time remaining, no nothing. I think I've already tantrummed enough in the past about how much I hate Windows 8, so I'll skip that part and just say, how long should I expect this to take? Will I break it if I just power it down right now? I have been awake for almost 35 hours and stressed for months. All I wanted was to finally get the chance to play some of the games my laptop couldn't handle, and now I'm stuck waiting for this piece of crap to update.
And please tell me there is a way to disable this automatic updating crap. I have never in my life been happy that something automatically updated itself. On this machine (my Windows 7 laptop) all automatic updates for all software (except Avast) are disabled, and I've been very happy with that. (Nevermind the hardware nonsense that I'm not happy with - I don't like automatic updates.)
EDIT: Wait, does it need to be connected to the internet while updating? It doesn't say anything about internet, just not to power down. It is *not* hooked up to the internet right now. It was hooked up until about 15 minutes ago when I got sick of not having my gaming computer *and* not having internet and switched the LAN cable to my laptop. (No wifi.)
Post by: Aklyon on May 12, 2015, 11:31:45 am
Post by: Sappho on May 12, 2015, 11:40:41 am
If its doing 'update and restart', it should've already downloaded everything required.
OK, so why is it taking so long? This is a pretty new computer with very good hardware. Nothing on it runs slowly. Is it stuck? Should I just turn it off and back on again and see what happens? And why was there no option to restart *without* updating... Updating is clearly designed to take ages. Why would anyone build a system that can't be restarted without forcing the computer to be frozen and useless for hours on end?
Post by: i2amroy on May 13, 2015, 12:10:50 am
And please tell me there is a way to disable this automatic updating crap. I have never in my life been happy that something automatically updated itself. On this machine (my Windows 7 laptop) all automatic updates for all software (except Avast) are disabled, and I've been very happy with that. (Nevermind the hardware nonsense that I'm not happy with - I don't like automatic updates.)Control Panel -> Windows Update -> Change Settings (Sidebar) -> Important Updates
That said keep in mind that the vast majority of updates are literally doing nothing but fixing security holes in your programs. Lots of people forget this, but the updates are there to protect you in almost all cases. As an example the last Java patch contained nothing except patches for over 98 possible ways that people could use to break into your computer (and that there were at least some documented cases of them already being used). Windows security updates are the same, and checking my current list of updates my computer needs to install I've got at least 14 unpatched security holes, and probably many more than that.
Personally my advice is this. Go to that setting and change it to "download updates but let me choose whether to install them" (the "you must restart in 10 minutes" popups will still show up rarely, but they won't ever actually count down and you can just close them). Then when you are sure you are done with the computer at night just hit the "restart and install updates" button and let it run. Wake up in the morning and your updates should be installed without any real hassle on your part, keeping both you happy and productive, and your computer safe from security exploits.
As for how long updates take, sometimes updates can be over 60 MB of just patches. This can take a while, especially if they involve the parts of the computer that it's currently using to install said updates (since you basically need to make a copy to keep the updates installing, then change the old copy, then go back and test if it works, etc.). In general I suggest not turning the computer off in the middle of updates unless you are 100% sure it's stuck (as in, you went to bed and when you woke up it's still stuck). Turning it off during the wrong time can seriously mess up your computer, and if you are unlucky there won't be much you can do to fix it but totally wiping it and reinstalling windows (I hope your backups are up to date!).
Post by: Sappho on May 13, 2015, 01:39:07 am
EDIT: Hmmm..... Hit the power button and waited for it to turn off. Hit it again, and it's right back where it was. Did it just hibernate? Ctrl+Alt+Del does nothing, I figured the power button would turn it off...
EDIT2: Okay, take 2, held the power button down to force a shutdown, turned back on. Took some time, but finally I got a "Working on Updates - X% complete - Don't turn off your computer" message. It just finished and is restarting itself. Looks like it is ok after all. Phew.
Post by: Thief^ on May 13, 2015, 01:47:03 am
Edit: Gah edit sniped. Looks like you knew that little trick. It's really useful on laptops/tablets/phones with an internal battery. It works on almost anything!
Post by: Sappho on May 13, 2015, 02:13:18 am
EDIT: New Question - Avast runs painfully slow on this (Windows 8) machine. The interface freezes all the time. Right now it's trying to update my VLC player and it's taking forever. I'm going to cancel it and just do it manually.
Any recommendations on whether I should just nix Avast and use the Windows Defender? I'd prefer not to rely on Microsoft for my security, but this is really holding me up. Especially the freezing interface is really irritating. It just locks up for a few seconds every time I try to do anything.
Post by: Thief^ on May 13, 2015, 03:44:59 am
Post by: i2amroy on May 13, 2015, 01:19:32 pm
Personally though I'd say turn off any updates or similar things in avast (should you decide to keep it, as noted Windows Defender is also one of the top antivirus programs now) other than the actual virus protection parts. Avast claims to be able to make your computer faster, etc. but really the only thing they are good at doing is the only thing they are supposed to be doing; protecting your computer from viruses. I certainly know that I wouldn't trust them to do anything else well (and the free version won' let you do anything else IIRC). If you keep avast shut off everything but the shields and other virus protection measures, then go into settings and turn on silent/gaming mode to stop the annoying popups.
Post by: Sappho on May 13, 2015, 04:32:20 pm
Post by: wierd on May 13, 2015, 10:38:36 pm
Sometimes internet connection suddenly gets cut off. The methods of tech support like : removing cablle for ten seconds and putting it back/ rebooting computer work, but those disconnections tend to be annoying. Also, the problem is not in cable disconnecting. Can anybody give some advice on this?How old is your router? I had a similar problem before and we fixed it by replacing the router with one that wasn't so old verizon had stopped requiring returns on it.
Is this a cable modem, or a DSL modem? (Or is this an actual router?)
I have a DSL router combination that replaced the (EFFING HORRIBLE) thing that came from my ISP. I have crappy async DSL, and at night there are terrible problems with the SNR on the line, causing signal resets and re-syncs constantly. A few pokes to the NVRAM settings to change the reset/resync behavior, and it works much better now.
Post by: quamzie on May 14, 2015, 04:36:25 am
No router at all, direct cable connection.Sometimes internet connection suddenly gets cut off. The methods of tech support like : removing cablle for ten seconds and putting it back/ rebooting computer work, but those disconnections tend to be annoying. Also, the problem is not in cable disconnecting. Can anybody give some advice on this?How old is your router? I had a similar problem before and we fixed it by replacing the router with one that wasn't so old verizon had stopped requiring returns on it.
Post by: Aklyon on May 14, 2015, 08:41:10 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 15, 2015, 12:07:18 pm
I'm a console collector, with most (not yet all) of the older consoles (I'm missing everything preNES, Master system, Saturn, DreamCast, Gamecube, N64, and Xbox, for the curious), with a bit of a problem. It is well-known that older consoles that use RCA video output (I'm not sure about coax or component, I don't use coax and most don't support composite until the PS2 era) have noticable input lag on modern televisions. This lag is, as far as I know, caused by the process of converting the signal from analog to digital and upscaling it to 720 or 1080 resolution taking too long because of processing power. Many TVs have a "game mode" to counteract this by disabling most of the upscaling effects such as smoothing and the like, but not all do, and it isn't always enough. The ideal solution is to use a CRT tv, but those take up quite a bit of space, and are undesirable as a "main" TV due to low resolution, making it impractical to play Nintendo on your couch.
What I want to do is get an RCA input device for the Pi and use that to convert the video signal - the Pi should be powerful enough to do it seamlessly, and the TV shouldn't lag much (if at all) because the input signal is perfectly tailored to it already. Additionally, if I desire to record the signal for whatever reason, that should be simple to do. Will this work?
Post by: Thief^ on May 15, 2015, 12:14:03 pm
The problem is most likely going to at least partly be due to it reading an entire frame in from the RCA jack before it processes it. If you could devise a way to perform the upscaling (and possibly begin outputting to the TV) while you were still reading the input data, you might be able to manage something, but good luck there.
EDIT: Also consider how you plan to handle interlaced video, a lot of older consoles used an interlaced output because it gave the appearance of a higher resolution at half the cost, but de-interlacing for a modern non-interlaced display is a bitch.
Post by: Descan on May 15, 2015, 01:41:26 pm
... I have no idea of the feasibility of that.
Post by: wierd on May 16, 2015, 03:40:32 pm
the Pi has several flavors of linux available.
Raspbian alone will have at least 3 flavors of NES emulator in the package repo, IIRC, 2 flavors of genesis emulator, ... you get the idea.
What you will need is a simple python UI application run in the lightest weight window manager you can find (something like TWM or something), coupled with QJoyPad (when active, allows the joypad to simulate input from mouse or keyboard, useful for games that dont support joysticks natively, but also useful for alllowing an analog joystick to control a mouse pointer in the UI without much hassle!), and a fat stack of emulators and roms.
The Pi boots up to the minimalist UI, and loads the python based UI launcher and QJoyPad. The player picks which console to screw around on, and makes the selection. The python launcher app then launches the emulator in question, which grabs control of the display. QJoyPad keeps running in the background, so mouse input in the menus of these apps works fine.
When the emulator is closed, the loader app pops back up to the front. Easy peasy.
Just make sure your choice of emulators is suitable for the constraints imposed by the Pi. N64 and newer is probably going to be too intensive for the Pi to handle.
AS FOR THE ACTUAL QUESTION about using the Pi as an upscaler--
That will have the EXACT SAME PROBLEM that the software upscaler in the TV has-- input lag. It takes time for the CPU to enlarge each frame.
Better would be some kind of hobby analog circuit that splits the composite analog signal into component video, then upscales using frequency modulation shifting. That would produce the lowest possible input lag, and still upscale your source.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 16, 2015, 03:56:17 pm
Pretty high. Nearly effortless in fact.
the Pi has several flavors of linux available.
Raspbian alone will have at least 3 flavors of NES emulator in the package repo, IIRC, 2 flavors of genesis emulator, ... you get the idea.
What you will need is a simple python UI application run in the lightest weight window manager you can find (something like TWM or something), coupled with QJoyPad (when active, allows the joypad to simulate input from mouse or keyboard, useful for games that dont support joysticks natively, but also useful for alllowing an analog joystick to control a mouse pointer in the UI without much hassle!), and a fat stack of emulators and roms.
The Pi boots up to the minimalist UI, and loads the python based UI launcher and QJoyPad. The player picks which console to screw around on, and makes the selection. The python launcher app then launches the emulator in question, which grabs control of the display. QJoyPad keeps running in the background, so mouse input in the menus of these apps works fine.
When the emulator is closed, the loader app pops back up to the front. Easy peasy.
Just make sure your choice of emulators is suitable for the constraints imposed by the Pi. N64 and newer is probably going to be too intensive for the Pi to handle.
The trouble is that I don't like emulators - even NES emulators have noticeable graphics errors that the real hardware doesn't have, and some of the colors just aren't quite right.
Quote
AS FOR THE ACTUAL QUESTION about using the Pi as an upscaler--I had hoped that the greater processing power would reduce the input lag down to unnoticeable levels - I don't care much about "cleaning up" the graphics or things about that sort, I just want Mario to jump when I push the button.
That will have the EXACT SAME PROBLEM that the software upscaler in the TV has-- input lag. It takes time for the CPU to enlarge each frame.
Better would be some kind of hobby analog circuit that splits the composite analog signal into component video, then upscales using frequency modulation shifting. That would produce the lowest possible input lag, and still upscale your source.
Post by: wierd on May 16, 2015, 04:05:50 pm
http://elm-chan.org/works/sc/report.html
It's an NTSC to VGA scan-converter. Minimal digital components, mostly fast analog components. You can get away with this, because VGA is also an analog format, like composite (RCA, NTSC video).
The scan converter translates the modulation into RGB signals, that many modern TVs can handle without engaging the same software upscaler.
Post by: Zrk2 on May 18, 2015, 02:19:56 pm
Post by: wierd on May 18, 2015, 04:24:20 pm
Post by: Graknorke on May 18, 2015, 04:59:10 pm
Post by: Gentlefish on May 18, 2015, 05:38:46 pm
Post by: Aklyon on May 18, 2015, 05:49:19 pm
...Also on the subject of mice, should I bother with a mousepad? I haven't been and haven't noticed anything wrong. The optical tracker picks up hardwood just fine.You really only need a mousepad for tables that you have trouble with the mouse on, or if you want one.
Post by: Rose on May 19, 2015, 12:29:57 am
Unless you have a ball mouse.
Post by: Thief^ on May 19, 2015, 01:43:42 am
Clean your mouse's optical pickup port, and clean your desk.This. A hair getting into the optical sensor causes all kinds of glitches.
Post by: PyroDesu on May 19, 2015, 08:10:07 pm
My connection bridge between my laptop and desktop (passing internet from the laptop to the desktop) was working fine a few hours ago, when I was at home. Now I've moved the whole apparatus to a new location where it's worked before, and it's stopped working. All the diagnostics say I've got an invalid IP address, and if I fix that manually, then the DNS Gateway is invalid. Resetting IP stacks, resetting the router, resetting both computers, reinstalling the driver software, etc. have not worked.
Spoiler: ipconfig of the host computer (laptop) (click to show/hide)
Post by: Sensei on May 20, 2015, 12:08:44 am
Has anyone else had this problem? Could it be related to an update?
Post by: Thief^ on May 20, 2015, 02:13:16 am
Post by: PyroDesu on May 20, 2015, 02:18:29 am
PyroDesu: it looks from that like the bridge isn't active, try deleting and recreating the bridge.
I have, many, many times.
Actually, I have to, in order to use the WiFi on my laptop - my laptop loses internet connection when it's bridged.
Post by: Thief^ on May 20, 2015, 02:29:41 am
Does ipconfig on the desktop look the same?
Post by: PyroDesu on May 20, 2015, 02:49:19 am
Spoiler: ipconfig from host w/ bridge (click to show/hide)
And yeah, the ethernet part of the ipconfig on the desktop looks the same as on the laptop.
Post by: Mokkun on May 20, 2015, 08:11:31 am
Post by: Cthulhu on May 20, 2015, 05:47:22 pm
The issue is that I can't find a blocking program like that. They're all just straight blockers, maybe with an internal console password. I'm looking for something that would put up a password prompt when I try to go to a website and force me to type in the password right there if I want to go through.
I can't find that though. Does anybody know of a program like that? I use chrome but I'm willing to migrate, chrome's been pissing me off a bit lately.
Post by: Thief^ on May 21, 2015, 01:45:38 am
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :The highlighted bit above means it can't talk to a router, which means your bridge isn't working. I'm not sure what to recommend. You could try a static IP:
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::74d4:ae9e:bffa:241b%31
Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.36.27
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
IP 192.168.1.***
Subnet 255.255.255.0
Gateway 192.168.1.1 <- your router's IP
DNS 192.168.1.1
Post by: i2amroy on May 21, 2015, 03:41:20 am
The issue is that I can't find a blocking program like that. They're all just straight blockers, maybe with an internal console password. I'm looking for something that would put up a password prompt when I try to go to a website and force me to type in the password right there if I want to go through.Honestly probably the best you are going to find is a "focus blocker" extension that then when you want to go through it you need to just go to the options menu and disable it to continue. I can't find anything that lets you just do a simple password entry to access the blocked site because a major selling point of the majority of these "site blocker" extensions is the very fact that in general they are hard to disable or bypass.
Post by: PyroDesu on May 21, 2015, 10:46:43 am
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :The highlighted bit above means it can't talk to a router, which means your bridge isn't working. I'm not sure what to recommend. You could try a static IP:
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::74d4:ae9e:bffa:241b%31
Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.36.27
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
IP 192.168.1.***
Subnet 255.255.255.0
Gateway 192.168.1.1 <- your router's IP
DNS 192.168.1.1
Tried that. As I said, got a DNS gateway not available (or something along those lines).
Post by: Thief^ on May 21, 2015, 10:47:34 am
Post by: PyroDesu on May 21, 2015, 03:54:01 pm
Then the bridge is definitely not allowing traffic. Firewall issue?
Firewalls on both computers are disabled.
Post by: wierd on May 21, 2015, 07:44:08 pm
I can only take the "wear mittens after slathering on novacaine topical" nature of windows' configuration for advanced networking for so long. Give me linux and a proper config file any day.
Windows is just a poor choice to do anything related to bridging with.
Post by: PyroDesu on May 21, 2015, 08:32:41 pm
I dont mean to sound mean.. but I gave up years ago getting windows machines to do networking correctly.
I can only take the "wear mittens after slathering on novacaine topical" nature of windows' configuration for advanced networking for so long. Give me linux and a proper config file any day.
Windows is just a poor choice to do anything related to bridging with.
If I could into Linux, I would.
But so far, I can't into Linux very far. Most I've done with it is test (and nuke) hard drives with a Fedora stick.
Post by: wierd on May 21, 2015, 10:39:05 pm
That actually worked like a charm, but was a SUPER pain in the *$$ to set up. Compared to linux, where setting up a bridge is as easy as defining an interface and adding members to it in /etc/network, it was an elaborate kludge.
Post by: Thief^ on May 22, 2015, 01:10:45 am
PyroDesu: Have you tried setting the static IP/gateway settings on the bridge? The problem seems to be that it's preferring the autoconfig IP from the lan side instead of the dhcp IP from the WiFi. Googling suggests disabling autoconfig IPs on the lan interface may also help.
Post by: PyroDesu on May 22, 2015, 08:59:02 am
In Windows it's as easy as selecting both interfaces and pressing "bridge". It's just inexplicably not working. Linux is also great at " inexplicably not working" so leave off the fanboyism.
PyroDesu: Have you tried setting the static IP/gateway settings on the bridge? The problem seems to be that it's preferring the autoconfig IP from the lan side instead of the dhcp IP from the WiFi. Googling suggests disabling autoconfig IPs on the lan interface may also help.
Default gateway not available.
Post by: Thief^ on May 22, 2015, 10:10:07 am
Post by: Thief^ on May 22, 2015, 10:13:45 am
In the Network connections window, where you bridge the connections, but with the bridge not created
Press "alt"
Advanced
Advanced Settings
Change the order of connections so your wifi network is first
Post by: PyroDesu on May 22, 2015, 10:28:21 am
Which PC gives that error?
Both. They mirror errors on either side of the connection.
Also, lets try something arcane:
In the Network connections window, where you bridge the connections, but with the bridge not created
Press "alt"
Advanced
Advanced Settings
Change the order of connections so your wifi network is first
Nothing.
Post by: Thief^ on May 22, 2015, 10:30:43 am
I have no further ideas
Post by: PyroDesu on May 22, 2015, 11:32:31 am
Then off to google my friend :)
I have no further ideas
Yeah, Google was my first choice, but there doesn't seem to be much on bridging. The forums were my last resort.
Post by: wierd on May 22, 2015, 01:06:14 pm
What exactly do you want the connection to do?
Post by: PyroDesu on May 22, 2015, 02:17:42 pm
Does it NEED to be a bridged connection?
What exactly do you want the connection to do?
Pass internet through my laptop to my desktop. Former can pick up WiFi, latter cannot, and as I'm only here temporarily, I'm not buying a WiFi card. And there's stuff on the Desktop that doesn't work without internet that I'd like to use (though as I'm going to be here less than 24 more hours, it has become a moot point).
And yeah, it has to be bridged. I tried ICS the first time I was in this situation (same place) and it never worked. Bridging seems to be the only other option.
Post by: wierd on May 22, 2015, 03:28:11 pm
Post by: Rose on May 24, 2015, 02:39:52 am
Post by: LordSlowpoke on May 28, 2015, 07:53:49 am
so my fujitsu lifebook, model ah530, needs new graphics drivers
the reasons for this is that the current ones are, according to programs which wreck themselves (starmade, notably! wanna play that yo) buggy
however the intel update utility does not provide anything driver-like, the generic drivers downloaded from their site (i've tried hd graphics both 4 and 5 series) refuse to install and the fujitsu website still boasts the same driver it released whilst tossing the product onto the markets - which is also the same driver i have on the cd that came with the laptop
where is this new driver to be sought, if there is any even; the os on which i'd like to use said driver is win7 if it matters
Post by: Thief^ on May 28, 2015, 08:42:42 am
I don't remember the exact instructions, unfortunately. This is the instructions for a vendor-locked nvidia laptop gpu, the procedure for intel should be similar:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/installing-675m-and-its-driver-on-clevo-p150hm-sager-8150m.689544/
Post by: Reelya on May 28, 2015, 10:59:06 am
So, I have a tendency to order food online, which adds up to be very expensive and isn't very good for me. At the same time, I live with other people and sometimes they want to order something and I'm the one who does it. I figure the best way to stop (it tends to be an impulse thing) while still being able to order things when my housemates want to is to put the sites on a blocker behind a shame password that'll remind me why I'm not doing it anymore.I use Leechblock, it has a lot of features compared to the other blockers I've tried. It's on FireFox. One option is to put a page load delay on the link, that means you're looking at this thing for an amount of time you specify before the page loads up, or you can route a page through another page you make on your home PC, this page could have anything you like, e.g. a password or big flashing "Don't waste money" warning.
The issue is that I can't find a blocking program like that. They're all just straight blockers, maybe with an internal console password. I'm looking for something that would put up a password prompt when I try to go to a website and force me to type in the password right there if I want to go through.
I can't find that though. Does anybody know of a program like that? I use chrome but I'm willing to migrate, chrome's been pissing me off a bit lately.
Post by: wierd on May 28, 2015, 12:16:04 pm
If I remember correctly for most vendor-locked graphics chipsets like that you can extract both sets of drivers, and modify the inf file from the intel one to contain the hardware id from the fujitsu one, to allow you to install the intel one on the fujitsu-locked hardware :)
I don't remember the exact instructions, unfortunately. This is the instructions for a vendor-locked nvidia laptop gpu, the procedure for intel should be similar:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/installing-675m-and-its-driver-on-clevo-p150hm-sager-8150m.689544/
Windows 7?
go to the control panel.
open system applet.
go to device manager
right click on the display device
choose properties
select the hardware IDs tab
in the dropdown, choose "compatible ids"
right click on (usually) the second or third one in the list, and choose copy.
---
open the INF file for the intel graphics drivers.
find the section that contains all the lines like this:
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2105; (made up example.)
paste the compatible ID for your display device into the list, and decorate it so it matches the form of the others in the list.
save the file.
install the driver.
windows bitches about the driver not being signed. (the alterations of the inf file has broken the signature check.)
install the driver anyway.
profit. (or fail. this is not guaranteed to work.)
Post by: Naryar on May 29, 2015, 09:18:33 am
Just need a piece of advice : Windows 8 has been pushing me to update to Windows 8.1 for quite some time.
Is it worth the large download ? Is Windows 8.1 better, or nope ?
Also I'm seeking for a more efficient system yet with simple UI. I am quite familiar with Windows 8 and I think it is a fine system honestly.
Post by: Arx on May 29, 2015, 09:27:41 am
Post by: Rose on May 29, 2015, 09:50:05 am
Windows 8.1 is pretty good.
Post by: Naryar on May 29, 2015, 09:54:00 am
Windows 8.0 is complete vomit.
Windows 8.1 is pretty good.
Why so ?
Post by: Rose on May 29, 2015, 09:57:07 am
Post by: Naryar on May 29, 2015, 10:08:38 am
Basically 8.1 fixes most of the retarded things that 8.0 had.
Care to be more specific ?
Post by: Rose on May 29, 2015, 10:13:48 am
Post by: Thief^ on May 29, 2015, 10:26:58 am
8.1 is basically a service pack for Windows 8. Nothing major has changed, it's just better in a lot of little ways.
Post by: Aklyon on May 29, 2015, 08:18:22 pm
Post by: Yoink on May 31, 2015, 11:03:56 pm
This new laptop is a bit slow, and it seems to be getting worse rather quickly, which worries me.
Post by: Rose on May 31, 2015, 11:15:39 pm
Post by: Aklyon on June 01, 2015, 12:27:45 am
Post by: Rose on June 01, 2015, 12:48:34 am
Post by: Thief^ on June 01, 2015, 12:50:17 am
7 - Microsoft Security Essentials is pretty decent
8 - Windows Defender (built in) - it's MSE merged with the Windows Defender from 7
Edit: No antivirus can possibly catch everything. MSE consistently ranks highly on detection tests, and is free. In Windows 8 you also get SmartScreen, which checks against Microsoft's monstrously huge database and warns about anything too new to be known about. It requires internet access, but if you're downloading something that's not an issue anyway.
Post by: i2amroy on June 01, 2015, 05:14:17 am
MSE is okay, but doesn't necessarily catch everything.Literally about the best detection rates you can get, even on top-of-the-line software, is about 80% of the brand new dangerous stuff out there. Most antiviruses rank in the 30-60% ranges. As always, your best defenses are going to be:
1) Don't download and run sketchy things.
2) Don't run on an administrator account unless absolutely necessary.
3) Emulation/sandboxing, which are kinda an extension from 2, but there aren't really any good free sandboxing programs out there for windows right now.
Post by: Kadzar on June 16, 2015, 04:07:02 pm
Other than that, it works just fine, it's just the fact that the wireless capability doesn't turn on automatically anymore.
I'm on an ASUS laptop running Windows 7 with a Ralink 802.11n wireless lan card, and can provide any other pertinent information if needed.
Post by: Thief^ on June 17, 2015, 12:43:05 am
If it's enabled when you shut down it should be enabled next time you start up.
Post by: Kadzar on June 17, 2015, 01:01:56 am
Post by: Thief^ on June 17, 2015, 01:06:44 am
Post by: Kadzar on June 17, 2015, 01:30:55 am
But thank you for pointing out the keyboard shortcut thing. That should be helpful in the future.
Post by: Graknorke on June 19, 2015, 01:53:25 pm
Post by: Aklyon on June 19, 2015, 02:00:38 pm
Post by: Thief^ on June 19, 2015, 02:31:51 pm
Post by: Aklyon on June 19, 2015, 03:08:38 pm
Post by: oriramikad on June 19, 2015, 03:43:40 pm
Actually Apache took over OpenOffice, and have been making releases, so now both exist...But LibreOffice has most of the original devs for OpenOffice.org while Apache OpenOffice has newcomers who don't have the years of experience the LibreOffice devs do.
Post by: Sinistar on June 23, 2015, 02:03:36 pm
Let us however assume that in a shared bandwidth of 4 users, everyone is limiting their speed accordingly. Yet they all still get massive slow-downs. Let us further assume that internet provider is a relatively reliable and there are no known problems with connection. So, let's say I, while suffering said slow-down, disconnect one of the users and suddenly I receive a massive boost in speed, namely, maximum that I should have. And if I connect said user back, the slow-down re-appear.
So taking in account everything said above, here is my question: is there any possibility this might be a router problem? That somehow router is causing slow-downs due to some (hardware?) error?
Post by: Thief^ on June 23, 2015, 02:15:53 pm
Torrents complicate matters, a lot of cheap routers can only manage a few hundred simultaneous connection in their NAT table before they go to poo. With a torrent client, people need to limit the Max number of simultaneous connection as well as the bandwidth to play nice with other users.
Post by: birdy51 on June 23, 2015, 02:30:18 pm
Any suggestions on going about this?
Post by: Sinistar on June 23, 2015, 03:09:02 pm
Quote
You can try rebooting the router, but generally speaking, if one user can max out the connection, then everyone in total should be the same. It's more likely that users overloading the connection.Hm, yeah, that's what I was afraid of.
Quote
Torrents complicate matters, a lot of cheap routers can only manage a few hundred simultaneous connection in their NAT table before they go to poo. With a torrent client, people need to limit the Max number of simultaneous connection as well as the bandwidth to play nice with other users.This IS new to me though, it might have to do something about that... Though I've been long suspecting the upper to be the case. I'll also contact internet provider just in case but we'll see. Thanks.
Post by: Tellemurius on June 23, 2015, 03:54:01 pm
The power driver on my laptop has hit it's last straw. After nearly three years, I believe it is time to replace the wiggly bastard.Depends on the brand, you can buy from manufacturer for expensive replacement or on ebay for cheap chinese knockoffs. I took the ebay route and I swear that power brick can toast my hot pockets if i had a second one. Can you find a model number on the brick?
Any suggestions on going about this?
Post by: wierd on June 23, 2015, 05:29:17 pm
That number is 65535 sockets.
NAT does what the name says it does. Network address Translation.
It takes a gateway device in one network, and gives a single identity on other network. That gateway then functions as a sort of proxy for that whole obfuscated network it is the gateway for. The outside network sees only the single device, not the whole network behind it.
TCP/IP limits the total number of ports available, and also the number of sockets that can be open on a specific port. We have a single logical device providing connectivity to a whole network in the case of NAT. That can quickly give you some problems if you have lots of communicating devices/users behind that NAT gateway.
Even with enterprise equipment that does not go crazy when the NAT table is more than a few hundred sockets, it is still a problem with large numbers of Torrent users. Torrent users routinely use 20 or more sockets, just by themselves. Sometimes over 100. 50 torrent users with 100 sockets each will nearly saturate the 65k socket hard limit of NAT.
The solution of course, is IPv6, where every device is directly visible. But ISPs dont want to do that.
Post by: Aklyon on June 23, 2015, 05:36:41 pm
Post by: Thief^ on June 24, 2015, 01:18:39 am
NAT has a fundamental restriction on the number of sockets that can be open to an obfuscated IP.
That number is 65535 sockets.
[...]TCP[...]
Actually, that's not entirely true. TCP (and by extension NAT of TCP) is limited to 65535 sockets per source ip per destination ip per destination port, not 65536 total. For NAT with only one public IP, and assuming you're connecting to a fixed destination port (e.g. 80 for a web server) that limits you to 65535 sockets for each remote IP, which is normally plenty. Torrent clients normally only open 1 connection to each other user, so 50 torrent users would only use a tiny fraction of NAT's capability.
For TCP it's the size of the router's NAT table that limits you, not NAT inherently.
UDP (with an "open" NAT) is another story, as that allows replies from other IPs. That is inherently limited to 65535 connections only, but it's also possible to intentionally reuse the same port for communicating with multiple other PCs, so it's not a hard limit.
That said, the solution is definitely IPv6 with a border firewall replacing the NAT.
Post by: birdy51 on June 24, 2015, 05:05:33 am
The power driver on my laptop has hit it's last straw. After nearly three years, I believe it is time to replace the wiggly bastard.Depends on the brand, you can buy from manufacturer for expensive replacement or on ebay for cheap chinese knockoffs. I took the ebay route and I swear that power brick can toast my hot pockets if i had a second one. Can you find a model number on the brick?
Any suggestions on going about this?
Well, first I should should state that I was wrong. It's the Power Jack that is having issues. Whoops! Anyways, I own an HP Probook 4530s. There are replacement jacks available on Amazon for about 13-14$, so if I do that route I shouldn't be set back too far.
Post by: Tellemurius on June 24, 2015, 10:07:39 am
Ah. The good news at least is the power jacks for this HP model are stupid easy to replace. You will need to disassemble the bottom part of the laptop to get access to the power jack so there is going to be alot of screws. Manuals are available for this model. All you will need to do is unplug the old jack from its powerboard and plug in the new one. I remember back in the day when HP actually kept the power circuit and the jack separate from the motherboard so incase it gets fragged from power surge or busted you can easily replace it.The power driver on my laptop has hit it's last straw. After nearly three years, I believe it is time to replace the wiggly bastard.Depends on the brand, you can buy from manufacturer for expensive replacement or on ebay for cheap chinese knockoffs. I took the ebay route and I swear that power brick can toast my hot pockets if i had a second one. Can you find a model number on the brick?
Any suggestions on going about this?
Well, first I should should state that I was wrong. It's the Power Jack that is having issues. Whoops! Anyways, I own an HP Probook 4530s. There are replacement jacks available on Amazon for about 13-14$, so if I do that route I shouldn't be set back too far.
Post by: wierd on June 28, 2015, 01:38:42 am
NAT has a fundamental restriction on the number of sockets that can be open to an obfuscated IP.
That number is 65535 sockets.
[...]TCP[...]
Actually, that's not entirely true. TCP (and by extension NAT of TCP) is limited to 65535 sockets per source ip per destination ip per destination port, not 65536 total. For NAT with only one public IP, and assuming you're connecting to a fixed destination port (e.g. 80 for a web server) that limits you to 65535 sockets for each remote IP, which is normally plenty. Torrent clients normally only open 1 connection to each other user, so 50 torrent users would only use a tiny fraction of NAT's capability.
For TCP it's the size of the router's NAT table that limits you, not NAT inherently.
UDP (with an "open" NAT) is another story, as that allows replies from other IPs. That is inherently limited to 65535 connections only, but it's also possible to intentionally reuse the same port for communicating with multiple other PCs, so it's not a hard limit.
That said, the solution is definitely IPv6 with a border firewall replacing the NAT.
This is true, but also misleading. The NAT device is going to be accepting network traffic on well known ports, not "all 65535 possible ports". That means that it is going to be managing a NAT table of say, Port 80 (HTTP) connections, in addition to say, port 443 (HTTPS). Torrent clients use port randomization, but they use ports that are within a certain range, favoring the 50000 to 60000 range. Granted, thats a 10,000 port range, each with up to 65535 possible max connections allowable by TCP NAT, (for over 6 million possible concurrent connections over the NAT in theory) You are still going to run into limits for HTTP, HTTPS, and other well known ports much sooner, with the 65k limit imposed on the ports in question.
If you are managing a large obfuscated network, (such as a corporate LAN), then HTTP/HTTPS traffic through the NAT can potentially become a problem.
I consider NAT to be a bandaid over the "not enough IP addresses in IPv4" problem, and nothing more.
Post by: birdy51 on June 28, 2015, 06:40:55 am
Ah. The good news at least is the power jacks for this HP model are stupid easy to replace. You will need to disassemble the bottom part of the laptop to get access to the power jack so there is going to be alot of screws. Manuals are available for this model. All you will need to do is unplug the old jack from its powerboard and plug in the new one. I remember back in the day when HP actually kept the power circuit and the jack separate from the motherboard so incase it gets fragged from power surge or busted you can easily replace it.
Sehr gutt! I've got a part ordered, so I'll let you guys know how it works out in a few days or so. Thanks!
Post by: Thief^ on June 29, 2015, 01:45:28 am
I was also speaking about outgoing connections (primarily) before. For incoming connections, the destination ip and port are fixed (the NAT device itself), but every connection comes from a different source ip, so there's still 16384 ports per remote IP.
For TCP anyway. As said before, for UDP (assuming an open NAT) the remote IP can't be used to disambiguate, which would limit you to far fewer. This is of course why corporate NATs are "closed" type, which allows using the remote IP to disambiguate and doesn't limit you to ~16k total UDP sessions. Of course that breaks a lot of things that rely on "open" behaviour.
I also agree that NAT is a load of crap, ISPs can't roll out IPv6 fast enough for me!
Post by: Baffler on July 03, 2015, 03:26:43 pm
Post by: wierd on July 03, 2015, 06:05:03 pm
You can easily test this with some conspirators.
If you suspect that outbound TCP and UDP data for non-http sessions are being blocked (which would make playing online games impossible unless they used an HTTP proxy), then make use of an HTTP tunneling proxy. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_tunnel)
You can find publicly accessible ones with google. Setting up a suitable tunnel interface can be tricky, but can be done. If you can send the data over the http tunnel, but not directly, that means that your packets are being filtered based on their protocol type, which is a clear FCC violation.
If you dont live in the US, sucks to be you then.
Post by: gimlet on July 03, 2015, 06:05:33 pm
That's about all anybody can tell you - for more specific help you will need to provide at least the router/modem model + the name of the game.
Post by: Baffler on July 03, 2015, 06:19:19 pm
How do you connect to the internet? You *probably* have a router/modem that you plug the PC into, and that's what connects to the internet. *Most* online games need some port forwarding to be done on that router/modem. Google for "port forwarding for NAMEOFGAME", if you're lucky they willl have instructions that cover your model of router/modem. Be prepared to look at the label on the router/modem to figure out which exact model you have, and google for instructions for "port forwarding for ROUTERMODEL".
That's about all anybody can tell you - for more specific help you will need to provide at least the router/modem model + the name of the game.
This worked, it seems that I can direct connect but it still doesn't generate a list. Good thing I already had a server picked out, I guess. Thanks.
Post by: wierd on July 03, 2015, 07:01:33 pm
NAT is what we were discussing previously. (Thief and myself.) You just got bitten by the need for a persistently stateful connection. That's what port forwarding enables.
I foolishly thought you had already eliminated this possibility when you said it wasn't a firewall on your end. Foolish me.
Another thing you might be able to do, is set up a DMZ. (Demilitarized Zone. Seriously. that's what it is called.) That's a network or device that is NOT behind the NAT, and can be directly seen by both the private network and the public network. It might be necessary for your game server to live in one.
Post by: Bauglir on July 09, 2015, 08:00:17 pm
Anybody know how to disable this
EDIT: There doesn't seem to be a relevant thing under the AutoCorrect Options menu
Post by: wierd on July 09, 2015, 11:35:12 pm
Post by: ShoesandHats on July 10, 2015, 04:37:12 am
EDIT: Nevermind, ol' Betsy just need some time, I guess.
Post by: Bohandas on July 11, 2015, 03:04:50 pm
Post by: Arx on July 11, 2015, 03:15:12 pm
Post by: Aklyon on July 11, 2015, 03:55:17 pm
does anyone know if there's a way to change the download directory in Firefox Mobile/Pale Moon Mobile? Or if it can't be done, can you recommend an Android browser where it can?Can you not just move it afterwards?
Post by: Reelya on July 11, 2015, 04:25:10 pm
does anyone know if there's a way to change the download directory in Firefox Mobile/Pale Moon Mobile? Or if it can't be done, can you reccommend an Android browser where it can?
about:config gets access to all the command settings in Firefox, also works on mobile Firefox.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1028808
Post by: Bohandas on July 12, 2015, 12:19:00 am
does anyone know if there's a way to change the download directory in Firefox Mobile/Pale Moon Mobile? Or if it can't be done, can you reccommend an Android browser where it can?
about:config gets access to all the command settings in Firefox, also works on mobile Firefox.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1028808
thanks!
Post by: redwallzyl on July 12, 2015, 09:27:22 am
Post by: i2amroy on July 12, 2015, 01:41:56 pm
Post by: Bauglir on July 13, 2015, 02:35:18 pm
You are basically making a bulleted list. Just instead of a bullet, you are using a hyphen. Not sure how to tell OpenOffice that you want to make a bulleted list with hyphens as the bullets, but that's what you are trying to make it do.Yeah, pretty much. I suppose it might be easier to just use bullets, but I prefer to do formatting like this manually when I can. Possibly I am a crazy person. Thanks anyway!
Post by: i2amroy on July 13, 2015, 05:46:17 pm
FYI lots of times there's a "bullet type" option in the lists menu that lets you manually decide what type of character you want to designate each particular indentation level.You are basically making a bulleted list. Just instead of a bullet, you are using a hyphen. Not sure how to tell OpenOffice that you want to make a bulleted list with hyphens as the bullets, but that's what you are trying to make it do.Yeah, pretty much. I suppose it might be easier to just use bullets, but I prefer to do formatting like this manually when I can. Possibly I am a crazy person. Thanks anyway!
Post by: Bohandas on July 13, 2015, 06:16:38 pm
does anyone know if there's a way to change the download directory in Firefox Mobile/Pale Moon Mobile? Or if it can't be done, can you recommend an Android browser where it can?Can you not just move it afterwards?
To do that I'd have to manually sort what things goes in what folder after the fact.
Post by: gimlet on July 13, 2015, 07:44:38 pm
Post by: Bohandas on July 13, 2015, 08:21:23 pm
You're kinda gonna want to do that anyway or you end up with Download dirs like I have on the PC with 3500 files :p If you don't keep up as it goes, going back to cleanup now is scary. And I DO have 52 directories under it that I *did* halfheartedly sort into, it could have been that much worse :o
And that's precisely why I need to put them into the right folder as I download them
Post by: Antsan on July 16, 2015, 07:08:15 am
After login while autostarting programs, the whole x-server freezes. I cannot move the mouse anymore or use the keyboard, preventing me from switching to the terminals.
Claws Mail is started just fine before the freeze happens.
I have no idea where to start troubleshooting with this.
I tried removing Clipman (I saw that at the bottom of… I don't know, the x-session log file in my home folder?) and that didn't help and I suspected BOINC of doing something strange, but removing that didn't do anything either.
Any hints where I can look for some information of what might be causing this?
Post by: SirQuiamus on July 16, 2015, 08:13:24 am
My favourite workaround for now is to use mc instead of Thunar, and of course I'll be switching to another Ubuntu flavour when the next LTS arrives.
Post by: Reelya on July 17, 2015, 06:39:54 am
Does anyone have any suggestions for a general video player for android. Something fast, but without visible artifacts / tearing. I can't find any players that are doing the trick. Most of what I want to play are mkv's encoded with h264, sometimes hi10p color.
Post by: Aklyon on July 17, 2015, 07:16:44 am
Post by: Reelya on July 17, 2015, 07:18:01 am
Post by: Sensei on July 19, 2015, 01:38:49 pm
Post by: Thief^ on July 19, 2015, 01:48:22 pm
Edit: The Logitech F710 gamepad is generic "wireless" so it won't work. I'd bet the same is true of your keyboard/mouse set.
Post by: Tellemurius on July 20, 2015, 10:46:11 am
Post by: Sappho on July 20, 2015, 01:47:11 pm
My internet is not fast. It tops out around 300 kb/s download speed. But I have never had a problem like this with other sites. Web pages load just fine, even ones with lots of scripts and flash and whatnot. It's only Facebook that gives me this bullshit. Half the time it won't even connect at all, just gives me an error message saying the site is unreachable.
I've checked with a few local friends and they all say they have zero problems with Facebook, so it's just me. I tried accessing it at work and it was just fine. It's only at home that I have this problem.
I'm so frustrated I'm ready to check something across the room. Does anyone have any idea why this would be happening and what I might be able to do to fix it? I wish I could just stop using Facebook entirely, but for now, that's not an option. Thanks, guys.
Post by: Sensei on July 20, 2015, 01:53:21 pm
If its a logitech you are screwed, their receivers don't connect any other device and they don't make spares either. They will just recommend you buying another controller. Go cheap instead and get a 360 controller with the wireless receiver.Yeah, that's what I've done (buying a 360 receiver was a no brainer since I already own 360 controllers, and it works great!) I was just hoping to salvage my F710- the receiver for that is absolute trash, you get a half second input delay if your knees are between the controller and the receiver. And then later it broke. I'd have to say the control pad itself was very nice though, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a wired F510.
The wireless KBAM does also appear to be "wireless" rather than bluetooth. Alas, lost dongle!
Post by: Tellemurius on July 20, 2015, 01:56:08 pm
Technically its operating on radio frequency than bluetooth. Their keyboard and mouses uses a Unified receiver which can let you use multiple devices but its not compatible with their controllers. Really stupid but Logitech has pretty much dropped the controller market long ago. Even their steering wheels aren't that big anymore since you you can get new ones with feedback and such.If its a logitech you are screwed, their receivers don't connect any other device and they don't make spares either. They will just recommend you buying another controller. Go cheap instead and get a 360 controller with the wireless receiver.Yeah, that's what I've done (buying a 360 receiver was a no brainer since I already own 360 controllers, and it works great!) I was just hoping to salvage my F710- the receiver for that is absolute trash, you get a half second input delay if your knees are between the controller and the receiver. And then later it broke. I'd have to say the control pad itself was very nice though, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a wired F510.
The wireless KBAM does also appear to be "wireless" rather than bluetooth. Alas, lost dongle!
Post by: Bohandas on July 22, 2015, 04:05:32 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on July 22, 2015, 04:32:25 pm
What's the safest way to root a Droid <axx running Android 4.4.4? and will it adversely affect my ability to use my phone as a phone or access my carrier's 4g network?I need a carrier and phone model. Rooting gives you admin rights to edit system files that are normally locked out for a person including drivers and hex settings. Technically its a security risk but as long as you have SuperSU updated you will get a prompt when an app needs admin access. Rooting will not effect your network connection unless you are changing the chipset drivers but this will void your warranty if you ever need to send it back for repairs (abetted some models this can be reversed).
Post by: Bohandas on July 22, 2015, 04:41:18 pm
What's the safest way to root a Droid <axx running Android 4.4.4? and will it adversely affect my ability to use my phone as a phone or access my carrier's 4g network?I need a carrier and phone model. Rooting gives you admin rights to edit system files that are normally locked out for a person including drivers and hex settings. Technically its a security risk but as long as you have SuperSU updated you will get a prompt when an app needs admin access. Rooting will not effect your network connection unless you are changing the chipset drivers but this will void your warranty if you ever need to send it back for repairs (abetted some models this can be reversed).
Droid Maxx on the Verizon network
Post by: Tellemurius on July 22, 2015, 06:02:51 pm
Apparently you are screwed at the moment http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2613548 (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2613548)What's the safest way to root a Droid <axx running Android 4.4.4? and will it adversely affect my ability to use my phone as a phone or access my carrier's 4g network?I need a carrier and phone model. Rooting gives you admin rights to edit system files that are normally locked out for a person including drivers and hex settings. Technically its a security risk but as long as you have SuperSU updated you will get a prompt when an app needs admin access. Rooting will not effect your network connection unless you are changing the chipset drivers but this will void your warranty if you ever need to send it back for repairs (abetted some models this can be reversed).
Droid Maxx on the Verizon network
Current root methods have a high chance of bricking so they are looking for a safer version.
Post by: Bohandas on July 22, 2015, 10:42:41 pm
Apparently you are screwed at the moment http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2613548 (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2613548)What's the safest way to root a Droid <axx running Android 4.4.4? and will it adversely affect my ability to use my phone as a phone or access my carrier's 4g network?I need a carrier and phone model. Rooting gives you admin rights to edit system files that are normally locked out for a person including drivers and hex settings. Technically its a security risk but as long as you have SuperSU updated you will get a prompt when an app needs admin access. Rooting will not effect your network connection unless you are changing the chipset drivers but this will void your warranty if you ever need to send it back for repairs (abetted some models this can be reversed).
Droid Maxx on the Verizon network
Current root methods have a high chance of bricking so they are looking for a safer version.
Shit!
How long have they been looking?
Post by: Bohandas on July 22, 2015, 10:45:29 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on July 23, 2015, 09:22:06 am
What we really need is legislation to force the phone companies to sell the phones pre-rooted, but it'll never happen because congress loves bribes and for some unexplainable reason some of them even seem to be genuinely pro-businessForce Pre-rooting? No company would want that, its a large security breach that isn't exploited much due to the fact very few Android users go to this route. Granted, some phones like the Google Nexus and the HTC One M8 can be freely rooted and unlocked, Google doesn't care as all their phones are meant to be open and for HTC I just need to sign up as a developer. But if you really want full access to phones without the warranty issues basically you need to search for a Developer Edition. Costs a pretty penny and usually its only sold on the manufacturer's website but it is an option available to consumers that are power users.
That being said, Motorola, Samsung, and Verizon are the largest pusher for anti-unlocking phones. They believe the OS is at best and have large control over them. Verizon pulls a ton of metrics from your phone and isn't happy when that is cut off (extremely anal on control over devices). Motorola makes their bootloaders insanely hard to crack and most end up having to basically make a dual boot which doesn't even give you full system access. Samsung have their metrics too as they dump insane amounts of ad apps on the device. You will get what's called a Triangle warning on galaxy phones which is a flag Samsung uses to void your warranty. Easy to reset but very annoying.
For the Droid Maxx situation its been going on over a year since that 4.4 update was released. Much of the Bootloader exploits were written over to read-only stages so we cannot inject code anymore. There is a developer edition of the phone but Motorola pulled it long ago from the market due to Verizon's pressure.
Post by: Rose on July 23, 2015, 09:24:51 am
Post by: Tellemurius on July 23, 2015, 09:30:38 am
Meanwhile Sony will unlock the bootloader for you, but it still voids the warranty.You can always relock your phone if its ever needed for service, its stupid easy if you think about it cause you don't even need an unlock code just
Code: [Select]
fastboot oem lockMost manufacturers will look at that and be ok with it, uploading the stock recovery usually needs to be done.
Post by: Rose on July 23, 2015, 09:44:25 am
Post by: Bohandas on July 25, 2015, 12:05:45 am
What we really need is legislation to force the phone companies to sell the phones pre-rooted, but it'll never happen because congress loves bribes and for some unexplainable reason some of them even seem to be genuinely pro-businessForce Pre-rooting? No company would want that,
That's why there needs to be legislation. To force them to. I don't give a fuck what businesses want. (Actually, strike that. If there's something I'm otherwise ambivalent about and I find out that businesses want it, that'll be sufficient to make me oppose it.)
Post by: Tellemurius on July 25, 2015, 12:19:30 am
Inb4 lawsuits due to lack of security :PWhat we really need is legislation to force the phone companies to sell the phones pre-rooted, but it'll never happen because congress loves bribes and for some unexplainable reason some of them even seem to be genuinely pro-businessForce Pre-rooting? No company would want that,
That's why there needs to be legislation. To force them to. I don't give a fuck what businesses want. (Actually, strike that. If there's something I'm otherwise ambivalent about and I find out that businesses want it, that'll be sufficient to make me oppose it.)
The average phone user does not need to root their device and for those that do need it will do it. Its a security risk and frankly I don't mind the current situation, companies provide developer editions for those that need rooting so you can't nail them for refusal due to the fact you bought the wrong device.
Post by: Bohandas on July 25, 2015, 01:02:23 am
Inb4 lawsuits due to lack of security :PWhat we really need is legislation to force the phone companies to sell the phones pre-rooted, but it'll never happen because congress loves bribes and for some unexplainable reason some of them even seem to be genuinely pro-businessForce Pre-rooting? No company would want that,
That's why there needs to be legislation. To force them to. I don't give a fuck what businesses want. (Actually, strike that. If there's something I'm otherwise ambivalent about and I find out that businesses want it, that'll be sufficient to make me oppose it.)
The average phone user does not need to root their device and for those that do need it will do it. Its a security risk and frankly I don't mind the current situation, companies provide developer editions for those that need rooting so you can't nail them for refusal due to the fact you bought the wrong device.
Developer editions are a problem too. They shouldn't be allowed to charge you extra just for a product that isn't deliberately defective.
(As for security lawsuits, they could - and SHOULD - just add a few indemnification clauses to the cellphone contract saying that security is not in any way their responsibility)
EDIT:
I'd also like to see Google Play and the Apple App Store, and any other app store run by a mobile OS developer, a mobile hardware developer, or a cell phone company comepletely done away with.
Meanwhile Sony will unlock the bootloader for you, but it still voids the warranty.
Do they charge for that? If they charge for it it's still completely unacceptable!
What we really need is legislation to force the phone companies to sell the phones pre-rooted, but it'll never happen because congress loves bribes and for some unexplainable reason some of them even seem to be genuinely pro-businessForce Pre-rooting? No company would want that, its a large security breach that isn't exploited much due to the fact very few Android users go to this route. Granted, some phones like the Google Nexus and the HTC One M8 can be freely rooted and unlocked, Google doesn't care as all their phones are meant to be open and for HTC I just need to sign up as a developer. But if you really want full access to phones without the warranty issues basically you need to search for a Developer Edition. Costs a pretty penny and usually its only sold on the manufacturer's website but it is an option available to consumers that are power users.
What if I don't care about warranty issues in the slightest (or security issues)? Does that make a difference?
Post by: Rose on July 25, 2015, 02:08:16 am
Post by: Graknorke on July 25, 2015, 04:16:05 am
Post by: Cheesecake on July 25, 2015, 04:46:07 am
I have Windows 8. I don't know how to make it go away. It was activated when I bought my laptop, (but it got damaged and had to be repaired, so maybe they changed something?) Thanks for the help!
Post by: Rose on July 25, 2015, 04:55:24 am
Post by: Cheesecake on July 25, 2015, 05:14:37 am
Post by: Rose on July 25, 2015, 05:42:01 am
Post by: Graknorke on July 25, 2015, 05:56:18 am
If that doesn't work and you don't want to shell out for another copy of Windows, you could try a free UNIX/Linux based OS and see if that does what you need it to. It's not like you'd be locked in, and there's a chance it could save you £80.
Post by: Cheesecake on July 25, 2015, 06:01:14 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 25, 2015, 06:47:02 am
In general, should it be necessary to remove anything from the case in order to replace a graphics card?
That depends on what you mean. Are you asking if it should be necessary to permanently remove something? If so, this is rare, and if you do have to remove something (other than the old graphics card, obviously) you're probably putting in more card than you're capable of cooling anyway.
If you're asking if you have to take something out temporarily, this is more common - many cases have fancy methods of holding their expansion cards in, and it is also often necessary to take out cables and reroute them.
Post by: Graknorke on July 25, 2015, 06:57:40 am
If you're asking if you have to take something out temporarily, this is more common - many cases have fancy methods of holding their expansion cards in, and it is also often necessary to take out cables and reroute them.Alright, cheers. I'll hold off finishing the cable routing then, since cable management is not at all an activity that I enjoy.
Post by: i2amroy on July 25, 2015, 12:47:27 pm
1) Unplug the computer totally.
2) Press and hold the power button for a handful of seconds, like you were trying to start the computer.
This discharges (most) any residual electricity in the machine and makes you much less likely to accidentally brick your computer. It's not quite as important when just swapping out expansion cards like RAM or Graphics cards, but it's still a very good habit to get into. For things like laptops you're going to generally want to disconnect the battery completely before you start swapping parts out, since it will provide power to parts of the machine even while it's turned off.
Post by: Tellemurius on July 25, 2015, 12:52:26 pm
Just a note, but before you start swapping any of the internal guts of a computer here's what you should do:While unplugging is a good thing to do, motherboards nowadays operate at such a low voltage there's hardly any residual electricity after shutdown. Your common problems are still either a powered psu or static shocks. Just keep a hand on the case and make sure you are using anti-static mats.
1) Unplug the computer totally.
2) Press and hold the power button for a handful of seconds, like you were trying to start the computer.
This discharges (most) any residual electricity in the machine and makes you much less likely to accidentally brick your computer. It's not quite as important when just swapping out expansion cards like RAM or Graphics cards, but it's still a very good habit to get into. For things like laptops you're going to generally want to disconnect the battery completely before you start swapping parts out, since it will provide power to parts of the machine even while it's turned off.
Post by: Sensei on July 25, 2015, 05:02:15 pm
Post by: gimlet on July 25, 2015, 06:33:15 pm
Post by: Rose on July 26, 2015, 12:07:47 am
Post by: Sensei on July 26, 2015, 12:57:18 am
Post by: Thief^ on July 26, 2015, 02:37:12 am
Edit: nVidia themselves say the 970 is a 145W part (they don't use the term TDP, they say "graphics card power"). Based on the power connector limits, it can't draw more than 225W (both the PCIe socket itself and the 6 pin connectors are rated at 75W, and it has two 6-pins).
A decent PSU will handle transient spikes outside its rating, so don't worry about that.
Post by: Sensei on July 26, 2015, 05:30:40 am
Their power usage graph is for the whole system, measured outside the PSU. That CPU you picked out is only a <100W part, if it was peaking to 300W on its own something would fry.Ooookay, that's good to know.
Quote
Edit: nVidia themselves say the 970 is a 145W part (they don't use the term TDP, they say "graphics card power"). Based on the power connector limits, it can't draw more than 225W (both the PCIe socket itself and the 6 pin connectors are rated at 75W, and it has two 6-pins).Heh, the one I got has a huge cooler, with one six-pin and one eight-pin. ;) But yeah, it looks like I don't need to worry about power much.
Post by: Bohandas on July 26, 2015, 09:54:03 pm
I could always just close the account and get another one elsewhere, but then I would have to go through and change my contact info with everyone I know and every service I use and I'm sure that I would overlook something during that process. I could also try to contact the college to get the password changed, but that might result in the account being closed instead (unless maybe I can find some kind of short cheap one-shot course that I could take there to justify extending the time I get to stay on the account for). I could also, additionally leave a message in the saved drafts box with the header "Иди к черту, говнюк" and the contents "Отвали, мудак" (google's russian translations of the phrases "go to hell shithead" and "fuck off asshole", respectively) for them to find, but that might be a bad idea if they saved copies of any of the things that were in my sent items folder (which I've since cleared) that had personally identifying information in them.
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 27, 2015, 07:18:56 am
I think my email account may have been hacked. I recently got a bunch of "Undelivered Mail Returned To Sender" messages for emails that I'm sure I didn't send (for one thing, they're in Russian). I'd change my password but it's my old email from college and because I graduated over two years ago their website won't let me log into the account management utility anymore (I'm pretty sure the fact that the account is still up at all is an oversight).
I could always just close the account and get another one elsewhere, but then I would have to go through and change my contact info with everyone I know and every service I use and I'm sure that I would overlook something during that process. I could also try to contact the college to get the password changed, but that might result in the account being closed instead (unless maybe I can find some kind of short cheap one-shot course that I could take there to justify extending the time I get to stay on the account for). I could also, additionally leave a message in the saved drafts box with the header "Иди к черту, говнюк" and the contents "Отвали, мудак" (google's russian translations of the phrases "go to hell shithead" and "fuck off asshole", respectively) for them to find, but that might be a bad idea if they saved copies of any of the things that were in my sent items folder (which I've since cleared) that had personally identifying information in them.
Close it. Even if you managed to get control of it back, it will likely appear on a lot of blacklists and cause you more headaches down the road.
Post by: Thief^ on July 27, 2015, 11:02:40 am
Sometimes spammers actually bounce emails intentionally because some spam filters ignore bounce emails (even though it wasn't really you that sent the message!).
Post by: Sinistar on July 27, 2015, 12:29:12 pm
Post by: crazysheep on July 28, 2015, 06:51:49 am
So far I've only managed to find a temporary fix for this problem, which is to reset TCP/IP using netsh commands (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/299357), but I'm wondering if there's a more permanent fix to the problem short of evicting the housemates from the network.
Post by: Tellemurius on July 28, 2015, 09:23:56 am
Since my new housemates moved in, I've been running into a weird issue where my LAN connection mysteriously drops out and is unable to reconnect to the home network. The little network icon on the taskbar goes from "connecting" -> "identifying network" -> "no network connection" -> "connecting", and then loops forever until I do something about it.They might be overloading your router due to the increase of bandwidth usage. What is your router brand and model.
So far I've only managed to find a temporary fix for this problem, which is to reset TCP/IP using netsh commands (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/299357), but I'm wondering if there's a more permanent fix to the problem short of evicting the housemates from the network.
Post by: crazysheep on July 28, 2015, 09:40:37 am
Post by: Tellemurius on July 28, 2015, 09:56:21 am
We're using a TP-Link TD-W8960N router. Bandwidth usage is being controlled with a rules list atm.Its a DSL modem and the model is about 5 years old now. TP-Link I found have been hit and miss, my buddy has one of their newer routers and we can barely get any range off of them for the wifi, to put for an example my small ASUS AP unit outputs a farther range for half the size. Looking at your model reviews people some have complained that it runs hot and have to reboot it for better speeds.
I would recommend a replacement unit, if you got this from your ISP request a warranty. Otherwise I would look into getting a modem and a router. Two units are better as they are less likely to get hot from the combination plus its alot easier to diagnose issues.
Post by: Sonlirain on July 28, 2015, 10:36:57 am
However i have little to no programming/coding knowledge and exacly 0 experience in game making (what a suprise).
I will probably use Unity because hey it's free and rather powerful but... can someone (preferably with some experience but anyones opinion is welcome) give me an idea what to do after i wrote down the "design document"?
Like what programing language i should pick up ETC. because i feel completely lost.
Post by: Aklyon on July 28, 2015, 10:40:36 am
Post by: Rose on July 28, 2015, 10:43:59 am
As for what to do with your design document, start by breaking it up into very small pieces that you can work on getting working independently.
Like, if it's a racer, start with getting a working car that you can drive around, even if it looks like a box.
Post by: crazysheep on July 28, 2015, 10:45:41 am
I would recommend a replacement unit, if you got this from your ISP request a warranty. Otherwise I would look into getting a modem and a router. Two units are better as they are less likely to get hot from the combination plus its alot easier to diagnose issues.Thanks, I'll let my landlord know and see what we can do about it.
Post by: Thief^ on July 28, 2015, 11:03:08 am
Post by: Sonlirain on July 28, 2015, 11:33:12 am
Post by: miauw62 on July 29, 2015, 01:27:30 pm
I'm looking for a cheap, decent graphics card so we can play vidya together, any recommendations?
Post by: Tellemurius on July 29, 2015, 01:33:03 pm
One of my friends has a computer that was refurbished from a server, with as a consequence that he has no graphics card, and is forced to use software rendering.AMD and Nvidia both dumped their cheap cards so if you need to play gaems I recommend bottom level $70<
I'm looking for a cheap, decent graphics card so we can play vidya together, any recommendations?
Post by: Thief^ on July 29, 2015, 02:43:32 pm
Post by: Aklyon on July 30, 2015, 11:17:17 am
Teamspeak will still recognize the shortcut via shift+alt+grave or shift+ctrl+grave, and pale moon will change tab groups on shift+ctrl+grave (which I didn't know was a command, actually), and it worked in the search bar of the start menu when I tested it right after restarting, now it does not. Yesterday shift+alt+grave worked to produce the character, now it does not. It worked fine previously until now, and it worked without a problem when I tried using it on a second account. Is there something very specific broken in my windows user profile, or is my keyboard just really old?
Post by: flabort on July 31, 2015, 12:01:38 am
I should either be asleep or getting ready for my trip right now. And that reminds me I have to shut my computer down now. Arg, but at least booting up isn't a pain like it used to be 5 years ago. :P
Post by: Bohandas on July 31, 2015, 07:06:00 pm
Post by: Bohandas on July 31, 2015, 08:36:30 pm
EDIT:
I downloaded something called "Open Hardware Monitor" and it says that my CPU is running around 60 degrees celcius/140something farenheit. That's kind of high, right?
Post by: Rose on July 31, 2015, 10:54:16 pm
I just realized that my computer is displaying the sizes of files and drives incorrectly. It claims to list the sizes in gigabytes (the unit "GB" is displayed), but the actual numbers displayed are actually in Gibibytes ("GiB". An abortion of science based on multiples of 1024). Is there any way to get it to correctly count gigabytes and megabytes (I don't want to change the displayed symbol, I want it to count things correctly in units of exactly one billion bytes)?
Any time gigabytes are used in computing, it's /always/ based on multiples of 1024.
Post by: Bohandas on July 31, 2015, 11:24:30 pm
I just realized that my computer is displaying the sizes of files and drives incorrectly. It claims to list the sizes in gigabytes (the unit "GB" is displayed), but the actual numbers displayed are actually in Gibibytes ("GiB". An abortion of science based on multiples of 1024). Is there any way to get it to correctly count gigabytes and megabytes (I don't want to change the displayed symbol, I want it to count things correctly in units of exactly one billion bytes)?
Any time gigabytes are used in computing, it's /always/ based on multiples of 1024.
No it's not. It's inconsistent. For example, The flash drives in question are labeled (on their casings and packaging) correctly as "64 gigabyte", but Windows displays them as the lower number based on powers of 1024. Furthermore, it is an incorrect usage regardless of induatry standards because "giga-" means one billion; if the industry standard is to use it to mean something else that just proves that whoever set the standards were illiterate morons. And there should be legislation to force them to change the standard. Either way, is here some kind of setting or registry hack or cracked .dll or something that I can use to fix it?
EDIT:
Also I heard that Mac and Ubuntu had switched over to writing things properly, instead of like a bunch of backwoods rednecks who don't know how SI prefixes work
Post by: Aklyon on July 31, 2015, 11:39:54 pm
Also its not exactly wrong, glancing at the wikipedia chart of the two. It is 1024 to the billions place, and this is probably why windows has both 'size' and 'size on disk' in file/folder properties windows.
Post by: Bohandas on July 31, 2015, 11:52:08 pm
As far as I can tell, they have two systems because its easier to explain (to people who use metric) what a gigabyte is than explain why computers read in set of 1024 and why it uses a different word. Part of metric really liking its similar prefixes for things.It's still objectively the wrong prefix. Also, regardless of any technical reason they may have for doing everything in powers of two (which I don't understand; I know that computers use binary logic, but I also know that you can repressnt any number in base 2, not just straight powers of two, just like regular numbers aren't required to all be even powers of ten) the quantity in multiples of 1024 is worthless to the end user and therefore should not appear in the finished interface.
Also its not exactly wrong, glancing at the wikipedia chart of the two. It is 1024 to the billions place, and this is probably why windows has both 'size' and 'size on disk' in file/folder properties windows.
Post by: Thief^ on August 01, 2015, 01:09:54 am
There's more to it with the disk thing...
Disks are normally built as a multiple of a power of 2 for ease of construction reasons, especially flash. Some of the disk is reserved for write cache and bad sector replacement among other things. But disk makers like to use base 1000 because it means they can advertise the disk as larger than it really is without being legally lying. They then put a disclaimer on that you won't get the full advertised capacity due to overhead... So the disk might be 64 GB (base 1024), but have enough reserved that only 59.6 GB (base 1024) is usable, but still be allowed to advertise it as "64 GB". No two "64 GB" disks from different manufacturers will have the same number of bytes...
FYI I've seen several hard disks that used 1 GB = 1,000,000 kB, 1 kB = 1024 bytes. Haha :(
At least RAM is honest, you always get exactly the power if 2 you paid for.
Post by: da_nang on August 01, 2015, 03:12:45 am
I'm using a Cooler Master HAF 912+ case (Case Specs (http://www.coolermaster.com/case/mid-tower/haf-912-plus/)). I'm on a low budget, but I hear case fans shouldn't be too expensive.
I'm specifically looking for a 120 mm fan. Currently, I'm looking at getting either Arctic F12 PRO PWM (specs (http://multitronic.fi/showprod.php?prod_id=AFACO-12PP0-GBA01&b=1)) or Arctic F12 TC (specs (http://multitronic.fi/showprod.php?prod_id=AFACO-120T0-GBA01&b=1)). I'm using a ASUS M5A97 motherboard, so PWM fans are compatible, yes?
Which one would be a better choice? Are there better alternatives? Anything I should look out for when buying rear case fans?
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 01, 2015, 07:36:24 am
I just realized that my computer is displaying the sizes of files and drives incorrectly. It claims to list the sizes in gigabytes (the unit "GB" is displayed), but the actual numbers displayed are actually in Gibibytes ("GiB". An abortion of science based on multiples of 1024). Is there any way to get it to correctly count gigabytes and megabytes (I don't want to change the displayed symbol, I want it to count things correctly in units of exactly one billion bytes)?
Any time gigabytes are used in computing, it's /always/ based on multiples of 1024.
No it's not. It's inconsistent. For example, The flash drives in question are labeled (on their casings and packaging) correctly as "64 gigabyte", but Windows displays them as the lower number based on powers of 1024. Furthermore, it is an incorrect usage regardless of induatry standards because "giga-" means one billion; if the industry standard is to use it to mean something else that just proves that whoever set the standards were illiterate morons. And there should be legislation to force them to change the standard. Either way, is here some kind of setting or registry hack or cracked .dll or something that I can use to fix it?
EDIT:
Also I heard that Mac and Ubuntu had switched over to writing things properly, instead of like a bunch of backwoods rednecks who don't know how SI prefixes work
The term gibibyte (and all other "binary" prefixes) did not even exist until 1998, and was not adopted as a standard by ANYONE until 2009. Prior to that date, every standards body on the planet Earth including SI (the body that regulates the metric system) defined a Gigabyte as 1073741824 bytes, and the creation of the "binary prefixes" resulted from a successful lawsuit against hard drive makers for cheating their customers by falsely claiming that 1000000000 byte hard drives were "1 Gigabyte", meaning that 1073741824 bytes was the legal definition as well.
Post by: Thief^ on August 01, 2015, 12:04:11 pm
Quote
Prior to that date, [...] SI (the body that regulates the metric system) defined a Gigabyte as 1073741824 bytesThis isn't true. Prior to that date, SI didn't define any units or prefixes for digital information, including gigabyte.
Post by: gimlet on August 01, 2015, 12:14:46 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 01, 2015, 12:15:37 pm
QuotePrior to that date, [...] SI (the body that regulates the metric system) defined a Gigabyte as 1073741824 bytesThis isn't true. Prior to that date, SI didn't define any units or prefixes for digital information, including gigabyte.
Didn't it? My school textbooks must have included some inaccurate information, not that that would have been unheard of.
Post by: Gentlefish on August 01, 2015, 05:22:56 pm
Just because we use base-10 in all other areas of our like, a kilobyte being 1024 bytes is as accurate as a kilometer being 1000 meters. It's a difference of base.
Post by: Bohandas on August 01, 2015, 10:24:02 pm
Copmuters are base-2, not base-10. Hence the number discrepancies. In a base-2 system, a kilobyte is really and truly 1024 bytes.
No. In a base-2 system a kilobyte is 1111101000 bytes.
QuotePrior to that date, [...] SI (the body that regulates the metric system) defined a Gigabyte as 1073741824 bytesThis isn't true. Prior to that date, SI didn't define any units or prefixes for digital information, including gigabyte.
It didn't define any units for digital informati9n. SI's prefixes are always the same and do not need to be seperately defined for each unit.
Post by: PyroDesu on August 02, 2015, 05:15:07 am
But now, I decided to update my laptop from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, because my family (who I provided an install disk for) have been having pretty much no problems with 10 (and some benefits) (and 8.1 sucks beyond belief).
I now regret this - my network bridge is continually dropping the default gateway, somehow. Every few minutes, the connection dies and when I run the diagnostic on it, it tells me the default gateway is not available, fixes it, and then it dies again a few minutes later.
Spoiler: ipconfig from desktop (click to show/hide)
Will post ipconfig from the laptop in another post.
And for the record, a kilobyte should mean 1024 bytes, and so on and so forth up the prefixes.
Post by: PyroDesu on August 02, 2015, 05:19:03 am
Spoiler: ipconfig from laptop (click to show/hide)
Post by: Bohandas on August 02, 2015, 08:44:21 am
Post by: PyroDesu on August 02, 2015, 08:53:41 am
My cpu is heating up to 60-70 degrees celcius. Is that high?
Yes. It might be tolerable to the CPU (they do usually have something that shuts them off if the temperature becomes intolerable), but it still is rather high. Most people tend to aim for at least 10-20 degrees lower than that, I think. Who made your CPU, Intel or AMD?
Post by: Bohandas on August 02, 2015, 09:24:41 am
My cpu is heating up to 60-70 degrees celcius. Is that high?
Yes. It might be tolerable to the CPU (they do usually have something that shuts them off if the temperature becomes intolerable), but it still is rather high. Most people tend to aim for at least 10-20 degrees lower than that, I think. Who made your CPU, Intel or AMD?
Intel
Post by: Graknorke on August 02, 2015, 12:49:27 pm
My cpu is heating up to 60-70 degrees celcius. Is that high?It's not particularly bad for temperatures under load. If those are idle temps then something's fucked.
Post by: Rose on August 02, 2015, 01:06:15 pm
Good deal, or should I attempt bargain?
Post by: Bohandas on August 02, 2015, 01:33:56 pm
My cpu is heating up to 60-70 degrees celcius. Is that high?It's not particularly bad for temperatures under load. If those are idle temps then something's fucked.
I've got stuff running, but not anything that's putting a lot of load on the processor, just Windows Explorer, Pale Moon/Firefox, and the Steam version of Epic Battle Fantasy 4
Post by: Bohandas on August 02, 2015, 01:35:34 pm
Post by: Rose on August 02, 2015, 01:36:24 pm
Post by: PyroDesu on August 02, 2015, 02:22:29 pm
Found a second hand GTX 560 TI for sale at ₹6000 ($94)
Good deal, or should I attempt bargain?
Depends. Decent card, but long out of date (I have one with an aftermarket cooler by ASUS). I've seen 700 series going for less with the box unopened.
Seeing as the current generation is the 900, you might look for weaker, newer generation cards first - they might be better than the 560Ti and cheaper. If not, then it is still a decent card. If you do go with it, and it works properly (you take a risk with secondhand), then you're getting a stellar deal. I've never seen the 560Ti below $200, and bought mine a couple years ago for $250.
Post by: Bohandas on August 02, 2015, 02:33:37 pm
There's speedfan, which will tell you how fast it's running.
It's not giving me a reading for a CPU fan or for any fan other than the ones on my graphics card
(Also, the readings for my graphics card go dead unless I'm playing a game (or some other program) that makes use of the card)
Post by: Thief^ on August 02, 2015, 03:03:03 pm
Post by: Bohandas on August 02, 2015, 03:45:54 pm
Post by: PyroDesu on August 02, 2015, 04:15:08 pm
Regarding my laptop overheating, is there any way to determine whether the problem is with the fan or the heat sink without taking it apart?
How long have you had it and have you ever dusted it before?
Because dust is usually a default answer.
Also, if there's a problem with the fan, you'll either be hearing some horrible noises or no fan noise at all. The heat sink itself can't really have problems (other than dust or bad thermal contact) per se, being an inert block of metal.
Also, I fixed my network bridge issue - while the computers were making it out to be the desktop's fault, restarting the laptop (again) somehow fixed it.
Post by: Bohandas on August 02, 2015, 04:32:22 pm
Regarding my laptop overheating, is there any way to determine whether the problem is with the fan or the heat sink without taking it apart?
How long have you had it and have you ever dusted it before?
Because dust is usually a default answer.
Also, if there's a problem with the fan, you'll either be hearing some horrible noises or no fan noise at all. The heat sink itself can't really have problems (other than dust or bad thermal contact) per se, being an inert block of metal.
Had it two years, haven't dusted it. I suppose I'll have to look into figuring out how to do that.
Post by: Gentlefish on August 02, 2015, 08:11:14 pm
Post by: Bohandas on August 02, 2015, 10:36:10 pm
Post by: Bohandas on August 05, 2015, 10:05:38 pm
EDIT:
Specifically, I'm trying to get the video card diagnostic program "GPU-Z" to minimize to the taskbar. I tried setting it to "Pin to taskbar" but for some reason that makes it shut down entirely every time I try to minimize it
Post by: Bohandas on August 09, 2015, 11:30:46 am
Preferably it should be sideloadable and should NOT support cloud based storage, but this is not essential.
Post by: Zanzetkuken The Great on August 12, 2015, 07:41:40 pm
Post by: Aklyon on August 12, 2015, 07:47:15 pm
Which Linux distributions do people recommend?I'd recommend Mint, if you're just asking in general.
Post by: Bohandas on August 12, 2015, 11:01:44 pm
Post by: miauw62 on August 13, 2015, 04:41:07 pm
Post by: Aklyon on August 13, 2015, 08:27:40 pm
Android isn't a Linux distro, and why the fuck would you be using a mobile OS for something that's not mobile anyway?+This.
Post by: Bohandas on August 13, 2015, 08:55:00 pm
Android isn't a Linux distro, and why the fuck would you be using a mobile OS for something that's not mobile anyway?+This.
I was being sarcastic Technically Android is a form of linux, but it's an extremely bastardized one (the implication being that if you have an Android mobile device you should make every attempt to root it, remove Android entirely, and install Debian/Ubuntu or Fedora or Gentoo or Slackware in it's place - which, for the record, is something that I really do believe; Like all mobile operation systems Android literally has no redeeming qualities [and no I am not misusing the word "literally". I mean to say - exactly - that there is absolutely no reason why anyone should ever prefer a mobile operating system over a desktop operating system on any device ever])
Post by: Zanzetkuken The Great on August 13, 2015, 10:51:16 pm
Which Linux distributions do people recommend?I'd recommend Mint, if you're just asking in general.
I'm wanting to upgrade a Windows machine I recently snagged cheaply from a 32-bit system to a 64-bit system, since my gaming ability is being hampered by the limitation. By the way, does Mint come with the latest version of WINE?
Post by: Arx on August 14, 2015, 12:14:37 am
Post by: Thief^ on August 14, 2015, 01:25:30 am
(the implication being that if you have an Android mobile device you should make every attempt to root it, remove Android entirely, and install Debian/Ubuntu or Fedora or Gentoo or Slackware in it's place - which, for the record, is something that I really do believe; Like all mobile operation systems Android literally has no redeeming qualities [and no I am not misusing the word "literally". I mean to say - exactly - that there is absolutely no reason why anyone should ever prefer a mobile operating system over a desktop operating system on any device ever])You would use any number of keyboard & mouse centric Linux distros on a touch-only device?
Android's redeeming quality is that it and 99% of the apps for it are designed for a touch-only interface.
You would seriously use fedora on a phone?
Post by: wierd on August 14, 2015, 11:59:44 am
I can do stuff with it that the android versions can never do, because of the overhead that Dalvik brings to the table. Things like running the REAL desktop version of firefox, on a device in my pocket-- Or actually using a real wordprocessor (My phone has a hardware keyboard), or printing-- or using regular expressions in the terminal to do magic foo. There's a lot of things that having real linux on one's phone empowers one to do.
As for my "Generic computer advice" needed....
Recently, I have begun building a small HTPC out of a Minnowboard Max. (It is a SBC intended for embedded platform design, similar to a Raspberry Pi, but featuring a dual core intel Atom processor (64bit), and a REAL sata interface.)
The problem is that their community documentation is shit. Absolute SHIT. The documentation says that the device is a 5v system, but in reality it is CLEARLY a 5.5v system. It undervolts and refuses to boot at regulated 5vdc, but boots fine on 6v. (I have a 6v at 2A wall wart that "barely" runs the system and the HDD, but gives out when the USB hub is attached--- and a 5v at 8A wall wart that wont power it on at all!!)
The problem I have is that I need a beefy 5.5v or 6v wall wart power adapter that has more than 5 amps of current pushing power. (I am driving a SATA HDD on the same 5V source inside my enclosure, along with a 4 port USB hub.)
I have searched online, but the best I can find is a 6v 3A adapter on NewEgg. Anyone have an recommendations?
Post by: Bohandas on August 14, 2015, 12:19:46 pm
Granted it would probably need special drivers so I could use the touchscreen as a touchpad mouse (which I'd much prefer to a standard touchscreen interface anyway) and I'd need either an onscreen keyboard program or a pocket sized bluetooth keyboard (these can be picked up for as little as 15 dollars, and often also have their own touchpad), but once I had those, yes, I'd definitely switch.(the implication being that if you have an Android mobile device you should make every attempt to root it, remove Android entirely, and install Debian/Ubuntu or Fedora or Gentoo or Slackware in it's place - which, for the record, is something that I really do believe; Like all mobile operation systems Android literally has no redeeming qualities [and no I am not misusing the word "literally". I mean to say - exactly - that there is absolutely no reason why anyone should ever prefer a mobile operating system over a desktop operating system on any device ever])You would use any number of keyboard & mouse centric Linux distros on a touch-only device?
Android's redeeming quality is that it and 99% of the apps for it are designed for a touch-only interface.
You would seriously use fedora on a phone?
Post by: gimlet on August 14, 2015, 12:57:21 pm
Here's a 6v 7a, kind of expensive though http://www.powerstream.com/5V-backup.htm
Oh or this one, 6v 7a, price is right no idea of quality: http://www.amazon.com/Ariic-100-240V-Switching-Converter-Adapter/dp/B00GN1ZNYS/
Post by: wierd on August 14, 2015, 01:10:27 pm
The first one is limited to 2A current load, regardless of voltage selection. It has a theoretical max of 30W, when 12v output is selected. I dont want my board to smoke, thanks. :D At best, it is no better than my current 2A@6vdc source.
I will order that last one. See how it goes.
Post by: Bohandas on August 14, 2015, 01:31:36 pm
Post by: Rose on August 14, 2015, 02:05:13 pm
Post by: Bohandas on August 14, 2015, 05:48:17 pm
You need a rooted phone and some sort of ADB file explorer. just don't ask me which one is good.
Does anyone else know of one that's good?
For some asinine reason my device decided to put some files I saved from the internet in the system folders instead in the "memory card" and I want to find some way to move them to my PC before before I try to install a new OS on this tablet
Post by: Aklyon on August 14, 2015, 07:11:07 pm
Post by: Bohandas on August 14, 2015, 08:18:53 pm
Assuming it put them into some sort of download folder, have you tried just moving them to the sd card with your tablet, and then onto your pc?
I'm having trouble with the file management program on that tablet; It seems to have problems with pasting, and with searching, which are the two main things I need to do in the root system
Post by: wierd on August 14, 2015, 11:08:13 pm
You need a rooted phone and some sort of ADB file explorer. just don't ask me which one is good.
Does anyone else know of one that's good?
For some asinine reason my device decided to put some files I saved from the internet in the system folders instead in the "memory card" and I want to find some way to move them to my PC before before I try to install a new OS on this tablet
Personally, I would abuse the absolute SHIT out of mount points.
Things needed:
Root access to tablet with SU installed
Terminal emulator
SDCard
1) In terminal emulator, become super user.
su
2) create a folder that will be the surrogate through which you will access the root file system.
cd /sdcard
mkdir phoneroot
3) mount the root of the tablet at the newly created folder with the --bind option. (https://docs.1h.com/index.php?title=Bind_mounts&oldid=492)
mount --bind / /sdcard/phoneroot
4) check to see if we can see goodies inside that folder now.
cd phoneroot
ls
(should see output)
5) Access the root files from that folder using whatever file manipulation method you wish.
Post by: BigD145 on August 16, 2015, 11:50:00 am
I've got a rooted android tablet, and I'm trying to figure out how to access it's root system files from my PC; I can access them from the crappy file explorer I've got on the tablet, but when I hook the tablet up to my PC via a usb cable it will only let me see the sd card. Anyone know how to fix this?
Android 4? If so the device should show itself like a drive or folder on the PC (Linux? Windows? Apple?) and have at least two folders inside it, the device and the sd. This might take time. But that all depends on what you have. My Android 4.2 (or was it 4.4...) works this way on Windows. My 2 works different.
Post by: Arx on August 20, 2015, 10:35:14 am
I've established that it's not a firewall or antivirus problem, it's not an actual network connection problem, launching Steam with -tcp doesn't help, and power cycling my router didn't fix anything.
It looks like the next thing I need to do involves looking at ports, which is a schlep. Is there anything else?
Supporting information: I'm on Windows 7, with an obscure non-American ISP not listed on the 'problem ISPs' Steam Support page.
Post by: Thief^ on August 20, 2015, 10:46:24 am
Post by: Zanzetkuken The Great on August 20, 2015, 06:45:41 pm
Post by: Graknorke on August 20, 2015, 06:55:44 pm
Isn't done properly
Isn't readable by the BIOS
Post by: Zanzetkuken The Great on August 20, 2015, 06:57:35 pm
It means that whatever you're trying to boot from either:
Isn't done properly
Isn't readable by the BIOS
What could be the problems that could cause this?
Post by: Graknorke on August 20, 2015, 07:03:14 pm
From a quick search this (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16822/boot-from-a-usb-drive-even-if-your-bios-wont-let-you/) might help you if it's a USB. If it's a CD then apparently changing what port your CD/DVD drive is connected to might help.
Post by: Bauglir on August 20, 2015, 09:58:19 pm
There is no CUDA toolkit available from NVIDIA. However, there is one available in the repos through apt-get install nvidia-cuda-toolkit. This installation requires the NVIDIA driver to be installed through apt as well, and this installs version 340.65. Version 340.65, however, does not seem to support the card - the NVIDIA Kernel throws out a message, "The NVIDIA GPU installed in this system is not supported by the 340.65 NVIDIA Linux driver release. Please see 'Appendix A - Supported NVIDIA GPU Products' in this release's README, available on the Linux driver download page at www.nvidia.com." And, indeed, the relevant page (https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/80647/en-us) does not list it. Attempting to use it anyway causes xorg to barf and go to the standard black screen with a useless blinking cursor.
Version 352.30, however, works just fine with the graphics card, but attempting to install the nvidia-cuda-toolkit package results in the first thing that happens being a message asking me to uninstall that driver. So, I'm in a bit of a bad spot. Anybody know where I might find the relevant toolkit? I'm comfortable running experimental or beta versions, and with compiling from source or whatever if I have to (although I might wind up needing help). Provided I brick none of the hardware, I don't particularly need this installation to survive, so risks are acceptable. Worst case I might even risk bricking the card; I can probably get it replaced (might have been too long to get it refunded, though; warranties wheeeee).
This (http://cuda-programming.blogspot.com/2013/01/installation-process-how-to-install_4.html) is what I would like to do, but of course there's no CUDA version for Kali (or even for Debian, which is what I'd use in a pinch) available from NVIDIA.
EDIT: Eh, fuck it, technically there's nothing I absolutely need Kali for. It'll be faster at this point to just start over and install everything I need on Ubuntu.
Post by: gimlet on August 21, 2015, 01:51:06 am
Do I need an existing operating system to install Linux? I'm getting 'No Boot Device Available' when I try to boot from it, yet on the computer I burned it, the files show up just fine.OK some more detail would help here - what did you burn it to? A USB stick? A hard drive? How exactly did you "burn it"? And what's the brand and model of the computer you're trying to run it on that gives the error?
Post by: Zanzetkuken The Great on August 21, 2015, 02:33:17 pm
Do I need an existing operating system to install Linux? I'm getting 'No Boot Device Available' when I try to boot from it, yet on the computer I burned it, the files show up just fine.OK some more detail would help here - what did you burn it to? A USB stick? A hard drive? How exactly did you "burn it"? And what's the brand and model of the computer you're trying to run it on that gives the error?
Turns out it was apparently either something to do with the disk I wrote it to. Granted, now I'm in the problem of always running into a black screen after having 'Unknown Kepler Chipset' show up,
Post by: SirQuiamus on August 22, 2015, 11:22:02 am
I googled the error code, and the Microsoft support page recommended reinstalling .NET framework, so I did. And of course that did absolutely nothing, as can be expected.
I've regularly had similar problems with Windows Update in the past, but so far they have always resolved themselves as mysteriously as they appeared. I do have the Windows DVD somewhere, but it's an OEM version so I'm not sure if I can reinstall it just like that. There's some kind of repair option in the Windows installer, isn't there?
Post by: Zanzetkuken The Great on August 22, 2015, 07:57:22 pm
Post by: Aklyon on August 22, 2015, 08:02:30 pm
Post by: Bohandas on August 24, 2015, 05:45:40 pm
Related Question:
Is there a version of Classic Shell out for Windows 10 yet?
Post by: miauw62 on August 24, 2015, 06:47:53 pm
Post by: Thief^ on August 25, 2015, 12:20:14 am
Post by: Rose on August 25, 2015, 12:34:46 am
Post by: Arx on August 26, 2015, 11:27:05 am
Post by: Thief^ on August 26, 2015, 11:33:30 am
Post by: Arx on August 26, 2015, 11:35:19 am
If it's not a problem with a firewall of yours, it must be a problem with a firewall of your isp. The standard protocol for avoiding problem firewalls is to get a VPN to somewhere else, and use that.
The bizarre thing is I could swear my sister got this working on the same network. If it continues to not work, though, I'll consider that.
Post by: gimlet on August 26, 2015, 01:49:18 pm
ED: Rereading, the above link is kind of misleading if you don't read it carefully and look at the portforward.com link they give. The info on that page is only part of the solution, you DO need to make sure your PC's firewall is letting those ports through. But like I said, you also have to make sure the home network router/modem is also forwarding the needed ports to the right pc, so look here for the other part of the solution: http://portforward.com/games/
Post by: Arx on August 29, 2015, 04:57:38 am
The problem seems to extend to most programs that attempt to download more files when the installer runs, since Dropbox, Battle.net, and Steam are all broken.
Edit: I unbroked it, yay! Turns out there was one last setting buried somewhere that I would have sworn I'd turned off months ago.
Post by: Thief^ on August 29, 2015, 02:13:54 pm
Post by: Arx on August 29, 2015, 02:24:28 pm
For future reference, what was the setting?
Proxy server setting left on in the LAN settings. I forgot about it because it'd been switched off everywhere else, I haven't had the proxy running for over a year now, and it hasn't caused any problems with anything significant until now.
Post by: Thief^ on August 29, 2015, 04:18:49 pm
Post by: Akura on August 29, 2015, 07:10:41 pm
Generally, what should I work to upgrade first? Everything at once? I suppose the HDD should be first, since I've been using it since 2008-2009...
Post by: gimlet on August 29, 2015, 10:44:58 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on August 29, 2015, 10:56:58 pm
I'm trying to roadmap some future upgrades to my PC. I'm seeing that RAM is more expensive than I thought, while hard drives are cheaper than I thought. I would not have expected to see a 1TB drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236625&ignorebbr=1&cm_re=ppssGamingHDD-_-22-236-625-_-Product) for under $100. Mind you, it has been years since I've had any amount of money to even consider this.If you can't afford 2 sticks of ram maybe just go for one and get a 500gb hard drive. RAM should have matching sticks but its still going to work and 2gb is 2gb.
Generally, what should I work to upgrade first? Everything at once? I suppose the HDD should be first, since I've been using it since 2008-2009...
Post by: Akura on August 30, 2015, 06:38:39 am
What's your actual bottleneck? Out of disk space, graphics slowdowns on games, something else?
I suppose disk space is low, plus worries about the age of the hard drive. I've got 2GB RAM, a dual-core 3GHz processor, and a 1024MB graphics card. I don't know where to start.
Post by: Aklyon on August 30, 2015, 07:10:13 am
Post by: BigD145 on August 30, 2015, 02:36:46 pm
Post by: Thief^ on August 30, 2015, 02:57:14 pm
Post by: Akura on August 30, 2015, 04:49:55 pm
What actually is the graphics card? "1024 MB" could be anything
nVidia GeForce 8400s.
Post by: gimlet on August 30, 2015, 05:48:07 pm
The other advantage to not doing unneeded piecemeal upgrades is that you will not be buying "old" technology that will likely not be usable when you upgrade the mainboard (ie obsolete RAM form factors). Then ideally you can do a "big bang" where you can do at least mainboard,cpu and memory at once.
Post by: Thief^ on August 31, 2015, 12:53:44 am
Post by: Akura on August 31, 2015, 07:14:04 am
That graphics card is so old nVidia no longer support it with driver updates, and is pretty slow too. If you are playing any remotely recent games it will be slowing you down , and there will be some things it won't run at all (it's only a directx 10 card, some directx 11 stuff will run on it but not all)To be fair, I didn't choose that card. A repair shop put it in(after I paid for it) when the original card burned out.
Trying to find parts in my budget range, is this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125774) graphics card compatible with this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132415) motherboard? Unfortunately, I can't find the specs for my current motherboard, but I'm pretty sure it's outdated too.
Post by: Graknorke on August 31, 2015, 08:26:38 am
Post by: Thief^ on August 31, 2015, 10:11:08 am
Those are compatible (you'd be hard pressed to find a motherboard and graphics card that aren't compatible now in fact), but I'd try to see if you can stretch to a GTX 750, it's a far better card than the 740.
Following the recent directx 12 revelations, you may even want to consider an AMD card...
Post by: Akura on August 31, 2015, 03:05:16 pm
Those are compatible (you'd be hard pressed to find a motherboard and graphics card that aren't compatible now in fact), but I'd try to see if you can stretch to a GTX 750, it's a far better card than the 740.
If I did that, I'd need a new monitor since mine is not compatible with the 750. Then again, I really do need a new monitor, since this one is limited to 1024x768. I have seen them for sale where I work(a thrift store), so I can probably get them for less than 1/10th of the price if I'm lucky..
Post by: BigD145 on August 31, 2015, 03:43:08 pm
Post by: Thief^ on August 31, 2015, 04:01:13 pm
Post by: Bohandas on September 04, 2015, 12:08:30 am
Classic Shell and changing ImmersiveShell registry keys still leave it able to be accessed with a swipe, and all of the additional solutions I've foumd so far seem to be specific to trackpads or mice; I need a solution that will disable the gestures for my tablet's touchscreen
Post by: Bohandas on September 04, 2015, 12:26:31 am
I need to block out Google's new logo. I still have need for their search engine because it genuinely works better than DuckDuckGo, but I can't stand to look at their new logo for one second more; It's like staring into the face of Mephistopheles himself.
Post by: i2amroy on September 04, 2015, 02:57:20 am
You might need to do it a second time on the search results page itself, and another time for the image search bar and the image results pages, and so on though.
Post by: Thief^ on September 04, 2015, 04:00:19 am
How do I disable the charms bar on my Windows 8.1 tablet?
As far as I know you can't. It's gone in Windows 10, though.
Post by: Graknorke on September 04, 2015, 10:49:52 am
The less solvable one is probably hardware related, and it's that my computer sometimes turns itself on. It started a couple of days after it was built, and while it could be something wrong with the motherboard I don't have the dedication to take everything out to check.
The other is that Firefox will crash consistently when trying to view certain pages, including the about:newtab one. No idea what causes this, the pages don't seem to be in any sort of pattern.
Post by: Antsan on September 04, 2015, 10:58:01 am
Post by: Graknorke on September 04, 2015, 11:00:44 am
Post by: Antsan on September 04, 2015, 11:07:51 am
Could you ask a friend to test CPU and motherboard with their computer components?
Post by: Akura on September 04, 2015, 06:12:20 pm
Post by: Bohandas on September 05, 2015, 03:48:37 pm
Post by: miauw62 on September 05, 2015, 03:59:17 pm
Post by: Bohandas on September 05, 2015, 04:02:37 pm
Post by: Bohandas on September 05, 2015, 04:13:12 pm
Post by: Aklyon on September 05, 2015, 04:25:58 pm
Post by: miauw62 on September 05, 2015, 06:41:47 pm
Post by: Graknorke on September 05, 2015, 06:43:30 pm
For the first problem, is turning on from a powered-off state, or waking up from sleep mode? If it's sleep mode, is your computer's networking device trying to refresh the network state?Powered off.
It's stopped now after wiggling around some wires though so I guess it wasn't anything serious.
Post by: Bohandas on September 05, 2015, 09:35:09 pm
Also, can't you get the drive by its volume name instead of the drive letter?
I don't know. Can I?? I'd always assumed that when programs (at least the kind of programs that have to be installed and that have their own registry files and possibly interact with other programs) call one of their files they use the address starting with the letter, necessitating that the letter be the same each time or the program won't work.
Post by: Bohandas on September 09, 2015, 12:35:27 pm
Post by: BigD145 on September 09, 2015, 12:48:06 pm
Post by: Sensei on September 10, 2015, 05:47:17 am
Please.
Post by: Thief^ on September 10, 2015, 06:45:09 am
It even uses a lossless transform when rotating jpeg images.
Post by: Antsan on September 10, 2015, 06:48:37 am
Now I'd like to use my touch-screen monitor as such. The problem is that the touch screen space is mapped to both monitors' screen space and I cannot figure out how to change that. Any ideas?
Post by: Tellemurius on September 10, 2015, 09:53:15 am
Code: [Select]
xinput map-to-output <device> <output> use xinput to find your touch device
use xrandr to find your output device
Post by: Bohandas on September 10, 2015, 10:17:42 pm
Post by: Thief^ on September 11, 2015, 01:01:53 am
Post by: blazing glory on September 11, 2015, 01:22:21 am
Been like that for a month or so but it's wearing a bit thin now, how do I get rid of it permanently?
Post by: Thief^ on September 11, 2015, 03:24:00 am
Post by: blazing glory on September 11, 2015, 03:35:44 am
Post by: Thief^ on September 11, 2015, 03:39:00 am
Post by: Akura on September 11, 2015, 05:15:33 pm
Post by: blazing glory on September 11, 2015, 05:22:52 pm
Post by: BigD145 on September 12, 2015, 09:16:05 am
Post by: Sensei on September 12, 2015, 03:26:41 pm
Post by: Aklyon on September 12, 2015, 03:28:55 pm
Post by: Bohandas on September 12, 2015, 04:05:37 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on September 12, 2015, 10:27:00 pm
A lot of times if I try to cut and paste a lot of files from my Droid Razr Maxx to my PC it will either copy the files instead of cutting them, miss a lot of the files, and/or cause windows explorer to crash. Is this a common problem and is there a fix for it?This is due to how windows sees your phone as a media device which doesn't allow you to to cut items. Your only option is pulling your external sd card.
Post by: Bohandas on September 13, 2015, 12:16:08 am
A lot of times if I try to cut and paste a lot of files from my Droid Razr Maxx to my PC it will either copy the files instead of cutting them, miss a lot of the files, and/or cause windows explorer to crash. Is this a common problem and is there a fix for it?This is due to how windows sees your phone as a media device which doesn't allow you to to cut items. Your only option is pulling your external sd card.
It doesn't seem to have one (If it does, I haven't been able to find it, and I've looked)
Post by: Tellemurius on September 13, 2015, 12:19:53 pm
Really? The micro sd slot is right next to the sim card slot for the Razr Maxx. there should a small door on the top right side of your phone to access that.A lot of times if I try to cut and paste a lot of files from my Droid Razr Maxx to my PC it will either copy the files instead of cutting them, miss a lot of the files, and/or cause windows explorer to crash. Is this a common problem and is there a fix for it?This is due to how windows sees your phone as a media device which doesn't allow you to to cut items. Your only option is pulling your external sd card.
It doesn't seem to have one (If it does, I haven't been able to find it, and I've looked)
Other than that, your only other option is to run a ftp server off your phone but you probably need root for that.
Post by: miauw62 on September 13, 2015, 12:26:22 pm
Post by: Graknorke on September 13, 2015, 12:32:30 pm
Post by: Aklyon on September 13, 2015, 12:33:39 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on September 13, 2015, 01:26:36 pm
I have facebook on my phone, is there any way to restrict it from using most of its bullshit privileges? I don't have root right now but rooting my phone is something im willing to do.Depends on the operating system, since KitKat, AppOps has been pretty limited but should still work if you can configure. I remember if you install Cyanogenmod there was a privacy switch where you can simply lock out certain apps to personal information on your phone including contacts, phone calls, and your app history.
Post by: miauw62 on September 13, 2015, 03:53:36 pm
Post by: Bohandas on September 13, 2015, 04:11:09 pm
I have facebook on my phone, is there any way to restrict it from using most of its bullshit privileges? I don't have root right now but rooting my phone is something im willing to do.
IIRC the old AppOps program works if the device is rooted. Haven't gotten a chance to try it personally yet as no rooting solution has been forthcoming for my model of phone. If you do take this route, you should also take advantage of it to disable internet access for anything that uses ads.
Post by: Bohandas on September 13, 2015, 04:14:58 pm
Really? The micro sd slot is right next to the sim card slot for the Razr Maxx. there should a small door on the top right side of your phone to access that.A lot of times if I try to cut and paste a lot of files from my Droid Razr Maxx to my PC it will either copy the files instead of cutting them, miss a lot of the files, and/or cause windows explorer to crash. Is this a common problem and is there a fix for it?This is due to how windows sees your phone as a media device which doesn't allow you to to cut items. Your only option is pulling your external sd card.
It doesn't seem to have one (If it does, I haven't been able to find it, and I've looked)
Other than that, your only other option is to run a ftp server off your phone but you probably need root for that.
My bad, apparently it's just "MAXX" not "RAZR MAXX"
Post by: BigD145 on September 13, 2015, 04:36:07 pm
I have facebook on my phone, is there any way to restrict it from using most of its bullshit privileges? I don't have root right now but rooting my phone is something im willing to do.
Android? You kinda have to be rooted, I think. Use Xposed and XPrivacy within Xposed. That lets you turn lots of stuff off. It's like a selective firewall but for features like sensors as well as internet or phone.
Post by: Tellemurius on September 13, 2015, 05:40:52 pm
Welp guess you are screwed then, try the ftp server method or use google drive.Really? The micro sd slot is right next to the sim card slot for the Razr Maxx. there should a small door on the top right side of your phone to access that.A lot of times if I try to cut and paste a lot of files from my Droid Razr Maxx to my PC it will either copy the files instead of cutting them, miss a lot of the files, and/or cause windows explorer to crash. Is this a common problem and is there a fix for it?This is due to how windows sees your phone as a media device which doesn't allow you to to cut items. Your only option is pulling your external sd card.
It doesn't seem to have one (If it does, I haven't been able to find it, and I've looked)
Other than that, your only other option is to run a ftp server off your phone but you probably need root for that.
My bad, apparently it's just "MAXX" not "RAZR MAXX"
Post by: Bohandas on September 13, 2015, 10:11:06 pm
Post by: Akura on September 22, 2015, 06:10:04 pm
Post by: Thief^ on September 23, 2015, 01:52:06 am
Fake edit: I've looked on Gigabyte's website, and the B85 one "Supports 4th Generation Intel® Core™ processors" while the Z97 one "Supports 4th and 5th Generation Intel® Core™ processors". See what I mean?
They both support up to 32GB of DDR3 ram at 1333 / 1600 MHz, but the Z97 mentions ram overclocking up to 3100 MHz in its specs, if you're into that kind of thing.
They both have one PCI-e 3.0 x16 socket for a graphics card, but the secondary card sockets are different - the B85 has two PCI-e x1 connectors for most modern non-graphics cards (e.g. WiFi) but it can't take any old PCI cards at all, nor a PCI-e x4 high-end card unless you give up the graphics socket. The Z97 has two old-school PCI sockets, plus a secondary PCI-e x16 socket that's only really wired for x4 (and is only half the speed on top of that, PCI-e 2.0 vs 3.0), which is still just enough to run some secondary graphics cards (I wouldn't put a high-end card in it) but does support PCI-e x4 high-end non-graphics cards, if you need any, and will still take a standard PCI-e x1 WiFi card etc.
They both have 6 sata ports for drives, but the Z97 has all 6 running at sata3 / 6Gbps, whereas the B85 has two at the older sata2 / 3Gbps. This probably doesn't matter unless you're putting 6 SSDs in your PC.
They both have 6 USB sockets on the back, but the Z97 has four high-speed USB 3.0 sockets (for high-speed external drives mostly) where the B85 only has two. I'll be honest, you probably don't need more than two on the back, USB 3.0 devices are still relatively rare. They both have internal headers for two USB 3.0 connectors (best used for the front of the PC, but you can get brackets for the back too), plus a bunch of extra headers for extra USB2.0 connectors if you need them.
That should about explain it.
Post by: Tellemurius on September 23, 2015, 10:07:01 am
Post by: Bohandas on September 26, 2015, 10:50:03 am
Post by: Arx on September 26, 2015, 11:37:50 am
Post by: Rose on September 26, 2015, 12:08:14 pm
Post by: Arx on September 26, 2015, 12:13:52 pm
Or 8 or 10
Wait, do those not come with Movie Maker?
Post by: Aklyon on September 26, 2015, 01:39:55 pm
Post by: Thief^ on September 26, 2015, 02:37:21 pm
Post by: Aklyon on September 26, 2015, 04:41:36 pm
Post by: Arx on October 04, 2015, 06:58:03 am
It seems like quite a few other people have had this problem too, but I can only find two fixes; one which is changing the playback device to Digital Interface, which doesn't seem to be an option, and one which requires uninstalling IDT audio, which isn't present.
The headphones themselves are fine, and work for any other device.
Post by: Bohandas on October 04, 2015, 10:22:39 am
I have a bit of an odd problem. Installing Magicka seems to have done something to screw up my system so that it now recognises my headphones are plugged in and mutes the speakers, but will not play sound through the headphones. I'm using a built-in Realtek sound card.
It seems like quite a few other people have had this problem too, but I can only find two fixes; one which is changing the playback device to Digital Interface, which doesn't seem to be an option, and one which requires uninstalling IDT audio, which isn't present.
The headphones themselves are fine, and work for any other device.
Are you sure it's from Magicka and not just a busted headphone jack? I've had this kind of problem caused by busted headphone jacks before
Post by: Arx on October 04, 2015, 10:43:24 am
I have a bit of an odd problem. Installing Magicka seems to have done something to screw up my system so that it now recognises my headphones are plugged in and mutes the speakers, but will not play sound through the headphones. I'm using a built-in Realtek sound card.
It seems like quite a few other people have had this problem too, but I can only find two fixes; one which is changing the playback device to Digital Interface, which doesn't seem to be an option, and one which requires uninstalling IDT audio, which isn't present.
The headphones themselves are fine, and work for any other device.
Are you sure it's from Magicka and not just a busted headphone jack? I've had this kind of problem caused by busted headphone jacks before
The headphones themselves are fine, and work for any other device.
My first thought was that they'd fallen off my desk in the night and a connection had popped, but they work fine on my Linux partition and my phone. Magicka (the only program I installed between 'working' and 'broken') has to be the cause; it matches with other complaints, and I tried rolling back my sound card drivers in case a recent update broke it.
Post by: Bohandas on October 08, 2015, 09:04:44 am
I have a bit of an odd problem. Installing Magicka seems to have done something to screw up my system so that it now recognises my headphones are plugged in and mutes the speakers, but will not play sound through the headphones. I'm using a built-in Realtek sound card.
It seems like quite a few other people have had this problem too, but I can only find two fixes; one which is changing the playback device to Digital Interface, which doesn't seem to be an option, and one which requires uninstalling IDT audio, which isn't present.
The headphones themselves are fine, and work for any other device.
Are you sure it's from Magicka and not just a busted headphone jack? I've had this kind of problem caused by busted headphone jacks beforeThe headphones themselves are fine, and work for any other device.
My first thought was that they'd fallen off my desk in the night and a connection had popped, but they work fine on my Linux partition and my phone. Magicka (the only program I installed between 'working' and 'broken') has to be the cause; it matches with other complaints, and I tried rolling back my sound card drivers in case a recent update broke it.
No, I mean the plug that the headphones plug into. That could be damaged
Post by: Aklyon on October 08, 2015, 09:28:41 am
Post by: cerapa on October 08, 2015, 09:40:13 am
They would be having problems with not-magicka programs then.
As I understand it, he does have problems with not-magicka programs. He thinks installing Magicka caused them.
Post by: Arx on October 08, 2015, 09:56:41 am
Post by: Sensei on October 09, 2015, 05:20:50 am
Post by: Bohandas on October 09, 2015, 11:59:04 am
Post by: miauw62 on October 09, 2015, 12:11:30 pm
Post by: Bohandas on October 09, 2015, 12:59:12 pm
the default android camera app, at least on my phone, literally has a "save mirrored" option.
Not the one on mine though.
And it's mirroring it by default and even in the preview. Though only in self portrait mode.
ALSO, Now that I think of it though, I'm not 100% sure the problem is with the applications and not wih the phone itself. Does anyone know how to tell the difference?
Post by: Thief^ on October 09, 2015, 01:02:27 pm
I know some dodgy chinese knockoff phones or tablets (can't remember) had the front camera in upside down. Oh, what does it show when turned landscape?
Post by: Bohandas on October 09, 2015, 01:19:29 pm
EDIT:
Decided to try changing camera orientation anyway. Upon experimentation, rotating the camera does not fix it.
EDIT:
I think it may have been reversed intentionally, either by the programmer or the phone manufacturer. I still want it un-reversed though (more so, in fact. Poorly designed items bother me far more than ones that are merely defective)
Post by: Aklyon on October 09, 2015, 02:45:28 pm
It's the right way up, it's just mirror-reversedWhat if you take a picture using the non-self portrait camera?
EDIT:
Decided to try changing camera orientation anyway. Upon experimentation, rotating the camera does not fix it.
EDIT:
I think it may have been reversed intentionally, either by the programmer or the phone manufacturer. I still want it un-reversed though (more so, in fact. Poorly designed items bother me far more than ones that are merely defective)
Post by: Bohandas on October 09, 2015, 02:46:28 pm
It comes out correctly that way, I checkedIt's the right way up, it's just mirror-reversedWhat if you take a picture using the non-self portrait camera?
EDIT:
Decided to try changing camera orientation anyway. Upon experimentation, rotating the camera does not fix it.
EDIT:
I think it may have been reversed intentionally, either by the programmer or the phone manufacturer. I still want it un-reversed though (more so, in fact. Poorly designed items bother me far more than ones that are merely defective)
Post by: RoguelikeRazuka on October 10, 2015, 03:18:56 pm
Post by: miauw62 on October 10, 2015, 03:23:36 pm
Post by: RoguelikeRazuka on October 10, 2015, 03:27:52 pm
Get a rescue CD, copy off vital information, reinstall OS?
But I have reinstalled it recently!
UPD. It seems like it's an os problem indeed.
Post by: ShoesandHats on October 10, 2015, 07:10:40 pm
Post by: Akura on October 10, 2015, 09:11:49 pm
Post by: Aklyon on October 10, 2015, 09:35:46 pm
Post by: Flying Dice on October 10, 2015, 11:16:20 pm
I recently upgraded my GPU, but I still have my original CPU from 2012. Is an i5 3450 gonna cut it for much longer? Taking apart my rig again would be a pain in the ass, but if my hardware's getting outdated, I'll have to consider it.You're talking about this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116506), right? It's still pretty darned good and will be for at least a couple years. It'll run without bottlenecking alongside pretty much any mid/high-end GPU while playing intensive games, maybe barring an outlier or two.
Post by: Akura on October 11, 2015, 06:43:04 am
Have you tred playing them in another video player like vlc or the one in the cccp pack?
Just installed VLC to check. It worked with it. I think the Ant Toolbar's player uses a Flash plugin, and I think a recent Flash update killed that. They don't run in a basic Flash player, but I don't remember if they ever actually did to begin with.
Post by: Sappho on October 11, 2015, 10:59:11 am
I know the video card is important but I have no idea how good that card is, and Google only gives me long lists of data that mean nothing to me. :( Thanks guys!
Post by: miauw62 on October 11, 2015, 04:12:21 pm
Post by: Bohandas on October 11, 2015, 06:54:03 pm
Post by: timferius on October 23, 2015, 08:43:35 am
Post by: BigD145 on October 23, 2015, 11:40:57 am
Post by: Graknorke on October 23, 2015, 11:56:55 am
Post by: timferius on October 23, 2015, 12:12:28 pm
Post by: Graknorke on October 23, 2015, 12:18:55 pm
Here's a video (https://youtu.be/kotjHkkI2P8) of someone using one to play Far Cry 4.
Post by: timferius on October 23, 2015, 12:27:06 pm
Post by: Graknorke on October 23, 2015, 12:44:15 pm
For the 970, it'll be getting around 1.5 to 1.3 the framerates of the 280x, not sure how much longer that'd last but it's nothing to sniff at.
Post by: BigD145 on October 23, 2015, 08:14:16 pm
Post by: Aklyon on October 23, 2015, 08:56:07 pm
Just don't install nvidia experience. That thing is horrible.Does it do anything worth doing, or is it just for throwing crap at you?
Post by: crazysheep on October 24, 2015, 01:00:08 am
Post by: Rose on October 24, 2015, 01:15:50 am
Post by: BigD145 on October 24, 2015, 12:35:49 pm
Post by: Thief^ on October 26, 2015, 05:30:05 am
It might be worth going for an AMD card if it is for future proofing (and you're buying it now), as more and more games will be DirectX-12 capable in the coming months/years.
Post by: timferius on October 26, 2015, 06:31:36 am
Post by: BigD145 on October 26, 2015, 10:20:58 am
Post by: timferius on October 26, 2015, 10:26:49 am
What's the general price comparison versus features between the Nano, Fury, and 300 series? AMD's site is not great for looking at all that.Here (canadian)? Let me check Newegg.ca
Nano is approx. 850-900 dollars
Fury is 750-850
390 is about 450
390x is about 550
(assuming this question is directed towards my perdiciment).
That puts the 390 about the same price as the GTX 970, so if I want to go AMD that'd be my best bet I think. Will have to check reviews on it. Still at the top of my price range.
Post by: BigD145 on October 26, 2015, 10:46:40 am
I'm somewhat interested in a new card and would get a GTX960 or equivalent because it's in my price range, under $200.
Post by: Reelya on October 26, 2015, 03:22:33 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on October 27, 2015, 04:48:26 pm
$US Nano seems to be around $600-700. R9 390 is $300-350. That still says little about what you're getting at double the price.
I'm somewhat interested in a new card and would get a GTX960 or equivalent because it's in my price range, under $200.
The Fury Nano offers near Fury performance with half the power consumption and card size. It's designed for small-form factor cases. It's a niche card that something Nvidia doesn't have.
Post by: Akura on October 28, 2015, 12:18:55 pm
So far as I can tell, everything else was connected properly. As long as the power supply, the hard drive, and those goddamned power pins are okay, everything should be fine since I just acquired replacements for everything else. It burned up while trying to put the old setup back together.
EDIT: I figured out what I did wrong, I accidentally plugged something somewhere else where it most certainly does not go. Unfortunately, I still don't know what is destroyed. While the mobo lights do come on when the power is connected, actually turning it on via the front power switch does not work.
EDIT2: Narrowed it down to either the graphics card, or the part of the motherboard where the PCI and PCI-e slots are. Probably the latter, the graphics card shows no sign of burning, and none of the fans on that part of the board spin. The WiFi receiver in one of the PCI slots is supposed to also light up, which it doesn't, and changing PCI-e slots with the graphics card did nothing.
Either way, there's no point in worrying about it anymore. All I'm waiting for is a IDE-to-SATA adapter(for the old hard drive) which I've already ordered, then I can put all the shiny new stuff in. And hopefully not screw that one up.
Post by: Bohandas on October 30, 2015, 03:25:39 pm
As it it it's pretty useless.
Post by: Reelya on October 30, 2015, 03:35:56 pm
Is there any way to get the "random entry" button on Wiktionary to only show tesults from a specific language?If you set the interface to a different language you seem to get the random choices in that language: they have a different URL for the random link. e.g. when in Italian mode you get this random link rather than the normal one:
As it it it's pretty useless.
https://it.wiktionary.org/wiki/Speciale:PaginaCasuale
It's under "Un lemma a caso" in the interface
Post by: Bohandas on October 30, 2015, 04:03:39 pm
So how do I get them just in english?Is there any way to get the "random entry" button on Wiktionary to only show tesults from a specific language?If you set the interface to a different language you seem to get the random choices in that language: they have a different URL for the random link. e.g. when in Italian mode you get this random link rather than the normal one:
As it it it's pretty useless.
https://it.wiktionary.org/wiki/Speciale:PaginaCasuale
It's under "Un lemma a caso" in the interface
Post by: Reelya on October 30, 2015, 04:11:27 pm
Post by: Bohandas on October 30, 2015, 04:19:07 pm
Post by: Bohandas on October 30, 2015, 04:32:42 pm
I tried autodesk but it keeps cropping off significant portions of what I've drawn when I try to save the file.
RELATED ISSUE:
Is there any way to get google play store to filter out all applications that either cost money, use ads, have in-app purchases and/or connect to the internet in any way not related to web-browsing? I absolutely don't want any of than and I'd appreciate not having to slog throuh it to get to the things I might actually consider using.
EDIT:
Related note: can anyone point me tp a better app-store for android? One with better filtering options and that preferably isn't officially affiliated with the maker of any major OS, even if it has a significantly smaller selection.
Post by: Aklyon on October 30, 2015, 04:41:59 pm
Either see if the amazon appstore has your filters, or go look up some app reviews. Probably easier than finding something with the filters you want.
Post by: Bohandas on October 31, 2015, 12:04:44 am
On my android phone my broswer ("Pale Moon", a fork of "Firefox") keeps losing track of what page it's tabs are supposed to have loaded. That is to say, sometimes I'll switch from one tab to another and when I switch back to the firat tab it will no longer be loaded to the page I left it on, instead it'll be reloading some page that I looked at in that tab two hours ago, or even whatever webpage it was opened to when I first opened that tab.
Is there any way to stop it from doing this?
Post by: Bohandas on October 31, 2015, 01:36:21 pm
Post by: BigD145 on October 31, 2015, 04:50:52 pm
Also, on a Windows 8 tablet, is there any way to make the onscreen keyboard automatically pop up whenever I select a box where I can input text (and preferably also disappear when I move focus to something else)
It should do that on its own, not that the built in keyboard is any good. PortableApps has a touch keyboard with more options that is free.
Post by: Bohandas on October 31, 2015, 04:58:26 pm
Also, on a Windows 8 tablet, is there any way to make the onscreen keyboard automatically pop up whenever I select a box where I can input text (and preferably also disappear when I move focus to something else)
It should do that on its own,
I probably should have mentioned that I prefer using it in desktop mode. Does this make a difference?
Post by: Thief^ on November 02, 2015, 05:02:34 am
Is there any way to get google play store to filter out all applications that either cost money, use ads, have in-app purchases and/or connect to the internet in any way not related to web-browsing? I absolutely don't want any of than and I'd appreciate not having to slog throuh it to get to the things I might actually consider using.
So you're saying you're not willing to pay for a good app in any way? Way to feel entitled.
Post by: Rose on November 02, 2015, 05:10:03 am
That was the only one I ever saw.
Post by: LordPorkins on November 03, 2015, 02:49:50 pm
Post by: Arx on November 03, 2015, 03:02:38 pm
I think the cutoff is having made eight posts. We're not big on postcount, really.
Also, welcome to the forums. There's also a 'random questions' thread in General Discussion, for further reference.
Post by: Aklyon on November 03, 2015, 03:06:31 pm
Post by: Arx on November 03, 2015, 03:35:40 pm
The cutoff is approximately 10 posts, I think. Jon Fox is more or less the guy in charge of LCS so he got a title and can moderate the Curses board if thats who you're thinking of, Arx.
There's also the guy who... I think he wrote the OpenGL stuff for DF? There's another guy, anyway. I forgot about Fox.
Post by: Antsan on November 03, 2015, 04:05:35 pm
Post by: miauw62 on November 03, 2015, 06:07:40 pm
I think he ment the text under your avatar. You can change that on your forum profile page, same page as avatar.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on November 03, 2015, 06:14:48 pm
Post by: LordPorkins on November 03, 2015, 07:39:54 pm
We're all bay watchers here. Except for like three guys, but two of them are the DF devs and the other(s?) made some huge contribution.Frankly mate, i wish i could keep Escaped Lunatic
I think the cutoff is having made eight posts. We're not big on postcount, really.
Also, welcome to the forums. There's also a 'random questions' thread in General Discussion, for further reference.
Post by: Bauglir on November 04, 2015, 09:52:52 pm
That would be Bauglir, I think.Oh, my, no. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?action=profile;u=8772) I'm mostly useless. Flattered that you thought so, though. Good thing I checked this thread at random today!
Post by: Antsan on November 05, 2015, 04:16:47 am
Oh. Bauglir, Baughn…That would be Bauglir, I think.Oh, my, no. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?action=profile;u=8772) I'm mostly useless. Flattered that you thought so, though. Good thing I checked this thread at random today!
This is embarrassing.
Post by: Thief^ on November 05, 2015, 05:14:59 am
Post by: Bauglir on November 05, 2015, 06:21:19 am
Cleaning it ain't the point, unfortunately. Finding out what it did and how is.
Post by: cochramd on November 05, 2015, 03:23:57 pm
Post by: Bohandas on November 05, 2015, 03:31:08 pm
Also, on a Windows 8 tablet, is there any way to make the onscreen keyboard automatically pop up whenever I select a box where I can input text (and preferably also disappear when I move focus to something else)
It should do that on its own, not that the built in keyboard is any good. PortableApps has a touch keyboard with more options that is free.
Well it doesn't (unless I put in metro mode and I can't imagine any circumstance where I'd ever want to do that; If worse comes to worse I'd buy a small usb keyboard for the tablet long before I'd consider using metro).
PortableApps' keyboard does not have an option to pop the keyboard up when a text box is selected, nor are any of it's options of particular interest to me. In addition, I think it may be interfering with the regular onscreen keyboard and I can't figure out how to uninstall it; it doesn't show up in Programs and Features.
Post by: BigD145 on November 05, 2015, 03:43:02 pm
Also, on a Windows 8 tablet, is there any way to make the onscreen keyboard automatically pop up whenever I select a box where I can input text (and preferably also disappear when I move focus to something else)
It should do that on its own, not that the built in keyboard is any good. PortableApps has a touch keyboard with more options that is free.
Well it doesn't (unless I put in metro mode and I can't imagine any circumstance where I'd ever want to do that; If worse comes to worse I'd buy a small usb keyboard for the tablet long before I'd consider using metro).
PortableApps' keyboard does not have an option to pop the keyboard up when a text box is selected, nor are any of it's options of particular interest to me. In addition, I think it may be interfering with the regular onscreen keyboard and I can't figure out how to uninstall it; it doesn't show up in Programs and Features.
Portable apps are portable. There is no uninstaller. Just delete the folder.
Post by: Bohandas on November 05, 2015, 04:01:05 pm
Also, on a Windows 8 tablet, is there any way to make the onscreen keyboard automatically pop up whenever I select a box where I can input text (and preferably also disappear when I move focus to something else)
It should do that on its own, not that the built in keyboard is any good. PortableApps has a touch keyboard with more options that is free.
Well it doesn't (unless I put in metro mode and I can't imagine any circumstance where I'd ever want to do that; If worse comes to worse I'd buy a small usb keyboard for the tablet long before I'd consider using metro).
Found something that sort of works
http://www.mediafire.com/download/ki9c3jjkzdbunaq/Desktop+Keyboard+Source.zip
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/threads/my-fix-for-keyboard-popup-in-desktop-mode.54862/page-11
Post by: miauw62 on November 05, 2015, 07:12:32 pm
Question: If I'm running DF or some other program and the FPS I'm getting is too slow for my liking, how do I determine which part of my hardware is causing the bottleneck? Or at least, which part would grant the greatest FPS boost if upgraded?I can't think of a program that lets you determine this, but for DF you're generally looking at single-thread performance and memory latency (RAM speed is a big part of this). (and cache size, but I doubt DF plays very nicely with the cache)
Without upgrading hardware, you could also try putting DF on a single core and removing all other programs from that core.
I'm not incredibly savvy about these things, though, most of it is things I've read, s take this with a grain of salt.
Post by: Arx on November 06, 2015, 12:19:13 am
Question: If I'm running DF or some other program and the FPS I'm getting is too slow for my liking, how do I determine which part of my hardware is causing the bottleneck? Or at least, which part would grant the greatest FPS boost if upgraded?
Research is often the best. Task Manager's process tab will tell you how much RAM and CPU each process sucks up, so if your bottleneck is one of those it'll show (I'm on a dual-core 1.5Ghz Intel, the number of things that hit 100% is rather high), but if it's your graphics card it's a bit harder. You could run benchmarking software, I guess, but the easiest way is likely to just be looking up what that program hits the hardest. DF, for instance, is widely acknowledged to require a beast of a CPU, a reasonable amount of RAM, and high RAM access speed.
Post by: Bohandas on November 09, 2015, 10:53:42 pm
These buttons take up space and prevent the zoom and fit to width buttons from being displayed if I use a smaller than maximized window size.
Post by: Aklyon on November 09, 2015, 10:56:45 pm
Post by: Bohandas on November 09, 2015, 10:58:42 pm
I know its not directly the answer you want, but have you tried using something besides acrobat reader?
Yes, but for some unexplained reason some documents glitch out and lock up when scrolling between pages in the other reader I use (PDF Complete).
Post by: Rose on November 10, 2015, 12:56:33 am
Also about acrobat reader 9 or 10, or whatever was the last one before DC.
http://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/ will give you 11. I'm trying that now, since DC is crap.
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 10, 2015, 01:08:53 am
Post by: Thief^ on November 10, 2015, 05:00:43 am
Post by: Akura on November 10, 2015, 05:44:52 am
I finished putting together my new PC hardware. Turning on the back power switch causes the mouse and keyboard to light up. Turning on the main power, it immediately shuts off, then turns back on, then off again, and so on.
Limited research into this suggests a whole gamut possible problems, from improperly installed CPU/CPU fan to a dead CMOS battery. I doubt it's the battery, I just got this motherboard, and I'm pretty sure I installed the CPU and fan correctly- far better than the last time I installed an Intel stock fan(it doesn't wiggle this time!).
I originally thought it might be an insufficient power supply, but mine has a power output of 630w and most high-end(multiple GPUs, etc. More than mine) supposed take around 700w, and I've seen a video of someone testing a hardware configuration similar to mine with a 460w power supply(his problem was the CMOS battery).
Post by: Thief^ on November 10, 2015, 05:52:43 am
Post by: Arx on November 10, 2015, 06:02:24 am
Foxit is an extremely good reader, as is Nitro PDF.
Amen to this.
I just use chrome's built-in PDF reader mostly, am I a bad person?
I use Firefox's fifty percent of the time. :P
Post by: Akura on November 10, 2015, 06:40:41 am
I do not know what the LDO regulator is or looks like.
Post by: Thief^ on November 10, 2015, 08:44:40 am
Hope that helps :)
Post by: i2amroy on November 10, 2015, 12:12:21 pm
I literally just use the Chrome/Safari one for non-downloaded ones or the basic mac image viewing program (which does a wonderful job with pdf's) for ones I download. :PI just use chrome's built-in PDF reader mostly, am I a bad person?I use Firefox's fifty percent of the time. :P
Post by: Akura on November 10, 2015, 06:08:30 pm
EDIT: Leaving the PSU turned on for a few minutes did work. Huzzah!
EDIT2: Okay, whatever jackass designed this did not put the correct drivers on the driver disk, among them the drivers for the Ethernet device(meaning no internet). Fortunately, I do have my old USB-based wireless adapter from my days of pirating the neighbor's unsecured wifi(before they sevured it) and it still works.
Post by: Thief^ on November 11, 2015, 04:43:11 am
Post by: Akura on November 11, 2015, 06:09:03 am
Also found a bunch of bloatware on the install disc, including something that supposedly improves internet speed, but just launches your browser to its page on startup. And then opened to a page asking why I was uninstalling it when I uninstalled it.
Post by: Bohandas on November 11, 2015, 06:56:31 pm
Foxit is an extremely good reader, as is Nitro PDF.
Foxit uses a ribbon interface and Nitro PDF's website asked me for a bunch of personal information.
Post by: Bohandas on November 11, 2015, 07:01:05 pm
http://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/downloadafter.html
Post by: Aklyon on November 11, 2015, 07:06:31 pm
Post by: Bohandas on November 11, 2015, 07:17:24 pm
Last time I used it foxit reader did not look like newer msoffice versions, so I'm not sure where you get the ribbon interface from.
https://www.foxitsoftware.com/products/pdf-reader/
Post by: Akura on November 14, 2015, 07:42:27 am
Post by: Aklyon on November 14, 2015, 07:44:50 am
Post by: Akura on November 14, 2015, 08:02:41 am
EDIT: Turns out my original assessment of the situation was a bit off. There seems to be a legal version available, and there's apparently no difference in the installer between retail and OEM. It's just the license key. Mine is coming in the mail, and Windows generally does offer a 30-day trial. (assuming it doesn't ask for the key during install)
Post by: Flying Dice on November 16, 2015, 02:55:41 am
Foxit is an extremely good reader, as is Nitro PDF.
Foxit uses a ribbon interface and Nitro PDF's website asked me for a bunch of personal information.
Maybe it was just my experience, but Nitro PDF was also absolute shit. It loaded documents super-slowly and constantly crashed.
Post by: Chiefwaffles on November 19, 2015, 10:49:10 pm
It actually only seems to occur when playing Fallout 4, so there's a small chance it could simply be a really bad FO4 bug, but I doubt it. This could also point to an issue with the GPU, which seems likely. Windows (10) has crashed pretty disastrously numerous times after about 4-10 minutes of playing. First time the audio just had a "static"-type spike for a brief moment and my computer froze when I went to the menu. Had to hard reset after that. Next time (during dialog), I experienced an even worse audio spike and my screen just turned completely red. Nothing else. Just a solid color red.
Eventually my computer reset itself.
AFTER THAT, I tried playing again. Played a tiny bit, then got to the menu. Huge extreme continuous audio spike and the game crashed. And by "continuous audio spike" I mean "audio static * 10 until the game process ended." Was able to use my computer for about a minute afterwards, then I got a BSOD with the error code "KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED." A bit of googling suggest it's a driver problem, but I can't really find any information about the overall issue other than that.
I have a Radeon R9 270. (May not be exact. Definitely R9 2xx.) My guess is Windows automatically updated drivers and I got a buggy driver for my GPU. Since I believe my GPU driver also handles audio output (I use HDMI audio), that could also explain the audio spikes. Or that may just be generic crashing stuff.
Any help here on what to do?
EDIT: Updating to beta drivers manually fixed the problem.
Post by: Sonlirain on November 20, 2015, 12:48:10 pm
Anyway my current setup looks like this.
CPU
AMD FX-6300
RAM
8,00GB Single-Channel DDR3
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-78LMT-S2 (Socket M2)
Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650
Storage
698GB Seagate
PSU
BanditPower LPK-12-30 500W (in theory more on that later)
Now i don't want to do much. Only Upgrade the graphics card to GeForce 950 or maybe 960.
All would be simple (i replaced one busted GPU in the past and can do so again if need be) if not for the PSU.
It's a no brand PSU that served me remarkably well for the past 3.5 years. However it might not take kindly to increasing the load on it (no matter how much it can take on paper) and fry some vital components...
Now i'm kinda useless at those things (never built a PC myself you see) So i'd be happy if someone could suggest me a relatively inexpensive PSU i could buy alongside a new GPU that at the same time won't run the risk of sudden combustion and taking half of the PC with it.
Post by: Thief^ on November 20, 2015, 04:33:58 pm
Corsair's a good brand, so's Antec, but more generally anything with an 80+ certification (e.g. "80+ bronze") is decent.
EDIT:
(The standards no longer change every 2 years shifting from PCI tp AGP and then back to PCI-E ETC.)FYI PCI-E isn't "back", it's not really related to or compatible with the old PCI.
Also, PCI-E has been the standard for a full decade now.
Post by: Aklyon on November 20, 2015, 05:29:09 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on November 20, 2015, 05:31:05 pm
Also, PCI-E has been the standard for a full decade now.
I know PCI-E is different from the old PCI. I'm just saying that i think the development of hardware slowed down enough for me to care to upgrade my current rig instead of waiting for another standard change. My 2 previous PCs quickly capped before needing complete refurbishing that basically meant building a new PC from the ground up because the motherboard can't take in a new CPU or RAM.
Mind you i'm really into bulding PCs from the ground up so there you go.
Also Secondary plan because the prices are similar in the end i could upgrade my PSU to this http://www.bequiet.com/en/powersupply/388 and get a "R9 380" because... well there is no escaping from throwing a lot of money at the GPU problem because i have to replace that PSU anyway...
I don't think I've seen an agp slot on something actually being used, either.
They were popular for a time between 2000 and 2005 and i had the luck of buying my PCs always shortly before some huge standard change that instantly bottlenecked the whole thing.
Post by: Akura on November 20, 2015, 07:07:35 pm
Every time I boot my PC, I have to reinstall the drivers for my graphics card - GeForce GTX 750 TI with nVidia driver version 359.00(tried with older driver versions as well). Otherwise, games will crash upon switching to fullscreen. I haven't quite nailed down how/when the switch causes it.
I have tried completely removing the driver and reinstalling, but that made the PC almost unbootable for some reason. Luckily, I put a System Restore point just beforehand.
Post by: Thief^ on November 21, 2015, 02:28:10 am
Also Secondary plan because the prices are similar in the end i could upgrade my PSU to this http://www.bequiet.com/en/powersupply/388 and get a "R9 380" because... well there is no escaping from throwing a lot of money at the GPU problem because i have to replace that PSU anyway...
Looks good. The r9 380 is a beast, but that is a good PSU, 80+ rated, can supply nearly the entire 600W over 12V (very little in a PC uses the other voltages these days) and looks to have plenty of connectors. Should do the job.
Post by: highzealot on November 22, 2015, 03:54:54 pm
I'm wondering what would be the best CPU and GPU upgrades I could get without replacing my motherboard or power supply
Here's my current components:
- Motherboard: Gigabyte B75M-D3H mATX LGA1155 B75 DDR3 2PCI-E16 2PCI HDMI CrossFireX SATA3 USB3.0 Motherboard
- Power Supply: Seasonic SS-400ET 400W EPS12V 20/24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 80PLUS 6PIN PCI-E 120mm Fan OEM
- CPU: Intel Core i3 3220 Dual Core Hyperthreading Processor LGA1155 3.3GHZ Ivy Bridge 3MB
- GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 OC 1100MHZ 1GB 5.0GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI HDMI VGA PCI-E Video Card
- RAM: Kingston ValueRAM 8GB (2X4GB) DDR3 1333 CL9 240-PIN SDRAM
Post by: Sheb on November 22, 2015, 04:52:13 pm
Post by: IronTomato on November 22, 2015, 08:05:15 pm
Also, I'm planning to upgrade my graphics card as well, so I would also like to know if I would ever have to worry about the CPU and GPU conflicting with each other. I know nothing about computer upgrades.
Post by: Graknorke on November 22, 2015, 08:25:46 pm
EDIT: Here's a thing that'll help: http://www.cpu-world.com/Sockets/Socket%20FM1.html
Post by: IronTomato on November 22, 2015, 08:56:41 pm
Post by: MaximumZero on November 22, 2015, 11:13:54 pm
I'm wondering what would be the best CPU and GPU upgrades I could get without replacing my motherboard or power supplyThat really depends on your budget and opinion on specific brands.
Post by: Rose on November 22, 2015, 11:29:24 pm
How does this look for the rest of the upgrade?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He says his budget is around ₹25,000, but I have a hard time fitting something worthwhile in there.
This is the site I use for prices and availability: https://www.theitdepot.com/
Post by: Bohandas on November 22, 2015, 11:55:43 pm
Post by: Rose on November 22, 2015, 11:59:52 pm
Though computer prices here tend to be slightly above average.
Post by: Thief^ on November 23, 2015, 05:44:16 am
The power supply is probably over-spec for a single mid-high range graphics card. Some quick googling suggests that that setup will use somewhere in the vicinity of 300W, so a 400-500W PSU would be more than enough. You could maybe save a little here.
Ram-wise, make sure to buy two matched sticks rather than one. Everything's dual-channel these days, so you will get double the ram performance out of 2x4GB than 1x8GB.
I would consider upgrading to 16 GB of ram in the future. The current consoles only have 8 GB, so 8 GB will likely be enough to run games for several years, but there are already games coming out that "recommend" 16 GB. The motherboard looks to have 4 sockets (two pairs), so you can easily upgrade to 16 GB later.
Post by: Sonlirain on November 23, 2015, 08:44:10 am
Quote
Considering you don't need that much power you might want to downgrade the wattage and take a weaker but more efficient PSU like this for example.
http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=220-G2-0550-Y1 It still has more than enbough power and should lower the energy bills (and pay for itself in the long run. And the run will be long because it has a 7 year warranty)
I have the exact same CPU and i'm happy with it. Altho it hails from glorious year 2012 it still has quite a bit of power for running games and an amazing power to price ratio. However i don't think it will hold out for too long now so you might want to check for stronger alternatives. Can't really suggest anything tho because 6300 is the king when it comes to power/price ratio..
Post by: highzealot on November 23, 2015, 12:36:57 pm
I'm wondering what would be the best CPU and GPU upgrades I could get without replacing my motherboard or power supplyThat really depends on your budget and opinion on specific brands.
For budget, I'll say around $400 usd.
I prefer Intel CPUs and nvida GPUs though I would be fine with any brand
While I would prefer specific part recommendations, just knowing if I can get a decent upgrade on both CPU and GPU without issues from not having enough power from the psu is fine
Post by: Thief^ on November 23, 2015, 12:56:27 pm
You can get an nVidia GTX 960 or AMD R9 380 for ~$200, leaving ~$200 to get a similar clock speed quad-core i5. That only totals ~220W leaving loads of headroom in your PSU. That's for the nvidia card, it's ~290W with AMD GPU + Intel CPU, which might be pushing it.
Disclaimer: Prices from newegg.com, I'm not US-ian, use your preferred retailer :)
Post by: Bohandas on November 24, 2015, 05:30:31 pm
Can any of you see a solution that doesn't entail uninstalling the fix?
Here's that link again for reference:
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/threads/my-fix-for-keyboard-popup-in-desktop-mode.54862/page-11
Post by: Sonlirain on November 26, 2015, 11:59:54 am
I instaleld the new PSU and R9.
All was well.
Alas i'm a dumb urist and... well... while my PC is semi good i soon learned a few things about having a powerful GPU plugged in.
For one thing after your PC graduates from home to "Gaming" you... umm... well you need case fans. Something completely alien to me till now.
So Long story short. After running a benchmark i noticed the GPU was roaring. A quick check of the temperatures revealed that my HDD is currently cooking in 56 degrees.
So Bechmark off and a quick google leads me to believe that case fans are a standard piece of hardware rather than what i was assumed to be a money sink for crazed overclockers.
So yeah... lesson learned without any real damage (thankfully).
I have to either strip the case and put a fan next to it or pony up more money for fans (or a case that supports those in the first place).
OH WELL! At least nothing caught fire.
Sonlirain dabbling hardware specialist.
Post by: Thief^ on November 26, 2015, 12:08:02 pm
I don't know of any cases that don't have those two mounts, and you don't really need any others.
Was that 56°C? That's quite hot for a hdd... Not unusual for CPU or GPU temperatures though.
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 26, 2015, 12:43:45 pm
Post by: Aklyon on November 26, 2015, 12:58:09 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 26, 2015, 01:08:09 pm
If your case is too small for what you have in it, you should probably get a bigger case, not just leave the side off. That leaves the entire thing open to dust.
Computer cases cost money. I'm perpetually short on that, and can't spare it to solve a problem I can put off easily enough.
Post by: Sonlirain on November 26, 2015, 03:59:45 pm
Puting a fan next to it helps with the problem but a loud rickety ghetto fan blowing at an open case is not my idea of a 330$ computer upgrade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--7OxLq4ofk&feature=youtu.be
I'm kinda worried really because i don't know if the case fans i'll grab tomorrow will be enough
Post by: Thief^ on November 26, 2015, 04:03:03 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on November 26, 2015, 04:06:10 pm
The HDD temp with the GPU idle for some time apparently dropped to 47 deg. Again can't say how accurate it is.
Post by: Thief^ on November 26, 2015, 04:12:56 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on November 26, 2015, 04:33:21 pm
Also.
698GB Seagate ST3750640NS ATA Device (SATA) 49 °C
It quite obviously says Celsius. It might have something to do with my positioning i guess. I put the HDD as far away from the GPU as i can. However "as far away" was in a 5.25 inch slot a bit above and to the side so the heat
radiating upwards might be getting to it.
Other than that i have no clue.
Post by: Bohandas on November 27, 2015, 11:52:23 am
Post by: BigD145 on November 27, 2015, 11:55:03 am
Are there any file search programs that can search for text within .mht and/or .maff files?
Notepad++ perhaps?
Post by: Sonlirain on November 27, 2015, 02:49:26 pm
Looks like my HDD is damaged and has some bad sectors after only 3 years of use.
Additionally current temperature oscilates at around 42 degrees when idle.
The high temperature seems to be a typical thing among this generation of seagate HDDs (mostly a guess i jsut saw some benchmarks showing another ST3750640NS and it's temp oscilated around 43 deg.
With a fan the temperature problem is somewhat diminished (it does not explode to 55 deg after a 30 second benchmark) but after playing 50 minutes of Shadow of mordor in high settings the HDD temp rose up to 51 degs and the PC reset soon afterwards.
So yeah. Looks like i will be replacing the HDD as well then?
Sigh...
Post by: Thief^ on November 27, 2015, 03:14:50 pm
Post by: RoguelikeRazuka on November 27, 2015, 03:34:23 pm
Currently I imagine my new pc as something like this:
Motherboard -- ASUS z170 PRO GAMING
CPU -- Intel Core i5 6600k
RAM -- Corsair Vengeance LPX CMK86X4M2A2400C14 DDR4 2x4GB
Power supply unit -- Thermaltake RX 650 W
CPU cooler -- Zalman CNPS10X Optima
HDD - Western Digital Black 1TB
Computer case -- ZALMAN Z3 PLUS
Which is the graphical card going to be is not decided yet, I think I'll buy one some later (maybe simply get a used HD 7970).
The hindrance that prevents me from rushing for those parts immediately is that I'm not quite sure if it's really necessary to buy an i5 6600k (and thus more expensive RAM and motherboard) instead of i5 4690k (with a z97 and some relatively cheap DDR3 RAM), people say were I just upgrading my old pc, it'd be wiser to get Haswell, but since I'm buying an entirely new one, it's better to pay more for better performance, newer technologies, lesser power consuming and all. On the other hand, the tests keep telling that there's quite little difference in terms of performance between Haswell and Skylake (just like it's for even i5 2500k processors). What would you say on that guys?
One more thing: I'm going to play in past-gen 1080p@60fps (at least I hope for that), the games I prefer to get my hands on are the following: Dwarf Fortress 2 (no doubt), Watch_Dogs, Dying Light, Witcher 3, Rome: Total War 2, Arma III, GTA V, Civilization V, Fallout 4, the new XCOM maybe.
Thank you in advance. :)
Post by: Thief^ on November 27, 2015, 03:52:47 pm
The DDR4 spec can theoretically grow to faster speeds than DDR3 in the future, but you'll still need a new motherboard and CPU to use it, so getting DDR4 now isn't future proof at all.
Also seriously, get an SSD.
Post by: Sonlirain on November 27, 2015, 04:17:35 pm
Also seriously, get an SSD.
I'll second that. Even if its only a tiny 120 GB SSD you'd only use for Windows. It's just worth it because from my experience HDDs tend to slow down massively after a few years.
My current HDD might not be the best example (it developed bad sectors in only 3 years and will likely break completely in a few months) but nowdays i can boot the PC and go make coffee because booting up takes around 10 minutes now despite there being plenty of space on the system partition.
The difference in DDR3 and 4 is minimal at best for now anjd i mean literally fractions altho slower CPUs tend to get a larger benefit from them Other than that it's still around 1-5 fps difference at best..
Personally if you'd ask me i'd wait for AMD to make a move.
Post by: BigD145 on November 27, 2015, 04:21:23 pm
Post by: RoguelikeRazuka on November 28, 2015, 03:16:37 am
i5 4690k OR i5 6600k
MSI z97 GAMING 5 OR ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING
CORSAIR Vengeance Pro CMY16GX3M2A1600C9 DDR3 2x8GB OR CORSAIR Vengeance LPX CMK16GX4M2A2400C14 DDR4 2x8GB
ZALMAN CNPS10X Performa (120 mm)
Wester Digital Black 1 TB
Thermaltake TR2 RX 650W
ZALMAN Z3 PLUS
it's 818$ vs 865$ (still under 1k$). Worth it?
As for which motherboard to get -- what are your suggestions?
And hey, is 650W enough for HD 7970 and either of those configs above?
Post by: itisnotlogical on November 28, 2015, 06:11:55 am
Post by: Sonlirain on November 28, 2015, 07:22:24 am
And hey, is 650W enough for HD 7970 and either of those configs above?
Can'\t suggest a mobo because i don't consider myself informed well enough but i can drop you this.
http://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator
I made a test and from the looks of it a 550W PSU should handle it but it all depends on the GPU you pick.
Nvidia GPUs have worse power/price ratio but are more energy efficient while AMD both gives and takes more power (at least when compared with a card from the same class.
Basically from what i could gather:
Your setup + GTX 980 + SSD (barely worth mentioning but i will anyway) = 407 Watt usage.
Same but with a R9 380 = 442W
Long story short. 650W is more than enough and if you want a Nvidia card you can safely even get a 550W PSU.
Also as a sidenote. AMD CPU + AMD GPU will eat so much power it's not funny.
Post by: Bohandas on November 28, 2015, 10:06:57 am
I quite like Firefox, but there's something that annoys me after switching from Chrome: When it goes to full screen on Youtube, there's an annoying "fade through black" transition, whereas Chrome would just instantly pop the video up. Is there any way to disable this transition? I've looked in the options menu and can't find anything.
Not sure offhand. You could try entering "about:config" into your address bar (this brings up the super-advanced settings page) and skimming through the available options.
Turning off themes might help too, but it'll make he rest of the page look like crap.
Post by: RoguelikeRazuka on November 28, 2015, 11:07:22 am
Post by: BigD145 on November 28, 2015, 11:16:57 am
Post by: gimlet on November 28, 2015, 12:29:07 pm
Post by: RoguelikeRazuka on November 28, 2015, 12:33:03 pm
Post by: Flying Dice on November 28, 2015, 01:03:08 pm
Post by: Thief^ on November 28, 2015, 02:21:51 pm
Post by: Flying Dice on November 28, 2015, 02:56:11 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on November 28, 2015, 03:07:20 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 28, 2015, 09:06:54 pm
Well it depends on how much storage you actually need to use at once. A lot of people would probably be fine with only a 240-256 GB SSD, unless they pirate a lot. Larger SSDs are available if you have lots of money, but the current ideal would seem to be a games+OS SSD and a data drive for pirated shit.
(http://lpix.org/2295262/baka.png)
I think you're about 15 years out of date as far as how much space shit takes up.
Post by: Aklyon on November 28, 2015, 09:18:53 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on November 28, 2015, 09:49:16 pm
I think you're about 15 years out of date as far as how much space shit takes up.Or he just has only a bunch of games installed at any one time and won't keep 70 games installed all at once despite never playing 60 of them.
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 28, 2015, 10:38:23 pm
I think you're about 15 years out of date as far as how much space shit takes up.Or he just has only a bunch of games installed at any one time and won't keep 70 games installed all at once despite never playing 60 of them.
Those ARE only the games I plan to play at least a little within a month. Half my Steam library is not installed.
Post by: Sonlirain on November 28, 2015, 10:48:56 pm
Still how many of those games you actually will play next month? Because i realized i have loads of games i kinda keep but never play.
Post by: Thief^ on November 29, 2015, 03:05:56 am
Post by: Sonlirain on November 29, 2015, 10:13:17 am
Exactly.
Yeah but with a 120GB SSD i will be back in 1998 when i had to wonder if i want to have several games ready or just Jagged Alliance 2 (and nothing else). Even i don't want to go back to thosae dark times.
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 29, 2015, 11:51:34 am
Still how many of those games you actually will play next month? Because i realized i have loads of games i kinda keep but never play.
Enough that I don't want to risk having to wait two hours and waste a huge chunk of my bandwidth cap because I'm too fucking stupid to use a proper hard drive and have to redownload it.
Post by: Sonlirain on November 29, 2015, 01:11:10 pm
Post by: Flying Dice on November 29, 2015, 03:28:19 pm
Still how many of those games you actually will play next month? Because i realized i have loads of games i kinda keep but never play.
Enough that I don't want to risk having to wait two hours and waste a huge chunk of my bandwidth cap because I'm too fucking stupid to use a proper hard drive and have to redownload it.
God, this. It takes me anywhere from ten to sixty hours of downloading to get most modern games, and I've got a connection good enough to stream in 1080p or play most any game at ~30ms ping. Unless you've got Google Fiber or something it's flat-out retarded to just get a 100-200ish GB SSD and download or uninstall games when you want to play them, with how cheap hard drive space is these days. I'm on a brand new computer, only have ~7-8 games installed on Steam right now, and my Steam folder is 257 GB. That's already more than twice the size of my SSD's capacity. If I wanted to install every game I owned, I'd probably need ~2 TB of space just for Steam.
Post by: miauw62 on November 29, 2015, 03:35:08 pm
Post by: Graknorke on November 29, 2015, 03:35:59 pm
Tbh steam should just implement support for multiple game locations at this point, so stuff like Fallout 4 can be on your SSD for fast loading while stuff like Risk of Rain resides on your hard drive.You can do that, you know.
Steam>Settings>Downloads>Steam Library Folders
Post by: miauw62 on November 29, 2015, 03:37:33 pm
Post by: BigD145 on November 29, 2015, 04:29:26 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 29, 2015, 05:06:00 pm
Tbh steam should just implement support for multiple game locations at this point, so stuff like Fallout 4 can be on your SSD for fast loading while stuff like Risk of Rain resides on your hard drive.
The conversation started with a claim that almost nobody needs anything except an SSD, as 240 GB is enough for anybody.
Post by: Flying Dice on November 29, 2015, 08:31:45 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on November 29, 2015, 09:02:50 pm
I mean, to be fair, if your only interaction with computers is an office workstation used foryoutube and facebookemail and word processing that might actually be a valid claim... except no company is going to shell out to put SSDs in their workstations.
To be honest it's a choice between a 120 GB SSD and a 500 GB HDD.
Not sure if smaller HDDs are even worthy of noting and a company could use their computers booting up faster unless they work on space intensive projects. (Graphics. Games maybe?)
Post by: Flying Dice on November 29, 2015, 10:19:56 pm
Like I said, HDD storage is dirt-cheap compared to solid-state.
Post by: Thief^ on November 30, 2015, 02:11:33 am
It's like my downloads drive. I recently realised it's a full 1.5TB storage array, and was considering upgrading it, but I've realised there's only ~10GB or so of that that I've actually used recently, and all of that was downloaded recently as well. I should just wipe it and start over, as painful as that might be to do...
Post by: Aklyon on November 30, 2015, 09:20:57 am
Also, my steam library is actually the size of that ssd. But only because I removed shadow of mordor so I could defrag.
Post by: Sonlirain on November 30, 2015, 09:22:11 am
I just did some quick price-checking and 500GB HDDs are about half the price of 120GB SSDs, if you compare stuff with roughly equal consumer approval ratings.
Like I said, HDD storage is dirt-cheap compared to solid-state.
Well i jsut checked the prices of SDD and HDD in my local hardware store. 500 gig HDDs are around 40-50$ and SSDs start from 45$ so there is osme overlap. But i can't really comment on ther quality of either.
Post by: Bohandas on November 30, 2015, 02:12:06 pm
EDIT:
for Windows 7
Post by: Flying Dice on November 30, 2015, 03:22:17 pm
To those of you with a >500GB installed steam library who say you couldn't possibly get by with a 240GB SSD, how much of that have you actually played in the past month and how much are you keeping installed "just in case"?
It's like my downloads drive. I recently realised it's a full 1.5TB storage array, and was considering upgrading it, but I've realised there's only ~10GB or so of that that I've actually used recently, and all of that was downloaded recently as well. I should just wipe it and start over, as painful as that might be to do...
It takes me anywhere from ten to sixty hours of downloading to get most modern games, and I've got a connection good enough to stream in 1080p or play most any game at ~30ms ping. Unless you've got Google Fiber or something it's flat-out retarded to just get a 100-200ish GB SSD and download or uninstall games when you want to play them, with how cheap hard drive space is these days. I'm on a brand new computer, only have ~7-8 games installed on Steam right now, and my Steam folder is 257 GB. That's already more than twice the size of my SSD's capacity. If I wanted to install every game I owned, I'd probably need ~2 TB of space just for Steam.Literally less than a page ago. Every game I have installed (including stuff like GTA V, WoWS, Armored Warfare, LoL, &c. in addition to Steam) has been played in the past month. I've got close to 400GB of games in total installed and that's just a few of the multiplayer PvP things, a couple RPGs, and Wargame: Red Dragon.
Like, a 240GB would be close to half-full just from the F2P multiplayer stuff and my non-gaming files and programs.
Post by: highzealot on November 30, 2015, 03:30:17 pm
I'm currently looking at the i5-3450s and I'm wondering if
the process will rise, lower or go out of stock completely. Looking at Canadian retailers for reference. Used USD in a previous post as I thought it would be easier for others.
Post by: Sonlirain on November 30, 2015, 08:01:42 pm
I switched GPU Scaling in my radeon settings and everything went black. There was no warning or popups what doing it would do.
Now everything is black and my monitor keeps repeating "out of range".
I tried resetting and reinstalling the drivers in safe mode but no dice. It just remembers the settings. I even tried restoring to defaults but no dice.
The only way i can see working would be a complete system reinstall or somehow getting a monitor that supports GPU scaling (whatever it is) and switching it off.
Any ideas?
Ok saved my hide with a system return point. Disregard my post.
Post by: Bohandas on November 30, 2015, 08:46:59 pm
Either
1.) Only half of the selected files are copied
2.) Files that were supposed to be moved are copied instead
3.) File names are truncated. "[Fortuna] : Bask in a shower of buttons - Page 3.mht" becomes "Bask in a shower of buttons - Page 3.mht"
4.) Windows explorer crashes completely
This is really starting to piss me off. Can someone PLEASE help me with this?
EDIT:
The truncation issue seems to have something to do with Android and Windows having different sets of allowed characters for filenames (apparently ":" is not allowed in Windows file names) (but that doesn't explain why all text prior to the illegal character is deleted as well; I suspect that either lazy programming or some stupid ass obsolete space saving kludge held over from the days when computer programs were written on punchcards is the explanation for that however). At any rate, I can'y manually change all of the occurrences; there are hundreds of files with colons in them and I can't run any kind of file name search on my android anyway, either natively or through windows explorer.
This brings up some additional follpwup questions:
Is there any program that can mass rename files am an android device (to delete all colons from filenames)?
Is there any way to search files by file name or contents on an Android device?
Is there any free file explorer for windows that will interface with Android better than Windows Explorer does?
Is there any free file explorer for android that is more stable than ES File Explorer?
EDIT:
Please respond quickly. I'm trying to free up space soon so I'll have room to take videos at my cousin's wedding this weekend.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on November 30, 2015, 09:46:06 pm
May I recommed that you try asking a stackexchange site?
Post by: Bohandas on November 30, 2015, 09:51:34 pm
Post by: Aklyon on November 30, 2015, 10:06:25 pm
As a short and likely insufficient answer though, have you tried shoving all the files into an sd card and then moving them off of there instead of the phone?
Post by: TheBiggerFish on November 30, 2015, 10:24:34 pm
Stackexchange is a question-answering site forIt's broader than tech, but yeah, it's mostly known because of stackoverflow, the programming one. There's a lot of sites.tech. Sometimes its just a pile of programming questions though.
This seems like it might be a superuser question. Which is to say superuser.stackexchange.com I think. I'd take a moment to make sure, though.
Post by: Graknorke on November 30, 2015, 10:46:24 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on November 30, 2015, 11:04:06 pm
Just a warning, the moderators on stackexchange are on about the same level as Wikipedia's. Don't be surprised if your question gets shut down for "not a question" or something.It can't be not a question, and for crying out loud, what part of there's more than one site is hard to get?
Post by: Bohandas on December 01, 2015, 01:45:08 pm
http://superuser.com/questions/1007775/transferrig-downloaded-files-from-droid-maxx-to-pc-causes-glitches-and-sometimes
Post by: Graknorke on December 01, 2015, 05:37:28 pm
lel, who shat on your weetabix?Just a warning, the moderators on stackexchange are on about the same level as Wikipedia's. Don't be surprised if your question gets shut down for "not a question" or something.It can't be not a question, and for crying out loud, what part of there's more than one site is hard to get?
Anyway I meant stackoverflow, if that helps to untwist your knickers.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on December 01, 2015, 05:38:57 pm
Post by: Bohandas on December 02, 2015, 01:25:02 am
Post by: penguinofhonor on December 04, 2015, 10:11:32 am
Post by: Thief^ on December 04, 2015, 10:37:02 am
Post by: penguinofhonor on December 04, 2015, 02:46:06 pm
Also it has gone non-purple again. I went to work after my last post here, and when I got home and turned the monitor on it stayed purple for about a minute.
Post by: BigD145 on December 04, 2015, 02:48:54 pm
Post by: Bohandas on December 04, 2015, 02:52:06 pm
Reinstall your video drivers. It could be an overheating video card.If that's the case cleaning out the fans with canned air might help too
Post by: BigD145 on December 04, 2015, 02:55:09 pm
Lock/hold the fan blades in place if you do. Spinning them too fast can kill them.Reinstall your video drivers. It could be an overheating video card.If that's the case cleaning out the fans with canned air might help too
Post by: IronTomato on December 05, 2015, 11:55:42 am
I seem to have a good graphics card picked out, but I'm still worried about my choice of CPU. I found a good looking motherboard which comes with an AMD FX-6300 for around $200 (I think? I can't remember). I'm trying to get something that I can use to play next-gen games on my 1600x900 monitor well, so would this be good? Should I get an FX-8350 instead? Should I just not get an AMD cpu and get something from Intel instead? Should I wait for a while to get one of the new CPUs that AMD is coming out with next year?
Post by: TheBiggerFish on December 05, 2015, 12:39:15 pm
I am not. I believe the cable I am using is DVI-D. My monitor has HDMI and VGA ports as well so maybe it's just this port/cord? I'll try those later.Make sure it's plugged all the way in.
Also it has gone non-purple again. I went to work after my last post here, and when I got home and turned the monitor on it stayed purple for about a minute.
I ran into something with an awkwardly plugged in monitor that had a red sort of tinge to things.
Post by: SirQuiamus on December 05, 2015, 01:51:52 pm
If you're connected via VGA, then it could be a bad cable, or bad socket, etc. VGA can cause all sorts of issues like that.DVI/HDMI cables are just as susceptible to such issues, if not more. Especially cheap ones; I've encountered a few that started causing purple or green artifacts fresh out of the box.
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 05, 2015, 02:45:08 pm
Okay, so I'm trying this again because I hate myself.
I seem to have a good graphics card picked out, but I'm still worried about my choice of CPU. I found a good looking motherboard which comes with an AMD FX-6300 for around $200 (I think? I can't remember). I'm trying to get something that I can use to play next-gen games on my 1600x900 monitor well, so would this be good? Should I get an FX-8350 instead? Should I just not get an AMD cpu and get something from Intel instead? Should I wait for a while to get one of the new CPUs that AMD is coming out with next year?
Either the FX-6300 or the -8350 should do quite well, but you need to make sure you have good cooling in the case you're planning on - AMD processors tend to be cheaper for the performance, but run hotter.
Post by: Sonlirain on December 05, 2015, 02:55:24 pm
Okay, so I'm trying this again because I hate myself.
I seem to have a good graphics card picked out, but I'm still worried about my choice of CPU. I found a good looking motherboard which comes with an AMD FX-6300 for around $200 (I think? I can't remember). I'm trying to get something that I can use to play next-gen games on my 1600x900 monitor well, so would this be good? Should I get an FX-8350 instead? Should I just not get an AMD cpu and get something from Intel instead? Should I wait for a while to get one of the new CPUs that AMD is coming out with next year?
FX-6300 is "adequate" for now. I was making some recordings and uploaded them on youtube (using OBS and the AMD Gaming Evolved utility)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOFL1qh9URk
GPU recording (using an R9 380 and FX-6300)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOWvcZOg9P0
OBS recording (software that adds load on the CPU)
Everything set to either high or ultra as well and as you can see the FPS is manageable but not amazing (slowdowns to 30 fps are ok in my book)
The problem with FX-6300 and boards that accept is is that they can't be really upgraded past FX-8350. Everything beyond that is stupidly expensive and power hungry without giving much extra power in return.
So are FX CPUs good? Yes they are adequate. Just don't expect smooth 60 FPS at all times. More like 45 average if you want high fidelity.
Oh and htey take more power and get hotter so you should get a good PSU. Especially if you are going to use a Radeon alongside them.
Also ignore the desynced sound. I was editing the videos in youtube and apparently the sound got screwed.
Post by: DrunkGamer on December 06, 2015, 05:23:45 pm
I'm using the latest version of Xubuntu and, with the help of an HDMI cable, have basically turned my TV into a second screen.
I have a problem when playing DF (and a few other games too), though.
When I try to go fullscreen, the game uses BOTH screen at the SAME time. Anyone knows any fix? I can, as always, just maximize it, but the game lags a lot when maximized.
Post by: penguinofhonor on December 07, 2015, 08:58:59 am
Post by: timferius on December 07, 2015, 02:44:45 pm
Phenom II X4 970, AM3+ socket
8GB DDR3 Ram
750 Watt power supply (I think I'm still good here?)
Any suggestions?
Post by: wierd on December 07, 2015, 02:54:56 pm
I'm stuck here. Needing some help.
I'm using the latest version of Xubuntu and, with the help of an HDMI cable, have basically turned my TV into a second screen.
I have a problem when playing DF (and a few other games too), though.
When I try to go fullscreen, the game uses BOTH screen at the SAME time. Anyone knows any fix? I can, as always, just maximize it, but the game lags a lot when maximized.
Linux in general has difficulty with multi-monitor setups. (it is one of the reasons why USB to VGA adapters are not well tolerated by Linux, unless they are the ONLY adapter on the system.)
I dont have a good solution for you. Perhaps use the WIn32 version of DF with Wine?
Post by: Nullsrc on December 08, 2015, 04:03:09 pm
I'm stuck here. Needing some help.
I'm using the latest version of Xubuntu and, with the help of an HDMI cable, have basically turned my TV into a second screen.
I have a problem when playing DF (and a few other games too), though.
When I try to go fullscreen, the game uses BOTH screen at the SAME time. Anyone knows any fix? I can, as always, just maximize it, but the game lags a lot when maximized.
The following is an Arch Linux wiki article about multihead and dual-monitor setups. You may be able to use its info in your attempts.
Multihead#Full_screen_games (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Multihead#Full_screen_games)
Post by: Thief^ on December 09, 2015, 01:36:02 am
Ok, so update on my computer upgrades. Due to finance limitations I'm getting a GTX960 for Christmas, still a big leap over my 6970. All I need now is a new MB, but I'm really terrible at telling what I want in one. I'd prefer to keep it around $100 Canadian. The rest of my build is as follows:Pretty much any motherboard should do, it doesn't look like you need anything fancy. I personally go for Gigabyte boards, and a friend of mine swears by MSI.
Phenom II X4 970, AM3+ socket
8GB DDR3 Ram
750 Watt power supply (I think I'm still good here?)
Any suggestions?
That PSU is more than enough, assuming it's half decent. You probably only need 400W total for that build, 500W to be safe, so 750W is quite a lot.
Post by: Sappho on December 13, 2015, 03:24:18 pm
The album I'm trying to listen to is this one, though I've tried others and none of them seem to work for me: http://freezedream.bandcamp.com/album/arrival
Post by: XXSockXX on December 13, 2015, 04:12:38 pm
Are other sites like soundcloud or youtube working for you?
Post by: TheBiggerFish on December 13, 2015, 10:26:27 pm
Post by: Sappho on December 14, 2015, 02:30:40 am
It seems to be working ok for the moment, as it did at this time of day yesterday. However, I have a similar problem with Facebook sometimes. Whole internet works fine, but Facebook is so laggy that the page basically won't load. Only happens at home and at certain times of day - when I'm at work or elsewhere, no problems. I have never been able to figure out what the deal is with that. But my internet connection is absolute balls, so I wouldn't be the least surprised if the ISP was somehow responsible, though I couldn't imagine how that would happen to such specific sites. Any ideas?
Post by: TheBiggerFish on December 14, 2015, 06:47:18 am
As in, checking the URL you're giving them and messing with the load times.
Post by: wierd on December 14, 2015, 07:06:00 am
Try accessing the pages through their IP addresses instead of their friendly name urls. See if that resolves the issue. If it does, then suspect DNS. Otherwise, try a traceroute to the hosts in question, and see where the timeout happens.
Post by: IronTomato on December 14, 2015, 07:16:21 pm
Ah, I see. Thank you very much.Okay, so I'm trying this again because I hate myself.
I seem to have a good graphics card picked out, but I'm still worried about my choice of CPU. I found a good looking motherboard which comes with an AMD FX-6300 for around $200 (I think? I can't remember). I'm trying to get something that I can use to play next-gen games on my 1600x900 monitor well, so would this be good? Should I get an FX-8350 instead? Should I just not get an AMD cpu and get something from Intel instead? Should I wait for a while to get one of the new CPUs that AMD is coming out with next year?
FX-6300 is "adequate" for now. I was making some recordings and uploaded them on youtube (using OBS and the AMD Gaming Evolved utility)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOFL1qh9URk
GPU recording (using an R9 380 and FX-6300)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOWvcZOg9P0
OBS recording (software that adds load on the CPU)
Everything set to either high or ultra as well and as you can see the FPS is manageable but not amazing (slowdowns to 30 fps are ok in my book)
The problem with FX-6300 and boards that accept is is that they can't be really upgraded past FX-8350. Everything beyond that is stupidly expensive and power hungry without giving much extra power in return.
So are FX CPUs good? Yes they are adequate. Just don't expect smooth 60 FPS at all times. More like 45 average if you want high fidelity.
Oh and htey take more power and get hotter so you should get a good PSU. Especially if you are going to use a Radeon alongside them.
Also ignore the desynced sound. I was editing the videos in youtube and apparently the sound got screwed.
Post by: Sonlirain on December 14, 2015, 09:43:11 pm
Ah, I see. Thank you very much.Well it may interest you that i did my first foray into overclocking and increased the clock speed from 200 to 210 giving me 4-5 extra FPS in War thunder tank battle benchmarks (basically i went from 40 average fps to 45 in a relatively CPU intensive benchmark). and the temperatures seem to be a somewhat stable 50 degrees after an hour of hammering it with Prime95.
Didn't get any instability issues so far but i can keep you posted if you are interested.
Post by: miauw62 on December 15, 2015, 05:38:17 am
https://www.dropbox.com/s/clhuby0641nalgs/Spraak%20002.m4a?dl=0
In case you want to hear it.
Post by: wierd on December 15, 2015, 07:41:51 am
Two solutions.
1) Order a replacement cooling fan from someplace like amazon, and install it. (Recommended. Seriously, they are NOT that expensive.)
2) Disconnect the fan, and carefully disassemble it. You will need a pair of hemostats and a dental pick. Usually, there are 2 to 3 clear/white plastic slip rings that hold the fan blade assembly on the stator shaft. Carefully remove these, then gently push on the shaft with the hemostats, until it pops loose. Be very careful not to lose any of the small pieces, or break any of the fan blades!! Once disassembled, you will find a very tiny (1/2cm, usually) ball bearing race assembly. Take this, and submerge it in something like WD40, and work it. Some brown gunk will come out. That's the dust contamination that is making it shriek. Once you have removed all the dirt this way, repeat the above, but use electrical contact cleaner to remove all the WD40. (Liquid oil encourages the contamination to return with vengeance. Remove it all with the contact cleaner bath.) Once the bearing race is all nice and clean, reassemble the fan, and replace the little plastic retainer rings very carefully with the hemostats. (Not recommended-- high risk of losing tiny parts-- only postpones the inevitable-- improper cleaning encourages more contamination. Contamination is a sign the seals have failed.)
Post by: miauw62 on December 15, 2015, 07:44:07 am
Also, will just ignoring the noise cause bad things to happen, or is it fine until I get a replacement?
Post by: wierd on December 15, 2015, 07:51:28 am
You CAN order them on Amazon. (http://www.amazon.com/Cooling-Laptop-110-1100-110-1000-537613-001/dp/B00DPFHN5M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1450183864&sr=8-2&keywords=laptop+fan+internal) (Just an example)
Post by: Thief^ on December 15, 2015, 07:53:10 am
This is a laptop fan, are they as easily replaceable?1. No. You might be lucky, but often just getting into a laptop is a chore, and the fan may well be moulded into the cooling assembly, meaning you need to replace the whole cooler with a laptop-specific part. That said, it is possible to do, and the parts are generally not too hard to get.
Also, will just ignoring the noise cause bad things to happen, or is it fine until I get a replacement?
2. The worst thing that could happen is that the noise stops.
Post by: wierd on December 15, 2015, 08:04:33 am
Once inside, the CPU and cooling system is usually comprised of a series of heat pipes leading to a heatsink radiator. The fan is typically of the design I linked to: A modified "Squirrel cage" type design. This pushes air over the heatsink. You typically do NOT need to disturb the heatsink and heatpipe assembly-- Just remove the 3 to 4 screws holding the fan down, and gently unplug the connector wire. There might be some adhesive tape holding the fan cowl down. Gentle pressure with a plastic spatula (or a cut up credit card) is usually quite adequate.
Basically, once you have it open, getting to the fan is usually painless. The typical SNAFU that happens is that the hinges of the laptop get all buggered because of terrible designs in most systems. I STRONGLY recommend finding a good disassembly guide if you insist on opening the laptop.
And as thief said, the WORST that will happen is that the noise will stop. (because the fan isn't blowing any more.)
Post by: miauw62 on December 15, 2015, 08:07:24 am
It doesn't look like getting the fan out would be that hard. Just have to make sure the replacement actually fits >.>
The laptop is a rebranded clevo, if that helps.
Post by: wierd on December 15, 2015, 08:09:02 am
Post by: miauw62 on December 15, 2015, 11:42:09 am
Post by: Thief^ on December 15, 2015, 12:24:17 pm
Post by: wierd on December 15, 2015, 06:23:21 pm
This is an "out of stock" fan for the w370ss.
www.amazon.ca/CPU-fan-for-Clevo-W370SS/dp/B00NAM0ILQ
If you zoom in on the picture and read the asset tag on the fan, it says:
6-31-W370S-101
I have found the exact same fan (same asset tag ID) on amazon here:
www.amazon.com/LRHKF-Cooling-W350ETQ-AB7905HX-DE3-6-31-W370S-101/dp/B015366PI6/ref=pd_sim_sbs_147_7?ie=UTF8&dpID=51NS0Kk6fCL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=0NHC9JCV61WGBQP3KV39
This suggests that the same fan is used in multiple models, and gives some pointers on alternate PNs to look up.
Armed with such knowledge, go forth and price shop on newegg and pals.
Post by: Sonlirain on December 15, 2015, 07:42:39 pm
But now it turns out my Motherboard officially supports upto 1333 so the extra ram speed won't really come into use anyway...
Post by: wierd on December 15, 2015, 08:32:25 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on December 15, 2015, 09:08:43 pm
And i bought good ram.
How good?
So good it says so on the sticker.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
(No seriously they are sold only in poland from the looks of it but the reviews are pretty positive so i'm not particularly afraid of it exploding. I'm just angry at myself because i bought high speed ram for a computer that won't really make any good use of it. Still dual acces is dual acces.)
Post by: Thief^ on December 16, 2015, 04:35:46 am
Also loving the brand name. I'm glad it's actually good stuff, unlike a lot of stuff with similar names...
Post by: miauw62 on December 16, 2015, 12:55:00 pm
Thanks for all the help <3
Post by: wierd on December 16, 2015, 01:50:13 pm
Post by: miauw62 on December 16, 2015, 01:58:10 pm
So yeah, I've still got warranty and they're apparently going to send me a free fan to replace the defective one.
I could send it in but I'm fairly confident I can do this myself and sending it in would probably mean I wouldn't get it back until after Christmas.
Post by: wierd on December 16, 2015, 02:13:40 pm
(a common practice with RMAs is to send the customer an "off the shelf" refurbished unit, then send the defective one to be factory refurbed, and added to the shelf to send to other customers. This is including desktop PCs and laptops.)
Post by: Sonlirain on December 16, 2015, 02:26:36 pm
Mobo fell apart and the local Mr. Fixit Mc.Longnose fixed it by replacing the motherboard. However strangely the CPU magically transformed into an Athlon 2800+.
So i suggest taking a good look at your hardware every time someone repairs it for you because ignorance can be abused.
Post by: wierd on December 16, 2015, 02:40:05 pm
Some laptops, typically those with intel processors, have an actual CPU socket on them. This was especially true in the pentium 4 era. This is however, sadly, not the rule, and rather the exception.
Ball Grid Array (BGA) chips are the norm.
Post by: Sonlirain on December 16, 2015, 05:12:11 pm
Post by: Thief^ on December 17, 2015, 07:38:50 am
It's an easy accident with laptop motherboards with a soldered CPU. If the laptop model number has been refreshed with newer specs, there can easily be a dozen or more variant motherboards. You even occasionally have it with mobile phone repairs.
But with a socketed chip it's nothing but theft. Especially if the CPU is particularly top-end / valuable.
Post by: Sonlirain on December 17, 2015, 02:26:22 pm
I'm not salty about all that however as the PC was pretty much junk tier when that happened.
Still it was a sudden unexplained swap he apparently hoped i wouldn't notice.
Post by: Insanegame27 on December 19, 2015, 02:15:49 am
Post by: wierd on December 19, 2015, 07:34:30 am
Once she has a good grasp of very basic HTML, and knows how variables and scripts work, and does not need constant hand holding, THEN go into other script languages besides javascript, and ease her into things like CSS, PHP, and pals. (While I rather hate using vbscript in webpages, there are times where javascript really isnt up to the task for certain things you might want a webpage to do. It is possible to have some script components in javascript and others in vbscript, with passed variables and conditions, for example. That's not very elegant, but sometimes ugly hacks are what work.)
More than likely though, she will get about 5 steps in, and go "Oh, this is hard, I dont want to do this-- Can you just do it all for me?" at which point you should remind her that webpage creation is something people get paid to do, and ask if she wants to hire your services.
Post by: Insanegame27 on December 19, 2015, 08:59:20 am
Post by: wierd on December 19, 2015, 09:12:54 am
It might imply that he has more grit than the average person, (eg, may stick with a difficult task until complete), but that does not mean that the instruction will be completely worthwhile for him.
Be that as it may, the basic process is the same. Start with the simple stuff, create foundations on which to build knowledge and competency of more complex things.
Post by: Sonlirain on December 19, 2015, 10:23:21 am
The gender is immaterial-- Coding, even easy stuff like that found in webpages, is not a mainstream aptitude. Special forces training does not exactly prepare one's mind for hard formal logic, like is needed with computer algorithms.
It might imply that he has more grit than the average person, (eg, may stick with a difficult task until complete), but that does not mean that the instruction will be completely worthwhile for him.
Be that as it may, the basic process is the same. Start with the simple stuff, create foundations on which to build knowledge and competency of more complex things.
I think he's afraid that the Spec Op will cross "The line" snap his neck sever the head and pour white phosphor down the esophagus rather than being worried about his teaching prowess.
Post by: Aklyon on December 19, 2015, 10:31:25 am
Post by: BigD145 on December 19, 2015, 11:11:55 am
I feel like pointing out the teacher in question is an ex-counter-special-forces male...
So he knows how to follow orders? Good. That should lead to zero arguments about what to code and how.
Post by: Nullsrc on December 19, 2015, 12:19:41 pm
I think he's afraid that the Spec Op will cross "The line" snap his neck sever the head and pour white phosphor down the esophagus rather than being worried about his teaching prowess.
"Sir... Sir! That's not how code gets written! Sir -- GAHHH!"
--Much later--
"The findings committee does indeed report that the method used is not how code is written."
Post by: Shadowlord on December 19, 2015, 05:18:02 pm
Post by: Insanegame27 on December 19, 2015, 05:20:41 pm
Do people still learn html these days instead of just using a program to do the job?Yes
Post by: wierd on December 19, 2015, 05:58:59 pm
Believe it or not, the sourcecode at Google.com WAS written by humans.
Automatic page markup programs (like pagemaker, and pals) produce webpages alright, but they do so using many unnecessary elements, ham-fisted scrip implementations, etc.
If you want to minimize traffic to your webserver, (many hosts charge you based on bandwidth), then you want to keep the file sizes down like it was still the 1990s. That's where much of the beauty of things like scripts embedded in pages are SUPPOSED to be. (NOT the stupid %&U$#ing facebook and google analytics cross-site tracking bullshite that I see everywhere.) Scripts can alter page content locally inside the browser of the viewer, and can do so without generating more traffic. It is possible to have a surprising amount of the message body and style information for the page be controlled by scripts in the header section, permitting a LOT of dynamic content without much connection footprint.
Again, that is how scripts are SUPPOSED to be used in webpages.
(If you are really clever, and dont mind proceedural content generation, you can even generate all of your image assets on the fly instead of fetching them. HTML5 and its canvas element is very useful for that. You can make a nice looking "Landing" initial view state, and display it, while the scripts in the background conjure up the necessary visual elements for your intended page state. Once the page is ready, it then transitions the display for you. Same exact page. Total bandwidth cost= just the initial HTTP GET for the page's source. But pretty much nobody does that kind of thing, because it is time consuming and breaks easily. Just saying it can be done.)
Usually, the big goal is "optimized dynamic display of data" and "Rapid page load". EG, many different devices are going to view that page, and it needs to look consistent on all of them. But there's a problem: Not all devices use the same browser, and not all browsers are created equally. In a perfect world, browser makers wouldnt try to add proprietary features to their browsers that break standards, but they do. Web designers have to deal with that. Also, as broadband internet speeds increase, the amount of time people are willing to wait for a page to load drops. It needs to be as close to instantaneous as possible. That means highly optimized markup.
Post by: Bohandas on December 19, 2015, 06:11:19 pm
Post by: wierd on December 19, 2015, 06:25:26 pm
You do that in device manager.
Just be SURE to use the "safely eject" dialog before removing it from the system though.
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 19, 2015, 06:25:26 pm
Post by: wierd on December 19, 2015, 06:27:37 pm
FAT32 cannot handle individual files larger than 4gb, even if the volume is bigger than that. On windows, your alternatives are ExFAT and NTFS.
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 19, 2015, 06:37:32 pm
That would be fat32's 4gb large file restriction.
FAT32 cannot handle individual files larger than 4gb, even if the volume is bigger than that. On windows, your alternatives are ExFAT and NTFS.
Most USB sticks I've had came with FAT32 installed, which is why I thought it was a possible solution to Bohandas's problem. I was trying to keep the explanation as non-technical as I could.
Post by: wierd on December 19, 2015, 06:44:38 pm
That wont stop you from reformatting as NTFS or ExFAT though, if you really need to. Just be aware that doing so will wipe the usb stick, and that those filesystems often have slower read/write performance on USB media.
I would check to see if the game's files hit the 4gb limit. If they do, that is probably the problem. If not, the steam downloader may be trying to shovel data into the device faster than can be written, and running out of write-behind buffer. Put the device into high performance mode and see if that fixes it.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on December 19, 2015, 07:53:45 pm
Do people still learn html these days instead of just using a program to do the job?Yes
Post by: Flying Dice on December 20, 2015, 04:52:44 am
That sounds excessive.Not to mention exceptionally unwise, considering that you'd be in touching-range of the WP.
Post by: Akura on December 20, 2015, 08:56:34 am
Post by: Aklyon on December 20, 2015, 09:15:56 am
Post by: Bauglir on December 20, 2015, 09:17:13 pm
When I try to boot from a LiveUSB, it simply doesn't. It boots from the next highest thing in the boot order instead. Disabling everything else causes it to go to the UEFI menu instead of booting. UEFI detects the hardware, in boot menus and suchlike, it just doesn't seem willing to do anything with it.
Boots just fine in Legacy mode, but I'd like to take advantage of some of the ease of dual-booting that UEFI offers once you get through the clusterfuck of making it work in the first place. Any suggestions for getting this to work?
EDIT: Nevermind. It needed to be NTFS. For some reason.
Post by: Bohandas on December 21, 2015, 02:38:47 pm
How do I verify that the port is indeed the problem? And once I've verified what do I do? Do I clean it? Replace it? What?
Post by: Aklyon on December 21, 2015, 02:47:09 pm
Post by: Bohandas on December 21, 2015, 10:57:27 pm
You can verify its the problem by testing your hub on a different port.
Seems to be working so far, but I can't be sure yet because it had only been happening about once per day anyway.
On a different, unrelated note has anybody else had trouble downloading videos from Youtube recently? Both my downloader add-ons have been failing about 50% of the time recently.
Post by: miauw62 on December 22, 2015, 11:00:57 am
How can I prevent my fan from breaking again?
Post by: Sonlirain on December 22, 2015, 11:58:21 am
Other than that and somehow managing to plug them into a socket that has the wrong voltage (near impossible) i don't think that there is anything you cna do to increase their lifespan.
Post by: crazysheep on December 22, 2015, 08:10:13 pm
Is it time for me to get a new graphics card?
Post by: gimlet on December 22, 2015, 10:06:20 pm
Post by: Bohandas on December 22, 2015, 10:36:21 pm
Post by: wierd on December 23, 2015, 02:32:39 am
Post by: Thief^ on December 23, 2015, 03:02:41 am
Is it time for me to get a new graphics card?Probably. January sales would be a good time.
Post by: crazysheep on December 23, 2015, 03:57:03 am
Post by: wierd on December 23, 2015, 03:59:09 am
Post by: miauw62 on December 23, 2015, 06:43:16 am
Any ideas?
E:
I put the old fan back in...
I think one of the wires on the new fan might be damaged because it's such a tight fit :(
Post by: Bouchart on December 23, 2015, 03:36:24 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on December 23, 2015, 04:20:16 pm
It might fix the problem.
Then, try the below.
Post by: wierd on December 23, 2015, 04:23:35 pm
For reference, it has an address of 8.8.8.8
If you can ping out to internet addresses (Like the above google DNS server) then your network stack is working, just the DNS server is not responding to requests.
If you cant ping out, then start looking deeper.
Post by: Bouchart on December 23, 2015, 04:33:30 pm
How do I change my DNS? I've never messed with it because I have never had need to do so.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on December 23, 2015, 04:35:06 pm
Post by: gimlet on December 23, 2015, 04:42:37 pm
If that fixes it, great, either way once you get it working find and DOWNLOAD the copy of "how to look at the lights on the modem and use them to help diagnose problems" it saves a LOT of time.
Post by: Bouchart on December 23, 2015, 04:54:34 pm
Post by: wierd on December 23, 2015, 05:05:15 pm
Typically, it is hidden under the TCP/IP protocol's configuration window. Instead of "Set DNS automatically", set it to "manual", then put 8.8.8.8 as the DNS server, and the IP of your router as the secondary DNS. (most routers will forward DNS requests to the DNS server they get autoconfigured to have though DHCP from your ISP. Setting the secondary to your router's address is a round-about way of getting the ISP's DNS in the lookup process.)
Post by: Bouchart on December 23, 2015, 05:53:03 pm
Post by: wierd on December 23, 2015, 05:56:35 pm
You only suspect DNS when you can ping outside hosts, but cannot resolve friendly names.
Post by: Bouchart on December 23, 2015, 06:46:48 pm
Post by: gimlet on December 23, 2015, 07:57:39 pm
Also, find out the address of your modem/router, if it has one, that's another step in the diagnosis - if your pc can't ping/traceroute to that, it's almost certainly going to be a problem with the modem or your pc connectivity to it, you can pretty much rule out (til you fix this part anyway) external problems beyond the modem like the wiring to the house, or ISP or internet faults.
I put stuff like this in a text file after a couple of hair-pulling sessions, it's really frustrating not to be able to google for solutions or instructions.
Post by: Bohandas on December 23, 2015, 08:22:38 pm
Just a quick look on playstore shows Intel bluetooth keyboard app. the description says it controls keyboard and mouse on windows 8.1 systems.That one only works on specific models of computer and only on Windows 8. I need one that works on Windows 7.
I found another one called BT Remote PC but the keyboard refuses to interface with any of my games, so it's useless to me.
EDIT:
Speaking of Windows 8 though, a program that lets me use my Windows 8 tablet as a bluetooth keyboard for my Windows 7 PC would be good too.
You can verify its the problem by testing your hub on a different port.OK, in the new port it works consistently, so the original port must be broken. Is there anything that might fix it that doesn't entail taking my machine apart?
Post by: gimlet on December 23, 2015, 09:10:35 pm
OK, in the new port it works consistently, so the original port must be broken. Is there anything that might fix it that doesn't entail taking my machine apart?
Are you short of ports, do you NEED that port? Because honestly, you could try uninstalling and reinstalling the driver, and stuff like that, but anytime you muck with drivers, or open the case, there's always a CHANCE it'll end up in hours of problems to solve. Yeah I know it's unsatisfying to leave a known problem, but what are the chances you'll have a whole new motherboard
Post by: Bohandas on December 23, 2015, 10:19:52 pm
Just a quick look on playstore shows Intel bluetooth keyboard app. the description says it controls keyboard and mouse on windows 8.1 systems.That one only works on specific models of computer and only on Windows 8. I need one that works on Windows 7.
I found another one called BT Remote PC but the keyboard refuses to interface with any of my games, so it's useless to me.
EDIT:
Speaking of Windows 8 though, a program that lets me use my Windows 8 tablet as a bluetooth keyboard for my Windows 7 PC would be good too.
I tried a wi-fi based program called "Unified Remote" the keyboard for that that doesn't work either (for my purposes at any rate. I admittedly didn't try using it for typing)
OK, in the new port it works consistently, so the original port must be broken. Is there anything that might fix it that doesn't entail taking my machine apart?
Are you short of ports, do you NEED that port?
That or switch out my all-exactly-identical-looking usb sticks until I find the right one every time I want to play a game or watch a video
Anyway the first thing I'd look for is a loose cable before poking the software bear...
Like I said, it's almost definitely not the hub, since it works fine when plugged into a different usb port
Post by: gimlet on December 24, 2015, 12:46:04 am
Can't you plug one or more of those sticks and/or other usb stuff into the hub?
Do those other sticks disconnect when plugged into the suspect port? Did that port ever work right, with other things?
Post by: Bohandas on December 24, 2015, 12:54:55 am
Did that port ever work right, with other things?
Yeah, it's had hubs and/or drives plugged into it for the last few months, and they worked fine until a few days ago.
Post by: Flying Dice on December 24, 2015, 12:58:52 am
Well the troubleshooter told me there was some DNS problem. Anyway thanks for your help.The troubleshooter isn't an all-knowing oracle, TBH.
I've had the Windows network troubleshooter tell me that I have had at least 6-7 different problems just from the modem being unplugged or the connection being down on the ISP's end. The number one thing that solves 99% of my connectivity issues? Turning off the power strip that the modem, router, &c. are connected to and turning it back on ten seconds later. It's the low-level tech support standard for a reason, heh.
Post by: Bohandas on December 24, 2015, 11:46:34 pm
Post by: wierd on December 25, 2015, 12:04:00 am
Post by: Thief^ on December 25, 2015, 09:50:14 am
Windows 3.1 and earlier didn't have a close button on the right at all.
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 25, 2015, 04:39:57 pm
Windows 3.1 and earlier didn't have a close button on the right at all.
For historical interest, this was because Apple was extremely quick to threaten lawsuits over anything that was too close to their "totally not ripped off from Xerox" Macintosh GUI. In those days, Microsoft was a much smaller player and didn't have the money to defend against what was arguably (a strong case could be made for Commodore) the reigning home-computer superpower.
Post by: NAV on December 27, 2015, 12:11:48 am
Post by: Aklyon on December 27, 2015, 12:19:42 am
Post by: NAV on December 27, 2015, 12:39:32 am
Post by: Flying Dice on December 27, 2015, 05:09:38 am
What messages does it return when you run a network diagnostic?
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 29, 2015, 10:10:30 pm
Post by: Thief^ on December 30, 2015, 03:07:57 am
Conflict with a virus scanner maybe?
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 30, 2015, 03:22:28 am
The files fail to copying in win7 as well.
Post by: Thief^ on December 30, 2015, 03:48:16 am
Post by: Sonlirain on December 30, 2015, 01:28:37 pm
So i replaced my ram some time ago and wanted to insert the old ram into my fathers PC.
The Mobo has both DDR2 and DDR3 slots so i removed the 2 gig DDR2 and inserted the "new" ram inside the DDR3 slot.
And after turning on the PC... nothing. The PC is powered up and humms but the screen stays black so i can't even see the bios and i have no clue why.
Post by: Thief^ on December 30, 2015, 03:45:32 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on December 30, 2015, 04:50:46 pm
Post by: wierd on December 30, 2015, 09:29:14 pm
The downside, apart from it being an antediluvian horror, is that it has a 10gb IDE hard disk inside. >.<
I was able to install Linux Mint on it, using some clever combination of putting a 64gb low profile USB thumdrive on and mounting that as /home, and using the 10gb IDE drive as /. It runs "Ok", given what it is.
That said, I have decided that using the thumbdrive as /home is inelegant. I have instead decided to try something silly. So, I purchased these together from amazon (Delivery on the 4th, if you can believe their forecast.)
Item #1 (purchased before sold out, at very big discount!) (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DGNYXQ0?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00)
Item #2, also purchased at a nice after-holiday discount. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WWBCS1Y?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00)
I notice that the first item supports SD card spec 3.0-- That means it can handle the full speed/capacity of SDXC cards, like item #2 is. :D
Not that it matters much, since the max you can get out of IDE interface is UDMA 133, which tops out at around 33mb/sec.
Come Monday, I intend to replace the 10gb drive with this combination of items. Given that this thing is rather lacking in the RAM department, I am going to make flagrant use of ZRAM, but are there any additional caveats I should be aware of when abusing flash media as if it were a spinny disk?
Post by: Thief^ on December 31, 2015, 03:03:57 am
Edit: sorry misread as 10MB, it's not half as old as I thought.
Apart from latency, which should still be better than the old spinning disk, modern SD cards should be able to take some laptop level of use fairly well.
Post by: Thief^ on December 31, 2015, 03:13:11 am
Phenom 2 i think. Basically the weakest thing you can put in an AM3+ socket.OK, I've looked it up, and all the CPUs for AM3 should support both DDR2 and 3. Maybe it needs a jumper changing? I'd look up the motherboard manual online.
Post by: wierd on December 31, 2015, 04:58:32 am
You might have been better off with compact flash instead of SD, as compact flash literally is a laptop IDE interface shrunk down, so the adapters were even cheaper last time I looked.That said, with something that old you run the risk it doesn't support LBA, in which case you might need something that supports the old CHS addressing scheme, which was spinning-disk specific...
Edit: sorry misread as 10MB, it's not half as old as I thought.
Apart from latency, which should still be better than the old spinning disk, modern SD cards should be able to take some laptop level of use fairly well.
I have some CF to IDE adapters, and they rarely support dma mode access, even if the cf card should be able to do it. I have a #2gb highspeed CF (well, for its age anyway. 40mb/sec rated sandisk) that was purpetually trapped in PIO4 mode. :(
The SDCard adapter specifically mentions it supports DMA access modes.
Also, SDCards are waaaaaaaay cheaper than CF cards, and have bigger capacities.
Post by: Bohandas on January 21, 2016, 05:30:06 pm
Post by: Insanegame27 on January 21, 2016, 05:53:50 pm
Can anyone recommend a good downloadable OCR program that I could run PDF files through so that text can be selected and copied? Preferably one outputting a modified PDF rather than a file in a different format.So you want to convert a PDF to a PDF...
Post by: Bohandas on January 21, 2016, 06:02:09 pm
Can anyone recommend a good downloadable OCR program that I could run PDF files through so that text can be selected and copied? Preferably one outputting a modified PDF rather than a file in a different format.So you want to convert a PDF to a PDF...
A pdf made of images of text to a pdf of selectable, searchable text
EDIT:
What I'm looking for is a downloadable open source or at least free version of this:
http://www.robertyale.com/blog/2011/4/12/use-adobe-acrobat-pro-to-make-scanned-pdfs-searchable.html
Post by: Bohandas on January 21, 2016, 09:55:07 pm
Post by: Thief^ on January 22, 2016, 04:20:49 am
I can't help on the pdf question, but I'm interested in an answer it would be really useful.
Post by: BigD145 on January 22, 2016, 09:50:51 am
Unrelated question: Can anyone recommend a cheap Blu-Ray burner?
Cheap are $80-100 US. Good? I have no clue. Hit up a place like newegg.com and read reviews.
Post by: aenri on January 22, 2016, 02:30:07 pm
Can anyone recommend a good downloadable OCR program that I could run PDF files through so that text can be selected and copied? Preferably one outputting a modified PDF rather than a file in a different format.So you want to convert a PDF to a PDF...
A pdf made of images of text to a pdf of selectable, searchable text
EDIT:
What I'm looking for is a downloadable open source or at least free version of this:
http://www.robertyale.com/blog/2011/4/12/use-adobe-acrobat-pro-to-make-scanned-pdfs-searchable.html
Well you can use the aptly named FreeOCR (http://www.freeocr.net/) that uses Tesseract engine, one of the best on the market. It uses PDF no problem, but the quality of the scanned images is of paramount importance. Shit image = shit OCR. It's as simple as that.
Post by: Bohandas on January 22, 2016, 02:37:41 pm
Can anyone recommend a good downloadable OCR program that I could run PDF files through so that text can be selected and copied? Preferably one outputting a modified PDF rather than a file in a different format.So you want to convert a PDF to a PDF...
A pdf made of images of text to a pdf of selectable, searchable text
EDIT:
What I'm looking for is a downloadable open source or at least free version of this:
http://www.robertyale.com/blog/2011/4/12/use-adobe-acrobat-pro-to-make-scanned-pdfs-searchable.html
Well you can use the aptly named FreeOCR (http://www.freeocr.net/) that uses Tesseract engine, one of the best on the market. It uses PDF no problem, but the quality of the scanned images is of paramount importance. Shit image = shit OCR. It's as simple as that.
I've actually tried that but couldn't find any option to incorporate the results back into the PDF
I've absolutely no need of the text in a seperate file.
Post by: Aklyon on January 22, 2016, 02:47:46 pm
Post by: aenri on January 22, 2016, 03:22:39 pm
....
I've actually tried that but couldn't find any option to incorporate the results back into the PDF
I've absolutely no need of the text in a seperate file.
Then you could use OCRmyPDF (https://github.com/jbarlow83/OCRmyPDF) its a python script, so you need docker (https://docs.docker.com/) to run it (and a bit of IT knowledge). It also uses Tesseract engine.
Post by: Bohandas on January 31, 2016, 09:00:13 pm
EDIT:
I've got a general idea of how to do it by setting the beginning of my new section to the heading style and then hitting Update Table on the ToC, but that makes the formatting go berserk. Also, what If I didn't want a corresponding heading in the body of the document?
Post by: wierd on February 01, 2016, 05:57:36 am
Yes, it technically supports UDMA. UDMA mode 2, that is. But not with multisector transfer. Also no write buffer.
Also, for some mysterious reason, it likes to corrupt the filesystem for no discernable reason, but I have seen this with other SDCard based solutions. I wonder if it is related to the SDCard's wear leveling.
Also, Mint seems to hate it. It always tries to drive it at UDMA mode 5, even though the drive does not support it, and subsequently, the filesystem gets corrupted super fast. I have tried forcing Mint to use a slower mode, but it just accepts my CLI wizardry, then promptly ignores it. Win7 seems to work OK on it though. Due to the absurdly low memory in that ancient technology (512mb!!) I want very much to use Linux, so I can use zram. Stupidness abounds.
Maybe I will compromise and install windows XP on it instead.
It would work great as a storage volume that gets very little write traffic, but meh.
Post by: cochramd on February 02, 2016, 09:27:59 am
I've got an MSI 790GX-G65 (https://www.msi.com/product/motherboard/790GXG65.html#hero-specification), so if I'm going to buy a new CPU without buying a new motherboard too it'll have to be AM3+ socket and thus AMD. However, I know that DF performance is reflected by single thread performance, and AMD doesn't seem to do so well with that (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html). In fact they don't seem that good at all. (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html)
My school is selling decommissioned computers. Buying a computer identical to the ones in the CAD lab would be $150. It might be a cheap way to switch over to Intel......what should my next move be?
Post by: Thief^ on February 02, 2016, 11:07:23 am
I love AMD, but they really aren't great for DF.
Post by: Bohandas on February 02, 2016, 01:05:37 pm
http://www.orpalis.com/labs/pdfocr/
I still need to try aneri's suggestion (https://github.com/jbarlow83/OCRmyPDF) though; for all I know it might work even better, I've just been putting it off because I had trouble with the last Pyhon program I tried to use
Post by: Sonlirain on February 02, 2016, 03:31:58 pm
I recently reinstalled windows on a new HDD and everything was fine... BUT a few weeks ago upon starting the PC i heard a rather concerning sound coming from my PC.
I was scared shitless in case it's the Radeon i bought somewhat recently going to explode.
It sounded like PC fans going hyper (but it could be the DVD Drive as well now that i think about it)
The power button didn't work so i pulled the plug. I reset the PC later and it booted up normally.
And it works so far BUT recently i discovered that the DVD Drive went to the psychiatric ward (i assume the event described has something to do with it.).
Sometimes it's simply completely gone.
Another time the PC detects it as a CD-ROM drive.
And rarely it's seen as a DVD-RW drive.
I managed to install Caesar3 from an old CD with it but failed to burn any CDs so far 9and stopped trying). Usually upon trying the drive will simply vanish.
Post by: i2amroy on February 02, 2016, 07:01:47 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on February 02, 2016, 11:07:09 pm
Could be a driver issue, try purging whatever old drivers you have for the CD drive and reinstalling them.
This is a fresh instal of windows. Doubt i have any old drivers.
And even if i have i need to wait for the drive to become visible to even be able to remove the drivers from the control panel (If it ever decides to become visible again because it seems to be completely dead now. I'll probably open up the case later and check the SATA cable.)
Post by: Bohandas on February 02, 2016, 11:25:02 pm
Can anybody recommend a good free program for WIndows 7 to use to burn data CDs and DVDs?
The DVD burning program built into Windows Explorer is giving me issues (I just gave up after 2 hours of trying to burn my christmas photos to a dvd, followed by the computer refusing to let me clear the burn queue) and I never liked it to begin with and so I'd like to switch to a different program.
Post by: Insanegame27 on February 03, 2016, 03:15:42 am
I don't recall downloading any game called defense of meridor either. If anyone wants to volunteer their time I can give you the folder to run on a virtual machine, as I'm curious about it while being scared its a virus or malware.
Post by: Thief^ on February 03, 2016, 04:43:08 am
Have you tried submitting it to jotti.org?
Post by: Insanegame27 on February 03, 2016, 04:51:53 am
I am really intrigued, but the only other computer I have is a dedicated gaming computer I do not want infected with a virus, and nothing to run a virtual machine with.
Post by: cochramd on February 03, 2016, 09:48:54 am
A) Which socket should I be looking for in a new motherboard and CPU? Assume that I'm going for Intel, want something with high single-thread performance and want good future-proofing.
B) If I don't play games with really good graphics, is a graphics card even going to do anything for me? At all? I just want a PC that's good for DF.
Post by: Thief^ on February 03, 2016, 10:28:40 am
and go down it until you find something you can afford. I recommend the top i5 (4690 / 4690K), personally.
If the CPU you get includes a GPU, and the motherboard has the appropriate output sockets, if you're not running modern high-demand AAA games you probably don't need a dedicated graphics card.
Post by: Sensei on February 03, 2016, 01:41:55 pm
Post by: Thief^ on February 04, 2016, 04:18:30 am
Post by: Arx on February 04, 2016, 01:25:19 pm
So I have a chromebook (HP) that the school provides for study. I don't know how or why, but I have access to a zip folder named 'DefenseOfMeridorBeta120315.zip'. A google search shows nothing about it on the internet and the readme file in the folder says to run the .rar to play the game (Chromebooks are unable to open .rar files anyway).
I don't recall downloading any game called defense of meridor either. If anyone wants to volunteer their time I can give you the folder to run on a virtual machine, as I'm curious about it while being scared its a virus or malware.
It's almost certainly the game remake (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=154262.0) by one of our upstanding forumites.
Post by: Insanegame27 on February 04, 2016, 01:52:47 pm
So I have a chromebook (HP) that the school provides for study. I don't know how or why, but I have access to a zip folder named 'DefenseOfMeridorBeta120315.zip'. A google search shows nothing about it on the internet and the readme file in the folder says to run the .rar to play the game (Chromebooks are unable to open .rar files anyway).
I don't recall downloading any game called defense of meridor either. If anyone wants to volunteer their time I can give you the folder to run on a virtual machine, as I'm curious about it while being scared its a virus or malware.
It's almost certainly the game remake (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=154262.0) by one of our upstanding forumites.
I cannot seem to recall picking it up though.
Post by: Shadowlord on February 04, 2016, 03:34:12 pm
(I'm assuming that chromebooks show you your Google drive files along with all the ones you have looked at by other people, which is a thing regular Google drive also likes to do)
Post by: Insanegame27 on February 05, 2016, 12:36:14 am
Post by: Sonlirain on February 08, 2016, 09:02:14 am
I opened the case up and changed the SATA cable.
The PC wouldn't run at all.
I plugged the cable into a different SATA slot on the mobo and lo and behold. it works just fine (If a bit loud).
My uneducated theory
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 08, 2016, 12:18:56 pm
Post by: Aklyon on February 08, 2016, 01:47:32 pm
Post by: Shadowlord on February 08, 2016, 02:00:54 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 08, 2016, 03:07:27 pm
Are you talking about the fade in/fade out effect youtube uses?
No, I am talking about the "play", "quality", "youtube" and "fullscreen" (along with the others I never touch) being literally invisible if viewed on any site other than youtube itself. They work, if you already know where the control is, but you cannot see them.
Post by: Aklyon on February 08, 2016, 04:15:26 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on February 09, 2016, 05:59:55 am
Post by: Reverie on February 09, 2016, 06:04:17 am
Can you not see the controls if the youtube plugin has cursor focus? Because if it's invisible even then, I'll second that sounding like a bug.Are you talking about the fade in/fade out effect youtube uses?
No, I am talking about the "play", "quality", "youtube" and "fullscreen" (along with the others I never touch) being literally invisible if viewed on any site other than youtube itself. They work, if you already know where the control is, but you cannot see them.
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 09, 2016, 07:53:08 am
Post by: TheBiggerFish on February 09, 2016, 07:57:57 am
What browser are you using?
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 09, 2016, 09:16:58 am
Post by: SealyStar on February 09, 2016, 11:37:29 pm
Next I tried booting in safe mode; that solved the CPU nd memory issues, but the freezing is still happening (albeit less frequently). So now I'm looking for advice on two fronts:
1) Is it malware or just an accidental hardware/software problem?
2) In either case, what's the best way to fix it?
(Computer is a mid-range Dell laptop with the most recent version of Windows 7, if that helps)
EDIT: Updates
-Realizing that MWB isn't the end-all-be-all of malware detectors, I also ran adwcleaner and it also didn't detect anything. Still not a definitive no, but the fact that neither program detected anything suggests that if there is malware tucked away somewhere it's some combination of new, uncommon, or well-hidden.
-Still in safe mode right now; computer appears to work fine aside from some stuff (MS Office, audio drivers) not working for presumably safe mode-related reasons. I spoke too soon about it still freezing; that only happened once, for apparently unrelated reasons.
Post by: Rose on February 10, 2016, 02:00:29 am
Post by: SealyStar on February 10, 2016, 02:08:21 am
Could be hard drive nearing the end of its life.It's remotely possible, but while I'm no computer expert I fail to see how that would lead to RAM hogging, CPU grinding, and random freezing, all of which are seemingly fixed with safe mode. And my computer is a year-and-a-half old and in seemingly good condition.
Post by: Thief^ on February 10, 2016, 04:43:15 am
A hdd dying tends to cause temporary stalls, accompanied with clicking from the hdd while it tries to read the same sector over and over.
Freezing does tend to be a hardware fault of some kind. Is it still under warrantee?
Post by: TheBiggerFish on February 10, 2016, 05:38:17 am
Post by: SealyStar on February 10, 2016, 03:45:16 pm
Given this, how should I trace the source of the possible leak?
Post by: TheBiggerFish on February 10, 2016, 03:47:00 pm
Post by: SealyStar on February 10, 2016, 04:01:26 pm
Task manager?Well, maybe this opens up the possibility of a virus again (I'm just taking a stab in the dark, I admittedly don't know much about the internal workings of the PC): all of the processes shown in task manager, summed by hand with a calculator, add up to 218 MB, while it says I'm using 23% of a total of 8 GB (=1840 MB).
Post by: Arx on February 10, 2016, 04:05:54 pm
Post by: SealyStar on February 10, 2016, 04:09:24 pm
Make sure you're displaying processes from all users. Servicehost in particular chows up the RAM.I am.
EDIT: It seems not to be a memory leak over time - instead it's as though a substantial chunk of memory isn't even there from startup onward. CPU and hard drive are normal/healthy, too - there's just a big RAM problem.
EDIT 2: I think I've solved at least one of the problems. Will keep an eye on things from here.
Post by: Sensei on February 10, 2016, 07:39:39 pm
Edit: or actually, just use memtest.
Post by: SealyStar on February 11, 2016, 12:38:09 am
Post by: Nullsrc on February 12, 2016, 09:50:52 am
Post by: Shadowlord on February 16, 2016, 03:43:28 pm
Post by: Akura on February 18, 2016, 05:47:45 pm
Post by: Thief^ on February 19, 2016, 05:22:19 am
Nintendo says:
Quote
Playable file formats are AAC-files with .m4a, .mp4 or .3gp filename extensions and MP3 files with .mp3 filename extensions.
Compatible bitrate range is between 16kbps and 320 kbps.
Sampling range rate is between 32 kHz and 48 kHz.
Copyright-protected music files can not be played.
Post by: SeriousConcentrate on February 19, 2016, 10:28:12 pm
Does anyone know how to fix this? I don't want to call this thing a brick after only two months of use.
Post by: Thief^ on February 20, 2016, 06:48:15 am
Try running SFC /scannow : https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/929833
Post by: SeriousConcentrate on February 20, 2016, 06:58:38 am
Post by: Rose on February 20, 2016, 08:14:18 am
Post by: SeriousConcentrate on February 20, 2016, 08:31:10 am
Sorry if I sound a bit snippy; I've been worrying with this damn thing for about 17 1/2 hours now and I'm a little frustrated.[/understatement] Thanks for trying to help, so far. ^^^;
Post by: Rose on February 20, 2016, 08:45:14 am
Post by: SeriousConcentrate on February 20, 2016, 09:06:55 am
Post by: lordcooper on February 20, 2016, 11:35:35 pm
Post by: Tawa on February 21, 2016, 03:01:24 am
I bought a 16GB Lexar Platinum II SDHC card today. I want to use it with my 3DS. But when I tried to transfer my data from my current 8GB SD card, wacky stuff starts happening. None of my stuff with DRM on it loads; Phoenix Wright, my custom background, my virtual console games. They load when I use my 8GB SD card, but something gets screwed up in the transfer of the data and it doesn't load on the 16GB card. My non-DRM music still shows, my photos are there, but everything else disappears.
Anybody have any clue what gives and how to solve it? Some guy on GameFaqs had a similar problem, which he solved by directly transferring between cards, but I only have 1 port and don't have any card readers.
Post by: Thief^ on February 21, 2016, 01:35:43 pm
Post by: Aklyon on February 21, 2016, 02:00:35 pm
That is the point of DRM! Preventing copies from working!And that is completely useless advice.
Post by: flabort on February 21, 2016, 03:22:50 pm
So this isn't really a "traditional" computer question but I don't feel like making a specific thread.OK, gotcha. It's a problem with your 3DS putting some data onto the card before you put the game data onto it.
I bought a 16GB Lexar Platinum II SDHC card today. I want to use it with my 3DS. But when I tried to transfer my data from my current 8GB SD card, wacky stuff starts happening. None of my stuff with DRM on it loads; Phoenix Wright, my custom background, my virtual console games. They load when I use my 8GB SD card, but something gets screwed up in the transfer of the data and it doesn't load on the 16GB card. My non-DRM music still shows, my photos are there, but everything else disappears.
Anybody have any clue what gives and how to solve it? Some guy on GameFaqs had a similar problem, which he solved by directly transferring between cards, but I only have 1 port and don't have any card readers.
1) Format the 16GB card on your computer. Erease everything.
2) DO NOT put the 16GB card in your 3DS.
3) Copy the 8GB card into a folder on your computer.
4) Copy the contents of the folder onto the 16GB card.
5) NOW you may put the 16GB card into your 3DS
Post by: Tawa on February 21, 2016, 03:24:46 pm
Post by: flabort on February 21, 2016, 03:26:45 pm
If doing that again doesn't fix it....
Are you copying the whole folder or it's contents (the difference being whether the folder exists on the card)?
Hmm. I'm out of ideas.
Post by: Tawa on February 21, 2016, 03:38:55 pm
Post by: flabort on February 21, 2016, 03:50:05 pm
http://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/274
According to this, it SHOULD be compatible... Perhaps check that your card is on the appropriate list?
Post by: Tawa on February 21, 2016, 06:10:08 pm
Post by: wierd on February 21, 2016, 08:37:49 pm
1) create a disk image of the working SD card.
2) populate the nonworking SDCard with that disk image.
3) use microsoft diskpart to expand the small partition that now exists on the large card.
4) profit.
If the problem persists, it is because the DS is tracking pysical media information and using it in the DRM mechanism. No valid solution for that without hacking your ds.
Post by: Tawa on February 21, 2016, 09:51:27 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on February 21, 2016, 09:51:48 pm
Post by: Dustin on February 21, 2016, 10:01:31 pm
'Sup, I'll use this thread too :D
I'm normally a very computer savy person and manage to fix even the most annoying bugs, but today I just can't wrap my head around it.
Here is the current status quo: I just opened MSN and Windows Live Mail and here is what presented itself to me. EVERYTHING ELSE works fine. Just these two windows are all washed up. Maybe something with the AERO stuff went haywire? Also note how in pic two the tool bar is perfectly fine...Spoiler (click to show/hide)Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The incredible thing is that when I mouse over something, the effect goes slightly away and then slowly comes back. I have really no idea what's going on.
EDIT: Installed both again, nothing changes; updated AMD catalyst video drivers to 11.8, still nothing.
Heres what i have found out with Windows programs:
Go into the File up in top left, then hit options, then hit theme and change the theme, maybe that will work
Post by: Thief^ on February 22, 2016, 02:09:43 am
Post by: wierd on February 22, 2016, 02:44:19 am
Did that too, actually. Making the partition bigger than 8 gigs causes it to stop responding again.
Does the DS have issues with SDHC cards? IIRC, cards bigger than 4gb are SDHC, and use a different LBA encoding mechanism. I will look into that...
I checked Nintendo's website...
Does your 8gb card show up in thier tested cards list?
en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/274/~/what-sd-cards-and-microsd-cards-are-compatible%3F
The card might not be fully compliant with the features nindendo expects of an SDcard that size.
Post by: sirdanilot on February 22, 2016, 07:46:36 pm
For an important project I filmed some things, however it appears that the people I bought my sd cards from cheated me (note to self: don't buy sd cards from street vendors in a third world country); the SD cards appear to be 16 GB but it seems that the actual space is much smaller (even though my computer shows them also as having 16 GB capacity). When you want to store videos on them above a certain memory thershold they get completely corrupted !
Now I did google some data recovery programs and so on, and I have also found a program called PhotoRec. However these programs are more geared towards saving files off corrupted hard drives and sd cards so you can get them on your PC. But I already have the video files on my PC, all I want is to de-corrupt them. The video files showw the appropriate size for the length of video but they cannot be opened in any video player or editor.
anyone know if it would be possible to recover these corrupt files and what programs I need?
Post by: wierd on February 22, 2016, 08:25:42 pm
You cant recover data that does not exist; these knockoff SDCards have hacked device firmwares that report a flash chip capacity bigger than what is actually inside. when written passed the actual drive capacity, data is simply discarded, or worse, starts overwriting previously written sectors.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on February 22, 2016, 09:11:02 pm
Post by: sirdanilot on February 22, 2016, 09:19:51 pm
sadly, I doubt your file is recoverable.Oh god....
You cant recover data that does not exist; these knockoff SDCards have hacked device firmwares that report a flash chip capacity bigger than what is actually inside. when written passed the actual drive capacity, data is simply discarded, or worse, starts overwriting previously written sectors.
Thing is, the cards used to work fine. At the beginnig of my project I shot some short videos and they were not corrupted (they probably didnt go over the actual limit of the card).
Once the problem started to arise, the first few videos on the card still worked (perhaps the first 2 or 3 GBs worth of them), but the latter ones were corrupted. I also have one video which is playable on windows media player until about halfway into the video, then it stops playing giving an error message, so that shows where the corruption begins.
Do you really think the data is not there? Because the corrupted files do have the size you'd expect of them, also when I transfer them to my hard drive. How can there be 'phantom data' on my computer, i.e. how can my computer not recognize that the file is not actually 3 GB?
Post by: wierd on February 23, 2016, 12:25:04 am
1) when you write past the actual capacity of the chip inside the card, data is just dicarded, but windows still thinks it is being written because the card says the writes completed OK. You have file chains created in the FAT/MFT of the drive, because it allocates clusters for the file, but the data does not exist. Files written at the start of the drive are just fine though, and can be salvaged.
2) When you write past the actual capacity of the chip in the card, instead of discarding the data, it starts overwriting the data at the start of the chip, destroying the data that was there. This corrupts files that used to be OK, by overwriting their data.
depending on which kind of firmware hack the crooks used, that is what has happened to your data.
Post by: Thief^ on February 23, 2016, 02:14:08 am
But yes, the data is gone either way. The "corrupted" video files are filled with either garbage, all 0s, or a repeat of the data from the first part of the card.
Basically this:
Card is only 4GB (say) but reports 16GB.
The "file allocation table" (which records the name and size of a file along with where on the storage its data is recorded) is at the start of the drive, so any device (PC/camera) will be able to add new files which appear to be in the non-existent extra 12GB of the drive, because they can be added to the file table fine (because it's always at the start).
However when the device tries to actually write the file data, it has to destroy some - the card is only 4GB. It will either silently destroy the data for existing files (overwrite), or for the new file (discard). From your description it sounds like you have the "discard" type.
The destroyed data is not recoverable - it physically no longer exists.
When you go to copy the file off the card, your PC will create a file that matches the size in the file table, and then tries to read the data for it. Because the data doesn't exist, the card "makes something up"... So the file is the right size, but it doesn't have the right data in. It's not "corrupt" as such - the data is not damaged, it's garbage - there's nothing of your original data there to recover.
Sorry.
Post by: sirdanilot on February 23, 2016, 08:15:57 am
It's really too bad , this was a cultural documentation project and these people put in so much effort for the things I filmed, but it was filmed in vain apparently. Its going to be hard to explain this to these people as they have no notion of these technical matters.
Post by: i2amroy on February 23, 2016, 10:42:31 am
It sucks, but it could always have been worse. :-\
Post by: Shadowlord on February 23, 2016, 10:49:43 am
The corrupt video isn't really lost, since it was never saved in the first place, because the card ran out of room to write video to but pretended it still could. The card was just lying and saying there was room, basically, and making it appear to be writing properly when it was really discarding what you were recording.
Although that's still technical. Perhaps "this card I bought pretended to be able to record more hours of video than it really could, and discarded most of what I recorded while telling me that it was still recording. It was only apparent when I tried to watch what I had recorded." Maybe mention who you got it from.
Post by: i2amroy on February 23, 2016, 12:26:01 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on February 23, 2016, 03:39:58 pm
Post by: sirdanilot on February 23, 2016, 04:32:12 pm
At a simplest level you could basically just say: "Someone cheated me and in the process destroyed what I've been recording. I'm very sorry, and will do my best to fix the problem.", which leaves out pretty much all the technical side of things while still covering the basic idea (which is that someone cheated you and destroyed your work by cheating you).
Yeah I'll just have to tell them I got cheated, basically.
It's so sad, but nothing can be done about it.
I also don't understand why the camera didn't write the videos to the internal memory when it noticed problems writing it onto the SD card, this camera has substantial internal memory (which I would have used had I known before I was cheated with my SD cards). However if you set it to write to internal memory before hand that should fix it. Other SD cards also worked fine however they are only 4 GB so after half an hour of recording I have to switch them which is extremely annoying and disrupts the things I want to film ('hold on there for a minute pal have to switch cards !' :( ).
Post by: miauw62 on February 23, 2016, 04:52:31 pm
Post by: wierd on February 23, 2016, 05:29:55 pm
For instance, you can get a 64gb SDHC card for around 25 to 30$. That's around 50 cents per gigabyte-- pretty cheap.
Example offer in that range from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/PNY-Elite-Performance-Speed-P-SDX64U395-GE/dp/B00WWBCSG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456266521&sr=8-1&keywords=64gb+sdhc)
Likewise, I got a genuine 256gb SDXC card (any card larger than 64gb is an SDXC card!!) on Amazon for 80$ (on holiday discount) some time back. I have it chillin inside an old laptop as part of a poor man's SSD. (The laptop is IDE interface, and the slowness of the adapter does not matter. The interface is slow already anyway.) That comes out to someplace in the 30 cents per gigabyte range.
Getting legit media is not terribly hard these days. The problem comes from people wanting 256gb media at the 25$ pricepoint, which wont happen (at least not any time soon). If you see cards listed in that capacity, in that price range, it is pretty much guaranteed to be a hacked card rip off, like you just experienced.
Post by: sirdanilot on February 24, 2016, 09:53:29 am
The price of good quality SDHC cards has come down considerably, as flash memory technology has improved, and the memory has gone mainstream.
For instance, you can get a 64gb SDHC card for around 25 to 30$. That's around 50 cents per gigabyte-- pretty cheap.
Example offer in that range from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/PNY-Elite-Performance-Speed-P-SDX64U395-GE/dp/B00WWBCSG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456266521&sr=8-1&keywords=64gb+sdhc)
Likewise, I got a genuine 256gb SDXC card (any card larger than 64gb is an SDXC card!!) on Amazon for 80$ (on holiday discount) some time back. I have it chillin inside an old laptop as part of a poor man's SSD. (The laptop is IDE interface, and the slowness of the adapter does not matter. The interface is slow already anyway.) That comes out to someplace in the 30 cents per gigabyte range.
Getting legit media is not terribly hard these days. The problem comes from people wanting 256gb media at the 25$ pricepoint, which wont happen (at least not any time soon). If you see cards listed in that capacity, in that price range, it is pretty much guaranteed to be a hacked card rip off, like you just experienced.
I got a 16 GB flash card for, converted to US dollars, 12,50 USD (but the currency rate is quite bad right now so the local equivalent is more like 20 USD). So not only was I cheated, it wasn't even because I wanted the cheapest of the cheap stuff.
I did see 8 GB cards in an actual store, but they were relatively more expensive and I wnated at least 16 GB so I wouldnt have to switch cards all the time.
Post by: Thief^ on February 24, 2016, 09:54:58 am
I did see 8 GB cards in an actual store, but they were relatively more expensiveIn future, let this set off alarm bells rather than feeling like it's a great deal.
Post by: sirdanilot on February 24, 2016, 09:58:11 am
I was thinking that the larger SD cards might be relatively more cheap because they use lesss raw material for more storage.I did see 8 GB cards in an actual store, but they were relatively more expensiveIn future, let this set off alarm bells rather than feeling like it's a great deal.
Oh well I'll just have to record the stuff again. I find it very sad for the people involved. They took so much effort to show me their cultural knowledge only for it to get eaten by a hacked card. Oh well.
Post by: i2amroy on February 24, 2016, 01:47:33 pm
I was thinking that the larger SD cards might be relatively more cheap because they use lesss raw material for more storage.Yeah that's not really the way computers work. In reality a 16GB card has almost as much circuitry in it as 2 8GB cards put together, they just make it all smaller, layer it deeper, and jam it in closer together. :P
Post by: BigD145 on February 25, 2016, 11:38:07 am
The price of good quality SDHC cards has come down considerably, as flash memory technology has improved, and the memory has gone mainstream.
For instance, you can get a 64gb SDHC card for around 25 to 30$. That's around 50 cents per gigabyte-- pretty cheap.
Example offer in that range from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/PNY-Elite-Performance-Speed-P-SDX64U395-GE/dp/B00WWBCSG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456266521&sr=8-1&keywords=64gb+sdhc)
Likewise, I got a genuine 256gb SDXC card (any card larger than 64gb is an SDXC card!!) on Amazon for 80$ (on holiday discount) some time back. I have it chillin inside an old laptop as part of a poor man's SSD. (The laptop is IDE interface, and the slowness of the adapter does not matter. The interface is slow already anyway.) That comes out to someplace in the 30 cents per gigabyte range.
Getting legit media is not terribly hard these days. The problem comes from people wanting 256gb media at the 25$ pricepoint, which wont happen (at least not any time soon). If you see cards listed in that capacity, in that price range, it is pretty much guaranteed to be a hacked card rip off, like you just experienced.
I got a 16 GB flash card for, converted to US dollars, 12,50 USD (but the currency rate is quite bad right now so the local equivalent is more like 20 USD). So not only was I cheated, it wasn't even because I wanted the cheapest of the cheap stuff.
I did see 8 GB cards in an actual store, but they were relatively more expensive and I wnated at least 16 GB so I wouldnt have to switch cards all the time.
32GB flash cards, legit ones, can get down to the $12 US price point. Mostly you just have to buy from legit companies.
Post by: sirdanilot on February 25, 2016, 08:08:13 pm
But where am I going to find a legit company in a poor region of a third world country that's the thing. I would never have had these problems back in my home country (Holland).The price of good quality SDHC cards has come down considerably, as flash memory technology has improved, and the memory has gone mainstream.
For instance, you can get a 64gb SDHC card for around 25 to 30$. That's around 50 cents per gigabyte-- pretty cheap.
Example offer in that range from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/PNY-Elite-Performance-Speed-P-SDX64U395-GE/dp/B00WWBCSG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456266521&sr=8-1&keywords=64gb+sdhc)
Likewise, I got a genuine 256gb SDXC card (any card larger than 64gb is an SDXC card!!) on Amazon for 80$ (on holiday discount) some time back. I have it chillin inside an old laptop as part of a poor man's SSD. (The laptop is IDE interface, and the slowness of the adapter does not matter. The interface is slow already anyway.) That comes out to someplace in the 30 cents per gigabyte range.
Getting legit media is not terribly hard these days. The problem comes from people wanting 256gb media at the 25$ pricepoint, which wont happen (at least not any time soon). If you see cards listed in that capacity, in that price range, it is pretty much guaranteed to be a hacked card rip off, like you just experienced.
I got a 16 GB flash card for, converted to US dollars, 12,50 USD (but the currency rate is quite bad right now so the local equivalent is more like 20 USD). So not only was I cheated, it wasn't even because I wanted the cheapest of the cheap stuff.
I did see 8 GB cards in an actual store, but they were relatively more expensive and I wnated at least 16 GB so I wouldnt have to switch cards all the time.
32GB flash cards, legit ones, can get down to the $12 US price point. Mostly you just have to buy from legit companies.
Post by: Rose on February 26, 2016, 05:05:42 am
My mom has fallen for that trick not once, but multiple times.
Post by: wierd on February 26, 2016, 05:54:50 am
But where am I going to find a legit company in a poor region of a third world country that's the thing. I would never have had these problems back in my home country (Holland).The price of good quality SDHC cards has come down considerably, as flash memory technology has improved, and the memory has gone mainstream.
For instance, you can get a 64gb SDHC card for around 25 to 30$. That's around 50 cents per gigabyte-- pretty cheap.
Example offer in that range from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/PNY-Elite-Performance-Speed-P-SDX64U395-GE/dp/B00WWBCSG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456266521&sr=8-1&keywords=64gb+sdhc)
Likewise, I got a genuine 256gb SDXC card (any card larger than 64gb is an SDXC card!!) on Amazon for 80$ (on holiday discount) some time back. I have it chillin inside an old laptop as part of a poor man's SSD. (The laptop is IDE interface, and the slowness of the adapter does not matter. The interface is slow already anyway.) That comes out to someplace in the 30 cents per gigabyte range.
Getting legit media is not terribly hard these days. The problem comes from people wanting 256gb media at the 25$ pricepoint, which wont happen (at least not any time soon). If you see cards listed in that capacity, in that price range, it is pretty much guaranteed to be a hacked card rip off, like you just experienced.
I got a 16 GB flash card for, converted to US dollars, 12,50 USD (but the currency rate is quite bad right now so the local equivalent is more like 20 USD). So not only was I cheated, it wasn't even because I wanted the cheapest of the cheap stuff.
I did see 8 GB cards in an actual store, but they were relatively more expensive and I wnated at least 16 GB so I wouldnt have to switch cards all the time.
32GB flash cards, legit ones, can get down to the $12 US price point. Mostly you just have to buy from legit companies.
Ask a family member in Holland to buy one, put it in a small shipping box, and mail it to you. Then you either wire them the money, or send a money order.
Post by: Sonlirain on February 26, 2016, 06:21:48 pm
This one is not really all that serious but hey it's worth asking right?
So my internet is... bizarre.
It works normally and it's even quite fast at 1400 Kb/s
HOWEVER when i have a lot of outgoing traffic (if i start uploading a youtube video for example) it simply goes bananas. To the point that windows actually assumes i lost connection (while the video still uploads normally).
it's not a big issue but it prevents me from using the internet at all while i upload a video.
No Bay12, no skype, no nothing.
Post by: Aklyon on February 26, 2016, 06:23:14 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on February 26, 2016, 06:35:51 pm
Not sure if i can upload a large file via my smartphone tho.
Post by: sirdanilot on February 26, 2016, 07:01:07 pm
As for shipping SD cards here, I will need them within about a week and shipping to here takes at least a month, and there are odds that it gets stolen (yup, your mail can get stolen here or never ever arrive).
Someone here bought me an 8GB SD card, I will see if it works. The brand is 'Multilaser' a brand I have never heard of, and the price is approximately $5. We'll see.
Post by: Sonlirain on February 26, 2016, 07:32:07 pm
So far it's only when i upload something large like a video to youtube. I'll check if sending someone a large file via skype FTP will do that as well.
EDIT: I'm sending a 40 Mb file to a friend right now and the internet seems to be in working order. So far it seems only uploading files to youtube causes that.
Post by: wierd on February 26, 2016, 08:48:38 pm
If you saturate your upload bandwidth, it then interferes with downloads, because your ACKs dont make it out. This was a much bigger problem in the 90s in the dialup days, but it still exists today. You need to throttle your upload connection to your client so that approx 10% of the upload bandwidth is free for TCP to send ACKs and other goodies over in a timely manner.
If you do that, your problem will go away.
Post by: Sonlirain on February 26, 2016, 09:39:48 pm
So i guess i have to mess with the router then?
Post by: wierd on February 26, 2016, 09:46:36 pm
It could also be shitty hardware in your router not being able to handle that many packets/sec. Try using a bigger MTU and see if that helps.
Post by: Sonlirain on February 26, 2016, 10:30:12 pm
My download speed is 10.2Mbit while upload sits at 0.8 Mbit
And yes it's aDSL.
The router supposedly can handle 150 MB/s so even it it's real ability is a tenth of what they advertised it should still run it without any fuss unless it's a cheap chinese bootleg that uses a cricket for computing.
I might try doing a firmware update (if there are any) and see if it helps.
Post by: Akura on February 27, 2016, 09:02:12 pm
EDIT: Disregard. I logged into Optimum via my home network, and now I'm typing this from my 3ds at the laundromat.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on February 28, 2016, 08:54:18 am
Did a quick online test.Well. It might be the wires themselves.
My download speed is 10.2Mbit while upload sits at 0.8 Mbit
And yes it's aDSL.
The router supposedly can handle 150 MB/s so even it it's real ability is a tenth of what they advertised it should still run it without any fuss unless it's a cheap chinese bootleg that uses a cricket for computing.
I might try doing a firmware update (if there are any) and see if it helps.
Post by: Akura on March 06, 2016, 06:25:48 am
Post by: Thief^ on March 06, 2016, 01:16:13 pm
Post by: Sinistar on March 06, 2016, 04:59:24 pm
Short version: core i5 for that sweet sweet quad-core action or would core i3 do just fine?
Long version: Been running 4GB of RAM for years and it served me fine, but with each passing year I encountered more and more situations (read: games) that would be better off with more. I've postponed it for as long as my money/needs formula let me, but last week I've finally decided my finances are stable enough and bought some. 2x8GB of DDR4 should suffice me for long time, I wager. Initially I thought of also buying new mobo (my old one still works but I've finally wanted to use my SSD to it's full speed and USB 3.0 would also be nice) and thus also needed CPU, but after deciding for few weeks which CPU to get I've said to myself I'll just buy RAM first, deal with CPU some times later. Well, as it turns out I should have read about RAM characteristics some more because much to no one's surprise you can't fit DDR4 into DDR2 slots, heh. Hey, first time buying memory and such.
Anyways, I have a budget for i5 6500 which goes for ~230€ (box) around these parts, but that is a maximum price I'm willing to pay for a CPU. 6500 because after searching the web a bit it seemed like it's better to pay a little more for that one rather than 6400 if you are buying i5. Thing is, I keep questioning myself if I really, I mean REALLY need quad-core? A decent i3 would still be better than Core 2 Duo E8500 I've been running these past years and even that one still serves me well. The most intensive use my computer sees comes from gaming, no video encoding or such, and even then I only rarely play any sort of AAA games with high-end graphics. So why am I even considering i5? Mainly, I'm looking in the future. I know there supposed to be nothing future proof in the world of computers but still, as time progresses more and more games would start utilizing 4 cores properly and I still plan on playing SOME AAA titles here and there. So I'm thinking mainly how long will i5 serve me compared to i3.
Another important bit - I have no plans on overclocking stuff. Never had much need for it, I think I could actually do that with my current CPU/mobo but if I didn't in these past years, I don't see me doing that any time in the future. So mainly I'm looking for some additional input. Some people would probably say go for i5 if you have the money, some might say go for i3 if you don't really need 4 cores, and eventually I'll just pick something depending on my mood, but every bit of information help. Thanks!
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 06, 2016, 07:51:48 pm
Post by: BigD145 on March 07, 2016, 01:17:17 am
My netbook is suddenly shutting off after a few minutes of use. A quick virus check(quick is all I had time for) comes up clean. My guess is that it's overheating, since the bottom is getting quite toasty quicker than I remember it.
Yes, I've had a laptop do that because the fan was dying and it was overheating.
Core i3 vs i5? i5 all the way for price and function.
Post by: Thief^ on March 07, 2016, 02:19:04 am
Post by: Sensei on March 07, 2016, 03:02:41 am
What kind of graphics card do you have, though? If it's less than, say, the equivalent of a gtx960, you will find that the i3 will rarely hold you back in games (since you are bottlenecked at the gpu) and the i5 might be overkill.
Post by: Reudh on March 07, 2016, 08:20:06 am
My netbook is suddenly shutting off after a few minutes of use. A quick virus check(quick is all I had time for) comes up clean. My guess is that it's overheating, since the bottom is getting quite toasty quicker than I remember it.
Is it shutting down, or simply just switching off entirely, no user intervention? My old laptop frequently did that - it ran an AMD A8-4500M that would be very happy to overheat if it was doing anything outside of the Australian Winter, and even trying to use it in summer was a gamble.
Post by: Sinistar on March 07, 2016, 11:23:16 am
About my CPU stuff: thanks to everyone who answered. Don't worry Thief^, I won't make the same mistake twice. ;)
As for your inquiry, Sensei, my current GPU is R7 260X. According to gpuboss it is in fact weaker compared to GTX 960. However, I think this won't pose a problem as I could buy better GPU in the near future and also thinking forward, when I change my current mobo, cpu and ram, I could with a few extra funds make another computer from the old parts and in that case it would be better if I had GPU to spare instead of another cpu (if I, say, buy i3 now and wish to upgrade to i5 later).
OR I could buy i3 now and I have money to spare for a new GPU sometime in the future? But I'm not to keen on this option, better buy stronger cpu to begin with and gpu later me thinks.
Post by: Akura on March 07, 2016, 08:59:07 pm
Another problem, the clip to adjust my headphones just broke, rendering them barely usable. Probably can be fixed by taping it back up, but that's short term. They were cheap, but served well. I found the same model (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826193025&cm_re=headset-_-26-193-025-_-Product) for $10. Should I replace or upgrade to something more expensive? Other than the current problem, I haven't had any real complaints about them.
Post by: Thief^ on March 08, 2016, 05:11:53 am
Personally my favourite ever headphones were my cordless Sennheisers, but they weren't cheap. No wire to break though, so they lasted over a decade easily.
Post by: Akura on March 08, 2016, 05:22:01 am
Post by: Thief^ on March 08, 2016, 05:23:04 am
Post by: Akura on March 08, 2016, 06:32:48 am
Post by: Bauglir on March 09, 2016, 09:31:19 pm
Spoiler: this. (click to show/hide)
Unfortunately, I have
Spoiler: this. (click to show/hide)
As you can see, all the options that would allow me to select which network the adapter is on is missing, and all I've got to replace it is a dropdown menu that, as far as I can tell, serves no purpose.
How the devil do I get to the sort of situation the former screenshot has?
EDIT: I worked out a workaround by changing what I had decided I needed to do, but I never actually solved this problem and would still love some tips.
Post by: i2amroy on March 10, 2016, 06:41:20 pm
Post by: Bauglir on March 11, 2016, 01:34:00 am
Post by: wierd on March 11, 2016, 03:15:12 am
At this point, I would just suggest one of the many QEMU front ends, and be done with it. FOSS doesn't typically take options away from you like that.
(There are two that work on windows, QEMU Manager, and QtEMU.)
http://qemu-manager.software.informer.com/7.0/
https://qtemu.org/
Both provide nice GUI front-ends to QEMU, which does virtualization whenever possible, like vmware does. If you ask me, QEMU gives you slightly more control over the virtual machine's hardware, including what kind of nic to emulate, etc.
Post by: Bauglir on March 11, 2016, 08:32:19 am
Post by: Aklyon on March 11, 2016, 09:45:30 am
Post by: Bauglir on March 11, 2016, 12:10:16 pm
Have you tried asking the other people why they're using the one with a bad menu then?I don't see any reason I'd be able to convince them to repeat all the work they did configuring other systems on the network because of a bad menu that I was able to work around, so no. I mean, if the answer is "There's no way to get it to work properly" that's fine, but I'm not too interested in griping about the application I have to use being less than ideal. That's generally the case in the real world anyway, by my understanding - you'll get handed an environment you just have to work with and rules you have to follow, whether you've got better ideas or not. My hope was that there was some way to get the environment to do what I wanted, not to get an alternative environment (although knowing alternatives will be nice for the future, it doesn't help me now).
Post by: wierd on March 11, 2016, 06:24:52 pm
Unless they have changed it, it used to be a basic text file inside. :) If you can find an example machine config file to borrow from, you can manually configure it, even if the GUI is insisting on mittens mode.
(think about it this way: you have an established virtual cluster set up and working, and vmware pushes an update. Your machines already have config files. It makes no sense for vmware to break your deployment because of a regression of features in the GUI. The actual VM is defined by the config file, which is already set up. VMware should accept older flavor config files without a hiccup, if they are at all datacenter friendly.)
Post by: Bauglir on March 11, 2016, 10:41:27 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on March 14, 2016, 06:35:42 am
For a good time now when turning my PC on or returning from sleep mode my GPU's fans go absolutely bonkers.
I'm talking vacuum cleaner levels of noise here.
The case fan is still but the ones on my card just go all out as if the card itself was on fire and i have no idea why.
They also don't seem to stop unless i do a reset.
The drivers are all up to date and i wonder if it's something with the mobo or some sort of hardware flaw on the GPU itself.
Overall i'm kinda worried because if not the GPU then itrs fans might get damaged and... well i doubt this carw ould last long without them.
It's an R9 380 by the way.
Post by: Thief^ on March 14, 2016, 06:43:52 am
Post by: Sonlirain on March 14, 2016, 07:14:40 am
I wouldn't be worried if it was just a short revving up during system startup.
And again newest drivers and i'm sure if it was the drivers fault i'd see loads of questions about it in Q&A forums but those are mostly about fans going to 100% as result of personal meddling with OC or playing games on a lower end card.
Post by: BigD145 on March 14, 2016, 11:22:48 am
Post by: Sonlirain on March 14, 2016, 11:37:55 am
I'll update the drivers again and see if the problem persists first tho since a new update came out a few days ago.
Post by: Catmeat on March 16, 2016, 05:12:32 am
I am usually a console gamer but I do have a laptop for DF, MC, AOE.. low end games and would like to get some advice on making a gaming computer for 2016-18 released games, I have a minimum budget of $1000-1250 american.
I have never built one nor do I care for its asthetics.
If it matters I have a HD flatscreen tv I plan to use for a monitor.
Any help, guidance parts advice or insults will be apreciated.
I dont know the jargon either
Hopefully I will get a nice fps on DF
Post by: Arx on March 16, 2016, 05:26:07 am
Post by: Thief^ on March 16, 2016, 05:50:37 am
Don't forget your Windows license if you're building yourself!
Post by: origamiscienceguy on March 17, 2016, 07:31:39 pm
I have a blu-ray player, and a tv with red, white, yellow inputs. I got a box that converts the hdmi and its outputs are: red, blue, green, (space) red, white.
I have a cable with red, white, yellow on both sides, but there is no yellow on the converter, even though the guy said it could still do it.
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 17, 2016, 07:38:21 pm
Red, White, Yellow is a Composite output format, often called RCA. The Yellow has the whole video signal, while the Red and White are the left and right audio channels.
Red, Blue, Green, Red, White is Component output video, where the Red and White by themeselves are the two audio channels, while the other three are the video feed with each RGB color on its own seperate wire for better image quality. To save space, manufacturers often use the Green port for composite input/output as well.
Pure HDMI is superior to both, and should be used whenever possible. If you only have RCA input on your tv, your Blu-rays will look like shit anyway.
Post by: origamiscienceguy on March 17, 2016, 07:49:28 pm
Post by: Aklyon on March 17, 2016, 08:01:24 pm
Post by: origamiscienceguy on March 17, 2016, 08:04:07 pm
You need a disk in the player for it to work, of course.already was. I'm sure there is a movie playing inside, but the TV says, "searching for signal" except the 2 seconds after I turn the blue ray on and before It completely turns off.
Post by: Sonlirain on March 17, 2016, 09:46:47 pm
I need some helpi7 CPUs are nice and unless you want to go full budget avoid AMD processors because while the FX-8350 is entirely functional (and likely will be for quite some time still) they won't last nearly as long as an i7... unless games will suddenly start using all of its 8 cores efficiently.
I am usually a console gamer but I do have a laptop for DF, MC, AOE.. low end games and would like to get some advice on making a gaming computer for 2016-18 released games, I have a minimum budget of $1000-1250 american.
I have never built one nor do I care for its asthetics.
If it matters I have a HD flatscreen tv I plan to use for a monitor.
Any help, guidance parts advice or insults will be apreciated.
I dont know the jargon either
Hopefully I will get a nice fps on DF
Overall it's kinda like comparing a diesel powered train with a TGV. Both will work well but one is just better.
The PSU is super important so be sure you get a good one. If you buy cheap and are especially unlucky you might even end up frying your PC because of it.
8 gigs of ram is entirely sufficient and likely will be for the foreseeable future. Get 16+ if you are a snob.
Both AMD and Nvidia do nice graphics cards.
AMD is cheaper and has more straight up performance (and power draw) while also trying to recreate some of Nvidia specific effects. Also they are easier to SLI if need be.
Nvidia GPUs are slightly weaker power to price ratio but get some extra effects and power efficiency (and are quieter).
The case and notherboard... well whatever fits the stuff you want to put inside.
Oh and if you get something like R9 300 get a case fan unless you want to watch the card idle at 80 degree.
Post by: Tiruin on March 17, 2016, 10:35:00 pm
I'm trying to recover deleted files (from my SD?), and there's a lot of info online but a lot of download sites with me having a very vague feeling on which is more helpful than the other. :-\ And I'm unsure how to ask help for it! D:
Post by: wierd on March 19, 2016, 12:11:20 am
Pop it into a computer.
Run testdisk/photorec on it.
Photorec is awesome, it looks for actual data structures of image files, instead of the FAT. Even of the fat entry is totally nuked, if the block isnt overwritten, it will get the image back.
Wont have the filename anymore, but you still have the pic. Recovers Jpegs, mpegs, GIFs and PNGs.
Now then..
I recently purchased a super duper cheap android tablet at walmart for 78$. It is sporting and intel atom quad core baytrail SoC, and has 1gb of RAM, with theoretical 16gb internal storage, and comes with android lollipop 5.0.
The cool thing?
The BOOT partition looks like an ordinary UEFI fat32 boot partition, with an EFI folder, and a BOOTx64.EFI file in it.
Why is that cool?
I strongly suspect I can manually swap it out with GRUB, and chainload any other .EFI bootloader, meaning I can probably get this thing running real linux and windows 8.1 from the sdcard slot. ;)
I am gonna play with that over the weekend.
Post by: Thief^ on March 19, 2016, 09:56:22 am
Post by: Rose on March 19, 2016, 09:58:08 am
x86 android? Are you sure?It's not uncommon.
Post by: wierd on March 19, 2016, 11:09:14 am
I just made use of my Linux Deploy environment to run efibootmgr, and change the boot order for the EFI bios. It was sidestepping looking for bootable media on the USB interface by jumping straight to the android loader as the first boot option. Changed boot order to look for bootable USB sticks and CDroms first.
(This thing's EFI implementation lacks a "bios screen", so I have to probe it with byzantine tools like this. This is to be expected-- they intend it to be an idiot proofed Android only tablet. Nevermind that the ONLY DIFFERNCE between this tablet and a substantially more expensive windows 8.1 tablet by the same maker, is 1gb of RAM, as far as hardware goes. 8.1 will run like poop on 1gb of RAM, but Mint will do OK if I turn zram on with some aggressive settings. It will be nice having native linux with sound working. My Linux Deploy solution uses the in-memory kernel that android uses, and the alsa modules baked into it wont work with normal linux. The graphics kernel module does though! I have accelerated video right now.)
Now I just need an OTG cable, and I can boot a minty fresh EFI linux live stick. I think my sister has such a thing. I will go visit her. (Failing that, I can go shopping in town)
The OTG cable will have other uses, such as attaching a USB hub to the port, and having a USB keyboard and mouse attached all at the same time. This will be very helpful in setting up any OSes I may want to double, or triple boot. When I have it all configured, I will install something like ReFIT, which has a nice little GUI for picking and choosing EFI capable start options. (that should let me leverage the touchscreen to pick the OS on power on.)
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 26, 2016, 10:57:51 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on March 27, 2016, 10:51:23 am
I've got a Samsung Galaxy S5 Note, and 8.some odd GB (that seems to actually be 11 GB when you look at the unitemized bar graph thing) of files that I don't know what they are doing or how to get rid of them. They're tagged as 'System Memory' in the Storage widget.
I think it might be something to do with Google Drive's uploading, which caused pretty bad problems (Keyboard has stopped) when I tried to upload a mass of stuff, but I cancelled that. So I don't know why the massive amounts of memory are still in use.
It might be too many Chrome tabs, but I doubt it. There's no way.
Post by: Thief^ on March 27, 2016, 12:03:25 pm
You've also confused Ram and storage (both get called " memory", it's a common mistake). The number you are talking about is storage, and is shared with installed apps and files (e.g. photos taken). Running apps use RAM, e.g. those chrome tabs you mentioned, or any other activity you can think of (e.g. Google Drive uploading)
Post by: TheBiggerFish on March 27, 2016, 12:08:41 pm
Geez, no, I know the difference between RAM and ROM, but I figured all of those windows might be taking up a lot of cache or whatever. They weren't, but honestly it was high time I closed some anyway.
So, to clarify what I suspect is going on:
>Drive uploads create temp files which don't get cleared out very well.
>>Note that in a massive upload, I got a "running low on STORAGE" error, not a slowdown or etc., to the point that I literally couldn't receive messages.
>>>Cancelled all uploads, problem went poof.
>Now attempting uploads again, piece by piece.
>>Running out of storage alert pops up.
>>>Check Storage widget, see 11.some odd GB of Miscellaneous Files.
>>>>Turns out that I can only pin down 8.5 GB of files in the itemized list?
>>>These files were not there before the mass upload and appear to be increasing as I upload files.
>>Cannot delete files that are taking up the space.
>Problem.
Post by: miauw62 on March 27, 2016, 01:38:21 pm
Post by: Thief^ on March 27, 2016, 03:32:02 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on March 27, 2016, 05:08:30 pm
On android, apps can't write to the phone's internal memory outside of the app's own folder. If drive is the problem, it should be under the "drive" app. It will have a clear cache option in the app properties (in the phone's app settings, rather than the app's own settings).Well carp.
I don't know what is the problem but Drive apparently wasn't it.
Yaaaaay.
Post by: IronTomato on March 28, 2016, 07:50:57 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on March 28, 2016, 11:00:55 pm
Post by: Sappho on March 31, 2016, 10:26:21 am
Subtitles I already have saved to the computer seem to work fine, but if I try to download new ones, only .sub files seem to work. .srt no longer work. I use the auto-search in Media Player Classic, sometimes using Czech and sometimes English. There are various different file types (avi, mpg, mp4, flv) and that doesn't seem to make a difference. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling MPC but that didn't fix it. It seems that .sub files still work consistently, but .srt ones only work if I already have them saved to the computer - if I download new .srt files, they don't work.
I'm at my wits' end. The particular shows that aren't working are my go-to de-stress shows and I need to be able to watch them with subtitles. I'm already in stress- and sensory-overload today and this is pushing me into meltdown territory. Please tell me someone has some idea how to fix it... Thank you so much for any help...
EDIT: Okay, I've tried downloading subtitles from the web directly (opensubtitles.org) and they seem to work. So this appears to be a problem with MPC downloading .srt files and corrupting them somehow. But why? I haven't changed anything, haven't updated or messed with any settings. Why would their subtitle downloader suddenly stop working for .srt files, especially when it still works fine for .sub?
Post by: TheBiggerFish on March 31, 2016, 10:47:42 am
I don't have any clue whatsoever.
It might be in the site you're getting them from as opposed to the player.
Post by: Sappho on March 31, 2016, 10:58:09 am
Post by: TheBiggerFish on March 31, 2016, 11:12:53 am
Incoming cliche: Have you tried rebooting?
Post by: Sappho on March 31, 2016, 11:22:34 am
Post by: TheBiggerFish on March 31, 2016, 11:56:24 am
Post by: Sappho on March 31, 2016, 11:58:03 am
Yep. And uninstalling/reinstalling the software. Sadly, no luck.
The "yep" referred to rebooting the computer. ;)
Post by: TheBiggerFish on March 31, 2016, 12:02:58 pm
Yeah, I've no clue.
Try googling it?
Post by: Sappho on March 31, 2016, 12:05:27 pm
Post by: Graknorke on March 31, 2016, 04:45:34 pm
All the advice I've seen online has to do with Norton internet security, but I don't touch the stuff so it's not like it would be that.
Post by: BigD145 on March 31, 2016, 07:47:35 pm
ARGH big problem... Suddenly subtitles aren't working on my computer. I rely on subtitles to watch video, so it is EXTREMELY important that I get them working. I use Media Player Classic, but I tried other media players as well (Windows Media, VLC) and they don't work there either.
Subtitles I already have saved to the computer seem to work fine, but if I try to download new ones, only .sub files seem to work. .srt no longer work. I use the auto-search in Media Player Classic, sometimes using Czech and sometimes English. There are various different file types (avi, mpg, mp4, flv) and that doesn't seem to make a difference. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling MPC but that didn't fix it. It seems that .sub files still work consistently, but .srt ones only work if I already have them saved to the computer - if I download new .srt files, they don't work.
Just MPC (media player classic) or MPC-HC?
Post by: Sappho on April 01, 2016, 12:35:48 am
ARGH big problem... Suddenly subtitles aren't working on my computer. I rely on subtitles to watch video, so it is EXTREMELY important that I get them working. I use Media Player Classic, but I tried other media players as well (Windows Media, VLC) and they don't work there either.
Subtitles I already have saved to the computer seem to work fine, but if I try to download new ones, only .sub files seem to work. .srt no longer work. I use the auto-search in Media Player Classic, sometimes using Czech and sometimes English. There are various different file types (avi, mpg, mp4, flv) and that doesn't seem to make a difference. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling MPC but that didn't fix it. It seems that .sub files still work consistently, but .srt ones only work if I already have them saved to the computer - if I download new .srt files, they don't work.
Just MPC (media player classic) or MPC-HC?
Just checked, it is MPC-HC (64-bit) according to the "about" info in the program. As I've said before, though, this change happened suddenly and without me having made any changes that I'm aware of to the program or the computer. So I'm really baffled.
Post by: Rose on April 01, 2016, 01:51:43 am
Post by: Sappho on April 01, 2016, 01:04:17 pm
Try Kodi? It's also able to download subtitles, and it's a pretty good media player.
*Shudder* Thank you for the suggestion but I just tried it and it's hideous. On the other hand, for some reason MPC has started downloading subtitles again perfectly for no apparent reason. So whatever anomaly caused them to get messed up appears to have cleared itself up. I'm going to go ahead and not question it and just appreciate having my subs working again.
Post by: Rose on April 02, 2016, 11:15:46 pm
Post by: Sappho on April 04, 2016, 02:20:20 am
We changed for daylight savings time here a week ago, and my computer correctly adjusted the time, automatically, like it should. But apparently last night it decided one hour wasn't enough, and jumped it forward another hour. I had to look up the local time on several different web sites to be sure it was really wrong - I had it in my head that it was time to go to work! At least I have an extra hour to chill now.
I manually adjusted the time, double-checked that the time zone was set correctly and the "auto-adjust for daylight savings" box was checked. Everything is set correctly. The computer just... decided to remove an hour from the day. Any idea why this might have happened? It's not a huge deal, since it was easily fixed, but I'm curious about why it may have happened.
Post by: Thief^ on April 04, 2016, 03:35:32 am
That's all I can think of.
Post by: Tawa on April 06, 2016, 09:03:56 pm
[USERNAME]@[COMPUTER NAME]:~/Civilization 2$ wine civ2.exe
err:menubuilder:init_xdg error looking up the desktop directory
err:module:import_dll Library DPLAYX.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\home\\[USERNAME]\\Civilization 2\\XDaemon.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library XDaemon.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\home\\[USERNAME]\\Civilization 2\\civ2.exe") not found
err:module:LdrInitializeThunk Main exe initialization for L"Z:\\home\\[USERNAME]\\Civilization 2\\civ2.exe" failed, status c0000135
Post by: gimlet on April 06, 2016, 10:40:32 pm
Post by: wierd on April 06, 2016, 11:36:37 pm
eg, something like this in a bash script...
#!/bin/bash
cd "/home/(your_user)/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Civ3"
wine civ3.exe
OR, pass this to wine with your launcher:
wine "C:\Program Files\Civ3\Civ3.exe"
Post by: Thief^ on April 07, 2016, 01:45:20 am
Alternatively if you're trying the original you could try the rerelease in wine.
Post by: Tawa on April 07, 2016, 03:22:11 pm
@wierd: Already tried what you suggested; thanks anyway.
@Thief^: Rerelease.
I've successfully run the game in the past, so I think that maybe something I've done since the last time I played screwed it up, but I'm not sure what.
Oh, and just to be safe, I "reinstalled" (i.e. I unzipped the game a second time and tried to run it again) and the same thing happens.
Post by: wierd on April 07, 2016, 05:33:26 pm
From the error, it looks like the Civ3 specific DLL is dependent on dplayx.dll, which wine cant find. Dplayx.dll is part of directx from bygone years. (DX7 IIRC.) If you installed real directx in the prefix with winetricks, this could be the problem. A clean prefix should reveal that.
If you dont want to try a clean prefix, you could try setting dplayx.dll to builtin in winecfg, and see if that fixes it.
Post by: Reudh on April 07, 2016, 08:29:47 pm
Trying to run Civ II through Wine, but I'm getting these weird error messages. Any clue what's going on?
[USERNAME]@[COMPUTER NAME]:~/Civilization 2$ wine civ2.exe
err:menubuilder:init_xdg error looking up the desktop directory
err:module:import_dll Library DPLAYX.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\home\\[USERNAME]\\Civilization 2\\XDaemon.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library XDaemon.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\home\\[USERNAME]\\Civilization 2\\civ2.exe") not found
err:module:LdrInitializeThunk Main exe initialization for L"Z:\\home\\[USERNAME]\\Civilization 2\\civ2.exe" failed, status c0000135
I might interject: if you're not using Civ2Gold, it's likely that the version is a 16bit program. I don't know whether Wine can successfully run 3.1 era Windows programs. You may well need to have a computer with a 32 bit VM or something like that.
Post by: wierd on April 07, 2016, 08:47:19 pm
Post by: Tawa on April 07, 2016, 08:50:36 pm
Civ2GoldIt is the Multiplayer Gold Edition.
Post by: wierd on April 07, 2016, 08:55:25 pm
Post by: Sappho on April 08, 2016, 02:26:49 am
I tried googling but all I got was a list of sites telling you how to disable fast startup, which I've already done. Any ideas what's going on here or how to fix it?
Thanks guys.
Post by: Thief^ on April 08, 2016, 02:44:21 am
It's more likely that it just isn't running at startup at all. Check its options, or failing that, reinstall it.
And turn fast startup back on.
Post by: Sappho on April 08, 2016, 02:53:51 am
Basically, it's definitely powering down. I'm clicking "shut down" and watching it turn off. But when I turn it back on, it acts like it's coming back from sleep. If startup has been disabled by someone for some reason, how do I turn it back on?
Post by: Rose on April 08, 2016, 03:05:15 am
Post by: Thief^ on April 08, 2016, 03:32:42 am
Post by: Sappho on April 08, 2016, 03:38:43 am
open the task manager, check the startup tab.
Everything in the startup tab looks normal. All the programs that should run are on the list.
Post by: Thief^ on April 08, 2016, 03:42:50 am
Post by: Sappho on April 08, 2016, 03:55:52 am
Post by: Thief^ on April 08, 2016, 04:03:51 am
I would be amazed if that is still an issue.
Post by: Sappho on April 08, 2016, 04:06:38 am
Hm... I was hoping this would be something easily fixed. At the moment, my current fix is literally to turn the computer on, and as soon as it's on, reboot it. When I reboot, it starts up normally.
Post by: Thief^ on April 08, 2016, 04:10:49 am
After that I'm about out of ideas. It's not a problem I've encountered on any of my home machines, and we haven't updated at work (yet!) much to my annoyance (I'm a game developer, and it's quite hard to develop DirectX 12 stuff on an obsolete version of Windows which doesn't support DX12 and never will).
Post by: Sappho on April 08, 2016, 04:14:22 am
Post by: i2amroy on April 11, 2016, 11:11:44 pm
Post by: Sappho on April 12, 2016, 02:26:39 am
Post by: Thief^ on April 12, 2016, 03:41:26 am
Alternatively, you could try removing the programs from startup and re-adding them (easiest way is through their own settings) and seeing if that does anything.
Post by: hector13 on April 12, 2016, 01:39:32 pm
Everything works alright, except for the occasional time when the SSD drive (primary drive) decides it wants to hide from the rest of the computer, and... loses connection? Isn't detected anymore?
It has been occurring with much more regular frequency in the past month or so. Does anyone know of issues with SSD drives in general with Windows 10, or Seagate ones specifically?
PPE: cunting thing just did it 3 times in the last hour.
Post by: Shadowlord on April 12, 2016, 02:32:59 pm
Post by: Thief^ on April 12, 2016, 02:59:17 pm
So, I built a new PC a few months ago (probably shortly before Christmas)I don't. I would check for any tools or drivers available specific to that SSD, especially a firmware update. Ditto a BIOS / driver update for your motherboard, in case the problem is that end.
Everything works alright, except for the occasional time when the SSD drive (primary drive) decides it wants to hide from the rest of the computer, and... loses connection? Isn't detected anymore?
It has been occurring with much more regular frequency in the past month or so. Does anyone know of issues with SSD drives in general with Windows 10, or Seagate ones specifically?
PPE: cunting thing just did it 3 times in the last hour.
Post by: ancistrus on April 12, 2016, 04:14:02 pm
I fairly regularly accidentally like something and then I have to delete my like on FB.
I consider myself old fashioned when it comes to computers/internet and I really despise this kind of BULLSHIT.
*or whatever do you even call this phenomenon
Post by: TheBiggerFish on April 12, 2016, 04:19:53 pm
Is there a way to not be logged in* in facebook constantly?Uh...Sign out when you're done? There should be a button.
I fairly regularly accidentally like something and then I have to delete my like on FB.
I consider myself old fashioned when it comes to computers/internet and I really despise this kind of BULLSHIT.
*or whatever do you even call this phenomenon
Post by: ancistrus on April 12, 2016, 04:25:43 pm
Is there a way to not be logged in* in facebook constantly?Uh...Sign out when you're done? There should be a button.
I fairly regularly accidentally like something and then I have to delete my like on FB.
I consider myself old fashioned when it comes to computers/internet and I really despise this kind of BULLSHIT.
*or whatever do you even call this phenomenon
Yeah, that works. Thanks.
...I still dont like FB.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on April 12, 2016, 04:44:03 pm
Post by: Plex on April 12, 2016, 07:20:04 pm
It sucks nuts if you want to make a youtube account, because it forces making a G+ account with all the bloat associated with it.
And when you need to check your mail, it automatically logs into Youtube and fills your recommended videos list with old shit you watched 3 years ago.
I miss the good old days, before G+ was integrated into everything...
Post by: BigD145 on April 13, 2016, 12:56:35 am
Is there a way to not be logged in* in facebook constantly?Uh...Sign out when you're done? There should be a button.
I fairly regularly accidentally like something and then I have to delete my like on FB.
I consider myself old fashioned when it comes to computers/internet and I really despise this kind of BULLSHIT.
*or whatever do you even call this phenomenon
Yeah, that works. Thanks.
...I still dont like FB.
Go into your hosts file. Add this: 127.0.0.1 facebook.com
Post by: Aklyon on April 13, 2016, 07:39:32 am
G+ is rather nice if you have a load of google accounts in your life. Only one password to remember.If you actually use the recommended videos list, or g+, then thats your problem. The latter has never been useful and the former is not the subscriptions page and therefore not relevant to what I'm going to actually click.
It sucks nuts if you want to make a youtube account, because it forces making a G+ account with all the bloat associated with it.
And when you need to check your mail, it automatically logs into Youtube and fills your recommended videos list with old shit you watched 3 years ago.
I miss the good old days, before G+ was integrated into everything...
Post by: scrdest on April 13, 2016, 12:41:10 pm
When I try to wake it up from hibernation, it spins up and starts buzzing, and when I turn it off, you can literally hear the disk grinding to a halt, occasionally failing to be detected by BIOS. Then, after several tries it just spins up, boots, and runs perfectly fine, and it doesn't even seem to have any bad sectors or anything. Then it's back to the same story once I try to boot it up the next day (although it ran fine for a while after a good chkdsking).
I'm junking the ol' thing soon anyway, since it's reaching the point where fixing each and every part failing in sequence will be more expensive, if even possible, but if it's a situation where the whole thing (since there's only a single HDD, with the OS on it) can fail completely soon, I'm probably going to have to take the plunge and fork over a couple months' worth of living expenses in cash.
Post by: gimlet on April 13, 2016, 01:24:15 pm
But it really sounds like you're on short time - for sure backup anything really crucial on that drive ASAP. You *might* want to think about replacing the drive, because a drive alone isn't that expensive and it's one thing you might be able to use in the future in a different machine, or if nothing else, in a dock as a place to back up files. A 1T laptop drive should be $60 or less, 2T $90 or so. Apart from the hassle of making sure it will fit, and copying - that's no fun either.
Post by: Reudh on April 13, 2016, 02:48:32 pm
More on the hardware side: my laptop HDD is going senile at five years old... But the symptoms don't seem to match any typical HDD is kill scenarios, and I need to have a ballpark on how close to the AAA LAPTOP DED scenario I am, so I'm asking on the off-chance one of you folks had that kind of issue.
When I try to wake it up from hibernation, it spins up and starts buzzing, and when I turn it off, you can literally hear the disk grinding to a halt, occasionally failing to be detected by BIOS. Then, after several tries it just spins up, boots, and runs perfectly fine, and it doesn't even seem to have any bad sectors or anything. Then it's back to the same story once I try to boot it up the next day (although it ran fine for a while after a good chkdsking).
I'm junking the ol' thing soon anyway, since it's reaching the point where fixing each and every part failing in sequence will be more expensive, if even possible, but if it's a situation where the whole thing (since there's only a single HDD, with the OS on it) can fail completely soon, I'm probably going to have to take the plunge and fork over a couple months' worth of living expenses in cash.
I'm inclined to agree with Gimlet. If that shit's happening, the HDD is probably on its last legs. Get an external hard drive and dump everything off it soon as you can.
Post by: scrdest on April 13, 2016, 04:23:00 pm
The thing is, I actually got another diagnostic tool (HD Tune Pro on a 15-day trial, but I'm not planning to have a HDD failure a month anyway) and, uh...
...it's perfectly fine. Zero bad sectors (admittably, on a quick scan), zero reallocated sectors or events, or anything at all in SMART.
I'm suspecting it's something more prosaic, like a worn-out bearing (which sounds similar now that I compared it on YT, but I would expect it to, y'know, be consistent, and not just happen on spinup). I have no idea how... lethal, so to speak, that is, though.
Post by: flabort on April 13, 2016, 08:26:52 pm
So what should I know about this program, and what should I do about it before I go poking and prodding through my computer or deleting folders that I shouldn't touch?I didn't, but this has prompted me to search my computer for one, and there seems to be one. Let's move this to the advice thread...Let me tell you, it's like Acer specifically did all they can to give the laptop exactly two years of lifetime. It's running on four years now, but holy shit Acer, get your shit together.
From my personal experience Acer is a bad brand. Btw, did you have to uninstall a piece of software called Mywinlocker?
Post by: i2amroy on April 13, 2016, 08:34:19 pm
Post by: heydude6 on April 13, 2016, 09:37:07 pm
COMPUTERS SHOULDN'T HAVE 5 MINUTE BOOT TIMES!
EDIT: This was before I started prodding and poking, although I think I have made it worse.
Post by: Thief^ on April 14, 2016, 01:10:06 am
But it really sounds like you're on short time - for sure backup anything really crucial on that drive ASAP. You *might* want to think about replacing the drive, because a drive alone isn't that expensive [...] A 1T laptop drive should be $60 or less, 2T $90 or so.
I 2nd replacing the drive, although I'd recommend an SSD, if you can afford one as large as you need (or you can admit to needing less than you are using). SSDs are much more appropriate for laptops because they don't have moving parts and don't care about movement or bumps while they are on.
Both the laptops in my house have had the SSD treatment (with a 126 GB and 80 GB SSD respectively) and it makes them noticeably faster and more responsive.
My brand of choice is Samsung Evo.
Post by: Reudh on April 14, 2016, 04:31:24 am
But it really sounds like you're on short time - for sure backup anything really crucial on that drive ASAP. You *might* want to think about replacing the drive, because a drive alone isn't that expensive [...] A 1T laptop drive should be $60 or less, 2T $90 or so.
I 2nd replacing the drive, although I'd recommend an SSD, if you can afford one as large as you need (or you can admit to needing less than you are using). SSDs are much more appropriate for laptops because they don't have moving parts and don't care about movement or bumps while they are on.
Both the laptops in my house have had the SSD treatment (with a 126 GB and 80 GB SSD respectively) and it makes them noticeably faster and more responsive.
My brand of choice is Samsung Evo.
Can confirm, I use a Samsung Evo 750 (256GB) on my big ol' rig for Windows and some other programs, and it's super quick.
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 14, 2016, 11:26:48 am
https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=27907692
Is there any serious problem you can spot with these components? I'm doing an incremental upgrade (keeping my current drives, video card, and massive PSU), but I'm not up on the current tech enough to spot any pitfalls. I don't intend to overclock, and will probably only run one video card (although my next upgrade (in a few months) will be to a rather beefy one).
Post by: Thief^ on April 14, 2016, 11:32:01 am
I'm not familiar with Intel's current CPU/mobo/ram compatibility, so I can't comment on that.
Post by: Sanctume on April 14, 2016, 01:33:30 pm
and also http://pcpartpicker.com to compare prices as well as check if your parts are compatible with each other, as well as best available prices comparisons
Post by: feelotraveller on April 15, 2016, 07:07:13 am
[Edit: Hooray, all parts ordered.]
Prices are in AUD so multiply by 0.7715 for us dollars. Will be the first computer I build and my first linux (mint?) machine. Generally I play cpu intensive games but want to be able to dabble in say Fallout 4. Plus internet, videos, that game I've always planned to make, etc. Partpicker tells me its all compatible and mostly checked for linux usage. Tower and mobo are intended to serve for upgrades to ram, graphics and probably added drives and a different cpu further down the track. Will unload my cash after the weekend.
Am I wasting money? Mismatch of levels? Could do a lot better if I spent a little more? Something you know linux has problems with? Or just generally comments...
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 15, 2016, 07:16:57 am
Post by: Thief^ on April 15, 2016, 07:22:40 am
Post by: feelotraveller on April 15, 2016, 08:29:17 am
@Thief^. Yes thanks for the heads up; it's good advice but I'm afraid my laptop won't hold out. I'll want it for surfing out my new OS. Also quite likely that the older model graphics cards will go down in price some time after the new release. To be honest I'm stretching for the 970, earlier on I planned a 750ti then the 960. The 1080 looks like it could be juicy though. :)
Post by: Shadowlord on April 15, 2016, 10:04:43 pm
Plus then you could wait on the new gpus, which should lower the prices on existing ones, yeah?
Post by: Sonlirain on April 16, 2016, 05:53:53 am
@Lord Shonus. The -M model. I've no plans to overclock. Thank you.You could think about an AMD card. The main issue with those is the bigger power draw but last generation it got surprisingly close and midrange AMD cards offer better performance for the price if you don't mind losing advanced phys-x support.
@Thief^. Yes thanks for the heads up; it's good advice but I'm afraid my laptop won't hold out. I'll want it for surfing out my new OS. Also quite likely that the older model graphics cards will go down in price some time after the new release. To be honest I'm stretching for the 970, earlier on I planned a 750ti then the 960. The 1080 looks like it could be juicy though. :)
IN OTHER NEWS.
Ok i'm back carrying another weird issue.
My PC randomly shuts down.
And it's not a typical shutdown either. It simply goes dark as if i pulled the plug stays that way for around 5 seconds and turns itself back on again with windows trying to boot in emergency mode..
The circumstances are kinda obscure but generally it happens late night around 4-5 am and i can't tell if it's because it hates late night or the fact it randomly starts overheating after being up for 16 hours... and i'm not playing any games at that hour either so overheating is not really all that likely.
It's not really a big problem so far because... well using the PC 16+ hours non stop is quite a bit of time.
However it might get worse so i'm asking here in advance since i might have to open the case again and it would be good to have as many theories to check as i can get.
Post by: feelotraveller on April 16, 2016, 09:52:45 am
Does that have integrated graphics? You need it if you want to feed your actual gpu to a VM running windows for Windows games.
Plus then you could wait on the new gpus, which should lower the prices on existing ones, yeah?
Now there's an idea. Yes the cpu has integrated graphics and although everyone dumps on it after checking the spec's they are a lot better than what I am currently using (at least on paper). Especially as after rethinking I ditched the sli motherboard although for a small price difference. Was prepared to go to a h170 chipset but $4 difference gets a type-C usb port so...
I want to stick with nvidia since many report it playing much better on linux (drivers) otherwise a R9 3x0 would probably have been a good move.
----------
In terms of weird shutdowns that sounds exactly like what I've experienced when my laptop has overheated. No expert but I'd investigate that. For me it was because my fan was on the blink - it would work but then randomly stop and if I didn't notice in time black screen power outage then reboot (which would pretty quickly black screen again). Pretty common for fans to get dodgy I've been told. Taking everything apart and blowing out most of the dust helped and then I sprayed lubricant all over the fan (sealed laptop unit I never managed to get open) in order to get a bit on the spindle. Have had to repeat a few times since, it comes and goes, and its generally pretty noisy but its still going years later...
Post by: Sonlirain on April 16, 2016, 10:40:25 am
Post by: BigD145 on April 17, 2016, 11:51:51 am
Post by: feelotraveller on April 18, 2016, 06:20:47 am
@Sonlirain
I wasn't suggesting your psu was responsible. When a computer gets chronically hot it powers out (possibly a failsafe cpu protection measure?).
Have you checked your case for dust? Clean it out anyway - dust never does any good. :)
Post by: Sonlirain on April 18, 2016, 06:19:56 pm
The weird thing is that in my case the PC seems to work fine for hours. I can play a resource intensive game for 4 hours andn othing happens. Then leave it in sleep mode for 2 hours come back to check my mail and poof the thing turns itself off.
And almost like clockwork every 16 hours of being on give or take 1 hour.
Post by: Shadowlord on April 19, 2016, 02:54:58 pm
(of course fuses/circuit breakers don't, afaik, automatically reset themselves, so it's probably not the circuit being overloaded by something coming on at that time)
Post by: Sonlirain on April 19, 2016, 03:20:17 pm
However i have a loopy theory that it might have to do with my front USB ports since one of my USB cables i used to recharge my phone got damaged.
So i disconnected everything and waiting. Hopefully it helps because i don't like the idea of having to replace the PSU or motherboard.
EDIT:
It didn't help. I will be running a memory test to see if RAM is involved.
If the ram is clean... then maybe it's the 24 pin that's faulty.
But if that's fine as well... well i'm out of clues then.
Post by: i2amroy on April 19, 2016, 05:13:23 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on April 19, 2016, 08:29:35 pm
Also my PC went haywire 2 times today so it's getting worse.
The memory test i ran said there were no problems with the ram.
And faulty ram would be a good explanation for this weird behavior.
If the PSU was really faulty i think the problems should be more... major (like bursting into flame for example).
Maybe the 24 pin on the mobo is failing for some reason because that's literally the only possible culprit i have left.
EDIT: I opened up the case and checked the cable and noticed... how it was barely hanging in there. So i pulled it out checked the port and cable for possible damage. Failed to notice anything and put the cable back in... but overall i'm almost certain my problem was because the cable went loose for whatever reason.
I was too cautious when inserting it, the stiff braided cable could just been slowly pulling it out over time (i was rather creative with routing cables to prevent them from getting in front of fans.)
Or my nephews kicking the case loosened it up.
In any way that should fix it and if not... i will post again
Post by: Shadowlord on April 20, 2016, 09:11:08 am
I've had a few PSU failures, they tended to manifest as an inability to power on, or shutting down a second after powering on, iirc.
Post by: nogoodnames on April 21, 2016, 08:39:32 am
Post by: Aklyon on April 21, 2016, 09:20:11 am
What's a decent, free, easy to use video recording program? I just need something that can record voice and a screen capture.I've heard OBS be called at least two of those.
Post by: Sonlirain on April 21, 2016, 12:39:45 pm
Plus you can tell it to noisegate the microphone so it won't record breathing keystrokes and the like.
Then you have Raptr/Gaming evolved and plays.tv but that's more of a game session recorder and the voice through it is... eh. Mostly drowned out by game audio yet somehow managing to make your breathing sound much louder than you talking.
Just as example of what you can expect from those 2 and a relatively cheap microphone.
Plays.tv recording.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M0ToMC3cCM
OBS recording
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzhlT-KE-UI
Post by: Sappho on April 22, 2016, 03:54:29 am
In other news, I have a Microsoft Word question. I'm using Word 2013 to write recording scripts for work. We have a very particular format for the scripts which I have to follow, and it's all done in tables. Right now, I'm making a recording script based on a comic script which I also wrote. This is the easy part, or at least it should be: copy each line of dialogue from the comic to the recording script. Easy peasy, right? Wrong. Every time I copy a line into the table, it formats it completely differently than everything else. It changes the font to Liberation Serif and the size to something larger than what I'm using. Seems to be some kind of Microsoft default. Here's the thing: in both of the documents, the entire document is formatted to Calibri 11. This is the default set in my copy of Word. The "normal" template is Calibri, NOT Liberation Serif. When I copy text normally from one document to another, it keeps the formatting the way I have it, but when I copy into a table, it changes it all. I have to manually go through with the format painter and change each line (I can't just do it for the whole document because the names of the characters are formatted differently).
Anyone have any idea why this is happening? I've tried pasting and telling it to keep the formatting of the source, but it ignores that. I've tried telling it to just paste plain text, and it still changes the font. Where the hell is this font coming from, and how do I keep this from happening? It's really irritating.
Post by: Sonlirain on April 22, 2016, 07:16:49 am
As in whatever you put into them it's going to be serif.
That's just my guess but it might be worth checking out.
Post by: Sappho on April 22, 2016, 07:18:30 am
Post by: TheBiggerFish on April 22, 2016, 07:33:03 am
Post by: Sappho on April 23, 2016, 01:40:32 am
Post by: TheBiggerFish on April 23, 2016, 08:52:15 am
Post by: Insanegame27 on April 24, 2016, 01:23:31 am
I doubt that that would do the job though, I don't know what processes to look for in Task Manager. Short of taking the computer offline, is there any way I can get around this, or better, show him something else using multiple screens?
Post by: Flying Dice on April 24, 2016, 02:02:37 am
I'd solve the issue by moving stepdad.cwk to the recycle bin and then deleting it forever.
Post by: Insanegame27 on April 24, 2016, 02:50:44 am
Post by: Reudh on April 24, 2016, 03:58:35 am
Post by: Sensei on April 24, 2016, 05:44:04 am
Post by: Flying Dice on April 24, 2016, 09:30:33 am
I also saw a lot of returns regarding the installation of parental-monitoring spyware on Kyocera phones.
Post by: Chiefwaffles on April 24, 2016, 02:44:17 pm
I've tried unplugging the HDMI cable from the graphics card and into the motherboard, but that doesn't seem to solve anything either.
I have a P8Z77-V motherboard and a R9 270 graphics card. The PSU is the oldest part in the computer, and I don't remember what brand it is. Any ideas what piece of hardware is causing this?
EDIT: Okay so this time just hitting the dedicated
Post by: Sensei on April 24, 2016, 03:39:56 pm
Post by: Chiefwaffles on April 24, 2016, 04:27:12 pm
(I meant "restart" when I said "reset", by the way. I assume 'reset' was taken to mean 'restart', but if not, sorry for the confusion.)
Post by: Thief^ on April 26, 2016, 10:59:16 am
It could even be that your PSU is fine, it just isn't powerful enough to handle the load of everything turning on at once - hard-disks take extra power to spin up, fans run at full power when first turned on until the temperature monitoring kicks in, etc etc. Booting takes a surge of power, and if the PSU isn't up to it then its voltages will drop and you'll get failures.
Normally it wouldn't turn back on by itself, but it's still a possibility.
Post by: ancistrus on April 29, 2016, 02:45:53 pm
How do I save my computer?
(Using Vista)
Post by: Lightningfalcon on April 29, 2016, 04:38:05 pm
...Huh. Apparnetly steam is smart enough to see that when I try to install stuff I'm doing it on an external drive, and it has a pop up for it.
And now windows is telling me it is two hours ahead of the current time. Other then that nothing seems to be broken. Yet.
Post by: BigD145 on April 29, 2016, 08:38:33 pm
My computer has been pretty bad lately. Slow, blue screens very ofter. I am trying to run system restore but it just wont start. I can see the proccess running but it does not do anything. Pressing F8 while booting and trying to run system restore from there also does nothing at all.
How do I save my computer?
(Using Vista)
Step 1: Get rid of Vista.
Post by: flabort on April 29, 2016, 11:06:57 pm
While BigD is being kind of a D by giving such a smartass answer, it's correct.My computer has been pretty bad lately. Slow, blue screens very ofter. I am trying to run system restore but it just wont start. I can see the proccess running but it does not do anything. Pressing F8 while booting and trying to run system restore from there also does nothing at all.
How do I save my computer?
(Using Vista)
Step 1: Get rid of Vista.
Install a different operating system; Win 7, Win XP, Linux, anything but Vista. Once you have that installed, you can take the steps to transfer your files, folders, and programs from the Vista install into the new install, and once you have all that done you should remove Vista entirely. It's almost as bad a Windows ME, and just as notorious.
Post by: Aklyon on April 29, 2016, 11:38:47 pm
Post by: i2amroy on April 30, 2016, 12:21:26 am
Going from vista to 10 won't help things though. It might even make them worse.Eh, 10 has been improved so much now that it's actually pretty decent. Still not better than 7 yet, but it's at the point where I'd recommend it for people who have no clue how to use a computer since it takes a fair bit of work to stop it from forcing you to do updates/etc.. And it has the advantage of still being a free switch for the next month or so, while 7 and older are no longer receiving improvements at this point (just security patches or nothing).
Post by: Thief^ on April 30, 2016, 01:28:30 am
Hardware failure. RAM is most common.
Dodgy drivers. Got any cheap shit peripherals with its own driver disk recently?
Corruption. Either of Windows or drivers. Tends to fall under either virus or hardware failure.
Virus. Most modern viruses don't cause blue-screens, but it could still be.
I'd run memtest, a virus scan, and sfc (system file checker) as a first step.
Post by: Dozebôm Lolumzalìs on April 30, 2016, 05:42:53 pm
The hell is wrong with my comp? (Windows 8) I've tried deleting normal.dot or something like that, but it didn't work.
Also, what is this crap (http://searchinterneat-a.akamaihd.net/hm?eq=U0EeCFZVBB8SRghAcgABVgxIRBgbdl8MTA0VR1EOeQkNBRQXFQUVcA5ZVgtHFQEFIk0FA18DB0VXfV9eFElXTwhwJVhKAlE/REJ0KVdcDk4=)? It'll teach me not to install crappy free things anymore, it overrode my google search default.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Insanegame27 on April 30, 2016, 06:30:39 pm
Post by: Aklyon on April 30, 2016, 06:31:46 pm
Will the free upgrade to win10 from 7/8 ever be redacted? I think someone here said there's about a month to go before it gets made paid? Verify?It was originally stated to be free until june of this year. As in, you have to pay for it afterwards if you do not already have it. If you think its worth paying for, that is.
Post by: Sonlirain on April 30, 2016, 10:18:32 pm
Post by: endlessblaze on May 01, 2016, 09:59:52 am
Post by: TheBiggerFish on May 01, 2016, 10:05:55 am
Post by: endlessblaze on May 01, 2016, 10:11:31 am
link
Post by: Flying Dice on May 01, 2016, 01:52:43 pm
There's nothing inherently wrong with W10-it actually runs better than any other version I've had, and in vanilla is better than 8. With ClassicShell it's basically a faster-booting 7/XP/whatever your flavor of choice is. The problem is with the underlying attempt to further solidify their monolithic control on the market being conducted in conjunction with a bunch of shifting over towards shittier policies and pricing schemes (from the perspective of consumers).
Post by: Aklyon on May 01, 2016, 01:59:06 pm
Post by: hector13 on May 01, 2016, 02:04:58 pm
Not that I ever use it for anything other than to shut the computer down, but I can do that by right-clicking it apparently.
Post by: Thief^ on May 02, 2016, 02:02:41 am
Long story short if your CPU is stuck at 100% (because it was a shit 1GHz netbook cpu) it can take a long long time for the start menu to open. It still will, eventually... it must be marked as low priority or something.
As for the earlier comment of needing classic shell... no it doesn't. What is with supposedly tech-literate people acting like old people who hate all change?
Post by: Sonlirain on May 02, 2016, 07:52:55 am
Now the GPU looks... weird. and google images don't have anything that resembles it... so i was wondering if it's still worth a couple bucks.
Anyway i took 2 photos with my potato smartphone camera.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm kinda wondering if i should try auctioning it or dunking it into a trash bin... i kinda doubt 8 year old GPU's have much draw nowadays.
Post by: Aklyon on May 02, 2016, 08:14:09 am
As for the earlier comment of needing classic shell... no it doesn't. What is with supposedly tech-literate people acting like old people who hate all change?Whenever something good shows up about win10 even more shows up thats not great.
Post by: Thief^ on May 02, 2016, 08:41:28 am
Post by: BigD145 on May 02, 2016, 10:06:27 am
I used to have trouble with that on my old laptop, it turned out to be because my laptop was a piece of garbage.
Long story short if your CPU is stuck at 100% (because it was a shit 1GHz netbook cpu) it can take a long long time for the start menu to open. It still will, eventually... it must be marked as low priority or something.
As for the earlier comment of needing classic shell... no it doesn't. What is with supposedly tech-literate people acting like old people who hate all change?
Windows 10 has built in advertisements. Fuck your change.
Post by: Sonlirain on May 02, 2016, 12:07:34 pm
I install win 10... it goes out of range.
I reset my PC hoping i will be able to fix the resolution in emergency mode.
NOPE windows reverts to win 7.
I only lost 1 hour of my life.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 02, 2016, 03:18:18 pm
Windows 10 has built in advertisements. Fuck your change.
No it doesn't. You can get ad supported apps, but there's not a single ad baked into the OS.
Post by: Sonlirain on May 02, 2016, 06:14:55 pm
The screen went out of range and F8 didn't work to let me activate the system emergency mode.
And if did a hard reset it... reverted back to win 7.
I had to log in and turn the PC off WHILE BLIND.
So after that i could do a hard reset and windows finally decided to let me run it in low res mode and set a correct resolution.
Loads of ads.
Headset going full on static on me forcing me to mess with audio settings (had to cut the volume to 50% to finally get rid of the annoying static)
Speccy and my anti spyware software got removed forcing me to reinstall it.
And finally as a middle finger to the telemetry...
https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/
Post by: Aklyon on May 02, 2016, 09:13:42 pm
Post by: Thief^ on May 03, 2016, 01:04:06 am
The screen out of range issue is probably because he's got a shit VGA monitor that doesn't report it's supported resolutions properly. "Out of range" means frequency too high, aka resolution / refresh rate too high. It's specifically a VGA thing, anyone using a modern monitor won't have this issue (and yes, places are still selling VGA-only monitors, and no that doesn't make them modern).
Yes antivirus etc get uninstalled, having an av for the wrong OS installed would be hilariously breaking, it could even break the setup and/or rollback and leave you with a trashed PC. Just install the right version after Windows 10 is installed, or hell use Windows' built-in, it's better than most paid ones (ditto the firewall).
Still don't know what he's talking about with adverts. I've not seen any and I've been using 10 for over a year (I was in the preview).
Even I disable Cortana though.
Post by: Arx on May 03, 2016, 02:17:24 am
Post by: Sonlirain on May 03, 2016, 04:21:09 am
There are app suggestions in the start menu sometimes, apparently. It takes all of two clicks to permanently switch them off.Yep.
2 clicks for each.
And a bootleg app store built in to remove as well.
And then you have ads in the free windows games.
Still that's the first time i saw the blocky start menu cancer.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
GR8
Post by: Thief^ on May 03, 2016, 04:30:46 am
I removed most of the tiles from my start menu, I mostly just use taskbar pinned stuff. I have a phone for news and weather etc, I don't need them on my desktop.
I'd pin more tiles if I didn't have all the games I play in steam, I suppose.
Post by: Sonlirain on May 03, 2016, 10:11:44 am
If what they did with Tomb raider is any indication of what's to come we can safely assume this attempt will drop dead sooner than later as well.
Also Win10 didn't remove my antivirus Avast is alive and well (even tho it's actively trying to annoy me lately so i'm thinking about replacing it). It only removed Search and Destroy. A program i used to periodically remove adware cookies and related crap.
I could install it right back however and it runs just fine.
As for my monitor... yes it IS a VGA monitor and i'm not going to buy a new 1080p (or replace it with 1440) just because Windows 10 throws a hissy fit demanding DVI monitor despite VGA being fully capable of carrying resolution info.
It's just lazy programming.
The least they could do is set it to a low resolution (supported by most microwaves and most modern toasters) if W10 couldn't guess my monitors native resolution.
Win 10 was literally the first OS to actively try breaking itself by setting some weird high resolution (as i learned later it wanted to run in 1600:900 probably supported only by custom built monitors used in Malaysia and Gabon) instead of just going with low res and letting the user decide.
Neither win 7 nor XP ever caused any fuss over the resolution for me hell even freaking Vista didn't do it and it was an unmitigated disaster of Sonic 06 proportions that even Microsoft openly told people to just forget about it ever existing.
Post by: Thief^ on May 03, 2016, 11:10:14 am
As for Avast not being removed... it's probably specifically marked as Win10 compatible. S&D may be compatible but not marked, or you may have had an incompatible version installed and have installed an updated version after upgrading without realising. As for replacing Avast - I personally think Windows Defender (the AV built-in to Win 8+) is fantastic, especially with OS-wide smartscreen enabled (warns if an executable isn't recognised by the AV, rather than just guessing it's fine like other AVs). Microsoft's database is nonsense-huge.
I don't recall if VGA advertises specific resolutions or just max H/V frequencies. If the latter, it's possible your monitor inadvertently advertises support for a resolution it doesn't actually support due to it falling within the required frequency limits. I do know Windows 10 tries to use the highest advertised resolution by default, to avoid a poor experience for non-techies upgrading and ending up with their display looking like shit until they change it manually (which they won't know how to do). Letting the user decide... hahaha! Have you met normal users?
Windows 10 doesn't demand DVI (it actually has no idea about the cable), I was just saying VGA is shit. Which it is. Issues like this are not uncommon with VGA, nothing to do with Windows 10. DVI is actually out-dated also, the current standards are HDMI and DisplayPort. Unlike DVI, neither of those can be converted to VGA with a passive adapter. Analogue video cables are dead dude. You shouldn't be surprised that there are issues with compatibility with a brand-new OS.
1600x900 is a perfectly common resolution, a load of laptops have it and there were even some desktop TFTs made to that before 1080p became so damn common. The steam hardware survey lists 6.63% of steam users as using that resolution.
Post by: Aklyon on May 03, 2016, 11:18:08 am
Post by: Thief^ on May 03, 2016, 11:24:00 am
I wonder what resolution his monitor actually is.
Post by: Sonlirain on May 03, 2016, 11:33:43 am
Also my old monitor was 768p
Post by: Thief^ on May 03, 2016, 11:37:23 am
I'm surprised your monitor can't handle 1600x900 if it can handle 1080p, though.
Post by: Sonlirain on May 03, 2016, 11:51:02 am
As for the resolution. Now i'm not sure maybe W10 was trying to use 1600 x 1200.
I just remember it being 1600 x something.
As for the average users... at least when you set it manually you get a screen giving you 15 seconds to accept the new resolution.
So even a brainless git will find a working resolution sooner or later via trial and error.
Win 10 gives you no such chance if it fucks up and wasted a sizable chunk of my life as i tried fixing it.
EDIT: Just double checked. it was indeed setting it to 1200p not 900.
Post by: Thief^ on May 03, 2016, 12:02:00 pm
>100 DPI, compared to the shitty DPI we've been stuck with on massive 1080p panels for years now.
Post by: feelotraveller on May 03, 2016, 05:47:53 pm
Figured I'd ask here rather than make a thread in the subforum that I never look at. So, as I've posted in various threads all across the forum, my laptop is a piece of shit. The power cord finally gave out, so now it has no power, either. In other words, I'm in need of a proper desktop. I have a budget of anywhere between $1400 and $2000; I can't imagine going over $2000. Suggestions are appreciated for parts. Yes, I've already looked at logicalincrements.com (http://logicalincrements.com), so no need to suggest that.
I think you'll have to give us a bit more to go on to get any concrete feedback on parts. But since I just went through the process here are a couple of helpful starting points:
Google pcpartpicker and choose the one most local to you. Then look at the parts list in various categories and weep (at least I did, metaphorically). Okay all the choice that it makes your head spin, right? So start nailing things down, at least provisionally... I suggest making an account so that you can add/subtract parts to a potential build as you go - you'll probably make quite a few changes during the process and this helps keep track of it.
I found this article http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-your-own-pc,2601.html (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-your-own-pc,2601.html) provided a useful framework to proceed around, although I left the case selection until the end. Basically decide on a CPU, select a graphics card, then motherboard. After that whatever order you like but probably power supply last (once you know the demands). Now for some search-fu.
Do you need a monitor, keyboard, mouse as well? Factor that into your budget - I didn't find pcpartpicker all that useful for peripherals but YMMV. Then go through it all again shaving some dollars or spending a bit more until you have a build you think is looking pretty good. At that point, with specific parts chosen, you might get some concrete feedback on alternatives/bad choices - I know I did.
Anyway hope that helps even if just a little.
Post by: IronTomato on May 03, 2016, 09:26:14 pm
Post by: Thief^ on May 04, 2016, 02:07:40 am
Sometimes it's a glitch "power on after power cut" setting in the BIOS. Check it's set to "off". If it's set to " last state " or "power on" sometimes a shutdown can confuse it.
Also try a BIOS update.
Post by: Flying Dice on May 04, 2016, 09:20:27 pm
As for the earlier comment of needing classic shell... no it doesn't. What is with supposedly tech-literate people acting like old people who hate all change?It does if you don't want to deal with that bullshit in the start menu. Not as bad as Win8, still not very good.
Classic Shell isn't a necessity like with was with 8, but it still makes it more functional and less space-wasting. I was laughing "No" all the way to the download page as soon as I saw the tiled start menu.
And yeah, if you're paying for an AV program you're a sucker. Windows Defender + Malwarebytes has kept my computers the safest they've ever been. 'Course, I've got the lifetime premium on MWB because I bought it for $20 or so back before they went to a subscription model, so that sucks for latecomers I guess. But even a subscription (or getting by with the free features + WinDefender) is better than giving money to McAfee/Norton/Whatver to repeatedly fail to protect you while throwing up false positives and quarantining files that don't actually exist to pretend that they're doing something.
Post by: i2amroy on May 05, 2016, 01:55:45 am
Classic Shell isn't a necessity like with was with 8, but it still makes it more functional and less space-wasting. I was laughing "No" all the way to the download page as soon as I saw the tiled start menu.Or you could just, you know, right click the starting tiles and unpin them from the start menu and then click+drag the right side to make it the width that you want. :P Honestly I find my the current start menu after I put a tiny bit of work into it slightly more useful than classic shell is right now; the left side is still essentially identical to the classic shell, while the right side actually let me remove the bits of the classic shell menu that I don't often use and replace them with larger bits that I do use.
(http://i.imgur.com/cJDhs3v.png)
It still doesn't go quite as skinny as the classic shell implementation would, but it's close enough for me to not really make a difference and the easy button clicking and customization of the right side stuff makes it just as good in my opinion.
And yeah, the current version of Windows Defender is right up with the top AV programs in terms of protection efficiency. If you really needed another than Avast works just fine, just throw it a tosser email once a year to stop it from bugging you for a subscription and turn on gaming mode to stop the annoying popups and it works just fine. (As always note that while having two antiviruses might be useful in the event you need to scan your computer, you should never have more than one real time protection running at a time. Having multiple real-time protections turned on at the same time, in addition to slowing down your computer even more, can cause clashes between the two and actually cause them to miss real problems due to the conflicts that they otherwise would have caught.)
Post by: Aklyon on May 05, 2016, 12:18:43 pm
Post by: BigD145 on May 05, 2016, 12:29:00 pm
If you want icons that big, just use the desktop! Start menu is for links to control panel/my computer/power down options, and the run command. Having the start menu do the same thing as the desktop but with less space is not useful.
On a touchscreen, the desktop is FAR superior to going anywhere near the start menu. On a non-touchscreen, it's also superior for a short list of common links. For longer lists of things, use the start menu to just start typing and narrowing down the list.
The mouse, keyboard, and monitor are on your personal desk top for a reason. You use them constantly. Yes, they take up space.
Post by: Aklyon on May 05, 2016, 12:31:12 pm
Post by: BigD145 on May 05, 2016, 02:33:28 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 05, 2016, 04:02:54 pm
The day "my computer" stopped being on the desktop by default was a major downhill slide in Windows.
So it's been going downhill (in your opinion) since Windows 98?
Post by: i2amroy on May 05, 2016, 04:57:19 pm
If you want icons that big, just use the desktop! Start menu is for links to control panel/my computer/power down options, and the run command. Having the start menu do the same thing as the desktop but with less space is not useful.You'll note that my start menu has links to the control panel, the relevant parts I use of the "this PC" list that replaced "my computer", and the power options (personally I don't really use the run command for much, so it's not there). If I need something else I can just open up the start menu and type the first few characters, or click one of my big icons and then get there in a folder click or two if it's something I use less often.
Course I'm the type of person who doesn't put anything at all except for maybe a few sparse rainmeter windows on my desktop. The advantage of a nice pared down start menu is that it lets me have quick links to the things that I actually do use without ruining the pretty picture with clutter, and it automatically hides itself away whenever I'm not using it. The mouse, keyboard, and monitor might take up space on your real desktop, but there's a reason why "awesome" computer desks have pullout shelves that you put the keyboard/mouse on and often bolt monitors to frames reaching from behind the desk instead of just plopping everything down in the middle of the real desk space. :P
Post by: BigD145 on May 06, 2016, 09:50:07 am
The day "my computer" stopped being on the desktop by default was a major downhill slide in Windows.
So it's been going downhill (in your opinion) since Windows 98?
It disappeared after XP.
Post by: milo christiansen on May 07, 2016, 02:22:48 pm
It's amazing how many problems just disappeared... For example this laptop had terrible performance problems, periodically locking up for a few seconds ever now and again and taking forever to reboot when restarted (despite the fact that it had almost nothing installed on it). Once I started using Linux all that went away.
Windows 7 was awesome, but 10 sucks. Not as much as 8, but far worse than 7.
Post by: Flying Dice on May 07, 2016, 02:30:32 pm
Unless it's an old DOS game or a ROM, in which case that comes with the territory.
Post by: BigD145 on May 07, 2016, 03:44:24 pm
Post by: milo christiansen on May 07, 2016, 03:48:01 pm
I suppose if you have something against typing you may have some troubles, but only when you want to do something out of the ordinary...
Post by: Sonlirain on May 07, 2016, 05:30:03 pm
Then i saw a guy ecstatic because youtube videos work.
And he could even run Homeworld... with 15 fps or so.
I'm sure things got better since then but honestly Linux would be my last resort in case Microsoft starts asking me to give them my bank account info or else it won't even turn on.
That or a steam box coupled with an Win XP laptop for work.
Post by: Aklyon on May 07, 2016, 05:55:24 pm
Post by: BigD145 on May 08, 2016, 12:54:29 am
Well... I must admit I am a computer programmer and have been on good terms with the command prompt for some years now, but that was all on Windows, where things were a lot different.
I suppose if you have something against typing you may have some troubles, but only when you want to do something out of the ordinary...
The browser that Mint comes with? Would not open for me. That's the kinds of troubles Linux gave me. I pick a GUI and the default programs would not work half the time. So far the only Linux anything that has worked for me is Android and RetroPi.
Post by: feelotraveller on May 10, 2016, 05:07:00 am
My advice to everyone here: Ditch Windows 10 and go with Linux.
Exactly what I have just done (except I never made to 10...).
My new Linux OS installed in about 5 minutes (maybe 15 if you count me staring at options and making choices) whereas recently upgrading my mothers Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 took more than a couple of hours and that's just the download/install not the dealing with partition issue which Microsoft released it with.
And so far as I understand nearly all of whatever problems there are with running games on Linux come from them being Windows software. Mostly from Microsoft trying to force everyone to use their proprietry software like for example DirectX. Mac users run into exactly the same sorts of problems. A better comparision would be for games that run natively in each format - anyone got any comparisons of say Dwarf Fortress on the same machine/hardware but with different OS installed?
Post by: Arx on May 10, 2016, 05:11:15 am
Also Microsoft isn't trying to force anyone to use DirectX. They just offer a platform that nearly everyone uses.
Post by: feelotraveller on May 10, 2016, 05:49:06 am
http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/01/Why-you-should-use-OpenGL-and-not-DirectX (http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/01/Why-you-should-use-OpenGL-and-not-DirectX)
While the network effect is quite natural and understandable (nearly everyone uses it because nearly everyone uses it, more people using it means more driver support, etc) the campaign by Microsoft is a documentable one. Spreading 'fear, uncertaintly, doubt' (quite unfounded it can be noted in hindsight) about the future of OpenGl support and running misleading advertising campaigns of the gains to be had by better DirectX versions, are two examples the above link canvasses.
Also part of the reason Linux is a better gaming OS (at least when we are talking about running games natively) is because OpenGL (again for example since there are other fish in the sea) is a quicker and generally better (more advanced features sooner, at least historically) API set. If you accept that (maybe I've got all wrong?) then the question really is why do game developers decide to go with DirectX (even though their game would be better with OpenGL)?
Post by: Thief^ on May 10, 2016, 05:56:27 am
a: Visual Studio is so damn awesome, and until recently it had no mac/linux support
b: Windows has >95% market share among systems (according to the steam survey) so it's not as financially viable to target Mac/Linux. Among those with Mac/Linux, the majority have some form of Windows system available as well, so the true Windows percentage is higher.
c: Linux used to be awful for fragmentation, making packaging, installing and testing a pain (i.e. expensive). At least now it's 99% Ubuntu and relatives on desktops. Similarly trying to target Mac during the PowerPC->x86 transition was a horrifying prospect. Windows on the other hand has pretty amazing inter-compatibility between versions.
b is a bit of a chicken/egg problem, as gamers now avoid non-windows systems because of the lack of games developers targeting non-windows, and game developers avoid non-windows because of the lack of gamers with non-windows systems.
It's not really anything to do with DirectX, most of the big games engines (used by the vast majority of big games) have an OpenGL backend available, and even support targeting Mac/Linux directly. Some games engine editors will even run on Mac/Linux. The issue is whether the games developers themselves would see any benefit to testing and releasing on those platforms. The answer is unfortunately that it's often a massive expense with little to gain.
Post by: feelotraveller on May 10, 2016, 06:19:08 am
b. Figures I've seen elsewhere suggest 89/9/2 for win/mac/linux. I think the steam figures are misleading since linux/mac users using wine contribute to the windows tally. So true windows percentage is lower.
c. As fragmented as ever, or more so. If you are looking at the steam figures it is misleading since they only support a couple of OS's but of course many other OS's work (and get counted) via these.
Not a DirectX thing. More just knee jerk reaction to comments saying how terrible Linux is, especially for gaming. And lets not get me started about BIG developers... ;)
Post by: Thief^ on May 10, 2016, 06:56:15 am
b: Regarding wine... They should probably be their own category, but they can run Windows games, so arguably the existence of wine is actually harming the likelihood of developers making full Linux ports of their games. Why would they go to the expense, when you can just run the Windows version anyhow?
Post by: Sonlirain on May 10, 2016, 07:35:50 am
It might have improved since last time i checked tho.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on May 10, 2016, 07:07:00 pm
Post by: Aklyon on May 10, 2016, 07:19:10 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on May 10, 2016, 07:58:28 pm
Post by: Aklyon on May 10, 2016, 08:57:38 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on May 10, 2016, 09:09:35 pm
And in this case what they chose/made is sub par.
Post by: Thief^ on May 11, 2016, 02:56:12 am
As for the Linux distro people use... I've just seen that SteamOS possibly doesn't take part in the steam survey at all. Other than that, the stats on the survey aren't great, listing three Ubuntu versions totalling 42.5% of Linux users, one Mint version as another 9.58%, a generic "Linux 64 bit" at another 8.81% (who knows what that is), and a massive "Other" category of 39.11%. Which most likely includes a few more Ubuntu and Mint versions. It's still an easy win for Ubuntu and relatives, though.
Post by: feelotraveller on May 11, 2016, 08:45:31 pm
https://distrowatch.com/ (https://distrowatch.com/) find on the right of the main page, currently.
Of course this is a different data set - hits per day on a web site, so interest in particular operating systems. I have seen similar figures in Reddit what Linux OS do you use survey/polls (too lazy to check at the moment) so in the big picture it's pretty accurate. Pretty sure that of the top 10 (at this moment) only Mint and Ubuntu (and maybe Zorin?) are Ubuntu based.
The spread of gamers over this set is another question and I suspect that leans more heavily toward Ubuntu since many game players migrating from Windows are likely to land there (or Mint) at least as a first point of call.
I think one of the factors for Valve when embarking on SteamOS was potential use/popularity of the system (=Ubuntu based, hopefully being able to handle Debian). That they introduced it leads me to suspect that they think a decent sized market exists.
In terms of pure gaming speed Arch might be the best Linux OS for gaming especially if configured as a stripped down lightweight (only what is necessary) version. Probably not something for the faint hearted to jump right into though. However there are a number of specific gaming Linux OS's that I have no knowledge of beyond the fact that they exist.
On a different tangent, I find it interesting that it is generally the small to mid-level developers who are prepared to support multiple platforms.
Post by: crazysheep on May 11, 2016, 09:37:18 pm
On a different tangent, I find it interesting that it is generally the small to mid-level developers who are prepared to support multiple platforms.Could it simply be the size of the project influencing cross platform support? One would naively assume that bigger projects attempted by big developers have more elements which could fail on separate platforms.
Post by: Insanegame27 on May 12, 2016, 03:39:41 am
http://i.imgur.com/CVGuY.jpg
Post by: Thief^ on May 12, 2016, 04:04:59 am
More likely is that smaller developers are less likely to actually run a cost/benefit analysis on supporting those platforms.On a different tangent, I find it interesting that it is generally the small to mid-level developers who are prepared to support multiple platforms.Could it simply be the size of the project influencing cross platform support? One would naively assume that bigger projects attempted by big developers have more elements which could fail on separate platforms.
Post by: Sonlirain on May 12, 2016, 11:18:44 am
http://genesis-zone.com/en/product/p44-gamepad-2/
It genuinely feels nice and solid (not heavy tho) and unlike my old pad it does not give a feeling that it's going to shake itself apart every time vibration comes on.
Now the problem with this specimen is that... while it has analog trigger buttons i can't make them work no matter what i try.
I tried x360ce and it detected the triggers as regular buttons (not analog) and my attempts at setting them as half sliders/axis were met with failure.
Since it uses direct input when connected to a PC i assume it just can't use analog with a PC and the feature only works with PS3...
Does anyone have any experience with setting up d-input gamepads?
Post by: Thief^ on May 12, 2016, 11:29:41 am
Also, DirectInput is deprecated. The current standard (on Windows) is XInput. If x360ce still uses DirectInput that could be the problem, as there are well known issues with analogue triggers under DirectInput (e.g. the xbox360 pad has to expose its two triggers as positive/negative of a _single_ axis under DirectInput, but they are independent analogue inputs under XInput).
You only need x360ce if your controller doesn't already support XInput. For a brand new controller, I'd be surprised.
Post by: Sonlirain on May 12, 2016, 01:26:54 pm
I obviously knew the pad won't use ximput and didn't care because i'm used to using x360ce.
I kinda hoped that the triggers would work dinput or not considering it was one of the selling points.
So far however i can't set the triggers to anything but digital.
Otherwise they just straight up fail to detect any button press.
Post by: Thief^ on May 12, 2016, 01:54:56 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on May 12, 2016, 06:33:31 pm
I removed x360ce and verified the game cache (just in case) but the game completely failed to detect it at all.
Also considering that it actually works with x360ce instead of showing off a load of errors i'm inclined to believe that its indeed dinput...
So i guess it only supports analog triggers when plugged to a PS3 because i don't see any obvious way to make it work otherwise.
I might be able to return it and get a P65... that model actually supports xinput.
http://genesis-zone.com/en/product/p65-gamepad-2/
Kinda weird how they flaunted analog triggers on a pad that can't use them tho...
Post by: Thief^ on May 13, 2016, 01:38:50 am
Btw it's not either/or between dinput and xinput, the 360 pad is both (though as mentioned it's triggers don't work properly on dinput), and I haven't heard of any xinput-only pads.
Post by: Sonlirain on May 13, 2016, 05:17:31 am
All i know is that they suggest against trying to use xinput pads with x360ce.
Well i went ahead and bought a 360 pad. I hate the design of that brick but... oh well.
Also funny enough x360ce detects it's analog triggers without issue...
Altho i assume it just detects the pad as X360 and forgoes the translation bit.
Basically it's only there so i can use D-input pads alongside it in split screen games.
Post by: Insanegame27 on May 14, 2016, 01:57:39 am
Post by: Insanegame27 on May 14, 2016, 04:13:58 am
Post by: Rose on May 14, 2016, 04:51:29 am
Post by: Insanegame27 on May 14, 2016, 05:57:19 am
Post by: Sonlirain on May 14, 2016, 06:37:56 am
Maybe asking microsoft support will help?
Post by: Aklyon on May 14, 2016, 10:11:34 am
Aaand updoot successful... to some degree. I'm shown the 'welcome to windows 10' screen and hit next. After the welcome to windows 10 screen stops responding, the PC restarts. Every single time.Clearly your computer does not approve of windows 10.
Not too surprised.
Post by: Insanegame27 on May 15, 2016, 02:43:31 am
Maybe the fact that I did it in a blood circle under a full moon may help. Or the fact that I proffered up my soul for the internet via an eldritch being. Plus the illuminati and triforcing the bloodcircle with candles.
Post by: Akura on May 15, 2016, 08:24:20 am
EDIT: Running startup repair fixed that one. Had to start trying to boot in Safe Mode and cut off the power to get it to run though.
Post by: Reelya on May 15, 2016, 05:54:42 pm
Anyway, I have a laptop that's running Windows 8.X, and I'm not overly attached to that. My 2 weeks of vacation just started so I don't need to work on the laptop for a bit, so I'm going to roll Windows 10 out on that to give it a go. To keep things simple, I'm starting by a backup of my data, then a factory reset of the laptop, then roll that forward to Windows 10. Here's hoping things go smoothly ...
Post by: feelotraveller on May 15, 2016, 10:06:06 pm
I haven't ruled out the original suspected source; that it's overheating.
Try manually cooling it. I ran my laptop without a cooling fan for a couple of weeks by propping it up on a couple of books so the air circulated under it and then directing a room fan to blow underneath it. Had a plate/tray of ice positioned between the fan and the computer to cool the airflow. Worked fined - worst thing was trying to hide behind the screen so the constant wind did not dry my eyes. Even just doing it once (if successful) will confirm an overheating problem.
Post by: feelotraveller on May 15, 2016, 10:08:12 pm
Post by: Thief^ on May 16, 2016, 12:58:00 am
I'm not liking Microsoft's tactics much, but they're at risk of another bloody Windows XP if people hang on to 7. The software I work on still supports XP now, FFS, because people won't stop fucking using it. 7 is already out of mainstream support by MS, so it's security fixes only now.
On another topic, I got given another £5 laptop at the weekend, this one's an old teeny tiny business Compaq complete with docking station. It's got Windows 2000 on it and a P3 with 192MB of ram. What the hell should I do with it? Windows 2000 doesn't have the same retro gaming scene as my Win98 laptop.
Runs like a dream though.
Post by: Aklyon on May 16, 2016, 01:56:41 am
Post by: Reelya on May 16, 2016, 04:57:20 am
"Just update" = "just turn all my working machines into bricks" at this point in time. I'd like to see it actually running first on at least once machine and not completely useless before I take the plunge and turn my only working box into one of it.
Quote
security fixes only now.Which is exactly fucking perfect. If I want anything else, I'll install programs that I want. With only security patches, they can't break anything, unlike what they did with ASUS motherboard incompatibility recently and Windows 8.
And at this stage I have nothing but utter contempt for any Windows device I own that came out after Windows 7. Windows 8.1 I find an extremely painful experience. "Just update" because it's new would have been a disaster before. Why should I take it on blind faith that it's better this time? I'm only willing to try out Windows 10 on my 8.1 laptop because I figure it couldn't possibly get any worse.
Post by: Aklyon on May 16, 2016, 11:43:16 am
That is simply just a waste of time I could be doing more useful or fun things with.
Post by: highzealot on May 16, 2016, 08:05:24 pm
I have a price range of $200-$300 CAD.
My mother is planning is use it mainly for watching videos and browsing the internet with a browser capable of translating to Chinese. She's probably also going to be downloading videos directly on to it. Probably won't be using it as a camera if it has one.
Post by: Sonlirain on May 16, 2016, 09:39:36 pm
I can't give any specific suggestions tho because i only have a JXD s7800b and that's not something your mother would approve since it's mostly a gaming tablet that's basically borrowing design cues from the WiiU gamepad..
A JXD might not be a terrible idea tho since it's a midrange "gaming" tablet meaning the CPU will run several open pages smoothly without issues and has a great screen for the price.
It is pretty bulky however and i can't guarantee that it won't break. Mine holds out perfectly a year now but you can never know with chinese electronics.
Post by: Thief^ on May 17, 2016, 12:52:56 am
My current favourite tablet is Amazon's Fire, it's really powerful, exceptionally cheap (£50 here, was £35 on sale before Christmas), and the "kid mode" is fantastic, Amazon have lots of content even for very young kids (I got the edition with the kids protective case and the anti-kids guarantee). I don't know if it supports Chinese, though.
But seriously, if it's just for browsing cheap should work fine as long as it has a relatively recent android on it (preferably 5.0 or later). Android 4.3 and earlier have gaps in their support for TLS (the successor to the now-deprecated SSL, used by secure websites), which could interfere with your browsing, and 4.4 is getting on a bit now too.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 19, 2016, 09:49:07 pm
I work nights, and sometimes can't sleep in the morning. Ever since I ditched cable, I've missed the ease in which I could find something on that isn't news, a soap opera, or a 1950s western. I have plenty of media to watch, but choice paralysis kicks in easily for me. What I want is a program that lets me define a dozen or so "channels" that create playlists from my media libraries so I can just flip through them instead of trying to pick something out. Is there such a program?
Post by: Sonlirain on May 20, 2016, 05:34:13 am
Then there's a thing called Playlist creator but i never used it so can't say much. Apparently you can just drag and drop things into it to create playlists so you might want to check it out.
Post by: chaotic skies on May 23, 2016, 09:50:02 pm
Post by: Insanegame27 on May 24, 2016, 02:33:13 am
Anyone know a workaround for the home button on a 5th generation iPod touch? Broke my home button recently and I'd like a way to change apps not involving hoping for updates from them or restarting the thing.If you don't mind making a section of your screen (~1/16th) unusable for tapping in games/anything, you can go with assistivetouch, which turns that section of your screen into its own hub. It'll do for you in the short term if you plan on getting your home button fixed (which I highly recommend, especially if it's still in warranty. Some Apple places will even do it for you if you're slightly over warranty or if you're way over warranty but the issue happened while it was in warranty.
My iPod touch got a cracked screen while in warranty and never got a chance to get it fixed until after warranty expired. The Apple chaps were happy enough that the screen was cracked while it was under warranty.
Post by: chaotic skies on May 24, 2016, 10:08:23 am
Post by: Aklyon on May 24, 2016, 11:08:15 am
Post by: chaotic skies on May 24, 2016, 11:10:18 am
Post by: Insanegame27 on May 27, 2016, 02:37:08 am
I'm going to get it fixed, yeah. I didn't know about the assistivetouch thing, gonna go turn that on. The only problem is, I don't have any Apple stores or anything nearby. Damn it, small town USA! :PSmall town USA is still easier to get an Apple store than rural Australia
Post by: Sonlirain on May 27, 2016, 04:30:32 am
Or Poland anywhere (except maybe for the capital. They might have an apple store in War Saw.)I'm going to get it fixed, yeah. I didn't know about the assistivetouch thing, gonna go turn that on. The only problem is, I don't have any Apple stores or anything nearby. Damn it, small town USA! :PSmall town USA is still easier to get an Apple store than rural Australia
EDIT:
I solved my old issue with the entire internet going off when uploading things to youtube.
I installed net balancer and saw that chrome tried to upload at 400 kb/s... while my internet has a maximum upload speed of 0.8 Mbit.
I have no idea how the heck did that happened but after i limited my upload for chrome to 110 kb/s the issues disapeared so yay me.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on May 28, 2016, 10:26:03 pm
Post by: AzyWng on May 29, 2016, 08:33:40 pm
It has an irritating habit of overheating and shutting down whenver I try to play most 3D games (including Unity engine games).
I've tried cleaning the fan of dust with a damp (but not wet) Q-tip, raising the laptop above the desk to make an improvised laptop stand, making sure to keep the fan's opening clear, and I've even tried putting an ice pack underneath the laptop's fan area, but none of this has been sufficient.
I don't think the Inspiron can have its graphics card replaced, and with the grades I've been getting in school (particularly in math) I don't think my dad would be very happy with the idea of purchasing a new laptop for me.
Any way to help stop overheating?
Keep in mind that I'm a cheap bastard who's only interested in what he can get/do for free.
Post by: Sonlirain on May 29, 2016, 09:01:51 pm
Uh, yay, but your Internet seriously sucks.I know but it's cheap and works and the 10 Mbit download rate is good enough for almost everything. It's the upload rate that sucks big time.
Any way to help stop overheating?The only things that come to mind are cooling pads or at least finding a spot where your laptop can "breathe" (As in a nice flat surface).
Keep in mind that I'm a cheap bastard who's only interested in what he can get/do for free.
Still a cooling pad (even a cheap one) would be your best bet.
Post by: AzyWng on May 29, 2016, 09:57:35 pm
Uh, yay, but your Internet seriously sucks.I know but it's cheap and works and the 10 Mbit download rate is good enough for almost everything. It's the upload rate that sucks big time.Any way to help stop overheating?The only things that come to mind are cooling pads or at least finding a spot where your laptop can "breathe" (As in a nice flat surface).
Keep in mind that I'm a cheap bastard who's only interested in what he can get/do for free.
Still a cooling pad (even a cheap one) would be your best bet.
Got it. I'm still wondering what other options there are as far as answering this problem with minimal cost.
Post by: Sonlirain on May 29, 2016, 10:20:04 pm
You could try running games in Dx9 mode and updating the drivers but i doubt that will do much good (if any).
Post by: crazysheep on May 29, 2016, 10:20:36 pm
Post by: AzyWng on May 29, 2016, 10:24:30 pm
get a book and prop up your laptop with that
I've done that, making sure to keep the area where the fan is clear of any obstruction.
Post by: Flying Dice on May 29, 2016, 11:49:34 pm
But yeah. Elevate, get a small, strong fan to circulate air around it.
Post by: chaotic skies on May 30, 2016, 11:34:32 pm
Spoiler: Vive Minimum Requirements (click to show/hide)
Post by: Aklyon on May 31, 2016, 12:13:59 am
Post by: chaotic skies on May 31, 2016, 12:45:17 am
EDIT: This...this, ah...this should help. A lot. Thanks for pointing this out to me. Funnily enough, the extremist tier matches almost exactly with $2000. Plus the ~$1000 for other stuff, and I'm still hopelessly far from buying this stuff. Oh, well. I can dream :P
If anyone else wants to throw words or websites at me, feel free. I'll take anything you give me.
Post by: Sonlirain on May 31, 2016, 06:47:30 am
And said ZEN architecture 8 core CPU is supposedly twice as powerful as the FX8350 meaning buying anything before zen comes out might end with you banging your head against a wall cursing yourself for not waiting.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 31, 2016, 07:30:21 am
Funnily enough, the extremist tier matches almost exactly with $2000.
Going that high is a waste of money. After a certain point, you run hard into diminishing returns. For example, the i5-6600 (one step below the
"exceptional" tier there, which uses the -K model of the same chip designed for overclocking) is currently retailing for $229.99. The i7-5930K (extremist tier) is $579.99. For that extra $350, you get two more physical cores (largely useless, most games and other programs barely utilize 4 cores well), six fake cores added with hyperthreading (entirely useless), and .2 ghz higher clock speed. Going with the better processor is only worthwhile if you want to do 4-videocard SLI, which is pointless and ludicrously expensive.
Putting this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117562) CPU into this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132691) motherboard, with decent RAM will run you around $425. Add in one of the most powerful GPUs on the market (The GTX 1080, probably excessive) for $699 will bring you to $1125, and a nice case and power supply will take you right around the $1500 mark. The result will be a computer that can easily handle the Oculus rift, let alone the less-demanding HTC Vive.
Best of all is that all Skylake CPUs use the same socket - you can grab the i7 later and drop it right in, and if you want to preserve SLI capability for later you just need to spend an extra fifty bucks now to get an excessively good motherboard.
Post by: chaotic skies on May 31, 2016, 02:34:44 pm
-snip-I was just commenting on the fact that it lines up almost perfectly. The more I look around, the more I'm seeing there are better ideas. Like what you said, that sounds right around perfect for what I want to do, and much more reasonable. I was thinking that anything above maybe the Exceptional tier was overkill, and even that seemed a bit much.
EDIT: Does this (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zpp48K) look alright? Should I change anything, or would this be fine as-is?
Post by: Shadowlord on May 31, 2016, 06:27:14 pm
Edit: Why did you add a separate network card? Does the vive connect through Ethernet?
Post by: Sonlirain on May 31, 2016, 06:53:09 pm
It's fair to note that the 1080 blows away literally every other card in benchmarks.Yeah. AMD is supposedly getting ready with an answer near the end of this year but 10X0 series is pretty much a giant breakthrough in computing.
Edit: Why did you add a separate network card? Does the vive connect through Ethernet?
Post by: crazysheep on May 31, 2016, 09:28:04 pm
Yeah. AMD is supposedly getting ready with an answer near the end of this year but 10X0 series is pretty much a giant breakthrough in computing.Apparently the Polaris-based RX-480 is on the way to rival the 1070
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 31, 2016, 09:36:26 pm
-snip-I was just commenting on the fact that it lines up almost perfectly. The more I look around, the more I'm seeing there are better ideas. Like what you said, that sounds right around perfect for what I want to do, and much more reasonable. I was thinking that anything above maybe the Exceptional tier was overkill, and even that seemed a bit much.
EDIT: Does this (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zpp48K) look alright? Should I change anything, or would this be fine as-is?
I'd add an SSD, and consider bumping up the regular drive to 2 or 3 terabytes. Other than that it looks good.
Post by: chaotic skies on May 31, 2016, 10:14:42 pm
The main reason I don't have an SSD is price. I thought about just getting a terabyte SSD and being done with it, but storage is a thing that I'm going to need a lot of. So I'll bump the size of the HDD and add a SSD.
EDIT:Updated with changes (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zDsfr7)
Post by: Thief^ on June 01, 2016, 05:34:56 am
As for the guy with the laptop trouble - seriously consider getting a new laptop, preferably one with a dedicated GPU. I just recently got a HP Pavilion 15-p038na (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/311525539172), and it is spectacular. A laptop with a dedicated GPU for £215! I even managed to sell my old laptop for £80 (after postage and fees) despite it being a piece of shit.
(I may also have upgraded it with an SSD, Windows 10, Dual-band Wifi-AC card and more ram, but those were all either free or I had them already).
Post by: Sonlirain on June 01, 2016, 07:18:47 am
Yeah they showcased it on a 1080p monitor while saying it's 1440p.Yeah. AMD is supposedly getting ready with an answer near the end of this year but 10X0 series is pretty much a giant breakthrough in computing.Apparently the Polaris-based RX-480 is on the way to rival the 1070
Chances are they quickly scuttled around looking for a quick answer and made a nitrogen cooled R9 390 that melted shortly after the presentation.
The problem with AMD is that they make things that are great in the midrange bracket (R9 380 trounced GTX 960) but never quite on top.
The new cards from Nvidia made the old top midrange now meaning AMD has to desperately look for answers now since they were about incremental upgrades to their existing architecture while Nvidia just rolled in with something completely new that pretty much trounced everything on the market. Even their own high end Titan X cards for almost half the price.
Post by: Lord Shonus on June 01, 2016, 07:38:44 am
The network card was because I wasn't sure if the motherboard had one built in. Which, now that I think about it, is a dumb question.Keep in mind that that's from several different online stores. You really want to get them all from the same place, as it not only makes shipping easier but saves you hassle if you need to RMA something. You might spend a little more on the parts themselves, but it is worth it, and if you're patient you've got a good chance of finding bundles that will drive the cost down. One thing to strongly consider is skipping the VR device for now - you'll still have a good system in the meantime, and be able to get it whenever you want, but there's a good chance of a price drop before too long OR improvements to the hardware that are worth waiting for.
The main reason I don't have an SSD is price. I thought about just getting a terabyte SSD and being done with it, but storage is a thing that I'm going to need a lot of. So I'll bump the size of the HDD and add a SSD.
EDIT:Updated with changes (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zDsfr7)
Post by: miauw62 on June 01, 2016, 08:29:05 am
No sources, sorry, just hearsay.
Post by: Lord Shonus on June 01, 2016, 09:15:53 am
I'm fairly sure that the 1080 isn't even on Nvidia's new architecture, actually, which should be coming out soonish. (and will probably be much more cost-effective)
No sources, sorry, just hearsay.
Quote from: Wikipedia
Pascal is the codename for a GPU microarchitecture developed by Nvidia as the successor to the Maxwell microarchitecture. The Pascal microarchitecture was introduced April 2016 with the GP100 chip and on May 27, 2016 with the GP104 chip to be found on the GeForce GTX 1080 and 1070 labeled graphics cards, as part of the GeForce 10 series which incorporate TSMC's 16 nm FinFET technology.[1][2]
The architecture is named after Blaise Pascal, the 17th century mathematician.
The GTX 1080 is on Nvidia's new architecture
Post by: miauw62 on June 01, 2016, 09:19:45 am
Post by: chaotic skies on June 01, 2016, 12:59:26 pm
Post by: Sonlirain on June 02, 2016, 08:00:41 pm
It actually beat the GTX in FPS while playing Ashes of Singularity.
There was a catch tho.
RX 480 was actually 2 cards using Xfire but it's supposedly ok because 2 Radeons will be only $500... so cheaper than a GTX 1080.
Also One RX 480 is supposedly enough to use with VR and is only 199-229 dollars.
I must admit. AMD seems to still hang in the game... altho just barely and will be super reliant on whether game devs play nice with Xfire or not.
On the bright side any hardware heavy game already supports SLI in some way so it should be mostly ok and the new GPUs are said to need no more than a 700W PSU (when using 2 naturally).
At least that's what AMD says about their product we still need to wait for independent tests.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-radeon-rx-480-vr,31951.html
tl;dr
If you want to play with VR consider our RX 480 for $200.
If you want to play games in extreme detail with high FPS consider getting 2 for Xfire because it's still cheaper than a single 1080 and has similar performance.
If you want to get 2 GTX 1080's... we got nothing. Sorry have fun with your green cards.
Post by: Thief^ on June 03, 2016, 04:05:24 am
I also wouldn't be surprised if they have a higher-end card in the works, (like a new Fury), and historically they've liked having a something90 as well. It's clearly not ready yet, but maybe by Christmas? I suspect we can expect a new Titan as well at some point.
EDIT: Also while I don't have personal experience, doesn't DX12 have some native support for multi-gpu? Maybe crossfire/SLi will be much better supported in future.
Post by: Sonlirain on June 03, 2016, 06:40:43 am
So far VR is the modern equivalent of the NeoGeo home console... so pretty much literally a "rich kid" toy everyone wants but not everyone will get (at least not this decade.)
And you can be sure AMD will do everything they can on their side for Xfire to work because unless they make a high end fury capable of directly competing with the 1080... well the Xfire RX is their foothold in the power enthusiast market... and i can only imagine.
Jesus Christ if the leak is true...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
What the hell.
Post by: Aklyon on June 03, 2016, 09:14:41 am
Post by: BigD145 on June 03, 2016, 09:44:57 am
Post by: Sonlirain on June 03, 2016, 09:51:59 am
Speaking of amd, I have a future-upgrade question for you guys. Right now I have a desktop that looks like this (http://pcpartpicker.com/list/3mqFf8) with 12gb RAM and some other stuff like the case or the monitor not being anything special to point out on there, and it works alright for what it was supposed to be: Pretty cheap but better than my old laptop. Would it be better to upgrade individual parts (and what parts would be worth looking at if so), or build a fancier one much later with more powerful and new parts?12 Gb of ram should last you a good while. What are the timings and speed tho and is it DDR2 3 or 4?
For now 8 GB is enough for... pretty much anything.
In fact considering your CPU and GPU it's pretty literally overkill and i'm willing to bet nothing really uses more than 4 gigs in this setup.
More than 8 gigs is only good if you are heavy into image/video edition and run a virtual machine on your PC.
Anyway i'd suggest waiting a bit to see how AMD's Zen turns out and then switching out... pretty much everything that's not the PSU and possibly ram.
R7 240 nano is weaksauce and that Athlon is past its prime.
EDIT: The one thing you could possibly do right now is replace the GPU now and upgrade the rest later.
If they can keep their drivers playing nice with everything under the sun, good on them. So far they haven't been able to do that.Well this is literally their lifeline now. If the screw up and Xfire won't be used by video games then... well the 480 is still a powerful midrange option for a reasonable price.
Post by: Aklyon on June 03, 2016, 10:07:25 am
Post by: Sonlirain on June 03, 2016, 10:41:09 am
Well if it works for you then great still i don't think the extra ram helps all that much since i literally never had a ram shortage with 8.
Still as i said you might want to upgrade the GPU. The CPU is past its prime and barely in there.
Other than that i'd suggest waiting because if Zen is anywhere near good it will bring CPU prices down.
Similarly RX 480 is looking quite pretty and affordable and will most certainly bring prices down if Nvidia decides to put up a fight in the low/medium price GPU market so i expect the average bank for the buck ratio go up significantly in the coming months.
Post by: Aklyon on June 03, 2016, 10:54:37 am
Post by: Thief^ on June 03, 2016, 11:24:22 am
It might be worth upgrading to 2x 8GB 1600 MHz sticks, your system probably supports dual-channel memory but that requires two matched modules. Assuming you don't upgrade to DDR4 with a new processor/motherboard soon.
If you're a fan of AMD I'd 2nd the suggestion to get a RX480 when they are available and look out for the AMD Zen CPUs being released and make a CPU decision later. So far we are pretty sure Zen is going to be comparable IPC and single-thread performance to Intel, and going up to an 8-core (made of two 4-core modules on one die) with a quad core lower model (with just one module). The leaked core image was very rectangular, so there may well be a doubled-up 16-core version or a version with a GPU paired (i.e. an APU) that is still a full 8-core CPU.
Post by: Sonlirain on June 03, 2016, 12:46:29 pm
The CPU and motherboard has to go anyway and getting 16 gigs of DDR3 now would be a waste.
Post by: Thief^ on June 03, 2016, 12:49:51 pm
Post by: O.Wilde on June 08, 2016, 04:48:20 pm
Post by: Aklyon on June 08, 2016, 06:36:52 pm
Post by: O.Wilde on June 08, 2016, 06:40:07 pm
Thinking back on that though, that makes no god damned sense. Basically, I just want more than 500GB.
Post by: Sonlirain on June 08, 2016, 06:47:36 pm
You can check out laptop CPUs here.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html
You probably don't want a CPU rated below 5000
Aaand... that's pretty much the extent of my help. Sorry.
Post by: Flying Dice on June 09, 2016, 12:20:23 am
And yeah, if you're looking to do video editing you're going to want a lot of hard drive space, especially if it's something like recording gaming footage and editing for upload, since recording high-res footage eats through space fast.
Post by: Arx on June 09, 2016, 01:23:28 am
Post by: BigD145 on June 09, 2016, 12:42:45 pm
Post by: Flying Dice on June 09, 2016, 06:13:05 pm
Post by: crazysheep on June 09, 2016, 10:01:58 pm
Post by: Reudh on June 10, 2016, 02:17:08 am
Speaking of laptops with switching graphics card setups: if I were to disable one of the cards through device manager, would that break anything?
It might be a better idea to force the dedicated graphics card to operate at all times. That's generally a better solution.
Post by: crazysheep on June 10, 2016, 02:47:14 am
Post by: Flying Dice on June 10, 2016, 04:41:29 pm
Post by: crazysheep on June 10, 2016, 09:49:50 pm
Post by: BigD145 on June 11, 2016, 10:37:52 am
Post by: Akura on June 12, 2016, 08:06:17 pm
Another problem also came up, in that leaving it on it's charger has left it with a rather poor battery life. I unplugged it and turned it on, and by the time Windows booted to desktop, the battery display said 84%(2hr, 12min). Within ten minutes, it changed to 76%(1hr, 40-something minutes). Might have to discharge it all the way before putting it back on the charger.
Post by: Thief^ on June 13, 2016, 01:23:27 am
As for the battery, how old is it? A lot of modern batteries are designed with quite a short life (no point using expensive batteries in something people will get rid of after a few years).
If it uses an external battery pack, you'll probably be able to find a new / 3rd party pack on eBay. Failing that, for external packs they usually are just a soldered pack of four to eight "18650" cells, and it is possible to break the pack apart and replace them, but that's a distinctly "advanced" bit of laptop repair work. Working on the battery pack is a serious fire risk!
Post by: AzyWng on June 14, 2016, 09:04:55 pm
When I try to connect to my home's Wi-Fi network, I get connected, and I get a secure connection, but there's no internet.
My dad (who knows a thing or two about computers) tried checking all the relevant areas for connection issues, but wasn't able to find a sign of what caused the problem, even after forgetting and reconnecting to the network. Now he's upset that he found a problem and was forced to give up.
So, anyway, the only reason I'm able to type to you right now on the computer with the problem is because of an ethernet cable Dad was able to find.
My dad thinks maybe it's a hardware problem, or maybe that Microsoft was shit, but I don't know.
The strange thing is that my brother's laptop and my dad's laptop, and even my phone are all fine as far as Wi-Fi is concerned.
Post by: BigD145 on June 15, 2016, 12:20:49 am
Post by: Thief^ on June 15, 2016, 01:29:19 am
The fact that everything else is connected fine doesn't mean it's not the router.
Post by: birdy51 on June 15, 2016, 08:57:11 am
For a long time I've wanted to reach the internet from home on it, but I've since struggled greatly in this endeavor. Any thoughts on how I might achieve a connection.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Aklyon on June 15, 2016, 09:00:32 am
Post by: AzyWng on June 15, 2016, 09:08:15 am
I restarted the router, and everything else was fine afterwards except for my own Wi-Fi, which was connected but with no actual internet access.
This morning I booted up my computer and everything was fine afterwards. I could connect to the internet fine with no ethernet cable. Steam works fine now, too.
Post by: birdy51 on June 15, 2016, 09:10:49 am
Is your 3DS(XL) already connected to the wifi and you want to use the browser, or do you need to actually connect your 3ds to the wifi first?
The latter. Although it can make a connection, said connection does not lead to an actual internet connection.
Post by: Aklyon on June 15, 2016, 09:17:14 am
Well, the obvious questions then: Does your wifi work for other things in the house, and is your 3DS' wireless switch on, and not off?Is your 3DS(XL) already connected to the wifi and you want to use the browser, or do you need to actually connect your 3ds to the wifi first?
The latter. Although it can make a connection, said connection does not lead to an actual internet connection.
Post by: birdy51 on June 15, 2016, 09:59:32 am
Yes and yes. On campus, I was able to connect to their WiFi and I haven't turned it off on the 3DS
Post by: BigD145 on June 15, 2016, 12:37:55 pm
I appreciate the basics. ^.^
Yes and yes. On campus, I was able to connect to their WiFi and I haven't turned it off on the 3DS
On campus? A college campus? They may be blocking a bunch of ports.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on June 15, 2016, 12:40:18 pm
Post by: Aklyon on June 15, 2016, 12:40:55 pm
No, it WORKED on campus but not at the house?Sounds like a router issue, possibly.
Post by: Gwolfski on June 15, 2016, 01:07:01 pm
Post by: Aklyon on June 15, 2016, 01:08:05 pm
Post by: Gwolfski on June 15, 2016, 01:08:52 pm
Post by: BigD145 on June 15, 2016, 01:10:47 pm
No, it WORKED on campus but not at the house?
Ah, yes I see.
I appreciate the basics. ^.^
Yes and yes. On campus, I was able to connect to their WiFi and I haven't turned it off on the 3DS
Do they use WEP-Enterprise authentication? If so, then no, the 3DS does not work with WEP-Enterprise authentication.
I had to change my router at home for similar issues, but in reverse, for my Wii. Authentications are not all supported across all devices and all wifi.
Post by: Gwolfski on June 15, 2016, 02:37:38 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on June 15, 2016, 02:57:01 pm
Post by: Gwolfski on June 15, 2016, 04:55:49 pm
Post by: Akura on June 15, 2016, 07:54:11 pm
Post by: birdy51 on June 15, 2016, 08:55:57 pm
In this case, the second would definitely be a bit of a hassle, as I am currently at my uncles as opposed to off on my own. Because of that, I am a bit leary of playing around with their Wi-Fi which might be for the best. That said... Are there any good ways of getting around Wi-Fi entirely? Or at cir-
Wait. Holy shit, I actually got it work somehow. I've no clue what I actually did different, other than it's finally decided to work.
Probably not going to question it. Thank you guys for your help! I appreciate it!
Post by: Aklyon on June 15, 2016, 09:09:18 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on June 15, 2016, 10:50:05 pm
And try rebooting.
(There is always the network troubleshooter.)
Post by: Aklyon on June 15, 2016, 10:57:00 pm
Printers will just do whatever they feel like sometimes, including print black text with the empty color ink cartridge instead of the full black one and leave you with illegible pages.
Post by: BigD145 on June 16, 2016, 12:34:51 am
Routers are less arcane than printers, but only because routers have findable settings menus if you ask google enough.
Printers will just do whatever they feel like sometimes, including print black text with the empty color ink cartridge instead of the full black one and leave you with illegible pages.
Or throw a fault that requires rebooting the computer. Not the printer. Oh no. power cycling the printer does nothing. Canceling the print job does nothing. You have to restart your computer because you couldn't feed the printer more paper in less than 5 seconds.
Post by: chaotic skies on June 16, 2016, 02:00:59 am
Post by: Gwolfski on June 16, 2016, 03:52:48 am
Post by: Thief^ on June 16, 2016, 05:17:35 am
Post by: BigD145 on June 16, 2016, 11:22:15 am
Get a Samsung black-only laser printer. They're pretty much bomb-proof from a reliability standpoint. Ask it to print and it does.
Mine is fairly new Samsung black laser printer. The older one broke its heater, a part that costs more than the printer and requires a complete tear down. The new one does what I posted above. I want to print double sided, which it cannot do on its own, so feeding it becomes the thing to do.
Post by: chaotic skies on June 16, 2016, 11:27:22 am
Post by: Thief^ on June 16, 2016, 11:30:10 am
First print all even pages, in reverse order
Take the entire stack and reinsert into the printer
(typically blank side up with the top of the page going in to the printer first)
Print only odd pages
Done
Post by: BigD145 on June 16, 2016, 12:25:07 pm
You print manual double-sided like this:
First print all even pages, in reverse order
Take the entire stack and reinsert into the printer
(typically blank side up with the top of the page going in to the printer first)
Print only odd pages
Done
Yes and hope it doesn't grab two pages at once, throwing everything off. Feeding it one page leads to error messages if you don't feed it within 5 seconds. SO bad times all around when things go wrong. Then my computer has to be rebooted because the printer driver is confused. You would think 30 years or more of personal computing and printing would have this figured out, but no.
Post by: Aklyon on June 16, 2016, 01:56:48 pm
Post by: chaotic skies on June 16, 2016, 02:54:01 pm
Print only page 1, nothing else.
Flip paper over.
Print only page 2.
Insert new paper.
Repeat until out of pages to print.
Post by: BigD145 on June 16, 2016, 04:25:39 pm
Post by: Gwolfski on June 16, 2016, 04:46:02 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on June 18, 2016, 02:06:37 am
Post by: Thief^ on June 18, 2016, 02:16:13 am
As for fullscreen applications... it could be 59.9 (traditional NTSC) vs true 60 Hz, or it could just be how your graphics card reacts to an application entering full-screen. Your computer's resolution settings should include refresh rate somewhere.
There are issues with true fullscreen mode anyway and have been for years, so a lot of recent games offer a "borderless fullscreen windowed" mode which doesn't use native fullscreen, which avoids issues like this.
Post by: Lord Shonus on June 18, 2016, 02:20:49 am
Are the HD videos copy-protected? If so it could be HDCP engaging.
As for fullscreen applications... it could be 59.9 (traditional NTSC) vs true 60 Hz, or it could just be how your graphics card reacts to an application entering full-screen. Your computer's resolution settings should include refresh rate somewhere.
There are issues with true fullscreen mode anyway and have been for years, so a lot of recent games offer a "borderless fullscreen windowed" mode which doesn't use native fullscreen, which avoids issues like this.
The videos are not copy-protected.
I know how to get to the refresh rate, but there's only one setting, while I suspect that my desktop is at a different refresh rate from what applications are using (which could also explain why the videos even in windowed mode - the media player decides the video needs a different refresh rate to play that file).
Post by: Chase on June 25, 2016, 02:04:33 am
I was recording a siege, and this happened.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Teneb on June 25, 2016, 09:04:12 am
EDIT: Somehow managed to install a rather old driver that was lying around in my hd. Still got no idea why the above even happened. Still can't update the damn thing.
Post by: Thief^ on June 25, 2016, 01:21:00 pm
I have about $250 that I plan on spending on a new processor for dwarf fortress. I currently have an AMD shitter, FM2 socket. I'm really only buying this so I can play Dwarf Fortress reliably.
I was recording a siege, and this happened.Then it crashed once more after at the end of worldgen. I'm over it, I need a solid CPU PLEASE! Shoot me suggestionsSpoiler (click to show/hide)
Dwarf Fortress does have its fair share of crashes. And, if it's not DF's fault, it's more likely to be a RAM issue than CPU. CPU issues tend to cause the whole PC to lock up, rather than crash one program.
I'd try running memtest and seeing whether it detects ram issues, and whether pulling ram sticks stops it again. If so, you've found the bad stick!
Post by: Akura on June 26, 2016, 12:56:45 pm
The problem is, it does not run on Windows 7. I've looked it up, and it's apparently caused by 3rd-party DRM(in addition to the DRM that Ubisoft tried to force on me during install - hahahano) called StarForce. Apparently it's possible to remove it, and then apply a no-cd crack to make sure the game disc does not reinstall it. While I'm not opposed to removing DRM from a game I goddamned paid for(especially if it makes the game not even work) - plus the issue of the disc constantly spinning during play, possibly exploding which has happened to people - I'm not sure I 100% trust the methods used.
Post by: BigD145 on June 26, 2016, 02:21:00 pm
Post by: Akura on June 26, 2016, 05:20:33 pm
Post by: hector13 on June 26, 2016, 08:29:52 pm
Good game though. Don't think I've played it beyond 1941 though...
Post by: Lord Shonus on June 26, 2016, 09:52:15 pm
Post by: Thief^ on June 27, 2016, 03:32:22 am
Alright, it seems the no-cd crack allowed it to work. Oddly, the remover for StarForce never actually found it, before or after reinstalling it.
Starforce is probably missing because it failed to install, which would also explain why it doesn't work. I'm guessing it uses a 32-bit driver or kernel component, and you're running 64-bit Windows.
Get used to this if you like old games.
Post by: Sonlirain on June 27, 2016, 09:08:28 am
Starforce has a thing for damaging drivers and causing system instability so it's a good thing it didn't install at all and using a no-cd crack to play a game you own is fair game as far as i'm concerned.
Post by: hector13 on June 27, 2016, 12:26:40 pm
Starforce failing to install is probably the best thing 64 bit systems gave us.
Starforce has a thing for damaging drivers and causing system instability so it's a good thing it didn't install at all and using a no-cd crack to play a game you own is fair game as far as i'm concerned.
+1
I have a library of older games I find it quite difficult to play now because of the DRM.
Post by: Noel.se on June 28, 2016, 04:53:55 am
Post by: Thief^ on June 28, 2016, 05:04:42 am
Either way I'd advise taking it to a repair shop and stop using such cheap headphones.
Post by: Noel.se on June 28, 2016, 05:07:35 am
Post by: andrea on June 30, 2016, 10:00:09 am
Basically, I switch it on. it powers up, fans spinning, hard disk spinning.
But on the screen, black. not even BIOS, POST or whatever the first things appearing on the screen are.
Usually after many tries it actually manages to start up properly, but I haven't managed to find any common fact between those successful attempts.
I tried changing the screen, changing the power socket the computer is attached to, changing the video cable, removing GPU and linking video cable directly to motherboard, moved RAM, cleaned connectors and nothing helps. It is not overheating, I checked temperature when I managed to switch it on, but it was quite cool. This problem happens only at startup, after that computer runs fine.
motherboard gives no beeps. Like, at all. I suspect the speaker is not installed.
What should I do? I was thinking about resetting the BIOS , but this is starting to reach uncharted territory for me. it seems dangerous.
Last time the computer refused to switch on like this it was because I had linked power spply to CPU fan but not CPU itself. the intermittent nature of this problem and the fact it works fine after startup seems to rule out processor problems , in my ignorant opinion. But still, any safe way to check if CPU is running?
Any idea on possible causes and possible fixes?
Post by: Thief^ on June 30, 2016, 10:20:19 am
It didn't beep at all when it failed, it just turned on with the fans at max power and did nothing else.
If you're not even getting a beep when you boot successfully, I would suggest getting a little PC speaker off eBay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Desktop-Pc-Computer-Mainboard-Case-Internal-Motherboard-Speaker-Connector-Plug-/282057895277?hash=item41abf5ed6d:g:pvUAAOSw9eVXUpQP) and plugging it in, to see if you are getting a beep code when it fails.
Post by: andrea on June 30, 2016, 10:44:20 am
some kind of compatibility issue was my guess too, but the oly component I replaced was the power supply months ago. So, I guess I am looking for something which broke.
hm. I have a broken USB connector I am no longer using. I wonder if it somehow became broken enough to confuse otherboard, despite not touching it? I'll try removing.
by the way, I am talking about a desktop. I have great access to components, thankfully.
Post by: Rose on July 01, 2016, 10:16:45 am
Also try swapping out the ram if you have a spare. They tend to act funky for no raisin.
Post by: hector13 on July 01, 2016, 11:18:26 am
Post by: Tawa on July 01, 2016, 04:41:17 pm
Post by: Reudh on July 01, 2016, 07:45:57 pm
I have this terribad old Optiplex GX620, running Linux. I want to buy a new video card for it, because this thing sucks so bad I can't even play Half-Life 2, and I certainly won't be able to play CKII (after I get it, anyway) without a new card. Any recommendations? This thing has an original PCIE port, by the way, but I've heard bad things about the backwards compatibility with PCIE 2 cards. Is it really that bad?
I seriously doubt your computer would support any modern graphics cards.
Post by: Aklyon on July 01, 2016, 08:17:13 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on July 01, 2016, 08:28:05 pm
Post by: gimlet on July 01, 2016, 09:45:15 pm
Still, looking at the Optiplex that's a P4 3.4Ghz? Yeah that's not gonna be a good fit with any moderately recent card - 440 cpumarks, I was doing it on a Core2 Duo that would have been at least 4x that rating and it was definitely straining, so the P4 is gonna be pretty sluggish. Ah and I ran across the tip that the Optiplex GX620 can only take single height video cards, so be aware of that too, that really limits the field. You could maybe look at used cards that are about 5 years old, but boy I wouldn't get your hopes up. Google for what people with GX620s were upgrading their cards to 5-6 years ago I guess. Another thing to watch out for is that Dell doesn't give you a ton of headroom with power supplies, so you migght need to upgrade at least that if you put in a more powerful video card, and Dell is notorious for using proprietary cases/PSU. Watch out for newer video cards that need pcie power connectors attached to the top, your old PSU almost certainly doesn't have that, and even if you got an adapter it probably isn't specced for the power.
Good luck, but it's gonna be a technical challenge and a crapshoot.
(numbers from cpubenchmark.net/videocardbenchmark.net - definitely not the be-all/end-all of benchmarks but I like it for a quick 1st estimate)
Post by: Reudh on July 01, 2016, 10:52:51 pm
There is no point buying even an old card for your computer; it'd be like jamming a shitty old turbocharged V6 into a car that's little more than a rusted out hulk. At this stage, it'd be a waste of money and nothing else.
You could buy yourself a basic little laptop that could still cope with CK2. My brother's $500AUD laptop running an AMD A6 can cope pretty well with CK2. It somewhat copes with more modern Source games, albeit stutteringly.
Post by: gimlet on July 02, 2016, 01:08:25 am
Post by: Tawa on July 02, 2016, 11:22:18 am
Post by: Devast on July 05, 2016, 04:18:41 am
I've currently got a i7 2600k CPU and it's the oldest thing in my computer aside from the motherboard.
Aside from music/other media I really only use my PC for gaming, Dwarf Fortress being my main interest.
I'm hoping someone can shed light on a new CPU (or one coming out soon) that would benefit me
Post by: Thief^ on July 05, 2016, 04:58:27 am
Post by: BigD145 on July 05, 2016, 10:47:02 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 05, 2016, 11:26:27 am
Hello, I'm hoping this would fit into this topic.
I've currently got a i7 2600k CPU and it's the oldest thing in my computer aside from the motherboard.
Aside from music/other media I really only use my PC for gaming, Dwarf Fortress being my main interest.
I'm hoping someone can shed light on a new CPU (or one coming out soon) that would benefit me
Any CPU worth upgrading to will require a new motherboard, so you'd want a Skylake chip. This, plus motherboard and RAM, would cost you in the $5-600 range. If all you're running is DF I doubt it's worthwhile - DF remains a single-thread game for the most part, and the Skylake equivalent of what you have is not that much faster in single-thread performance. For other games, particularly modern AAA titles, the multi-thread performance would be a major boost (I have a non-K Skylake i5 that trounces my friend's i7 of similar vintage to yours), but that's an entirely different question.
Post by: Admiral Obvious on July 05, 2016, 08:39:17 pm
I've got a 2 year old HP Pavilion 500 desktop, with some quite decent hardware in it already, problem being, the power supply not being able to support this new graphics card I just bought to upgrade it a bit further (this new graphics card is an EVGA GTX 960). As a result of me being stupid, I can't actually use this new graphics card, and I really don't want to pull it out of the system and return it, because I know for a fact the board can run it. What I need help with is figuring out which power supply I can buy to make this thing work, along with the rest of the PC.
I do know that I need at least a 400W power supply to comply with the cards reccomended specs, and the current power supply is at 300W (which may work, but probably not).
I'm planning to play some moderately high end games, hopefully at 60+ FPS at a 720p resolution.
So far I've stopped on this one (yes,it takes you to a mobile version of the site, I posted this using my phone) http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16817154026
I'm having a hard time telling off hand wether or not this will work. The graphics card came with a power connector, so I can plug it into the 8 pin female slot on the card, but I don't know what will fit into the other end, as it's split into two, what appears to be male 6 pin connectors.
Am I on the right track with this selection, or could one of you very helpful guys steer me in the right direction?
Forgive me if I'm being dumb, as it's been a very long time since I've had ro replace/add PC hardware.
Edit: I think I figured out my problem, the PCIe 6, 6+2, and 8 terminology was confusing me, I think I ordered the correct PCU I need to make this work, so please disregard this message, unless you feel there's something interesting to add.
Post by: Thief^ on July 06, 2016, 01:09:34 am
I would never buy a PSU that was not 80+ certified any more. In the EU it would actually be illegal to sell - EU regulations now require a PSU to meet a minimum efficiency when run at 100% of their rated output.
P.S. as for the connectors - the card takes an 8-pin PCIe connector. 6-pin connectors also exist, which supply half the power (hence the 2x 6-pin to one 8-pin adapter). The 6+2 pin connector you've seen mentioned is an 8-pin connector which can have two pins detached to fit a 6-pin socket, or added on to fit an 8-pin socket.
Post by: Admiral Obvious on July 06, 2016, 01:16:28 am
Partially because it had the cabling I needed, and partially because of the review that was given.
I wound up getting this one instead.
http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16817139026
Seems like it would work out fine.
Post by: Devast on July 06, 2016, 03:10:05 am
Hello, I'm hoping this would fit into this topic.
I've currently got a i7 2600k CPU and it's the oldest thing in my computer aside from the motherboard.
Aside from music/other media I really only use my PC for gaming, Dwarf Fortress being my main interest.
I'm hoping someone can shed light on a new CPU (or one coming out soon) that would benefit me
Any CPU worth upgrading to will require a new motherboard, so you'd want a Skylake chip. This, plus motherboard and RAM, would cost you in the $5-600 range. If all you're running is DF I doubt it's worthwhile - DF remains a single-thread game for the most part, and the Skylake equivalent of what you have is not that much faster in single-thread performance. For other games, particularly modern AAA titles, the multi-thread performance would be a major boost (I have a non-K Skylake i5 that trounces my friend's i7 of similar vintage to yours), but that's an entirely different question.
I do play other video games, GTA5, The Witcher & Cityskylines would the most recent. Would a Broadwell do nothing for DF ?
Post by: Insanegame27 on July 06, 2016, 07:31:28 am
I was given one as an early 18th birthday present and I wish to know how good it is. I haven't even unboxed it yet and I am super hyped.
In particular, how well would it run:
Total War: Rome 2
Rise and Fall: Civilisations at War
Warframe
Dwarf Fortress
Interstellar Marines
CoD (MW 1, 2, 3, BO2)
Post by: Thief^ on July 06, 2016, 10:10:27 am
I didn't actually buy the one I linked. I did go for one with 80+ certification after doing a bit more research.
Partially because it had the cabling I needed, and partially because of the review that was given.
I wound up getting this one instead.
http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16817139026
Seems like it would work out fine.
Yeah that's a decent PSU.
Is the MSI GE72 6QE Apache Pro good for a gaming laptop?Try it and let us know!
I was given one as an early 18th birthday present and I wish to know how good it is. I haven't even unboxed it yet and I am super hyped.
In particular, how well would it run:
Total War: Rome 2
Rise and Fall: Civilisations at War
Warframe
Dwarf Fortress
Interstellar Marines
CoD (MW 1, 2, 3, BO2)
More helpfully -
Jesus Christ that's an expensive laptop
ahem.
The CPU is more than powerful enough for almost everything (as almost every CPU is now). The GPU is ~15% below a desktop GTX 960 in performance, so if you look up benchmarks of those games on a GTX 960 you should get a rough idea.
It's damn good for a laptop.
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 06, 2016, 12:01:23 pm
Hello, I'm hoping this would fit into this topic.
I've currently got a i7 2600k CPU and it's the oldest thing in my computer aside from the motherboard.
Aside from music/other media I really only use my PC for gaming, Dwarf Fortress being my main interest.
I'm hoping someone can shed light on a new CPU (or one coming out soon) that would benefit me
Any CPU worth upgrading to will require a new motherboard, so you'd want a Skylake chip. This, plus motherboard and RAM, would cost you in the $5-600 range. If all you're running is DF I doubt it's worthwhile - DF remains a single-thread game for the most part, and the Skylake equivalent of what you have is not that much faster in single-thread performance. For other games, particularly modern AAA titles, the multi-thread performance would be a major boost (I have a non-K Skylake i5 that trounces my friend's i7 of similar vintage to yours), but that's an entirely different question.
I do play other video games, GTA5, The Witcher & Cityskylines would the most recent. Would a Broadwell do nothing for DF ?
For those, you'll get a very noticeable improvement in performance with a new chip, but there is no reason to buy a Broadwell.
Broadwell is an outdated architecture, and will generally be more expensive for lower performance. There are a few Broadwell-E chips that are more powerful than the best Skylake chips on the market right now - they have more cores, slightly worse single-thread performance, cost a thousand dollars, and still need a new motherboard. If you're playing modern AAA games, get a nice Skylake - a top-end i5 with a good motherboard and 12 gigs of RAM will set you back less than $500, and getting a high-end i7 (DF is one of the few games where this would actually be worthwhile, as it relies heavily on single-thread performance) wouldn't bump you up past 600. You'd probably be able to keep your existing PSU, as the much newer architecture than you have provides drastically reduced power usage.
Post by: BigD145 on July 06, 2016, 12:24:03 pm
Is the MSI GE72 6QE Apache Pro good for a gaming laptop?
I was given one as an early 18th birthday present and I wish to know how good it is. I haven't even unboxed it yet and I am super hyped.
In particular, how well would it run:
Total War: Rome 2
Rise and Fall: Civilisations at War
Warframe
Dwarf Fortress
Interstellar Marines
CoD (MW 1, 2, 3, BO2)
It's fine. It'll run ARK, Fallout 4, and other modern games at around medium settings.
Post by: Insanegame27 on July 07, 2016, 01:47:25 am
Post by: AzyWng on July 07, 2016, 09:45:08 pm
When I open up my bookmark folders on the bookmarks bar, the text appears yellow.
The text for tabs, and the text of the actual folders and stuff on the bookmarks bar is fine, though.
The audio icon is yellow, too.
I've already tried refreshing the browser.
Post by: Amperzand on July 07, 2016, 10:07:32 pm
Just sorta looking for a general opinion on the machine, I've seen a variety of positive and negative reviews and felt that asking here was a good idea.
Post by: BigD145 on July 07, 2016, 11:48:28 pm
The 950M is not great and 2gb vram is shit. Add $100 to that price, find a 960 with 4gb vram, and pick a different company. Toshiba's are okay. Lenovo is pretty good. I'm fairly happy with my Y700.
Post by: Amperzand on July 08, 2016, 12:14:48 am
Edit: Any particular machines that would be recommended?
Post by: Thief^ on July 08, 2016, 01:09:38 am
My HP Pavilion 15" with an A6 quad CPU and R7 m260 GPU only cost me £215 (including delivery!). You can't even get a laptop with an nVidia at that price!
I wouldn't necessarily recommend that exact laptop, it's about the lowest spec dedicated GPU you can get, but it's definitely worth checking benchmarks for whatever AMD you can get at the price you're after.
Post by: Amperzand on July 08, 2016, 02:16:21 am
Post by: Thief^ on July 08, 2016, 04:21:27 am
You definitely want to swap out the hdd for an ssd though if you're going to be carting it around, hdds are so fragile and hate the slightest movement or bump and ssds just don't care.
Post by: Amperzand on July 08, 2016, 04:27:23 am
As for durability, I mean, there are 3500$ laptops with ballistic armor cases and operational ranges from -75 to 50 degrees c in a sandstorm, while being dropped a meter and a half onto concrete, but that's a little outside my search terms.
Post by: Thief^ on July 08, 2016, 04:29:29 am
I also upgraded the ram and wifi card with parts I already had, so it's now pretty tricked-out :)
Post by: Flying Dice on July 08, 2016, 06:52:05 am
Just a question regarding browsers (Firefox specifically)...Out of curiosity, do you play Aurora? I've encountered that before myself, but only under certain circumstances relating to Aurora being open in some states or being closed improperly (and solvable by closing the browser out). I looked into it for a while but couldn't find an explanation.
When I open up my bookmark folders on the bookmarks bar, the text appears yellow.
The text for tabs, and the text of the actual folders and stuff on the bookmarks bar is fine, though.
The audio icon is yellow, too.
I've already tried refreshing the browser.
Post by: AzyWng on July 08, 2016, 08:21:58 am
Nuts... I tried playing Aurora once... But I kind of closed the browser window thing for that game...Just a question regarding browsers (Firefox specifically)...Out of curiosity, do you play Aurora? I've encountered that before myself, but only under certain circumstances relating to Aurora being open in some states or being closed improperly (and solvable by closing the browser out). I looked into it for a while but couldn't find an explanation.
When I open up my bookmark folders on the bookmarks bar, the text appears yellow.
The text for tabs, and the text of the actual folders and stuff on the bookmarks bar is fine, though.
The audio icon is yellow, too.
I've already tried refreshing the browser.
Post by: BigD145 on July 08, 2016, 10:11:34 am
Oh, certainly. All the options I've seriously considered have had SSDs.
As for durability, I mean, there are 3500$ laptops with ballistic armor cases and operational ranges from -75 to 50 degrees c in a sandstorm, while being dropped a meter and a half onto concrete, but that's a little outside my search terms.
ThinkPads are still very durable. HP and Dell/Alienware are still garbage. For new games you will often have to wait for patches to fix AMD R7 issues. I rarely hear about new games having issues with newer nvidia's.
Post by: MoonyTheHuman on July 08, 2016, 01:01:19 pm
Well a random key is getting pressed and throwing my to the top of pages and to the beginning of text, the linux terminal visually identifies it as ''^[OH''
This is on a Toshiba Satelite C55-B5300 running windows 8.1
Any assistance?
Post by: gimlet on July 08, 2016, 09:56:39 pm
My keyboard was puked on by my cat so i pulled out a old keyboard to replace it, a microsoft wireless comfort keyboard 5000 (much out of dateness).When the power is off (or on if you feel daring, heh), rub your finger across the keys a few times, pressing each of them down. That'll often unstick a stuck key. If it keeps happening, you can do it key by key to try to identify which one it is, and !!carefully!! pull off the keycap and clean it.
Well a random key is getting pressed and throwing my to the top of pages and to the beginning of text, the linux terminal visually identifies it as ''^[OH''
This is on a Toshiba Satelite C55-B5300 running windows 8.1
Any assistance?
Post by: Amperzand on July 08, 2016, 10:05:20 pm
Post by: Flying Dice on July 08, 2016, 10:21:02 pm
That wouldn't be it, it doesn't persist past closing the browser. And it's not directly related to the game, but to Firefox. Every report I've ever seen is that it seems to self-correct, and nobody really knows what causes it.Nuts... I tried playing Aurora once... But I kind of closed the browser window thing for that game...Just a question regarding browsers (Firefox specifically)...Out of curiosity, do you play Aurora? I've encountered that before myself, but only under certain circumstances relating to Aurora being open in some states or being closed improperly (and solvable by closing the browser out). I looked into it for a while but couldn't find an explanation.
When I open up my bookmark folders on the bookmarks bar, the text appears yellow.
The text for tabs, and the text of the actual folders and stuff on the bookmarks bar is fine, though.
The audio icon is yellow, too.
I've already tried refreshing the browser.
Post by: Radsoc on July 09, 2016, 07:27:27 am
I know MacBook Air is a candidate, but has anyone tried DF on one?
Post by: Sonlirain on July 09, 2016, 10:13:52 am
I used NetBalancer for a time but it was a trial based program and things went to hell the moment it ended and the full version is $50.
So i changed to NetLimiter4 and it worked fine so far cept it's a trial as well and i have 6 days to go and while it'sn ot as expensive i don't think it's worth $30 for me.
I failed to see any free alternatives...
So i tried torrents... no dice there as well. Only layers upon layers of ads, malware and scams.
All i need is a free way to limit Chromes (or some other browsers i can use for youtube uploading) upload rate...
Any ideas anyone?
EDIT: Problem solved, The Chrome devtools actually have throttling. It's a bit annoying to remember about putting the bottleneck up but it works.
Post by: Sappho on July 10, 2016, 03:57:05 am
Anyone know if there's some setting in her tablet which is causing this to happen? Can she change it to take the normal password instead of the PIN? I've tried Googling and although there are many, many pages of people having trouble getting Windows Surface to connect to wifi, I haven't seen this particular issue anywhere. Thanks!
EDIT: Nevermind, I think I figured it out. Under the thing asking for the PIN is a link saying "connect using a security key instead" and that takes the password. It was still having trouble connecting, but that seems to be due to it not picking up the signal very well - it seems to have a terribly shitty antenna or something. Looks like it's working now.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on July 10, 2016, 10:31:34 am
I've been attempting to use the Kindle app on my phone (Android), but I can't bring up the menu or anything while I'm in a book. I can only flip pages and follow any hypertext.
Anybody know how to fix this?
Post by: Rose on July 10, 2016, 11:14:02 am
Post by: Thief^ on July 11, 2016, 02:14:22 am
Post by: AzyWng on July 12, 2016, 08:12:47 am
Which ones would you recommend?
Post by: Thief^ on July 12, 2016, 08:17:02 am
What does he do to laptops to break them so fast?
Post by: BigD145 on July 12, 2016, 09:02:49 am
The ThinkPad line would put up with more abuse but honestly a change in how a laptop is handled would go a long ways. Just tell your brother to literally burn $2000. Or he can give the money to me so I can get some decent health care. No more broken laptops that way. Save a laptop and ease my pain.
Post by: Aklyon on July 12, 2016, 10:09:18 am
Post by: Sonlirain on July 12, 2016, 10:29:17 am
There are some nasty cheap laptops in our house that survived more than a few years one being literally over 10 years old and so outdated it's barely usable for anything that's not retro gaming and simple paperwork but it works. If a laptop breaks it really had to be seriously mishandled (electronics are surprisingly durable TBH).
Post by: Amperzand on July 12, 2016, 02:15:20 pm
Post by: dennislp3 on July 12, 2016, 02:23:17 pm
Post by: AzyWng on July 12, 2016, 07:31:47 pm
I personally wouldn't. He'd just end up with a broken more expensive laptop.I don't know.
What does he do to laptops to break them so fast?
Does Planetside 2 or similar videogames have any detrimental effects on newly purchased computers?
Post by: Aklyon on July 12, 2016, 07:40:46 pm
Post by: Amperzand on July 12, 2016, 08:12:01 pm
Post by: AzyWng on July 12, 2016, 08:46:12 pm
What's actually broken in the previous machines? I feel that's fairly important to know.
To be honest... I never asked, and none of my family members ever said specifically what caused the breakdown.
Post by: Broseph Stalin on July 12, 2016, 10:41:55 pm
Post by: Flying Dice on July 12, 2016, 10:57:35 pm
Or it could just be a model that runs hot, in which case you can't do much worth doing beyond elevating it and maybe setting a fan up to blow under/over/around the keyboard.
Post by: Broseph Stalin on July 12, 2016, 11:13:16 pm
Give it a good dusting with compressed air (don't fuck up the fan), chances are an old laptop that's been sitting around is absolutely filthy with dust.The CPU is hitting 90c celsius, If that's normal then it might be intended to double as a hot pad. I figured I'd have to work it over with some canned air and change out the thermal paste but I guess there's no real tricks I can pull to give it a boost.
Or it could just be a model that runs hot, in which case you can't do much worth doing beyond elevating it and maybe setting a fan up to blow under/over/around the keyboard.
Post by: Flying Dice on July 13, 2016, 11:11:54 pm
I had a Lenovo laptop that ran in the mid-80s Celsius straight out of the box, was apparently the normal condition of the model. So yeah, if it's a design that doesn't distribute heat that well, it can get really damn hot. Laptop cases don't exactly have the space to spare for good fans, empty space, or large heatsinks. :IGive it a good dusting with compressed air (don't fuck up the fan), chances are an old laptop that's been sitting around is absolutely filthy with dust.The CPU is hitting 90c celsius, If that's normal then it might be intended to double as a hot pad. I figured I'd have to work it over with some canned air and change out the thermal paste but I guess there's no real tricks I can pull to give it a boost.
Or it could just be a model that runs hot, in which case you can't do much worth doing beyond elevating it and maybe setting a fan up to blow under/over/around the keyboard.
But again, there's a good chance that it's just fucking full of dust and old.
Post by: Amperzand on July 13, 2016, 11:43:12 pm
Post by: AzyWng on July 14, 2016, 08:19:34 am
Maybe turbulence or similar caused it to break? But if so...
In any case, my brother's looking for an apple laptop for college now that Toshiba and Dell have both failed him..
Post by: Aklyon on July 14, 2016, 08:22:06 am
Post by: Thief^ on July 14, 2016, 08:38:44 am
Talked with my brother, he says all he did was put the laptop in his backpack before going on the plane. He says when he got off the laptop wouldn't turn on.
He did try charging it right? Did he try using it in a foreign country with a higher voltage that destroyed the charger?
People take laptops on planes all the time, it wouldn't just break like that.
Post by: BigD145 on July 14, 2016, 08:51:19 am
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: MarcAFK on July 14, 2016, 01:08:31 pm
Today I ordered a second hand one on eBay. I'm having buyers remorse already. I think if I wasn't waiting 2 weeks for it to arrive I wouldn't be getting stressed, too much fun to be had blowing stuff up in immersive sandboxes.
Still I think it wasn't such a bad deal, what I've been using lately has a decent i7, only 4gb ram and a gtx 820m, any problems it has are probably from lack of ram, though it seems to get pretty hot too. Does ok with fallout 4 and really only struggles from the ram shortage.
I should be fine with the 970m I'm getting but kind of regret how much I paid for it really, dispite saving a good $1000 from what a new laptop of that kind would cost.
Anyway, has anyone used an external GPU attached by HDMI or thunderbolt? It seems like a decent way of getting an old laptop to perform well, you lose about 10%'of the potential straight away and maybe a quarter if you use the laptops onboard monitor, but on the plus side you don't have the potential severe heating problem a laptop gets when the GPU is working at maximum.
Post by: chaotic skies on July 14, 2016, 02:26:32 pm
Post by: NullForceOmega on July 18, 2016, 09:56:27 am
The only thing I can think of right now is that my PSU (750 watt) might be inadequate, but the system normally runs fine on this PSU, and according to the documentation on my other components a 750 should be fine for this setup, it just occasionally won't start the video card (which also claims a 750 should be adequate). The tower has been cleaned out several times since the upgrade (including today) so I'm not sure what is happening here.
Should probably ask the actual question here: Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be happening here? I'd prefer not to have to buy a new PSU, but that is a possibility if necessary. It should also be noted that when the video card refuses to start the tower is generally running at 20-30 degrees c
Post by: Thief^ on July 18, 2016, 10:00:12 am
Post by: NullForceOmega on July 18, 2016, 10:04:06 am
Edit: the only complaint I can find about the PSU is that it's fan is noisy (and mine used to be until it wore in a bit.)
Post by: Thief^ on July 18, 2016, 10:09:25 am
Is there possibly a fault with the ram? I've had a similar fault recently, and I ended up just backing out the ram upgrade.
EDIT: Also check if there are any bios updates available for your motherboard.
Post by: NullForceOmega on July 18, 2016, 10:12:47 am
Whoops: I was thinking of my old PSU, the current PSU is a Thermaltake 850 watt, I just checked the reviews and it has extremely high ratings as well (in fact, the above statement about the noise was about this PSU, not my old Corsair.)
Been going over every kind of system report I can generate (with trustworthy programs) and I can't find anything wrong at all (except this asinine USB device that someone failed to properly eject when I had it checked out for a hard-drive failure more than a year ago.)
Post by: MarcAFK on July 20, 2016, 11:16:08 am
The ghost in the machine can be fickle. Though it was probably the edge connectors there too, does anyone remember NES carts?
Post by: NullForceOmega on July 20, 2016, 12:16:14 pm
Post by: i2amroy on July 20, 2016, 01:53:01 pm
Another stupid question, but have you double checked to make sure your mobo slot is actually up to par? You need a PCI Express-compliant motherboard with one dual-width x16 graphics slot, and if it's only x8 or something that could very likely be causing some problems.
Post by: NullForceOmega on July 20, 2016, 04:46:31 pm
It really looks like to problem is somehow related to the PSU, it might have to do with how the unit is mounted, Thermaltake obviously wanted its exhaust upwards or sideways, but my case only allows it to be mounted exhaust-down. It seems like dust might actually be causing the issue, as using some compressed air to clean it out has caused it to power correctly every time.
I don't have any idea how to effectively dust protect the unit tho', with its exhaust pointed down (into the case) it means that any particulates in its intake area will end up inside its housing.
Post by: gimlet on July 20, 2016, 11:35:57 pm
Post by: Insanegame27 on July 25, 2016, 02:44:38 am
Post by: Thief^ on July 25, 2016, 03:20:47 am
Post by: Insanegame27 on July 25, 2016, 03:23:37 am
Post by: Thief^ on July 25, 2016, 04:18:12 am
Post by: 3man75 on July 27, 2016, 01:17:39 pm
I'm looking at an issue with Rufus ((https://rufus.akeo.ie/)) which is a program that helps create bootable USB drives. We use them to get PC's on ghost which then allows us to re-image a computer.((https://www.symantec.com/theme/ghost)).
My boss asked me to do a like 17 of these in order to get ready for a mass re-imaging project at our workplace. Problem is that they don't conect to ghost servers..
More specifically, when I hit unicast on them to log onto a ghost session the computer attempts to find the session but isn't receiving any data. Were trying to push a windows 10 image onto it btw and I was using NTFS file system. Would a FAT file system work better?
Post by: Aklyon on July 27, 2016, 02:54:34 pm
Post by: misko27 on July 27, 2016, 09:25:16 pm
Ok so let me try a briefer version. Simply put I have problems where my wifi will be deeply inconsistent and drop periodically and I am fairly certain my wireless card is to blame. It isn't the problem of a router, and I know this for two reasons: 1, this has happened with multiple routers, and 2, when I have problems it effects every possible connection in range, showing them all as 1-2 bars with poor internet; actually attempting to connect in this state will lead to intermittent connection or the dreaded "connected, no internet". This happens randomly throughout the day, for variable amounts of time but never very long. I also feel the problem is worse now then before (I might be wrong), but it was always a problem. I think that I had successfully fixed it a long while back by using some Command prompt magic I was recommended somewhere on the internet to reset my wireless card, but A) I had to almost completely reset my computer since then for unrelated reasons, B) I don't remember what I did, and C) I don't even know if it actually fixed the problem long-term. I've tried some simple things like updating my wireless drivers. I have a Dell Inspiron 7559 with Windows 10 if that helps.
I'm just seeing whether there is more due diligence or possible fixes any of you fine internet fellows might recommend I try. I don't want to go to a shop unless I'm fairly certain its a hardware problem.
Post by: Thief^ on July 28, 2016, 04:21:39 am
The "Intel 7265 ac" should fit it, and is a fantastic wifi card. I use the "7260 ac" (same card with a different interface) in my laptop and it really is special. Paired with my ac router I get near-ethernet speeds over wifi!
Post by: Baffler on July 28, 2016, 05:57:20 pm
Post by: Akura on July 29, 2016, 05:06:48 pm
I just tried rolling back the drivers to 368(I keep the installer around for this bullcrap). GeForce Experience is refusing to re-update the drivers to the current(says up-to-date), running the installer again whines about needing a system restart, Steam is still giving the wrong version number but still plays(instead of crashing on start).
So I'm trying to get my free Windows 10 upgrade, but it's telling me that Microsoft Office Click-to-Run 2010 is causing compatibility issues. Fine, I uninstalled it, and the rest of Microsoft Office for good measure since I have the disk, and... it still says Microsoft Office Click-to-Run 2010 is causing compatibility issues. I tried rebooting, both using 'restart' and 'shut down,' and using Microsoft's EasyFix thing, but it still complains about Click-to-Run. Am I missing something obvious here? This machine is running Windows 7.
I had this problem on my netbook, and it also apparently managed to create its own drive partition or something. Not sure what that's all about.
Post by: BigD145 on July 29, 2016, 09:45:08 pm
Post by: Sappho on August 08, 2016, 05:29:28 am
https://www.alza.cz/acer-liquid-black-zest-3g-d4067764.htm (if it's in Czech, change the language by clicking the flag in the top-right of the page)
Thanks!
Post by: AzyWng on August 08, 2016, 08:37:08 am
Osu! won't install. When I run the installer (both online and standalone), the task pops up for a few seconds in the task manager, and then it disappears.
That's all that happens. I uninstalled osu! before when it wasn't working, and that's pretty much it.
Post by: BigD145 on August 08, 2016, 11:20:27 am
This isn't a computer question so much as a phone question, but I hate to start a new thread when you guys in here can probably help me out. I've resisted smart phones until now, but now I've got mostly deaf friends and a hard of hearing boyfriend who prefer video calling and general use of WhatsApp to any other form of communication, added to the temptation of wanting to play Pokemon GO, I've finally decided to get one. But I can't afford anything amazing (especially taking into consideration how expensive it's going to be to add a monthly phone bill to my current list of bills... right now I add about 200 kc / $10 worth of credit to my phone once every 3-4 months). I've been looking around and I stumbled upon this. It looks like it's enough for my needs - can anyone offer any input? Is it a decent phone? Is it worth the money? Is there any reason why I really need anything more expensive? I already have a very good Android tablet for my mobile gaming needs, so this is literally just for WhatsApp and Pokemon, basically.
https://www.alza.cz/acer-liquid-black-zest-3g-d4067764.htm (if it's in Czech, change the language by clicking the flag in the top-right of the page)
Thanks!
Acer's are bottom of the barrel but still okay-ish. That one has a pretty small battery. Xiaomi is pretty good if you find one that someone has made a custom strip down rom for like Cyanogenmod. Xiaomi stock tends to pop up ads within the OS itself. The hardware is good. Just make sure it has the cellular bands in your area. You want lots of RAM to prevent slowdowns. It looks like the Redmi 2 has a Cyanogenmod rom. It costs a bit more than the Acer.
http://gearburn.com/2016/07/pokemon-go-smartphones/
Pokemon pretty much has to have cellular. Not many cities have enough wifi to give you coverage at all times. So, is it worth the cellular prices every month? Personally I'd stick to console versions to play Pokemon.
Post by: Sappho on August 09, 2016, 02:41:03 am
Acer's are bottom of the barrel but still okay-ish. That one has a pretty small battery. Xiaomi is pretty good if you find one that someone has made a custom strip down rom for like Cyanogenmod. Xiaomi stock tends to pop up ads within the OS itself. The hardware is good. Just make sure it has the cellular bands in your area. You want lots of RAM to prevent slowdowns. It looks like the Redmi 2 has a Cyanogenmod rom. It costs a bit more than the Acer.
http://gearburn.com/2016/07/pokemon-go-smartphones/
Pokemon pretty much has to have cellular. Not many cities have enough wifi to give you coverage at all times. So, is it worth the cellular prices every month? Personally I'd stick to console versions to play Pokemon.
I don't think Xiaomi is available here. I'm in the Czech Republic, remember. I have no interest in getting a really good phone. My primary use will be for text and video chatting with my deaf and hard of hearing friends and boyfriend. I will have to have a data plan for this. I'm not looking forward to paying for it, but it's necessary at this point. But if I'm going to buy a smartphone, I want it to be able to run Pokemon. Not because I love Pokemon and want to play it, but because it will motivate me to get out and exercise more, which is something I'm trying hard to do lately. I don't mind if it runs a little slowly. I'm not going to be running much on it. WhatsApp, Pokemon, and that's about it. I'll use my tablet for other stuff.
My boyfriend is pushing me to get a more expensive one instead solely because it has more RAM. This will be my first smartphone, so I'm not an expert, but is it really necessary to have 2GB? How bad will it really be if I only have 1 GB? The one with 2 GB is 1000 kc more expensive so I want to make sure it's worth it if I'm going to buy that. That is a considerable amount of money for me.
Here are the two different phones I've been looking at. Both are Acer. I don't know why that would be bad - my Acer computer is spectacular - but if there's some specific problem Acers have (aside from not being top of the line, which I'm not willing to pay for and don't need anyway), do let me know. I want to be informed.
Acer Liquid Black Zest 3G (https://www.alza.cz/acer-liquid-black-zest-3g-d4067764.htm)
[https://www.alza.cz/zest-acer-liquid-black-4g-d4334635.htm]Acer Liquid Black Zest 4G[/url]
Post by: BigD145 on August 09, 2016, 10:46:31 am
Does WhatsApp work on your tablet? Is Pokemon Go really worth the cellular costs down the road? In the USA I can buy a brand new Pokemon 3DS game cartridge for the cost of one month of cellular. The 3DS costs about as much as a midline phone. Are you just wanting the newest fad or something else entirely?
The RAM question really breaks down to "how long will it take before an app gets patched and bloated and crashes immediately because you don't have enough RAM?" and "will the app be remotely usable if it can use less RAM but at some cost to frames or lost packets?" The second one is a pretty big issue in voice or video chat.
https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-actual-difference-between-an-Android-phone-with-1GB-RAM-and-one-with-3GB-RAM
Post by: Sappho on August 09, 2016, 11:40:34 am
EDIT: I know more ram = can run more programs at once, but if I'm only going to be running whatsapp and sometimes pokemon, how much ram do I actually need? I won't be using browsers and such or playing other games. is 1 gb really not enough?
Post by: BigD145 on August 09, 2016, 03:00:19 pm
Post by: Thief^ on August 10, 2016, 02:01:16 am
Post by: TheBiggerFish on August 10, 2016, 02:08:48 am
Your phone only has 2 GB of RAM?!?! THE HORROR, etc. etc.Acer's are bottom of the barrel but still okay-ish. That one has a pretty small battery. Xiaomi is pretty good if you find one that someone has made a custom strip down rom for like Cyanogenmod. Xiaomi stock tends to pop up ads within the OS itself. The hardware is good. Just make sure it has the cellular bands in your area. You want lots of RAM to prevent slowdowns. It looks like the Redmi 2 has a Cyanogenmod rom. It costs a bit more than the Acer.
http://gearburn.com/2016/07/pokemon-go-smartphones/
Pokemon pretty much has to have cellular. Not many cities have enough wifi to give you coverage at all times. So, is it worth the cellular prices every month? Personally I'd stick to console versions to play Pokemon.
I don't think Xiaomi is available here. I'm in the Czech Republic, remember. I have no interest in getting a really good phone. My primary use will be for text and video chatting with my deaf and hard of hearing friends and boyfriend. I will have to have a data plan for this. I'm not looking forward to paying for it, but it's necessary at this point. But if I'm going to buy a smartphone, I want it to be able to run Pokemon. Not because I love Pokemon and want to play it, but because it will motivate me to get out and exercise more, which is something I'm trying hard to do lately. I don't mind if it runs a little slowly. I'm not going to be running much on it. WhatsApp, Pokemon, and that's about it. I'll use my tablet for other stuff.
My boyfriend is pushing me to get a more expensive one instead solely because it has more RAM. This will be my first smartphone, so I'm not an expert, but is it really necessary to have 2GB? How bad will it really be if I only have 1 GB? The one with 2 GB is 1000 kc more expensive so I want to make sure it's worth it if I'm going to buy that. That is a considerable amount of money for me.
Here are the two different phones I've been looking at. Both are Acer. I don't know why that would be bad - my Acer computer is spectacular - but if there's some specific problem Acers have (aside from not being top of the line, which I'm not willing to pay for and don't need anyway), do let me know. I want to be informed.
Acer Liquid Black Zest 3G (https://www.alza.cz/acer-liquid-black-zest-3g-d4067764.htm)
[https://www.alza.cz/zest-acer-liquid-black-4g-d4334635.htm]Acer Liquid Black Zest 4G[/url]
Jests aside, if you're videochatting, more RAM is better.
Post by: Sappho on August 10, 2016, 02:14:07 am
My other option is to get an iPhone. I really hate Apple, but I have access to someone who sells iPhones to the deaf community for drastically reduced prices (probably cheaper than I could get an Android one). I was avoiding it out of a general aversion to Apple, but since I'll really only be using it for chat and one game, maybe it doesn't matter so much. I will ask him what price he'd give me on a new phone and if it's really cheap, maybe I'll just go with that. Put my prejudices aside and get the best cheapest phone I can get.
(By the way, I forgot to answer before - no, WhatsApp does not work on tablets. If it did, I would already have it and avoid buying a smartphone for a while longer. It requires a smartphone with a phone number. And without it my communications with deaf/HOH peoples is severely crippled. So the phone is really a necessity at this point.)
Post by: TheBiggerFish on August 10, 2016, 03:11:33 am
Post by: Aklyon on August 10, 2016, 01:03:45 pm
I know there are such things as tablets that use the cellular network/have a phone number. Not sure if that helps you at all.My tablet can use mobile data, but only as a side effect of where we bought it from. It only uses it when we go off on trips long enough to carry a tablet around instead of a phone and a new3dsxl. It has no mic tho, so i can't call anyone with it.
Post by: gimlet on August 10, 2016, 06:14:58 pm
Also there is a way to "tether" some tablets to some mobile phones. Or, there are cellular "wireless hotspot", it's basically a wireless router with its own built-in cell phone connection (no voice, although you can use voice apps on the tablet like Skype to make calls). Can be expensive, and usually not worth it unless you need that capability a lot. Although there are ones that can use prepaid cards, so if you need it for a few days at a time it's doable. Even the monthly rates aren't insane, but I sure wouldn't watch videos over it, you blow through the data cap pretty quick.
Post by: Sappho on August 11, 2016, 12:10:46 am
Post by: Gunner-Chan on August 11, 2016, 03:13:16 am
I've been thinking about setting up a windows XP Virtual machine on my laptop so I can play some older games that have occasional issues, since I'm on windows 8. But after grabbing a VHD from microsofts own windows xp mode installer I'm kinda left confused what's the best actual software to set this all up in, I haven't done this in so long I can't remember a thing about it...
What's good and not that difficult to grasp? I can't always focus down as much as I want to still so sometimes things like this are really hard for me.
Post by: Aklyon on August 11, 2016, 11:50:31 am
Post by: Thief^ on August 13, 2016, 01:15:17 am
Post by: ancistrus on August 14, 2016, 02:29:44 pm
Has this thing ever helped anyone?
Post by: Arx on August 14, 2016, 02:34:38 pm
Post by: Flying Dice on August 15, 2016, 08:37:14 pm
Post by: Ghills on August 16, 2016, 10:24:00 am
You shouldn't really have issues with any XP-era games on modern OSs, outside of copy protection (which likely wouldn't work in a VM with an emulated optical drive anyway), and most people consider it totally ethical to crack the copy-protection on a game you own.
There are tons of XP-compatible games that don't work on any later Windows OS. It's not just copy protection, the underlying driver model and a few other systemic things changed between XP and 7. Plus, it seems like a bunch of game-specific workarounds got pulled out of the OS.
Post by: Thief^ on August 16, 2016, 11:33:11 am
There are tons of XP-compatible games that don't work on any later Windows OS. It's not just copy protection, the underlying driver model and a few other systemic things changed between XP and 7. Plus, it seems like a bunch of game-specific workarounds got pulled out of the OS.
Examples?
Games shouldn't care about the driver model changes (they should only interact with devices through the Windows API / Direct-X, which didn't break compatibility) outside of copy-protection drivers (and I already mentioned copy protection). So that just leaves the wonderfully vague "a few other systemic things" and "a bunch of game-specific workarounds".
Some games had 16-bit installers (which don't work on 64-bit Windows) but Microsoft actually put a compatibility shim in later Windows versions which recognises all the known generic 16-bit installers and substitutes them for 32-bit versions so that they can install successfully.
The only issue I know of outside of copy-protection is some 256-colour games have technicolour issues on Windows 7, but there are workarounds for that (and it may be fixed on later Windows versions anyhow, I haven't checked).
Post by: WillowLuman on August 16, 2016, 03:18:57 pm
Post by: AzyWng on August 16, 2016, 03:55:23 pm
EDIT: On my computer, some executable files refuse to run. I've double clicked them, I've run as administrator, I've gone into the program files and run the executables from there, but the result is always the same: The program appears for a few seconds in background processes before disappearing.
Can anyone help or provide advice on what to do?
Post by: Thief^ on August 21, 2016, 01:22:49 am
Post by: AzyWng on August 26, 2016, 10:11:53 pm
I'm trying to get the Windows Driver Utility Updater from Intel, but when I run the launcher, I get an error message! Here's the specific error messages I found when digging through the log file.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: BigD145 on August 26, 2016, 11:37:52 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 27, 2016, 12:21:00 am
MSI's are generally for 64 bit OS.
MSI has been a standard installer format for almost seventeen years, and has not a single thing to do with the bit size of the OS.
Post by: Thief^ on August 27, 2016, 02:33:00 am
Post by: Arx on August 27, 2016, 02:50:45 am
Post by: Xantalos on August 27, 2016, 06:49:21 am
So I've been working in Wordpad (I am a lazy person otherwise I'd have gotten something else) for the last month or so writing a thing, got to around 5k words. Computer up and crashed while I had it open (I was trying to download a dropbox file which ended up being a folder ... but it tried to open it in Microsoft word, which I don't have on the computer. But I found the folder itself downloaded safely later. Point is, the strain caused the crash) and when I turned the computer back on, a most unpleasant thing had happened to my document - it went blank, for lack of a better word. It's the same size file as before, text color's the same though it changed font from Calibri to Courier New, and you can highlight the spaces where the text should be, there's just nothing there.
I've tried system file check, antivirus to see if I accidentally a Trojan somehow, uploading the file onto OneDrive (Windows 10, didn't have any choice it came with the computer and I don't care enough to get it off) and redownloading it, no change. Copy and pasting yields nothing, various file recovery programs do nada, etc.
Like I said, I googled the issue and it's by far not an uncommon one. Unfortunately by all indications it's unfixable if I don't have a backup, which I didn't.
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forum/helproom-1/data-missing-wordpad-documents-4271162/
The guy in that link mentioned that he opened up his fucked file in Word and got a bunch of blank squares, and in Office only to get a bunch of #s. Unfortunately I haven't found a case where the thing was actually fixed.
So, any last-ditch ideas, or should I just accept fate's genitals and rewrite the thing?
Apologies for any incoherence, I'm real tired at the moment.
one more info piece: selecting all the 'text' and underlining it does result in the thing being underlined. It's just that it's only underlining blank space for some reason.
Post by: Aklyon on August 27, 2016, 08:52:12 am
Post by: BigD145 on August 27, 2016, 11:53:45 am
MSI's are generally for 64 bit OS.
MSI has been a standard installer format for almost seventeen years, and has not a single thing to do with the bit size of the OS.
I see the same software packages with 32 bit exes and 64 bit msi. I know msi has been around awhile but the trend in the past half dozen years or more has been to use them for 64 bit versions of software.
Post by: Xantalos on August 27, 2016, 03:36:05 pm
Does anything happen if you ctrl+a and paste into notepad++ or something?Nope, but if I open it in notepad you still get the blank spaces n shit
Post by: Reelya on September 02, 2016, 11:41:55 am
http://superuser.com/questions/14465/hex-editors-for-windows
Post by: alexandertnt on September 12, 2016, 06:44:58 am
I have tried compressed air cans, but it's crammed in the corner and won't dislodge. I don't really want to go sticking a pin in there either, but if there's no other way...
Pretty sure this dust-chunk is what is causing my video card to run at 8x or 4x PCI Express instead of 16x.
Post by: Thief^ on September 12, 2016, 06:50:03 am
Post by: alexandertnt on September 12, 2016, 07:49:08 am
Post by: Thief^ on September 12, 2016, 07:50:12 am
(It also constantly amazes me how resistant to abuse/faults/etc computers actually are)
Post by: BigD145 on September 12, 2016, 08:47:30 am
Post by: Shook on September 12, 2016, 10:28:05 am
So i find myself seeking a laptop cooler, since my poor widdle laptop overheats when taking on the MORE POWERFUL games. Thing is, i don't know how important it is that the dimensions match up exactly. My laptop (Asus K53S), if going by the official dimensions, is approximately 18 inches diagonally, which i assume is their unit of measurement as well since they only give one measurement. For example, this one says up to 17 inches (http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/notepal-series/notepal-xl/), and likewise does this one (http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/notepal-series/ergostand-III/). Am i just shit outta luck for having too fat a laptop? It's not that they're hugely expensive (the ERGOSTAND III costs less than No Man's Sky for me), i just don't want to buy something that i can't even use.
Post by: Thief^ on September 12, 2016, 10:46:47 am
Also how old is it and what surface are you using it on? Make sure you haven't just got the intake vents stuffed with fabric (i.e. you're using it on a cushion / in bed) or dust!
Post by: Shook on September 12, 2016, 11:40:27 am
Also, if it's screen size, then i feel much more at ease, since the display is merely 15.6". I MIGHT WELL GO AHEAD AND DOO THIS. If i can figure out how delivery to the folk high school works. :P
Post by: wierd on September 13, 2016, 08:50:49 pm
It has been discussed previously in this thread. :)
Post by: Sensei on September 15, 2016, 09:46:22 am
If the laptop is 6 years old, and overheating, consider replacing the assuredly crispy thermally conductive pad sandwiched under the heatsink with some actual thermal joint compound.Yes, I've read about this a lot and seen it before myself as well. It's a common problem in laptops. At some point, not even removing the bottom of the laptop and blasting it with air ducted from the refrigerator will help. On top of your CPU is a heat sink that pulls heat away, cooling the CPU (true of any computer, laptop or otherwise). In between the CPU is thermal compound of some kind. The good stuff comes in a little syringe and takes a small amount of care to apply properly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hNgFNH7zhQ) but is effective and lasts for years. For whatever reason, laptops are often assembled with thermal pads, which are cheap trash and will dry out after a few years. At that point, it's nearly as bad as having no thermal compound, which means your laptop might well overheat enough that it crashes just sitting on the desktop. Fortunately, it's not too hard to apply thermal paste. Just make sure you remove all the old thermal material first, usually with a Q-tip and high purity rubbing alcohol/isopropyl alcohol (I've also used glasses wipes). Disassembling laptops can be a pain, there's a lot of small screws, but if you find the exact model number you can find a maintenance manual online (not the user manual) that will help, or maybe even a video.
It has been discussed previously in this thread. :)
Post by: BigD145 on September 15, 2016, 11:15:22 am
Post by: Elvang on September 16, 2016, 09:32:06 pm
Post by: wierd on September 16, 2016, 09:35:47 pm
try looking at the keyboard and mouse HID driver properties in device manager to see if "allow this device to be turned off" is checked. if so, uncheck the box on both drivers' property pages.
Post by: Elvang on September 17, 2016, 12:14:57 am
this may be a power management issue.Checked device manager, all the keyboard/mouse entries have the "Allow the computer to turn this device off to save power" box grayed out, unchecked and unable to be changed.
try looking at the keyboard and mouse HID driver properties in device manager to see if "allow this device to be turned off" is checked. if so, uncheck the box on both drivers' property pages.
Post by: wierd on September 17, 2016, 01:12:02 am
Post by: Elvang on September 17, 2016, 01:33:50 am
Post by: Gunner-Chan on September 20, 2016, 01:12:24 am
There are tons of XP-compatible games that don't work on any later Windows OS. It's not just copy protection, the underlying driver model and a few other systemic things changed between XP and 7. Plus, it seems like a bunch of game-specific workarounds got pulled out of the OS.
Examples?
Games shouldn't care about the driver model changes (they should only interact with devices through the Windows API / Direct-X, which didn't break compatibility) outside of copy-protection drivers (and I already mentioned copy protection). So that just leaves the wonderfully vague "a few other systemic things" and "a bunch of game-specific workarounds".
Some games had 16-bit installers (which don't work on 64-bit Windows) but Microsoft actually put a compatibility shim in later Windows versions which recognises all the known generic 16-bit installers and substitutes them for 32-bit versions so that they can install successfully.
The only issue I know of outside of copy-protection is some 256-colour games have technicolour issues on Windows 7, but there are workarounds for that (and it may be fixed on later Windows versions anyhow, I haven't checked).
Wow this is late as hell but I forgot I posted here at all!
Some of the games I've had trouble with are from a certain sorta era of videogaming, like Jagged Alliance 2 loves to freak out, freeze horribly or crash even with a bunch of fixes and the 1.13 mod installed and tweaked for windows 8 compatibility. Pretty much anything that wants to run in 16 bit color also works terribly full screen and refuses to be windowed. Both combined being why I wanted to set up a VM, it's a lot simpler than messing around with hacks and tweaks for any given game.
Post by: wierd on September 20, 2016, 02:47:39 am
Another issue comes from the added layer of thunking between 64bit and 32bit code stacks on modern windows OSes. things like DirectX are going to be 64bit native libraries on modern systems, but the games will be expecting 32bit calls. The added waiting for doing the thunking can cause timing loops to fail, and thus for games to crash spectacularly.
Microsoft has a tool that is intended for ... business clients that just wont/cant upgrade their software.... (ahem).. called the Compatibility Toolkit.
It is sometimes useful for getting old games running on modern windows, and is the "On steroids" version of the compatibility settings options when you right click on a shortcut. It has options. LOTS AND LOTS OF OPTIONS. You need to know what you are doing.
Post by: Thief^ on September 20, 2016, 04:10:43 am
Post by: chaoticag on September 21, 2016, 12:37:14 am
Post by: Thief^ on September 21, 2016, 01:11:15 am
Edit: also check it on another machine, there's always the possibility it's just developed a fault.
Post by: chaoticag on September 21, 2016, 01:16:28 am
Post by: wierd on September 21, 2016, 01:27:59 am
You can tell in device manager, because there will only be a USB3 root hub, and no USB2 or USB1.2 root hubs.
If so, my guess is that this is a driver related issue with the USB host controller. (Microsoft and their insistence on their WHQL signed drivers, and forcibly updating drivers via windows update have a pretty strong track record of removing perfectly functioning OEM drivers and putting less than stellar, and even broken generic ones in their place. One of the many things I really dont like about windows 10.)
I will research it more to see if others have had this issue. I will presume for the moment that it is one of those usb3 only host controllers, which are almost always intel based. Give me a bit.
To help me find you a solution, (and because the friendly name is almost never useful), can you please put the PCI hardware ID for the USB host controller up here? you can easily get it into the clipboard from device manager. I can more definitively identify the controller, and hunt for known driver problems that way.
So far, initial digging suggests that there have been a number of people having problems with USB devices on windows 10, but most have been related to USB2 root hubs.
Post by: chaoticag on September 21, 2016, 02:21:24 am
Well, here's what device manager spits out as far as names go for usb stuff.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
As for the PCI hardware ID, I don't seem to have that option on the intel usb host controller for some reason? This is the options it gives me under details.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
So yeah, this is what I'm getting.
Post by: wierd on September 21, 2016, 12:09:53 pm
I am reading that this is a very common problem, but am not getting a very good set of solutions. Some users reporting this problem suggest that the issue may be from a short in the cord. (looking up your mouse, it appears to be a corded mouse.) See if you can cause it to disconnect by straightening the cord all the way out, and wiggling it. If so, the mouse itself may be the problem.
If there are no issues with the mouse itself, there is ample evidence to suggest that MS's USB driver for this device (USB controller) is lacklustre. Try making a restore point, and installing the intel OEM driver.
Bear in mind, there is a caveat here. Intel has not released a windows 10 driver for this model, probably because it is an older chipset. The newest available is a windows 7 driver. I would expect that it got overwritten during the install process with MS's generic one because of this. This may or may not even work at all. Due to windows 10's absolute batshit insistence on signed drivers only, you cannot redecorate the .inf to make windows install the older driver. Instead, you will probably have to use the compatability troubleshooter stupidity to make the intel installer for the driver work.
Simple intructions on troubleshooter:
http://win10faq.com/install-or-update-drivers-in-windows-10-2/
and link to intel's latest driver for that USB controller:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/22824/USB-3-0-Driver-Intel-USB-3-0-eXtensible-Host-Controller-Driver-for-Intel-8-9-100-Series-and-Intel-C220-C610-Chipset-Family
!
REMEMBER TO MAKE A RESTORE POINT FIRST. This very well could go sideways on you!
Post by: chaoticag on September 21, 2016, 12:40:58 pm
Post by: wierd on September 21, 2016, 12:51:01 pm
Post by: chaoticag on September 21, 2016, 01:17:06 pm
Post by: wierd on September 21, 2016, 01:21:22 pm
You might get lucky if you run it without compatibility mode, but meh.
Now you know why the "Fuck you Microsoft" thread exists, and why myself and others chipped in on it.
I am not a fan of this crap, and I refuse to use windows 10 as a result unless I am forced into it at work. At home I use win7, 8.1 with classic shell (gag), or linux with WINE.
With 7 and 8.1 I can disable strict driver signing enforcement, and use a doctored INF to get get drivers that I know actually work to be installed--- but Mother Microsoft knows best!!
(grumbles angrily.)
Post by: Aklyon on September 21, 2016, 06:39:58 pm
That surely won't bite them in the ass at somepoint.
Post by: wierd on September 21, 2016, 06:50:04 pm
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/drivers/install/kernel-mode-code-signing-policy--windows-vista-and-later-
usb drivers are a storage class endpoint enumerator device, and need a kernel driver.
video cards also need a kernel driver, so no inf doctoring there either.
about the only thing that is usermode is printers and scanners.
Post by: gimlet on September 21, 2016, 07:56:00 pm
Post by: wierd on September 21, 2016, 08:01:14 pm
Post by: alexandertnt on September 21, 2016, 08:46:18 pm
IIRC there is a developer mode you can enable that might let you install these USB3 drivers. I went to check if it was enabled on my computer, but then settings window froze. Even after closing it I can't open the settings window at all >:( Win8 may have had an awful GUI, but at least it was stable.
Post by: CABL on September 23, 2016, 11:01:21 am
Post by: Rose on September 23, 2016, 11:32:35 am
Win10 is better.
Post by: Aklyon on September 23, 2016, 11:39:45 am
Sp2 is fine.No.
Win10 is better.
It is at best a sidegrade, considering all the broken (or not-letting-you-fix-it) issues I've had to help with recently not on the forum. I wouldn't say its better until win7 stops receiving updates, and only then from a practical security view.
Post by: CABL on September 23, 2016, 12:53:02 pm
Sp2 is fine.
Win10 is better.
If someone asked me to rank Windows versions which i use/used, it'll be like that (from best to worst):
1. Windows 7. Definitive version of Windows, it's stable, pretty fast (if you have good hardware), pretty, supports 64-bit, and secure. Do you need anything more from it? Recommended!
2. Windows 10. Basically moderately improved Windows 8.1. Same out-of-place, looking-like-smartphone design, expect it's looks more like old good Win7. If you have win 8.1 and you're not afraid of Microsoft collecting your personal data, then go ahead. Otherwise, stay away.
3. Windows 8.1. Smartphone-like interface, eye-tearing starting screen, low framerate in 4 years old games, feels like you use giant tablet/smartphone with keyboard attached to it. Not recommended!
4. Windows Vista. The only positive quality about this buggy-like-licensed-game, slow-like-snail, unstable-like-nuclear-reactor thing, is that it looks prettier than Windows 8.1. What i also can say about this... "technological masterpiece"? Early version was so friggin' unstable, that it had 50% chance to go BSOD when i pressed F11-F12 to raise/lower volume.
If you see copy of Windows Vista, run away as fast as you can!
Post by: Flying Dice on September 23, 2016, 03:41:27 pm
Actually I also recall 95 and 98 running better than Vista or 8 ever did.
Post by: wierd on September 23, 2016, 03:50:27 pm
This thread isn't quite appropriate for a how-to, but I will pm the process if anyone really wants to know how to do it.
Post by: i2amroy on September 23, 2016, 06:32:21 pm
XP would top out that list if it was still being updated.Honestly 7 blew a lot of XP's stuff out of the water, people just don't like change.
And IMO 10/7 are honestly about at the same point right now. (I previously recommended updating to 10, but seeing as anybody reading this now has missed the chance to do so for free... eh). The significant differences that I've noted between the two is that 10 definitely runs smoother on a lot of hardware than 7 does, at the cost of you needing to take a little extra time when you first install it to disable a lot of the snoopy stuff (to address anyone who claims that things are getting changed back spookily, I've ran Windows 10 since shortly after the official version came out, and I've never had Windows 10 "rollback" any of my changes at all) and customize a fair bit of the UI (which is, to be honest, way more flexible without extensions than the 7 UI was. The default might be "smartphone-esque", but take 5 min to customize it and it can pretty much look identical to 7).
Post by: wierd on September 23, 2016, 06:51:37 pm
Post by: i2amroy on September 23, 2016, 07:57:05 pm
for me, it is a matter of principle. the way they handled the free upgrade offer was way too pushy. only at the very very end of the offer period did they offer a "no, really. please stop asking me, i really dont want to upgrade" option. prior, it assumed you did, and would schedule an upgrade without asking.Fair enough. I guess I just don't really hold the bad work of the update/advertising teams against the work of the core OS programmers. :P
Post by: Aklyon on September 23, 2016, 09:01:17 pm
Its just a bit hard to see thier work under the worse-looking default interface and the work of the advertising team.
Post by: alexandertnt on September 24, 2016, 03:40:10 am
Post by: Elvang on September 25, 2016, 11:14:03 pm
Post by: BigD145 on September 25, 2016, 11:20:46 pm
Post by: Thief^ on September 27, 2016, 09:47:22 am
XP would top out that list if it was still being updated.
Actually I also recall 95 and 98 running better than Vista or 8 ever did.
It probably ran about the same on period hardware, but 95 and 98 also blue screened all the damn time.
Vista only had some issues with poor graphics drivers on release, but otherwise is actually about as good as 7. 7 is only version 6.1 (to Vista's 6.0) after all. But like XP was 5.1 to Win 2000's 5.0, Vista was 100% obsoleted by 7.
As for 8, it's screaming fast (especially in boot times) and much improved compared to 7. The only thing that killed it for people is the new start "screen". With an alternative start menu, I'd actually rate it above 7. The new apps are mildly annoying but mostly optional, the old equivalents from 7 are all still there.
Speaking of "alternative start menu", it should come as no surprise that I rank Windows 10 above 7. I do wish they'd get on with unifying the old and new apps though, it's a pain to have two of everything (especially settings!).
Post by: Aklyon on September 27, 2016, 10:21:37 am
As for 8, it's screaming fast (especially in boot times) and much improved compared to 7. The only thing that killed it for people is the new start "screen". With an alternative start menu, I'd actually rate it above 7. The new apps are mildly annoying but mostly optional, the old equivalents from 7 are all still there.Looks are important if you want to sell it to a lot of people. Changing a very (perhaps overly, now) popular piece of software to an entirely new look? Its either good (in which case you did amazingly) or people will hate it because its much too different to the one they had before, which was just fine (in which case either you fucked up or you're trying to change too much at once). And all you're getting with the new look (or with an alternate start menu you have to go and retrieve from the internet) is more boot speed, a completely useless store, and mostly optional apps that do things you could do before?
Thats not an amazing deal there Thief.
And they had the bloody settings unified. Everything of importance that I know of was in control panel, or administrative tools (which itself is in control panel)
And then they add a useless settings menu which has done nothing to support it being split off in my experience, and is actively worse in web browsers case (Oh, you want to switch primary web browsers because the user broke one of them and it would be simpler to install another one/import bookmarks and fix it later? And you want to use the button that has long existed for that purpose? Fuck that, do it in the settings menu we added!)
Post by: Amperzand on September 27, 2016, 10:49:15 am
Post by: CABL on September 27, 2016, 10:55:27 am
Post by: BigD145 on September 27, 2016, 12:24:54 pm
As for 8, it's screaming fast (especially in boot times) and much improved compared to 7. The only thing that killed it for people is the new start "screen". With an alternative start menu, I'd actually rate it above 7. The new apps are mildly annoying but mostly optional, the old equivalents from 7 are all still there.Looks are important if you want to sell it to a lot of people. Changing a very (perhaps overly, now) popular piece of software to an entirely new look? Its either good (in which case you did amazingly) or people will hate it because its much too different to the one they had before, which was just fine (in which case either you fucked up or you're trying to change too much at once). And all you're getting with the new look (or with an alternate start menu you have to go and retrieve from the internet) is more boot speed, a completely useless store, and mostly optional apps that do things you could do before?
Thats not an amazing deal there Thief.
And they had the bloody settings unified. Everything of importance that I know of was in control panel, or administrative tools (which itself is in control panel)
And then they add a useless settings menu which has done nothing to support it being split off in my experience, and is actively worse in web browsers case (Oh, you want to switch primary web browsers because the user broke one of them and it would be simpler to install another one/import bookmarks and fix it later? And you want to use the button that has long existed for that purpose? Fuck that, do it in the settings menu we added!)
I broke the Calculator in Windows 10 on a work computer. Not sure how. It just never opened again from the start menu. Good job, MS. My advice? Keep it simple. Once you have signed software BS and/or DRM you can actually break your simplest and oldest in-house software that fits on a floppy disk.
Post by: milo christiansen on October 04, 2016, 05:05:31 pm
Currently windows backup runs at random times during the day (you can set "once per day" but not when during the day you want it to run). This wouldn't be a huge deal, but backups go to my NAS... Which also holds all my projects, my non-volatile documents (such as music and ebooks), my humongous archive of almost everything I have ever downloaded, etc. All that stuff on different partitions of a massively redundant ZFS array. You can always tell when a backup is running, the drive activity lights on the NAS aren't flickering, but all reads take 5-10 minutes to succeed. Needless to say, all work grinds to a halt until the backup is done. Somehow windows backup hammers the NAS, without actually doing many reads or writes...
In related news: Why does it take 6 minutes and 30 seconds to delete a certain directory when I select it and press "shift+del", but only 2 seconds when I open cmd.exe and type "rmdir /q /s directory_to_delete"?
I hate Windows 10.
Post by: wierd on October 04, 2016, 05:32:55 pm
If the nas can do NFS instead of smb, rsync with proper flags is the way to go. It can check if files changed or not before trying to overwrite, and does a better job IMO.
It is CLI based, but a script to call it should be schedulable from task scheduler.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on October 04, 2016, 05:36:24 pm
I have certainly noticed that the Win10 settings menu is a worthless pile of junk. Is there a more comprehensive menu easily available?Control Panel still works. There are even options in Settings that run into it.
Post by: wierd on October 04, 2016, 05:39:49 pm
http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp
Has scheduler options and all that. No need to set up subsys for Linux and all that.
If you read the fine print, it says it can connect to Linux rsync daemons, meaning you don't have to run the "server" side. You can point it at your NAS after you enable rsync, then just run the client on the windows box.
Post by: milo christiansen on October 04, 2016, 05:54:35 pm
Installing stuff on the NAS is out of the question (as it is a special BSD install that I really don't want to break), so that precludes most special backup system that claim to be "better"...
Scratch the prior suggestion. Somebody made a Foss GUI wrapper for rsync for windows.
http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp
Has scheduler options and all that. No need to set up subsys for Linux and all that.
If you read the fine print, it says it can connect to Linux rsync daemons, meaning you don't have to run the "server" side. You can point it at your NAS after you enable rsync, then just run the client on the windows box.
Nice find!
Post by: wierd on October 04, 2016, 06:00:11 pm
If so, just point the deltacopy client at it, and go.
Out of curiosity, what NAS do you have?
Post by: milo christiansen on October 04, 2016, 06:17:29 pm
I am quite sure rsync is installed, as FreeNAS is intended to be a drop-in-and-go NAS solution for any network, I certainly supports everything else you could ever want... Well, almost everything :P
Post by: wierd on October 04, 2016, 06:36:49 pm
Did ssh into it once though. VERY min spec. Armv7 core, 512mb ram with zram enabled. Blech.
Post by: CABL on October 05, 2016, 03:15:45 am
1.Which Ubuntu version is the best for beginner?
2. How powerful is Wine?
Post by: Thief^ on October 05, 2016, 05:28:19 am
I'm going to emulate Linux (Ubuntu) on my laptop, using Oracle VirtualBox, and I have some questions.I would highly recommend the latest Ubuntu release (16.04 LTS). It's an LTS (long term support) release, which means it is supported for much longer (5 years for LTS vs 9 months for non-LTS) and has more guarantees around stability. As for server vs desktop... doesn't really matter, both can install the same software (even server stuff), but the desktop GUI might be easier for a beginner (the server version is command-line only by default, although you can install the desktop GUI).
1.Which Ubuntu version is the best for beginner?
2. How powerful is Wine?
As for Wine... it's "acceptable". You'll always find something you want to run that won't work at all, and some things will "just work".
Post by: Thief^ on October 05, 2016, 05:34:15 am
Does anyone know of a good alternative to windows backup?
Personally I don't use windows backup, I have everything important in some kind of cloud sync, so between that and my local copies on PC/laptop I have about 3 of everything important (including one off-site!) without having to worry about setting up my own backup.
Windows 10 makes it really easy to set up so your "My Documents" folder is in OneDrive, I would highly recommend that, although I'd move your downloads folder elsewhere unless backing up random patch downloads etc is important to you.
Post by: CABL on October 05, 2016, 11:03:39 am
Post by: Aklyon on October 05, 2016, 11:13:00 am
Unless the answer is you don't have the space to do so.
Post by: wierd on October 05, 2016, 11:28:24 am
Unless the drive is really tiny, I don't see a compelling reason.
Post by: CABL on October 05, 2016, 12:52:51 pm
Post by: Thief^ on October 06, 2016, 05:33:39 am
Ubuntu didn't impressed me tbh. I mean, it kinda looks nicer than Win7, and has lots of cool programs for it, but overall it didn't made me delete my Win7 and install actual Ubuntu.
The problem linux has is that all the really good software for linux also runs on Windows. So why switch?
Post by: CABL on October 06, 2016, 05:57:02 am
Post by: feelotraveller on October 06, 2016, 09:16:46 am
The problem linux has is that all the really good software for linux also runs on Windows. So why switch?
There's this thing called freedom. Guess it's of no value to you? ;)
I never wanted to switch from Windows to Linux. All i wanted is just to have a look onLinuxUbuntu.
FTFY
I presume for your comparison you were also running Windows through VirtualBox?
Post by: Aklyon on October 06, 2016, 09:45:15 am
Well it tends to not whine at you to upgrade to the newest version so that they can throw pointless store apps at you and add an extra settings menu that does nothing better than previous.Ubuntu didn't impressed me tbh. I mean, it kinda looks nicer than Win7, and has lots of cool programs for it, but overall it didn't made me delete my Win7 and install actual Ubuntu.
The problem linux has is that all the really good software for linux also runs on Windows. So why switch?
But I'm sure that wasn't your point :P
Post by: CABL on October 06, 2016, 12:26:14 pm
The problem linux has is that all the really good software for linux also runs on Windows. So why switch?
There's this thing called freedom. Guess it's of no value to you? ;)I never wanted to switch from Windows to Linux. All i wanted is just to have a look onLinuxUbuntu.
FTFY
I presume for your comparison you were also running Windows through VirtualBox?
Nope, Win7 is my host (which means it's a OS with VirtualBox installed on it). I just didn't know about diskpart.exe. Does it really matters if it's emulated Ubuntu or use it on my HDD hard drive, anyway?
Post by: feelotraveller on October 06, 2016, 02:11:47 pm
The problem linux has is that all the really good software for linux also runs on Windows. So why switch?
There's this thing called freedom. Guess it's of no value to you? ;)I never wanted to switch from Windows to Linux. All i wanted is just to have a look onLinuxUbuntu.
FTFY
I presume for your comparison you were also running Windows through VirtualBox?
Nope, Win7 is my host (which means it's a OS with VirtualBox installed on it). I just didn't know about diskpart.exe. Does it really matters if it's emulated Ubuntu or use it on my HDD hard drive, anyway?
Depends on what you wanted out of the test (what you think 'matters'). If performance was one of the things you were interested in then yep, almost certainly. Not experienced enough to know to what degree with Ubuntu but for various applications (mainly games) or running a couple of other linux distros it tends to be between 'somewhat' and 'much' slower than having them actually installed. If it was just looks, access to software, etc. how it works, without knowing how well it will function then it probably didn't matter.
Post by: Alastar on October 07, 2016, 05:17:46 am
I find Windows on a HDD unpleasantly jerky, sometimes even on SSDs... not an issue with Linux.
Modern filesystems available on Linux have their perks beyond performance, if you want to get into them (e.g. snapshots).
Looks are trivial, especially in Linux. There are hundreds of interfaces available, the big mainstreamy ones including Ubuntu's Unity may not seem to different from Windows/OSX, but if you want minimalism or a high degree of configurability you have interesting other options (which will admittedly need some time getting used to).
On the technical side, I have far more respect for Linux than Windows. Linux on the whole is less hassle than Windows... but if you're familiar with the woes of a Windows user and can live with it, getting used to the woes of a Linux user may not be worth the effort. Whether the change is practical depends on your priorities, and what software you run.
Free Software is generally much more pleasant to use on Linux - you have a package manager (somewhat similar to an app store) taking care of installation and maintenance, without hunting for downloads, removing the crapware you accidentally installed alongside, and all the other hassle.
Commercial software often isn't available on Linux or doesn't get the same attention. Windows-exclusive software can often be run under WINE (a compatibility layer), but that can be unpleasant (bugs, goat sacrifices required to get things running, performance hits).
Linux is great, but not for everyone.
Post by: Coolnesstod on October 08, 2016, 10:28:44 am
Post by: wierd on October 08, 2016, 01:03:50 pm
If the former, this is normal. Fans use power, and the system wants to not gobble it up needlessly. The acpi controller has temperature sensors in various places on the motherboard, and knows how hot the system is. If the system is very cool, it knows it doesn't need the fan on, so it slows it down, or even turns it off until it heats up in there.
If the latter, this is not normal. Hard wired fans are hard wired. They know only two speeds: off, and full blast. When the system is on, they will go full blast unless they have a short in the cabling. Check for loose connections, and see if that solves the issue.
Post by: gimlet on October 08, 2016, 05:55:00 pm
Post by: Coolnesstod on October 08, 2016, 11:29:52 pm
Are the fans controlled by the acpi power management controller ( plugged into the motherboard) or are they hard wired off a power splitter?
If the former, this is normal. Fans use power, and the system wants to not gobble it up needlessly. The acpi controller has temperature sensors in various places on the motherboard, and knows how hot the system is. If the system is very cool, it knows it doesn't need the fan on, so it slows it down, or even turns it off until it heats up in there.
If the latter, this is not normal. Hard wired fans are hard wired. They know only two speeds: off, and full blast. When the system is on, they will go full blast unless they have a short in the cabling. Check for loose connections, and see if that solves the issue.
The one in the middle is connected to the motherboard (the other two are hard wired), so im just gonna say its doing as you say. If it gets worse, I'll know otherwise.
If that doesn't work, you can test the fan by hooking it up to a battery and see if it spins freely. Or, when it's stopped, try starting it (gently) with your finger, you can tell if it's "sticking" if it immediately starts spinning and keeps spinning. If it's sticking, SOME fans can be oiled - look for an oil port under the sticker. Ideally use sewing machine oil or "3 in 1" oil - just a drop.Its not sticking, so it should be okay for now.
Thanks for the help guys. :D
Post by: Aklyon on October 11, 2016, 05:50:13 pm
Post by: Trapezohedron on October 14, 2016, 01:37:04 pm
am I missing anything at all right now or am I ready? Goodness I feel like i'm going to fuck this up at some point :x
Post by: BigD145 on October 14, 2016, 02:05:22 pm
so, i'm getting ready for my (first ever!) system reformat. built a dvd bootable (and a UDF backup, since ISO 9660 doesn't allow more than 2 gb on a single file) via this guide (http://www.windowsvalley.com/how-to-create-windows-7-bootable-dvd-using-nero/), prepped my device drivers, and planning to eschew the base graphics card driver with the latest NVidia for my graphics card, backed some files up, and i'm still a bit tense
am I missing anything at all right now or am I ready? Goodness I feel like i'm going to fuck this up at some point :x
You forgot the backup computer to download everything you've forgotten.
Post by: wierd on October 14, 2016, 02:51:27 pm
Post by: Alastar on October 14, 2016, 04:29:34 pm
Post by: Trapezohedron on October 15, 2016, 02:30:58 am
Quote
Current OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (no service packs), WAT removed.
Planned OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 + Service Packs April 2016 version by Team OS.
Unit: MSI CX61 0NF
So I made a bootable of the planned OS there using DVDs compiled with this guide (http://www.windowsvalley.com/how-to-create-windows-7-bootable-dvd-using-nero/), and did a little exploit based on Nithin Sam's comment so I can fit the entire OS on a 4gb DVD+R disc.
I then backed up some files and prepped some drivers, but that's not really related to the topic at hand.
The problem is when I try to run this DVD Bootable (on boot, ofc), I get greeted with this error (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/171217168992567296/236741868141019136/20161015_144409.jpg) and on double check on my files, Winload.exe is present on both Windows/System32 and Windows/System32/Boot.
It's likely to be corrupted, but I don't have recovery discs and I have no idea what to do just to allow this disc to read on boot so I can finally reformat my HDD and install a fresh install of Windows 7 Ult.
Any help is appreciated.
Post by: Thief^ on October 15, 2016, 07:39:01 am
Post by: Trapezohedron on October 15, 2016, 10:30:50 am
Post by: wierd on October 15, 2016, 01:11:12 pm
your boot media may be built for mbr type bios, not uefi firmware.
2 options: try enabling legacy booting in the uefi setup menu, try rebuilding your boot media with correct uefi support.
Post by: Aklyon on October 15, 2016, 03:45:09 pm
Post by: wierd on October 15, 2016, 06:39:08 pm
i have run into similar problems with a minnowboard based htpc i built some time back. the uefi firmware has no support for legacy booting at all, and the uefi version lacks the "obsolete" extensions that win7 needs to boot in uefi mode. saw the winload error first, as my media was made for mbr bios only, and saw absurd stop screens after i fixed it to have proper uefi support. had to use 8.1 on it instead.
judging from the info provided, this is a pirate copy of the install image, loaded with an activator like kms, or with removeWAT run immediately after install. Toady frowns on fascilitating piracy, but i just want to point out that most of these pirate images have the uefi partition stripped out of boot.wim to save space, and lack proper .efi files in the /EFI folder on the media, making them unbootable from uefi firmware. it is possible that the boot media used is so afflicted, which explains the missing winload error.
this error should not happen on original media.
if they are having issues getting slipstreamed media to stay under single layer dvd sizes, i suggest they use the win7 usb media creation tool provided by MS in the future. then they dont have to worry about burned media at all.
they should try enabing legacy booting first. if they dont have that option, they need to rebuild the boot media without stripping out the uefi parts of boot.wim.
Post by: Aklyon on October 15, 2016, 06:42:49 pm
assuming the firmware has such options. Not all do.I haven't seen a computer without at least an oddly-worded way to enable non-uefi bios yet, but ok.
As far as bootable media goes though, why not a bootable usb instead? You'd have more space to work with than a dvd.
Post by: wierd on October 15, 2016, 06:59:08 pm
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_windows_7_usbdvd_download_tool.html
You feed it an ISO image, point it at a USB stick-- it formats it and makes it bootable. Then you can install from that stick.
Faster, easier to work with, all around better than trying to trim down (and likely break) the install media just so it can fit on a DVD.
Post by: Thief^ on October 16, 2016, 01:00:17 am
Did a memtest for about an hr, no errors. 4 instances were opened at 20474 instances? I was referring to the bootable Memtest. Anything which runs inside an OS necessarily can't test everything.
Post by: Eric Blank on October 16, 2016, 03:20:52 pm
Post by: Aklyon on October 16, 2016, 03:58:38 pm
That's what the win7 USB tool makes. :PUse this thing and the iso mentioned here. (https://www.pcsteps.com/45-download-windows-7-iso-legally-free-digital-river/)
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_windows_7_usbdvd_download_tool.html
You feed it an ISO image, point it at a USB stick-- it formats it and makes it bootable. Then you can install from that stick.
Faster, easier to work with, all around better than trying to trim down (and likely break) the install media just so it can fit on a DVD.
Post by: Eric Blank on October 16, 2016, 05:38:24 pm
Post by: Reelya on October 17, 2016, 04:37:28 am
I figured that this is related to file permissions, but I can no longer actually view the file security / permissions tab in file->properties. Which was working fine before the reset. I've looked around but not found any solution for that issue.
EDIT: Erk, well I found a way to circumvent the problem on a case-by-case basis.
http://tipsarea.com/2015/08/05/how-to-fix-the-application-was-unable-to-start-correctly-0xc0000022-error/
Basically, I had to do a stack trace to see which dll was triggering the permissions failure, find that in the kafka-esque WinSxS folder, then go into the sharing ribbon in Explorer with that dll highlighted, click Advanced Security, then manually hack in extra permissions for "Everyone". Which is all kinds of terrible as a way to "solve" this problem. I still don't have the normal security and sharing tabs on my file properties though. I'm now thinking that the Windows 10 Reset function isn't quite as "reset" as a full factory-defaults reset.
Post by: wierd on October 17, 2016, 10:20:17 am
the command is CACLS.
You can use it as follows:
CACLS files /e /p {USERNAME}:{PERMISSION}
Where,
/p : Set new permission
/e : Edit permission and kept old permission as it is i.e. edit ACL instead of replacing it.
{USERNAME} : Name of user
{PERMISSION} : Permission can be:
R – Read
W – Write
C – Change (write)
F – Full control
Post by: AzyWng on October 19, 2016, 07:45:47 pm
I've tried booting up the BIOS but haven't seen the settings for the graphics card.
The graphics card itself is a Dell Integrated graphics card that currently has ~32 Mb of RAM allocated to it.
My PC has 4.0 Gib of RAM.
Post by: wierd on October 19, 2016, 09:00:18 pm
The option you are looking for is something like "IGP framebuffer size" or "UMA framebuffer size".
Post by: Thief^ on October 20, 2016, 12:54:13 am
Edit: As implied by the names of the settings weird mentioned, it only really needs to be large enough to hold the framebuffer. A 1080p framebuffer is only 8MB, or 16MB for a HDR one. Double for buffered output, add a depth buffer... Maybe it does need to be a touch higher.
Post by: AzyWng on October 20, 2016, 05:09:18 pm
I would have noticed if there was any setting reading "mb" in it, so I don't think it was in the BIOS at all.
Post by: wierd on October 20, 2016, 06:49:13 pm
you said it was integrated dell, but dell does not make graphics chips.
i assume this is a laptop, if so, what model is it?
Post by: AzyWng on October 20, 2016, 11:02:25 pm
Here's the specs:
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i3 3110M
M @ 2.40GHz 47 °C
Ivy Bridge 22nm Technology
RAM
4.00GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard
Dell Inc. 0G8TPV (SOCKET 0)
Graphics
Generic PnP Monitor (1366x768@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 4000 (Dell)
Storage
465GB Seagate ST500LM012 HN-M500MBB (SATA) 34 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GT80N
Audio
Cirrus Logic High Definition Audio
Post by: Reudh on October 21, 2016, 02:04:49 am
Post by: Thief^ on October 21, 2016, 03:28:20 am
Post by: Flying Dice on October 21, 2016, 01:32:11 pm
Post by: heydude6 on October 21, 2016, 09:40:35 pm
Can someone look at these (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/netgear-ac750-wi-fi-range-extender-wall-plug/3055085.p?id=1219086922402&skuId=3055085) two links (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/netgear-universal-wi-fi-range-extender-with-ethernet-port-white/2733324.p?skuId=2733324) and tell me what's the difference between these two?
Post by: wierd on October 21, 2016, 10:01:24 pm
The first one does something like link aggregation on both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands at the same time. To work properly, the extender and the router would meet to support that method of link aggregation.
The jackass in me says the better solution is to run a Gbit wire between areas served, and use something like ddwrt or openwrt to make them play nice together, that way they aren't capitalizing on the spectrum just to stay connected to each other.
See, when you bridge directly over the wireless signal, the device talking to the repeater has to wait more for the channel to become clear, because its message is then broadcast again to the main router.
When the extender and the router are joined by a Gbit link, the message from the extender to the router goes over that wire instead, so the network is more responsive.
As for why one would cost more than the other? The one doing aggregation does .ac while the other does not. The link aggregation is a software thing, and should not really cost more IMO, but that's life.
Personally, I would get another router that has ddwrt or openwrt support and put a single Gbit Ethernet patch between them, and set the new device as an access point.
the only time i would consider it necessary to bridge over wifi like that is if you are trying to extend somewhere a cable cannot be routed. say the guesthouse in the back yard, or in my case, extending my wifi to my elderly neighbor's house. (she cant really afford internet, so i help her leech mine.)
Post by: Thief^ on October 22, 2016, 01:43:22 am
Post by: redwallzyl on October 22, 2016, 06:26:09 pm
https://www.amazon.com/K501UW-AB78-15-6-inch-Full-HD-Gaming-Glacier/dp/B01DT49XN8/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8&th=1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J0RJPCC/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=&th=1
i like the first ones construction. its lighter and metal with a better hinge which is why my current one is broken and I'm paranoid about it breaking. but of course the second one is strictly better hardware wise. I'm not sure i will even need that though for what i do.
Post by: BigD145 on October 22, 2016, 07:17:52 pm
Post by: redwallzyl on October 22, 2016, 07:38:00 pm
ASUS don't get much support 6 months after release and getting repairs done means more breakage. Dell is garbage. Look up the y700 with a 960M.looks nice but what makes it so much better exactly? no ssd and its a lot heavier then the first one i linked. people in the revews seem to think the others are really good as well. what makes this one better?
Post by: Aklyon on October 22, 2016, 07:42:03 pm
Post by: feelotraveller on October 22, 2016, 08:20:58 pm
I have an old ASUS with same case (much older hardware...) that I have given hell, including lots of overland travel, and the only problems ever were with overheating, and that was pretty much to be expected with what I was throwing at it. On the down side driver support ended almost immediately but windoze probably handles that automagically... great if the spell does not go wrong. ;)
In wider terms I'd be more inclined to get some faster RAM with an i5 than an i7, and the SSD is definitely a luxury, although weight reduction and (much) quicker boot times are great and lower power load/heat production are fantastic for a laptop. YMMV.
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 22, 2016, 10:19:17 pm
An SSD only matters if you must have more speed. If you need space, an SSD will cost more.
SSDs are also harmed much less if the computer is moved or dropped, particularly if this happens while it is running. This is a fairly minor concern with desktops, but a laptop that's actually being used as a portable workstation (particularly for someone that has already broken a laptop) is another story. However, both of those linked computers use an i7, which is a waste of money in 99.99% of situations. Unless you are doing extensive photoshop, video editing, or CAD/CAM work an i7 is no better than an i5 but comes at a much higher price.
Post by: redwallzyl on October 22, 2016, 10:41:04 pm
its a structural failing on the hinge. expensive to fix but i can still use it. its shit in the first place so I'm not going to spend tons to fix it. the i7 is becasue i play processing heavy games not graphics heavy ones. also i will probably be using arcGIS on it or at least some form of GIS.An SSD only matters if you must have more speed. If you need space, an SSD will cost more.
SSDs are also harmed much less if the computer is moved or dropped, particularly if this happens while it is running. This is a fairly minor concern with desktops, but a laptop that's actually being used as a portable workstation (particularly for someone that has already broken a laptop) is another story. However, both of those linked computers use an i7, which is a waste of money in 99.99% of situations. Unless you are doing extensive photoshop, video editing, or CAD/CAM work an i7 is no better than an i5 but comes at a much higher price.
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 22, 2016, 10:51:13 pm
The only benefit of an i7 over an i5 is that the i7s have marginally higher clock speeds (which might give a very slight (as in all but unnoticeable) performance in the most CPU-demanding games) and the addition of 4 virtual cores via hyperthreading (which is only useful for a fairly narrow range of tasks, none of them related to playing games). While arcGIS might benefit some (I doubt it - the hardware requirements are rather low, and merely state that multi-core processor or is recommended - as all but the earliest i5s are quad-core you probably won't see any difference) from the i7, none of your games will. You will be paying a huge amount of money for no purpose.the i7 is becasue i play processing heavy games not graphics heavy ones. also i will probably be using arcGIS on it or at least some form of GIS.
This (https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-NVIDIA-Windows-E5-575G-53VG/dp/B01DT4A2R4/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1477195091&sr=1-1&keywords=Acer&th=1) will probably give you all-but identical performance but cut the price almost in half.
Post by: Thief^ on October 23, 2016, 03:07:21 am
Post by: wierd on October 23, 2016, 05:40:36 am
I have a nice little i5 I use for PC gaming. Works fine.
Post by: redwallzyl on October 23, 2016, 02:02:07 pm
any naysayers?
Post by: wierd on October 23, 2016, 04:01:34 pm
They try to weasel out of it by saying that "It is based on the same technology as" the similarly versioned desktop GPUs, but the mobile versions just are gutless wonders. There ARE a few actual desktop grade chips that due to very ideal manufacturing runs, just magically use less power and produce less heat, and they package them for use in high end laptops, but in my experience, the MX series chips are NOT those chips.
As long as you intend to run it like it was some older card, and not expect gtx940 like performance, it is a nice little system as far as I can see. Just expect it to not live up to the big version number they used to describe the chip.
Here's the performance breakdown for that graphics chip.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+940MX
Post by: Flying Dice on October 23, 2016, 07:20:07 pm
Post by: redwallzyl on October 23, 2016, 08:50:14 pm
Post by: Flying Dice on November 02, 2016, 01:05:37 pm
Post by: AzyWng on November 02, 2016, 03:30:06 pm
Every time that happens I have to open up my laptop and put the hard drive back in the proper spot, which takes time and also makes me deathly afraid of breaking the thing.
Any ideas to stop the laptops hard drive from falling out? I know that if I put it down in a certain way it won't fall out, but it gets irritating knowing that joust setting it down in the wrong position could cause the drive to fall out.
Post by: wierd on November 02, 2016, 03:46:17 pm
Tell me the model, so I can research the HDD compartment.
Post by: AzyWng on November 02, 2016, 06:34:21 pm
I'm trying to screw hem in but the screws don't fit and I think the holes to screw the screws in are messed up.
The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 3520.
Post by: wierd on November 02, 2016, 07:19:38 pm
Its what that blue/white/red stuff painted on the threads are. It seals the threads making it so the screws can't work loose on their own.
Post by: MasterFancyPants on November 02, 2016, 11:30:46 pm
Try painting the threads with threadlocker. You can get it Walmart and most automotive stores.
Its what that blue/white/red stuff painted on the threads are. It seals the threads making it so the screws can't work loose on their own.
Be careful that you get the blue loctite stuff for this, the red loctite or something like JBWeld will break your computer before it comes apart.
Post by: Parsely on November 03, 2016, 12:41:47 pm
Edit: Woah there, looks like we're at 86%. Call in all flights we're setting sail for the stars tonight.
Post by: redwallzyl on November 06, 2016, 08:22:42 pm
http://imgur.com/lyEV23P
Post by: Thief^ on November 07, 2016, 03:27:04 am
But start with updating your graphics drivers and running memtest (preferably the burn-to-cd and boot from it one).
Post by: redwallzyl on November 07, 2016, 10:42:47 am
My guess for that one would be some fault related to graphics, needing either new drivers, new ram (if you have integrated graphics which shares your system ram) or new graphics altogether (which if this is a laptop, would mean at least a full main-board replacement, if you don't just replace the entire laptop).its probably non updated drivers seeing as its a new computer and i haven't done anything more than the normal windows install. i will update them and see if that fixes it. thanks.
But start with updating your graphics drivers and running memtest (preferably the burn-to-cd and boot from it one).
any recommendations on how to find the right ones?
Post by: Aklyon on November 07, 2016, 04:42:56 pm
Or for graphics cards, check either amd or nvidia's site.
Post by: Thief^ on November 08, 2016, 04:48:22 am
Post by: redwallzyl on November 08, 2016, 06:46:56 pm
here's another picture if you could better tell from that.
http://imgur.com/TsYMfIW
its a laptop with an Intel yes.
it also seems to only happen with my internet browser. so might be Firefox.
Post by: Thief^ on November 09, 2016, 04:09:23 am
I highly doubt its a Firefox issue, it's more likely that Firefox is just exposing an underlying issue.
Post by: wierd on November 09, 2016, 04:29:35 am
It will likely manifest in other browers besides firefox, because of the need to do gpu rendering for dynamic content.
Post by: redwallzyl on November 09, 2016, 08:12:13 am
Post by: Thief^ on November 09, 2016, 09:51:11 am
Looks like it's only on text? Does Firefox have an option to enable/disable hardware accelerated text rendering (DirectWrite)? If so, changing that could work around the issue.
Post by: Amperzand on November 11, 2016, 10:02:15 pm
What do?
Post by: TheBiggerFish on November 11, 2016, 10:10:35 pm
Post by: Amperzand on November 11, 2016, 10:38:32 pm
My current only idea is to remove the battery.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on November 11, 2016, 10:39:59 pm
Post by: Amperzand on November 11, 2016, 10:42:08 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on November 11, 2016, 10:51:06 pm
Post by: Amperzand on November 11, 2016, 11:37:37 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on November 11, 2016, 11:48:02 pm
How inadvisable does it seem to remove the battery while the thing is partially restarted?Rather. Consult a technician.
Post by: Rose on November 12, 2016, 12:00:38 am
Post by: Amperzand on November 12, 2016, 12:25:28 am
Post by: Thief^ on November 12, 2016, 02:52:11 am
At least modern electronics are highly resistant to the kinds of damage you used to get from an unclean shutdown, so after the self-test there should be no lasting effects.
Post by: Amperzand on November 12, 2016, 03:45:11 am
Post by: BigD145 on November 15, 2016, 03:31:58 pm
Looks like it's only on text? Does Firefox have an option to enable/disable hardware accelerated text rendering (DirectWrite)? If so, changing that could work around the issue.
My laptop does the fragmented text as well. 960M graphics. Damnit NVIDIA. This is an old problem.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1106499
This fix might not be working.
Post by: Insanegame27 on November 20, 2016, 11:22:05 pm
Post by: BigD145 on November 21, 2016, 12:42:48 am
Post by: Sensei on November 21, 2016, 03:08:55 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 27, 2016, 09:49:40 am
Post by: TheBiggerFish on November 27, 2016, 09:57:25 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 27, 2016, 10:17:20 am
Post by: Flying Dice on November 27, 2016, 10:20:45 am
Post by: TD1 on November 27, 2016, 02:16:49 pm
This happened really suddenly, within the space of a day. I hesitate to buy a new battery because I assume battery degradation wouldn't happen so quickly.
Post by: Aklyon on November 27, 2016, 02:22:34 pm
Post by: TD1 on November 27, 2016, 02:23:52 pm
Post by: wierd on November 27, 2016, 02:28:46 pm
Post by: TD1 on November 27, 2016, 02:30:32 pm
Post by: wierd on November 27, 2016, 02:32:01 pm
Unlike Minesweeper and Solitaire.
Psst... Use the superior windows 7 versions. ;)
http://lifehacker.com/get-the-classic-ad-free-windows-7-games-back-on-window-1745493014
Dwarfy:
2x a week, over a year, is about 100 deep discharges, and if we assume daily rechargings, that is 365 ish charge cycles over a year. Lithium Ion chemistry starts to break down, and total battery capacity starts to drop as you deep discharge, and recharge.
You can see a nice little graph here:
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
Looks like your 90% capacity is in line with their graph pretty well, at around 100 deep discharges, over the period it has been in service.
To prevent exploding like a Galaxy note 7, your laptop stops charging the battery when it detects certain characteristics in the charge cycle. These come about from decay of the cathode inside the battery, which happens slowly during recharge cycles.
Post by: Thief^ on November 28, 2016, 01:50:47 am
I would suggest recalibrating the battery if it's possible for your laptop, but it's more likely to be a fault.
Post by: Thief^ on November 28, 2016, 01:54:31 am
Either due to an update or because I had to disable it while modding Morrowind, the UAC in Windows 10 is popping up nearly every time I run a program. Disabling it completely prevents Store apps from working, and I use a few of them (Audible, Pandora (which I prefer to the website version), and Calculator). Is there a way to suppress this behavior, or to disable UAC without killing apps?
UAC pops up whenever you run a program whose permissions grants access to the administrators group but not to you through any other group (e.g. Users). Check the permissions on an offending program, it should tell you where they were inherited from, and then check the permissions on that folder and re-add read/execute for "Users".
Post by: TD1 on November 28, 2016, 04:11:33 am
Post by: wierd on November 28, 2016, 01:13:02 pm
Newer lithium batteries have what is called a "fuel gauge" baked into them. It records how much charge is in the battery. Recalibrating the battery tries to correct drift on this register in the battery firmware.
When charging, the battery first checks its fuel gauge setting, and sees it us not 100%. It then starts the charge cycle. It stops when voltage hits 4.5v, regardless of what the fuel gauge says. The most common sources of drift on the fuel gauge are self discharge, and age related capacity loss.
Overcharging the battery is very dangerous, and repeated removal and reinsertion to force it to charge can overcharge the battery.
You can try to recalibrate the battery if the laptop has a utility for that, otherwise, just live with the 90% reading.
Post by: TD1 on November 28, 2016, 02:40:54 pm
Post by: wierd on November 28, 2016, 03:29:24 pm
Although.... Wait-- is this a Dell?
Those use some crazy assed "protection chip" built into the power cord, that frequently has its data lead break, and then it does not recognize a legit charger as legit. When that happens, it disables charging the battery, because Dell are dicks.
https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-fix-the-problem-plugged-in-not-charging-on-my-Dell-Inspiron-laptop
Post by: TD1 on November 28, 2016, 03:35:40 pm
I think the best course is just to buy a new battery. Thanks, wierd and everyone else who gave a hand.
Post by: wierd on November 28, 2016, 03:43:59 pm
In a nutshell, this is how a lithium ion battery's charger works:
1) There is a small microcontroller with a small eeprom baked in, that controls the charging process, and contains the "Fuel gauge."
a) This eeprom has a baked in "design capacity" value written in it, that lets the computer know how many mAh the battery is, so it can better estimate time on battery, in addition to the value stored in the fuel gauge register.
b) The fuel gauge register is a small sram backed by the battery. It keeps track of the time on, and off the charger, and gets updated by the battery's microcontroller. The microcontroller uses the "design capacity" value to determine the upper bounding condition for when it thinks the battery is full. (It wont charge beyond design capacity unless the charge logic is seriously screwed up.) This is resettable by the micro controller, and there is secret black magic to get it to set it to 100% to account for 'drift'.
c) The microcontroller monitors the health of each cell cluster in the pack using the voltage of the cell cluster, the resistance of the cell cluster, and the temperature reading read by a thermistor stuck to the side of every cell cluster. Using some likely industry proprietary weighting algorithm, it stops charging, or disables cells if they act goofy. It sets a flag in the sram to disable further charging of disabled cells. Removing the cells from the microcontroller completely will blank the sram, which is why rebuilding the pack with new cells is possible.
C1) If the voltage dips below 3v, the controller believes the cell has experienced catastrophic cathode degredation, and wont charge the cell cluster. This is problematic, as healthy cells can self-discharge below this threshold when they are stored at 10% charge or lower for several weeks. There are special chargers to revive such batteries, but danger will robinson! The logic disables such cells for important reasons, so dont use such chargers unless you KNOW that pack has healthy cells in it that are just self-discharged.
C2) If the temperature exceeds the preset safety limit, the cell will be permanently disabled. (or until the controller loses all power..)
C3) If the voltage returned from the cell cluster reads 4.5V or higher, the controller thinks the cell cluster is fully charged, and wont supply additional charge voltage to that cell cluster. This is to avoid lithium dendrite formation between the anode and cathode, as such dendrites will internally short-circuit the battery, causing exploding self-destruct of the battery.
Post by: Eric Blank on November 28, 2016, 06:41:09 pm
Post by: wierd on November 28, 2016, 06:55:46 pm
If you have 7zip, you can open boot.wim, and find it in there.
According to these guys it needs to be in the same folder as the download tool is run from, but I have never needed to download it.
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/54443-32-bit-bootsect-3.html
I know that boot.win contains the file though, because I have used it from the special repair tools command prompt when booting a win7 DVD/USB.
Post by: Eric Blank on November 28, 2016, 10:29:09 pm
file explorer isnt getting me far tho. What folder is boot.win in normally?
Post by: wierd on November 28, 2016, 11:23:58 pm
It is boot .WIM
it is in the sources folder.
Post by: Thief^ on November 29, 2016, 05:01:00 am
4.5V
4.2V, unless you have a special high-voltage lithium cell.
And when it detects the battery hitting 4.2V, it should recalibrate the "fuel gauge" high point automatically. The only reason it would stop charging below 100% (and therefore below 4.2V) is if some other fault is detected.
Post by: Wiles on November 30, 2016, 07:18:32 am
Is there any way to disable this feature?
Post by: Thief^ on November 30, 2016, 07:33:57 am
Post by: Wiles on November 30, 2016, 07:41:04 am
Post by: redwallzyl on November 30, 2016, 06:35:17 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on November 30, 2016, 06:35:56 pm
Post by: Aklyon on November 30, 2016, 06:43:33 pm
Post by: redwallzyl on November 30, 2016, 06:49:15 pm
i have thought i stopped it in the past of weeks at a time but it keeps coming back. i have disabled it in five different ways and it wont die.
their used to be a simple switch but no more apparently.
hmm seems to be dead for now after 5 restarts. I'm sure it will rise to plague me again somehow. fuck you windows 10.
Post by: wierd on November 30, 2016, 06:56:49 pm
Try disabling the power management controller next.
Post by: heydude6 on December 02, 2016, 12:06:18 am
Post by: wierd on December 02, 2016, 12:07:55 am
always the cleanest.
Post by: Aklyon on December 02, 2016, 01:15:02 am
Post by: heydude6 on December 03, 2016, 11:14:37 pm
Possibly a bit of non-bloatware that way.
Isn't that a bad thing?
FAKEDIT: Also, what's a partition table?
Post by: Reelya on December 04, 2016, 01:50:13 am
So I might suggest not nuking the partitions on a laptop for that reason. Try tweaking it as you go, then gradually remove things you don't find useful.
Post by: wierd on December 05, 2016, 10:13:30 pm
Personally, I find the factory restore partition has a restore image loaded with the very filth I want none of.
Instead, I will dump all partitions, create a dummy 8gb NTFS partition at the end of the drive (may need to be larger, but 8 to 12gb seems to be the magic amount) and build my own restore partition to store in it after getting the system set up the way I like.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744280(v=ws.10).aspx
But then again, I am not normal, and am a bit of a masochist when it comes to these things.
because this uses imagex to create new .wim files, it stores the entire filestructure of the system at the time the image is made, which enables you to have certain things all set up already, like preferred browsers, etc. keep it clean and simple, but it can save you a lot of grief to have everything in a usable state prior to image creation.
the toolkit can be found online in various places.
for normal people? yeah, leave the recovery partition alone.
Post by: chaotic skies on December 08, 2016, 10:41:21 pm
Post by: wierd on December 12, 2016, 09:51:09 pm
For historical (and practical) reasons, your hard drive is not treated the same way as say, a floppy diskette. (Yes. ancient tech.) A floppy diskette is treated as a raw storage medium with a given number of sectors, and the filesystem structures are assumed to always be in certain places on that medium. A hard drive however, is not treated this way. Instead, there is ONE fixed structure at the start of the disk which contains a table of what chunks of sectors are allocated. Such allocations are called "partitions". There are now two major kinds of partition table used by commodity computers today. Old fashioned MBR (Master Boot Record) and GPT (GUID Partition Table). MBR is used by old school BIOS based systems, and is stored on the very first sector of the drive. It has provisions for up to 4 primary partitions, has a bitfield that stores which of these partitions is "active" (eg, bootable), and uses a 2byte identifier to describe what kind of partitions are present. It stores what the start and end sectors are for every partition in the table. On old-school bios systems, the BIOS loads this sector as part of the boostrap process, which then tells the BIOS routine where to read on the hard drive to load the operating system's boot sector. It then passes control over to the OS loaded from that boot sector, and the OS reads the table again, and determines if it should make use of the other partitions are not. (eg, show them as drives, or ignore they exist)
GPT is much newer, and is for EFI and UEFI based systems. It uses the first 4mb of the drive to store a fake MBR (for back compatibility with older OSes), and then a table for what partitions are defined, and then uses (typically) 100mb of space to house a special FAT32 volume that holds bootloaders. EFI provides very different services than the old fashioned BIOS, including advanced disk access, and partition enumeration/reading. The firmware itself has a spacious nonvolatile area for storing boot parameters for a potentially long list of operating systems. Each entry in the NVRAM states what the main partition for that OS is, and what loader (stored in the 100mb fat partition) to use. It has many advantages, in that it can support much larger partitions and disks (MBR tanks out after 3tb or so, due to how the spec was made in days of yore), but is also more troublesome to deal with than MBR. (MBR is very minimal, no-nonsense.)
Regardless of what kind of table your drive is using, the table that keeps track of partitions stored at the top of the drive is called the partition table. When I suggested dumping the table, I meant wiping its contents, or re-creating the table from scratch using a disk utility of some kind. (such as that built into the windows install cd)
This causes all areas on the drive to be treated as empty space, allowing you to install absolutely fresh and clean.
Reelya pointed out that the restore volume (what gets executed when you hold down the magic buttons for your system) is defined in the partition table, and dumping the table will destroy this volume, rendering it inoperable.
I responded that yes, this is true, but I never want to use that partition anyway, and create a brand new one with a recovery image I create myself that is clean and free of nasty bloatiness instead (and gave a link detailing how to make one.)
If you need to ask what a partition table *is*, then you probably have no business attempting the kind of advanced stuff I mentioned in creating a brand new recovery volume, and should probably not dump the table. :P
Post by: ancistrus on December 14, 2016, 05:02:33 am
Copying from the password field does not work.
How can I extract the password from the files stored by the browser? There has to be a way, right?
Post by: Thief^ on December 14, 2016, 05:17:30 am
Post by: Gamerlord on December 14, 2016, 08:43:50 am
Does anyone know what the specifications of a decent laptop (for internet browsing, video watching and gaming) would be? I'm trying to figure out what I want before I go looking at the laptops in shops or whatever.
Post by: Thief^ on December 14, 2016, 08:50:15 am
If cost is no object then look for an nVidia GPU.
Post by: Aklyon on December 14, 2016, 10:06:17 am
Let's say I don't remember a password to some site, but my browser(FF) does and fills it automatically.Options> Saved passwords>Show passwords in Firefox/Pale Moon.
Copying from the password field does not work.
How can I extract the password from the files stored by the browser? There has to be a way, right?
Post by: feelotraveller on December 15, 2016, 12:58:02 am
Let's say I don't remember a password to some site, but my browser(FF) does and fills it automatically.Options> Saved passwords>Show passwords in Firefox/Pale Moon.
Copying from the password field does not work.
How can I extract the password from the files stored by the browser? There has to be a way, right?
Hmm. I find mine (ff 50.0.2) under Preferences/Security/Saved Logins/Show Passwords. Or I would if I ever allowed passwords to be saved... ;)
Post by: Gamerlord on December 15, 2016, 09:17:38 am
Post by: Aklyon on December 15, 2016, 09:26:25 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 15, 2016, 09:32:45 am
Post by: gimlet on December 15, 2016, 10:19:59 am
Post by: Gamerlord on December 15, 2016, 10:52:37 am
Post by: Thief^ on December 15, 2016, 11:11:54 am
Post by: Aklyon on December 15, 2016, 01:04:39 pm
Did it even have any cooling worth counting?The most important factor is the GPU, followed by the CPU, followed by knowing that all "gaming" laptops are overpriced trash. You want a latest-generation i3 (6098-6320) or i5 (6400-6600) with a Nvidia 10 series (1050, 1060, 1070, 1080) GPU. Even if you must use a laptop (a desktop will cost %20-%40 less in a similar hardware configuration, and you generally get a better keyboard, mouse, and display), do not get one labeled as a "gaming" model - that is industry code for "designed to separate ignorant people from their money".
Take this advice to heart; I learned the hard way that "gaming" laptops are horrible. $1200 for a laptop that caught fire twice, and nearly exploded from its battery. The motherboard died within the first year. Replacing the melted chargers cost $100 each, along with the ready-to-blow battery.
Post by: TD1 on December 15, 2016, 01:24:30 pm
Post by: BigD145 on December 15, 2016, 01:49:23 pm
The most important factor is the GPU, followed by the CPU, followed by knowing that all "gaming" laptops are overpriced trash. You want a latest-generation i3 (6098-6320) or i5 (6400-6600) with a Nvidia 10 series (1050, 1060, 1070, 1080) GPU. Even if you must use a laptop (a desktop will cost %20-%40 less in a similar hardware configuration, and you generally get a better keyboard, mouse, and display), do not get one labeled as a "gaming" model - that is industry code for "designed to separate ignorant people from their money".
Take this advice to heart; I learned the hard way that "gaming" laptops are horrible. $1200 for a laptop that caught fire twice, and nearly exploded from its battery. The motherboard died within the first year. Replacing the melted chargers cost $100 each, along with the ready-to-blow battery.
That's a company issue and not so much a "gaming laptop" issue. Their design team sucks. I'm guessing Alienware/Dell or some knockoff brand that's mostly unheard of.
Post by: heydude6 on December 16, 2016, 02:23:41 pm
I've got an i5 processor and an nvidia graphics card. The laptop cost £600, and runs everything perfectly fine.What's your definition of "perfectly fine", and what's your definition of "everything"
Post by: TD1 on December 16, 2016, 03:10:57 pm
And I guess everything is that it plays every game I've asked it to without a hitch, together with movies/word processing and whatever other random stuff I want to do on it.
Post by: heydude6 on December 16, 2016, 03:16:43 pm
Post by: BigD145 on December 16, 2016, 03:32:53 pm
Would you happen to know what specific graphics card you had, cause that's probably what's making the difference. I just can't understand how you can run those games on a 600$ computer.
600 pound was more like $900 although now it's closer to 750.
Post by: TD1 on December 16, 2016, 04:10:37 pm
I'm not a particularly tech savvy person, but googling it shows it's medium quality. If medium quality gets such good results, I'd like to see high end...
((Also, my previous laptop of five years played Minecraft. It had no graphics card. Laggy as all get out here and there, and same with Civ V, but they did play workably. My more tech savvy friends said that was a miracle.))
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 16, 2016, 04:50:36 pm
Post by: kilakan on December 16, 2016, 05:36:04 pm
Post by: BigD145 on December 16, 2016, 06:32:52 pm
Post by: Parsely on December 16, 2016, 06:58:35 pm
Also, it is a very serious case of what you think playable is. I'm a bit of a tech-snob now after building my own high end tower and couldn't imagine playing games at the 10-15 fps I used to play them at. But 900$ should realistically get you a decent computer provided it's from a reliable source, and as Lord Shonus mentions, having a lower resolution will make a massive difference.I actually find some of the old RTS I used to play almost unplayable at a higher FPS. A lot of them (like CnC Generals) don't have game speed settings. It's a completely different feel from what I remember of the games and I can't get used to it.
Post by: Gamerlord on December 16, 2016, 11:26:44 pm
http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/products/quickship/au/en/studio_notebook?c=au&l=en&s=dfo (http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/products/quickship/au/en/studio_notebook?c=au&l=en&s=dfo)
Post by: wierd on December 16, 2016, 11:32:42 pm
Also, it is a very serious case of what you think playable is. I'm a bit of a tech-snob now after building my own high end tower and couldn't imagine playing games at the 10-15 fps I used to play them at. But 900$ should realistically get you a decent computer provided it's from a reliable source, and as Lord Shonus mentions, having a lower resolution will make a massive difference.I actually find some of the old RTS I used to play almost unplayable at a higher FPS. A lot of them (like CnC Generals) don't have game speed settings. It's a completely different feel from what I remember of the games and I can't get used to it.
Dosbox lets you control the virtual CPU speed with a keyboard combo. CTRL+F11/F12, IIRC. Just adjust it until it feels right. Most of those westwood RTSs were dos based. Only the newer ones were windows based.
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 16, 2016, 11:54:16 pm
Um, found one that looks right to me, the second one down up to scratch?
http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/products/quickship/au/en/studio_notebook?c=au&l=en&s=dfo (http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/products/quickship/au/en/studio_notebook?c=au&l=en&s=dfo)
The laptop in question will give you good performance. It is also ludicrously overpriced, even ignoring the fact that only an idiot buys an i7 (which has marginally higher clock speed and useless-for gaming "fake" CPU cores) for gaming. If you have a compelling need to waste money, consider giving it to somebody instead.
This (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LXCBXQO/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiknix-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B01LXCBXQO&linkId=324c34d4f4d88dfcb21492293fe9872c) will give you nigh-identical gaming performance for a little over half the cost. This (http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-pavilion---17t-laptop-(touch-option-available)-v3a33av-1) one, essentially identical but without the "gaming" label, is even cheaper.
Post by: Thief^ on December 17, 2016, 02:09:18 am
Laptops usually have lower resolution screens, although 1920x1080 (Full HD, or 1K) is becoming more common. This makes the graphics card work much easier. High end GPUs are mostly needed to get high FPS on 2K and 4K resolutions.
You've made a little mistake here. 1080p is 2k, not 1k. "k" measurements are horizontal. When you say 2k I think you're thinking of "quad HD", aka 2560x1440, which doesn't actually have a "k" rating - it sometimes gets called 3k but 2.5k would be more accurate.
As for gaming laptops, it's a pity there aren't really any AMD ones about at the moment (they tend to be cheaper than Intel + nVidia ones) because everyone is offloading stock ready for AMD's new chips next year.
Post by: Gamerlord on December 17, 2016, 10:28:07 pm
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-view-details.html?adId=1132495391 (http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-view-details.html?adId=1132495391)
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-view-details.html?adId=1132208846 (http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-view-details.html?adId=1132208846)
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 18, 2016, 01:07:33 am
Just as importantly, you keep posting machines with i7 processors. The i7 costs much, much more than a i5, but provides next to no performance increase for gaming. The i7 is primarily useful for video editing or 3D rendering, but for gaming you might get one or two more FPS.
Post by: wierd on December 18, 2016, 01:14:39 am
Unless you have an engineering workstation, you dont need an i7. For a high end game box, a good i5 is more than enough.
Post by: Flying Dice on December 18, 2016, 01:43:00 am
Post by: Reelya on December 18, 2016, 03:38:40 am
Just as importantly, you keep posting machines with i7 processors. The i7 costs much, much more than a i5, but provides next to no performance increase for gaming. The i7 is primarily useful for video editing or 3D rendering, but for gaming you might get one or two more FPS.
Clock speeds hit a wall years ago, then they got more performance out of each core, and adding more cores. But now, per-core performance is leveling out too, and adding more cores or more cache is how they add more power. Not every application is going to benefit from more cache and cores than we have right now.
Post by: wierd on December 18, 2016, 04:27:19 am
Post by: BigD145 on December 18, 2016, 03:32:18 pm
i7's are just what you end up getting in a lot of models with current nvidia cards. Some don't give you options for cpu's. Half the time when they do give the option it's an i7 or AMD with Radeon.
Post by: heydude6 on December 19, 2016, 03:13:01 pm
I bought one of those overpriced hideous "gaming" computers. I tired my best not to (I was looking for a laptop that had at least a 980m graphics card), but I couldn't find anything cheap that was good enough. I knew that high-end laptops in general we're overpriced, so I thought there weren't any alternatives and relented. The laptop I eventually bought cost $1700 (it normally cost $2500, but cyber Monday) which I thought was a steal (it was the cheapest computer of that calibre I saw). Sadly, that was $1700 American, and with currency conversion plus shipping fees, it ended up costing somewhere in the low 2000s, plus they stole $250 from us for no reason.
Anyway, now I'm hearing about $999 laptops that can run Witcher 3 on high, and all I can feel is regret. The computer itself is fine, it runs games well, but I just hate how I was basically robbed.
Thanks for listening to this rant. Probably should have posted this in the sad thread, but I felt like posting here.
Post by: AzyWng on December 19, 2016, 03:45:50 pm
Hoping to boost the dedicated memory to about a gig or a gig and a half, I've tried to take a look at the UEFI menu by bringing up Window's boot options (the menu that appears when you hold shift and click on "Restart" or "Shut down"), but there's no tab or option in the boot options menu to set dedicated memory (or if there is, I didn't see it).
Am I just going to have to trust my laptop to use the amount of memory needed, or is there a way to set the amount that I've missed? Or perhaps there's some other aspect of my computer that is the source of the low framerates?
Post by: Reudh on December 19, 2016, 09:29:22 pm
If you're using a laptop with a HD 520 @ 128MB of ram, i really don't think you're going to play modern games on that.
Post by: wierd on December 19, 2016, 09:52:04 pm
you can run modern games, just on low to medium settings.
MUCH better than the days of yore, where their chips could barely handle a spinning cube, and would display anomalies on triangle edges.
Post by: Thief^ on December 20, 2016, 02:09:41 am
Sorry but if you want to play vaguely recent AAA games like The Division then you need a proper dedicated graphics chip, either nVidia or AMD. Unlike Intel, you can sometimes get away with AMD's integrated graphics, but you still have to severely compromise on settings.
Interestingly AMD and Intel appear to have signed a new tech sharing agreement which looks to have given AMD access to hyperthreading patents (though they won't call it that, their next CPU ("Ryzen") appears to be hyperthreaded) and may have given Intel access to some of AMD's integrated graphics technology in return (this is unconfirmed). There could be interesting times ahead for CPUs!
Post by: AzyWng on December 20, 2016, 12:33:10 pm
In any case, it's still a step up from what I had last. Thanks for telling me about this.
Post by: Thief^ on December 20, 2016, 12:41:04 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 20, 2016, 03:10:36 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on December 20, 2016, 03:16:06 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 20, 2016, 03:26:26 pm
Well you could just...unplug it, but I assume that's not practical. I don't know what else.
That's what I do now, but it prevents me from running the cable neatly down the back of my desk and into a rear USB port instead of using the front ones. I hate using those because I have an awful habit of catching the cord with my leg and damaging the port.
Post by: Parsely on December 20, 2016, 03:44:01 pm
Post by: TheBiggerFish on December 20, 2016, 03:48:28 pm
Take a peek at the Device Manager if you're using Windows 10, and see if you can disable your flight stick in there. Re-enable when you wish to use the stick.Any Windows version.
Or at least, 7.
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 20, 2016, 03:53:26 pm
Post by: Alastar on December 20, 2016, 04:06:12 pm
Find out the syntax once, create a shortcut or whatever. *headdesk*
Post by: TheBiggerFish on December 20, 2016, 04:24:56 pm
Post by: Aklyon on December 20, 2016, 08:46:32 pm
It probably is.It probably isn't in windows 10!
Post by: wierd on December 20, 2016, 10:02:06 pm
(checks)
Looks doable.
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/heyscriptingguy/2014/05/25/weekend-scripter-use-powershell-to-find-and-disable-webcams/
Instead of a USB webcam, use devcon the way he is doing it, but point it at the joystick ID instead. :P
It might be possible to tie all this together, so that instead of calling your game executable directly, call a script that first disables the device, then calls the game then re-enables the device after the game closes. Point your shortcut at the script. Boom. Joystick always disabled when playing the offending title.
Post by: Tiruin on December 20, 2016, 10:25:09 pm
PTW in this thread too! And thanks in advance! :D
Post by: EnigmaticHat on December 20, 2016, 11:23:39 pm
Problem is... the corner is opposite on each! Like they're both the same thing but... mirrored, if that makes sense? I'm holding the mobo manual and the case manual side by side and if I try to connect these two things, pin 10/11 on each will connect to pin 1/20 on the other.
I feel like I'm losing my mind. Is that supposed to happen? Should I just plug them in?
Post by: Thief^ on December 21, 2016, 04:45:00 am
Is there anyway to upgrade a graphics...system(?) for a laptop? Inquiring ahead because a friend/family shared Fallout 4 though they mentioned it was graphics intensive and I wondered 'ok let's try it out', and it lags a ton on this laptop of mine that has been my PC since half a decade.
PTW in this thread too! And thanks in advance! :D
No.
(sorry)
Post by: Arx on December 21, 2016, 01:36:45 pm
The problem with laptops is that they're small, and graphics cards are big (if they're properly cooled).
Post by: Flying Dice on December 21, 2016, 01:54:11 pm
Post by: heydude6 on December 21, 2016, 04:55:02 pm
Best you can do is turn everything down until it looks 2004 vintage.Many games don't give you that option, at best it's 2007 vintage.
Post by: feelotraveller on December 22, 2016, 01:43:48 am
Is there anyway to upgrade a graphics...system(?) for a laptop? Inquiring ahead because a friend/family shared Fallout 4 though they mentioned it was graphics intensive and I wondered 'ok let's try it out', and it lags a ton on this laptop of mine that has been my PC since half a decade.
PTW in this thread too! And thanks in advance! :D
To answer the question behind your question, you might be able to get it running (somewhat) better but perhaps with a bit less eye candy. Do an internet search along the lines of "Fallout 4 Performance". (Another term to try would be "Optimization" but you'll probably get more than enough from the first recommendation.) There are lots of people who have gone before you! :) Be critical about what you do with the suggestions, in particular I would generally advise against installing any third party software. But steps like editing ini's are completely reversible if you do not like the results. Other possibilities like lower resolution textures fall somewhere in between. Backups are very useful.
Good luck, I did lots of this to get Skryim to run on a machine that was well below minimum required specifications and it worked. 8)
Post by: wierd on December 22, 2016, 04:09:57 am
Reduced the lighting quality and all that, but it was playable on the older hardware.
you might find something similar for FO4.
Post by: CABL on January 10, 2017, 10:05:53 am
Post by: Sappho on January 15, 2017, 07:04:04 am
I did a virus scan, nothing. I tried a Google search and it seems it has something to do with Bing and the solution is to remove all Bing-related programs and apps from the computer. I have definitely never allowed that abomination onto my computer, but I went through and checked - no Bing anywhere. The only reference I could find to it anywhere is in the IE extensions (and I've never opened that browser since getting the computer). It's listed as the default search engine and can't be removed. But no programs, no apps, nothing.
This only started happening recently. The only thing I installed recently is software for my new graphics tablet - just drivers and a drawing program, nothing that should do anything to a browser. I haven't updated Windows either, except to try to update the virus definitions - and that freezes every time I try it, no idea why, it just hangs about 25% of the way through and stays that way until I shut down the computer. It won't update anymore.
Any ideas? What's up with this, and how can I fix it? It's very annoying.
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 15, 2017, 07:07:54 am
Post by: Sappho on January 15, 2017, 02:12:15 pm
Post by: Reelya on January 15, 2017, 02:36:09 pm
You can also try task manager, see what apps / processes might be running, and/or look in the system tray to see what background apps are running. If something is popping up randomly, there needs to be a running program/process that's doing that. Kill all background tasks possible , then try watching your movies. If the problem stops happening, then it was probably one of those background tasks doing it.
Another thing you can do is host blocking. Redirect the domain to 127.0.0.1 to block domains. Google windows HOSTS file for how to do that, which does it as the OS level, or google blocker extensions to do it in the browser.
There's also a program called Process Monitor by Microsoft. This can be a handy tool, it tells you whenever a DLL or EXE does any sort of system call, including reading registry keys or launching other programs. You can get hundreds of system calls a second however, so you need to filter the results to narrow down on particular things.
Post by: Sensei on January 15, 2017, 08:00:50 pm
I want a smart TV (DLNA device) to be able to see media in specific folders I designate on my Windows 7 computer. With the default sharing settings on, it was able to access all of my library folders- My Videos, My Pictures, My Music. This is not what I want, of course. However, when I turn off sharing wizard and try to share an individual folder with advanced sharing, I still can't see it. I CAN see my computer, and the sample videos/images/music that come with Windows can be viewed on the smart TV, but not the folder full of TV shows. In the Network and Sharing Center, media streaming is on and password-protected sharing is off. In the advanced sharing settings for the folder I want to share, full control permissions are enabled for the 'Everyone' group.
Any idea what I'm missing?
Post by: Reelya on January 15, 2017, 08:36:19 pm
Well it should work in theory but in practice, the "Everyone" account requires that the host computer recognizes that the request is made from a legitimate machine on the local network. If e.g. the host is Windows 7, then it's not necessarily a fact that a non-Windows-7 device will be able to see those folders. The device needs to provide the correct hand-shakes and protocols to get access.
You can try setting up a user account for network access then the devices will be prompted for the username/password.
Also, exact hardware config can be fiddly for networks you're putting together yourself from various bits. e.g. I have a PC as a gateway for internet (via a USB device), and a wireless dongle on that PC creating a wireless network, through which all PCs can access the internet. Now, the host PC can see shares on all clients, and the clients can see shares on the host, but one client is unable to access shares on other clients. Technically that should just work, but it doesn't. That's just how it is when you're setting up ad-hoc networks.
Post by: wierd on January 15, 2017, 09:39:44 pm
Much more familiar with doing this on Linux.
Post by: Thief^ on January 16, 2017, 01:55:36 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 16, 2017, 03:06:48 am
Post by: Reelya on January 16, 2017, 11:21:10 am
- Folder sharing is for data (remote file system access). It is completely unrelated to the media library system.
- DNLA is the media streaming system, it has access to all folders which have been catalogued on the server as being part of the media libraries. You can right-click on a folder and click "Include in Library" then select which library it's part of.
If your server computer has enough juice you can install Plex, which will stream media and is compatible with DNLA, but has better codecs than Microsoft's built in system. It can play more types of files.
Post by: Sensei on January 16, 2017, 11:11:04 pm
Post by: IronTomato on January 28, 2017, 12:46:55 pm
My compuer's case is extremely old and the card reader is only USB2, so in order to take advantage of teh quickness I had to plug it into the back of my computer since the motherboard has built-in USB3 ports. However, when I attempted to do this, the device was detected fine, and upon attempting to copy files off of it, the files would begin copying onto the computer at normal speed (about 130-something megabytes per second) before the speed would suddenly drop to 0, cause windows explorer to completely shit itself, then give me an out of memory error saying the operation could not be completed, then disconnect the flash drive claiming that is has "malfunctioned" and could not be recognized. Upon unplugging it and plugging it back in, it would seem to be fixed, but attempting to copy the files again resulted in the same thing happening. I plugged it into the USB 2.0 ports in the normal card reader and the operation was carried out normally, albeit much more slowly for obvious reasons.
In case it matters, the drve in question is a Sandisk Ultra Dual USB with 32GB of storage.
EDOOT: I forgot to mention that my laptop is running Windows 8.1 and my PC is running Windows 10.
Post by: wierd on January 28, 2017, 01:41:03 pm
You can do that in device manager.
http://www.howtogeek.com/118546/htg-explains-do-you-really-need-to-safely-remove-usb-sticks/
Post by: Thief^ on January 29, 2017, 03:50:18 am
This has nothing to do with that performance option mentioned by "weird", that only affects writing and you are having trouble reading the stick.
Post by: wierd on January 29, 2017, 04:14:43 am
Is this an intel USB3 controller? Some of those need the Renesas driver.
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 11, 2017, 10:16:10 am
I use my computer to listen to most of my audio -audiobooks and music mainly. I want to pipe that audio through three "dumb" stereo systems in addition to the direct-connected computer speakers, depending on where I am in the house (so the computer upstairs can play music in the kitchen downstairs, for example). The house in question doesn't really like WiFi signals between floors, as a point of reference.
I have thought of two possible methods, but both have problems. The first option would be to use those radio transmitters people use in their cars. The problem is that the range on these will either be too low or too big for my needs.
The second option would be to use some sort of bluetooth device. However, as mentioned the house does not like wireless signals.
I will be running a Cat-5 cable between floors due to the WiFi problem, is there a device I can network to that will broadcast the signal?
Post by: wierd on February 11, 2017, 11:15:20 am
It sounds like what you (really) want are some dumb digital audio players that use a NAS for storage.
There are USB "soundcards" that can be plugged into things like old routers. (No, really.) You will need to have OpenWRT installed on them, but they can then be used for things like doing streaming music from internet radio and the like. See this project:
https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=49013
I call them "soundcards", because that is what they really are-- but you will more commonly find them as "USB Headphones". The magic lives in the dongle part. The headphones are just ordinary headphone speakers attached to the output wires. You can cut the headphones off, and splice/solder on a line input plug, and then feed that into a stereo.
Something to consider if you have the needed skillset.
You wouldnt need to add any extra features to them, (keyboards, etc) if you just configured a static shoutcast service on your main computer, and gave it a static address in your private network. The devices would just be configured to look for that address, and retry connections endlessly until they connect, then just pipe the stream out onto the USB soundcard, and into your connected stereo.
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 11, 2017, 11:27:15 am
Come to think of it, that might be the best solution.
Post by: wierd on February 11, 2017, 11:33:08 am
Looks simpler to set up.
Here is the basic premise:
1) Reflash the DDWRT routers with OpenWRT.
2) Set up the needed USB stack support
3) Configure one of the /etc/init.d scripts to mount the NAS someplace in the filesystem
4) Attach a re-cabled USB Headset, or a USB soundcard with a patch cable to the line-input on your stereo
5) Install MPD on the router
6) Install the MPD client on whatever. (It has android flavors to control from a cellphone for cripes sake)
The reflashed openwrt routers will still be quite capable of being dumb hotspots downstairs. Dont worry about broadcasting into other rooms, just set the wifi antenna output power to something really low. Just enough that you can connect to it when in the room with it with your phone, or whatever.
That way when you want to listen to something over the stereo, just set it to "LINE", and tell the server to play something. Boom.
Nice tutorial
https://silkemeyer.net/wifihifi-how-to-run-music-player-daemon-on-an-openwrt-wifi-router
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 11, 2017, 02:13:29 pm
Post by: wierd on February 11, 2017, 08:53:17 pm
It supports adding an http stream source to the playlist, but I don't know what kind of stream audible pushes.
I know things like iHeartRadio use a shoutcast flavor stream (I have set up several stations with pyradio that way. MPD should be able to play those just fine as well) I don't have a Pandora acct, so cannot comment there.
I will say that MPD supports shoutcast, vlc, and asx streams, which should cover most streaming services, as long as the stream address does not change constantly. Being able to tune into radio stations all over the country by playing iheart's shoutcast streams is pretty cool. I will check if Pandora does shoutcast real quick.
Post by: wierd on February 11, 2017, 09:07:49 pm
Dubious solution is to rip the .aax files from audible into mp3. There are many tools to do that out there, as many people want to listen to audio books on generic players.
I will look into connecting to an audible audio stream as a personal research project though.
Post by: CABL on February 12, 2017, 05:12:27 am
Post by: Aklyon on February 12, 2017, 10:51:15 pm
Can someone recommend me a good headset? I need it for Duolingo voice exercises...Cheap or expensive?
Post by: Reelya on February 13, 2017, 12:01:15 am
~~~
BTW, I have a connection problem on my wifi router, it's a 3G or 4G connection ... basically HTTP is really quick and responsive by HTTPS just hangs or drops out. So google search hangs since it uses HTTPS, while Bing search gives me a near-instant result. Happens on both Firefox and Chrome, and on my laptop too, so it's the actual connection.
Is there something I could do proxy-wise or in my browser config to get around this.
Post by: wierd on February 13, 2017, 12:37:13 am
You might see if you can use HTTPS over an HTTP proxy on port 80, and see if it circumvents the problem. Needs to be a tunneling proxy, most likely. HTTPS, by design, does not tolerate intermediaries.
Post by: Reelya on February 13, 2017, 01:23:44 am
This time it turned out that was the solution again, but to put all HTTPS traffic through a port 8080 tunnel. However the goal was again in order to use sites like Google, but this time on my paid connection (which is the shitty phone-based one, i'm still dirt poor without a proper connection) ::)
Post by: wierd on February 13, 2017, 01:38:19 am
Encrypted data?! What's THAT!? you dont need that! It does not compress well, and makes our shit look bad! We make our MONEY on oversubscription!! We throttle everything that cant rot in a big buffer someplace!!
Freaking asshats.
Seriously, just for fun, get a buffer bloat assessment on that line, and prepare to be amazed.
Post by: CABL on February 13, 2017, 02:18:23 am
Post by: wierd on February 13, 2017, 02:21:02 am
What features exactly are you looking for? High bass response? Good noise cancellation in the mic? what exactly?
For example, here's a 7.1 surround sound capable USB headset with noise cancellation in the mic, for just under 40$. Windows only though.
https://www.amazon.com/Surround-Cancelling-Gaming-Headset-Microphone/dp/B01E8RSXJA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486970512&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=usb+headset+with+microphone+noise+cancelling&psc=1
If you need support on a bunch of different platforms, the plantronics ones are supported just about everywhere.
https://www.amazon.com/Plantronics-655-USB-Multimedia-Microphone/dp/B001SEQN3K/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1486970512&sr=8-11&keywords=usb+headset+with+microphone+noise+cancelling
Post by: CABL on February 13, 2017, 02:34:23 am
You can get cheap ones in the 20$ range.
What features exactly are you looking for? High bass response? Good noise cancellation in the mic? what exactly?
Noise cancellation is always helpful, versatility (gaming, Duolingo voice recognition, etc) is also a thing I'm looking for. Wirelessness (preferably with use of receiver) is also preferable since I dislike when the table covered in cables (I use notebook)
Post by: Thief^ on February 14, 2017, 01:37:19 am
Mic: Logitech USB desk mic
Headphones: Sennheiser wireless with charging stand (I forget the model)
They are however amazing
Post by: scourge728 on February 17, 2017, 08:06:51 pm
Post by: wierd on February 17, 2017, 08:19:10 pm
I haven't seen .DOS files in over a decade, that weren't part of a dedicated VM.
Historically, they were configuration files that got renamed to *.DOS after installing windows, so that manual tweakers could save settings from them and manually merge them later. Many sections of dos config files were obsoleted by windows' way of dealing with things, which is why windows installer started from scratch, and bulk renamed all the old files.
Never heard if gla.sys though.
Post by: scourge728 on February 17, 2017, 08:27:24 pm
Post by: wierd on February 17, 2017, 08:46:15 pm
the .DOS extension was used to preserve old DOS config files, as I stated.
Post by: scourge728 on February 17, 2017, 09:00:19 pm
Post by: Reelya on February 19, 2017, 07:46:12 am
Post by: scourge728 on February 19, 2017, 01:32:35 pm
Post by: Broseph Stalin on March 03, 2017, 09:46:40 am
Is there any way at all I can make my goddamn computer work in a way I'm comfortable with without editing the registry?
Is there any way to convince microsoft that letting me customize my user experience will not herald the end of days?
Post by: Aklyon on March 03, 2017, 09:49:01 am
Is there any way to convince microsoft that letting me customize my user experience will not herald the end of days?Not in win10, MS is scared of people thinking they can do stuff with their computers.
Post by: Thief^ on March 03, 2017, 09:52:14 am
Post by: AzyWng on March 03, 2017, 10:13:52 am
Post by: feelotraveller on March 03, 2017, 07:03:38 pm
Is there any way at all I can make my goddamn computer work in a way I'm comfortable with without editing the registry?
Install Linux. QED :P
Post by: wierd on March 03, 2017, 11:43:22 pm
All will be good with the world. (well, most things will be good with the world...)
Post by: AzyWng on March 07, 2017, 09:48:28 pm
I was playing a computer game on my laptop, and I noticed that once I'd plugged it in, the frame rate dropped a lot. Is that normal?
EDIT: Also, does defragmenting your hard drive affect its memory usage at all or not?
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 07, 2017, 10:14:34 pm
Is plugging in your charger supposed to slow your laptop down?
I was playing a computer game on my laptop, and I noticed that once I'd plugged it in, the frame rate dropped a lot. Is that normal?
No. It should, in fact, improve performance because most laptops throttle performance under low battery conditions. Try getting some cans of air and blowing out the vents - it is possible that your system unthrottled, but ran into cooling problems that dropped the performance.
Post by: AzyWng on March 07, 2017, 10:23:53 pm
Also, third question: Should you defragment the windows pagefile, and if so, how?
Post by: wierd on March 08, 2017, 03:03:07 am
To defragment it, you will need a 3rd party defrag tool that does "boot time defragmentation". There are some choices for that, but a fairly good free one is "Piriform Defraggler." It cannot do MFTs, but it can do the pagefile, and other system log files that get shotgunned all over the drive and contribute to bad file placement over time. (To do MFTs, you need something like O&O, and only the paid version at that. The free trial does not let you defrag MFTs, but the paid version does. Scalpers.)
A good rule of thumb to get good results defragging the page file, is to move it to another drive by setting manual pagefile behavior (or turn it off, and let windows complain for awhile while you do the needful first...), defrag the bejeesus out of the drive a few times to get a big chunk of contiguous space, then move it back/turn it back on again, then boot time defrag the drive. Defraggler's "space--allow fragmentation" advanced option is great for this, because it will fill in empty allocation units (and fragment files to do so) in order to have contiguous free space at the bottom of the drive. (this is also useful if you want to shrink a volume... just FYI) This forces the system to have to make the swap file in that contiguous area when you turn swap back on again/put the file back on the system drive. ;) After that, the boot time defrag will see that the page file has zero fragments, and will skip it. Running a normal defrag afterwards will fix the radical fragmentation that "space-- allow fragmentation" causes.
Post by: Thief^ on March 08, 2017, 05:11:02 am
On my work PC I have 32 GB of ram and Windows only recommends a 5 GB pagefile!
Post by: wierd on March 08, 2017, 05:15:49 am
Best practice, IMO, is to tell windows to stuff it, set pagefile control to manual, then set the size yourself after doing the tricks I mentioned earlier to force a very large contiguous block of free space for its creation.
Keeping it on manual will prevent windows from auto-growing it again under stress, which will then cause windows to display a "page file insufficient" error window. It will also prevent it from fragmenting again, or getting overly bloated.
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 12, 2017, 07:33:44 pm
EDIT: I've figured it out. There is some sort of fault that causes it to lose function if any of the modifier lights (Game mode, cap loc, num lock, scroll lock) are lit. Barring a thorough cleaning fixing it, I fear I will have to replace it.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on March 12, 2017, 10:38:06 pm
To be honest, a large page file is not too useful these days. You used to be recommended to have it at 2.5x your RAM size, as using the page file was expected. These days it's so slow that restricting it to the size of your ram of even half your ram or lower is much better. You always need some as there are occasional apps that insist on using the page file and will crash if it's disabled. Having it too large will just cause a misbehaving app to make your PC unusable, so it's best to set a limit so that runaway apps will crash instead.....
On my work PC I have 32 GB of ram and Windows only recommends a 5 GB pagefile!
32 GB of RAM?
Post by: wierd on March 12, 2017, 10:45:08 pm
The limitations of current designs are more motherboard chipset restrictions than CPU bus size restrictions-- though for some, the CPU's memory controller is a limiting factor still.
Several noteworthy offerings from MSI and TYAN are able to do this. They tend to be AMD based though.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on March 12, 2017, 10:49:52 pm
Post by: wierd on March 12, 2017, 11:25:05 pm
Not for normal consumers, for sure. Intended for small transactional databases, etc.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on March 12, 2017, 11:29:24 pm
I mean, it is a database, but seriously, lotta RAM there.
Post by: wierd on March 12, 2017, 11:37:05 pm
http://www.tyan.com/Motherboards_S7086_S7086GM3NRE
You will totally need a full size tower chasis for that though. EATX is quite large. Probably need a really big PSU to power it properly as well.
Overkill for gaming, but just fine for a small server.
(edit-- those really arent 16x slots afterall. Those are some proprietary high speed SSD slots of some kind. It has provision for 16x slots, but via risers. That will not work in a standard case at all most likely. Servers arent meant to have big honking graphics cards in them anyway. It has integrated video, and that is sufficient for its intended use. Still, 512gb max design capacity.)
Post by: Reelya on March 13, 2017, 12:48:58 am
Post by: TheBiggerFish on March 13, 2017, 01:55:55 am
Post by: Reudh on March 13, 2017, 03:53:56 am
To be honest, a large page file is not too useful these days. You used to be recommended to have it at 2.5x your RAM size, as using the page file was expected. These days it's so slow that restricting it to the size of your ram of even half your ram or lower is much better. You always need some as there are occasional apps that insist on using the page file and will crash if it's disabled. Having it too large will just cause a misbehaving app to make your PC unusable, so it's best to set a limit so that runaway apps will crash instead.....
On my work PC I have 32 GB of ram and Windows only recommends a 5 GB pagefile!
32 GB of RAM?
Yeah, my comp is 16GB, but I find that's often too much. I have never come close at all to filling it up, the most i've gotten to was maybe 8GB.
Post by: Thief^ on March 13, 2017, 09:34:13 am
32 GB of RAM?High end workstations and mid-size servers can easily have that amount installed.
Yeah it's a high-end workstation, I'm a game dev. It's actually only half populated (8 slots, 4 filled with 8GB sticks = 32 GB). I've definitely used over 16 GB before, but 32 GB is definitely plenty.
High end servers with hundreds of GB (or over 1 TB!) of ram are awesome.
Post by: BigD145 on March 13, 2017, 10:53:10 am
To be honest, a large page file is not too useful these days. You used to be recommended to have it at 2.5x your RAM size, as using the page file was expected. These days it's so slow that restricting it to the size of your ram of even half your ram or lower is much better. You always need some as there are occasional apps that insist on using the page file and will crash if it's disabled. Having it too large will just cause a misbehaving app to make your PC unusable, so it's best to set a limit so that runaway apps will crash instead.....
On my work PC I have 32 GB of ram and Windows only recommends a 5 GB pagefile!
32 GB of RAM?
Yeah, my comp is 16GB, but I find that's often too much. I have never come close at all to filling it up, the most i've gotten to was maybe 8GB.
16gb is most useful when you are running software with a memory leak.
Post by: TheBiggerFish on March 13, 2017, 12:53:06 pm
I have that to look forward to?32 GB of RAM?High end workstations and mid-size servers can easily have that amount installed.
Yeah it's a high-end workstation, I'm a game dev. It's actually only half populated (8 slots, 4 filled with 8GB sticks = 32 GB). I've definitely used over 16 GB before, but 32 GB is definitely plenty.
High end servers with hundreds of GB (or over 1 TB!) of ram are awesome.
*starts crying tears of joy*
Post by: Aklyon on March 13, 2017, 04:42:48 pm
Isn't it also used for heavy rendering?To be honest, a large page file is not too useful these days. You used to be recommended to have it at 2.5x your RAM size, as using the page file was expected. These days it's so slow that restricting it to the size of your ram of even half your ram or lower is much better. You always need some as there are occasional apps that insist on using the page file and will crash if it's disabled. Having it too large will just cause a misbehaving app to make your PC unusable, so it's best to set a limit so that runaway apps will crash instead.....
On my work PC I have 32 GB of ram and Windows only recommends a 5 GB pagefile!
32 GB of RAM?
Yeah, my comp is 16GB, but I find that's often too much. I have never come close at all to filling it up, the most i've gotten to was maybe 8GB.
16gb is most useful when you are running software with a memory leak.
Post by: Sappho on March 16, 2017, 03:05:37 am
I'm at a loss. This wasn't happening before, and I can't think of anything I've changed recently that might mess with my power options. Anyone have any ideas?
I've got Windows 8.1, 64-bit system. Not sure what other info would be helpful in this case.
Post by: Thief^ on March 16, 2017, 04:50:30 am
I'm looking at getting a newer tablet. It's kind of a toss-up between the Asus Zenpad S and the Nvidia Shield K1. I'm trusting I'll be able to plug my controller in and emulate PSP things on either, but word is that the battery drains a little quick on the Shield since it's carrying a lot of beef, relatively speaking. Is the battery drain going to happen faster as a result of having more processing power available, or is it going to drain at the same rate for either device if you're only using a moderate amount of performance.
I ask, of course, because I've got an xbox controller that I dongle into my present tablet, and, well, you only get the one port. If I'm going to kill the battery faster running Super Mario 64 on the one over the other, I'm probably going to reach for the thing with longevity.
With as tech savvy as I am, I should probably know these things.
Generally speaking, faster CPUs are less efficient, and use more power to do the same work. This is because while CPU power use increases linearly with frequency, increased frequency requires increased voltage and power usage increases with Voltage squared. So even a relatively minor change, e.g. 1.1x frequency, 1.1x Voltage would be a 1.1 * 1.1^2 = 1.331 times more power use.
Another consideration is that if the chip is larger (more cores or more graphics units) it will use more static power, that is power which is used regardless of the work it is doing.
There are many other factors to consider, but generally a slower chip will give you better battery life - if the battery is the same size!!!
... which it's not. The Zenpad's is ~75% the size of the Shield's.
Post by: Thief^ on March 17, 2017, 01:44:17 am
Post by: Arx on March 17, 2017, 01:51:25 am
Post by: wierd on March 17, 2017, 03:46:23 am
Post by: Sappho on March 17, 2017, 06:18:32 am
Sappho- is this daily, or like every Wednesday? I recall that the built-in Windows defragmentation program is scheduled to run at 3:30 AM or so. Maybe that's it?
No, it's happened a couple of times this week. Didn't happen today. I have checked every single auto-scheduling application and update system on the computer, including Windows maintenance. EVERYTHING is disabled, and has been for ages. I had this problem once before and I went through and disabled everything. When it started happening again this week, I double-checked all of them and they're still off. Then I double-checked the entire task scheduler list for anything that might wake the computer. Everything is disabled. All the hardware is disabled from waking the computer (I hibernate, don't use sleep, so I just use the power button to turn it on). Keyboard, mouse, ethernet controller, everything is forbidden from waking the computer. I cannot for the life of me figure out what the hell is going on. It didn't happen today, at least. I'll keep an eye on it. Maybe whatever it was is done and it won't happen anymore. I frigging hope so.
And this is Windows 8, not 10. I wouldn't "upgrade" to 10 if you paid me. I have it at work and it's just The Worst Thing.
Post by: Flying Dice on March 17, 2017, 05:38:19 pm
Might be Windows Defender running security scans, dunno if that would show in the usual set of scheduled program operations.
Post by: Sappho on March 18, 2017, 05:01:18 am
The oddest thing is that this only just started happening. It happened before, I fixed it, and now out of nowhere it started happening again. However, today it didn't happen. It's been a few days. Maybe whatever it was is over now, at least...
Post by: wierd on March 18, 2017, 05:10:02 am
Post by: Sensei on March 18, 2017, 02:49:27 pm
Post by: Azerty on March 20, 2017, 08:28:19 am
this morning, after shutdowning my computer due to a freezing and rebooting it, after a while, a BSOD happens, indicating "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" as cause.
This issue happens everytime I use the normal mode: a BSOD happens after a while.
I ran Malwarebytes, Windows Memory Diagnostic and the following script to detect harddisk issues:
Code: [Select]
@echo off
wmic diskdrive get status
date /t
time /tNo issue was found.
System Restore fails each times I try it.
The BSODs doesn't happen in Safe Mode, so it must be something related to the software.
Below is the log I get after each BSOD; I tried to translate the relevant parts:
Code: [Select]
Problem signature:
Nom d’événement de problème: BlueScreen
Version du système: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Identificateur de paramètres régionaux: 1036
Informations supplémentaires sur le problème :
BCCode: a
BCP1: 00000016
BCP2: 00000002
BCP3: 00000000
BCP4: 82E8DAE8
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1
Files that help describe the problem :
C:\Windows\Minidump\032017-24913-01.dmp
C:\Users\[i][----][/i]\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-45146-0.sysdata.xmlThanks you in advance for your help.
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 20, 2017, 08:42:12 am
The first thing to try would be to use a Live CD or USB Linux distribution. If you can get that to use all of your hardware, it means that the problem is, in fact, in the software. Then the hard part begins.
At this point you could methodically uninstall one driver at a time until the problem goes away, then install fresh drivers for that device. This will take quite a bit of time and hassle.
Uninstalling all of your drivers would also work, and would probably be faster overall.
You could also back up your data and reinstall Windows from scratch. That would be sure to solve the problem, but carries hassles in and of itself.
Post by: Azerty on March 20, 2017, 09:04:42 am
This is a problem that would be difficult to track down sitting at your computer, let alone to do remotely. I am almost certain that an interrupt request that goes away in Safe Mode means you have a corrupted device driver, but it is also possible (but less likely) that you have malfunctioning hardware that doesn't cause problems in safe mode because the system isn't trying to use it.
[...]
At this point you could methodically uninstall one driver at a time until the problem goes away, then install fresh drivers for that device. This will take quite a bit of time and hassle.
Uninstalling all of your drivers would also work, and would probably be faster overall.
Given I didn't install any new hardware ever, how can I access the list of most recently updated drivers?
And how can I successfully use System Restore?
You could also back up your data and reinstall Windows from scratch. That would be sure to solve the problem, but carries hassles in and of itself.
Given I don't have a Windows 7 Install Disk at hand but that I could maybe have one on the place I will do an internship, I might search for which software device is currupted before going for reinstallment, especially since I don't know how and where to store my 13 Go library.
Post by: heydude6 on March 23, 2017, 08:05:31 pm
Post by: wierd on March 24, 2017, 01:31:41 am
Most gear is G. G has a 54mbit bandwidth restriction. It will never be faster than that (caveat, there are proprietary extensions to the spec, but meh.)
N has a max of 300mbit.
AC is 1.3gbit.
This means the router, and all your wireless devices need to be that spec to get those rates, or the access point will slow down for your slower gear.
It will of course, also slow down due to signal quality issues, which is likely why you have 30mbit effective on G.
Basically, your wireless gear is imposing a network bottleneck. No matter how fast the pipe to the world is, your local net is only so fast, and will always have that top speed unless you upgrade.
Post by: Tawa on March 26, 2017, 11:06:54 am
Post by: wierd on March 26, 2017, 11:13:48 am
should solve the missing lib problem you are having.
http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/amd64/libaudio2/filelist
Post by: Tawa on March 26, 2017, 11:35:21 am
If it's any help, the specific message I get when I try to manually run the configure file is:
Code: [Select]
./mbw_config_linux: error while loading shared libraries: libaudio.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Post by: wierd on March 26, 2017, 11:50:03 am
sudo apt-get reinstall libaudio2
It may be that a symlink is missing. (Often times, the cited file being searched for is a symlink pointing to a specific version of the lib. This allows the system to have multiple versions of that library in existence simultaneously, but only one has global dominance. If the specific version library file exists (because the package is installed), but the symlink is missing, there really will not be a "libaudio.so.2" in the libs folder. Instead there will be a "libaudio.so.2.4" instead. (which the symlink points to, normally, when it exists.)
Reinstalling the package should re-create the symlink if it is missing.
Post by: Tawa on March 26, 2017, 01:14:40 pm
Post by: wierd on March 26, 2017, 01:34:59 pm
Been awhile, but the syntax is something like:
sudo ln -s /lib/libaudio.so.2.FOO /lib/libaudio.so.2
where FOO is the specific sub-version you have installed.
That might fix your problem. Naturally, adjust the paths accordingly, et al.
Post by: Tiruin on March 30, 2017, 05:16:34 am
It's just been 3 months or so since I've had this new battery--two months past warranty--and it seems like it just failed on me compared to the length of time the last one had :/
In that just 10 minutes equates to a full loss of "100%" as it displays, and it 'charges' faster than I usually am familiar with.
That and the battery light(?) is flickering where it wasn't before--at charging to 100% or at 100%. :-\ I don't know how to understand what to do.
Post by: wierd on March 30, 2017, 05:22:40 am
outside warranty == boned.
Post by: Tiruin on March 30, 2017, 07:01:54 am
sounds like the cells inside have failed alright.What do o-o
outside warranty == boned.
I've no idea what to do and the orange light is still flickering >_>
/me calls for aid. x.x
[Thanks by the way, wierd c:]
Post by: wierd on March 30, 2017, 07:24:08 am
Call the battery pack maker, and ask if they can give RMA service even though it just left the warranty period. (they will likely say no, but it does not hurt to ask and be sure.)
If they say yes, do the RMA thing and send them the battery, get new one in the mail in exchange.
If they say no, recycle old battery/dispose of properly, and buy a replacement.
The not normal, but some people do it anyway thing to do:
Disassemble the battery's case very carefully, document the cell types inside, check each one with a digital multimeter to see if they are healthy (above 3.5v), then order replacement cells. When replacement cells arrive, desolder and replace/resolder new cells one at a time into the bundle, reseal the case with contact cement, and charge to 100%.
Further reading:
Lithium Ion battery packs have protection circuitry inside that monitor charge, discharge, and temperature cycle data for each and every cell inside the pack. This circuitry monitors for anomalies during charge or discharge, and then disables the cells if it thinks they are showing signs of defect. This is to prevent the battery pack from catching on fire. (no, really. ON FIRE.) Often, this causes the protection circuitry to disable cells prematurely (maybe the laptop got hot because you used it on a hot train ride or something, and the temperature sensors in the battery pack felt this was dangerous-- etc.), but one can never be certain without extensive forensic testing of the supposed defective cell inside the pack (that cell really COULD be a timebomb waiting to explode in your lap if you charge it). The charge controller does not take chances-- it disables the cell, and never uses it again, does not let it charge, anything. This is most likely what has happened to your battery pack for your laptop, and why it is "charging too fast to 100%" and has "terrible life" now. The few cells still "healthy" in the pack are supplying all the charge to the laptop, because the others are disabled. This is what the blinking charge light is all about-- the laptop realizes that the battery pack is incorrectly reporting 100% charge, and keeps trying to charge the battery. The pack says "Hell no, I am as full as I will allow you to charge me!" and aborts the charge cycle. Rinse, repeat. Rebuilding the pack yourself (not normal option listed above) often can convince the charge controller to re-enable those cells again (after you replace them), and the pack will function normally again afterwards, but this is NOT for the faint of heart, the inexperienced, or the unskilled. The sensible option is to see if the manufacturer will honor a replacement, and depending, replace in the appropriate method.
Post by: Tiruin on March 30, 2017, 07:27:31 am
If they say no, recycle old battery/dispose of properly, and [...]How are these done? I still have the old battery before this one in safe storage.
[Details]Thank you so much! I'll try and contact the local supplier this weekend.
In the meantime, do I directly charge my laptop with the charger between now and then, or do I keep the battery inside? I do recall having done the former without any problems but have been told that it may not be healthy to the laptop.
Post by: wierd on March 30, 2017, 07:36:53 am
Post by: Tiruin on March 30, 2017, 08:11:04 am
If there are any industrial battery suppliers in your area, they will often buy back old lithium ion packs, or will at the very least, offer battery disposal services that properly dispose of the cells.Thanks a ton! :D Still curious about the power in the meantime without the battery
Post by: wierd on March 30, 2017, 08:13:03 am
Post by: BigD145 on March 30, 2017, 02:13:48 pm
Don't mess with electricity if you don't know what you are doing.
Post by: Arx on April 02, 2017, 11:28:10 am
Quote from: Relevant apt-get update Output
W: An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: http://packages.linuxmint.com rebecca Release: The following signatures were invalid: BADSIG 3EE67F3D0FF405B2 Clement Lefebvre (Linux Mint Package Repository v1) <root@linuxmint.com>
W: An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: http://extra.linuxmint.com rebecca Release: The following signatures were invalid: BADSIG 3EE67F3D0FF405B2 Clement Lefebvre (Linux Mint Package Repository v1) <root@linuxmint.com>
W: GPG error: http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty Release: The following signatures were invalid: BADSIG 40976EAF437D05B5 Ubuntu Archive Automatic Signing Key <ftpmaster@ubuntu.com>
W: Failed to fetch http://packages.linuxmint.com/dists/rebecca/Release
W: Failed to fetch http://extra.linuxmint.com/dists/rebecca/Release
W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
I've tried a whole bunch of things that apparently should fix it. The only thing I haven't tried is trying to point to a repo other than trusty. Anyone have any experience with this? Searching around isn't helping too much.
Post by: wierd on April 02, 2017, 03:06:17 pm
I do not know how to purge the old key in a clean and safe way.
You can get the new key with these.
sudo apt-key adv --recv-key --keyserver keyserver.linuxmint.com “missing key number”
gpg --export --armor "Missing Key Number"| sudo apt-key add -
Trailing hyphen is important!
Post by: Arx on April 02, 2017, 03:36:58 pm
Edit: Well, it's working fine since rebooting on university internet. I'm not entirely sure what to make of that, it could have just needed rebooting, or it could be because varsity internet. I know my university mirrors a lot of Ubuntu stuff, not sure if that includes the repo (or if it even can include the repo).
Post by: wierd on April 03, 2017, 05:00:30 am
However, failure to have properly signed packages is concerning if they are redirecting to the local mirror. It means they are not maintaining a proper mirror of the distro's packages. Try using a manually set DNS to escape their redirect next time, say google's 8.8.8.8 DNS server.
Post by: Sensei on April 03, 2017, 09:30:21 pm
I have a laptop which won't charge: It's a Lenovo Flex-3 1580, which came from the store running Windows 10, though I think it may have been designed with Windows 8 in mind.
At first I thought it was the cable, and replacing it seemed to do the trick. After a while, it didn't. I found that it could be a problem with the power management software, so I downloaded an updated version, and it worked! Then, it stopped charging once again. After reinstalling the same software, it seems that it still charges, but with a twist: not all the way. At first it would only charge to 70% when on the cable, and I thought it might be some sort of battery protection- this only happened after the laptop was being used for a couple days.
After some hassle I managed to get into the Lenovo Settings (Win10 App version) and found the "battery protection" setting which limits the battery from charging fully- but it was turned off. At this point my best theory was that the regular Windows 7/8 version of one of the lenovo settings programs (there's like, four different ones) was installed, but I couldn't find them by searching (which is oddly useless in Windows 10, for finding programs on your computer which aren't Windows Store apps) or by looking in the Lenovo folder in Program Files or Program Files X86. However, the battery indicator says "Plugged In: Charging" rather than "Plugged In: Not Charging" like it normally would if it was limited from charging all the way.
Anyway, just recently, the laptop refused to charge any higher than 29%. Earlier it would continue to charge up from a lower percentage until it hit 70%, but now it seems as if whenever the laptop is used off the charge cable, the battery loses charge and will not gain it back. So, that's where I've left off.
Preferably, I would like to not reformat the laptop, but there is a D:\ recovery drive which will probably allow me to reset it to factory settings. If the problem is likely to be with the battery hardware, that sucks- the battery is not removable, so the laptop might not be repairable. It was purchased from a Staples with basically no return policy, and I think the manufacturer's warranty is expired.
Post by: Rose on April 03, 2017, 10:35:17 pm
Post by: Sensei on April 03, 2017, 10:42:17 pm
Post by: wierd on April 04, 2017, 12:46:30 am
Looks like Lenovo pushed an update to the charge/power management software, and afterward a whole bunch of people have had this problem.
more than likely, this is related to a battery firmware, since it affects users even at the bios/when the system is turned off.
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 09, 2017, 09:18:49 am
Post by: Reudh on April 09, 2017, 09:30:53 am
Something very odd has happened to my PC. Within the last week, the bottom has dropped out of my video card performance (which wasn't that great in the first place, since I spent my video card upgrade money on a van). All my temps are fine, and pure CPU applications work as they should, but I've gone from ~40 FPS in World Of Tanks to 4.
Could be anything. Sounds kind of like the GPU dying.
Post by: Flying Dice on April 09, 2017, 09:51:12 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 09, 2017, 09:57:14 am
Post by: wierd on April 09, 2017, 10:20:55 am
I noticed that a lot over the years.
Post by: eerr on April 11, 2017, 01:18:54 am
This happened because I installed new graphics drivers and messed around for quite awhile to try and fix the issue.
I did this because Runescape said my drivers were old.
The ATI install manager put a bunch of stuff on my system, I didn't know what to pick through.
But reinstalling and some other junk straight up did not solve the issue of old drivers.
However, I later discovered the option to download the
16.- something driver update
or
16-something beta update.
This luckily didn't brick my computer, but in doing so my computer fan now blows hard and fast when it seems unnecessary, while watching twitch streams.
My fan adjusts itself to various levels, far above what I should need for browsing and primitive games like Runescape. The version 16 updates were still listed in the install manager so I'm assuming the install was bugged.
I shoot up to 100% hard drive useage and everything seems to want a piece of my drive. Except when nothing is running, in which case the useage and fan falls back down to zero.
How do I fix something that isn't properly installed?
Post by: Rose on April 16, 2017, 07:27:38 am
Post by: BigD145 on April 16, 2017, 10:48:07 am
Post by: Flying Dice on April 17, 2017, 07:42:07 pm
Post by: Dermonster on April 21, 2017, 09:45:43 am
A while ago my monitor began to black screen after a half second of uptime, and recently I discovered that if I shone a flashlight I could still see the image if I tried really hard. This is an inverter problem, I think?
It is an old Neovo E-19A model, and I've had it for a long time. I don't particularly want to have to pay up for a whole new monitor, being hard on money, but if this is a problem I can solve with repair rather than replace that would help a lot.
I have an imgur album of the disassembled back here (http://imgur.com/a/Sg1cD), and I can get more if needed.
If someone could tell me what to get (and by that I mean literally point me at the item to buy) or any obvious issues you see that I can't, please let me know. I think I can get access to soldering equipment if that would help.
Post by: AzyWng on April 21, 2017, 05:27:58 pm
Anyone have any idea how to fix said frame rate issues?
Post by: Akura on April 23, 2017, 12:57:22 pm
I might not even need it, I'm just looking it in case I do. Right now its running time is limited by the fact that I need to replace the thermal paste.
Post by: BigD145 on April 23, 2017, 01:47:52 pm
Post by: Rusty Shackleford on May 16, 2017, 04:21:42 pm
I gather I don't need anti-virus because its Linux but is Firebox susceptible to brower hijackers and annoying shit like that? I don't typically browse or download sketchy shit but when I do...
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 16, 2017, 08:55:14 pm
Post by: Reelya on May 16, 2017, 10:50:58 pm
Don't ya think that if there were actually virus-proof ways of doing everything that were 100% open source and/or public domain then Microsoft would be 100% capable of copying how they work even without copying the code itself?
Post by: wierd on May 16, 2017, 11:32:11 pm
Linux for home users is kinda.. hmm.. If you dont understand proper user security, you wont use it properly, and you wont get anywhere near the right protection from the OS model that Linux offers. We will leave it at that.
Post by: Reudh on May 17, 2017, 02:57:52 am
Linux has Clamwin as its native AV suite even.
Linux for home users is kinda.. hmm.. If you dont understand proper user security, you wont use it properly, and you wont get anywhere near the right protection from the OS model that Linux offers. We will leave it at that.
Oh good old Clamwin. Slow, full of false positives, and yet still better than most other antivirus software on the market.
Post by: AzyWng on May 17, 2017, 08:42:19 am
Linux has Clamwin as its native AV suite even.
Linux for home users is kinda.. hmm.. If you dont understand proper user security, you wont use it properly, and you wont get anywhere near the right protection from the OS model that Linux offers. We will leave it at that.
Oh good old Clamwin. Slow, full of false positives, and yet still better than most other antivirus software on the market.
I, for one, would NOT recommend the free AVG.
I tried it once.
Then I opened task manager one day and noticed there was a huge list of the same task from AVG web protect or whatever the hell it's supposed to be.
The damn thing didn't stay on my hard drive for very long.
Post by: Rusty Shackleford on May 17, 2017, 01:10:32 pm
Post by: AzyWng on May 17, 2017, 07:36:25 pm
Post by: wierd on May 17, 2017, 11:45:27 pm
The windows port DOES have an integrated GUI, but is still not a realtime scanner.
http://www.clamwin.com/
It is great for putting on read only boot media, used for cleaning infections. If you want realtime protection, look somewhere else.
Post by: AzyWng on May 18, 2017, 02:23:48 pm
My Piriform Defraggler claims my hard drive is about 9% fragmented.
Which one is more reliable as an indicator.
Also, does defragmenting game files help them run in any fashion?
Post by: wierd on May 18, 2017, 02:30:26 pm
If there are lots of fragments, and they are ALL OVER THE DAMN DRIVE-- then defragmenting will improve performance. The reason, is because random seeks and random reads are more time consuming to complete than linear reads.
Post by: Tellemurius on May 19, 2017, 10:15:12 am
A shame that they refuse to update Combofix to Windows 10.Combofix has been well integrated within Windows XP Vista and 7. After 8, Microsoft started making alot of changes within the kernel code that combofix exploits. Combining that and constant updates its hard to keep up. Honestly with this day n age its easy to restore computers now. Windows 10 itself has a reset mode to clear programs and settings while keeping your files. My windows key itself is attached to my microsoft account so I dont even need to keep record of my key anymore.
EDIT: In other stuff, how does this look for a reasonable 2K monitor (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009996)?
Post by: Zanzetkuken The Great on May 19, 2017, 11:14:12 am
Post by: Zanzetkuken The Great on May 19, 2017, 02:03:34 pm
Getting something small, but I can't figure out what exactly is causing it. There are a few, specific pages that always load for a few seconds, start displaying, then give me the 'problem loading page' error with the descriptor of 'the connection was reset'. Similar pages on the site will load just fine, it's just a few specific ones that are doing it. Anyone have any idea what might be happening and how to fix this?
Is there any more information people need to answer this? Whatever is happening is showing up on a few more pages now, and I want to get this fixed before it bites me in the ass when I'm trying to apply for jobs.
Post by: Tellemurius on May 19, 2017, 02:17:50 pm
Post by: Zanzetkuken The Great on May 19, 2017, 02:20:04 pm
what browser are you using? Chrome or Firefox? Does it happen if you switch browsers?
Attempted to reach both pages using both Firefox and Chrome. The same 'page partially shows up before going to the problem loading page' thing happened both times for the same listed reason of the connection being reset.
Edit: Does not happen if I use a different device.
Post by: Tellemurius on May 19, 2017, 02:43:48 pm
Post by: Zanzetkuken The Great on May 19, 2017, 03:28:02 pm
Clear cache and cookies and check your network settings, make sure you are not on a proxy.
Tried former two before and before posting, didn't help. Used ipconfig and did not see anything related to a proxy enabled.
Post by: Tellemurius on May 19, 2017, 03:32:20 pm
Post by: Zanzetkuken The Great on May 19, 2017, 03:43:16 pm
It would be specific to your browser since it cannot be done computer wide.
It can be done on any browser I have. What I had said in the edit was when I accessed via my phone.
Anyway, even when I tried the 'no proxy' setting, it still didn't work.
Post by: AzyWng on May 19, 2017, 03:43:42 pm
It's not a Solid-State Drive, by the way.
Post by: Zanzetkuken The Great on May 19, 2017, 04:31:51 pm
Post by: helmacon on May 19, 2017, 08:10:55 pm
I already removed the program as a precaution, but it seems a bit strange to me. If it was a ransomware, why would it not have attacked yet? Why is it only getting flagged now? (admittedly, previous scans were with the base hitman version) What are the odds that it is a false positive, or the malware is inert?
I'm not really a super technical guy when it comes to this stuff. I understand how stuff works, but not much of what it means.
Can any of you shed some light on this thing for me? I kinda hate not knowing what happened or if I need to do anything else.
Post by: Tellemurius on May 19, 2017, 11:47:35 pm
Does frequent defragmenting shorten a hard drive's life?While hard drives are much more superior for long term storage frequent rewrites for instance with defragging would effect your disk health. However to see that type of effect you would have to be defragging terabytes a day. Windows 8 and up created improvements with the file system to minimize fragmentation, you dont have to do it as much from before.
It's not a Solid-State Drive, by the way.
Mistyped earlier. Firefox is the one that breaks off connection with the error, but Chrome seems to be doing an infinite loading of the relevant pages.Could you try running a traceroute to this website and post your results? I want to see if you are connecting correctly to this site.
So, a while back I acquired a bit of software from a friend. I have had it on my computer for several months, and encountered no problems. Just now, I performed a scan with HitmanPro.Alert (using the free trial) and it flagged it as a very specific piece of ransomware (Win.Trojan.DMALocker-1).Was this software pirated by chance? Alot of times with cracks and patches antiviruses would flag them as malicious because it doesn't match the original code or can make changes to sensitive areas. I myself is not a big fan of hitman, I would recommend running malwarebytes.
I already removed the program as a precaution, but it seems a bit strange to me. If it was a ransomware, why would it not have attacked yet? Why is it only getting flagged now? (admittedly, previous scans were with the base hitman version) What are the odds that it is a false positive, or the malware is inert?
I'm not really a super technical guy when it comes to this stuff. I understand how stuff works, but not much of what it means.
Can any of you shed some light on this thing for me? I kinda hate not knowing what happened or if I need to do anything else.
Post by: Eric Blank on May 20, 2017, 01:38:10 pm
On wednesday windows 10 installed an automatic update, the problem started soon after though i didnt have access to internet at all until thursday. I really dont know where to start with this issue, like could it be that the update changed some obscure setting somewhere? Should i attempt to roll back the system to the previous build, and how would i do that?
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 20, 2017, 02:38:35 pm
Post by: Eric Blank on May 20, 2017, 03:59:10 pm
Post by: CABL on May 22, 2017, 05:23:08 am
Anybody here uses/used Corsair Graphite Series 760T computer case? I'm gonna go with this computer case for my future PC, and I wonder what power coil I should use? I want at least 1000-1200W power coil. Also, are ASUS MAXIMUS IX motherboards good? If so, which one I should choose?
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 22, 2017, 03:17:56 pm
If by "power coil" you mean "power supply", that is the very last component you should pick out, as the rating you pick is dependent on the hardware you're using. There is little point to getting a 1000-1200 watt power supply if your entire system only draws less than 600W - which is enough to run a top-end i5, a high end video card, and three hard drives with ease.
The motherboard in question is ludicrously expensive, and offers little practical benefit from most perspectives. A Z170-E or Z170-K will do everything the MAXIMUM IX will do, for less than half the cost.
Post by: CABL on May 23, 2017, 12:11:03 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 23, 2017, 12:40:01 pm
The i7 has a marginally higher clock speed, and has 4 virtual cores in addition to the four physical ones fond on both i5 and i7 processors. For most games, this translates into frame rate increases of 0-5 FPS.
The only areas where an i7 is beneficial is in highly threaded applications. For most users, only editing/rendering video and high resolution photo benefits. If you are not doing large amounts of this, then buying an i7 is essentially throwing money into the trash.
Post by: Tellemurius on May 24, 2017, 08:37:33 pm
Post by: Reudh on May 24, 2017, 11:51:25 pm
The drawback to an i7 is that they cost twice as much as a same-grade i5 (such as i5 7600 vs i7 7700), for virtually (or often literally) zero increase in performance for most purposes.
The i7 has a marginally higher clock speed, and has 4 virtual cores in addition to the four physical ones fond on both i5 and i7 processors. For most games, this translates into frame rate increases of 0-5 FPS.
The only areas where an i7 is beneficial is in highly threaded applications. For most users, only editing/rendering video and high resolution photo benefits. If you are not doing large amounts of this, then buying an i7 is essentially throwing money into the trash.
Yeah, in real-world purposes, my i5-4690k (Haswell, 2013) still beats the i5-6600 that superseded it, and is ~17% slower than the i5-7600k (Kaby Lake, 2017), which afaik is the top end i5 currently. That said, there is a sizable jump in performance between the i5-4690k and the i7-7700k, but you'd kind of expect it from a mid-to-upper range Haswell i5 vs a top end i7 Kaby Lake.
Post by: heydude6 on May 25, 2017, 09:33:00 am
So my mother's email account has been hacked and now the website doesn't even believe it exists. When we try to login, the website simply says it doesn't recognize that account. Problem is, that email account was one of the most important email accounts in our family containing all sorts of valuable financial information and such. As a rather young guy who doesn't actually own financial information and doesn't know what it means, what am I supposed to do? We tried contacting customer service, but yahoo customer service is run by a bunch of bastards and isn't even willing to look at our problem. We also tried google, but it only gave us advice about how to prevent ourselves from being hacked, not what to do once it's already happened.
We probably won't be able to recover the email, but we want to at least prevent identity theft.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 25, 2017, 12:57:09 pm
Post by: Aklyon on May 25, 2017, 01:45:11 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 25, 2017, 01:51:22 pm
Post by: AzyWng on May 28, 2017, 10:15:39 pm
This is bad.
The window looks like a command prompt window, but I can't see the thing long enough to tell what it is or isn't.
What should I do?
Post by: BigD145 on May 29, 2017, 01:00:50 pm
Post by: AzyWng on May 29, 2017, 11:27:49 pm
That's the window that's been popping up.
Any ideas?
Post by: Aklyon on May 30, 2017, 10:20:25 am
This came up in a search.
Post by: BigD145 on May 30, 2017, 02:47:39 pm
Post by: TD1 on May 31, 2017, 04:30:09 am
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on May 31, 2017, 08:05:55 am
Post by: TD1 on May 31, 2017, 09:04:16 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on June 01, 2017, 03:26:43 pm
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on June 01, 2017, 03:42:36 pm
Can both routers see each other?
Can both PCs see the routers?
Can both routers see the PCs?
Yeah, sometimes one can see the other but not vice-versa.
Post by: Lord Shonus on June 01, 2017, 03:47:45 pm
Post by: EnigmaticHat on June 01, 2017, 03:53:57 pm
1. The SSD, because it has the OS, is where the documents/vidoes/ect. folders are. And its the default drive that everything tries to download or install into. But its a 20th the size of the HHD and it has only a few scant GBs left.
2. I made my own programs folder in the HHD, but I, ah, fucked up. See I told Unity to install in that folder naively believing that like steam once I showed it to the program files it would create its own folder by default. It did not. My entire programs folder is full of .dlls and Unity folders. They aren't even labeled unity, they're things like "data". I'm highly concerned that if I reinstall Unity to the proper folder either I'll lose project data (which wouldn't be that hard to backup, none of them are far along anyway) or the Unity uninstaller will just nuke the entire programs folder and kill all my shit.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Post by: Lord Shonus on June 01, 2017, 03:58:33 pm
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on June 01, 2017, 04:02:11 pm
Project data files should be under their own directories somewhere (only experience for such is other programs that make projects) because if they were not they would override each other's files if any have the same name.
You could copy every single thing into a backup folder under a separate folder (or the drive root folder) Just in case it goes wrong.
Post by: EnigmaticHat on June 01, 2017, 04:28:15 pm
What's the OS?Windows 10
Post by: Lord Shonus on June 01, 2017, 04:32:07 pm
http://www.dummies.com/computers/operating-systems/windows-10/how-to-change-the-location-of-user-folders-in-windows-10/
Post by: EnigmaticHat on June 01, 2017, 04:36:08 pm
Post by: wierd on June 03, 2017, 03:53:11 am
If you guys ever decide to use an SDCard for /home on a crippled chromebook, be aware that the browser cache will wear the thing to death. Why? Because for some reason browser makers STILL have not figured out that people DO NOT WANT TO HOLD ONTO THE CACHE FOREVER, and do not set up a tmpfs location for the cache.
So, make one yourself, and put the browser cache on it. Tmpfs is exactly what it sounds like. Temporary filesystem. Temporary ram backed storage. Goes POOF on power off. Can be set in /etc/fstab.
Today's message brought to you by:
Extreme corruption of /home EXT4 partition due to excessive writes caused by browser cache.
Post by: heydude6 on June 03, 2017, 09:24:52 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on June 03, 2017, 11:14:10 am
Post by: wierd on June 03, 2017, 02:29:26 pm
You will need something like imdisk.
http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html/#ImDisk
The basic idea is that ntfs volumes need not be mounted as drive letters-- they can be mounted as "junctions" instead, where they act more like a linux mount point. Basically, you mount the ramdisk using a junction, at the folder that your browser wants to use for its cache. This will have the same basic effect.
That could be useful on similarly crippled windows machines, like those new windows 10 "cloud books".
Post by: Aklyon on June 03, 2017, 07:29:58 pm
Post by: wierd on June 04, 2017, 02:54:00 am
That is to say, many schools are standardizing on chromebooks because:
1) Durable: No moving parts. NO, NOT EVEN A FAN. (the most fragile part is the display. You can drop it lots of times, and it will be fine.)
2) Absurd battery life. 8hrs active use on a single charge.
3) Absurdly cheap. Often under 200$ per system, retail.
4) Cloud based storage means all student data is in a central location, agnostic of device used to access it.
Now, Microsoft wants in on that action. They are trying to make a competing solution to the chromebook, in the typical MS fashion. (Including creating inferior cloud infrastructure.)
Personally, I consider the first 3 things above to be very attractive, but don't give two shakes about the last one. Cloud storage can go fuck itself. I like to own my own data.
That said, the storage inside chromebooks and these new "cloud books" is not upgradable. It is crippled at 16gb or 32gb of space, depending on model, on average. That is barely enough for an operating system these days, let alone user data. The device makers *KNOW* this, and use the lack of storage as a second foil to herd you into their cloud ecosystems. Again, screw that noise. My data belongs to ME, not some megacorp who thinks they know better than I on how to manage my files.
Hence, the need to abuse the SDCard slot. My Samsung Chromebook 3 (Celes) has a microSD card slot that is easily accessible, but easy to ignore at the same time. Perfect for putting a very large microsd card into, and mounting as /home after installing MrChromebox, and getting legacy boot support. The "Cloud Books" will likely need similar bastardry to be seriously used. The problem is that SDCards are not really made for aggressive, or persistent write operations. They wear out fast if you do that. Linux is the ideal OS to use here, because you can use zram backed swap to avoid ever writing to either the eMMC based SSD inside, OR to the microSD slot for things like swapfile use. Windows? Not so much. Additionally, it is painlessly easy to mount the SDCard slot as /home with linux, and things just work as you want. Again, not so with Windows. (You CAN use junctions, softlinks, and other tricks to get the system to use the storage-- but many MANY things will break because of how moronic the MS developers are, and how they blatantly assume that all system files need to be in %system_root%/Program Files, and that hardlinks in this folder are a jolly good idea, and that it must always be on the main system volume. There ARE ways to address all the problems, but it quickly becomes a lesson in pain avoidance to just use the OS that is better suited to this kind of use case, and install WINE for all that windows software you might need on your underpowered portable.)
Just again, while Linux does this much better than Windows does, it still needs a little helping hand, because the 3rd party app developers (Browser makers, et al) all stupidly assume that you will have no problems shitting files all over the drive, incessantly, and continually. Thankfully, Linux has an easy to set up mechanism to address this-- tmpfs. That catches these writes if you put appropriate tmpfs mounts at all the places these pieces of software want to shit temporary files, saving your media. This is easy to have the system do for you on every boot, by adding the needed entries to /etc/fstab.
I just wish I had considered how aggressive writing the browser cache actually was. 50mb of crap in just a few moments of browsing is just too much. 20mb folders is most certainly access.
Post by: Reelya on June 08, 2017, 10:44:52 pm
The weird part is that when I look at Window's mixer settings, the levels are supposedly coming through from firefox and to the speakers loud and clear.
And then the really weird part is that if I nuke either the left channel or the right channel of the signal, then the sound comes through fine, like the two channels are noise-canceling each other out, and the scratchy noises now make sense as a noise cancellation artifact.
Anyone ever have anything like this before?
Post by: wierd on June 09, 2017, 03:26:35 am
I have never seen it on PURPOSE-- but I suppose it is kinda clever...
Post by: CABL on June 09, 2017, 03:30:41 am
Post by: wierd on June 09, 2017, 04:16:37 am
The WD drives are better, but surprisingly, Samsung and Toshiba seem to have better longevity numbers.
If you decide on a WD product, it should be for some other compelling reason-- WD breaks their product line up for intended use cases. For a desktop, you probably DO NOT want RED. Red is for NAS boxes, like Synology's products, Green is mostly for external hard drive enclosures on low speed interfaces, Purple is for use in surveillance systems (high full spindle time applications) You would want a Black (Desktop grade spinny disk), or Blue (Desktop grade spinny disk, with an SSD cache integrated.) OR-- just get an SSD.
Personally, I would go for a motherboard with an M.2 socket, and get a reasonably priced SSD to go in it. Several nice ones based on nvme memory are available pretty inexpensively these days. I would get an ordinary, plain jane Toshiba or Samnsung spinny disk to go along with it for swap and other heavy write purposes.
Here's such a beast as far as SSD is concerned.
https://www.amazon.com/MyDigitalSSD-80mm-Express-PCIe-240GB/dp/B01M4OO1FT/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1496999980&sr=1-3&keywords=m.2+nvme
It is a 240gb nvme based SSD. It will be retardedly fast, and has a fraction of the pricetag of other similarly size and type ssd.
M.2 is a little thing about the size of a big stick of DRAM, that mounts directly onto the motherboard. It has its own dedicated controller, and is retarded fast. I have one in my i5. MyDigital is kind of a knockoff brand, which is why it is cheap. Their products are surprisingly good though. I got a 128gb one some time ago for like 80$. You can get the exact same one for 60$ on newegg today.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA53D3W24030&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC-_-pla-_-Solid+State+Disk-_-9SIA53D3W24030&gclid=CNumzeu4sNQCFQqEaQod-08KFg&gclsrc=aw.ds
The idea there is to have the OS and the like installed on the SSD, but to have all your heavy disk accessing stuff (like browser caches, swap file, etc--) all on a companion spinny disk. A cheap drive is sufficient.
Post by: Person on June 11, 2017, 06:57:20 am
My monitor is a dell. Apparently for some asinine bullshit reason this is an issue.
Here's the process I went through. Run the windows 7 installation to a seperate partition. Up until the mandatory reboot this goes flawlessly with one exception: The resolution lowers for no reason. But I said to myself "Whatever, I can just change it back after install completes. No big deal."
But then the restart finishes, and a message pops up saying essentially this: "Input not supported. Change to this resolution." Naturally I can't change resolution with only a black fucking screen to work with. "Amusingly" said resolution is in fact the resolution that IT WOULD BE ON IF IT DIDN'T CHANGE FOR NO FUCKING REASON.
I reboot, and delete the borked install.
So I look into it, and apparently the issue is that dell monitors basically can't install any version of windows with hmdi enabled. No, I have no idea why. Nor does anyone else I guess.
"Okay, I'll buy a vga cable. Its like 10 dollars, and I'll just return it if it doesn't work anyway I suppose." So I do. I turn everything off as instructed. I unplug hdmi, and plug in vga. (Apparently having both plugged in makes things go all screwy.) I turn it on, and set my monitor to use vga. "No vga input detected."
Fucking what? Oh windows 10 doesn't support vga, you have to turn it on manually.
Ok. I do so after getting hdmi back in. In other words, I enable low resolution mode. I shut down, replace cables for the Nth time. "Vga input not detected."
...... Turn computer off, vga cables out, hdmi in.
"No hdmi signal." And here we fucking go. Now I can't use vga or hdmi, so my desktop now can't display a signal to my monitor.
I don't want to buy a new (old?) monitor. Is there any way to fix this or am I permanently fucked.
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on June 11, 2017, 07:09:07 am
Post by: Person on June 11, 2017, 07:14:21 am
Edit: Found an old monitor to test. Not very hopeful though. Especially considering it is also a dell.
Edit: Yep that didn't work either.
Edit: Just going to buy a monitor that doesn't suck I guess.
Edit: New monitor is garbage too. Will return it later. Going to try dvi next, but that will be awhile.
Edit: I got safe mode working. Should be able to handle it from here.
Post by: Akura on June 15, 2017, 07:00:10 pm
There's a few I've seen that would fit what I'm looking for, but some recommendations would help.
Post by: Parsely on June 15, 2017, 07:45:45 pm
Considering getting a graphics tablet. Nothing serious, something that's <$100. Mainly, it's a bit difficult to draw anything since I'm left-handed for things like writing and drawing while my mouse is right-handed. ...And have crap skill on top of that.I have a Wacom Intuos. It's very small (12 inches wide) but it works great. I'd definitely prefer one of those massive ones with a giant high res display but if you're on a budget the Intuos is good.
There's a few I've seen that would fit what I'm looking for, but some recommendations would help.
Post by: Teneb on June 20, 2017, 07:14:48 pm
EDIT: Managed to figure it out. A damn bother, though.
Post by: wierd on June 21, 2017, 03:26:47 am
Post by: Tellemurius on June 21, 2017, 07:47:30 am
Post by: wierd on June 21, 2017, 08:56:32 pm
Post by: Reudh on June 22, 2017, 04:57:23 am
The problem is that some of their updates I do not like.
Doesn't Windows Update allow you to pick and choose installed updates to remove?
Post by: Tellemurius on June 22, 2017, 03:01:41 pm
Post by: wierd on June 23, 2017, 01:24:15 am
It does 7 through 10.
https://www.ntlite.com/
Post by: Akura on June 23, 2017, 06:55:39 pm
Post by: wierd on June 24, 2017, 02:00:19 am
Post by: Akura on June 24, 2017, 04:05:09 am
Post by: Xvareon on June 25, 2017, 11:56:09 am
Description: My monitor, sound, keyboard & mouse are all abruptly turning off at once, seemingly at random, with no warning beforehand. The CPU is still 'running' in that the lights are on and I hear the fan running, but there is no display on the screen, and the keyboard Caps-Lock keys etc. will not turn their corresponding lights on and off, even though the light remains on if it was on when the incident occurred. The problem happens even when I'm not running a memory-intensive application. Sometimes, it happens even when I'm trying to boot up the computer. I have to turn the power off and back on, which usually works, at least until the next time this happens, which is several times a day at random intervals.
PC specifications: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, Service Pack 1 -- Intel Core i7 2.67GHz (8 CPUs) processor -- 12 gigs RAM -- Kingston 480 GB Solid-State Hard Drive (Factory new) -- DirectX 11 -- AMD Radeon R7 360 series GPU -- Corsair CX600 power supply -- Intel Desktop Board DX58SO (http://ark.intel.com/products/36888/Intel-Desktop-Board-DX58SO) (Motherboard)
What I think is happening is that my motherboard is bad, because of my keyboard's caps-lock light not turning on and off, which means the signal isn't going through the motherboard and back like it should. The input/output paths just shut off. I've heard it may also be a bad RAM stick, but I dunno about that. Especially since I ran a Windows Memory Diagnostic and did not uncover any problems. Anyone here have or had a similar problem, or know how I can figure out exactly what the problem is so I know what I need to fix or replace?
Post by: wierd on June 26, 2017, 12:52:19 am
Things to check for first:
It the outlet you are plugged into properly grounded, and wired correctly/does this problem happen when on a different outlet on a different breaker?
Does your house get reliable mains power from the electric company? (Many rural locations have unreliable power delivery due to wind-whipped cabling.)
Does adding a UPS reduce the rate of incidence?
After checking wall outlet and power delivery issues, check to be sure your board is configured properly. Some of those fancier boards do "voltage tweaking" to slightly overvolt the ram a teeny bit so you can drive it faster. This often leads to instability with these kinds of symptoms. Try using failsafe defaults instead of optimised defaults, and see if that helps.
If it is neither of those, check to be sure you did not put too much thermal paste on the heatsink. Too much acts like an insulating blanket and cooks the CPU instead of helping to keep it cool. That can lead to strange behaviors, like spontaneous lockups and poweroffs.
Finally, check for signs of capacitor plague. This has not been a problem for many years now, but getting hot can trigger electrolyte breakdown/blown vents on electrolytic capacitors. Check for orange goop/crust on the tops or legs of the capacitors, or if the little cross shaped creases in the tops have "puffed out", or opened. If you see either of those, replace the motherboard.
Post by: Xvareon on June 26, 2017, 10:56:20 am
However. I checked the capacitors as advised. One of them, marked with the characters "CR5BV", right below a little green light on the motherboard, is crooked, looking quite skewed off to the left. And that's not the only one. The capacitors marked C364BU and C506BU are both skewed off, the first being majorly to the right while the other is only slightly off. But three capacitors off-axis like that probably isn't good for the board. They aren't puffed out and there's no orange crust on them, though.
Post by: wierd on June 26, 2017, 11:32:54 am
What will cause issues is if the vent has blown.
See for instance, this image:
(http://electronics-diy.com/schematics/1260/repairing-switching-power-supply-3.jpg)
If the tops are bulged out, it is bad.
If the top has goo leaking out, it is bad.
If the top is pristine and flat, the vent has not blown, and the cap is probably good.
Post by: Tellemurius on June 27, 2017, 10:29:57 am
As for this situation, have you checked the windows log for any hangups? There might be a recorded event for a stalled software or hardware failure. You say the display goes out, its possible the video card driver crash and was not able to recover. My AMD 390 sometimes have these issues as well where the driver will crash and theres a few seconds where my screen is flashing.
Post by: EnigmaticHat on June 27, 2017, 12:14:11 pm
Post by: BigD145 on June 27, 2017, 12:54:14 pm
Surge protectors should not be chained, its redundant and its possible for one strip to trip the other. UPS are pretty cheap nowadays. APCs has a basic unit on amazon for 45 bucks https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HDC236Q (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HDC236Q) course that is within the US.
Cheap UPS's are generally garbage. Their output may cause hiccups in whatever they are attached to.
Post by: Tellemurius on June 27, 2017, 02:10:04 pm
Post by: Parsely on June 27, 2017, 09:36:33 pm
Hooked it up to my computer and turned it on; I believed my friend but the display works fine for me right now! I get "Check Signal Cable: HDMI" on the display, even though this DisplayPort cable is plugged in. I tried to access the menu but it only allows me to select PC or AV mode, no other settings. I tried an HDMI cable and it displays just fine and I get access to all the menu options.
So great, it works (except sometimes it didn't for my friend apparently)! This would be fine, except I only have one HDMI port and I want to use this as a secondary monitor, so I'm hoping to get this DisplayPort cable working if possible so I don't need to spring for an HDMI bridge. It's jacked into an AMD Radeon R9 200 and the drivers are up to date.
Any ideas on what the deal is with the DisplayPort cable, or why it might have stop displaying before and started displaying again? I found a user manual online and I'm checking that out now.
Post by: wierd on June 27, 2017, 09:49:00 pm
You can get display port to HDMI cables. Get one, plug into PC's display port and monitor's HDMI port. Call it a day and stop worrying.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EIYZP3U/ref=asc_df_B01EIYZP3U5050043/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=395033&creativeASIN=B01EIYZP3U&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167140037427&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9428723408845634631&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9024386&hvtargid=pla-309875162575
Post by: BigD145 on June 28, 2017, 10:20:31 am
No, and wouldn't bother.
You can get display port to HDMI cables. Get one, plug into PC's display port and monitor's HDMI port. Call it a day and stop worrying.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EIYZP3U/ref=asc_df_B01EIYZP3U5050043/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=395033&creativeASIN=B01EIYZP3U&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167140037427&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9428723408845634631&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9024386&hvtargid=pla-309875162575
Even cheaper http://www.dx.com/s/display%2bport%2bhdmi?cateId=0&cateName=All%20Categories&category=123
Post by: EnigmaticHat on July 03, 2017, 12:49:48 pm
Post by: Aklyon on July 03, 2017, 12:55:18 pm
My computer doesn't have a wireless card because that costs money and ethernet is better. Is there some way I can connect to the router and then through the router connect to the printer? Or should I just get a USB cord printer? (I couldn't think of the words to google this)Our wireless printer/scanner/copier here is just a normal all-in-one with nonfunctional (requires a now-lost cd) wireless capability. Does your printer have no non-power cables?
Post by: EnigmaticHat on July 03, 2017, 12:57:51 pm
Post by: Aklyon on July 03, 2017, 01:00:59 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 03, 2017, 02:42:39 pm
Post by: EnigmaticHat on July 03, 2017, 04:44:35 pm
Post by: heydude6 on July 03, 2017, 05:42:59 pm
Post by: BigD145 on July 03, 2017, 07:31:14 pm
Biggest problem with wireless printers from my experience is that they tend to randomly disconnect from the network. It can be quite the pain to reconnect them. If I knew about this at the time I wouldn't have bought wireless and just stuck with wired. It's not worth the annoyance in my opinion.
I've had usb printers randomly disconnect from my computer. The same one disconnects from my router a lot less frequently.
Post by: heydude6 on July 03, 2017, 08:05:56 pm
Post by: Funk on July 10, 2017, 07:52:06 am
Windoes registry is so bad messed up that not even the XP install disc will run proppery.
Yes i know xp and yes my computer is made from rocks like everything from the stone age :P
Now it time to see whic of the 2 spare hard drives will work, install xp on that and mount the bad hard drive as it's slave.
Post by: Funk on July 10, 2017, 10:08:37 am
Turns out it was the BIOS getting the SATA controller gets toggled.
Post by: Arx on July 12, 2017, 03:42:44 pm
Asking because I'm contemplating this (https://www.takealot.com/samsung-s19f350hn-18-5-led-monitor/PLID45018430?utm_source=PriceCheck&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=FeatureOffer) monitor. Yes, yes, it's 720p and it's 2017, etc, but mostly
a) it's cheap
b) it may or may not have a good colour gamut (actually why I'm looking for a monitor)
c) it's PLS, which means it has good viewing angle and won't screw my gamma if I twitch.
Or, of course, if the hive mind can recommend something with an IPS/PLS display and good colour fidelity that won't break the bank that's cool too. :P I'm just not looking to lash out more than around $100 if it's not giving me significant benefit. 1080p would be nice, but I've worked with it and without it and I don't really mind.
Post by: wierd on July 13, 2017, 03:07:24 am
Why the fixation on color correctness though? Without using a spectrophotometer or something similar, you wont be ASSURED that the curves that the display says it is generating actually match the curves it really is generating. Many monitors can have their color balance manipulated via software at the video card level; have you exhausted that option yet before going out and buying a new monitor?
Post by: Arx on July 13, 2017, 06:50:58 am
Many monitors can have their color balance manipulated via software at the video card level; have you exhausted that option yet before going out and buying a new monitor?
Yes.
Post by: Cthulhu on July 15, 2017, 04:32:59 pm
Gonna be going through it with the compressed air but I just did that a couple weeks ago, feels like it should've lasted longer before needing a cleaning. The main th ing though is how hot that fan is, I don't remember that happening before. Could it be I accidentally put the fan in upside down when I last cleaned it? Maybe some kind of electrical problem causing it to heat up?
Edit: Input fan in the back is dead, I just pulled it out to clear the space. Probably gonna replace both case fans.
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 17, 2017, 08:09:35 pm
At present, I just leave the relevant drive unmounted, as they don't have the password needed to mount it. This, however, has the downside of leaving this drive (which is my media storage drive as well as the mentioned backup) inaccessible much of the time, which is not convenient for me. The ideal solution would be to set it up so that the relevant folders are invisible to their user, but visible to mine and to root. Failing this, requiring a password to open the folder would also work, so long as this did not interfere with the SMB setup I use to transfer to and from my Windows box.
Post by: wierd on July 17, 2017, 08:45:54 pm
Basically, set all access to "-" for OTHERS, and only grant read access to GROUP.
Something like this?
RWX,R--,---
If there are files that the system needs to access, but you dont want to run daemons as root (because you arent dumb), then GROUP comes to the rescue.
Create a new group, and name it something like DAEMONS or something. Give the limited user accounts used by the system daemons that need access to those files membership in that group, then change ownership of the files, by doing recursive chown at the top of the drive like this:
chown -R [owner]:DAEMONS *
This makes the ownership information grant permissions to the DAEMONS group, which then lets you dole out that readonly you need, while keeping actual ownership at the USER level intact. This lets your own user still have full access (root always has access), and gives provisions to the DEAMONS group for read only access, which we then set up with chmod at the top of that drive:
chmod -R g=r,o= *
That should leave any permissions set for your user level access alone, and set read only for group, and no access for others, and do it recursively. Afterwards, your user should still be able to see and use their files, only members of the DAEMONS group can get special group level access which restricts them to read only, and people not in the daemons group wont even be able to list files there. (they CAN change directory to there at the command prompt, but doing anything there will give an access denied message.)
The last bit of the puzzle is the default file creation mask in ~/.bashrc
We want all newly created files for your user to automatically assign group and others the correct permissions at time of creation (so we dont have to keep doing the above all the time to fix them) We do that with the umask. At the bottom of the .bashrc file, (or /etc/profile file), change/append this:
umask 037
That usmask gives the current user full permissions, the group permission of read only, and denies all permissions for other.
See this handy reference for how to calculate umasks (https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/understanding-linux-unix-umask-value-usage.html)
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 17, 2017, 08:51:09 pm
This sounds like what I want (giving no access to the group "Others", read only access to the system as a whole, and full access to my user), but I don't quite understand your explanation of how to go about it.
Post by: wierd on July 17, 2017, 09:35:42 pm
Ok.. Hmm How to say this with the least confusion..
By default, a group is created along with each user account, when they are created by the system. The following examples are lifted from my chromebook. (It is running an ubuntu variant, for clarity.)
If we do a "long list" in the home folder, we will get output like this:
Code: [Select]
chromebook@chromebook:~$ ls -ll
total 4525448
drwxrwxr-x 2 chromebook chromebook 4096 Jun 9 22:32 books
drwxr-xr-x 2 chromebook chromebook 4096 Jul 13 03:09 Desktop
drwxrwxr-x 11 chromebook chromebook 4096 Jul 3 06:44 df_linux
drwxr-xr-x 8 chromebook chromebook 4096 Jul 1 08:58 Documents
drwxrwxr-x 3 chromebook chromebook 4096 Jun 17 20:43 dosbox
drwxr-xr-x 5 chromebook chromebook 4096 Jul 10 05:48 Downloads
drwxrwxr-x 6 chromebook chromebook 4096 Jun 4 13:20 fuse-nfs-master
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4510416896 Jun 30 21:34 gmbc.iso
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 73383 Jun 30 21:34 gmbc.log
drwxr-xr-x 2 chromebook chromebook 4096 Jun 3 03:13 Music
drwxrwxr-x 4 chromebook chromebook 4096 Jun 9 07:44 mycloudsrc
drwxrwxr-x 2 chromebook chromebook 4096 Jun 3 06:21 NAS
drwxr-xr-x 3 chromebook chromebook 4096 Jun 11 05:50 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 2 chromebook chromebook 4096 Jun 3 03:13 Public
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chromebook chromebook 215713080 Mar 25 07:28 setup_aquaria_2.0.0.1.exe
drwxr-xr-x 2 chromebook chromebook 4096 Jun 3 03:13 Templates
drwxr-xr-x 2 chromebook chromebook 4096 Jun 3 03:13 Videos
See how it says 'chromebook chromebook' like that? That is because there is both a user (chromebook) and a group with the same name (chromebook) that were created when I set up the box. That group only has 1 member. My user account.
It is this situation that requires use to use chown. chown stands for "Change owner".
In a nutshell, we want to change all the ownership data for your files so that instead of pointing at this placeholder group the system created, we want to point it at a real group that we have set up for this. I called it DAEMONS in my example above. You can name it anything you want.
When you use chown, the command wants to know both the username for the new owner, and the group they belong to, to provision access. If we keep my examples, in my case, this would be 'chromebook' for the user, and 'DAEMONS' for the group-- so the command would look like this:
chown -R chromebook:DAEMONS *
Breaking it down, we are telling chown to change ownership recursively (-R), assigning ownership to the 'chromebook' user, and the 'DAEMONS' group, for all files (*).
This basically just changes the group membership defined for group access for all the files it finds, since we are keeping the same username as the owner.
We need to have a group named DAEMONS for that to work though. As I said, I assumed full linux literacy, when I probably shouldnt have.
To create a new group with no members, use the groupadd command. (will probably need to be run with root shell)
groupadd DAEMONS
then add all the user accounts used by the various system daemons to this group with usermod.
usermod -aG DAEMONS [usernameOfSystemDaemon]
To better explain the above, when you install system daemons on a linux box, the configure script for them creates both a limited user account, and a group container for each service. You can get a full list of the user accounts on a system by reading /etc/passwd. We dont care about most of the stuff in that file, just the entries for the user accounts the system knows about. For reference, mine looks like this:
Code: [Select]
chromebook@chromebook:~$ cat /etc/passwd
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/usr/sbin/nologin
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/usr/sbin/nologin
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/usr/sbin/nologin
man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/usr/sbin/nologin
lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/usr/sbin/nologin
mail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/usr/sbin/nologin
news:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/usr/sbin/nologin
uucp:x:10:10:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/usr/sbin/nologin
proxy:x:13:13:proxy:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/usr/sbin/nologin
backup:x:34:34:backup:/var/backups:/usr/sbin/nologin
list:x:38:38:Mailing List Manager:/var/list:/usr/sbin/nologin
irc:x:39:39:ircd:/var/run/ircd:/usr/sbin/nologin
gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats:/usr/sbin/nologin
nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin
systemd-timesync:x:100:102:systemd Time Synchronization,,,:/run/systemd:/bin/false
systemd-network:x:101:103:systemd Network Management,,,:/run/systemd/netif:/bin/false
systemd-resolve:x:102:104:systemd Resolver,,,:/run/systemd/resolve:/bin/false
systemd-bus-proxy:x:103:105:systemd Bus Proxy,,,:/run/systemd:/bin/false
messagebus:x:104:108::/var/run/dbus:/bin/false
syslog:x:105:109::/home/syslog:/bin/false
_apt:x:106:65534::/nonexistent:/bin/false
ntp:x:107:113::/home/ntp:/bin/false
avahi-autoipd:x:108:114:Avahi autoip daemon,,,:/var/lib/avahi-autoipd:/bin/false
avahi:x:109:115:Avahi mDNS daemon,,,:/var/run/avahi-daemon:/bin/false
colord:x:110:118:colord colour management daemon,,,:/var/lib/colord:/bin/false
dnsmasq:x:111:65534:dnsmasq,,,:/var/lib/misc:/bin/false
pulse:x:112:119:PulseAudio daemon,,,:/var/run/pulse:/bin/false
hplip:x:113:7:HPLIP system user,,,:/var/run/hplip:/bin/false
rtkit:x:114:121:RealtimeKit,,,:/proc:/bin/false
saned:x:115:122::/var/lib/saned:/bin/false
usbmux:x:116:46:usbmux daemon,,,:/var/lib/usbmux:/bin/false
speech-dispatcher:x:117:29:Speech Dispatcher,,,:/var/run/speech-dispatcher:/bin/false
uuidd:x:118:123::/run/uuidd:/bin/false
chromebook:x:1000:1000:chromebook,,,:/home/chromebook:/bin/bash
sshd:x:119:65534::/var/run/sshd:/bin/bash
statd:x:120:65534::/var/lib/nfs:/bin/false
clamav:x:121:128::/var/lib/clamav:/bin/false
As you can see, there are quite a few special user accounts associated with system services. We need to add each one to our newly created DAEMONS group, so that when those processes run, then can get the read only access we are providing for them. Just replace the [usernameOfSystemDaemon] field in my example with the username of the daemon you want to make a member of that group. eg 'clamav' if you want clamav to be able to read that volume. Do that for each daemon account you want to grant access. (pain in the ass, but yeah...)
After that, we need to set up the access itself. We do that with the chmod (change mode) command. I gave this example:
chmod -R g=r,o= *
Breaking it down, we are telling chmod to do the following: Change permissions mode recursively (-R), giving group access of read only (g=r), and others no access (o=) for all files (*).
Since your own user gets their access credentials through their user account, they will still have appropriate access through that side of things. (Our chmod example omits meddling with user level permissions completely, and leaves them alone. Only group and others lists get changed)
For system services that may need to access those files, we need to add the appropriate user accounts the system created for those services to the newly created DAEMONS group.
AND the last bit of the puzzle-- umask
This is what defines the default permissions assigned to freshly created files. I already linked to the relevant documentation.
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 17, 2017, 09:40:15 pm
Post by: milo christiansen on July 18, 2017, 10:30:24 pm
It doesn't have fancy features like gsync, but it is a cheap and rock-solid monitor. Great color, nice wide view angle (it is IPS after all).
Post by: scourge728 on August 08, 2017, 12:43:36 pm
Post by: wierd on August 08, 2017, 08:48:57 pm
I have had much better luck with Atheros and Marvel based chipset wifi, as those dont load the firmware into the device's memory from the driver. (The firmware is actual ROM, and is reliable.)
Post by: scourge728 on August 08, 2017, 09:12:00 pm
Also, how do I check the chipset?
Post by: wierd on August 08, 2017, 10:27:14 pm
Post by: scourge728 on August 08, 2017, 10:41:50 pm
EDIT: Unless you mean one of the 6ish other things labeled as chipsets
Post by: wierd on August 08, 2017, 10:46:28 pm
Yup, and intel Sata controller. Not the wifi nic.
Post by: scourge728 on August 08, 2017, 11:05:04 pm
Post by: wierd on August 08, 2017, 11:19:56 pm
The PCI ID string is divided into 3 major parts. The vendor (VEN_XXX), the device ID (&DEV_XXXXX), and the subsystem ID (&SUBSYS__XXXX)
Each manufacturer has its uniquely identifiable vendor ID. Intel's vendor id is 8086. Whenever I see "PCI_ID&VEN_8086" I know that this is an Intel product.
Post by: scourge728 on August 09, 2017, 12:35:59 pm
this is the network adapter (I'm not all that good with computers, despite using them all the time, the inside workings are foreign to me
Post by: wierd on August 09, 2017, 05:37:32 pm
That is an Atheros card. Since atheros uses actual firmware, and not a software blob, this is something different. Are you using windows 10? There seems to be a very large number of users reporting a very similar issue to yours, when using win10 and a specific driver version for this card.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-networking/qualcomm-atheros-ar9485-wifi-disconnects-randomly/bb7fd0ef-455d-4e1e-b973-6632791e0cc3
Loooooong thread. Last posting suggests disabling power management on the device in device manager. ("allow computer to turn off the device for power saving" option needs to be unchecked). I have seen no new posts for about a month since that last one.
Other potential sources of the headache are:
Microsoft's forced update policy breaks shit. (Who ever would have guessed...) It does this through either A) installing a very old driver, or B) does not cleanly install a windows update which breaks the driver for the card in some arcane way internally.
Toggling power management looks like a potentially easy fix, and all other proposed fixes in that thread are apparently a mixed bag.
Post by: scourge728 on August 09, 2017, 09:51:34 pm
I also already made it so the computer THINKS I'm on a metered connection, and thus doesn't try to auto-update
Post by: pondicherry on August 10, 2017, 10:38:31 am
I have a Sony vaio and I'm projecting to a asus monitor with a built-in cam and built-in speakers. Image is working but the sound comes from the laptop. I'm running windows 7 x64.
:/
the hell is going on? (hdmi)
In the sound options there's just the speakers default device.
thank you in advance!
Post by: Tellemurius on August 10, 2017, 12:41:30 pm
.
Post by: pondicherry on August 10, 2017, 12:45:34 pm
I've checked the disabled divices and nothing appears. The drivers are uptodate (checked via device manager).
:(
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on August 10, 2017, 01:06:30 pm
Post by: pondicherry on August 10, 2017, 01:08:41 pm
I'll check it, right now.
Post by: Rose on August 11, 2017, 01:46:44 am
(http://i.imgur.com/E6Eelxv.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/Z9ykB0e.png)
See if any video card output is listed there. I have an nvidia card, so I have 3 nvidia outputs, each one corresponds to one monitor plug on my card. If one is listed there and plugged in, set it to default.
Post by: pondicherry on August 11, 2017, 11:18:03 am
:(
Post by: Reudh on August 11, 2017, 10:23:02 pm
Last night, I tried to access a 25MB PDF for uni studies, and it failed 36 times before I finally got through.
Given the problem has persisted across routers, is it likely that the line is just fucked? The house itself is not old; it'll be 16 at the end of the year.
Post by: pondicherry on August 12, 2017, 10:02:05 am
Device manager doesn't check very hard. As in it doesn't seem to check at all. When searching for drivers you generally must do it yourself by going to the manufacturers website. Do not rely on Microsoft for 3rd party support like GPU drivers, only for the bare minimum that might nt even work then.
I detected an issue. This model has a dual-GPU (Intel and AMD), recently I had to disable the AMD cause it was dead . . . then reinstall windows 7. Now I'm not sure If I should download the AMD drivers ... that's wierd right? I'm just using the intel processor.
Thank you for you help.
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on August 12, 2017, 10:10:53 am
Post by: pondicherry on August 12, 2017, 10:14:37 am
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on August 12, 2017, 10:16:57 am
Post by: Tellemurius on August 12, 2017, 10:43:18 am
Post by: pondicherry on August 12, 2017, 11:24:20 am
Oh you have a laptop with dual graphics, those require specific drivers for support. The HDMI audio connection requires the amd drivers to be installed.
My AMD fried with the summer heat, just using the intel.
Thank you for helping me out.
Post by: Rose on August 13, 2017, 08:17:34 am
Post by: flabort on August 13, 2017, 08:40:00 am
Post by: pondicherry on August 13, 2017, 10:16:13 am
Then it's likely that the intel card just doesn't support hdmi audio.
That's sad.
Or some remnant of the AMD card is still trying to use the sound; unlikely, but if it's still plugged in, try shutting off the computer and removing the burnt out card. I understand laptops can be difficult to open up, but if it had space for two graphics cards it should be easier than most laptops.
That's sad too, cause I'm really not brave to do that. :/
New fact : I'm using a vga to hdmi connection - and in display adapters there is a yellow sign in the "standart vga graphics adapter".
Is this important? (and using dvi) da hell is going on ...? does this makes any sense?
Post by: Rose on August 13, 2017, 10:42:29 am
Vga doesn't support audio. You need either an hdmi or a dvi port or your laptop to get audio from it to the tv. Vga won't do it.
Post by: pondicherry on August 13, 2017, 10:54:18 am
Oh, that would be it. Should have mentioned that sooner.
Vga doesn't support audio. You need either an hdmi or a dvi port or your laptop to get audio from it to the tv. Vga won't do it.
I mean it's a hdmi port on my laptop.
Post by: Rose on August 13, 2017, 10:57:03 am
Install both the intel and amd drivers given by your laptop's manufacturer. That may work.
Post by: pondicherry on August 13, 2017, 11:08:00 am
If it says standard vga graphics adapter, then it needs drivers
Install both the intel and amd drivers given by your laptop's manufacturer. That may work.
Thank you Japa!
But should I really install the amd drivers, when the amd is dead ? Is that ok?
Post by: Rose on August 13, 2017, 11:15:27 am
Post by: flabort on August 13, 2017, 11:40:27 am
Is it a VGA port on the tv then? If at any point the signal is passing through a VGA type cable, then it's dropping the sound.Oh, that would be it. Should have mentioned that sooner.
Vga doesn't support audio. You need either an hdmi or a dvi port or your laptop to get audio from it to the tv. Vga won't do it.
I mean it's a hdmi port on my laptop.
Post by: pondicherry on August 13, 2017, 11:58:13 am
Is it a VGA port on the tv then? If at any point the signal is passing through a VGA type cable, then it's dropping the sound.Oh, that would be it. Should have mentioned that sooner.
Vga doesn't support audio. You need either an hdmi or a dvi port or your laptop to get audio from it to the tv. Vga won't do it.
I mean it's a hdmi port on my laptop.
Yes it is. Maybe I should get a vga hdmi converter thing ? But the laptop has already an hdmi input : monitor(vga) ---> pc (hdmi input)
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on August 13, 2017, 12:29:18 pm
Post by: Aklyon on August 13, 2017, 01:09:29 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on August 13, 2017, 01:17:11 pm
Otherwise your last option would get a vga/hdmi converter or a HDMI audio inserter.
Post by: pondicherry on August 13, 2017, 01:25:35 pm
Lets try one more thing its possible that the intel hdmi audio drivers are not installed since it wasn't plugged in at the time. Can you try reinstalling the intel drivers with the HDMI plugged in?
Otherwise your last option would get a vga/hdmi converter or a HDMI audio inserter.
I'll try it right now. Thank you !
Post by: BigD145 on August 14, 2017, 11:43:18 am
Post by: wierd on August 14, 2017, 10:57:55 pm
Post by: Jiharo on August 18, 2017, 12:34:00 pm
Post by: AzyWng on August 18, 2017, 03:08:26 pm
What should I do to prepare for whatever might happen?
=
Post by: wierd on August 18, 2017, 09:12:56 pm
Post by: AzyWng on August 19, 2017, 10:08:13 am
Post by: wierd on August 20, 2017, 08:11:35 am
Boot the liveCD, then make note of which disk device has partitions on it. (a brand new disk will not have any.) Once you have satisfied yourself that you have without question identified which device is the source, and which is the destination, use dd to do the imaging.
sudo dd if=/dev/devIDofSource of=/dev/devIDofDest bs=512 sync
If it fails due to a read error, use gddrescue instead.
Norton Ghost:
Boot the CD, and follow the on screen instructions
Arconis disk manager:
Similar to Ghost, but does not use a boot disk, iirc. Never used it, always used linux to do it instead
Post by: Avarice on August 20, 2017, 11:06:38 am
I have no clue and im pretty gutted cause I wanted to give my pokemon to my obsessed friend
Post by: wierd on August 20, 2017, 07:52:58 pm
If so, the save files are just sram dump files.
In what way are you trying to give him your pokemon exactly? Something like system link?
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 20, 2017, 08:54:37 pm
The network consists of a Win10 computer, a Win8 computer, various Android devices, and occasionally a few retro systems running XP or 98.
Post by: Tellemurius on August 20, 2017, 10:33:59 pm
Post by: wierd on August 20, 2017, 11:23:45 pm
My guess is that the system runs out of free memory for filesystem caching, then gets caught in a contention problem. Sadly, there is no way to add ram to a consumer router.
Check out T's suggestion first, but if it does not resolve it, suggest an actual, good quality NAS box instead.
Post by: Reudh on August 21, 2017, 02:57:58 am
So my ADSL1 connection has been consistently dropping out over the last nearly two weeks. It's done this before, then stops for a significant period of time; the last time it occurred was in February. I replaced the router with a spare one a mate gave me, which mitigated some of the issues of the dropped connection (this router manages to actually get the connection back without either crashing or restarting), but it's still occurring multiple times per hour.
Last night, I tried to access a 25MB PDF for uni studies, and it failed 36 times before I finally got through.
Given the problem has persisted across routers, is it likely that the line is just fucked? The house itself is not old; it'll be 16 at the end of the year.
Reposting, same problem still occurring. What do?
Post by: wierd on August 21, 2017, 03:15:54 am
Contact your ISP, and tell them about your signal issues. Tell them to fix their shit. (politely, of course.)
Post by: Arx on August 22, 2017, 03:28:19 am
If you can demonstrate to your ISP that it's broken, they will almost certainly repair it (although not necessarily fast). If you can demonstrate that you've had degraded service, you might even squeeze compensation out of them.
Post by: Reudh on August 22, 2017, 06:51:12 am
That's almost certainly a flaw in the wire somewhere. Any trees near the line in your area?
If you can demonstrate to your ISP that it's broken, they will almost certainly repair it (although not necessarily fast). If you can demonstrate that you've had degraded service, you might even squeeze compensation out of them.
The only trees in my area are too small and young to have broken or disrupted the line. It is possible that the bizarre system the national telecom company installed 16-ish years ago (pair gains? i don't entirely understand it, but it's something like multiple houses being treated as one, and split at the premises) might have something to do with it, but uh, i don't know.
Anyway, stability wise it's much improved; the dropouts have gone from twelve to thirty times an hour to maybe three times a day. Speed wise it has not improved one bit; it's been very slow, probably not more than 10-40KB/s, where our normal maximum is 150-180KB/s.
I've tried mentioning to my parents that the internet is basically unusable at home, and as we're out of contract we can just move to a new ISP, but it doesn't really affect them as they just use their 4G connection on their phone, so their motivation is almost-nil. I'd front up for it myself, but currently I have nowhere near enough money to go to a new ISP.
For the price they're paying ($90AUD/mo), it's really fucking shit. A comparable costing service with any competitor now that the NBN has gone through would see us getting 50Mb/s and an unlimited download rate, vs 1Mb/s if we're lucky and 300GB.
Current speed test:
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/6560002218.png)
Post by: Tawa on August 31, 2017, 10:31:37 am
E: I tried some other ideas (namely, I completely uninstalled and reinstalled ALSA and PulseAudio, including rebooting the computer.) Still nothing. I'm dual-booting with Windows 7 as well.
Post by: wierd on August 31, 2017, 08:40:05 pm
Post by: Tawa on August 31, 2017, 10:24:43 pm
Something else strange is that when messing with each individual setting (e.g. speaker volume, headphones volume, etc.), the sound cuts out if I mute the headphone audio, but changing the headphone audio's volume does nothing--I can turn headphone volume to 0 and nothing will change, but muting it kills the music outright.
I've tried messing with pavucontrol as well. The only difference I can seem to make is that if I manually change the port from "headphones" to "speaker", the aforementioned effect stops occurring--if the port is set to speaker, the headphone audio can be muted or unmuted and sound will still play.
Post by: Paxiecrunchle on August 31, 2017, 10:28:18 pm
Post by: Tawa on September 01, 2017, 03:43:40 pm
Post by: chaotic skies on September 01, 2017, 09:35:22 pm
So, I'm trying to convert a table of results from a tabletop game into google sheets (I'm cheap and don't have excel). Basically, I want to be able to role 2 dice and plug in their results, and then get an output from the table. One part is easy; rows are numbered, so they only need some minor amount of math. The problem is, columns aren't; they have letters. So i'm trying to find a way that doesn't involve writing 100 "if b3 = x then output y" cells to convert from numbers to letters. I've googled it, and either something isn't quite clicking or I'm asking the wrong question.
If something doesn't make sense and I need to explain more, I can, I'm probably missing some small thing anyway.
Post by: wierd on September 01, 2017, 10:19:37 pm
Post by: Greiger on September 01, 2017, 11:39:26 pm
Anybody know what I'm doing wrong?
Post by: wierd on September 01, 2017, 11:58:01 pm
Try looking (DONT TRY RECOVERY YET!) at it with TestDisk. It is designed to recover nuked partition tables.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
Post by: Greiger on September 02, 2017, 12:03:05 am
Post by: Reudh on September 02, 2017, 04:51:45 am
Probably a stupid question because I really should know this, but my PC kicked the bucket, all signs point to a worn out power supply. I salvaged the drives and am connecting them up to a laptop while I wait for parts for my new baby, the SSD reads fine, but for some reason the main Drive is not readable, not showing up in explorer. In disk management, it shows as G: but as no media. Old PC was win 8.1 the temporary laptop I'm working with is win 7.
Anybody know what I'm doing wrong?
If a PSU fails, depending on how good it was, it can end up nuking just about every other component. When my old PC's PSU died, I was extremely lucky to escape with no damaged components (maybe motherboard, which began to fail about a year after the PSU).
It might simply be that the hard drive isn't mounted properly; it might be that the drive is buggered. The fact it's reading it at all is a good-ish sign.
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on October 04, 2017, 01:51:31 pm
I checked event viewer to see what it was saying and see if any events were logged, the actual error isn't listed as having happened but that a shutdown occurred that was unexpected. Multiple NFTS logs stating that the drives were all healthy (it scanned them during boot) and I ran the hardware checkup program that came with the PC that wasn't window's own and that said the drive was okay too.
Everything important that was on the laptop has been backup up to an external drive I have which is both a very large drive and almost completely empty (well 164gb is on that drive but the total size is 3.63tb). I'm just confused as to exactly what happened there. Although it is a 4ish year old laptop and has been in heavy use over the past 2.5 years.
Post by: Rose on October 05, 2017, 01:58:49 am
And it has a habit of randomly shutting off for no reason. Not shutting down cleanly or sleeping, just powering off.
It doesn't have that problem in win7, or linux. Only Win10.
Anything I can try?
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 05, 2017, 02:01:57 am
Post by: AzyWng on October 05, 2017, 10:09:51 am
Does defragmenting shorten the lifetime of a hard drive? If so, why?
Defragmenting is bad for SSDs, right? Why?
Post by: Reelya on October 05, 2017, 10:31:32 am
The whole point of defragging was for physical hard-drives with a moving read-write head: by packing related data near each other, the amount the head needs to move is reduced, which reduces latency but also wear and tear on the arm mechanism, but at the expense of read/write wear and tear on the platter. So the goal is to minimize read/write head movement, which improves access speed and avoids jumping around (which is more wear and tear on the read/write head). to do this it needs to shunt old files out of the way and pack new files in, which means a lot of shuffling of files.
Hhowever, SSDs don't have moving parts, so they don't need to have a file packed in sequentially for faster access. So the defrag shuffling is just wear and tear on the drive for no good reason. Additionally, SSDs have special controllers in them that shuffle the blocks around as needed, to ensure that all wear and tear happens evenly. Defragging just messes that up.
Post by: wierd on October 06, 2017, 07:12:16 am
Namely, the IO pipeline has less protocol traffic, since more efficient requests can be given, assuming the OS is written sensibly. (The OS is unaware of how the blocks are actually allocated inside the SSD's flash memory array. Instead, it asks for high level blocks/sectors, as described by the MFT (for windows), or the inode chain (for Linux), or the FAT table (for legacy partitions). When the data is fragmented, it has to issue more total cumulative read request packets to the drive, which the drive then has to respond to. When the data is contiguous, and the OS knows it needs to read a large file, it can issue larger read requests to the drive, reducing the total number of requests.
We are talking at most a few microseconds of gain from this though (at the extreme), and it is a purely academic point. Random reads from an SSD are still lightyears ahead of the response speeds you get from random reads on a mechanical drive.
There might be some other, OS-level benefits to having fully contiguous blocks, such as improved performance with block deduplication, or FS level compression (such as from btrfs). Those things are not really intended for normal end users though.
The general answer is that it is not really beneficial to defragment SSDs, because the sector wear it causes is not worth the teeny tiny benefit it gives. (excepting in certain edge cases, and if you have such an edge case, YOU WILL KNOW IT.)
Post by: Eric Blank on October 06, 2017, 06:55:21 pm
Post by: Reelya on October 06, 2017, 09:50:41 pm
3TB laptop-sized externals are $139 at OfficeWorks here, which isn't even a cheap place. And that's in Australian dollars, which would be around $US 110. So I'm sure you can get a decent 3TB laptop sized drive for under $120.
Post by: Reudh on October 06, 2017, 10:49:20 pm
I pretty much always go for Western Digital, never have had issues with those, but I did with Seagates years ago. but it's probably a good idea to look up failure rates etc since YMMV with drives. I also have Toshiba externals (laptop size) and they seem ok.
3TB laptop-sized externals are $139 at OfficeWorks here, which isn't even a cheap place. And that's in Australian dollars, which would be around $US 110. So I'm sure you can get a decent 3TB laptop sized drive for under $120.
I have an SSD and a HDD in my PC. I have a 2TB Seagate Barracuda; it's been fantastic since I got it in 2015. I have had issues with Maxtor, but they've long since gone defunct. Oh, and my SSD is a Samsung Evo, but they're not cheap per GB compared to hard drives.
If I recall the prices, it tends to jump up in increments of about $30AUD-$40AUD / TB for external drives, no idea about internal drives, or what it costs in USD. My Barracuda cost something like $99AUD, the 1TB variant is $69AUD, and the 3TB was $139 iirc.
Post by: BigD145 on October 07, 2017, 03:42:41 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 12, 2017, 01:05:35 pm
Post by: wierd on October 12, 2017, 01:27:45 pm
Apparently, after about firefox 52.0, the mozilla team lost touch with reality, and made SSE2 instruction set a hard requirement.
Naturally, for devices without intel/x86 CPUs, (like rPI and pals), this presents a problem. The code compiles, but when you run FF, it crashes instantly.
Had to revert to FF 52.0, and put apt hold to prevent it updating.
(Set up a friend's rPI 3 B over my vacation. Hooked it up with xubuntu instead of Raspbian, got his touchscreen shield working and callibrated, and all that fun stuff.)
Just putting that out there because of recent "lapses in judgment" from the FF dev team. It is entirely possible that they have done some additional stupid thing with 56.0
Post by: AzyWng on October 17, 2017, 05:58:28 pm
Is it supposed to take fucking forever?
I mean, the laptop I'm using downloaded Windows 10 without much trouble, but when "Creating" the media I left to have dinner, had it, then went back (overall took about half an hour?) and found that the progress meter was still at 0%.
Gonna wait for a few more hours, hopefully nothing terrible has happened.
Post by: Tellemurius on October 17, 2017, 08:56:12 pm
Post by: AzyWng on October 17, 2017, 09:33:43 pm
Dunno exactly how old it is, but it's been around for a while.
Still at 0%, even now.
Post by: wierd on October 18, 2017, 01:49:19 am
That would be my guess.
Post by: Reelya on October 18, 2017, 01:53:03 am
Post by: wierd on October 18, 2017, 02:05:34 am
Once you understand that it is the "volume in use" thing, it is easy to fix. Just yank the media, wait 3 seconds, and reinsert it. If an autoplay window pops up, close it. (because it will hold the volume in use. Stupid assed OS and its bullshit-- but meh.) then you can go about your merry business with it.
Post by: AzyWng on October 18, 2017, 06:13:55 pm
It's taking another forever. It's been about 50-40 minutes since the software's gotten to the "Creating Windows 10 media" stage and it's still at 0%.
You think maybe I should run it when in Safe Mode?
Reason I'm making this backup is I got suckered and wound up getting malware on my system... Some of it's not going away so I"m thinking of reinstalling windows...
Post by: BigD145 on October 19, 2017, 03:02:38 pm
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/junkware-removal-tool/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/rkill/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/roguekiller/
Post by: Rose on October 20, 2017, 02:38:44 am
Just download this: https://rufus.akeo.ie/
Post by: Reelya on October 26, 2017, 03:35:52 am
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It would be nice if Windows let you just specify generic properties for folders, but this is the best you can do without hax / 3rd party utilities.
This works ok except for two things. "Prop6" is meant to be "Comment" however I can't find the column that actually makes that appear. And the InfoTip field appears in the tooltip for the folder, and also under Windows "Comments" field (which you'd expect would show Prop6 according to Microsoft's documentation, but doesn't), except it only appears for about 2/3rds of folders and there appears to be no rhyme or reason to it.
EDIT ... I just tried a workaround, but it's stupid as hell (clone a "good" folder, then replace the contents with those of a "bad" folder, then delete the bad folder, then rename the "clone" folder to the original name). So it's just broken. Entirely empty folders with the same attributes are sometimes broken for tooltips / comments until you delete them. I've run Attrib on both the folders and desktop.ini files and they're no different.
Post by: AzyWng on October 26, 2017, 03:30:59 pm
I know which folders contain the malware, but they've been locked by "administrator permissions".
I can't access them or delete the folders.
Fiddling around with permissions has accomplished nothing.
Any ideas of how to delete these folders?
EDIT:
Running Adwcleaner has just resulted in me removing the same items again and again, with those items reappearing each time.
Double Edit:
FileAssassin is unable to delete the files.
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on October 26, 2017, 03:37:53 pm
Post by: BigD145 on October 26, 2017, 05:54:21 pm
Post by: wierd on October 26, 2017, 06:09:07 pm
Post by: Reelya on October 26, 2017, 10:53:09 pm
Post by: Parsely on October 27, 2017, 10:53:12 am
I'd like to fix this, but I have to consider just switching to another browser. Any recommendations for a browser that isn't Chrome?
Post by: Reelya on October 27, 2017, 11:48:44 am
Even in safe mode, it leaks, so it's not necessarily add-ons doing that. Opening my browser in normal mode used ~470MB, safe mode ~170MB. I have about a half dozen extensions. Opening 40 tabs got that up to 2GB on normal, 1GB in safe mode. Then closing all the tabs and doing "Minimize memory Uage" safe mode still shows a leak of about 150MB, and the normal mode had a leak of about 300MB.
EDIT: there's some more info and slightly helpful tips below. It appears that the problem is actually fragmentation of memory pages. There's a chunk of memory in the about:memory called 'decommitted', which is memory that Firefox freed up but is still allocated to Firefox by the operating system. When Firefox frees up some memory, if there's any data at all left in that memory page then the entire page cannot be handed back to the operating system. So what happens as you open and close things is that the memory allocated to Firefox fragments. It's an operating system issue really, and it's going to affect all browsers.
https://slashdot.org/story/06/02/14/2154224/firefox-memory-leak-is-a-feature
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 27, 2017, 02:40:19 pm
Post by: Reelya on October 27, 2017, 02:45:14 pm
Post by: feelotraveller on October 27, 2017, 10:07:33 pm
On the other hand I have only heard good things about 57, particularly the developer version https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/09/firefox-quantum-developer-edition-fastest-firefox-ever/ (https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/09/firefox-quantum-developer-edition-fastest-firefox-ever/) although I have not tried it myself. Reports vary from somewhat faster to faster than anything I've experienced before and average to substantially faster. Might be worth a try instead/before going to a new browser?
Edit: actually this link https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/desktop/#beta (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/desktop/#beta) is better for downloading either developer on non-developer beta 57 (or even nightly 58 if you're up for it) :)
Post by: Broseph Stalin on October 29, 2017, 02:11:44 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on October 29, 2017, 11:02:15 pm
Post by: Parsely on November 10, 2017, 12:30:33 pm
there's some more info and slightly helpful tips below. It appears that the problem is actually fragmentation of memory pages. There's a chunk of memory in the about:memory called 'decommitted', which is memory that Firefox freed up but is still allocated to Firefox by the operating system. When Firefox frees up some memory, if there's any data at all left in that memory page then the entire page cannot be handed back to the operating system. So what happens as you open and close things is that the memory allocated to Firefox fragments. It's an operating system issue really, and it's going to affect all browsers.Yeah I switched to Vivaldi and the issue persists. It's gotten to the point where I'm getting memory warnings to close programs, but I can't just close my browser every 20 minutes, everything takes forever to load with my shitty net. I'm not sure what to do.
https://slashdot.org/story/06/02/14/2154224/firefox-memory-leak-is-a-feature
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers
Post by: Jopax on November 11, 2017, 09:08:19 am
I have issues with livestreams on YT and I can't figure out the cause. What happens, completely randomly is that the stream will show the buffering circle and stop but I don't think it has issue with that since I can open a regular video and it'll play just fine. I tried clearing the cache but it still happens, it's not a single stream either since it happened on several different ones. The only solution other than waiting a random amount of time for it to start playing again is to refresh the page. It's really irritating when I'm running these in the background for music or similar and have to keep going back to them to get them playing again. I'm using Firefox, don't think it's the latest version but it's not older than several months.
I've searched for the problem but the stuff that I've found hasn't been helpful in the slightest.
Post by: scourge728 on November 11, 2017, 07:00:06 pm
I've spent all day trying to free up space on my computer, no matter how much I deleted it never seemed to help. Then switched to my second desktop and realized my audio editing software was open and I'd been recording for 60 hours.I must have this in my signature
Post by: Jopax on November 23, 2017, 05:45:25 pm
Recently I've updated to FF 57 and it's been pretty ok, except in the past couple of days YT has been absolutely shitting itself a good portion of the time. Mainly, either half the page doesn't load properly (like say the various share commands are there but can't be clicked for whatever reason, even after reloading multiple times) or there's no video, as in, the window is black while I can clearly see the audio playing normally. Even the playback commands are invisible, even tho they're perfectly clickable and work properly. Pausing the video and switching focus to another tab shows a single frame but that's about it. I thought it was maybe the adblocker but turning that off did nothing except remind me why I turned it on in the first place. Anyone got any ideas?
Post by: thedrelle on December 01, 2017, 12:49:06 pm
Update on the malware situation:
I know which folders contain the malware, but they've been locked by "administrator permissions".
I can't access them or delete the folders.
Fiddling around with permissions has accomplished nothing.
Any ideas of how to delete these folders?
EDIT:
Running Adwcleaner has just resulted in me removing the same items again and again, with those items reappearing each time.
Double Edit:
FileAssassin is unable to delete the files.
My goto is to grab the bitdefender rescue CD and boot off of that
https://www.bitdefender.com/support/how-to-create-a-bitdefender-rescue-cd-627.html
the infection your computer has is interfering with the your ability to remove the offending software. it's using windows against you. booting from a CD will eliminate that issue and allow you to remove the offending software without it using windows as a barrier.
Post by: Reelya on December 02, 2017, 10:47:00 am
Another problem with Youtube and Firefox.
Recently I've updated to FF 57 and it's been pretty ok, except in the past couple of days YT has been absolutely shitting itself a good portion of the time. Mainly, either half the page doesn't load properly (like say the various share commands are there but can't be clicked for whatever reason, even after reloading multiple times) or there's no video, as in, the window is black while I can clearly see the audio playing normally. Even the playback commands are invisible, even tho they're perfectly clickable and work properly. Pausing the video and switching focus to another tab shows a single frame but that's about it. I thought it was maybe the adblocker but turning that off did nothing except remind me why I turned it on in the first place. Anyone got any ideas?
I don't know if it's relevant to you, but Firefox uses IPv6 by default, and that was causing some page load issues on my system. Turning that off made it work better:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-cant-load-websites-other-browsers-can
about:config, set network.dns.disableIPv6 = true
Post by: AzyWng on December 02, 2017, 02:47:20 pm
Update on the malware situation:
I know which folders contain the malware, but they've been locked by "administrator permissions".
I can't access them or delete the folders.
Fiddling around with permissions has accomplished nothing.
Any ideas of how to delete these folders?
EDIT:
Running Adwcleaner has just resulted in me removing the same items again and again, with those items reappearing each time.
Double Edit:
FileAssassin is unable to delete the files.
My goto is to grab the bitdefender rescue CD and boot off of that
https://www.bitdefender.com/support/how-to-create-a-bitdefender-rescue-cd-627.html
the infection your computer has is interfering with the your ability to remove the offending software. it's using windows against you. booting from a CD will eliminate that issue and allow you to remove the offending software without it using windows as a barrier.
My computer is a laptop with no cd drive. Would it be possible to create recovery media off of a flash drive?
EDIT: Disregard the above question, followed the link and discovered the answer was yes, am busy trying it out. Will report back if it works.
Post by: AzyWng on December 02, 2017, 03:41:29 pm
All it does is restart the computer and immediately bring me into the login screen.
Any ideas on how to get the advanced startup option to run properly?
Post by: wierd on December 02, 2017, 04:08:09 pm
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-access-advanced-startup-options-in-windows-10-or-8-2626229
See "option 2"
After doing that it should reboot, and give you the startup options thingymajigger.
Post by: AzyWng on December 02, 2017, 04:38:45 pm
Invoke it from the config panel?
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-access-advanced-startup-options-in-windows-10-or-8-2626229
See "option 2"
After doing that it should reboot, and give you the startup options thingymajigger.
When I said I tried clicking the "advanced startup" option in windows 10 settings... That was what I meant. I tried it. It just restarted normally.
Post by: deathpunch578 on December 04, 2017, 12:59:20 pm
whats happening is it either won't connect to any internet source or when it is connected it's saying there is no internet. I've deleted my wifi drivers and reinstalled them, but the problem persists. any help
Post by: smjjames on December 04, 2017, 04:42:01 pm
Avast seems pretty good as a free antivirus...
Post by: Tellemurius on December 04, 2017, 08:58:18 pm
Post by: deathpunch578 on December 05, 2017, 11:50:21 am
okay so my computer isn't getting internet, it's been doing this since the last windows 10 update.let me be more specific, the wifi works on everything else just not my computer.
whats happening is it either won't connect to any internet source or when it is connected it's saying there is no internet. I've deleted my wifi drivers and reinstalled them, but the problem persists. any help
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 05, 2017, 01:32:50 pm
Post by: deathpunch578 on December 05, 2017, 02:59:37 pm
if anyone is wondering (and if it helps) I can open up my computer and see what my wifi adapter is (don't know off the top of my head)
Post by: Greiger on December 06, 2017, 03:31:23 pm
Another possibility, is to see if your wifi adapter is some kind of Atheros. For some reason, at least around 1 year ago when I worked for comcast tech support, we got a memo from research about Atheros drivers that stop working with your symptoms under windows 10 after updates. If that ends up being the case you might want to try to see if you can update the driver.
Unfortunately if that is the case, that's all the info I know. That problem was always out of our scope to fix, and the higher ups were rightfully afraid of giving us too much info on the causes of out of scope problems because they were worried we would spend too much time trying to fix it instead of focusing on the routers like we were supposed to.
Post by: deathpunch578 on December 06, 2017, 08:25:09 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 20, 2017, 02:52:47 pm
Welcome to emergency mode! After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to view
system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, "systemctl default" to try again
to boot into default mode.
cannot boot - root account is locked
Post by: wierd on December 20, 2017, 05:33:40 pm
Sounds like a dirty shutdown happened.
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 20, 2017, 05:43:02 pm
I was able to solve it by burning a new Live CD on my Windows box and using it to edit the FSTAB file manually. The problem was that there were two entries for that partition, so when it tried to mount the second one it ran into a "partition already mounted" error.
Now the question is: how can I unlock the root account so I can fix errors like that more easily?
Post by: wierd on December 20, 2017, 05:47:34 pm
https://askubuntu.com/questions/132965/how-do-i-boot-into-single-user-mode-from-grub
Post by: Larix on December 29, 2017, 11:11:34 am
My old desktop became flaky last year, clearly overheating something (judged by smell) until crashing.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I took the thing apart and looked at it closely over the last few days, and some circuitry very close to the socket looks sort of... caramelised. Some guessing and web searching shows it's all full of hefty el-caps, power mosfets and throttles, so i suspect it's stuff that provides power to the CPU.
The CPU is an AMD 64 X2 with an ADXnnn identifier - i.e. a 125W TDP processor and the handbook of the motherboard says it can only handle up to 95W TDP; so the OEM slotted in an over-hungry CPU (good job!). The computer worked reliably for ~6 years before getting toasty, which feels plausible for a slightly overburdened circuitry holding up but with significantly reduced life expectancy.
Nothing else in there looks really suspect (no bulging capacitors, no other charred/tanned spots on the board), so is this a likely event? I've just been wondering what exactly messed up the thing. Considering it was a really cheap pre-assembled desktop in 2009 or /10, repairing's out of the question and even the spare part value is strictly self-use or donation.
Post by: wierd on December 29, 2017, 06:39:11 pm
Post by: Larix on December 29, 2017, 08:09:07 pm
It was a very gradual, almost "soft" failure, as described - the computer could be rebooted and worked normally after rebooting at first. Only after several weeks did it fail to reboot properly. The faint but distinct burnt smell was a clear sign it was a heating issue, and getting the dust out of the fan and radiators made no difference, suggesting it wasn't the processor which was getting too hot.
As mentioned, it's mostly curiosity/diagnostic interest. I'm not likely to buy another machine from that manufacturer anyway, but if their poor system composition actually reduced the lifetime, it'd be pretty damning.
Post by: Sheb on January 07, 2018, 02:18:50 pm
Any hint of what it could be?
Post by: wierd on January 07, 2018, 07:54:49 pm
Also, did google decide to revert an account preference that enables remote mail?
Post by: Maximum Spin on January 08, 2018, 05:00:41 am
Post by: wierd on January 08, 2018, 05:11:22 am
Post by: AzyWng on January 12, 2018, 08:44:14 pm
https://malwaretips.com/threads/fake-windows-process-manager-virus.76916/
In this forum thread there's a link to a rootkit remover. I used it and it seems to have worked - the "Client Service" and "Windows Process Manager" items are gone, and I can delete the folders I previously couldn't.
Post by: scriver on January 19, 2018, 11:41:20 am
Lately I've been having to put unordinarily large files in C: because I've been modding NwN and it's toolset requires you to put new assets in the C:/Users/MyDocuments/NwN folder. It fills up super really fast when you do that. I really annoys me. I don't really want to wast the precious space of the fast drive when I could store all these NwN assets in the spacious hard drive.
So. Do you think there is any way I could change my laptop's structure of whatever to make D: the default/primary drive for random everythings, so that all the User stuff and computer system stuff would go in there instead of C:, and so I could keep the super ultra gotta go fast drive for things I actually want to go even faster stronger better than?
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on January 19, 2018, 12:19:34 pm
Post by: scriver on January 19, 2018, 12:45:47 pm
Anyway, trying immediately.
Post by: wierd on January 19, 2018, 02:30:26 pm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_junction_point
Or even, abusing a .vhd with a mount point?
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/How-to-automatically-mount-d623ce34
Basically, you can keep the path on the C: drive, but have the files physically stored on the D: drive, if you know what you are doing.
If you don't, thats OK too, as there is a handy shell extension to ease the pain you would otherwise have to endure at the command prompt.
http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html
Despite the name, it does both hardlinks and softlinks. (to link to another partition/drive, you have to use a softlink or a mountpoint.)
Post by: scriver on January 19, 2018, 03:48:41 pm
Post by: Rose on January 20, 2018, 12:08:15 am
Post by: wierd on January 20, 2018, 12:13:13 am
First, you need a filter driver to make windows view the external SDcard as permanent storage-- Then you can use something like symmover (http://symmover.en.lo4d.com/) to move files out of the program files location, and onto the formatted SDcard, and then abuse symbolic links so that programs think it is still on the C: drive.
Similar approach would work fine for big programs that *INSIST* they must be on the C: drive (unless they use hardlinks. Thanks MS! I love how all your shit does that now!), meaning it would work great for systems with an SSD and a traditional spinny disk. (you just dont need the filter driver, for obvious reasons.)
Post by: scriver on January 20, 2018, 10:02:58 am
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on January 20, 2018, 10:21:08 am
Post by: scriver on January 20, 2018, 11:33:30 am
Post by: Reelya on January 20, 2018, 02:41:47 pm
Post by: scriver on January 21, 2018, 06:16:45 am
edit:
Post by: Reelya on January 21, 2018, 07:52:25 am
Post by: scriver on January 21, 2018, 08:04:48 am
I still really fucking hate computers though. And all computer programs. And everyone who writes them, and their respective how-to-use guides online.
Post by: scriver on January 21, 2018, 08:20:43 am
Lastly though. If I want to add new files to these symbolically linked folders. Do I add them in the C: (source/ where I want the computer to think they are) or the D: (destination/where they take up actual file space) folder? D:, right? Do you think the computer will automatically get that or will I have to make new links ever time?
edit: Also related, if the game auto-downloads files to a linked folder, do they end up in C: or D:?
Post by: scriver on January 21, 2018, 09:45:56 am
...turns out there where .init settings...
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on January 21, 2018, 10:00:53 am
Post by: wierd on January 21, 2018, 10:42:28 am
Still, Yeah. If you run into another bloated title that demands to be on the C drive, give symmover a shot.
To answer your prior question about saving new files there-- Any file you write into the linked directory will be physically written to the other drive. The magic is being done at that folder's level. Anything inside that folder will be on the other drive. You could write the file to either location, and it will show up inside that folder on C. Easiest just to pretend it lives on the C drive, the way you make the computer think it is, and just roll with it.
Titles that use hardlinks though (Just about ANYTHING from microsoft...) will abuse the winsxs folder. Files are actually written to winsxs, and hardlinked against that location. Microsoft's software demands to be in that location for updates to happen, so you cant move it out. This means things like internet explorer, windows media player, and pals-- cannot be moved. (A real troublesome thing on those very space constrained tablets I mentioned.)
Everything else is fair game through.
Post by: Reelya on January 21, 2018, 10:52:17 am
Post by: wierd on January 22, 2018, 03:29:27 am
Does anyone know WHY microsoft uses Hard Links instead of symbolic links for the winsxs folder? I really don't see the advantage. It wont be any faster, and just introduces more stringent requirements. If they had used soft links, the winsxs folder could have been anywhere, and would not be mandated to be on the C: drive. (since you could then have the winsxs folder be an ntfs mount point to a dedicated volume, with all the locations on C: being softlinks against that mountpoint.) It cant be because they think they need to purposefully prevent such things, can it? They aren't that nanny inclined, right?
Post by: scriver on January 22, 2018, 03:42:48 am
Well at least you know for the future right?
Yeah. Until I forget ;)
Thanks for the help anyway, everybody.
Post by: misko27 on January 31, 2018, 02:19:48 pm
Cut to a few weeks ago, I started having issues with freezing. This universally happened during games, and always took one of two forms: 1) my computer would become completely unresponsive save for holding the power button to shut it off, 2), it would simply turn off with no prior warning as if I had been pressing down on the power button (like if I had unplugged a desktop). It's started happening fairly frequently, such that I find myself unable to play multiplayer games for extended periods of time without a crash. I tried a program that would let me read the crash reports, but I found that there apparently aren't any, even though it is set to do so (there might have been a space issue? My computer is pretty full...).
So my question: what do I do? I've heard suggestions of an overheating issue, but while it does seem to get kinda hot, my skepticism with that is that it's never happened in all the time I spent playing games on it before, and this started in the middle of the coldest part of the winter so far (Below 10 Fahrenheit). I guess more specifically, my question is: what should I do to try and figure out what's wrong? I'm completely willing to open my computer up (and have done already, both to upgrade and repair) and do repairs or anything else, but I'd rather not jump down a rabbit hole like that unless I'm fairly certain that's where the problem is going to be. Could it be a memory issue? Something with the hard-drive? Wires going undone, or graphics card crashing, or dust, or fan, or what? Hardware, software? I just don't know where I should look.
Post by: wierd on January 31, 2018, 03:30:27 pm
Replace thermal pad with actual thermal joint compound. See if issue persists.
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on January 31, 2018, 05:35:19 pm
Radeon settings wouldn't open because "the GPU wasn't correct or the driver had failed", So i check with sfc, yeah the driver is corrupt was the answer, and that "MSFT_NetIPv6Protocol.cdxml" was also not right.
I try using device manager to roll back the GPU driver (I'll see if I can fix the other thing tomorrow) and the system sort of hangs, then crashes stating something that doesn't make sense.
ATTEMPTED_EXECUTE_NON_EXECUTABLE_MEMORY USBhub3.sys
Or something like that. I checked event viewer which wasn't very informative, but did mention that the keyboard had reset and sent an incorrect response.
Also this: The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x000000fc (0xfffff800b06c7270, 0x8000000246331021, 0xffffd00026617620, 0x0000000000000002)
Keyboard is working fine right now, Mouse is okay, Had to turn the WiFi on and off a couple times before it worked and the whole thing loaded slowly but the GPU driver seems to be okay right now too. Was it "one of those things"?
Post by: gimlet on January 31, 2018, 07:28:48 pm
Maybe run some virus/malware scans, download a couple good free ones and see if anything comes up. (Make SURE they don't install a permanent runtime check, having more than one of those running at once is "not good". I just delete them after I'm done now)
So that's my version of "the usual suspects" - takes a fair amount of clock time while the stuff runs, but it's not really that much effort - download, kick it off, come back later and look at results.
Post by: Tawa on February 03, 2018, 08:57:56 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 04, 2018, 12:24:11 am
On Windows (going off memory, you might need to do some tweaking):
Make a Copy of your "dosbox.conf" file, named something like "Daggerfall.conf".
Configure the new file appropriately for daggerfall.
Under the "autoexec" section, type something along these lines (naturally, you'll have to substitute the mount path for what you have on your system, and I'm not certain of the exact filenames for this particular game)
MOUNT C C:\Games\Dos\
C:
CD DAGGER
DAGGER.EXE
Once you've done that, create a shortcut to Dosbox. Edit the shortcut, and replace DOSBox.exe with DOSBox.exe -conf "DAGGERFALL.CONF"
This should allow you to click the shortcut to start.
Post by: wierd on February 04, 2018, 01:27:58 pm
http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/DOSBoxShortcuts
Post by: Tawa on February 05, 2018, 11:24:38 pm
Post by: AzyWng on February 10, 2018, 07:22:58 pm
I was able to reboot the laptop and things seem to be working fine for now. Any idea what might have caused this?
I had a number of tabs open in Mozilla Firefox, and I was downloading a game on Steam. Are either of those things frequent causes of laptop crashing?
Post by: Reudh on February 10, 2018, 10:33:39 pm
So my monitor on my laptop just suddenly shut itself off without warning.
I was able to reboot the laptop and things seem to be working fine for now. Any idea what might have caused this?
I had a number of tabs open in Mozilla Firefox, and I was downloading a game on Steam. Are either of those things frequent causes of laptop crashing?
Not sure, but that sounds like it could be a graphics driver crash, and the computer failed to restart or rescue the graphics driver. I had similar things happen on my old laptop. And no, downloading a game is unlikely to cause a graphics driver crash like that. Maaaaaaybe having lots of tabs open, especially ones loading youtube etc. Laptop GPUs aren't great anyway.
Post by: IronTomato on March 11, 2018, 11:45:02 pm
I'm trying to make a script to run Daggerfall with only one command. How would one create a script that opens DOSBox, then runs commands in DOSBox? Is it possible?>mfw you see a problem you could have helped with but you're a month too late
My friend traded me a HDD which is WAY newer and, to my knowledge, faster than the one I have now (the one I'm using is 6+ years old) so it'd be real nice if I could replace my old HDD with this new one and then just use the old one for something else. Is there some kind of way I could easily transfer all of the shit from the old one to the new in such a way as to not risk destroying myself?
My common sense tells me "just copy and paste all the stuff lel" but due to my past hard-drive-related fuckups I no longer trust myself with such things
Post by: wierd on March 12, 2018, 12:06:55 am
Easiest is just dd from linux. gddrescue if you want a pretty progress indicator, or suspect bad sectors.
Run it from a USB live stick/dvd. Be very sure about source and destination.
Post by: NullForceOmega on April 06, 2018, 01:29:18 am
This afternoon I started up my computer, then logged into STEAM, a few moments later STEAM began downloading a 480`ish MB update for ARK: Survival Evolved.
None of this is unusual, what is abnormal is that for the FIRST TIME since I installed my wireless card it actually downloaded at its maximum speed, around 11.5 megabytes (NOT BITS I know the difference) per second. After experiencing some abnormal slowness with Windows I restarted the system, and lo and behold, I was back to a pathetic 1.5 megabytes per second download speed.
What this tells me is that there is something, somewhere on my system, that is massively throttling my bandwidth, and I want to figure out what it is. Any ideas?
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 06, 2018, 01:42:59 am
Post by: NullForceOmega on April 06, 2018, 01:48:57 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 06, 2018, 01:52:51 am
Post by: NullForceOmega on April 06, 2018, 01:57:08 am
Post by: wierd on April 06, 2018, 11:39:39 pm
Most users are going to be schlubs like me, who are stuck behind ancient slow as hell ADSL or wimpy cable modems. (I suffer the former.) I have a laughably tiny upload speed-- 768k sustained. Even though your download pipe is huge, if your box connected to mine and tried to download something, it would be limited to 768k/sec, which is the saturation limit of my upload speed. Likely, that is what is happening here.
P2P can get around this to some extent, by connecting to several peers at once, and downloading several chunks at a time, which makes the effective transfer speed much higher. (you can connect to 10 people that are crippled like I am, and get 7mb/sec download.)
Post by: milo christiansen on April 07, 2018, 12:55:40 am
Valve does, however, limit download speed so those with really fast internet don't suck up all the bandwidth and leave the slower connections to rot.
Post by: wierd on April 07, 2018, 01:13:22 am
Right, was thinking blizzard, which does.
Ok then, it is so valve's servers dont get raped by people with digital fiber to the home. :P
Post by: Eschar on April 14, 2018, 05:48:41 pm
EDIT: Also can I (perhaps somewhat unethically) use Tor Browser to get around wired.com's article-per-month limit?
Post by: Reelya on April 14, 2018, 09:19:28 pm
Quote
Registrant Contact Information:
Name: Domain Administrator
Organization: Oracle Corporation
Address: 500 Oracle Parkway M/S 501ip3, City Redwood Shores
State / Province: CA
Postal Code: 94065
Country: US
Phone: +1.6505062220
Fax: +1.6505062120
Email: domain-contact_ww_grp@oracle.com
Post by: MaximumZero on April 14, 2018, 11:02:39 pm
Post by: wierd on April 14, 2018, 11:05:19 pm
Post by: Reelya on April 15, 2018, 03:08:24 am
Is java.com in fact a safe, trustworthy place to download Java or is it merely masquerading as Oracle?
EDIT: Also can I (perhaps somewhat unethically) use Tor Browser to get around wired.com's article-per-month limit?
You almost never have to go that far. Most paywalls work by storing cookies / local data in your browser.
I triggered the wired paywall then deleted browsing history. That broke wired.com, but ctrl-F5 (a full page reload) on the main wired.com page worked and the paywall was good for 4 articles again. Note, that you need to go back to the wired.com main page when it resets, since the article pages look for the paywall data when you reload them, and if it's not there, they fail to load.
Post by: wierd on April 17, 2018, 02:39:44 am
Random problems with the Spigot minecraft server I installed on my old NAS box (after re-purposing it.)
1) Users cannot connect unless I put it in offline mode. For some reason it *INSISTS* that the mojang auth servers are down, when they totally aren't. I cannot find reliably good information on how to fix this, and instead am inundated under a deluge of 12 year olds squealing about their clients. I dont care about the damn client-- I want to have authentication working properly, as I know for a fact that the auth servers are indeed up.
2) I can only connect to it on the local LAN. I have forwarded the proper ports, I have tested that the port is open-- but I cannot connect via the public IP for some reason.
Any suggestions?
Post by: wierd on April 17, 2018, 10:25:19 pm
I grew a pair, and contacted my mini-server while at work. Apparently my router is smart enough to not use an internet address when trying to connect to the server when the computer is on the local network. When I am outside the network, I can connect just fine.
Still not sure what to do about authentication though.
Post by: Sensei on April 24, 2018, 10:37:09 am
Post by: NullForceOmega on April 27, 2018, 04:36:55 pm
I've tried just about everything short of re-installing windows (which I absolutely do not want to do, but if that is what it comes down to I will), can someone help me out here?
It occasionally clears up after multiple restarts, which makes me think that something is failing to initialize somewhere.
This is completely insane, the problem is now constant, nothing I do has any impact at all, every single diagnostic shows no problems and reports that my system health is good. Every device shows green, even booting from the install disc did nothing.
I looked into slowdown causes and the only thing that is even remotely recent has to do with a recent set of security patches, but I didn't install any of those until after the slowdown started, so they can't be the cause (tho' they could very easily be compounding the issue).
It effects everything with an animation, there's a three second delay when I scroll, when playing Skyrim my mouse control is completely smooth and normal but every single animation plays out in slow-motion. I've checked every setting and none of them are wrong, but this inexplicable lag keeps happening.
Opened the case, cleaned then re-seated everything, on startup the system was much faster but very noticeable lag issues persist, especially when opening a window or refreshing the contents of an open window.
Download speed once again inexplicably throttled to 1.5 MBs.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 03, 2018, 12:40:55 am
Both computers can see the printer that is connected to the router.
Both computers can see and access each other
Only one computer can access the USB drive connected to the router.
The other PC can see the router in "Network", but throws a "network path not found" error if you try to access it. I've tried everything I can think of - rebooting both PC and router, turing off the firewall (temporarily, of course), trying to direct map to it, connecting with IP address instead of hostname. I just can't figure it out.
Post by: scriver on May 07, 2018, 08:50:51 am
I recently found a bunch of old photos and I want to change their file type from .jpg to .png or whatever the format is called (what kind of a camera saves photos as .jpg anyway, that's horrible practice). My first instinct was to just change the ending of the files but I don't know if that actually changes the file type. Does it?
Post by: milo christiansen on May 07, 2018, 09:48:41 am
However, why do you want to do that? Converting to PNG does not magically recover the quality lost to JPG. (https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/102100)
Post by: scriver on May 07, 2018, 10:19:14 am
Post by: wierd on May 07, 2018, 10:40:28 am
1) it lets them use lacklustre ccds that aren't the most consistent (jpeg compression averages regions, and blurs out the anomalous pixels)
2) it let's them use cheaper/slower nand, because a jpeg is smaller than raw pixels.
3) there are cots hw accelerated jpeg compression chips they can leverage to get jpeg format data from a CCD very quickly and cheaply.
I too have longed for a high quality camera that can optionally capture as PNG (Software compress raw mode data, save as PNG) even if it is slow to take pictures and drains battery.
Such devices don't exist. It was hard to convince camera makers to even offer raw saving as an option, and only really expensive cameras support it.
Post by: Rose on May 07, 2018, 12:46:56 pm
Post by: Reelya on May 07, 2018, 11:23:27 pm
No, it does not. You need some kind of converter.
However, why do you want to do that? Converting to PNG does not magically recover the quality lost to JPG. (https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/102100)
Of course not, but it stops further loss of quality.
"further loss of quality" for a JPG only makes sense if you edit the photo in an editing suite, make changes and save it again, and choose JPG deliberately. Storing, copying, and viewing JPG files doesn't change them at all. Converting to PNG just gives you a PNG that looks exactly like the JPG. So if you've got jpg photos then you can just leave them as JPGs and not worry about any loss of quality: the loss of quality was a one-time thing when the file was first created.
The only time they can get further degraded is if you open them in a photo-editing program, and save them again as a lossy format, especially if the format isn't exactly the same as the original JPG, or if you make changes such as applying filters to the whole image, or cropping it (since that usually throws the JPG blocks out of alignment). The rule of thumb here is to just leave your image files alone as whatever format they happen to be in, but remember to choose PNG for saving, when you edit pictures in a paint program. It makes literally zero difference if you convert them to PNG before editing.
~~~
Some of the new AI-based filters might help out in the near future. The premise is that they train the AI on millions of "sample" pairs of high-quality / low-quality versions of the same images, teaching it to repair the damage on the low-quality images so that they look as much like the high-quality images as possible.
You can then use the resultant neural network to clean up other images. However, the closer the training set resembles the data you wish to clean, the better. e.g. if you had low-quality JPGs of anime images, and wanted to upscale them while removing JPG compression artifacts, you'd want to get a huge number of high-quality anime images, downscale them, then convert to JPG, with as close to the same settings as possible as the images you wish to clean up. Then teach an NN to reverse that specific degradation for that specific class of images, and you'd have a custom filter which was really, really good at repairing images exactly like those ones.
EDIT the concept here is that if you teach an NN to upscale images of e.g. ... WWII planes, then it becomes really good at working out what WWII planes are meant to look like, so when you give it a new image of an unknown WWII plane, it fills in missing details intelligently, rather than just using a generic upscale filter. Sure, it will still upscale other types of things and might do passably ok, but it's going to be really good at the class of things it was trained on. In the future there might even be intelligent online filters that work out what something is, e.g. object and edge-detection, then apply specifically trained filters to subregions of the photo which hold those things. e.g. if there's a blurry plane and a blurry tree, it could apply different upscale filters to both regions of the photo, and do better than applying only one filter to the whole photograph.
Post by: Maximum Spin on May 08, 2018, 01:52:56 am
Post by: scriver on May 08, 2018, 02:11:16 am
Post by: wierd on May 08, 2018, 02:24:20 am
When people make images for the web, they usually want to make the file size as tiny as possible, which means they crank the quantizer really hard (turn quality really low). The result is really noticeable artifacts.
It is important to understand what an artifact is, and how it gets generated. JPEG looks for edges inside a fixed rectangle 'tile' of the image, then averages the pixels that do not meet edge threshold, and have similar color values. The issue, is that the average of one tile, and another, (especially with a very high quantization value) can be noticeably different. This creates a rectangular artifact.
When the quantizer is not set on "Mangle! DEATH TO QUALITY!" settings, JPEG does not look that bad on natural images. However, hosting companies dont want to pay for people downloading a 300kb jpeg on every visit. Instead, they want users to download 30kb jpeg on every visit. (Or smaller!!). So, they set the quantizer to MANGLE! and go on.
Most cameras (most..... ...) dont set the quantizer on MANGLE when they generate the jpeg from the CCD array's output. They still produce artifacts, just not really horrible ones. They only show up on post processing because the tile boundaries are what they are, and averages are averages. If you try to enhance edges, the edges between tiles will also be enhanced, for some algorithms. This makes JPEG undesirable for professional photography, and why professional cameras have the option to save as RAW.
Post by: Reelya on May 08, 2018, 02:50:42 am
Ah, I see. I was under the impression .jogs decrepited every time you copied them. How else would pics on the webs artifactify?
A normal copy is the same size and is digitally identical to the original, like copying any other type of file.
The degradation could happen if a site is storing all images in lossy formats, but then they decided to re-format the files with higher compression to reduce bandwidth costs. That would compound the problem: the new format is more lossy than the old one, but it's also not working from a clean version, but from another lossy version.
e.g. say the first filter lost 10% of detail, and the second filter lost 20% of detail (with linear reduction of file size). If you applied filter 1 to a raw image, you have 10% loss, and if you apply filter 2 to an image you have 20% loss. However, say you didn't store original images anywhere, to save space, then apply filter 2 to images that already used filter 1, then you're down to 72% detail, but the real kicker is that the file still takes up the same amount of space as one with only 20% detail loss created from the original file.
So, not storing original clean images actually backfires in terms of bandwidth, since if you always convert from 100% perfect copies you can compress the resultant images to smaller sizes for less perceptual loss of detail compared to trying to shrink an already-shrunk image.
Post by: scourge728 on May 12, 2018, 11:09:55 pm
Post by: wierd on May 12, 2018, 11:12:40 pm
https://www.ccleaner.com/defraggler
Post by: scourge728 on May 12, 2018, 11:25:28 pm
Post by: IronTomato on May 16, 2018, 12:41:35 pm
No, it does not. You need some kind of converter.
However, why do you want to do that? Converting to PNG does not magically recover the quality lost to JPG. (https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/102100)Of course not, but it stops further loss of quality.
"further loss of quality" for a JPG only makes sense if you edit the photo in an editing suite, make changes and save it again, and choose JPG deliberately. Storing, copying, and viewing JPG files doesn't change them at all. Converting to PNG just gives you a PNG that looks exactly like the JPG. So if you've got jpg photos then you can just leave them as JPGs and not worry about any loss of quality: the loss of quality was a one-time thing when the file was first created.
Insert flac/mp3 copypasta here
Post by: heydude6 on June 03, 2018, 04:45:23 pm
My microsoft edge seems to have some sort of corruption issue. I knew it was wonky with pdfs, but this is the first time I used it normally and I got this:Pretty creepy. Any idea how to fix?Spoiler: Warning, spooky large image (click to show/hide)
Anyway, VLC media player and discord are starting to show the same kind of issue now. Can someone offer me a solution this time, rather than a joke please. This is pretty serious, I won't be able to play videos or game online with my friends now. Audio still works fine in VLC so I assume it's some sort of bug with the way windows is displaying images.
Post by: Reelya on June 03, 2018, 04:54:10 pm
You can also try reducing or disabling hardware acceleration for video:
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/hardware-acceleration-windows-7
---
I also highly recommend mpv as a media player. It has customizable decoder and renderer settings so you can change hardware vs software decoding etc. It's worth a shot if nothing in VLC is working, since there are many more options here. You can use it raw or get it bundled with a front-end / library manager type deal (there are about 10 different projects to choose from, seek wikipedia). But I just use the vanilla version.
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/02/swap-vlc-mpv-ubuntu
Main site:
https://mpv.io/
Windows build repo:
https://mpv.srsfckn.biz/
It's not an "installer" app, just extract it to a folder, right click on your video, then use Windows "open with" to find mpv.exe. however it does a shitload of things most players won't let you do. It's also incredibly good at not completely sucking if you need to run it on old hardware. (though they dropped XP support a while ago so if you need XP version ask me for the last compatible build).
e.g. I built an old machine for someone else, some high-end videos wouldn't play because they couldn't be decoded fast enough, so I put mpv on there, turned on decoder frame-skipping, plus renderer-frame-skipping, and a third option that occasionally resyncs the video by force, and then the videos would play and not fall out of sync. No fucking chance of VLC working correctly for something like that, which is the very reason I dumped VLC originally, for mplayer2 (precursor to mpv). mplayer2 just worked correctly, after setting a couple of options, for videos which were horrendously broken in VLC, no matter what I did.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Rose on June 04, 2018, 12:35:22 am
Post by: Eschar on June 10, 2018, 03:00:36 pm
Post by: Sensei on June 10, 2018, 11:45:39 pm
-I'm using an old-ish PCIe card. The drivers are up to date as far as I can tell.
-Wireless routers are quite new, and I think part of a meshing system which might be part of the problem
-The network seems to drop and reconnect often, sometimes every few seconds
-Sometimes the connection dialogue say's I'm connected only on IPv4 or IPv6, but not both
-Pinging to router gives mostly short ping times, but also a lot of random very high ping times or timeouts
I feel like I've tried everything and I have no idea why it's acting like this. Any suggestions?
Post by: wierd on June 11, 2018, 12:04:46 am
(If yes) Is it a legacy BCM43x ?
If both those are "yes", consider replacing the card. Those were basically designed only for G networks, and while they are software defined (controlled by a blob loaded into the card by the driver), they have issues with WPA2 based ciphers, and have issues with N networks (which use larger channel widths).
Post by: Sensei on June 11, 2018, 12:31:54 am
The wireless network is indeed WPA2 (and probably AC). It's made up of Linksys Velop routers, I'm not sure were the stat sheet is offhand as the linksys website directs to a page which is heavy on advertising and light on technical information.
Post by: wierd on June 11, 2018, 12:58:21 am
Post by: Reelya on June 12, 2018, 08:35:45 pm
Post by: Parsely on June 13, 2018, 11:24:33 am
- All times are converted to GMT before they're entered
- There is one row per person
- Each row has a cell per day of the week
- Each cell contains a single range of integers indicating general hours of availability (ex. "9 - 13", meaning 0900 to 1300 hours)
- There's a table showing the hours in each day of the week and the ranges where availability overlaps are highlighted automatically
How can I achieve this or something like it? Mostly I'm struggling with how to represent the times in a way that I can then interpret using cell formulas to highlight ranges.
Post by: wierd on June 13, 2018, 12:05:54 pm
The question is how are you going to get then process integer time?
(see also, unix epoch time. Same thing.)
Post by: Reelya on June 13, 2018, 07:38:14 pm
Here's a straightfoward method, which would allow you to indicate not just hours per person but also days on or off.
Make a weekly timetable sheet as a template, then copy it for each person as a new sheet. If someone is available in a specific time period put a "1" in there. You should be able to copy a single "1" then paste to multiple cells to make it quicker.
Then, your master timetable is an additional sheet, with a cell formula which sums the corresponding cells from each sheet. Copy/paste the formula to all cells. You'll now have a single timetable indicating how many people are available at each time, but which you could also use to indicate a list of available names (using string concatenation or some other trick).
Post by: scourge728 on June 14, 2018, 11:57:58 am
Turns out all the bookmark folders are empty...because why WOULDN'T they be empty
Post by: lethosor on June 14, 2018, 01:06:41 pm
I saw that was related to modding - did you have modding-related sites bookmarked or something? Or notes of some kind?
Post by: scourge728 on June 14, 2018, 06:23:55 pm
Post by: Reelya on June 14, 2018, 07:49:03 pm
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1037683
A quick way to export bookmarks is to right-click on a bookmarks folder then choose "Copy" then you can paste that into a text file as raw links.
Post by: scourge728 on June 14, 2018, 11:52:34 pm
Post by: misko27 on June 24, 2018, 03:29:14 pm
So I was playing a game last night (Fallout: New Vegas if it matters), and my computer suddenly blinked off. There was no warning, no crash report, no BSOD, and no loud solitary beep (which it usually does when it crashes). Just went dark. And since then, it has not turned on at all: the power button just does not react. The most I've gotten out of it is the LED at the bottom lights up if-and-only-if my laptop is plugged in to the charger, but not the battery. The LED evens turn off if I plug in the battery.
A couple other things that might help: it's a Dell Inspiron 15 7559. I've had problems aplenty before, but never just refusing to turn on. I've taken it apart, but don't visibly see anything that would cause the problem (I know my battery was run down, could that be it?).
Basically I just want to know if there is anything I can do or try to do before I declare it a lost cause. I already wanted a new one, but it would be sometime until I could get one...
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on June 24, 2018, 03:37:39 pm
This might not be the case for you, maybe dead battery (dead dead rather than discharged dead) or dead connectors which is slightly problematic.
Post by: AzyWng on June 24, 2018, 07:39:17 pm
Post by: misko27 on June 24, 2018, 07:49:49 pm
Running hot? Yes, I think so...
Post by: wierd on June 25, 2018, 01:24:23 am
2) remove the battery
3) hold the power button for maybe 10 seconds. (we are trying to fully discharge the motherboard)
4) reconnect the battery
5) reconnect the power
6) try the power.
If it still fails to power on, you might have gotten it so hot that you melted the solder balls on the ball grid array on the CPU/GPU. If so, you need a new laptop. (Or, you can find somebody with a hot table for doing ball array re-ball work, but good luck with that. That's black magic voodoo even among hardware hackers.)
Post by: misko27 on June 25, 2018, 04:33:49 pm
Oh well. Thanks anyway, I just didn't want to give up without doing what I could first.
Post by: Eschar on June 25, 2018, 05:42:31 pm
Post by: Qud Astronaut on June 28, 2018, 11:48:33 am
That happened to my desktop PC a few months ago. No response from the power button, no fans or LEDs or anything. Replaced the motherboard and it's good as new. I don't know how expensive it would be for a laptop though.
Post by: Xvareon on July 02, 2018, 02:27:27 pm
EDIT: Hold on. I found it on my secondary hard drive in an obscure folder where I store games. Strange that it'd be causing my computer to crash, but I can't find a reference of it anywhere else. I'm getting rid of this thing, pronto. No clue if that'll fix the problem yet, though.
Post by: Vivalas on July 08, 2018, 02:52:09 pm
First time getting a graphics card. I've been using intel graphics for 4 years and while it was better than the 1GB of ram system I had before, it's time to upgrade to a dedicated graphics card. The card I am looking at is a GTX 1050 ti.
I have a few questions. First of all, it says the card width is two slot. That refers to just the backplate, correct? I only have one pcie slot and multiple sources say that just refers to the slots in the back, but I would like to be sure.
Second, how good is Zotac as a brand? Their cards are 30$ cheaper but I am wondering if it is worth it or if they are reduced in quality. There so far are no bad reviews about them, other than their cards get a bit hot, but I think that might be a general problem.
Third, is that card a bit overkill for my specs? It has good power for its price, and I think is a solid upgrade. My specs are:
8GB ram DDR4
i3-4160 @ 3.6 GHz
SATA 6 GB/s HDD
The power supply is the recommended for the card, and I've measured the space inside my case, and it should fit. Is there any warnings or advice you guys have about getting a new card? Thanks for all the help.
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 08, 2018, 02:57:45 pm
Other than that, it is a solid, reasonable upgrade.
Post by: Vivalas on July 08, 2018, 03:32:05 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 08, 2018, 06:19:42 pm
Post by: Tellemurius on July 08, 2018, 08:10:49 pm
There's prices are higher but the service is alot better than say ASUS.
Post by: Vivalas on July 10, 2018, 02:55:16 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 10, 2018, 03:52:23 pm
EDIT:
For an explanation, DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort are all digital signals. Digital signals are "all-or-nothing" - either you get a perfect picture, or you get no picture at all. This is also why expensive DVI, HDMI, or DisplayPort cables are generally nothing but a scam.
Post by: DwarfToys on July 18, 2018, 05:06:14 am
Do you know anything about Zotac as a brand? I had thought as much about the two slots but my primary concern is buying a card for $30 cheaper. Is there anything bad about Zotac cards or are all the other marketers just higher priced for a reason?
Practically the only difference between various manufacturers ends up being the quality of memory & cooling they use these days. Everyone uses reference board designs because the cards are too complex to mess with much, and the memory and cooling only matter when you're dealing with overclocking.
Speaking of which, if the card you're looking at has an OC BIOS switch on it (many manufacturers, at least with AMD, include one to enable messing with clocks more), just assume right off the bat that their listed power supply requirements are for the standard bios and turn it to the regular / power save. I ended up with a power supply above the maximum requirement for my card... but the card came with practically no manual and didn't mention the unlabeled overclock switch hidden in a recess near the back bracket. I was having power supply related breaker shutdowns under specific heavy OpenCL loads on and off, then finally spotted that in an old review. They'd tested it and the higher performance mode BIOS drew an extra 60-100W under full load for a 2% speed increase on average. Absolutely worth it... ::) Similar stuff applies to the drivers if they allow changing clocks, but not as extreme as that.
Have another question. My monitor only supports DVI / VGA. Apparently DisplayPort gives better visuals but does that matter if I don't have a DisplayPort socket on my monitor? I see Display Port to DVI cords but am I better off just getting DVI to DVI? Will using display port on one end help at all?
DisplayPort and HDMI are pretty much equivalent for normal use unless you're dealing with a 4k+ monitor and HDMI less than v2.0. In that case HDMI will only do 4k up to 30hz, which is kinda crap. It changes a bit if you're dealing with graphics design stuff. I'm using a color-calibrated monitor in 10 bit per channel color over displayport, and a crappy spare TV over HDMI for a second screen. The difference between them is amazing, but one of them was $1200 and the other was $150. Monitors with displayport tend to be more expensive and have better panels to begin with, but for some reason people assume the $30 cable they bought was the reason for quality improvement... :P
Post by: deathpunch578 on July 24, 2018, 04:00:21 am
Edit: I have uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers multiple times, and its still doing this
changed the primary button and that fixed it, seems to be entirely a problem with the left mouse button
Post by: Reelya on July 24, 2018, 04:33:40 am
Post by: deathpunch578 on July 24, 2018, 04:40:05 am
Post by: Il Palazzo on July 24, 2018, 05:11:34 am
not really, the double clicks are too random for it too be good, like 1/3 of the clicks are double.The bit of metal acting as spring in your mouse button has been bent though use.
You can still salvage it by opening the button assembly and slightly bending it the other way (or replacing with a spare one from another mouse).
See this video for how-to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDoXMJyimDU
Be careful, and do it as shown, as it's easy to break.
Post by: deathpunch578 on July 24, 2018, 05:37:41 am
not really, the double clicks are too random for it too be good, like 1/3 of the clicks are double.The bit of metal acting as spring in your mouse button has been bent though use.
You can still salvage it by opening the button assembly and slightly bending it the other way (or replacing with a spare one from another mouse).
See this video for how-to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDoXMJyimDU
Be careful, and do it as shown, as it's easy to break.
on second thought I feel like I'm probably going to cause more damage, I'll just ride it out using the right mouse button and buy a good mouse for $14 when it dies
Post by: Rowanas on July 24, 2018, 06:20:32 am
Post by: Parsely on July 24, 2018, 11:27:13 am
That's the thing, isn't it? Mice are so cheap that you could open one up, fuck it up, spend half an hour trying to find the bloody spring because you were a bit cackhanded and then go and buy a fantastic new mouse anyway.For a hot minute I thought you were talking about mice
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 24, 2018, 02:47:12 pm
Post by: Reelya on July 24, 2018, 09:28:16 pm
That's the thing, isn't it? Mice are so cheap that you could open one up, fuck it up, spend half an hour trying to find the bloody spring because you were a bit cackhanded and then go and buy a fantastic new mouse anyway.For a hot minute I thought you were talking about mice
My mouse was squeaking, so I opened it up to take a look inside, now it's stopped working completely, and I can't put it back together.
I've done the mouse switch replacement thing. It isn't worth the hassle.
The large office supply chain here offers perfectly reasonable new mice for $4 each. You could buy an expensive one for $40 or more, but I doubt that would survive 10 times longer than the cheap ones.
Post by: Il Palazzo on July 25, 2018, 12:47:15 am
Post by: Rowanas on July 25, 2018, 02:25:15 am
Post by: AzyWng on July 27, 2018, 06:16:50 am
The stop code was "SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED".
What failed was Qcamain10x64.sys.
I have no idea what I should do in this instance. The laptop seems to be running ok now, in spite of the crash...
Post by: Gentlefish on July 27, 2018, 09:53:35 am
Post by: AzyWng on July 27, 2018, 09:36:45 pm
But aside from running Google Chrome with several tabs open, leaving Steam in the background, and having Discord running as well, I don't think I was doing anything out of the ordinary.
I will inform you if there are any changes, but I must admit I will be feeling a little, ah hah, blue if this continues.
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 27, 2018, 09:44:21 pm
Post by: wierd on July 27, 2018, 10:50:17 pm
You can clean it off with a gentle rub from a white vinyl eraser. (WHITE VINYL!! NO OTHER KIND!)
If an update to the NIC driver does not resolve your bluescreens, it is worth a shot.
Post by: AzyWng on July 27, 2018, 11:06:31 pm
I'd look for any driver managing software, but they all seem super duper shady.
Post by: wierd on July 27, 2018, 11:11:47 pm
Sadly, there really is no good solution that I can suggest.
Post by: AzyWng on July 28, 2018, 10:33:33 pm
In any case, I tried updating the qualcomm whatever the hell it is driver, but it said it was already updated.
I don't recall adding anything to this laptop, so I don't think there's an add-on card to wipe off here.
Haven't seen any more bluescreens so far.
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 28, 2018, 11:28:46 pm
Post by: AzyWng on July 28, 2018, 11:44:39 pm
I may distrust them congressionally (Not enough to really act on it), but I do still distrust them.
Post by: Jopax on August 06, 2018, 01:26:26 pm
Today, out of the blue, my laptop started having sound issues, at first I thought it was YT or FF related but it seems all sounds are afffected. Basically, every several seconds (but it's random so it can be more or less frequent) the sound kinda glitches and does that irritating buzz sound when a program freezes or something while producing sounds.
I've looked it up online and folks seem to say that it was a conflict with the Realtek wireless drivers but messing around with those did nothing to resolve it. Reinstalling the audio drivers likewise did fuck all. I really have no idea what to do besides reinstalling windows completely, but even then I'm not sure if it'd work.
The most baffling thing tho is that it just started fucking up, I really don't remember doing any updates or any software changes in the past two days that would cause this to start today.
Post by: Il Palazzo on August 07, 2018, 12:08:26 pm
The CPU and/or GPU (they're close together and on a single heatpipe) are heating up something fierce whenever I try playing a game. One can't really hold the laptop on the lap any more, and it gets stuttery after a while. It used to run relatively demanding games without any issues. Now it gets super hot even with small, low-graphics titles and I'm getting worried about my sperm count.
The problem appeared gradually, over several months.
The fan works, the intakes and exhausts are unobstructed, and the heatpipe is attached. The copper of the pipe is blackened at the bottom, where it touches the plastic. The task manager doesn't seem to indicate any extreme resource usage.
Any ideas?
Post by: Jopax on August 08, 2018, 03:18:27 pm
Anyways, managed to fix my issue, kinda. Got a neat little program that monitors how windows processes audio and similar in real-time and if there's any latency which could cause issues like mine. As it turns out there was and it said that my most probable cause is either CPU being throttled (it wasn't) or an issue with BIOS. So I updated BIOS to a newer version. That fixed the issue pretty well it seems.
Except now windows isn't registering the existance of a battery in the laptop. It'll use it if it's unplugged but it doesn't seem to be able to access the charge level anymore. Think I'll try reverting to the older BIOS version to see if the problem returns that way or if it even fixes the new issue :V
Edit:
Well, that's not even an option since it seems to refuse to go back to an older version, guess I'll have to hope for a new update to come out whenever (even tho the most recent one is over two years old at this point, so fat chance there) and hope something else doesn't fuck up majorly in the meantime :I
Post by: AzyWng on August 09, 2018, 07:03:42 am
I very recently got a new pair of headphones with a mic attachment. The headphones work fine on my laptop and my phone, and I can use the mic on my phone, but I can't use the mic when the headphones are plugged into the computer.
The heapdhones are Turtle Beach Ear Force Recon. Don't know what number exactly, however, but I do know there aren't any specific drivers for the headphones. The laptop is Windows 10.
How do I make the mic work on my laptop?
Second question - How do I emulate Windows 98? I don't own a copy of it, sadly, but is there a way to legally acquire one, and if so, how do I emulate it? Again, Windows 10 laptop.
Post by: BigD145 on August 09, 2018, 12:43:45 pm
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
2nd- Windows 2000 should run anything from 98. There may or may not still be a developers version floating around. That one has no license key.
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 09, 2018, 01:14:20 pm
Windows 2000 should run anything from 98.
98-2000 was one of the first big "compatibility breaks", because 2000 is NT-based.
Windows 98 is not for sale anymore, but you could probably get a copy on Ebay that includes the liscence book easily enough. For emulating it, there are several options. Which one you choose depends on what you intend to use it for.
Post by: AzyWng on August 09, 2018, 01:42:41 pm
As for what I intend to use Windows 98 for?
Well, I think one of the games I own (Survival Crisis Z, which I've brought up/complained about a number of times) might run a lot better on an older OS, so I intend to emulate Windows 98 for that.
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 09, 2018, 02:01:19 pm
Post by: BigD145 on August 09, 2018, 03:40:37 pm
Single jack, I'm afraid - so using a splitter is not an option.
Get a usb headset or an adapter to turn yours into usb.
Post by: scourge728 on August 09, 2018, 10:46:19 pm
Post by: Reelya on August 10, 2018, 07:57:43 pm
2nd- Windows 2000 should run anything from 98. There may or may not still be a developers version floating around. That one has no license key.
Ah, as others have said, not much chance of that. DOS->3.1->95->98->Me is one product line, whereas NT->2000 is a completely different product line. Here's an article written at the time about the compatibility issues : https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/win2k
As for emulation, DOSBox is capable of running 3.1 or 9x Windows versions, as are VMWare or VirtualBox, all of which are free to use.
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 10, 2018, 08:02:48 pm
That's why PCem is my favored solution, but the specific case here seems to be too new to run under that.
Post by: Reelya on August 10, 2018, 08:12:32 pm
That's why PCem is my favored solution, but the specific case here seems to be too new to run under that.
Windows 98 would run on a 486 though, and PCem says it supports that. Windows 98 minimum specs were 486DX2-66
BTW I recommend 98lite as a tool to reduce the footprint and resources of 95 and 98 installs. We were able to get 98 installs small enough to run on a system with a 40MB hard-drive with this thing back in the day:
http://www.litepc.com/98lite.html
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 10, 2018, 08:20:33 pm
Post by: wierd on August 10, 2018, 11:34:45 pm
https://sourceforge.net/projects/vdmsound/
Does VESA, MSCDEX, DOS4GW protected memory, and all that fun stuff, right in the VDM.
Post by: wierd on August 10, 2018, 11:48:31 pm
My laptop has been acting up too.
The CPU and/or GPU (they're close together and on a single heatpipe) are heating up something fierce whenever I try playing a game. One can't really hold the laptop on the lap any more, and it gets stuttery after a while. It used to run relatively demanding games without any issues. Now it gets super hot even with small, low-graphics titles and I'm getting worried about my sperm count.
The problem appeared gradually, over several months.
The fan works, the intakes and exhausts are unobstructed, and the heatpipe is attached. The copper of the pipe is blackened at the bottom, where it touches the plastic. The task manager doesn't seem to indicate any extreme resource usage.
Any ideas?
This sounds like copper 2 oxide. It will impair thermal conduction if this is where the interface is to the CPU.
If that is the case, get some brasso copper polish. Apply a small quantity to the corner of a paper towel, and clean the CPU and GPU contact surfaces, then rinse with clean water. Apply fresh compound, and test function.
Post by: AzyWng on August 11, 2018, 09:45:34 am
BTW I recommend 98lite as a tool to reduce the footprint and resources of 95 and 98 installs.I'm, ah, not exactly too eager to purchase a $25.00 piece of software just because I want to play a game the developers released for free.
And why would a isometric game that was released for free in 2007 (and probably made a good deal earlier than that) require such a beefy pc? Software quirks or something?
Also, I have no idea how to use any kind of pc emulator, so advice on how and/or where to look would be greatly appreciated.
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 11, 2018, 10:57:55 am
Post by: AzyWng on August 11, 2018, 09:07:24 pm
I mean, games like Half-Life 2 and Running with Rifles (both 3D) run just fine on my laptop...
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 11, 2018, 10:29:58 pm
The game you want to run does not appear to require a beefy computer.
The game you want to run does appear to require Windows 9x.
One of the best ways to run Windows 9x for older games is PCem, which emulates period hardware.
PCem does not emulate more than a Pentium I processor.
Emulating a processor is very system intensive, and requires a processor many times as powerful as the one you are trying to emulate.
If the game you want to run requires more than a Pentium I processor, PCem can not help you.
If the game you want to run does not require more than a Pentium I processor, PCem can help, provided you have a PC powerful enough to emulate a Pentium I processor.
Your ability to run other software has no relation whatsoever to this.
Post by: wierd on August 11, 2018, 10:59:34 pm
It will just run faster, and will present a more modern CPU.
Worth a shot.
https://www.virtualbox.org/
Post by: Reelya on August 12, 2018, 02:12:34 am
BTW I recommend 98lite as a tool to reduce the footprint and resources of 95 and 98 installs.I'm, ah, not exactly too eager to purchase a $25.00 piece of software just because I want to play a game the developers released for free.
Go read the actual licensing agreement. You only need to pay the licensing fee if you're doing commercial-scale stuff with it:
https://www.litepc.com/prev_lic.html
Quote
2. USAGE
98lite Preview Edition is freely licensed for non-exclusive use by a single individual for personal use only. You require an ENTERPRISE license if you want to use 98lite in a multi-user setting, or want to install 98lite on your clients computers.
3. DISTRIBUTION
You may distribute the 98lite Preview Edition software without permission only so long as:
the original distribution archive remains intact, with no files having been altered, added, or removed.
all costs for distribution are paid by you, the distributor, and 98lite is delivered to the end user, or any intermediate receiver, FREE OF CHARGE.
There's nothing to stop you using it for free or giving copies to friends, you just can't commercialize it.
Post by: AzyWng on August 12, 2018, 11:43:29 am
I'm going to break this down very, very simply.
(snip)
Ah, I see. That helps clear things up a lot.
Post by: Parsely on August 31, 2018, 07:01:05 pm
I have a front panel headphone jack and of course I have the sound card in the back with speaker, stereo mix, and headphone jacks. I tried various things with my 2nd pair of headphones in either the speaker and or heaphones jacks in the back. I tried using the Realtek HD Audio Manager since there's a toggle you'd think would solve this called "make front and rear output devices play two different audio streams simultaneously" but that didn't do anything. I'm really baffled that this is so hard to figure out, any advice?
Post by: Il Palazzo on September 20, 2018, 02:31:04 pm
Confusing context: I've recently bought a Gigabyte Brix mini-PC, with a separate Win installer supplied on a USB drive. Now, the stick has a blue inserty bit, which is what makes me think it's USB 3.0 (and also because it's 2018, so why would they supply anything else?). At the same time, the Brix documentation says the MOBO it's not backwards compatible with 2.0 because reasons.
Seems alright, right? I have a 3.0 stick, and the system reads only 3.0s.
But the Win10 stick fails to boot (everything slows down to a standstill, with 10+ seconds to respond to any key pressed, as soon as I plug it in). On the other hand, I found an older 8GB stick with no blue bits (hence I'm thinking it's 2.0?), that booted perfectly once I burned a Win10 image on it.
So, it's like the documentation says one thing, but the reality appears to be the opposite (i.e. 2.0 ok, 3.0 bad, instead of the other way around).
Any way I can check the sticks' version without too much trouble? I can't make heads nor tails out of it and it bothers me bigly.
Post by: wierd on September 20, 2018, 02:40:18 pm
As for booting... It could be that your Mobo does not support EHCI mode USB in the BIOS? (EG, the bios does not have handlers for USB3 mode, but does for OHCI, or USB2 mode)...
Post by: Il Palazzo on September 20, 2018, 02:51:18 pm
Then again, all I'm using to identify the USB sticks is the colouring of the insides of their plugs.
I don't get to install anything, as it's a barebones out of the box, with no system in it apart from the BIOS (most recent version as far as I can see).
Post by: Starver on September 20, 2018, 03:06:36 pm
USB 1,2 (Type A)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/USB_Type-A_receptacle.svg/320px-USB_Type-A_receptacle.svg.png)
USB 3 (Type A)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/USB_3.0_Type-A_receptacle_blue.svg/270px-USB_3.0_Type-A_receptacle_blue.svg.png)
Examine the respective socket/plug for signs of the extra five connectors. May need favorable illumination/line-of-sight, but the pale blue colour of the plastic tab is the industry-standard shortcut indicator that it (should be!) USB3, or "SS" (superspeed) written alongside the USB 'trident' sigil printed, embossed or in relief around the port/connector housing.
I may be just unaware of it, but SFAIK there is no intrinsic reason for USB3 hardware (either host or peripheral) being unable to slob it with a non-3 (peripheral or host) complimentary connection. The USB 3.0 spec requires that devices be fully backwards compatible with USB 2.0 devices, and if it's not then it's not spec-worthy and could be deficient in other ways.
The top-rate of 'superspeed' won't be available, so it could not work with high-demand data transfer. But I'd expect that only to slow drive access (and neuter the better negotiatable framerates/resolutions of Ultra-HD webcams, maybe) not to not work at all. 'For reasons'. That sounds like a fudge like "My website isn't gonna bother to display for you, 'cos your browser is apparently, like, soooo last year, and I can't be bothered to maintain the less fancy version without all the latest bandwidth-hogging bells'n'whistles!".
I know you suggest you got the (alleged USB3) original stick supplied alongside the main hardware, but can you check that the supplier has remembered to properly 'bootify' the thong, and not just copy it across without bootability set? It could be a honest error. Or the "slow down to a crawl" might suggest a 'disk error' on the stick encountered while bootstrapping. Needs several more stages of investigation to rule in/out various possibilities.
Post by: Il Palazzo on September 20, 2018, 03:21:48 pm
As far as I can tell after some semi-sober looking at them in dim light, the self-prepared stick I booted the system from doesn't have any extra connectors in the back whatsoever, while the Win 10 supplied one does (can't make it out if it's 5 or 4). It's an original Microsoft Win10 package I bought from a large retailer. I don't think the supplier had anything to do with it themselves.
The documentations says:
Quote
Due to a lack of legacy EHCI controller support from Intel on the 5th and 6th generation CPU, the USB 3.0 ports of the Brix are not compatible with USB 2.0 devices. (...) After the installation of the OS and drivers, the USB 3.0 ports will be backwards compatible with USB 2.0 devices.
So yeah, it reads like the opposite of what had happened.
BTW, my other system reads the contents of the Win10 dongle alright, so I'm guessing it's not damaged.
Post by: Parsely on September 20, 2018, 05:00:05 pm
Post by: Truean on November 04, 2018, 03:07:27 pm
Example: It doesn't matter if I'm playing Skyrim or MM 6 (a 20 year old computer game). I see "let's plays" on youtube with smooth turns. Not mine. It defaults to 45 degree angles.
The game is old, my system is new and good. I don't understand why others have smooth camera turns and I do not. Ideas, please?
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 04, 2018, 03:49:21 pm
Disconnect any gamepads, joysticks, or drawing tablets currently connected to the system - those can conflict with games in the oddest of ways.
Failing that, you may have some sort of accessibility option turned on in your mouse settings. What's your OS?
Post by: pikachu17 on November 04, 2018, 04:38:00 pm
Post by: Truean on November 04, 2018, 05:06:39 pm
Windows 10.
No gamepads, joysticks, or drawing tablets.
Oddly, MM6 is supposed to be fluid, moving slightly when pressing the arrow keys, especially the right and left to turn. One tab shoots it a 45 degree angle.
Slightest hairtrigger touch and there it goes off at least 45 degrees. Difficult to compensate for mentally.
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 04, 2018, 05:12:12 pm
That's really all the ideas I can come up with. If it is happening in all games (not those in a specific emulator or game engine), it has to be something with how your system is processing input.
Post by: Truean on November 04, 2018, 05:13:25 pm
It's the arrow keys on the keyboard....
Just hoping that might potentially matter. Will check settings. Thank you.
Post by: Gentlefish on November 04, 2018, 05:15:48 pm
Post by: Truean on November 04, 2018, 05:18:31 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 04, 2018, 05:19:46 pm
Still, this sounds like an input bug with the system.
Post by: Truean on November 04, 2018, 05:24:49 pm
Also mildly frustrating, because it's a new rig and I invested a lot in it, specifically to last and as a gaming PC.
Alienware R7 Aurora. 32 GB ram... It was basically the one thing I bought for me. (old one died after 8+ years. I get life out of them).
I do occasionally get "no signal" on the monitor, but it goes away after a couple minutes. Still video card issues are not a thing with MM6.
Purchased on steam ... with MMX possibly game setting itself.
Post by: wierd on November 04, 2018, 07:55:24 pm
What are you running MM6 in? Dosbox? VirtualPC? VirtualBox? Bochs? ... Native?
Are you using any slowdown patches? (like MoSlo?)
What is your typematic rate set at?
You might try changing the typematic rate in Windows first.
https://bltt.org/windows-10-keyboard-repeat-rate/
Post by: Truean on November 05, 2018, 09:47:10 am
No mods, although I might install the fix (I believe graymane's )
I will have to check tonight.
Will F/U tonight. Thank you. :)
Post by: Truean on November 05, 2018, 09:08:46 pm
I actually learned what a typematic rate was, thank you.
That was not the issue though. I set it to "long" and slow" and all sorts of other things. Overall, I am still having the same issues with MM6.
I press the arrow key once (left or right) and I turn 45 degrees.
I do very much appreciate the idea though. Any others would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Truean
P.S. What if it were something unique to MM6's settings? Is there an Init file there? (1998 I know but asking).
Post by: Truean on November 05, 2018, 09:42:16 pm
I still can't get mouselook, but the smooth scroll works. Thank you man. I haven't modded anything is so long the obvious escaped me for a moment.
Post by: Starver on November 05, 2018, 09:47:15 pm
I would normally assume that even if a press of the left-cursor spawned just enough repeated left-cursors to knock upon the door of the engine itself (to which it enacted your described eighth-turn) different core engines would require a different number of cloned event-repetitions to do the same, according to the designed-in sensitivity.
I also find it strange that if it were a "upon (single) cursor, rotate 45 degrees" config setting at the game-level that it would be set somewhere shared between such different (and certainly differently-era of design philosophy) games. Really, some Accessibility option directly associated with the games (the DirectX module dedicated to peripheral inputs? Is DirectX still a thing, these days?) might be the place to cover your described symptoms. Shared-enough to cover it all, integrated-by-design to get a consistent (if erroneous) behaviour in everything that its API is called by.
But that's very much a wild guess, . Very little chance that I've got this anywhere near the right answer. Just something else to maybe look at and then dismiss as irrelevant to your predicament. But then at least we know it isn't it, right?
Looks like I'm ninjaed. Probably proven wrong on my first paragraph, too.
Post by: Reelya on November 05, 2018, 09:49:03 pm
I'm not sure how Skyrim fits into that however.
Post by: Sanctume on November 07, 2018, 02:35:26 pm
Oldest part is from 2006, and latest part was from 2014.
Here's the closest I can put together to represent what I have (https://pcpartpicker.com/list/WXkvvn).
I think the motherboard is dead, but maybe not. The speaker does not beep, but power and fans and power switch works.
I'm thinking of upgrading anyway. No signal to monitor, and I tried old GPU and integrated graphics to no avail.
I just play DF, some XCOM/XCOM2. BattleTech game was crappy, but I think it was the game.
Anyway, 8th gen i5 or i7? which means I would need new mobo and minimum of 16gb ram.
Maybe new power supply since that one I got is from 2009.
I wonder if my Windows 7 to 10 upgrade keys will work on new rig. It would save ~$100
Post by: Akura on November 07, 2018, 02:45:49 pm
Trying to replace the thermal paste for an old netbook. It's something I've put off for way too long.
First, only video on Youtube even remotely useful was one about replacing the hard drive and RAM, immensely useful since it showed me how to open the thing. Only thing else was a video in Russian where I learned I have to completely disassemble the netbook to get to the CPU.
Next problem, screws inside are mismatched, and some where actually loose. The only maintenance I've had done was having a professional replace the screen. I noticed this while watching the first video above right as the guy doing the video was looking at the exact same screws and complaining that they were worn despite buying it new and never opening it.
EDIT: Found out why there was a difference in screw sizes. That'll help putting it back together.
EDIT2: And an hour after I wanted to be done with this, I finally get to the heatsink and there appears to be absolutely nothing wrong with the thermal paste.
Okay, I took a close look, and there's two pads of thermal paste here. One is sitting on the CPU, another on the heatsink panel itself. Neither touch, and the motherboard has a spot marked for the heatsink's pad, and the heatsink has a marker for the other pad's point of contact, so I guess that's normal. I've got the replacement thermal paste in front of me, should I replace it anyway? If it wasn't the paste, I don't know what was causing the overheating.
There's some dust under the fan, but I can't see it being too much to keep the fan from working, gonna clear that anyway.
Post by: wierd on November 07, 2018, 10:09:13 pm
I should probably slide this one over here:Trying to replace the thermal paste for an old netbook. It's something I've put off for way too long.
First, only video on Youtube even remotely useful was one about replacing the hard drive and RAM, immensely useful since it showed me how to open the thing. Only thing else was a video in Russian where I learned I have to completely disassemble the netbook to get to the CPU.
Next problem, screws inside are mismatched, and some where actually loose. The only maintenance I've had done was having a professional replace the screen. I noticed this while watching the first video above right as the guy doing the video was looking at the exact same screws and complaining that they were worn despite buying it new and never opening it.
EDIT: Found out why there was a difference in screw sizes. That'll help putting it back together.
EDIT2: And an hour after I wanted to be done with this, I finally get to the heatsink and there appears to be absolutely nothing wrong with the thermal paste.
Okay, I took a close look, and there's two pads of thermal paste here. One is sitting on the CPU, another on the heatsink panel itself. Neither touch, and the motherboard has a spot marked for the heatsink's pad, and the heatsink has a marker for the other pad's point of contact, so I guess that's normal. I've got the replacement thermal paste in front of me, should I replace it anyway? If it wasn't the paste, I don't know what was causing the overheating.
There's some dust under the fan, but I can't see it being too much to keep the fan from working, gonna clear that anyway.
Yes. Remove the old pads, then clean both the heat spreader and the tops of the chips with isopropyl alcohol on q tip. Then, apply a small (rice sized) amount of thermal compound on the top of each chip, then reseat the heat spreader, and tighten the lockdown screws.
We have to replace because we broke the pads seals. Good paste will perform better than the pads anyway.
Remove all the dust from the heatsink and fan while you are there.
If safely possible, assess function before reassembly.
Post by: AzyWng on November 11, 2018, 01:29:49 am
I don't suppose anyone might be able to tell me what the issue is here?
Post by: Reelya on November 11, 2018, 02:08:24 am
EDIT: I got it running ok under Windows 10. My video card is a Radeon 6670. I followed the advice at the bottom of this post:
https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Survival_Crisis_Z
This, plus setting compatibility mode to Windows XP sp3 got it to work.
(Now, I'll go off see if I can get it running in a VM).
EDIT2: Running it in VMWare, using the same procedure from the wiki leads to the same beige screen, and an error message "Run-Time Error 5: invalid procedure call or argument". Compatibility mode doesn't seem to help.
Post by: AzyWng on November 11, 2018, 11:44:19 am
Following that advice and setting compatability mode didn't seem to help any.
Post by: Gentlefish on November 21, 2018, 03:46:51 pm
Honestly just looking for input as to if I'm missing anything or if there's any real glaring flaws in my new computer build. It's meant to essentially be an upgrade over the system I have now which is a third generation i5 and an R9 280x with 8gb of RAM. The only thing I really see myself upgrading in the future is the graphics card for VR gaming when I get to the point I can afford it.
The monitor's set to $0 because it's something I'll want down the line, and the storage is $0 because I already own them. Nothing like free storage space.
Post by: Sanctume on November 21, 2018, 05:02:42 pm
I bought RTX 2070 for $500 off Newegg on Nov 19.
Come Nov 20, all RTX cards get a free game Battlefield V.
I called Newegg to get the promo code, but they wont budge.
So I RMA my order that I have not received yet.
Now wondering if I should keep the RTX 2070 for $500 without BFV,
Or shop around for another RTX 2070 (sold out) with BFV,
Or may find a GTX 1080 for less than $500.
Post by: Gentlefish on November 22, 2018, 03:47:34 am
Post by: wierd on November 22, 2018, 04:30:28 am
We can't always get what we want, but in this case, I wouldn't sweat it too much.
Post by: Sanctume on November 22, 2018, 04:43:57 pm
Post by: AzyWng on November 22, 2018, 11:19:23 pm
Here's the ones I've tried:
Adobe Premiere: Costs money, or I can run the risks of piracy.
Sony VEGAS Pro: Ditto.
Openshot: Seems to run extremely slowly on Windows 10 (Attempting to perform any edits of any kind seems to make the whole program freeze up for whole minutes) and the only threads I've seen about the issue have all been closed before the issue is resolved, often involving the developer complaining about the vagueness of the comments, the people having the issue shooting back, and further devolvement from there.
Kind of like our own forum sometimes, except people don't lock threads the immediate moment mean words are bandied about.
VideoPad Video Editor: Preview mode sometimes fails to work after the video clip I'm looking at is edited. This makes editing videos and making sure I cut clips in the right places... somewhat difficult.
DaVinci Resolve: I can't figure out how to make the program export my projects to a video file. Or to Youtube (In spite of the presence of a feature for that specific purpose). Also, it's pretty complicated overall. I could get used to it in time (RTFM would likely work wonders in that regard), but I'd like to look for alternatives that are easier to pick up first.
Lightworks: Has a free license. That expires. Also, haven't quite tried it yet...
Hitflim Express: I'm aware of it but have not tried it yet.
Windows Movie Maker: I can't seem to find an equivalent software on Windows 10...
Post by: wierd on November 23, 2018, 12:31:04 am
http://www.virtualdub.org/
Dunno if it works well under win10... But it IS 64bit aware, and pretty no-frills. Almost all of its functionality is handled via "plugins", of which there are literally hundreds to choose from.
http://www.infognition.com/VirtualDubFilters/
(for example, of just ONE filter pack out there. There are many others.)
What exactly are you trying to do with this video?
Post by: AzyWng on November 23, 2018, 09:50:50 am
That's why the fact the video preview doesn't seem to work on some programs is a real issue for me.
Post by: Starver on November 23, 2018, 10:05:06 am
It's a bit of command-line/shell stuff, if you do it how I have done it (even without the processing of still-frame sequences into transitions, etc).
Post by: Sanctume on November 23, 2018, 12:26:21 pm
I'm just interested in editing gameplay footage. I'm trying to make a video just comprised of action-y segments, so I'd like to edit out anything that isn't, well, action-y.
That's why the fact the video preview doesn't seem to work on some programs is a real issue for me.
There's no Windows Movie Maker with Win 10? There should be a 2018 version out there
Post by: AzyWng on November 23, 2018, 01:22:49 pm
EDIT: Also, Kdenlive has similar Preview Mode issues that Videopad has, so I can't really use it, either.
Post by: Sanctume on November 23, 2018, 01:32:26 pm
https://www.reddit.com/r/gopro/comments/52xxq6/what_free_video_editing_software_do_you_recommend/
Post by: Iduno on November 26, 2018, 02:11:26 pm
How worth it is it to look into fixing it? DIY or take it somewhere? Would it be cheaper to just buy a new not-broken TV?
Post by: Starver on November 26, 2018, 03:13:30 pm
(I know someone who would go in there and do what's necessary with the (probable, from the sound of it) power component. He probably wouldn't replace an LCD backlight (and only entire LCD panels, where the size/make makes them practical to source as a component) and Plasma is an eclipsed technology with probably no easy component source. But an inverter/whatever unit might be gettable, or even repairable if upon examination it's a blown cap or similar. But you'd have to find such a chap of your own, locally, and if you had someone in mind already then you'd probably not be asking here.)
With various newtech, OLEDs over LCD for example, you probably be able to move at least a generation further on without breaking the bank, if not getting all the way up-to-date. The HDR of newer LCDs (cheating by backlight modulating) might not be too far off what you expect. Then there's the higher res/refresh/tuner options etc.
(It would probably be cheaper to get someone in there to fix it, with the right (unmercenary) soldering-iron-wallah, than a whole new item, but more fuss. And if you don't know them there's a chance they won't give you an honest "not economical to repair, mate" before doing and/or charging for a lot of expensive investigation/fixing.)
Post by: wierd on November 26, 2018, 04:23:46 pm
Post by: Gentlefish on November 26, 2018, 04:28:56 pm
Post by: wierd on November 26, 2018, 04:42:49 pm
https://www.cnet.com/news/oled-screen-burn-in-what-you-need-to-know/
This is why I am fine with LCD.
Post by: AzyWng on December 02, 2018, 02:07:12 am
Well, I'm trying to play it, but there's no sound.
I don't mean there's a problem with my headphones. I mean there's literally no sound coming from the game. I watched a video of a walkthrough and I know there should be sound, but there isn't. I'm on Windows 10, on a laptop that was purchased just over a week ago. I'm not sure what issue it is I'm suffering from or how to fix it.
Restarting the program didn't seem to help. Neither did restarting the computer. Neither did uninstalling and reinstalling (Which does not seem to have deleted my entire directory). Neither did running as an administrator.
Anything else I should try?
Post by: wierd on December 02, 2018, 02:46:30 am
Post by: AzyWng on December 02, 2018, 02:54:41 am
(https://imgur.com/W0xYN04.png)
I literally can't - there's only 2 options for the speakers and connecting headphones provides no new options to modify.
Post by: wierd on December 02, 2018, 03:00:17 am
What sound hardware is this, that it does not have options for 32bit 44100 stereo?! That's like, the bread and butter "normal" format!
Freaking microsoft hard at work...
Post by: Khan Boyzitbig on December 02, 2018, 04:29:10 am
Post by: AzyWng on December 02, 2018, 08:45:25 pm
So... That's the state of the world nowadays. 44100 is being phased out but not everyone is on board with the change or soem thing.
I've tried googling the issue, but nothing has come up so far...
Post by: Reelya on December 02, 2018, 09:12:47 pm
What the hell!?
What sound hardware is this, that it does not have options for 32bit 44100 stereo?! That's like, the bread and butter "normal" format!
Freaking microsoft hard at work...
32 bit isn't that common. Do you mean 16-bit 44100? That's original DVD quality.
Post by: AzyWng on December 02, 2018, 09:50:15 pm
Restarted and now Deltarune has sound.
It is glorious.
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 03, 2018, 10:04:16 pm
I recently purchased an Oculus Rift, which I am keeping permanently connected to the PC so I don't have to keep crawling on the floor swapping cables. All is well... except for having to manually switch between "Speakers" and "Rift Audio" depending on what display I'm using. Is there a small program or option that I can install to put a tray icon to quick-swap? OS is Windows 10.
Post by: Frumple on December 07, 2018, 05:25:13 pm
Not looking for super performance, but I'd really like a legitimate upgrade (over a HP pavilion dv7 notebook) largely able to play games that aren't fairly low end/from a decade ago. 3+ ghz cpu, more than 4 gigs ram, I-have-no-ruddy-clue-what-GPU-is-vaguely-decent, etc. Been like 5+ years behind things for most my life and it'd be nice to change things a little.
Know desktop/building it is more cost efficient, but I also kinda' don't want to deal with it and just a better laptop would be much less trouble space/etc. wise (well, either that or figuring out how kvm switches work and using my current laptop as basically-a-console or something), so... yeah.
Any advice? Suggestions for a decent-ish rig in that price region?
Post by: Urist McSpike on December 07, 2018, 09:49:53 pm
Oddly enough, I also have a (minor) sound issue.
I recently purchased an Oculus Rift, which I am keeping permanently connected to the PC so I don't have to keep crawling on the floor swapping cables. All is well... except for having to manually switch between "Speakers" and "Rift Audio" depending on what display I'm using. Is there a small program or option that I can install to put a tray icon to quick-swap? OS is Windows 10.
I have the same issue with the HTC Vive. I haven't tried it, but I did find this tutorial (https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/5c5tiz/using_voice_attack_nircmd_to_control_steamvr_and/) for using voice commands.
Post by: Starver on December 08, 2018, 12:03:12 am
well, either that or figuring out how kvm switches work and using my current laptop as basically-a-console or somethingI think you mean Remote Console (or similar), as KVM switches are simply a hardware connection of multiple computer I/O ports selectably switched to I/O through (typically) one set of peripherals.
Look up something like VNC (there are many others out there, not sure what the current state of play is with them though) for using your laptop as 'dumb terminal' to any new hardware. (Which, assuming you don't stash it in some air-conditioned cupboard/rack elsewhere, isn't actually going to save you trouble with space. Desktops/underdesks are just better value if you don't think you're going to haul it about at all, including making it far more possible to incrementally/radically upgrade their components in future.)
Can't help you with latest hardware. I'm sort of looking at maybe a laptop (for explicit portability) that is decent and which comes without Win10 (or isn't too much of a waste for it) that I can make into a (probably) Fedora box with minimal problems with hardware driver issues. But that's a different problem to yours, and is at an early stage of research too.
Post by: wierd on December 08, 2018, 12:07:44 am
... so I'm looking to get a new computer since steam is saying to hell with vista users and I'm probably kinda' overdue anyway considering I'm still on vista to begin with, but I've been using the same laptop for the better part of a decade and never really kept up with trends on the subject to begin with. Have a budget of around 1k USD, but less is largely better.
Not looking for super performance, but I'd really like a legitimate upgrade (over a HP pavilion dv7 notebook) largely able to play games that aren't fairly low end/from a decade ago. 3+ ghz cpu, more than 4 gigs ram, I-have-no-ruddy-clue-what-GPU-is-vaguely-decent, etc. Been like 5+ years behind things for most my life and it'd be nice to change things a little.
Know desktop/building it is more cost efficient, but I also kinda' don't want to deal with it and just a better laptop would be much less trouble space/etc. wise (well, either that or figuring out how kvm switches work and using my current laptop as basically-a-console or something), so... yeah.
Any advice? Suggestions for a decent-ish rig in that price region?
In the 1000$ ballpark, there are several options. The question is if you want another laptop (there are quite a few offers that would be more than adequate in that price range) or if you want to build or buy a desktop.
For 1000$, you can buy all the parts you need for a nice desktop system, (or get a prefab one, but those tend to have dangerous levels of marketing fluff injected, and inflated pricetags.)
Other than "gaming rig", what exactly are you looking for in a computer? What OS do you want to use on it? Etc.
Post by: Frumple on December 08, 2018, 08:12:08 am
Less tongue in cheek, there's not much I do with a computer that a gaming rig wouldn't manage just fine. Don't do anything like video or photo editing, which is about as hefty an other hobby I can think of, hardware strain wise. OS... honestly, probably win10? Haven't looked at 11 much besides vaguely osmosising some stuff about renting licences and whatnot that makes me kiiiinda' leery. I sorta' want to stop using MS junk, but also aren't really at a place life wise where I want to go through the process of learning to use a notably different OS, particularly one that's notably iffy (if better, these days) on game compatibility et al. The less frustration and effort I have to deal with, the better. Can always dual boot later on :V
Similarly, I probably really should build one myself -- I don't exactly have the funds to legitimately justify the luxury/inflated price of prebuilt -- but I also really, really don't want to deal with the frustration or potential troubles of building a computer for the first time while I'm juggling all the other shit I'm dealing with. If it weren't for steam deciding to fuck me out of my couple-hundred bucks worth of library I'd probably hold off for a while longer :-\
... anyway, beyond all that, the only thing I've really internalized as desired is the vague hardware specs mentioned. Having a CPU that's stronger than 3 ghz is my proverbial man's romance right about now. I've never owned a computer that went over 2.3...
Look up something like VNC (there are many others out there, not sure what the current state of play is with them though) for using your laptop as 'dumb terminal' to any new hardware. (Which, assuming you don't stash it in some air-conditioned cupboard/rack elsewhere, isn't actually going to save you trouble with space. Desktops/underdesks are just better value if you don't think you're going to haul it about at all, including making it far more possible to incrementally/radically upgrade their components in future.)That'd be better, aye. Had seen mention of networking stuff together, but that's an actual name to put to software, so thanks, ehehe. Probably a good better idea than the nonsense I was thinking about, so long as the "console" piggybacks the actual computer's graphics without issue.
The big thing space wise is I'm basically using half my bed as my "desk", and my room's small enough there's not really a better option. The ideal is basically a tower beside the bed with console-ish whatever sitting where the laptop currently is. The problem being current monitor design and the apparent utter lack of things-not-stupidly-priced that would keep a LCD monitor from falling over while standing on a bed mattress (as old/cheap as my own, anyway). Similarly, there's not really space for a stand with an arm or particularly decent place to screw one into the wall -- it's a fairly awkward space to work with, all things considered. Using a laptop as a dumb console is probably the cheapest solution I've seen so far (particularly since I already have a laptop to use), heh.
Post by: wierd on December 08, 2018, 09:08:48 am
When I meant OS selection, I was also including the likes of OSX and pals. (many PCs can in fact run OSX. For real.) Since you dont want to do dual booting and the like, this is fine.
I still find that win7 serves my gaming needs just fine. I have yet to see a title that wont run on win7 64bit. Win10 has been a roiling boil of inflamed pus in terms of reliability, stability, and ease of use. I have avoided it like cancer. Getting a legit copy of win7 is no longer possible however. I would still suggest it none the less.
I will go component hunting and see what deals I can scare up. You should be able to make a very nice but not top-of-the-line gaming PC in your budget range. (For top-of-the-line, you are looking at over a grand for JUST the video hardware, which is NOT worth it in my opinion. Yes, the RTX 2080T is hawt. But not several thousand dollars worth of hawt. especially since in a few months, you will be able to get a lower priced offering that also has raytracing engine. If you do not care about the new raytracing tech, then we can get you a very serviceable card for around 300-500$ or so.)
If you go with a pre-built one, avoid ones that proclaim being a gaming rig. Go for a workstation, and then amend it.
See for instance, this HP pavilion (https://www.amazon.com/HP-Performance-Pavilion-580-137c-Desktop/dp/B077XSH2ZQ/ref=asc_df_B077XSH2ZQ/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309833041189&hvpos=1o8&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4591996879646697058&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9024386&hvtargid=pla-571687465815&psc=1) which comes with a rather shitty radeon card (https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1080-vs-AMD-RX-550/3603vs3925). (It *IS* a desktop, afterall. BUT-- it has a nice Ryzen R7 architecture, 16gb RAM, and a 1TB hdd all in the package. That could easily run past the asking price, since you still need a chasis and a power supply which you also get here. We can replace the PSU with a nice Rosewill if we need to.)
You can get a nice GPU to replace that card, since it is discrete graphics. You can hang onto that POS card, and use it for any other system builds you might to later, or sell it on ebay or something.
I can probably find a better offer than that pavilion-- it's just pointing out that you can often get suitable parts (that you can reuse later! Like that RAM and CPU) inexpensively in such packages. You just have to be wary of oddball proprietary form-factor motherboards and the like. Always do full research before making a purchase, which I have not done here. This was just meant to point out that you can often get a reasonable deal with prebuilt equipment, if you stay away from things claiming to be "Gaming PCs".
A gaming PC, is just a PC with some souped up parts inside. Like a really fast CPU, lots of RAM, an SSD, and a fancy graphics card. High end workstations tend to have many of the same parts, because they too are performance systems, but because they are not "elective purchases", and are instead for doing actual work (Like heavy engineering tasks, which are memory and computation expensive, much like a game is) and are purchased by corporations to do actual work with, the market forces go to work FOR you, instead of against you, and you can get much better deals, since the makers expect smaller margins on the sales. You just have to be mindful of what it is you are looking at.
Post by: wierd on December 08, 2018, 12:52:37 pm
I am going to assume the following:
1) Intel > AMD, per this benchmark run. (https://www.anandtech.com/show/13400/intel-9th-gen-core-i9-9900k-i7-9700k-i5-9600k-review/16?cid=sem43700038707899874&intel_term=%2B9600k&campaign_name=CONS%5ES%5EUS%5EComp3rd%5EAnandTech%5EBrand%5Ei5%5Ebmm&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItOSfgMGQ3wIVggNpCh0P-A6wEAAYASAAEgKRXfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)
2) Intel i5 9600K looks like the most bang for the buck.
3) Socket 1151 has that CPU, and has many inexpensive but powerful motherboard offerings.
4) You want to be able to update this system with better/more parts later, so you want the most potential perks in your existing purchase
5) You really dont care what the system chasis itself looks like, as long as it functions as expected/can accept the board sourced.
6) You want the best video card for your price budget
7) You want to be able to have a very nice SSD, *AND* a spinny disk.
8) You will want an aftermarket cooler that will fit in the case
9) You will want a quality aftermarket PSU to drive it now, and in the future.
10) your top budgeted price is 1100$. (1000$ +/- 10%, for an allowed range of 900$ to 1100$)
11) You already have a keyboard, monitor, and mouse.
----------------------
First up-- CPU. We are going with the i5 9600k in socket LGA 1151 format. Here are our retail contenders for the source.
Amazon weighs in at 275$-ish. (https://www.amazon.com/Intel-i5-9600K-Desktop-Processor-Unlocked/dp/B07HHLX1R8/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1544282052&sr=1-2&keywords=i5+9600k)
NewEgg weighs in at 280$-ish. (https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006676%204018&IsNodeId=1&Description=i5%209600k&name=CPUs%20%2f%20Processors&Order=BESTMATCH)
Pricewatch hints at a lesser retailer, CompSource. CompSource appears to be a "to order" barebones PC reseller. They sell individual parts, as well as combo packages. We will examine what parts we are interested in looking at, then see if they can give us a better deal as a combo later.
Compsource weighs in at 268$-ish. (https://www.compsource.com/pn/CM8068403874404/Intel-211/Intel-Core-i5-i59600K-Hexacore-6-Core-370-GHz-Processor--Socket-H4-LGA1151--OEM-Pack--8-GT/)
Compsource has our lowest cost sourcing option. Note, this is for the CM8068403874404 chip ID. Not for the BX80684I59600K.
What's the difference? The CM number does not come in a fancy box, or come with a heat sink. (this is fine, we want an aftermarket one anyway. Source. (http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i5/Intel-Core%20i5%20i5-9600K.html))
-----
Next up-- Motherboard
There are many to pick from, but we want one that will do both Xfire and SLI, which has at least one m.2 socket capable of accepting an nvme SSD. Why NVME capable? You like your SSD to be the fastest you can get, right? Thought you did; not all M.2 sockets can do NVME. Keep that in mind. We have a preference for a board that can accept one of the "Very long" style M.2 SSDs as well, because we want to be able to put a huge honker in there if we can afford it. Of available choices, we also want to pick the one with the best user rating (newegg 5 star rating required), at the lowest price. It needs to accept at least 16gb of DDR4 2666 ram.
Here's a list of boards that meet my criteria.
ASUS ROG Strix Z390-H (179$ newegg) (193$ amazon) (186$ compsource)
MSI MPG Z390 GAMING EDGE AC (190$ newegg) (190$ amazon) (194$ compsource)
ASRock Z390 PHANTOM GAMING SLI/ac (168$ newegg) (190$ Amazon) (198$ Compsource)
GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS PRO (180$ newegg) (181$ Amazon) (172$ compsource)
Looks like our winner is the ASRock board from Newegg. Here's the listing. (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157852&Description=ASRock%20Z390%20PHANTOM%20GAMING%20SLI%2fac&cm_re=ASRock_Z390_PHANTOM_GAMING_SLI%2fac-_-13-157-852-_-Product)
--------
Next up-- RAM
We want 16gb of DDR4 2666 memory, and we want it both reputable and cheap.
Kingston (229$ newegg) (144$ amazon) (158$ Compsource)
Corsair (141$ newegg) (125$ amazon) (141$ compsource)
Hynix (152$ newegg) (180$ amazon) (150$ compsource)
Looks like the corsair amazon listing (https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance-2666MHz-Desktop-Memory/dp/B0123ZC44Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1544287182&sr=8-2&keywords=corsair+16gb+2666) wins.
---------
Next up-- SSD
We want a 1tb SSD in M.2 format. We want reputable, fast, and cheap-- all together.
I am not going to break down the full research price thing on the SSD, because I have been doing this for 4 hours now.
Suffice to say, I found a 1tb NVME M.2 SSD from Crucial (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820156199&Description=1tb%20m.2&cm_re=1tb_m.2-_-20-156-199-_-Product) on Newegg for 170$. THIS IS CHEAP. Especially for NVME.
----------
Next up-- Spinny disk
We want a nice fast SATA spinny disk. This is for all that
We really DO in fact, NEED a spinny disk. We do not want firefox/IE/Chrome to destroy our SSD with its incessant use of browser cache containing millions of tiny files getting overwritten all the damn time, or to be killed by the windows swap file, which *WILL STILL BE USED* even though we have spec'd 16gb of ram!
We want a reasonably fast SATA one, that is at least 1tb in size, from a reputable manufacturer (FU seagate, go to hell) that is inexpensive.
WD Blue (44$ newegg) (50$ amazon) (44$ compsource)
Toshiba (48$ newegg) (48$ amazon) (52$ compsource)
Hitachi (55$ newegg) (59$ amazon) (113$ compsource)
WD Blue looks like the winner. Will give Newegg listing (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6CC7F25226&Description=1tb%20sata&cm_re=1tb_sata-_-22-236-339-_-Product)
----------
RECAP-- Current cost projection:
CPU -- 268$
MB -- 168$
RAM -- 125$
SSD -- 170$
HDD -- 44$
-------------
775$ so far
----------
Next up -- PSU
We need a 500W PSU. A good one. (Graphics cards are hungry. REAL hungry.)
Rosewill (60$ newegg) (60$ amazon)
Corsair (35$ newegg) (40$ amazon)
Looks like corsair at newegg (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139196&Description=500W%20corsair&cm_re=500W_corsair-_-17-139-196-_-Product) wins.
-----------
Next up -- System Chasis
Other than cooling considerations, a case is a case, is a case. We preferrably want a full atx case, to be certain this board will fit, and that our aftermarket cooler will too.
Here's a nice looking thermaltake view 22 for 50$ (https://www.amazon.com/d/Computer-Cases/Thermaltake-Tempered-Modular-Computer-CA-1J3-00M1WN-00/B078TN9YRY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1544290223&sr=8-3&keywords=Thermaltake+View+22)
------------
Next up -- Aftermarket cooler
We need something that is affordable and will do the job. Feel free to upgrade this later.
Cheap thermaltake 95w cooler, 15$ from newegg (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA8EF7W14019&Description=thermaltake%201151&cm_re=thermaltake_1151-_-35-106-250-_-Product)
------------
RECAP #2
CPU -- 268$
MB -- 168$
RAM -- 125$
SSD -- 170$
HDD -- 44$
PSU -- 35$
ATX -- 50$
COOL-- 15$
------------
875$
This gives us a graphics card budget of around 225$, topping at our projected ceiling of 1100$.
This gives us the following cards:
GTX 1050TI (newegg listings (https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600030348&IsNodeId=1&Description=nvidia%20pcie&name=Desktop%20Graphics%20Cards&Order=BESTMATCH&isdeptsrh=1&LeftPriceRange=150%20225))
Radeon RX570/RX580 (newegg listings (https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709&IsNodeId=1&Description=radeon%20pcie&name=Desktop%20Graphics%20Cards&Order=BESTMATCH&isdeptsrh=1&LeftPriceRange=150%20225))
IF YOU CAN, **DO** source a better cooler than the one specc'd!! Getting good parts trumped getting good/adequate cooling in this build. The goal was to make a build that can be updated later. A better cooler is very strongly advised!!
Post by: Frumple on December 09, 2018, 09:38:31 am
Thanks, yeah.
Post by: wierd on December 09, 2018, 10:31:50 am
You can put much faster ram than 2666 in. That board does much faster. :D It will also cost you a lot more. This is a future upgrade option; the board supports it. For now, it will get you reasonable performance, and for most games (other than DF, which is memory and CPU bound), the graphics card will be the bottleneck before the RAM will be, with this build.
The PSU is serviceable, but is a lower end corsair. Snobs will turn their nose up at it, saying it cant
The cooler really is inadequate. You really should get one of the 50-60$ coolers, but doing so will cut into the graphics card budget. I would rather you get a reasonable GPU now, but that is an elective decision. The 15$ thermaltake is about equal to the stock cooler that would have come with the full retail CPU. You really want the BIG cooler, since this is a 9600K. The "K" means it is frequency multiplier unlocked--- which means you can OverClock that little whore. :P To do that, you WILL need a bigger cooler. A much bigger one. At stock frequencies, the weak cooler should provide reasonable service though, but it's borderline. I would personally get a 50-60$ cooler.
Post by: Gentlefish on December 10, 2018, 12:03:35 am
Post by: wierd on December 10, 2018, 12:23:58 am
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-failure-rates-q1-2017/
Seriously-- see that failure rate for the 4tb drive? 36%!!!
Post by: Gentlefish on December 10, 2018, 01:03:57 am
Post by: BigD145 on December 10, 2018, 01:10:13 am
Post by: wierd on December 10, 2018, 01:51:31 am
Post by: Starver on December 10, 2018, 07:10:22 am
Well thank goodness the 10TB HDD I won from them doesn't seem to have that fail rate wow!All individual drives have 0% fail rate, until they flip to 100%, of course. ;)
(Correction: If you're not (un)lucky enough to get a dud from the off!)
Post by: Gentlefish on December 10, 2018, 12:17:22 pm
Well thank goodness the 10TB HDD I won from them doesn't seem to have that fail rate wow!All individual drives have 0% fail rate, until they flip to 100%, of course. ;)
(Correction: If you're not (un)lucky enough to get a dud from the off!)
Well I hope not! The rep on r/buildapc seemed like they'd be more than happy to replace a DoA once I get my build together in the spring.
Thankfully I can't afford it now with the new AMD chips on the horizon since I'm going to be running an RX 580. CUrrent rumors are looking great for Ryzen 3
Post by: Eschar on December 15, 2018, 03:13:56 pm
Post by: wierd on December 15, 2018, 06:54:53 pm
Post by: eerr on December 15, 2018, 11:06:57 pm
It sounds like someone attached one of those noisemakers you find on a bike wheel.
What do I do?
I was hoping to run this computer while I sleep(A discord bot).
Post by: eerr on December 16, 2018, 01:19:22 am
This was the main reason I wanted to replace it.
I don't understand why though
Post by: wierd on December 16, 2018, 01:27:15 am
I would be better able to identify the issue if I can hear it myself.
Post by: eerr on December 16, 2018, 03:13:05 am
Problem 1: the usb+jack speakers were picking up static. This happened if plugged in the speakers and grounded/plugged in the cable.
The speakers can go.
Problem 2: I hear a noise and the blinky light comes on.
It has a picture of a cylinder.
Problem 3: The fan is louder than I would like.
Buying the cheapest tower was probably a bad idea. *shrug
Post by: wierd on December 16, 2018, 03:29:52 am
This is a common thing with integrated sound hardware. The actual hardware that makes the sound is baked into the northbridge chip. Very often, there is not very good ground isolation, so digital noise from the processor or other data travelling over the PCI bus can be heard as an audible buzzing. Possibly, you could add a lowpass filter or the like, but I have just gotten used to hearing it. In days of yore, I would add a discrete soundcard, but old fashioned PCI card slots are getting very rare these days, and I refuse to shell out money for a PCIe soundcard just to overcome the buzzing.
Problem 2)
This is the sound of the hard disk making accesses. It is a physical device, with a physical arm that gets pushed around by a magnetic seek coil. It can move around rather quickly, and makes a little chittering/clattering sound when it does. Some drives are louder than others. The symbol that looks like a cylinder is the symbol for "hard disk".
Problem 3)
Not much you can do about that, aside from switching to liquid cooling, and that's more hassle than it is worth unless you are driving some insane hardware that needs it. Adding some dust filters to the intake ports, and putting the tower on the floor underneath the desk can alleviate a good deal of these sounds.
Depending on what you use your computer for, you might benefit from a lower-power computer that does passive (fanless) cooling. Some Mini-ITX boards that use Atom processors are able to accomplish this, but you wont be winning any benchmark test competitions with one.
Post by: anewaname on December 16, 2018, 10:34:01 pm
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Starver on December 17, 2018, 07:36:55 am
I repaired that one myself by opening it up (*beware of latent high charges*, mostly but not entirely in the mains-side parts of the PSU - not as dangerous as messing with CRT electronics, but I'm still not recommending it as something everyone could do) and finding an equivalently-sized fan in Maplins (now closed), our Radio Shack equivalent.
Shortly after recommissioning, I heard the a PC fan suddenly whir up to a previously not experienced speed. Shut it down and found that the CPU fan, this time, had broken. At the spindle. It had disconnected from the blades around it (still as a whole) and with virtually no air-moving load or detected cooling effect, it had gone to the maxest of max speeds. Another trip to Maplin and one (far more trivial) fan-replacement later, that machine was working again. If I hadn't been there, I imagine it was at risk of having ended up with a fried chip, but I was lucky.
(Still is. 15-or-more years later, working 24/7/52.1767857 for almost all that time apart from weekly soft-reboots to prevent OS-related memory-leak crud from building up in its ?16?Mb RAM. Except that the last time I fully shut down and restarted this machine (to hoover its internals of dust) it seems the CMOS cell needs replacing. That'll wait for the next dust-down, though.)
So, erm. Yeah. Look at the bits and pieces, even when not running you might see something wrong with a fan. Though it may be either a hidden issue (part-worn ball(s) in an internal bearing-ring, not worth digging into beyond replacing with fan assembly as a whole, dependant on it being one of those generic X-mm black square-framed fans or not) or the mechanics might be working perfectly, and it's either a build up of dust restricting the air-flow efficiency (suck/blow it away, with or without mechanical prodding/brushing/scraping, maybe) or even an imperfect connection of fan/heatsink to to whatever hot bit that f/h is servicing, and until you get it properly thermally reattached (however it needs it) it's just trying to do more work because the sensors know it isn't actually cooling like they think it should be.
This may sound daunting, but only because it could be loads of little things, from trivial to maybe-you-want-to-get-a-professional-in level, and we can only cover some of those as suggestions. With any luck it'll be towards the low end of that spectrum. And easily proven to be, too.
Post by: Frumple on December 18, 2018, 07:21:48 pm
A: I can work with this and
B: Whoever decided this touchpad was a good idea needs to be shot. Out a cannon, with a cannon, I dunno, something. Most touchpad design separates the mouse buttons from the main pad for a gorram reason.
Going to need a mouse. Sorta' have one but it doesn't work well. Maybe a keyboard, too. Input ergonomics on this thing are kinda' non-standard and janky.
Post by: AzyWng on January 10, 2019, 07:29:42 pm
What does this mean and how do I change things back to normal?
EDIT: Now they're green circles with a check mark inside them. I dunno if that's good or bad.
Post by: Starver on January 10, 2019, 08:12:18 pm
Code: [Select]
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell IconsTo change it from normal to another symbol, a value named "29" should be given data "%windir%\System32\shell32.dll,<somenumber>", with <somenumber> being (in all cases I know) a (negative?) number relating to the shell-default icon position. (Check - if you're familiar with it, the file-association icon chooser, maybe you can marry up values to the images shown as available in there from shell32.dll - assuming it isn't shell64.dll these days or something.)This might not be quite right for your version of Windows, whichever that is, but if you feel confident tweaking it, perhaps temporarily removing the "29" ktem, if it's there, and see if it goes back to normal. But only if you're sure how to restore it*. But memory tells me that "-50" is the number relating to the default (can't currently check) as opposed to super-sized arrows, etc.
I don't think ypu can break things (more!) by fiddling with other numbers, though, for the overlay concerned. And changes may only happen on restart, so it's not necessarily a quick "change, check and then try another change". Perhaps some GooglegFu powered by this suggestion would be the wisest next step?
* e.g. know how to export this bit only (or edit the export down to just this) for a quick re-import restore if necessary.
Post by: AzyWng on January 10, 2019, 10:27:03 pm
Post by: scourge728 on January 10, 2019, 10:28:46 pm
Post by: Greiger on January 10, 2019, 11:50:59 pm
Oddly though HWmonitor a software tool to I used to check the supply voltages is still saying the 12v rail is only 7v. I know they can be inaccurate but my understanding was they were inaccurate by 1 or 2 volts, not 5 or 6. Anyone have any more experience with such things? I don't want to return the new power supply until I am absolutely sure all is good, and that's still a red flag.
Post by: wierd on January 11, 2019, 05:22:45 am
the 12v rail should be 12v+/- .6v
If it is not, you are going to damage the motherboard and peripheral devices over time from undervoltage.
replace the PSU.
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 11, 2019, 09:19:12 am
Post by: Greiger on January 12, 2019, 12:04:48 am
Post by: Broseph Stalin on January 15, 2019, 02:45:25 pm
Now I have to rotate the charger.
Post by: Reelya on January 15, 2019, 04:03:30 pm
Small white "X'es have appeared in the bottom-left corner of all my desktop icons - in the place where the shortcut symbol would normally be.
What does this mean and how do I change things back to normal?
EDIT: Now they're green circles with a check mark inside them. I dunno if that's good or bad.
Windows 10 update recently brought in a new system for selecting things on the desktop, instead of holding ctrl or shift and clicking you can click on those boxes. that might be it? I turned it off through some settings.
Post by: scourge728 on January 15, 2019, 06:11:08 pm
I didn't do anything and the icons are back to normal now. All showing the blue arrow in a white square that represents a shortcut.Oh this is normal, well idk if it's normal, but this has been happening to me infrequently for awhile, I don't know what causes it but it hasn't actually done anything so I've been ignoring it
Post by: George_Chickens on January 16, 2019, 04:43:41 am
Any advice? I'm on Windows 7
Post by: wierd on January 16, 2019, 05:13:04 am
Right click on My Computer, and choose "Manage".
Choose "Disk management"
Find the device in the list, right click on it, and choose "change drive letter and paths"
Assign a letter.
Bob's your uncle.
Post by: George_Chickens on January 16, 2019, 05:16:21 am
Open windows explorer.That's the problem. It's not in disk management, but appears in device manager without issue and continues to be fully functional outside of Windows. I've uninstalled and reinstalled drivers, and done basically everything short of formatting or screwing with the registry to try to fix it.
Right click on My Computer, and choose "Manage".
Choose "Disk management"
Find the device in the list, right click on it, and choose "change drive letter and paths"
Assign a letter.
Bob's your uncle.
Post by: wierd on January 16, 2019, 05:36:51 am
Try putting a disc in the tray first.
That will cause windows to find a volume with a unique volume ID in that drive. (where otherwise, it has a null value, and so does not appear in the list part of disk management.) You should then see it in the list, and should be able to assign a letter.
Post by: George_Chickens on January 16, 2019, 05:54:28 am
Post by: Reelya on January 16, 2019, 06:10:01 am
In diskpart, wait for the prompt (it needs to scan for drives like disk manager does) then type "list volume" and see what comes up.
Post by: Greiger on January 16, 2019, 04:13:14 pm
Back when I did computer repair in a shop I remember having a computer with a similar issue. Nothing I did in software or with drivers made it show up but after I got into the internals and started fiddling with connectors windows saw it again.
That said I would think it would not show up in device manager if it was a loose connector, but it's worth a shot and cheaper than a new drive if it does work. And if you order a new drive off amazon or newegg it will take time to ship anyway.
Post by: Reelya on January 16, 2019, 10:58:59 pm
Post by: wierd on January 16, 2019, 11:21:09 pm
Quote
The drive works fine on my Linux partition
If true, that effectively rules out cable and port issues.
So.. Hmm...
Post by: Yoink on January 17, 2019, 01:52:58 am
Googling the error code given when it fails to start up led me to this guide (https://neosmart.net/wiki/0xc0000001/), and I was hoping to get a verdict on whether said guide (and the program 'Easy Recovery Essentials' that it recommends) is legit, or just a ploy to dump a fuckload of malware into my already-crippled laptop and, presumably, steal all my shit.
If y'all think it's above board I will probably head to the library and download it.
No idea what specifically caused this problem, or how much data loss I'll be looking at. D:
Post by: wierd on January 17, 2019, 02:15:06 am
I can likely help you diagnose it better than any guide can, and without any BS software
Post by: Trekkin on January 17, 2019, 12:48:23 pm
Yoink: Assuming you're neither of the people who actually has access to all the recovery media your laptop shipped with, probably the easiest, cheapest thing to try to either access your data or rule out all the fixable causes is to see if you can find a friend to let you make a bootable USB on their system of whatever OS you want (EDIT: And if you know which one you want, anyone here can tell you what you need; the process is fairly automatic now) and try booting from that and seeing if your files are still there.
Post by: Yoink on January 17, 2019, 11:58:45 pm
So, would a fresh OS install actually be easier than trying to repair it?
Post by: Trekkin on January 18, 2019, 12:07:42 am
Thanks for the help, guys! Yeah, that's the one.
So, would a fresh OS install actually be easier than trying to repair it?
Maybe, but I was suggesting something different. 0xc0000001 could be a problem with critical OS files, or it could be your hardware, probably your hard drive, that's broken. Without being able to boot we can't tell, which also means we don't know if reinstalling the OS will help; it may be there's nothing working on to which you could reinstall it. Making bootable external media solves both problems at once, and lets you see directly if your disk is bad by seeing if it's readable while you're booting from USB. From there you can back up your data and/or repair the OS, assuming your memory's okay.
EDIT: Before I forget, it will also let you check your drive's SMART data, which includes internal diagnostics that can help detect impending failure.
Post by: Yoink on January 18, 2019, 12:22:36 am
Yeah I guess I could do that, assuming whatever OS I go with isn't too big a file to download at the library. Might have to buy a new flash drive, though.
I have no idea what OS to go with, mind. I'm pretty sure my laptop was running *shudder* Windows 8. I'd really rather go back to something older, but I guess it doesn't matter too much if I'm just making an external one?
Post by: Trekkin on January 18, 2019, 12:34:33 am
Ohhh, I getcha.
Yeah I guess I could do that, assuming whatever OS I go with isn't too big a file to download at the library. Might have to buy a new flash drive, though.
I have no idea what OS to go with, mind. I'm pretty sure my laptop was running *shudder* Windows 8. I'd really rather go back to something older, but I guess it doesn't matter too much if I'm just making an external one?
Yeah, it won't matter too much. My natural inclination would be to reach for Linux Mint Cinnamon, which is only 2 GB to download, but we can definitely go smaller.
Post by: AzyWng on January 18, 2019, 01:54:30 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 04, 2019, 02:20:12 pm
Post by: wierd on February 04, 2019, 02:30:50 pm
https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Transfer-Motherboard-Computer-KW-PCI2USB3/dp/B00BTYOKXO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1549308617&sr=8-4&keywords=USB+3.0+header
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 04, 2019, 02:41:03 pm
Post by: wierd on February 04, 2019, 03:01:17 pm
"USB 3.0 bracket"
Post by: Lord Shonus on February 04, 2019, 03:17:04 pm
Post by: methylatedspirit on February 07, 2019, 09:52:20 am
Post by: Gentlefish on February 07, 2019, 09:59:18 am
Post by: methylatedspirit on February 07, 2019, 10:13:35 am
Speaking of tiny files, what metric measures the number of 0-byte/very small files that can be read/written per second by a hard drive or other storage medium? After all, manufacturers seem entirely fine with reporting read/write speeds for a continuous stream of data, so what gives?
Post by: Starver on February 07, 2019, 11:04:04 am
And if transfered stream-wise, some flatfile-ish streams handle null-content files (and tailings) better than others, however the storage hardware and FS ends up optimising the actual emplacement of the received data.
Though, to be honest, it's been many a year since I've had to worry about the exact mechanics. It's mostly the human component that's the slower factor that could be sped up by changes to process, even if you're sat there waiting for a few hundred gigabytes of files to move between USB thumb-drive and external HDD while shuffling data across media. I used to know much more about the various FATs, NTFS, NFS, ext (and the earlier extNs), ADFS/GDFS (Acorn, not Microsoft, and Graduate respectively) but I'd have to dig up manuals or wiki pages to refresh my knowledge, and I've no idea how/if they've tweaked NTFS since anyway. Never mind how the USB drivers interact for streaming and hanshaking them through the serial bus. (I've been fighting for years with a Win2K machine over this. It should be non-caching when I move files onto a stick, for immediate removal upon completion, but after it has 'copied' if I do too much else it can suddenly pop up saying it is failing to copy one of the files. Best to leave it a few minutes during and after copying and go and do something else.)
Post by: AzyWng on February 12, 2019, 09:57:00 pm
It no longer appears to work.
It won't pick up sound when it's selected as the default audio device (I can tell it's the device being used and not the laptop mic because my laptop mic doesn't pick up any sound at all when the headphone mic is active).
Audio troubleshooter hasn't been too helpful. Removing the mic from the headphones and putting it back in doesn't appear to help either. Restarting my laptop also hasn't had much of an effect.
I guess I'll shut the laptop down and turn it on, but I dunno how helpful that will be either.
EDIT: Mic is working now, but it only appears to be picking up one channel (The Right channel, that is). That means that only things on the right side are picked up...
DOUBLE EDIT: False alarm, it seems. The mic itself and both channels appear to be functinoing normally...
Post by: Starver on February 12, 2019, 11:00:09 pm
Not sure about your removal of the mic from the headphones, because all mic/headphone combo sets I've had have been inseparable short of (possibly damaging) dissassembly.
Also, mics, regardless of the headset (sometimes stereo; sometimes mono, especially just-one-ear versions) are only mono. Overwhelmingly, at least, unless you've got something very fancy. I suspect that the mic jack is of a mono-form (the second in this image (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Photo-audiojacks.jpg/825px-Photo-audiojacks.jpg)) rather than stereo (the third in that image) and it's the socket that's stereo-capable but isn't connecting properly with the internal left-leg that would normally be electrically equivalent to the right leg.
So now the question is have you got any other mics you can test? (The laptop mic is inbuilt, I presume, so not available to plug in, similarly, in any way.) It could easily be a bit of fluff stuck in the socket (I keep having to extract fluff from my tablet's headphone-out port, from the bottom of the various pockets it gets slid into) that at one point misaligned it to not work at all but now is merely misaligning it to the current problem. If it's exactly the same then I'd be seriously peering into the socket with some illumination (which you can do anyway, but before you think it is the problem you can spend ages trying to look there without thinking you ought to see something).
Cleaning anything out is tricky. I use a pin, the head, not the point, to carefully see if I can 'hook' any fibres out of the recesses with the "mushroom head" shape, but I know it's possible to damage the innards. Caveats apply, which is why I'd encourage you to see the fluff before picking away with increasing severity in hopes of finding it. It may be possible to damage the make-to-detect microswitch or alternate centre-pin detection at the base of the socket hole that governs the behaviour of the switch (mechanically or logically) to override the inbuilt mic, that's obvioysly working.
The other option to inward sound being only on the right channel is that you've moved the (software) setting stereo bias full over when you were trying to fiddle the (for other reasons?) original non-workingness. Having inadvertently repaired the original issue (e.g. switching off and on again, having cleared the badly set bit in the driver's working memory) you are now suffering from your other fiddlings. But I don't think that's likely for you to have missed (seen it and fiddled with it while fiddling, missed it entirely when re-fiddling), just putting it out there.
That's the sort of sequence of investigation I'd attempt if you brought it to me with that problem (maybe without quite so readily poking the socket, if it wasn't my device to take my own risks with). If the tests come up weird (only that mic works improperly with only that laptop, every other combination working and there being no obvious physical difference between plugs to perhaps be a borderline failure with the inscrutable insides of the slightly different laptop socket) then I'd have to look for another approach. Ditto if I'm wrong about it being a 3.5-phono connector from the start. (But if it's a composite stereo-out/mono-in three-channel 3.5 plug handling all audio IO in one ("TRRS", Tip/Ring/Ring/Sleeve, or even "TRRRS" with another ring) then it could yet be the same as per misalignment, but I'm not entirely sure which Rs and which of the T and S actually does what, without looking it up of hooking one up to test.)
Post by: BigD145 on February 14, 2019, 08:06:43 pm
Post by: methylatedspirit on February 14, 2019, 11:51:32 pm
Post by: wierd on February 14, 2019, 11:55:15 pm
A cheapie "power strip" 5-minute special would do. I used to use one for this purpose when I lived out in super rural-land USA. Wind + overhead power lines + Neglect from the county electrical commission because "County is rural and poor" == Very unstable power at various times during the day. After destroying a few 60$ PSUs, I decided that a sacrificial UPS was called for. Worked great. It will just beep all the damn time.
Post by: methylatedspirit on February 21, 2019, 09:49:41 am
I've tried updating the BIOS and drivers, and they're all up to date, so what else could be the culprit?
Post by: wierd on February 21, 2019, 09:52:39 am
Post by: methylatedspirit on February 21, 2019, 10:06:57 am
Post by: wierd on February 21, 2019, 10:08:08 am
Post by: methylatedspirit on February 22, 2019, 09:30:25 am
Anyway, this is the list of hardware:
Motherboard: (how and where do I get the exact name?)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20GHz, 3201 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
Installed RAM: 8GB, 1/4 slots filled
GPU: AMD Radeon R7 200 Series, @1075 MHz, 1GB VRAM
Network adapters: D-Link DWA-566 Wireless N 300 Dual Band PCIe Desktop Adapter
Disk drives:
- TS128GSSD370S (SSD, 128GB, is (C:), main boot device)
- ST9500423AS (Laptop HDD, scavenged from laptop, is Second Disk (F:), used mainly to redirect Documents (savefiles are huge), Downloads and Pictures to save space on the SSD.)
- StoreJet Transcend USB Device (External USB 3.0 HDD, 1TB, is Transcend (E:))
- ST500LT012-1DG142 (Laptop HDD, 500GB, taken directly from another (now-broken) laptop, is (H:) and System Reserved (D:), still contains an install of Windows ...10? 8.1?)
What have I missed?
Post by: wierd on February 22, 2019, 09:43:36 am
If that fails, you can try sisoft sandra.
https://www.sisoftware.co.uk/download-lite/
Sandra should be able to tell you *ALL KINDS* of stuff. (Including what kind of RAM you have, what features your CPU supports, etc.)
I also want to know if there are any integrated modems, what kind of sound hardware there is, etc. I want a full list of the drivers that are installed.
Post by: methylatedspirit on February 22, 2019, 10:27:08 am
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
How do I quickly get a full list of drivers, assuming you only need the names?
Post by: wierd on February 22, 2019, 11:43:31 am
UPDATE:
I have dug a bit. I see several references to this happening with that (series) video card.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/blue-screen-with-windows-10-and-r7-200-thread/aecbb37b-4a03-4ae9-a4b3-c8ef2e2d4685
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/thread-stuck-in-device-driver.2751613/
that last one gives something to try at least; try disabling the radeon HDMI audio device, and see if that alleviates the problem.
Post by: methylatedspirit on February 23, 2019, 07:17:36 am
I've now disabled the audio device. I'll see if my system gets more stable.
Post by: Jopax on April 16, 2019, 11:44:39 am
Post by: Iduno on April 16, 2019, 03:50:40 pm
So, in light of my recent HDD fuckery, any reccomendations of hdd diagnostic/repair software? I'd like to not shell out for a new one if I can avoid it for the time being and even a temporary fix of any sort would be helpful to tide me over until I get a proper desktop pc up and running.
I'd say chkdsk (pronounced check disk)? A full format will apparently also catch bad sectors, but requires a format. You have a back-up of whatever you want to keep? Alternatively, see if there are diagnostic tools from the manufacturer.
Post by: wierd on April 16, 2019, 10:40:15 pm
https://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm
If you have some bad sectors, it will aggressively scrub the data from those sectors than instigate sector remapping from the spare track.
Post by: Jopax on April 17, 2019, 03:03:16 pm
Luckily, managed to find a shadier alternative, did the scan/fix thingy, found 600ish bad sectors, fixed them all, hopefully that'll last a while.
What's also funny is that chckdisk said everything was pretty fine with some 32kb of bad sectors and I shouldn't worry :V
Post by: wierd on April 17, 2019, 08:44:06 pm
I suggest getting a new drive, then cloning it as soon as possible. (now that you recovered and remapped the sectors using the spare track, you can do a clone operation without it eating itself.) That many bad sectors is usually indicative of the platter having experienced some pretty extreme trauma, and the normal order of things is for the platter to continue to break down in there.
Getting your data off that sinking ship is the best suggestion I have.
Post by: Starver on April 18, 2019, 01:41:28 pm
Might have been just one particular type of disc. It could be that this was therefore discontinued as a manufacturing method, going for something more tolerant of point-damage (in a physical way) as well as all the additional logical-layout mitigations.
Post by: scofficial on April 20, 2019, 04:00:46 am
Any help on this?
Post by: Jopax on April 24, 2019, 12:19:39 pm
Post by: Trekkin on April 24, 2019, 11:47:42 pm
Post by: Jopax on April 25, 2019, 12:47:06 am
In the end, I'm getting my backup drive today so even if it decides to go full sudoku I'm not gonna be bothered too much by it
Post by: AzyWng on April 25, 2019, 08:54:09 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 25, 2019, 11:00:42 am
Post by: AzyWng on April 25, 2019, 12:54:05 pm
I haven't actually tried restarting my computer, so I don't know if this is just a small hiccup or if file association actually has been lost (or if it's some other issue). I'll try restarting it later and if that doesn't help, I'll let you know.
Post by: wierd on April 25, 2019, 07:29:22 pm
"No, I want to be run with -Xmsx1024, or I wont run at all! *raspberry!*" type shenanigans?
Post by: AzyWng on April 25, 2019, 07:49:45 pm
Post by: wierd on April 25, 2019, 07:59:10 pm
Many programs want more than this (because they are written in java, and it is fucking wasteful as shit with memory...) so you have to invoke java with the -Xms argument to specify how many megabytes of memory the VM has. This is why I mentioned it.
eg,
java -Xms1024 -jar [some jar file.jar]
You would accomplish that with a shortcut.
Post by: Jopax on May 01, 2019, 04:25:23 am
This time it's the graphics for whatever reason. My asus runs a GTX950M and before I've had zero issues with the damn thing. But ever since the last install, two out of two games that I've installed have shown issues. Namely, in fullscreen mode, the screen flashes black with a thick, glitchy line across the middle, in case of Grim Dawn, it's visible only in menus and for a bit, in case of DS3 it's always present and makes it unplayable. It looks like a sync issue but fiddling with that ingame hasn't produced any results, and so far, only switching to windowed mode seems to fix it. I have the latest drivers from the asus website since ones from nvidia refuse to install claiming that I don't have compatible hardware for it :V
Edit: Further experimentation shows that even in fullscreen mode, when I pick a different resolution it doesn't glitch anymore. So it only seems to be a problem at 1920x1080
Post by: wierd on May 01, 2019, 07:40:25 am
Many times, the newest driver pack has issues with older cards.
Post by: Iduno on May 01, 2019, 08:39:07 am
I’m on Windows 10 and...
I'm sorry to hear that. I feel like I should have purchased dozens of copies of Windows 7 to give out to people back when I bought my copy.
I mean, you could try to use Linux, but you could also try Scientology.
Post by: Rose on May 01, 2019, 09:51:38 am
In general everyday usage, windows 10 outshines linux by miles.
Post by: pikachu17 on May 01, 2019, 11:54:26 am
Is there an easy way to bring it back, and if that way is data recovery tools (which I know nothing about), which would you recommend?
Post by: feelotraveller on May 01, 2019, 01:54:01 pm
In general everyday usage, windows 10 outshines linux by miles.
And you get to warm your hands in front of it while it updates. :P
Post by: Trekkin on May 01, 2019, 06:38:30 pm
You're forgetting one thing.
In general everyday usage, windows 10 outshines linux by miles.
What are you counting as "general everyday usage", though? Office and web browsing? Because, yes, Windows is shinier and has more guard rails around things you don't want untrained users doing, but it can't run servers and is therefore useless for serious computation.
Post by: scourge728 on May 02, 2019, 08:09:26 am
Post by: Trekkin on May 02, 2019, 08:11:28 am
Well servers aren't general everyday use afaik
Aren't they? You're indirectly using more than one right now.
Post by: scourge728 on May 02, 2019, 08:49:20 am
Post by: Iduno on May 02, 2019, 10:59:48 am
Also, it's a long-shot, but does anyone know about fixing an old Nintendo Wii? It refuses to recognize the remotes. I can re-sync them, but turning on the Wii de-syncs them again, which makes doing literally anything in the menu impossible. I can't find anything online.
Post by: scourge728 on May 02, 2019, 01:31:04 pm
Post by: wierd on May 02, 2019, 10:32:02 pm
I meant, running a server isn't something the majority of users do
You might be surprised. Do you have a DVR in your living room? Did you know it is a DLNA server? (and likely runs some variant of linux or VSX underneath?) How about a Wifi router? Got one of those? Those usually run an embedded linux, and frequently run a SAMBA server, and sometimes a DLNA server.
I have 2 NAS products on my network, and have one adapted into a general purpose mini-server.
"Servers" are all over the place. They are getting integrated into more and more things.
Post by: Trekkin on May 03, 2019, 01:50:57 pm
I meant, running a server isn't something the majority of users do
Yeah. My point, in turn, was that anything that a user wants to do in Windows is so far removed from anything resembling actual computation that their specific wants are basically irrelevant, so calling Windows 10 better than Linux on the grounds that it can more effectively insulate users from their own incompetence and still let them run some programs is perhaps disingenuous when it still needs a Linux system to show them Facebook and lolcats and send their emails and so forth.
Post by: Reelya on May 03, 2019, 11:24:51 pm
the term "serious computation" is not a thing with an actual meaning. I can do arbitrary computations on a Windows box. But then you can just say "ah but they're not serious computations" which is a "no true Scotsman" argument.
BTW If you're using Python or another high-level language on a Linux box and going on about how only Linux provides "serious computation" then that would be ... a bad joke. You should only use C or C++ if you're that invested. High-level languages are a kludge so that the user doesn't need to know the underlying structures of the computation process. Using high-level languages is exactly the same trade-off as running Windows instead of Linux. Here's a hint: in the data-centers it's all c/c++ as well as Linux. People who run high-level languages on a single Linux box then think they're being elite is a bad joke. What you would in effect be getting is a lot of time wasted maintaining the system, and it runs slower than it would if you just spent the time learning C++ and ran it on any old OS.
People use Windows rather than Linux for the same reason people buy bottled beer rather than always home-brewing beer. Sure, the home-brew is cheaper, but then you have to account for labor time/value, which makes it not worth it. Don't knock Windows users unless you also bake your own bread and brew your own beer, change your own oil on your car, etc etc etc. These things are specialized services people buy for all the same reason.
Post by: Trekkin on May 04, 2019, 11:51:25 am
People who run high-level languages on a single Linux box then think they're being elite is a bad joke.
All of our (current) code is C++, and while it can run on a single processor for debugging purposes, it's run for production purposes on large computing clusters, almost all of which run Linux.
You've got my argument backwards, I think. I'm not saying running on Linux is some mark of being some sort of elite computer user; I actually agree with you that in a single-processor context there's no point to absolutely optimizing how fast an individual user sees their lolcats or types their novel in Starbucks or whatever they're doing, so for most (non-CS) people's purposes the relative strengths of their operating system aren't distinguishable from just the random noise in their workflow, and the absolute wall-clock differences are so small they'd lose more time by switching than they'd gain over the course of their career.
My point, in response to Japa's comment, was that Windows' ubiquity in contexts where the OS doesn't matter is not really a good argument for it being better, just more familiar, and those contexts still use Linux devices anyway, so there's a question of what "general everyday usage" really means. On a light workday, I might use six CPU-years of cluster time, all necessarily on Linux systems because all the clusters I work with, and every cluster I've ever seen maintained by professionals, run on Linux. Now, you can go find two thousand-odd people who used Word all day and thereby claim that "general everyday usage" favors Windows, but they'd not be noticeably impaired by switching except in terms of familiarity.
So yes, there are Linux users who are doing silly things with Python on single processors. My point was that there are not professionally maintained computing resources using Windows, at least not ones where people are accountable for their performance, so can we really say that Windows is better because it's used where it doesn't matter?
Post by: Reelya on May 04, 2019, 10:21:13 pm
Windows and other more 'managed' OS's are popular for the same reasons I mentioned high-level vs low-level languages. It's wrong to just say "windows is used when OS speed doesn't matter", because the correct response is "Windows is used when you need the OS to get out of your way and just let you do the task-focused thing you want".
Large enterprises also tend to roll out Windows desktops across their organization, and large enterprises aren't just a bunch of dummies, they have carefully calculated the efficiencies and costs involved, on a cross-enterprise level across thousands of machines and determined that rolling out Windows is the most efficient use of resources, given the entire range of factors. In context, they've determined that windows is "best". "best" is not just about how fast one box crunches numbers, it's about total resource investment and cost across the lifetime of all machines on your network. Sure, Linux wins in scaled data-centers, but it's objectively failed in winning in the enterprise desktop environment, which is what it needs to win to prove that it's a viable alternative to desktop Windows.
Windows is objectively better at being that thing enterprises need than Linux is. If Windows was only the "doesn't matter OS" as you state, and Linux was objectively better at some things, Linux would be chosen by the bean-counters in the big companies. But it ain't.
Windows or other OS's with more "hand-rails" are popular not because people are stupid, but because it's a more efficient use of the user's time to have tools that just work right out of the box and don't require you to waste time learning a manuals-worth of stuff you literally don't need to know. Windows and Mac are popular because of labor specialization, a fundamental economic principle that drives higher productivity.
Sure, everyone using Linux would be a slightly better use of computer resources but it'd be a dumb-ass approach because that fails to account for the user's time resources, so it would in fact be a comprehension fail of the big picture. People make conscious decisions to specialize their domain of knowledge. It's not a failure of the system when a large amount of people decide that learning the inner workings of their tools is a waste of time they could spend mastering their own area of expertise instead. Why should a painter who wants to use a computer learn what is effectively half a university's degree worth of computer specific knowlege needed to properly run something like Linux, when they could spend that time doing art and becoming a better artist? That's why in context, Windows is better in that circumstance.
Which is "better" is entirely relative on a case-by-case basis. It's like asking whether a screwdriver is better than a hammer. Depends on the user and the job needed to be done. Windows or Linux isn't "better" in some platonic sense, because "better" only exists relative to some need. We can say that Linux is generally a better choice for data-center scale computation and that Windows is generally a better choice for a desktop machine. That claim isn't in any way saying "Windows is better than Linux". Just, often it's the best choice.
Post by: Trekkin on May 05, 2019, 02:25:43 am
So, yes, I agree that there are cases in which Windows is better, and the majority of non-computational users -- that is to say, users for which processing power a secondary concern -- certainly prefer either a Windows box or a Mac. I just don't think that we can take that popularity as evidence that Windows itself is better in the sort of ways that matter for a majority of individual users, because they depend partly on factors external to the OS itself, familiarity being foremost among them. If you're the people in charge of making thousands of computers serve the needs of thousands of untrained people, you absolutely want to set up the interface that's as close as possible to what those users are familiar with, because that keeps tech support needs down. Whether those tools are better or worse is secondary because the time your users take to familiarize themselves with new tools is vastly more than the total difference in speed over their careers -- but that's not a property of the OS and more relevantly isn't necessarily true of someone setting up a machine for their own use, depending on what they intend to do with it and how much they need to learn anyway. The same contrast is true of certain types of security; if the sysadmin is also the only user, a lot of Windows' handrails will do little except slow them down.
I'm not saying everyone should use Linux. I am saying that "general everyday usage" overlaps significantly with the use cases in which you want to notice the OS as little as possible, so claiming that Windows "outshines" Linux there is not necessarily meaningful for home users, especially ones who are consciously considering what operating system to use. I'm not saying Japa's original statement was necessarily wrong, only that it is a poor argument to make in the first place.
Post by: Arx on May 05, 2019, 06:02:04 am
I have a Xiaomi Mi 4. The screen apparently spontaneously cracked this morning - at least, I did nothing with it other than putting it in my pocket, unlocking a gate and getting in a car, and when I took it out again the screen was cracked.
Over the course of the next 30 minutes or so, the capacitance layer [thing] degenerated to total failure. The display functions fine.
Without doing a screen replacement, is there a way I can jury-rig the capacitance to run again for long enough to do a quick backup? I'm able to do a full reversible teardown of pretty much everything except the screen, which is glued in and I hate messing with glue. I don't need the phone to function again after that, nor does it need to function for long.
I'll be entirely unsurprised if such a scheme doesn't exist, but I thought I'd check in case some of you tech junkies know a plausible hack.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 05, 2019, 09:46:10 am
Post by: BigD145 on May 07, 2019, 02:23:34 pm
Alright, I have a fairly non-generic not-conventional-PC question.
I have a Xiaomi Mi 4. The screen apparently spontaneously cracked this morning - at least, I did nothing with it other than putting it in my pocket, unlocking a gate and getting in a car, and when I took it out again the screen was cracked.
Over the course of the next 30 minutes or so, the capacitance layer [thing] degenerated to total failure. The display functions fine.
Without doing a screen replacement, is there a way I can jury-rig the capacitance to run again for long enough to do a quick backup? I'm able to do a full reversible teardown of pretty much everything except the screen, which is glued in and I hate messing with glue. I don't need the phone to function again after that, nor does it need to function for long.
I'll be entirely unsurprised if such a scheme doesn't exist, but I thought I'd check in case some of you tech junkies know a plausible hack.
What do you need to backup? You can pull info off with a standard computer although this assumes you turned on usb debugging on the phone itself.
dr.fone
easus
mobisaver
apowersoft
Most options require debug and/or root before your screen got messed up.
Post by: wierd on May 07, 2019, 08:54:04 pm
https://9to5google.com/2017/11/04/how-to-backup-restore-android-device-data-android-basics/
An otg dongle will let you connect a mouse.
https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Adapter-Samsung-Controller-Android/dp/B00N9S9Z0G/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=3Q2L3149Y2MKV&keywords=otg+cable&qid=1557280386&s=gateway&sprefix=otg&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1
Post by: Parsely on May 08, 2019, 12:01:06 pm
Post by: wierd on May 08, 2019, 03:06:38 pm
The thing is, many apps request things they really have no business asking for, and/or, the granularity of permissions is dangerous. (eg, "Allow access to SD card" so that the camera app can save pictures, also allows it to read or write anything else it wants to... "Access to contacts" allows it to harvest all your phone numbers you have programmed in. Etc. Etc.. Etc.. The idea of "restrictive" permissions is not something google seems to have considered when designing android. You know, the methodology of "minimum permissions to do exactly the thing it says it does, and NOTHING else". Instead, it allows apps to vacuum up data and do whatever the fuck it wants with it.
Hilariously enough, if you have set up adopted storage (and again, have root access and know how to use linux effectively) you can set file system permissions that keep such applications honest. (Camera app ONLY has permissions to the DCIM folder tree, etc.) This is because each app is assigned a numeric system user identity that you can set or revoke permission with.
Really though, you should honestly just treat the phone like it is a compromised listening bug. About as much so as an amazon echo, or a google home. That's the way it is designed, and intended to operate. Don't do things with it that you feel might compromise your privacy. best advice.
Post by: Parsely on May 08, 2019, 09:17:18 pm
Post by: wierd on May 08, 2019, 09:54:06 pm
Post by: Jopax on May 09, 2019, 06:17:11 am
Post by: Iduno on May 09, 2019, 07:58:14 am
So reverting the drivers didn't do anything (and nvidia also decided to start updating them while I was in-game, so that was a fun little crash). Further rummaging around, this time focusing on the graphics card instead of particular applications made me learn that the issue is due to some sort of fuckery between the integrated intel card and the nvidia one. As it turns out, the intel drivers were doing something dumb and messing with everything, simply uninstalling those (and letting windows install whatever it did) seems to have fixed the issue completely.
Are there jumpers (little black plastic things over 2 metal prongs) to disable the onboard graphics? It's been a long while, but I vaguely remember that being a thing.
Post by: Jopax on May 09, 2019, 11:14:14 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 24, 2019, 09:27:36 pm
I don't see any way this could be a hardware fault, and I think it must be something in my video card. However, pink is a very scary color when it comes to displays, so I'd appreciate it greatly if anybody has any ideas.
Post by: wierd on May 25, 2019, 02:41:32 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 25, 2019, 11:27:34 am
Post by: wierd on May 25, 2019, 12:24:27 pm
Hmm...
Post by: MCreeper on May 28, 2019, 06:43:22 am
Post by: wierd on May 28, 2019, 06:51:04 am
Linux-- Depends on the distro. These days, software makers expect you to have at least 2gb installed. one of the "Memory constrained system" friendly distros like xubuntu or lubuntu, will expect you to have at least 1gb installed.
Post by: feelotraveller on May 28, 2019, 12:05:18 pm
Post by: wierd on May 28, 2019, 02:40:24 pm
Post by: MCreeper on May 29, 2019, 04:21:35 am
Windows 7 has a boxed minimun memory requirement of 512mb. In practice, you will need much more than that, usually around 2gb.should be less than 500, i guess.
Post by: feelotraveller on May 29, 2019, 06:40:09 pm
As to the linux off-topic, two comments.
1) Given that, for example, opening a modern firefox browser consumes approx. 500mb having only 1Gb of memory would put most distro's into swap mode unless you used very aggressive -or is that passive- swap settings. But this surely is the 'bloat' on top.
2) But the window manager alone? Must be crappy distro. A year ago I installed a Manjaro-Xfce 32-bit on an old lappie with 768mb ram (had to edit the minimum memory install code...) and it had no swapping even when using (an old, ~200mb) firefox browser. Mind you the newer firefox pushed it into swap territory. ;)
Post by: da_nang on May 31, 2019, 08:39:45 am
Since it'll probably be a while before I can replace the GPU, I'm looking into contingency plans. Currently I'm getting video over the Standard VGA Graphics Adapter. How long that will work I don't know.
So just in case, I'm on a AMD Radeon HD6850 as well as AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE. I don't think that I have integrated graphics on the CPU, so should the card blow up, would it be possible to have basic CPU-rendered display through the motherboard's USB 3.0 port? USB 3.0 is 5 Gbps, so in theory it should support 1080p at 60 Hz (aka ~3 Gbps). It'll have to go through a VGA adapter, and hog some CPU time, but it's doable, no?
Post by: wierd on May 31, 2019, 01:17:11 pm
See for example, Displaylink's offerings.
https://www.displaylink.com/products/usb-adapters
https://displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?t=362
Now you can FAKE it with something like SwiftShader... But for anything advanced, it will melt your CPU.
Post by: da_nang on May 31, 2019, 02:47:27 pm
I don't expect to do any gaming on this PC for the moment.
Post by: wierd on May 31, 2019, 04:09:20 pm
Just be apprised that 3d accel is used for more than just games. Youtube and pals will suffer.
Post by: Reelya on June 01, 2019, 06:17:29 pm
Post by: wierd on June 03, 2019, 03:45:26 am
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
Post by: feelotraveller on June 03, 2019, 09:52:36 pm
By the way I'm pretty sure Damn Small Linux has been defunct for some time but there is always Tiny Core Linux
http://tinycorelinux.net/ (http://tinycorelinux.net/)
Post by: MCreeper on June 04, 2019, 12:41:41 am
So i have a laptop (DELL whateverish) with Windows 10, and by default (?) contrast is off quite a bit to the darker side. Normally that's not a problem, but it got rather ridicolous in first Dark Souls, where even at maxed ingame brightness areas that are a bit darker than outside turn into "see nothing beyound inbuilt lantern range" areas. And i can't find contrast settings. "High contrast mode" just colorswaps window borders, calibration shows me that it is indeed borked, then helpfully tells me to use non-existant contrast settings buttons on my display. Surely there must be an option somewhere?
Post by: wierd on June 04, 2019, 01:55:47 am
Post by: methylatedspirit on June 04, 2019, 05:09:53 am
How does any of this work? How does it restrict itself to Southeast Asian networks? How does it know that 5 minutes have elapsed? Why does this restriction exist in the first place?
Post by: wierd on June 04, 2019, 05:24:54 am
Carriers keep deep, dark, dirty secrets about how they program their baseband radios so that they can do shit like this and get away with it.
Often times, there are "Secret menus" baked into the phone's operating system to reprogram the phone once it has been in service for awhile. That information often leaks to the public, and then people unlock their phones themselves.
Post by: methylatedspirit on June 04, 2019, 05:40:49 am
Post by: MCreeper on June 04, 2019, 06:22:50 am
Look on the number keys for icons that looks like a sun, written in blue. Use the Fn key and whatever key that is, to adjust the backlight intensity.That will be for brightness, raising which just turns pitch black areas in dark gray areas. There are none for contrast, looks like. Any way to raise contrast that is within system?
Post by: wierd on June 04, 2019, 06:34:09 am
Post by: MCreeper on June 04, 2019, 06:53:17 am
what gpu?Thanks, got it. It was in Intel settings. I did set contrast a bit higher, then i did set it back to base and then DS worked just fine. I don't even.
Post by: Parsely on June 06, 2019, 09:47:48 pm
In Event 1 it will turn black but only for a second, then it comes back, this happens 5 or 10 times then it chills out and stops, then usually it won't happen again for the rest of the day. It could happen at any time, fiddling with the display and power cables during it doesn't help, and I can never get it to occur by fiddling with the cables aggressively, so I suspect my GPU.
Sometimes Event 1 is followed immediately by Event 2 (but sometimes this happens randomly), where my primary display turns solid green. I can still move windows back and forth (mouse isn't visible though) so it's not a connection problem which again makes me think GPU and not my cables. If I unplug either of my monitors' display cables and plug it back in it instantly fixes it and it's like nothing happened.
Just yesterday the primary display went to white noise which kind of freaked me out because that's the first time that ever happened, I fixed it the same way I fixed Event 2 though. Drivers are up to date. What should I do?
Post by: Iduno on June 07, 2019, 07:59:28 am
I have a Windows 10 desktop PC with two displays, something has been up with my primary monitor and I'm really getting sick of it.
In Event 1 it will turn black but only for a second, then it comes back, this happens 5 or 10 times then it chills out and stops, then usually it won't happen again for the rest of the day. It could happen at any time, fiddling with the display and power cables during it doesn't help, and I can never get it to occur by fiddling with the cables aggressively, so I suspect my GPU.
Sometimes Event 1 is followed immediately by Event 2 (but sometimes this happens randomly), where my primary display turns solid green. I can still move windows back and forth (mouse isn't visible though) so it's not a connection problem which again makes me think GPU and not my cables. If I unplug either of my monitors' display cables and plug it back in it instantly fixes it and it's like nothing happened.
Just yesterday the primary display went to white noise which kind of freaked me out because that's the first time that ever happened, I fixed it the same way I fixed Event 2 though. Drivers are up to date. What should I do?
Sounds a lot like when my second monitor/TV started turning off and on when I turned it on. It's not great for it. Do you have a different connection type you can use (composite or DVI instead of HDMI for example)? It may or may not help (I'm not an electrical engineer), but it may. Worst case, it's unplugging and plugging back in which can help.
Post by: Il Palazzo on June 13, 2019, 12:58:39 pm
All the helpdesk entries I've read tell me there should be a notification when I plug in the usb cable, that needs to be clicked in order to change from charging to file transfer (or some such). But there ain't any. The PC file manager doesn't see the phone. I've tried bluetooth, but I only managed to get it to 'paired' but not 'connected'.
I've just updated the OS to the latest version, but it didn't seem to have helped.
What am I supposed to be doing here? I vaguely remember that it used to work like a regular usb storage when I connected the phone, but it ain't so no more.
Post by: wierd on June 13, 2019, 01:55:05 pm
Because the carriers are fucking tools.
Go to settings, and click on "build number" 7 times in a row. This will enable developer mode options.
Enter developer mode options, and under USB mode, select MTP.
Connect the USB cable.
Profit.
Spoiler: More Full explanation (click to show/hide)
Post by: Il Palazzo on June 13, 2019, 03:53:57 pm
Post by: wierd on June 13, 2019, 04:42:37 pm
You may need to install a driver package for your phone; I did for my LG.
Post by: Il Palazzo on June 14, 2019, 03:06:38 am
I ended up using google drive to preserve my fraying sanity.
Post by: The Scout on July 02, 2019, 02:49:11 pm
Edit: Trying with 3 different HDDs, two of which I know aren't broke.
Post by: RoguelikeRazuka on July 02, 2019, 03:03:20 pm
Quote
You may install varying memory sizes in Channel A and Channel B. The system maps the total size of the lower-sized for the dual-channel configuration. Any excess memory from the higher-sized channel is the mapped for single-channel configuration.But my configuration is going to be 4 + 4 gb for channel A and 8 gb for channel B (hence equal sizes in each channel), so the above statement does not apply, correct?
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 02, 2019, 03:11:19 pm
You'd probably get better performance by getting two more 4GB sticks. That should run everything in dual channel, and be faster. You'd only pay about 10 bucks more from Newegg, if you're in the US.
Post by: wierd on July 02, 2019, 10:52:11 pm
Got a Sabrent external harddrive. Plugged into my USB 3.0 port, shows up in device manager and the blue light stays on. Inserting a drive immediately makes it disconnect and the light starts to flash. Running Windows 7. Tried moving it between the USB 2.0 and 3.0 with no difference.
Edit: Trying with 3 different HDDs, two of which I know aren't broke.
Are these full sized HDDs?
Could be an issue with the port not supplying sufficient power for the drive(s). I have that problem with several of my SATA<->USB adapters I have laying around. (Have to use an externally powered adapter usually.)
The USB specification only allows 500mA for unidentified/registered (on stack) devices, and only 2A for ones that are. If the drive needs more than that to spin up, you need a powered enclosure.
Post by: wierd on July 02, 2019, 11:00:02 pm
I'm pretty sure that you'll be dual-channeling the lower half of the 8GB stick with one 4GB, and then having two single-channel 4GB selections.
You'd probably get better performance by getting two more 4GB sticks. That should run everything in dual channel, and be faster. You'd only pay about 10 bucks more from Newegg, if you're in the US.
I really dont think that's how that works...
A multi-channel memory configuration makes use of multiple physical data busses on the memory controller, so that the memory controller can get data in and out of the ram sticks faster. A single module can only live in a single bus. To use multiple busses, you have to have multiple modules.
A single module will only ever work in single channel mode, because it can only live in one bus.
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 02, 2019, 11:08:21 pm
Post by: The Scout on July 03, 2019, 01:15:28 am
Post by: Iduno on July 03, 2019, 05:13:28 pm
Got a Sabrent external harddrive. Plugged into my USB 3.0 port, shows up in device manager and the blue light stays on. Inserting a drive immediately makes it disconnect and the light starts to flash. Running Windows 7. Tried moving it between the USB 2.0 and 3.0 with no difference.
Edit: Trying with 3 different HDDs, two of which I know aren't broke.
Is it a powered USB slot? Sometimes things prefer one or the other, for reasons other than needing power or not. I cannot elaborate on these reasons, but I've seen it happen enough that they must exist.
Post by: pikachu17 on July 28, 2019, 11:11:15 pm
Post by: Iduno on July 29, 2019, 01:49:22 pm
I need a web hosting site quick for school, and not for very long.
Few details, and they didn't provide you with the hosting you need? Sounds like "pranks/lies", and therefore I fully support the endeavor.
It sounds like most web hosts allow for month-to-month hosting. I also assume some are overpriced, and others are "overpriced at any price."
Post by: gimlet on July 29, 2019, 10:14:50 pm
Post by: Jopax on August 04, 2019, 07:20:26 am
It might be a shitty cable but I'm not sure anymore. If it were just the shitty drive then the external one would be working fine.
Post by: anewaname on August 06, 2019, 12:30:05 am
Is the old HDD for a laptop or a desktop?
Post by: Iduno on August 16, 2019, 07:44:24 pm
Post by: scourge728 on August 16, 2019, 09:19:42 pm
Post by: wierd on August 17, 2019, 03:22:09 am
I dunno if they rolled it out in mainline yet. Regardless, its just an ACL. I can put the instructions again, since I'm the one that coughed it up in the first place.
Post by: Iduno on August 17, 2019, 08:21:31 pm
I can put the instructions again, since I'm the one that coughed it up in the first place.
That would be great. I tried looking through your old posts, but I'm having trouble finding it.
Post by: wierd on August 18, 2019, 03:21:49 am
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=160107.msg8008518#msg8008518
The spoiler contains helpful images. Win7 based instructions. It's slightly different for win10.
There's a slight error on the picture instructions though-- BE SURE TO UNCHECK DELETE PERMISSION. It's not arrowed in the instructions.
Post by: scourge728 on August 18, 2019, 10:37:07 pm
Post by: wierd on August 19, 2019, 12:12:18 am
Quote
Steam Client Update Released
Client Update - Valve
A new Steam client has been released and will be automatically downloaded.
General
Fixed library drop-down menu no longer displaying after changing the library filter
Steam Input
Fixed Xbox controllers showing up twice on Mac OS X
Removed guide button emulation using the back or start button, except when using Steam Remote Play. This feature was causing some issues with some fightsticks and retro controllers and will be re-enabled for locally connected controllers in the future.
Steam Windows Service
Fixed privilege escalation exploit using symbolic links in Windows registry
Post by: Iduno on August 19, 2019, 02:43:07 pm
Post by: wierd on August 21, 2019, 11:13:27 pm
Post by: Akura on September 05, 2019, 10:44:51 am
Any recommendations for the actual VR headset? I've heard good thing about the Occulus Rift-S.
Post by: wierd on September 05, 2019, 10:53:52 am
(I used to own a VFX-1 headset (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VFX1_Headgear), waaaaaaaay back in the 90s. even when I was very young, I learned that my eyes have VERY different focal depths, and the strain of using a display that close was just unbearable. My eyes are EVEN WORSE now. So, I don't even bother with VR. While the displays inside are lightyears ahead of what the VFX1 had inside it, the principles are the same: Adjustable optics for each eye, to attempt to compensate for the close proximity of the display. when I had finished adjusting the optics to where I could actually see anything in the FX1, I had one eyepiece absurdly long, and the other absurdly short. It was very uncomfortable to wear, and the eyestrain was unbearable. I am in no hurry to repeat that experience.)
Post by: Iduno on September 05, 2019, 01:41:49 pm
Looking to set up for VR gaming in the moderate future - by the end of the year. So far everything is looking good. I would need to replace my graphics card(currently a GTX 750ti), and get Windows 10(I don't want to, but...). I'm pretty sure my power supply(610w) can handle a GTX 1060 (https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Overclocked-Extreme-06G-P4-1163-KR/dp/B07PHQHFCQ). Only concern is it fitting inside my case, but it probably would. Actual physical space in my room is actually pretty decent, despite having a smaller room than my last house.
Any recommendations for the actual VR headset? I've heard good thing about the Occulus Rift-S.
I guess you could dual-boot. Or just get a Virtual Boy.
Post by: Lord Shonus on September 05, 2019, 03:08:24 pm
Looking to set up for VR gaming in the moderate future - by the end of the year. So far everything is looking good. I would need to replace my graphics card(currently a GTX 750ti), and get Windows 10(I don't want to, but...). I'm pretty sure my power supply(610w) can handle a GTX 1060 (https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Overclocked-Extreme-06G-P4-1163-KR/dp/B07PHQHFCQ). Only concern is it fitting inside my case, but it probably would. Actual physical space in my room is actually pretty decent, despite having a smaller room than my last house.
Any recommendations for the actual VR headset? I've heard good thing about the Occulus Rift-S.
The Rift S is supposed to be a significant upgrade from the Rift, and I've found my Rift to be pretty good in general. The primary problem, besides somewhat limited software support, is that the tether cable is fairly annoying.
That said, if you're buying a video card specifically for VR, I'd get something beefier than a 1060. Mine struggles a bit, and that contributes to VR sickness. The 1660 you actually linked would probably be a bit better, but a 1070 or 2070 would probably be a smarter choice.
Post by: Iduno on September 09, 2019, 07:49:41 pm
I don't remember what the frequencies correspond to. Do they have to match the CPU or something?
If I stuff 240-pin DDR3L into a DDR3 slot, would it still run at slightly lower voltage and produce less heat than regular RAM? Any other side-effects?
Post by: BigD145 on September 09, 2019, 09:32:34 pm
Post by: anewaname on September 11, 2019, 11:18:04 am
It is better to get a new motherboard, cpu, and memory at once, due to how closely they are linked (effectively, they limit each other).
If your operating system is currently hammering on the hard drive because you are constantly using over 8GB of ram, then upgrading to 16GB might be worth it. But you should also be able to reduce the number of applications running, to free up some of the memory. Then save the $40-$60 for when the sales come around.
Post by: Iduno on September 11, 2019, 11:02:59 pm
The motherboard is GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3. Crucial claims it accepts DDR3L, but they also aren't the manufacturer, so...
Although I'd buy pairs of memory, and wouldn't mix types.
Post by: BigD145 on September 11, 2019, 11:50:51 pm
Code: [Select]
Memory4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memoryŠ* Due to Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than 4 GB.Dual channel memory architectureŠSupport for DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modulesŠ* To support a DDR3 1866 MHz (and above) memory, you must install an AMD AM3+ CPU first.(Go to GIGABYTE's website for the latest supported memory speeds and memory modules.)The DDR3L should work, but it''ll likely run a bit hotter since it's going to run at 1.5V. The motherboard will force it to go to 1.5 and it will. 3L can do that.
Post by: Reelya on September 11, 2019, 11:56:17 pm
Post by: wierd on September 12, 2019, 05:04:47 am
That's a feature normally handled by a hardware router. OpenWRT can handle this.
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/best-way-to-configure-bonding-in-openwrt/26290/3
You need an openwrt capable router that has multiple WAN ports (or has a *REAL* USB3.0 port that you can slap several USB nics onto.)
The best way is to use an old PC.
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/openwrt_x86
By abstracting the link aggregation into a network appliance, you make it easier for an entire network to make use of it. Be apprised that not all load balancing algorithms are created equally.
Post by: Iduno on September 12, 2019, 07:53:27 am
The manual doesn't tell you much, does it.
The DDR3L should work, but it''ll likely run a bit hotter since it's going to run at 1.5V. The motherboard will force it to go to 1.5 and it will. 3L can do that.
Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. It's a nice computer, but it runs hot. I was hoping to improve that as well.
Thank you.
Post by: Il Palazzo on October 10, 2019, 05:11:43 am
Post by: wierd on October 10, 2019, 05:27:05 am
Either one will support booting the other from their appropriate BCD.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ff541231(v=vs.96)
You would just add a BCD entry for which-ever drive you choose to be the secondary one, on the primary one.
EG, if the win10 disk is the primary, you would edit the win10 deployment's BCD with BCDedit (or one of the GUI utilities out there (https://www.boyans.net/)) to add the other drive as a bootable medium with an entry. It would then show up in ntldr's menu with a countdown.
Post by: Il Palazzo on October 13, 2019, 08:20:07 am
The interwebz apparently only know about wifi, not broadband.
Post by: wierd on October 13, 2019, 09:26:38 am
login/pass for the wireless lan connection?
If so, YES--
https://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/view-saved-wifi-passwords-windows/
If you mean "Active Directory username and password"
I'll have to look into that.
Post by: Il Palazzo on October 13, 2019, 01:01:12 pm
There's a wifi modem, but the PC is ancient and doesn't have a wifi adapter, so the connection goes through a cable. When you try to set up a new broadband connection in Win 10, you're asked for the l&p. That's what I need to extract from the Win 7 system.
Post by: wierd on October 13, 2019, 01:39:41 pm
Which of these is the case?
1) I need the local windows system administrator password
2) I need a connected network appliance's username and password
I have a solution for the first option. It's called the Offline Windows Password & Registry Editor. You just promote your limited user to a local admin with it, and bob's your uncle.
https://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/
Promotion in this manner works very simply-- It adds the limited user to the administrators group, which magically gives it full admin powers, even if you do not know the password for the actual local admin account. This makes it pretty safe to use for such promotion. It *ALSO* has the power to strip a user account of its password. Since passwords are stored encrypted in the SAM database, the tool cannot just tell you what the password is if one is set. It CAN delete the password though. Doing so has potential harmful effects if there are encrypted files, because the password is used in the encryption algo, and if you blank it, then files will no longer decrypt. If you just need to get around the "naughty naughty, you are not an admin!" nag, then promoting your limited user temporarily will get your foot in the door, and you can do what you need and get out. (Run the tool again and de-promote, OR-- while being admin, go to the user-accounts control panel applet, and depromote it back to limited user again. Easy peasy.)
For the latter...
Two possibilities. One more sensible, the other less so.
1) Use the system that remembers what this is to log into the appliance, then SET A NEW PASSWORD. Write it down. Tape it under the lid of the system chassis for the next monkey. It is likely to be you again. Save yourself the grief.
2) Try to extract the credentials from the browser.
Internet explorer
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/manage-passwords-internet-explorer-10
Firefox
https://www.howtogeek.com/111555/view-and-delete-stored-passwords-in-firefox/
Chrome
https://www.howtogeek.com/406976/how-to-manage-saved-passwords-in-chrome/
Post by: Akura on October 13, 2019, 05:27:47 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 13, 2019, 06:04:57 pm
As an aside, DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER buying a used video card. Any card that was used for cryptomining is going to be essentially burned out (as this puts massive strain on the card), and that's where a ton of the used cards on the market come from.
Post by: BigD145 on October 13, 2019, 06:30:50 pm
Post by: Iduno on October 15, 2019, 01:34:07 pm
Black Friday deals are not deals. Find another time in the year to find things on sale.
Correct. I've seen prices that are higher "on sale" for Black Friday than normal.
If you're buying fairly high-end, wait until a new "the best" card comes out like people do with buying cars that just became last year's model. Mid-range, I'm not sure if the prices change much, I've not bothered following them long enough to find out.
I usually use the newegg power search (https://www.newegg.com/d/Product/PowerSearch?SubCategory=48&N=100007709&IsNodeId=1) to find the one I want, then go find a different website to sell it to me. If you don't know what one of the questions means, just leave it blank. I would start the search with condition: new only, because second-hand electronics have high odds of not working for long/at all. Also, you probably want to read some reviews, to see if the common problems are something you care about or not.
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 18, 2019, 06:37:27 pm
I've been having a problem lately (Windows 10, over the last two dozen patches or so) where I click through the topmost window. For example, I might be trying to drag an Explorer window to my secondary monitor, only to grab and drag a Chrome tab instead, or try to edit a cell in Excel and wind up typing the value in the middle of a Notepad sentence. This happens with maximized windows, and in the middle of windows, so it isn't likely to be a case of misjudging the boundaries.
Post by: Reelya on October 19, 2019, 01:48:12 am
Right-click on a "This PC" or "My Computer" thingy, select Properties, the Advanced tab, then in Performance, then Visual Effects, and Adjust For Best Performance. You may want to turn back on "Smooth Edges of Screen Fonts" however.
I got a new laptop BTW and Windows 10 was sluggish as hell on it. Doing this tip actually made it feel zippy.
Post by: scourge728 on November 02, 2019, 12:02:57 pm
Post by: Reelya on November 02, 2019, 12:22:46 pm
Post by: wierd on November 13, 2019, 03:08:41 am
This question concerns MSDOS realmode memory management, which is a voodoo topic by today's standards.
I have this really old Fujitsu Lifebook E2010 that I got for free some years ago.
It is a PIII class machine, with 1GB of ram and a 300ish GB HDD in it. It has ATI integrated AGP video, and an ESS Audiodrive based sound chip.
I THOUGHT this would make a decent DOS retrogaming system (Dosbox just doesn't cut it for some titles). But there's some issues.
1) Whoever designed this thing mixed an ALI/ULI northbridge with an ATI southbridge. As such, UMBPCI does not know what to do with it (and performance in XP is... bad.)
2) It has an Option Rom at CC00-CFFF that is a PXE bios, that is totally unnecessary.
3) The PCI chipset wants to hang on to the region between D000-DFFF, for nebulously defined reasons. There is nothing in the adapter space there. I checked.
4) The VGA bios is enormous. It occupies C000-CC00
5) The system bios is also enormous. It occupies E000-EFFF.
So, the memory map looks a bit like this. (VV= Video Bios, OO=Option Rom, BB=System Bios XX=theoretically free area held tightly by PCI chipset RR=Video RAM)
Code: [Select]
(B000)RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR(BFFF)
(C000)VVVVVVVVVVVVVVOO(CFFF)
(D000)XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX(DFFF)
(E000)BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB(EFFF)
If I include the "monochrome mode video ram area" (B7FF-BFFF), the PXE option ROM area (to forcibly unmap it, since it DOES NOTHING USEFUL!), Use the EMM386 Highscan option and forcibly remap the D000-DFFF area to make the PCI set let it go, I can get something like this (where UU=UMB, PP=Page frame, VV=Video bios, BB=System bios, and RR=video RAM)
At this moment, this is the absolute "BEST" I can squeeze out, and is so far the only way I could fit an EMS page frame in.
Code: [Select]
(B000)RRRRRRRRRRRRUUUU(BFFF)
(C000)VVVVVVVVVVVVVVUU(CFFF)
(D000)PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP(DFFF)
(E000)UUBBBBBBBBBBBBBB(EFFF)
The UMB created in the monochrome video RAM area is barely big enough to hold MSCDEX, and too small to hold OAKCDROM.SYS.
EMM386.exe is required, as the MMU has to get involved to forcibly remap the forced include areas, otherwise a pageframe cannot be created, and the option ROM cannot be disabled. It eats a shitton of conventional memory (3kb. Yes, that really is a lot when you only have 640k total.)
The OAKCDROM.SYS is a hog as well, scarfing down 25k!!
There is ~9kb of free UMB, split between 2 ~4k areas (where the option rom was disabled, and at the top of the BIOS area, freed by the highscan option.)
If I switch to JEMM386.EXE from the freedos project, I should be able to claw a bit of conventional memory back (it's smaller than EMM386), switch to SHUSCDX.EXE instead of MSCDEX I should claw back some of the UMBs created in the monochrome RAM area, and if I switch to Acer's Atapi driver, I might be able to get that to fit in the remaining contiguous UMB along with SHUSCDX.
But now the question--
Does JEMM386 support forcible remapping like EMM386 does? Without the forced remapping, I can't get the PCI set to let go of the D000-DFFF needed to place the EMS page frame.
Post by: Reelya on November 13, 2019, 05:45:26 am
Hopefully JEMM is as good or better than QEMM, but the old QEMM versions were pretty awesome, and I recall that they still worked with early versions of Windows 95.
EDIT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QEMM#QEMM_product_ranges
Quote
QEMM provides up to 635K free conventional memory (RAM under 640K), far better than pure MS-DOS EMM386, FreeDOS JEMM386, UMBPCI and many other memory manager programs. QEMM maximum RAM is 635K free conventional memory with up to 256MB XMS/256MB EMS shared.
Post by: wierd on November 13, 2019, 06:16:41 am
I will investigate.
My ultimate goal with this, is to have the dos 6.22 deploy, a win98se deploy, and an XP deploy all co-existing on the thing-- using a combination of GRUB2+memdisk to load the DOS and win98se volumes (hosted on a ~600mb EXT3 volume), a ~8GB FAT volume shared between the two (where all the games are stored), and an NTFS volume hosting XP.
EDIT
Well, JEMM is a wash. It wont forcibly remap the area like EMM386 does.
However, I WAS able to get shsucdx and vide_cdd.sys to fit cleanly in the adapter ram area UMB, and was able to use an old memory tweaker called dosmax to load portions of the dos environment, command interpreter, and kernel into the remaining UMBs. Ctmouse fits neatly in the small spot where the useless option rom was.
Total conventional memory used: 17k. That's not shabby at all.
Post by: wierd on November 27, 2019, 01:10:10 am
This is the 4th time i have fixed the "no sound!" problem on my cousin's win 10 laptop.
the connexant audio codec has a known need for virtual addresses above 3gb in the memory space and if ram is there it does not work. Windows keeps forgetting that i limited it to a 3gb memory space and did so for a fucking reason. This is getting old. Is there a more forceful way to assert this restriction?
Post by: King Zultan on November 28, 2019, 03:19:47 am
Post by: wierd on November 28, 2019, 03:54:11 am
??
Basically, a combination of setting an advanced option in about:config, and some noscript rules?
Post by: King Zultan on November 28, 2019, 05:44:07 am
https://superuser.com/questions/670214/how-can-i-disable-html5-content-in-popular-browsers-like-firefox-and-chromeThanks.
??
Basically, a combination of setting an advanced option in about:config, and some noscript rules?
Post by: helmacon on November 30, 2019, 10:30:50 pm
Novice programmer,
I am trying to pull random samples from a Weibull distribution with multiple (3) parameters. numpy already has a function for sampling weibull distributions but only seems to support one parameter.
Spoiler: numpy link (click to show/hide)
I need to do this with 3 different parameters; shape, scale, and location.
The numpy page does give an equation that would seem to support the second parameter.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm not very familiar with weibull distributions in the first place, and I haven't had much luck trying to find examples of how to do this through google. I am unsure how to proceed.
Edit:
Lmao, of course I look for an hour before asking, and then find it 10 min after I ask.
scipy.stats.weibull_min (or max) supports distributions with 3 parameters, so I can just use that to pull my samples.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: King Zultan on December 01, 2019, 02:03:58 am
Not sure if this is a good thread for it or if there is a more specific thread for coding questions, but here goes.
I don't know much about coding but there is a thread for it Coding thread (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=98412.msg2874870#msg2874870).
Post by: Akura on December 01, 2019, 02:12:37 pm
I would go for it, but apparently the above rants are most likely to occur when upgrading an existing installation rather than a clean install. And it also apparently nukes the previous version of Windows with the upgrade. I still do have the original install disk+key for Windows 7.
Post by: wierd on December 01, 2019, 02:30:54 pm
That's the question you should be asking yourself, right along with
Am I comfortable with losing control over when and how my computer installs updates?
Am I comfortable with Microsoft monitoring what programs are running, how much memory they consume, how much hard disk activity they generate, and how much network data traffic they produce? (Because that is all stuff that's in the telemetry data MS collects.)
Am I comfortable with MS removing windows components and features on a whim, with the assurance of "We replaced it with something better!" as the only consolation?
Am I comfortable with MS uninstalling my software and installing other software they think I will like better behind my back?"
If you decide that "No, I can use WINE to satisfy my windows-only software requirements" and "No, I am not comfortable with one or all of those things." then windows 10 is not really what you want. Go for a consumer Linux distro. There are many out there, and they are rising in popularity.
Post by: BigD145 on December 01, 2019, 05:52:27 pm
Can I run DirectX "1x" software on Windows 7 or am I limited to Windows 10?
Post by: Iduno on December 01, 2019, 09:28:24 pm
Just how bad is Windows 10? All I'm seeing is fairly consistent rants that it will EMP your hardware while stealing all your personal information and the souls of your unborn children.
Nah, your hardware will be fine.
It looks like there are some concerns if you're on limited bandwidth, and sometimes compatibility issues. Windows 7 is still good, but they're stopping support for it eventually. Spying aside (which, if you've got Steam, Epic, a smartphone, facebook, etc.), it's mostly just that stuff got moved around like when people got upgraded to office 2010 and they made it tougher to find what you want to do. Make sure you have copies of all of the most up-to-date drivers, and make sure they're compatible before you upgrade.
If you've got your copy of Windows 7 still, you could also consider putting off upgrading until you have to.
Post by: Reelya on December 02, 2019, 04:36:37 am
The other question:
Can I run DirectX "1x" software on Windows 7 or am I limited to Windows 10?
Windows 7 is supposed to be compatible up to DirectX version 11.1 (Dx11.0 with raw Windows 7, and Dx11.1 with Windows 7 sp1). As long as the game supports those versions of Dx and you have compatible video card it's worth a shot.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/179113/how-to-install-the-latest-version-of-directx
there's some talk of a back-ported Dx12 for Windows 7, however what this actually means is patches for specific games to allow them to work with Windows 7. So they're really just bodging-together a handful of Dx12 games to work with the version of Dx in Windows 7.
https://www.pcgamer.com/au/microsoft-finally-ports-directx-12-to-windows-7-but-only-for-certain-games/
Post by: Parsely on December 17, 2019, 01:39:10 am
Post by: wierd on December 17, 2019, 02:14:53 am
Also when was the cpu installed and what compound did you use?
Additionally check that the psu is supplying good voltages.
Post by: Reelya on December 17, 2019, 06:50:22 am
Post by: BigD145 on December 17, 2019, 10:02:46 am
Post by: eerr on December 20, 2019, 01:33:08 pm
It seems a ton of windows processes and apps randomly have duplicates.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlMPCqgpBZxvkGA5abgmxRtiJEWS?e=dCEa1A
I don't know if this is because of a recent windows update or because I have some vicious virus.
2 usermode font driver hosts
3 runtime brokers
3 Realtek hd audio universal service.
Stuff like that.
It used to be Edge and Avast also had duplicates, but not this time?
I've run an Avast boot scan and a windows defender scan. As well I used Microsoft's Malicious software removal tool, and it doesn't go away. I just need to know if I should keep plugging away at the issue. It could just be a new windows feature that I don't know about.
Post by: Iduno on December 20, 2019, 01:48:53 pm
I think my computer might have a virus, but I'm not sure?
It seems a ton of windows processes and apps randomly have duplicates.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlMPCqgpBZxvkGA5abgmxRtiJEWS?e=dCEa1A
I don't know if this is because of a recent windows update or because I have some vicious virus.
2 usermode font driver hosts
3 runtime brokers
3 Realtek hd audio universal service.
Stuff like that.
It used to be Edge and Avast also had duplicates, but not this time?
I've run an Avast boot scan and a windows defender scan. As well I used Microsoft's Malicious software removal tool, and it doesn't go away. I just need to know if I should keep plugging away at the issue. It could just be a new windows feature that I don't know about.
Avast has been caught using spyware on users a few times, so that's not a good start. Antivirus in general is pretty iffy (and when you need it, you know what you did).
I think you can try to find out if they are truly duplicate processes or fakes by closing the process tree for one of them. Someone correct me if that's wrong.
Post by: Parsely on December 21, 2019, 01:45:10 pm
Post by: Reelya on December 21, 2019, 11:40:04 pm
COM Surrogate is just a shell to run dlls, you should expect there to be multiple of those. Right-click on the process and click Open File Location. They should all point to dllhost.exe in the Windows System32 directory. As for DropBox they're probably just different processes DropBox starts. It's normal for applications to make a bunch of processes. Try terminating all of them, then restart DropBox and see if it recreates them.
Post by: wierd on December 23, 2019, 06:37:03 am
I have an old NAS that runs linux, just kinda sitting around. Today, I learned of two projects.
First, https://sourceforge.net/projects/t38modem/
This is a SIP endpoint + Modem emulator that works for both linux and windows.
The second, https://www.ipcomms.net/freedid
which offers a free 2-USA-numbers SIP trunk service.
and third, Synchronet (https://www.synchro.net/), an old BBS software for Linux. (and windows)
The thought: Do you think I can reliably combine these to make a literally free (other than the ISP which I already pay for) retro BBS out of this?
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 23, 2019, 03:21:07 pm
Post by: Eschar on January 04, 2020, 10:24:01 pm
So, a thought occurs to me.
I have an old NAS that runs linux, just kinda sitting around. Today, I learned of two projects.
First, https://sourceforge.net/projects/t38modem/
This is a SIP endpoint + Modem emulator that works for both linux and windows.
The second, https://www.ipcomms.net/freedid
which offers a free 2-USA-numbers SIP trunk service.
and third, Synchronet (https://www.synchro.net/), an old BBS software for Linux. (and windows)
The thought: Do you think I can reliably combine these to make a literally free (other than the ISP which I already pay for) retro BBS out of this?
Keep us posted, that sounds interesting. And we might even be able to access it!
Post by: TeaAndRum on January 09, 2020, 07:40:15 pm
Post by: wierd on January 10, 2020, 12:09:15 am
Post by: TeaAndRum on January 10, 2020, 07:20:19 am
postimages.orgThanks, uh, does it show now?
Post by: Iduno on January 10, 2020, 08:53:09 am
postimages.orgThanks, uh, does it show now?
Nope. It might need time/an event to get it to update. Normally, "turn it off and back on again" would work, but I don't know how you do that with a portion of a forum.
Post by: Mephisto on January 10, 2020, 08:58:53 am
Post by: TeaAndRum on January 10, 2020, 11:32:09 pm
postimages.orgThanks, uh, does it show now?
Nope. It might need time/an event to get it to update. Normally, "turn it off and back on again" would work, but I don't know how you do that with a portion of a forum.
You didn't copy the image's link. If you had been using Imgur, I'd have said you copied the equivalent of an album link. If you click share at the top and paste the "direct link" text into your avatar slot, it should show up.I both waited, and copied the direct http link, and voilà! I'm not sure which one did the trick, but thanks, both of you!
Post by: Ulfarr on January 11, 2020, 04:07:25 am
Ms Office diagnostics: nO pRoBlEm DeTeCtEd
Well fuck you too Microsoft >:(
Anyway, what I know is that according to the error report, that someone had the bright idea to hide in the deepest pit of hell (event viewer) because fuck you end user for using our shit, there is some fault with "MSO.dll". Looking it up on the net didn't brought any solution yet despite people reporting similar errors with the same dll over the years.
Stuff the I tried:
Deleting that dll and downloading/creating a new one (it does one of the two automatically on starting the program if it didn't find it) did nothing. Excel still crashes.
Any ideas?
edit: Turns out that for some reason I can't disable the add ins. I 've tried to do it through safe mode (with and without admin rights) but it doesn't seem to register the change. Running it again in normal mode still crashes and running it in safe mode shows that Solver is still enabled.
edit2: Problem has been solved for now. Removing the old installation and installing it again has fixed it. I think that the whole problem was caused by the solver add in but I can't be sure. I guess I'll stick with Libre for when I need it since it has the solver function natively.
Post by: feelotraveller on January 11, 2020, 06:58:16 pm
Ms Excel: Crashes immediately as soon as I try to open any workbook.
Ms Office diagnostics: nO pRoBlEm DeTeCtEd
Well fuck you too Microsoft >:(
You could try LibreOffice (https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/) (calc). At least that should tell you whether the problem is with Office or a system one. Beware that MShit will probably go all HAL on you for not using it's in house spyware. ;)
Post by: Ulfarr on January 12, 2020, 07:40:05 am
Thing is it's quite clunkier than excel so while it does get the job done it's not ideal. Most importantly I 'm not the only user of that pc and the other one hates Calc with a passion.
Post by: AzyWng on February 01, 2020, 11:16:35 pm
Dead Rising 2 on Steam no longer runs when I attempt to run it. When I do try to run it, I get an error message about how the "side-by-side configuration" is incorrect.
On a related note, I think the redist files (you know, the ones that contain the version of DirectX and Visual Studio or whatnot that the game needs to run?) are no longer included in the game itself?
I've tried installing what I think are the right versions of DirectX (June 2012 and Visual Studio 2010, I think), installing on my SSD rather than my HDD, and even installing on a flash drive, but Steam continues to throw the "side-by-side configuration" error at me.
Can anyone help me? I just want to bash zeds (and crazy people) with chairs.
Post by: gimlet on February 02, 2020, 10:31:07 am
Post by: BigD145 on February 02, 2020, 11:36:16 am
Post by: AzyWng on February 02, 2020, 03:52:39 pm
Post by: wierd on February 03, 2020, 11:55:04 pm
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-other_settings/windows-10-error-the-application-has-failed-to/5c6a015e-4162-491d-b7d9-f3b13612e304?auth=1
Post by: Reelya on February 19, 2020, 05:56:08 am
Anyone had to do anything similar and run into these issues?
In the Firefox browser console the error message comes up as
Code: [Select]
Security Error: Content at https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/heroism may not load data from http://www.comic-rocket.com/read/saturday-morning-breakfast-cereal/5242?mark.But I'm pretty sure a CORS add-on fixed this for me in the first place.
Post by: Iduno on February 19, 2020, 01:52:28 pm
I protected the worksheet (not book, and without a password) under the previous version, and unprotecting can now apparently only be done on a cell-by-cell basis (based on my understanding of the help file, which is a misnomer) using a right-click menu entry that doesn't show up in the menu when I right-click.
Any idea how to fix this?
Post by: Mephisto on February 19, 2020, 02:30:36 pm
The fun bit:
Quote from: that site
OpenOffice does not require the password.
Post by: feelotraveller on February 20, 2020, 05:51:59 am
Anyone had to do anything similar and run into these issues?
Have you run into this https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1264280 (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1264280) general issue (not specifically the font problem)?
Anyway try the fix from the chosen solution but beware it globally disables a 'security' measure. Success? then think about a user called script to toggle.
(CORS Everywhere may also be needed.)
Post by: Reelya on February 20, 2020, 06:07:19 am
Anyone had to do anything similar and run into these issues?
Have you run into this https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1264280 (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1264280) general issue (not specifically the font problem)?
Anyway try the fix from the chosen solution but beware it globally disables a 'security' measure. Success? then think about a user called script to toggle.
(CORS Everywhere may also be needed.)
Thanks, that's one I didn't come across, but that hasn't helped either. The first thing I tried was CORS Everywhere, then the solution where you set "security.fileuri.strict_origin_policy=false", and I added that one from your link but still getting the error message, and the content frame as blank. Which is frustrating as hell because I've fixed this same issue before.
Post by: Iduno on February 21, 2020, 09:03:29 am
A solution like this? (https://smallbusiness.chron.com/unlock-protected-spreadsheets-75418.html)
Yes! The review tab is where they have hidden the protect/unprotect stuff. It's good that the internet is more useful than the help file made by the people who put out Office (but almost certainly have never met the creators, or attempted to use the program).
Post by: Reelya on February 29, 2020, 12:04:02 am
Post by: JoshuaFH on March 01, 2020, 10:36:13 am
What would be a good bang for my buck here?
Post by: Mephisto on March 01, 2020, 11:07:33 am
Post by: JoshuaFH on March 01, 2020, 11:19:28 am
I can't remember the kind of motherboard I have, I'm not sure if that matters tbh, and I'd probably need to open up my tower to see what I have as far as power supply goes.
Post by: Mephisto on March 01, 2020, 11:34:31 am
I can't really give suggestions right now except to say that now is probably the time to do massive upgrades. People are expecting Coronavirus-related hardware shortages and price increases in the near future.
Post by: JoshuaFH on March 01, 2020, 11:46:06 am
https://www.microcenter.com/product/617115/B731_Desktop_Computer;_Intel_Core_i7_9700_30GHz_Processor;_16GB_DDR4-2666_RAM;_500GB_SSD;_Intel_UHD_Graphics_630;_Windows_10_Pro;_10-100-1000_LAN__WiF
https://www.microcenter.com/product/502044/650_Watt_80_Plus_Gold_ATX_Semi-Modular_Power_Supply
https://www.microcenter.com/product/472016/GeForce_GTX_1050_Ti_Overclocked_Dual-Fan_4GB_GDDR5_PCIe_30_Video_Cards
And although he's a friend and means the best for me, I'd atleast like another opinion. I'd have to make a fairly sizable drive to the location where the store is, amounting for a 3 hour round trip, as one of the parts doesn't ship for whatever reason.
Post by: wierd on March 01, 2020, 11:58:15 am
However, AMD totally CAN get my money for one of their processors. Currently, AMD's chips are outperforming Intel's again, both for efficiency and raw compute. Often price too.
Post by: Reelya on March 01, 2020, 01:32:05 pm
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Maybe other people can give an opinion on this.
EDIT: as for that PowerSpec thing, I can't work out how the hell they can afford to have that processor in that box for that price?!? buying just an Intel i7-9700 should cost more than that.
Post by: BigD145 on March 01, 2020, 03:56:50 pm
I dropped off Paul's Hardware awhile back. Every once in awhile they have very flawed testing and spend way too much time covering it up. They did this very recently with a x570 board. Every other tester and many users said "this board overheats way too much" while Tom's said "no, you're all wrong and you're bad people" while the manufacturer (msi) said "hey everybody else, we replicated your conditions and results and we did a bad thing. we'll fix it. new model in the works." MSI's other boards were totally fine. I would likely go Gigabyte or MSI myself. Probably 470's for the price and the fact I'm not putting another processor in there for 3-5 years down the road, which would likely mean a new mobo anyway.
Post by: Mephisto on March 02, 2020, 03:33:13 pm
Would there be any interest in a homelab/home server thread, or would it end up going the way of my old homebrewing thread (i.e. me speaking into the void and then pretending it doesn't exist)?
Post by: wierd on March 02, 2020, 11:30:07 pm
Repurposing old network appliances to serve as small servers is something I find fun and entertaining, so I have plenty of advice on the topic.
Post by: Iduno on March 03, 2020, 12:56:40 pm
● Enhances communication, collaboration, and engagement;
● Establishes greater consistency; and
● Implements new standards for secure data collection, storage, and sharing.
I bet someone spent over an hour making up buzzwords and other BS to create an email about a website nobody uses, without telling anyone anything about it.
I guess my question is "what is a drupal, and what information are they trying to communicate by mentioning it?" Answer without using words like "triple" or "double".
Post by: Mephisto on March 03, 2020, 01:23:37 pm
(a bunch of ifs here:)
If
- Drupal has any sort of built-in theming and
- this site is meant to be used in conjunction with others and
- those sites are kept more significantly up-to-date,
then upgrading this site to be more in line with the others can reduce cognitive load on the end user.
If the site was built on something ancient, like PHP 5, they were forced to upgrade to something less ripe for exploitation - Drupal 8.something dropped support for that version last year. One way of spinning "our system was insecure and we were forced to upgrade" is "we've implemented new security standards."
Post by: Reelya on March 03, 2020, 06:38:23 pm
The error here is that Drupal 8 may have features that allow, for example enhanced "communication, collaboration, and engagement" ... but your developers actually need to make proper use of those features for that to also be true of a product built using Drupal 8. And "enhanced" is a relative qualified. Enhanced compared to Drupal 7, clearly, so to get the enhancement you need to take full advantage of whatever specific new Drupal 8 features they've brought in.
It's like porting your old Unity3D game to the latest Unity build then rattling off Unity's marketing about the new Unity 5.X features, and saying your game has got that as a result of having been ported in. For example say the new engine boasts "more realistic skin textures" and "enhanced support for online multiplayer lobbies" so you say sure, I'll list "more realistic skin textures" and "enhanced support for online multiplayer lobbies" as the features of my game's new build. Except that's a complete lie. The new Unity may support both those things, but you need to actually redesign the game to use them or your game won't even know those are options.
Post by: Parsely on March 03, 2020, 09:09:55 pm
● Establishes greater consistencyThe website doesn't do that by itself it takes ME spending countless hours copying the sentences off a marketing manager's screenshot of a powerpoint and combing 100s of pages manually for mistakes and new problems to attack. If only websites made actual accessible markup by themselves then we wouldn't need the threat of expensive lawsuits to force schools to actually make readable content
Post by: methylatedspirit on March 07, 2020, 11:41:23 pm
Post by: wierd on March 07, 2020, 11:52:13 pm
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-9300H-vs-Intel-Core-i5-8300H/m744904vsm425634
Post by: Reelya on March 08, 2020, 06:40:03 am
I'll have to see what happens when the billing period rolls over, which it does in a couple of days. If they try and bill me for excess data, I'm going to appeal it, because the plan clearly states there's no such thing as an over-use charge, and it's not my fault if their metering system is broken :P Here's hoping the metering is just permanently broken on my account and they still bill $30 a month from now on.
Post by: Reelya on March 08, 2020, 07:25:47 am
I recently noticed a slight burn-in on my 32" LCD monitor. It's along the line separating the header part of my webrowser from the content-part. I had darkmode turned on, on Firefox, and most content areas are much brighter. The Firefox header area has become slightly but noticeably darker than the rest of the screen. Ironically even though the difference in color at the bottom where the Windows taskbar is has a higher difference in brightness, there's absolutely no burn-in difference down there. Don't know why, but maybe it's because the Windows taskbar is just pure black, whereas the Firefox header is dark grey, so it's darkened just the Firefox header area somehow, whereas the absolutely black pixels were just turned off to start with.
So what I did right away was switch Firefox to a light theme more similar to typical sites, so that any further darkening will be even. And there are some articles saying that LCD burn-in can be reduced or eliminated. Anyone come across this issue before and tried to fix it?
Post by: wierd on March 08, 2020, 07:40:49 am
OLED totally does. Verify your screen technology.
Post by: Reelya on March 08, 2020, 08:14:05 am
https://www.techhive.com/article/3147408/how-to-get-rid-of-image-burn-in-on-an-lcd-display.html
And here's the manual for my model, which is a Philips LCD. It definitely says LCD, I made sure to get one that said that on the box.
https://www.download.p4c.philips.com/files/2/276e8vjsb_27/276e8vjsb_27_dfu_aen.pdf
Quote
"Burn-in", "after-imaging", or "ghost imaging" is a well-known phenom-enon in LCD panel technology. In most cases, the “burned in” or “after-imaging” or “ghost imag-ing” will disappear gradually over a period of time after the power has been switched off.
Post by: wierd on March 08, 2020, 09:26:56 am
Post by: Reelya on March 08, 2020, 10:10:14 am
Post by: King Zultan on March 11, 2020, 05:36:10 am
So is there a way to lie to the game and make it think its being played on the website it wants to get them to work?
Post by: Reelya on March 11, 2020, 05:42:49 am
Post by: wierd on March 11, 2020, 06:55:30 am
I've been downloading flash games recently and I've come across a few that no matter what won't work after I download them, some say I have to play on the website I got them from and others won't load past a point.
So is there a way to lie to the game and make it think its being played on the website it wants to get them to work?
A few choices;
1) Local HTTP server + HOSTS file entry, with assets in the right spots.
2) Hex edit the files looking for hard coded paths; alter as appropriate with local ones.
3) Decompile the .swf file, then recompile it again.
Post by: King Zultan on March 11, 2020, 10:43:52 am
Post by: Iduno on March 11, 2020, 12:33:14 pm
Which is easier for someone that knows nothing about this kind of thing Hex editing or Decompiling?
I've done hex editing before, and I suck at computer. You point the editor at the file, and hope you can find the strings of words you're looking for with the search tool, then carefully change what needs changing.
Post by: Mephisto on March 11, 2020, 12:39:50 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 12, 2020, 11:00:53 pm
Post by: wierd on March 12, 2020, 11:14:21 pm
https://www.ebay.com/i/303257921544?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=303257921544&targetid=884576819208&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9024386&poi=&campaignid=9250096047&mkgroupid=97486619641&rlsatarget=pla-884576819208&abcId=1145977&merchantid=101650994&gclid=Cj0KCQjwu6fzBRC6ARIsAJUwa2Stx5qc6fT5woopuul04CUgjfvnEMWn-sVw5QvzYmNcHbRo8mvEh3waAkGJEALw_wcB
Post by: King Zultan on March 13, 2020, 04:47:05 am
Post by: Reelya on March 13, 2020, 06:45:49 am
Just try HxD if on Windows.
But, generally you want to try and avoid needing to do this.
First, check thoroughly for anyone who already did the work, and see if there are downloadable already-hacked copies. Get them if possible.
Next, read thoroughly through any tutorials or forum discussions, guides from anyone who's already done this kind of stuff.
Then do the advised thing before, and just do a string-dump from the swf file, see what if any plaint-text urls you can see.
Fourth, is you can point those urls at a local files. This is only going to work if you can get copies of any resources it loads. You may still need to set up a webhost on your box to make it run (with a localhost path), and that's going to be a PITA just to run a couple of games. So you want to find ways to avoid that. Somebody online may have suggestions.
And finally, this might not even work. It's still possible that the game needs to access some remote database or some web technology we haven't mentioned, and you're not going to be able to just stick some files somewhere and make it work.
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 13, 2020, 09:28:32 pm
So, you are looking for something like this thing then?
https://www.ebay.com/i/303257921544?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=303257921544&targetid=884576819208&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9024386&poi=&campaignid=9250096047&mkgroupid=97486619641&rlsatarget=pla-884576819208&abcId=1145977&merchantid=101650994&gclid=Cj0KCQjwu6fzBRC6ARIsAJUwa2Stx5qc6fT5woopuul04CUgjfvnEMWn-sVw5QvzYmNcHbRo8mvEh3waAkGJEALw_wcB
That looks exactly what I need.
Post by: methylatedspirit on March 17, 2020, 04:49:23 pm
Post by: wierd on March 17, 2020, 04:57:46 pm
Post by: Iduno on March 18, 2020, 09:26:41 am
The instructions are simple: set it up by clicking the first link, add a computer using the second link.
The instructions omit the part where you need to install things, and maybe install different programs on the computer being accessed and the one doing the accessing. There is no way of knowing if it's already installed on my work computer, how to access it if it is, or how to get it installed on a locked-down work computer. IT is already gone. Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.
Edit: I went into work to see what I could do with this whole work from home (which is already just...), and was not able to get anything to work. I have email and microsoft office. If I need anything else, they can figure that one out themselves.
Edit2: Nobody else got it to work, either. The new instructions we got told us both what we should have done, and how to un-fuck the install because everyone who tried to follow the original instructions screwed it up. The Simpsons promised this would be easier. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGzkUgTgpa4)
Post by: methylatedspirit on March 20, 2020, 09:04:37 am
I have 2 questions:
a) Should I remove it?
b) Were I to remove it, would this 2014 GPU have much value, were I to sell it? Does there exist any demand for this thing, given that it's 6 years old, and would probably get outperformed by something made today?
Post by: Reelya on March 20, 2020, 09:11:15 am
Try removing the drivers and have Windows auto-detect, see if that helps. Maybe use a previous driver revision?
Post by: Iduno on March 20, 2020, 09:16:32 am
My old PC has a Radeon R7 200 series GPU (R7 260X, specifically), and I'm tempted to remove it for the next owner (who only needs a serviceable office computer), because it makes the entire system unstable and crash, usually when the system is idling. Something about its drivers, I think. It's possible to install the beta drivers, but that comes with its own host of potential issues. It's also 6 years old, so I doubt AMD's gonna be releasing a stable version of those drivers soon.
I have 2 questions:
a) Should I remove it?
b) Were I to remove it, would this 2014 GPU have much value, were I to sell it? Does there exist any demand for this thing, given that it's 6 years old, and would probably get outperformed by something made today?
You may also find it easier to replace with a cheap newer card instead of whatever on-board graphics it has (if the on-board still works), but that means taking time to find one that works with the system, and would require money for the new card.
Oh, I misread that removing it made it unstable. Nah, get rid of the problematic card and see if you can sell it.
Post by: feelotraveller on March 20, 2020, 11:56:25 pm
It's possible to install the beta drivers, but that comes with its own host of potential issues. It's also 6 years old, so I doubt AMD's gonna be releasing a stable version of those drivers soon.
The driver options are here (current) https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics/amd-radeon-r7-series/amd-radeon-r7-200-series/amd-radeon-r7-260x (https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics/amd-radeon-r7-series/amd-radeon-r7-200-series/amd-radeon-r7-260x) and here (older) https://www.amd.com/en/support/previous-drivers/graphics/amd-radeon-r7-series/amd-radeon-r7-200-series/amd-radeon-r7-260x (https://www.amd.com/en/support/previous-drivers/graphics/amd-radeon-r7-series/amd-radeon-r7-200-series/amd-radeon-r7-260x) if you are interested.
Quote
Were I to remove it, would this 2014 GPU have much value, were I to sell it? Does there exist any demand for this thing, given that it's 6 years old, and would probably get outperformed by something made today?
I don't think there is much demand in general, particularly as buying a second hand gpu is one of those things most people recommend against, but if you did manage to find a buyer you might get $20-50.
The other option would be to reuse it in another machine.
Post by: methylatedspirit on March 25, 2020, 02:33:33 am
a) Are they compatible?
b) Will they run in dual-channel mode, given that the CPU in this laptop (an i5-9300H) supports dual-channel memory?
(If you're wondering why I'm not buying the exact same memory as came stock in the laptop, it's because SK Hynix is difficult to get here.)
Post by: wierd on March 25, 2020, 02:56:19 am
So, replace both modules to be sure.
Otherwise, it should still work, just not in dual channel mode.
Post by: methylatedspirit on March 25, 2020, 03:04:56 am
Also, out of curiosity, why do the modules need to be identical to run in dual-channel mode?
Post by: wierd on March 25, 2020, 03:40:28 am
Also, modules must be the same size and density.
Post by: BigD145 on March 25, 2020, 09:27:10 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 25, 2020, 11:26:07 am
Post by: BigD145 on March 25, 2020, 01:00:20 pm
In the US, at least, voiding somebody's warranty for that sort of thing is illegal, and the FTC started cracking down on it in 2018 (https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2018/04/ftc-staff-warns-companies-it-illegal-condition-warranty-coverage). "Warranty void if removed" stickers are explicitly called out as prohibited. I don't know what country the poster looking for advice is in, but it is still useful for anybody else to know. I suspect the EU has similar provisions, but I don't know for sure.
The EU is usually more consumer friendly. Not always, but usually.
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 27, 2020, 06:52:26 am
Post by: methylatedspirit on March 28, 2020, 02:03:00 am
Post by: wierd on March 28, 2020, 02:05:34 am
Really. That's the real reason. It's the reason why I wont use Radeon cards.
Post by: methylatedspirit on March 28, 2020, 02:22:14 am
Post by: wierd on March 28, 2020, 02:48:58 am
Whenever I raise my voice about this, I get shouted down for reasons that are asinine to me, but whatever.
nVidia is not much better these days. Still, it's a thing.
Post by: Schmaven on March 28, 2020, 09:31:31 am
Circled Plus ⊕
Decimal: ⊕ Hex: ⊕
N-ary Circled Plus Operator ⨁
Decimal: ⨁ Hex: ⨁
I assume the decimal code is the one to use, so I tried the following for the Circled Plus:
alt + 38 = &
alt + 35 = #
alt + 38358853 = E
alt + 8853 = ò
However, I'm now tempted to conclude that all the other symbols are not accessible via alt codes, and that the decimal / hex codes given are just for programmers to use.
Post by: wierd on March 28, 2020, 09:41:08 am
In the lower left corner, it will display the alt+#### code for the selected glyph.
Post by: Schmaven on March 28, 2020, 02:28:50 pm
Post by: methylatedspirit on March 31, 2020, 03:57:19 am
Post by: wierd on March 31, 2020, 04:27:59 am
I would need the make and model of your display to give coherent answer to that question.
Post by: methylatedspirit on March 31, 2020, 04:29:38 am
Post by: wierd on March 31, 2020, 05:58:34 am
Post by: Reelya on March 31, 2020, 07:22:29 am
Quote
This is subsidiary for color weakness user.
Translation: this is an accessibility feature for colorblind users.
Here's the other feature that's probably to blame:
Quote
If option of SMART ENERGY SAVING is High or Low, monitor luminance become higher or lower depend on source.
Yeah, I'm betting it's this "smart energy saving" feature.
Post by: methylatedspirit on March 31, 2020, 07:39:14 am
Post by: Reelya on March 31, 2020, 08:13:15 am
For my LCD monitor for example, even a pure black screen is brighter than when the monitor times out. That's just an artifact of the LCD being powered however, nothing can be done about that.
Post by: methylatedspirit on March 31, 2020, 08:24:42 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 31, 2020, 08:45:17 am
Post by: methylatedspirit on March 31, 2020, 07:10:45 pm
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 01, 2020, 05:43:21 am
I have this .tiff file that cannot be opened, moved, overwritten or deleted. I'm trying to delete this file. I have tried using FileASSASSIN (failed to delete), booting into Ubuntu in Live USB mode (failed to boot) and Hiren's BootCD PE (failed to delete).
How do I delete this file, short of formatting the entire drive that the file is on?
Post by: wierd on April 01, 2020, 05:49:16 am
If you can remove the disk from the computer (and have a suitable USB adapter for it), do that, and hook it to an already booted linux machine. Delete it there.
Otherwise delete it on a windows machine after taking ownership of the file.
Post by: Starver on April 02, 2020, 09:36:19 am
Does anybody know how to use the advanced alt codes for special symbols? I've been looking through alt-codes.net and all of them that are listed as just plain numbers work fine, but as soon as special symbols are added to the code, I no longer understand how to input it. Here are 2 symbols they have listed together with the codes provided:
Circled Plus ⊕
Decimal: ⊕ Hex: ⊕
[...]
I assume the decimal code is the one to use, so I tried the following for the Circled Plus:
alt + 38 = &
alt + 35 = #
alt + 38358853 = E
alt + 8853 = ò
However, I'm now tempted to conclude that all the other symbols are not accessible via alt codes, and that the decimal / hex codes given are just for programmers to use.
Just to remove your misassumption, there is no 'translation' of "&#" to digits 3835 in the way you thought there was. Numpad codes are generally three or four digits (2-digits and singletons, typed during ALTing would be assumed to be in the non-hundreds range) with 3/2/1-digit numbers not starting with zero being taken as a wish to take from the DOS-style character list (Codepage 437, essentially the DF vanilla set) and zero-led numbers being serviced by the Windows default Codepage (different, but still limited in number).
I don't have my Windows machines in front of me, to test, but I suspect that if you put in more than the three or four digits (or just that many but stray into the 256+ range of number) it will truncate what you give it somehow, though how it gives you small-o-with-grave-accent (Alt-149 or Alt-0242, I think) from Alt-8853 I can't currently work out, and that's a higher number than I can convert to bitwise logic off the top of my head. Or Windows has radically changed its behaviour since I was most familiar with this process.
Once you start to see notation like "&#...;", that's probably (unless there is an 8-bit equivalen on that number or another) beyond your easy keying-in pleasure. For 'everyday' use you have to go hunting in charmap. Knowing either base of a character's number or at least part of its Unicode name should get you to it if it is present in any given font. If it isn't there[1] where you expect it then either check a different font or scroll through to see if there's a similar/identical symbol in there for a different purpose (then double check that looks Ok in other fonts, in case serif/sanserif or other distinctions only make it right in a narrow family of fonts).
([1] - Don't go looking in Wingdings for anything not a Wingding, obviously. Most 'regular' fonts extend to service Cyrillic as well as all the obvious extensions in the Latinesque alphabets, but some do not. Arabic/etc alphabets will likely be missed from more hobbyist fonts from the 'western' world.Your required Circled-Plus symbol might be trivially added by a font-artist who has already decided what their normal mathematical Plus looks like when they get into mirroring the higher bytes of a font-table, or they may ignore the extended mathematical symbol area entirely (or is it the astronomical section, or a minority alphabet area for Tagalog/whatever?) once they're happy they've covered the areas they expect their work to be applied in.)
The &#...; format itself is typically used in web page sources, &...; is a "this is a meta" thing, like for non-breaking space (mostly used for non-contraction of multiple required spaces, rather than the use it is named for) or <> for 'literal' <>s not to be interpreted as. HTML tagging. The # with decimal digits of #x with hexadecimal ones, in the "..." spot is the Unicode/Universal-codepage reference which is often also given as U+ABCD with ABCD (or more or less than four characters, according to range needed) being the hex digits.
Only if it is U+00 and two more digits (or equivalently zero-padded) are you going to be likely to translate it to Alt-code (by decimalising), otherwise you may have to be lucky and find it's an effective duplicate of a semanticly different character, as mentioned already. A very simple example is that a hyphen is technically not the same as a minus sign, neither of which is an en-dash, but all probably look like that dash character I just used, for most (visual) purposes, even if you can't use the trivial lower-ASCII character straight off the keyboard for some reason.
The U+25BA, that you mention, is officially the BLACK RIGHT-POINTING POINTER, while Alt-16 is in the Control Character set in the very lowest section of the 8-bit or perhaps even 7-bit sets (YMMV), which may or may not even print out or act as you expect in various entry modes. It may display as the arrow/triangle, or the software you are entering it into may assume you mean Shift Out or Data Link Escape, depending on age, or else beep/flash/tooltip at you for daring to try to use it, and if you actually want to use the control-code it represents you may have needed to press Ctrl-N, in software old enough to probably not be something you want to use that also doesn't trap that code as "New file..." or similar.
Obviously if you can use Alt-16 easily enough and it survives the process of arriving where you want it to be seen, then use that. But sometimes incompatible systems mess these things up. For example, here in the UK we use the £ symbol for GBP/Pounds Sterling, but due to various early localisations of the early incarnations of ASCII it might or might not render as the # symbol on other displays. (That's the "hash" symbol, to many. Or octothorn/octothorpe to others, as the eight-pointed version from the stylised "th"-digraph. Ironically also called the "pound sign" but that's from a different super-struck version of the digraph of "lb", used in pounds-weight context.). The modern HTML standard is to use £ to render it, though, which should solve everything. Except when you get text transferred 'safely' between systems that renders the & itself as the 'safe' version of & which in turn is mishandled, then you end up with text on job vacancy aggregators (a common place to be fed by feeds fed on other feeds that have themselves harvested other feeds, all with dodgy scripting behind their scraping of other sources) such as "Position earns &amp;gt;&amp;pound;30K p.a. &amp; car &amp; benefit&amp;rsquo;s" (Sic)...
But I'm sure you're well beyond your initial problem now. Consider this all as just fun new information (E&OE) that you might find useful on some future occasion... ;)
Post by: da_nang on April 03, 2020, 09:37:59 am
I've been wondering. Windows is allowing me to go up to a 1400x1050 resolution (and it works just fine). But I noticed under advanced settings that I can try the "hidden" resolutions, though it may not work properly and/or damage hardware.
I'm on an LCD monitor (VGA) with a max native resolution of 1920x1080. Will there in fact be any damage by going to a larger resolution below 1920x1080?
I'm asking since I might need the extra real-estate for programs with non-resizable windows and a minimum resolution above my current one. My Google-fu is only giving me answers when going above native resolution.
Post by: wierd on April 03, 2020, 09:59:18 am
LCD will just display a "Resolution is not valid" or "Resolution out of range" message if it cannot display the signal.
Big freaking woop.
Post by: Eschar on April 04, 2020, 05:19:29 pm
Post by: Iduno on April 04, 2020, 06:50:38 pm
Playing Doom II in DosBox. Whenever I bring up the Windows start menu or open any other program the music skips or buzzes for a moment. Why is DosBox sound quality so dependent on what's happening everywhere else on the computer?
Unless your computer is quite old, it's needing to pretend it's a 32-bit computer, then pretend it's a 16-bit computer. That's not really efficient, especially when the rest of your hardware is decades apart from when the game was released.
Post by: Ziusudra on April 04, 2020, 07:38:49 pm
Playing Doom II in DosBox. Whenever I bring up the Windows start menu or open any other program the music skips or buzzes for a moment. Why is DosBox sound quality so dependent on what's happening everywhere else on the computer?DOSBox has to emulate DOS era sound hardware in software and sound emulation can be very sensitive to timing variances in memory and IO access. Opening the start menu and programs can use both of those pretty heavily for a short time.
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 04, 2020, 08:53:27 pm
Post by: Eschar on April 05, 2020, 12:03:38 am
Even if you're a purist, there's much better ways to play classic DooM than DosBOX. Any source port can be set up to play exactly like the original, at whatever resolution you want.
What source ports would you recommend, and is there a way to export my save files to them?
Post by: wierd on April 05, 2020, 12:21:06 am
Became the progenitor to many ports since.
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 05, 2020, 05:57:37 am
Even if you're a purist, there's much better ways to play classic DooM than DosBOX. Any source port can be set up to play exactly like the original, at whatever resolution you want.
What source ports would you recommend, and is there a way to export my save files to them?
I use GZdoom. Unfortunately, I don't think there's a way to transfer saves, but you can (Using ZDL) easily start on any level you want, and DooM's designed around going back to a pistol start regularly so you'd rebuild your arsenal pretty quickly. One of the really nice features is an autosave at the start of every level, and with the ZDL frontend it is trivially easy to load up one of the dozens of megawads that have been made over the years to get more DooM after you finish the Doom 2 campaign.
If you're not a purist, it also has the optional ability to disable autoaim and add free mouselook and a crosshair, making it play very similarly to modern FPS games.
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 06, 2020, 05:36:38 pm
What software can both work with FLV files and doesn't have problems with variable resolutions?
Post by: wierd on April 06, 2020, 10:27:44 pm
Post by: Starver on April 06, 2020, 11:28:44 pm
If you (generic 'you') don't like command-lines, there's the winff (https://www.biggmatt.com/p/winff.html) GUI wrapper (if you're on Windows, mostly but not exclusively) that helps out with a lot of the (potentially) numerous parameters that you might find you need to use, and possibly easier batching up of whole queues of input files for similar conversion. Not used it much myself, but a friend of mine who wasn't as confident or patient with the command-line took to it like a fish to water.
(This being a decade or so ago, and he's likely still happily using it, just as I've not yet had problems with whatever version of ffmpeg/ffplay I use. Suggesting the continual explosion of new Codecs and formats has slowed from the heady old days of explosive divergence - I'm sure my version predates the .webm format, but it even handles those files, no matter what video subset it is a wrapper for. The rather more historic FLV is definitelty supported though, unless someone's been messing with it that I don't know of in your proprietry recorder.)
The link above is the developer's site, it seems, after I scanned around the search results quite a bit looking for something that wasn't a paid-for-and-up-ranked aggregator site. Various other places pop up first which seem Ok, and may even have further other OS ports and versions/dates to them that imply forked projects, perhaps improving some elements Caveat Emptor (though they're all free, at least nominally...) when following those, but the code.google and github links should be fairly verifiably honest in that regard.
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 07, 2020, 12:42:32 am
Post by: Starver on April 07, 2020, 08:28:08 am
Quote from: Wikipedia; my bolding
HandBrake is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows.[3] It uses third-party libraries such as FFmpeg, libvpx, and x265.;)
Post by: Iduno on April 07, 2020, 03:08:31 pm
I happen to have a bunch of surveillance footage recovered from a surveillance hard drive. They're in FLV format. The problem is that the videos switch resolutions midway, which makes it hard to re-encode with HandBrake, since it assumes that videos are at a constant resolution throughout.
What software can both work with FLV files and doesn't have problems with variable resolutions?
Break the file in 2? My video editing experience is very limited, but I can manage finding the right time and split. Fixes some weirdness.
FFMPREG for the command line.
I can't be the only one that read that, right?
Post by: Reelya on April 10, 2020, 01:39:12 am
Edit: MPEG gets 139 million hits on Google, MPREG gets 4 million hits. It's not actually that well known. BTW I realized I didn't actually know precisely what it meant until googling it just now:
Quote
Mpreg stands for male pregnancy, and it's a subgenre of gay romance where men can become pregnant. Broadly speaking, there are two main categories within mpreg: shifter and non-shifter.
Seriously? you got confused by MPEG and thought it meant that? Maybe steer clear of the seedier niches of the internet.
Post by: wierd on April 10, 2020, 01:47:53 am
FF means Female on Female.
So, FFMPREG would be "Female on Female with male pregnancy"
It could be missing a comma though, and be "Two girls, one dude, both girls pregnant"
Why oh why do I have to remember these kinds of things, and or, get exposed to them in the first place? Why?
But no, I meant FFMPEG, the free software mpeg processing library.
Post by: Reelya on April 10, 2020, 02:08:07 am
Post by: Iduno on April 10, 2020, 06:20:11 pm
It would be even kinkiner than that reelya.
FF means Female on Female.
So, FFMPREG would be "Female on Female with male pregnancy"
Which is why I was confused enough to ask. 4-letter MPEG I read easy enough. 2 extra letters? No idea what that says.
Edit:
Maybe steer clear of the seedier niches of the internet.
That's what you think the seedier parts of the internet are? You can find weirder stuff than that by searching for sonic fan-art.
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 12, 2020, 10:27:25 pm
Post by: BigD145 on April 12, 2020, 10:50:32 pm
What GPU would be good to pair with an i5-4460 system so that it's a decent gaming machine, something that can play modern games at Medium at 1080p? The PSU is rated at 460W, so I probably can't go with anything too power-consuming.
You should be fine getting up to a GTX 1060. A 1660 Super might barely work. You're pushing some limits at that point.
I know how hard it is to find a 500W right now, which is ideal for a midrange system. A good bronze UPS is around $50. Great price point for what you get. But supplies are limited. Some estimates put certain brands shipping out as far as September.
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 13, 2020, 10:07:57 pm
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 16, 2020, 06:13:05 am
On the more practical side of things, how do I get the option to hibernate back on my laptop? Going under 'Choose what the power button does' under Power Options doesn't show the option at all.
Post by: wierd on April 16, 2020, 06:26:24 am
The decision to replace with compound should be one of personal acceptance of risk vs reward, IMO.
Post by: Starver on April 16, 2020, 06:53:23 am
Yes, things might still go south months or years down the line, and if nothing beats the practiced hand that takes great care over whatever man/machine might have just slapped the original together in the most time-efficient way.
Also consider that laptops are tricky buggers (even without any intentional barriers to user-servicing) beyond the replacement of memory modules or drives (where strategic hatches or modular caddies are implemented) so I wouldn't be surprised if you had to remove the whole back to access the screw to remove the keyboard to unhook the screen ribbon-cable to allow you to shift the heatpipe-and-integrated-fan-housing, but only after undoing three or four other screws (probably beneath the keyboard) that tie it to the mobo and unclicking a further jumper-wire or three. Just one of the issues I have with laptops (acknowledging that it's often necessity due to packing rather than just awkwardness applied by design). But doesn't stop me (carefully!) diving into them where necessary. 'Necessary' is the key, though. YMMV. Caveat Tinkor.
(Sorry, no idea about hibernation. Avoid it at all costs myself, for historic reasons, but also haven't expunged it as an option yet. May look to adding that to my repertoire, when I can, but by then someone else will probably have helped.)
Post by: BigD145 on April 16, 2020, 11:17:51 am
I recently set up a Hamachi network between me and an acquaintance, and had to set Windows Firewall to ignore that network connection and that network connection only to get it to work correctly. Now Windows is constantly nagging me with "YOUR FIREWALL IS OFF TURN IT ON NOW" notifications. Again, the firewall is on for internet and my regular LAN. Is there any way to disable this notification?
Unfortunately I do not. I think it's one of those issues like sticky cursors across multiple monitors that's been around since at least Windows 8 and has no solution.
Post by: Iduno on April 16, 2020, 06:44:47 pm
Unfortunately I do not. I think it's one of those issues like sticky cursors across multiple monitors that's been around since at least Windows 8 and has no solution.
"Install Windows 7."
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 16, 2020, 08:21:36 pm
For what I'm planning to do, do I need the extra power of the Pentium, or can I do reasonably well with a Celeron? The Pentium costs the equivalent of $50 more than the Celeron.
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 16, 2020, 08:50:52 pm
Post by: Parsely on April 17, 2020, 09:51:02 pm
I hope these are all the relevant specs?
CPU: AMD FX-6300 Six-Core Processor
RAM: 8 GB
Graphics card: AMD Radeon R9 200
I'm upgrading my RAM because I tend to multitask a lot but I hope this will help. Is there any way I could diagnose it while I'm waiting for the delivery so I can know for sure?
Post by: wierd on April 17, 2020, 09:58:50 pm
Double-check.
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 17, 2020, 10:30:05 pm
Post by: wierd on April 17, 2020, 10:58:13 pm
That means enabling it later might cause boot to fail, hard to say.
You need to keep secureboot disable to use the multiboot menu if it is not secureboot compliant all the same though, so it's moot.
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 18, 2020, 01:05:51 am
Lately, when I play audio in a browser (replicated issue on Chrome, Firefox, and Vivaldi) or VLC, every few seconds there will be a bit of crackling and slowdown in the audio. No performance hits to rendering, it's just fucking up the audio.
I hope these are all the relevant specs?
CPU: AMD FX-6300 Six-Core Processor
RAM: 8 GB
Graphics card: AMD Radeon R9 200
I'm upgrading my RAM because I tend to multitask a lot but I hope this will help. Is there any way I could diagnose it while I'm waiting for the delivery so I can know for sure?
Have you tried with headphones? I've had this sort of problem caused by the cables picking up CB traffic or power line noise.
Post by: Mephisto on April 18, 2020, 09:07:30 am
Lately, when I play audio in a browser (replicated issue on Chrome, Firefox, and Vivaldi) or VLC, every few seconds there will be a bit of crackling and slowdown in the audio. No performance hits to rendering, it's just fucking up the audio.
I hope these are all the relevant specs?
CPU: AMD FX-6300 Six-Core Processor
RAM: 8 GB
Graphics card: AMD Radeon R9 200
I'm upgrading my RAM because I tend to multitask a lot but I hope this will help. Is there any way I could diagnose it while I'm waiting for the delivery so I can know for sure?
Additionally, are you using front panel audio? The combination of unshielded cables leading to your front panel and a bunch of interference-generating ports in one small area can cause issues.
Post by: Starver on April 18, 2020, 10:59:43 am
I rarely see audio go out of sync with video (if that's what I understood you to say) although sometimes I can be a bit rough with ffplay's skip on/back functionality in a high-def video stream on a low-end machine and the video is blank for a while, then 'catches' and fast-forwards a bit until it resyncs with the audio that has been playing just fine until this time. It's fun to lip-read characters (in a conversational scene with no othe cues) and try to relate what their lips are quickly saying with what I heard said a short time earlier. (Best when the desynch is at a point where a man is mouthing different words to the woman whose voice is active (or vice-versa), at a slightly different tempo, yet it still imaginably matches... ;))
Not sure how much of this helps, except for anecdotal proof that "it happens".
Out of interest, if you covert the files to different formats (if you can) from your habitually cobsumed kind, does the issue happen just as much? That means not just changing the container format, but the layer formats within, so (Ogg) Vorbis audio compared to (MP4) MPEG Audio Layer 2, or whatever applies. Might not sort the problem, might not even be practical to test, but could rule out my idle thoughts if I'm totally off track.
[1] I've got a machine that will occasionally go a bit gaga with audio (this being VLC, as the player, not ffplay as I describe I use elsewhere). As if it missed a new fourier definition or perhaps enacted one it shouldn't have in the 'pallete' of frequencies it has to service by index, everything is suddenly noticably (but must have been shifting for a while) at a lower frequency - it plays mostly spoken word, not music, so it isn't immediately obvious. It'll gradually depen and deepen further until it sounds like a slowed-down tape (but still at 1 second/second playback, so not 'drawlingly' slowed down) which then resets on starting the next cued-up MPwhatever file. Which makes me think it's a memory glitch somehow shifting the 'frequencies needed' table each time it passes a given space-saving 'delta' difference. Replaying the file later will not show the same issue, but travelling the "progress slider" back to a timestamp before the issue was noticable and it is as bad (and continues to distort worse and worse), so it's definitely not the file data itself but something spontaneous in memory (whether main RAM or audio chip cache). But I live with it, as it's only once every thousand or (a lot?) more playings that do this.
Post by: Parsely on April 18, 2020, 02:08:57 pm
Is your grounding good?I have no idea, so probably not. You'd have to explain or link me a tutorial, I don't know even know where to start with that.
Double-check.
Have you tried with headphones? I've had this sort of problem caused by the cables picking up CB traffic or power line noise.This definitely happens with my speakers but I'm only 75% sure this happens with my headphones too, I'll check it out. I live in a city so IDK about CB traffic but I've never experienced this there's no overhead powerlines or anything
Additionally, are you using front panel audio? The combination of unshielded cables leading to your front panel and a bunch of interference-generating ports in one small area can cause issues.For my headphones I am, for my speakers I'm not. The back is a big gaggle of cables though. I don't do any cable management
Out of interest, if you covert the files to different formats (if you can) from your habitually cobsumed kind, does the issue happen just as much? That means not just changing the container format, but the layer formats within, so (Ogg) Vorbis audio compared to (MP4) MPEG Audio Layer 2, or whatever applies. Might not sort the problem, might not even be practical to test, but could rule out my idle thoughts if I'm totally off track.Unfortunately I can't replicate it right now, I'll try to get back to you on this
Post by: Reelya on April 18, 2020, 02:14:15 pm
As well as powerline noise there can actually be noise in the wiring in your own house, not just overhead lines.
Try tidying up the cables and keep the sound cable away from the others, see if any difference.
Post by: Parsely on April 28, 2020, 02:48:11 pm
Today while I was listening to music on YouTube in Firefox it started up again, but I'm working so I don't have time to try adjusting things. About an hour later, just as it was starting to really get on my nerves, it's gone again. This is infuriating. I'm going to try moving my cables around like Reelya said. At least if I can make it worse then I'll know it's an electrical interference issue.
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 30, 2020, 03:44:15 pm
Why would a laptop (especially a high-end gaming laptop used for office work) slow down to unusable levels over the course of 5 years? My bets are on severe thermal throttling due to old thermal paste and dust, but I want to hear your take on it, if any.
Edit: This is after the IT guys tried formatting the disk and reinstalling. It's still unusable after that whole process.
Post by: BigD145 on April 30, 2020, 04:05:45 pm
Post by: Schmaven on April 30, 2020, 04:08:58 pm
Post by: Reelya on April 30, 2020, 04:18:55 pm
After getting it back to speed it might be an idea to under-clock it a notch or two to reduce future thermal load. As long as it's way faster than now they'll be happy, and knocking a few degrees off the top will extend the lifespan. After all, they're not really intending this for high-end gaming usage.
Post by: Starver on April 30, 2020, 04:29:25 pm
It could be, even after reinstalling (assuming you let it update again afterwards) a whole load of security updates and patches that just happen to take up the laptop's computational energies.
I've seen AV program updates that now seemed to assume more memory than the (old) hardware had a chance to give it so dug far more deeply into swapspace every time it scanned something new. Found a different AV, in this case, that hadn't (yet) been overdeveloped beyond any useful optimum.
Or check one of the Dimm modules isn't unseated (halving the memory available) or otherwise inaccessible. Check your HDD isn't riddled with bad sectors, with a suitable low-level tool. Was it once overclocked, or at least up-optimised, and it's recently been reset to 'normal' (could be old enough to have needed BIOS-retaining battery replaced, and it's conceivable that something is reset). Loads of little things like that.
Normally I'd have suggested you consider the reinstall-from-scratch (digital crud builds up, like loadsa zero-length files in the %TEMP% area, not using "real" disk space but incrementally increasing the time for the system to work out what new TempFile it can write to, in any given circumstances as requested by various differently self-serving applications) but it sounds like that's already dealt with. Assuming it was done properly, though, so do quickly check if it has been or if it was fudged before taking that as read.
Post by: Reelya on April 30, 2020, 05:01:06 pm
Unless it's eMMC. Don't get a device with eMMC if you can help it. They save on costs by soldering SDD chips straight into the motherboard, so the SDD isn't replaceable if it dies. Effectively eMMC means they used phone memory in your laptop instead of an actual drive that can be upgraded or replaced.
I knew a guy who went to the same job place I used to go to, and he had a Windows Netbook with only 16GB of eMMC storage space. He couldn't run Windows Update because there was no space to download the updates, and he constantly had problems with other stuff not running. A Windows 10 device with only 16GB of non-upgradeable SSD space is something you would never want.
Post by: methylatedspirit on May 01, 2020, 02:02:24 am
After getting it back to speed it might be an idea to under-clock it a notch or two to reduce future thermal load. As long as it's way faster than now they'll be happy, and knocking a few degrees off the top will extend the lifespan. After all, they're not really intending this for high-end gaming usage.I know ThrottleStop/Intel XTU can do that (at least in the turbo range, which is still plenty), but something that risky, something that can absolutely crash the system if you look at it wrong sounds a bit iffy to me. Is there a way to underclock that doesn't involve those programs?
Post by: Reelya on May 01, 2020, 02:18:43 am
Post by: methylatedspirit on May 01, 2020, 02:28:50 am
Post by: Reelya on May 01, 2020, 03:09:30 am
https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-au/sln297032/alienware-overclocking?lang=en
Quote
For Notebooks
Using OC Controls in the Alienware Command Center (recommended):
Open the Alienware Command Center
Click OC Controls
Click the OC Profile tab
Click Level 1
Restart your system
Test your system with these settings if you find it stable you may repeat the steps and select Level 2
Using the settings in the BIOS:
Press F2 while turning on the system
In the BIOS go to the Advanced tab
Select Overclocking Feature and press Enter
Select Extreme Edition Core Ration Limits and press Enter
Select OC LV 1 and press Enter
Press F10 to save and exit
For Alienware m15 and m17
i7 & i9 OC is done by adjusting the power limit (PL) on the processor. Different power limit are built into the thermal profiles in AWCC.
Quiet mode sets the PL1 to 45W. This is i7 default setting
Balance Mode sets the PL1 to 60W. (This is the system’s default setting from the factory.)
Performance Mode sets the PL1 to 75W.
If the IT people nuked it and installed vanilla Window on it then it may not have the Alienware Command Center thingy though.
You could also try under-clocking the GPU using GPU-related tools.
Post by: Starver on May 01, 2020, 11:53:41 am
If any laptop would have that it would be Alienware, because of who their target audience is.That's why I thought it might be no-longer-overclocked, in one of my ideas.
Not had much direct experience with Alienware, but my impression was that this was the whole schtick with AW machines, overclocked as built (pushing the component limits more than normal consumer limits) then let the end user push it further if they want to take the risk. At a premium and with some risks involved.
Which makes it an odd 'direct replacement due to unavailability', but if it doesn't break under the strain it does at least mean it should have lengevity of performance (modern office software seems to eat up more processing power than a lot of classic cutting-edge games did). I guess this one broke a little, though.
Post by: Imic on May 04, 2020, 05:27:20 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 04, 2020, 06:09:22 pm
Post by: Imic on May 04, 2020, 06:13:48 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 04, 2020, 06:19:56 pm
My first instinct here is something wrong with the RAM or the hard drive. I'd start with the latter, because you've specified that this is reused. If you are in a Windows environment, open a command prompt in administrator mode (easiest way to do this is to type "command" in the search prompt to bring up the icon for command prompt, then right-click and "run as administrator").
Type "chkdsk /scan" into the prompt. Post a screenshot of the results.
Post by: Starver on May 04, 2020, 06:31:15 pm
Any software, any time? Mouse (USB?) not responding? Does the Numlock key[1] toggle the NumLock light?
For Windows does Ctrl-Alt-Del bring up (eventually?) the task manager (also try Ctrl-Shift-Escape)? It might take time, but should pop up in a not-utterly-frozen situation eventually. If it gets you to a BSOD (or equivalent) it's something more, if it reboots it's maybe worse (memory access/management issue, IME). It's a freeze that does nothing until you power down/case-reset it then it's deep but maybe easily solvable.
There's a lot to go on. For one thing, we don't know the OS. And if it's Win10 I'm going to have to stick with "it works with prior versions" advice, myself, as have not touched it enough to know how much things might have changed.
Can we assuming you've got AV software, updated, may have done other malware scanning and have initiated/allowed basic disk checking, including that you're not down to your last few Mb of disk space, etc? Without eyeballs on the system, I think we need to flail about a bit before we're sure we know what problem needs solving. Other than system reinstall from scratch which I wouldn't suggest if it's maybe as simple as reupdating corrupted drivers or similar. If it gets that far, maybe you need a tech-guy to work on it for you, one way or another, but maybe that's for later.
((Ninjaed by three messages. Hopefully not stomping on anyone else's toes.))
(((edit: Ah, good. We're getting somewhere. Carry on!)))
[1] Or combo, in laptops, but I'm guessing it's not that from the bit about its bits.
Post by: Imic on May 04, 2020, 06:46:10 pm
Beyond that, I’m really not tech savvy enough to answer any of those questions, except that I’m definitely not down to my last dozen megabits of ram
Edit: here it is.
(https://i.ibb.co/vqXCkW5/Thong-2-electric-boogaloo.png)
Post by: Starver on May 04, 2020, 07:03:26 pm
Your RAM (physical) and your disk space (physical) are different things, though do coincide with Virtual Memory[1] being stored on disk. The scandisk results will doubtless show us the disk usage and put that idea to bed, though. I just sometimes go a bit mad on that myself, is why I mentioned it.
I'm probably not going to interfere any more in this, tonight (post midnight here, anyway) so have fun, and if I think I need to I'll join in again on the morrow. But now I know you've got at least one useful person helping, with others doubtless able to when their moment seems ripe.
[1] Or, in the old old days, and maybe back again recently in a different form, ramdisks. But that's not important here, just struck me as a funny reemergence of an old thing, sort of... ;)
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 04, 2020, 07:07:01 pm
Follow this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_xFNojChNA
and post your results.
Post by: methylatedspirit on May 05, 2020, 06:01:37 am
Looking at what HWiNFO64 shows, though, it seems that the effective clock speed is really low (~200 MHz) when it's idling. It's very aggressively throttling itself down to sub-potato speeds at idle. I'm trying to get into the Alienware Command Center to unlock the overclocking options, and it's really damn slow.
Edit: Apparently, no, I don't think this thing overclocks. It requires this Alienware Graphics Amplifier to be plugged in, which is an external GPU enclosure. I forgot, the model of this laptop is Alienware 15 R2.
Edit 2: This is shaping up to be a problem of bloat, not of thermal throttling. I'm tempted to do a full reinstall, but that might be annoying to reconfigure. I'd rather not do that. I should probably try and uninstall everything non-essential to see if performance improves.
Edit 3: I think I found the culprit: the hard drive. It takes 3 minutes to fully load Windows and everything associated with it, which makes it feel way slower than it actually is. It's a bottleneck, in other words. The solution at that point is to just buy an SSD.
Post by: Imic on May 05, 2020, 09:14:30 am
Ok, hard drive's good. The next step is to check RAM. This is harder.Nothing. No errors, no abnormalities, nothing.
Follow this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_xFNojChNA
and post your results.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 05, 2020, 10:24:40 am
Post by: Imic on May 05, 2020, 10:52:30 am
Lemmee know if any more screenies are necessary.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 05, 2020, 12:48:22 pm
Post by: Starver on May 05, 2020, 01:50:24 pm
And if there's a second AV/realtime-malware scanner further down the alphabet (non-Avast e.g. maybe if you're covered well enough with Windows Defender[2]) they may occasionally trying to check up each other and blocking each other (Philosopher's Problem, effectively) but that's not apparently happening right now, just mentioning it for possible future reference.
[1] With 0.4% of the 2% total processor load, so expecting 5 times what we see there, ignoring rounding errors.
[2] For older versions of Win, I'd have recommended avoiding Windows' own basic AV and choosing a good free one, or a movable feast of the paid ones depending on how they're currently living up to their reputation, but the dynamics have changed a bit over the last few years so I'm not so sure about any of that.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 05, 2020, 02:03:14 pm
That actually might be the problem, if both are running.
Post by: Imic on May 05, 2020, 04:58:13 pm
Post by: Starver on May 05, 2020, 05:26:28 pm
B) Do that process list screenshot again, but scroll down, rescreenshot, etc to give us the full list and not just the top bit. That'll reveal all the running stuff (or enough to promote further help) and if as well as Avira we see McAfee, Sophos, F-Secure, Symmantec (e.g.) then we know at least one thing we can argue about how to solve.
Even if it isn't anything like that, something else might show up to solve.
Post by: Reelya on May 06, 2020, 02:36:03 am
Should I turn things on?
You should be asking what you can turn off. Uninstall pretty much everything you can except the bare bones. You're not going to die if you uninstall Avast for a bit, unless you surf some really sketchy websites.
Definitely don't have more than one third-party AV software installed at once, that sounds horrible. Note that things like McAfee are often installed by other third-party software because of deals they have. Delete these if you didn't specifically request them to be installed. I consider MacAfee to be borderline malware itself, due to their predilection for randomly installing it with other third-party software when you didn't ask for it. I already have anti-virus, I don't need some sneaky bastards to install the trial version of their own AV suite on my machine without asking me, thanks.
Have one third-party one along with Windows Defender recommended settings. That's all you need. Avast etc are clever enough that they're not going to trip over their feet because of Windows Defender, since all other AV suites would be tested to work alongside that. However having say Norton + Avast + McAfee all installed at once would be dumb.
Post by: wierd on May 09, 2020, 08:56:34 pm
I accepted a "Can you fix my son's laptop?" project recently. It's a 2008-ish macbook pro. surprise. Hurray.
It does not boot. Oh, it TRIES to boot, but stalls out and hangs with the progress bar at 99% after taking an hour.
Recovery partition does not boot either.
Foolish me, I say to myself, "Sure, I can just download the OSX CD image, and boot that."
NOPE-- Apple, in their *INFINITE* wisdom (cough), only distributes .DMG files. International Standards Organization? Who needs them, and their ISO9660 specification!? We're APPLE! We "Think Different!"-- We're special, and "Have Courage"!
Fuck Apple.
Oh, I found a way to convert it to an .iso, and even a way to burn the .dmg directly, but apparently it needs a dual layer DVDR. Something I am fresh out of, and walmart seems to not carry anymore.
SO, I decide, "Fuck that, I am gonna use a USB disk."
I dig around, and find I am short on USB sticks. (why? Cause people are always needing "Install media" but never bring the damn things back.) So, I dig some more. I have a SATA->USB cradle, and some SATA disks. "Perfect!"
I drop in a 250gb sata drive, and look for a suitable disk imager. Nope, you are struck with the "Apple!? HAHAHAHAHAH!! There is only TransMac. It's buyware, fuck you!" response, everywhere. (or rather, the "Create bootable USB media with Transmac on windows!!" as the **ONLY** solution discussed in the wild.
Problem? Transmac is slow as shit. Terrible. Opaque and not worth the money they are demanding. (thank goodness for functional trials.)
This is a USB3 cradle here. Not some USB 1.1 slow as molasses in january POS. It takes 4 **HOURS** to write the dmg file to the drive. Only, the mac wont see it as a bootable volume, after spending all that time.
Apple, I hate you. I hate you with a passion. This could have been solved very cleanly if you would just use industry standards, and then I could use something like Rufus to make a bootable USB device. But no. You have to be shiny plastic people, who "think different."
So--- Changing tactics.
I held down the option key at boot to get the device selection screen. It reports that the recovery partition was for OSX 10.13.3
OK, that was the factory default. I really just want to pull all the data off this thing, and redo it from scratch. Considering both the normal and recovery partitions are hosed, that seems the most reliable means of getting this POS running again. So, I am pulling that version's .dmg now. It is 4.7gb in size, so SHOULD be single-layer. (oh, how novel!)
Once I have it downloaded, I will burn it, and see if this obstinate piece of aluminum will comply with my wishes or not. So far, it has been extraordinarily non-compliant though. Why do people want these things again?
Post by: BigD145 on May 09, 2020, 11:33:51 pm
I tried installing Undertale on my sister's macbook some years ago and it refused to work. I don't even know why it failed. I spent an hour trying to figure out how to install a small game on a Mac. Straight download from Humble. Not even using usb sticks or anything. I never got it to work.
Post by: wierd on May 10, 2020, 12:48:46 am
Back then, this is what I would have done:
Install the appletalk protocol on an NT4 or win2k computer, and configure it to serve an appletalk domain over ethernet.
Plug the obstinate mac into that. (assuming you have a mac with ethernet port... Otherwise you would have to fork out for an appropriate peripheral to get ethernet.)
Use said network to transfer the "larger than 1.44mb" files after decompression, using appleshare.
But at least back then, you could just straight up write a disk image in .img format to a diskette on a PC, and have a disk utilities disk to boot a sick mac-- But you still had to contend with all the byzantine bullshit of "No, this is a self mounting disk image in SEA format!! We did that for your convenience! Honest! Nevermind that you need another, working mac (that would cost a fucking fortune!) to use it, since your existing mac is not booting, and you need the contents of the archive to make the boot disk! We totally are not intentionally fucking with you, honest!" The apple FTP site had the disks in both .IMG and SEA formats. It was very easy to resurrect a sick mac back then with just a PC.
This experience?
NO! DMG format **ONLY**! The gods at Apple have spoken! We do not speak of the sinful world of PCs! Heretic, you will suffer for your transgressions! You will find no succor for your wantonly sinful life outside of the Apple Chosen!
Really, Apple would not be quite so bad, if they were not the literal fascist dictatorship of computing (in competition with Oracle and Google for being the most bald-faced evil out there).
Honestly, why can't they distribute .ISO files like a reasonable software company? Why can't they just use a normal EFI implementation? There really is no excuse for it in this day and age.
... Honestly... I should have had this thing backing up data by now.
Post by: Starver on May 10, 2020, 05:24:34 am
(Was that only 1999? I would have dated it a couple of years earlier at least...)
Post by: wierd on May 10, 2020, 10:52:33 am
The installer dmg files? NOT BOOTABLE. They do not contain the needed EFI loader.
Apple's directions?
"Use this APPLE ONLY utility to make bootable media! It's SOOOOOOOO EASY! (you just need an already working mac!)"
My solution?
Hunt down an already bootable ISO file (with PIRACY!), use it to set up a VM in virtualbox, enable USB passthrough, cook up a bootable image with my "mac" and go from there.
Because FUCK YOU APPLE. Fuck you in your arrogant asses. >:(
But, it will be another hour at LEAST before that image downloads. This is getting tiresome.
***
~Several Hours Later~
***
The procedure appears to work. However, I downloaded the wrong osx version. Needs 10.11.3 (El Capitan) not 10.13.3 (High Sierra). Created media appears to start (yay!), but then says "No, Not supported on this platform!" when started with verbose mode on.
So, MOAR downloading, this time for El Capitan... Then I get to deal with the slow as molasses virtual machine to do the needful... AGAIN.
Post by: bloop_bleep on May 11, 2020, 12:09:14 pm
My laptop monitor appears to occasionally have horizontal lines on the right side (strictly on the right side, as in it breaks off cleanly at the middle). I found that if I jiggle it and press on it a bit in a certain way it goes back to normal. What's your recommendations for fixing it more permanently?
I have a Lenovo Ideapad 330. Thanks in advance!
Post by: wierd on May 13, 2020, 10:55:12 am
If its in warranty send it for service. Otherwise either live with the defect, buy a new laptop, or buy a replacement panel from Alibaba.
-----
I have nearly defeated the macbook repair job. Hard disk has bad sectors. Zerofilled the drive (after extensive data recovery. Save data first!) to force SMART firmware in the drive to reallocate those from the defect track, do a secure erase to be sure all sectors are reliable to write on after the remapping, then reload with the media made using the virtual ma hine.
Now boots and runs without stalls or hiccups. Restored user data. Now reinstalling applications. Informed owner they need to strongly consider getting a new hard drive.
I should have charged money for this.
Post by: methylatedspirit on May 15, 2020, 01:26:20 am
Post by: wierd on May 15, 2020, 01:31:04 am
Hyperthreading was an early manifestation of multi-threading. (Literally, still single core, but multiple threads (as long as they were doing different kinds of work) could be executed on the same core at the same time.)
Early OSes treated it like symmetric multi processing, so windows and pals treated it like having a second core.
Post by: BigD145 on May 15, 2020, 10:55:08 am
Does hyper-threading (or equivalent) affect performance in DF?
Kind of. Forcing DF to move between threads or cores can lead to instability and crashes since DF can only be on one of them at a time. Usually this is seen during world gen. Forcing the OS to keep DF on a single thread or core during world gen can help with those 200+ year world gens. Just make sure you have good cooling on your chip. Part of the reason to move code around is to spread the physical heat and wear and tear.
Post by: Ametsala on May 15, 2020, 11:00:24 am
This is based on my experience playing DF with an ieee pc with a hyperthreaded processor from 2010(?), and an elitebook with a hyperthreaded processor from 2012. (And an old desktop from ~2005 which had better DF performance than the ieee pc, even though the ieee pc was supposed to have considerably more cycles.)
Post by: bloop_bleep on May 15, 2020, 12:02:41 pm
Does hyper-threading (or equivalent) affect performance in DF?
Kind of. Forcing DF to move between threads or cores can lead to instability and crashes since DF can only be on one of them at a time.
But isn't it supposed to completely save the thread state when moving it over? Almost any program, single-threaded or multi-threaded, would crash if it experienced some flow disruption due to interrupting the thread or moving the thread somewhere else.
Post by: lethosor on May 15, 2020, 12:36:20 pm
Exactly. Any OS that causes programs to crash by moving their execution between cores is buggy. I suspect instances of DF running better when locked to a single core are purely anecdotal. (Incidentally, DF is multithreaded, but each task is delegated to a single thread: one thread each for simulation, graphics, sound, etc. Locking all DF threads to a single core would probably actually hurt performance if one, e.g. the simulation thread, is running at full utilization.)Does hyper-threading (or equivalent) affect performance in DF?
Kind of. Forcing DF to move between threads or cores can lead to instability and crashes since DF can only be on one of them at a time.
But isn't it supposed to completely save the thread state when moving it over? Almost any program, single-threaded or multi-threaded, would crash if it experienced some flow disruption due to interrupting the thread or moving the thread somewhere else.
Post by: Reelya on May 15, 2020, 06:20:55 pm
I'm pretty sure that very old, i.e. 2010, hyperthreading strictly divided one physical core to two virtual cores with half the speed, effectively halving the single thread performance. This doesn't happen with slightly less old (2012) hyperthreading, which is smart enough to use the full core when sensible.
This is based on my experience playing DF with an ieee pc with a hyperthreaded processor from 2010(?), and an elitebook with a hyperthreaded processor from 2012. (And an old desktop from ~2005 which had better DF performance than the ieee pc, even though the ieee pc was supposed to have considerably more cycles.)
It also depends on how much CPU utilization the program is doing. For example I wrote some code for a class where we had to do threading, this code was data-intensive, and on a 4-core machine (8 hyperthreads), it got linear speedups until I was using the full 8 threads, and it was about 8 times faster than the original single-threaded version. It all depends where the bottlenecks are in your code. Maybe my threads were spending a lot of time waiting for memory, then processing it, then sending it back to RAM, whereas with more threads running, the system could utilize the pipeline in the memory bus much better, meaning the CPU cores weren't idling as much.
Post by: BigD145 on May 15, 2020, 06:31:23 pm
Exactly. Any OS that causes programs to crash by moving their execution between cores is buggy. I suspect instances of DF running better when locked to a single core are purely anecdotal. (Incidentally, DF is multithreaded, but each task is delegated to a single thread: one thread each for simulation, graphics, sound, etc. Locking all DF threads to a single core would probably actually hurt performance if one, e.g. the simulation thread, is running at full utilization.)Does hyper-threading (or equivalent) affect performance in DF?
Kind of. Forcing DF to move between threads or cores can lead to instability and crashes since DF can only be on one of them at a time.
But isn't it supposed to completely save the thread state when moving it over? Almost any program, single-threaded or multi-threaded, would crash if it experienced some flow disruption due to interrupting the thread or moving the thread somewhere else.
It was a fix for some people, myself included, before any sort of multithreading. It fixed my 40d crashes all the time. It was just world gen that was a source of crashing and almost guaranteed if alt tabbing. Things are a bit more robust now.
Post by: Starver on May 15, 2020, 06:41:34 pm
Though it seems (and may still be, even as the Steam version pushes the graphical prestidigitations into overdrive, going from some of our discussions on that bit of the board) that this is a trivial load compared with the heavy data-mangling that goes on in the non-graphical parts of the simulation. (Even without any GPU provision.) So maybe we can treat that as incidental and just fitting into the processor anywhere it isn't otherwise backlogged with the main(er) thread pathing+temperature gradients+liquid sloshing+immigrant biographying+hidden cavingin+etc that is the big bad bottleneck in almost every case...
Post by: lethosor on May 16, 2020, 12:04:05 am
Surprised that nobody has mentioned the second core/thread/whatever dealing with the graphics element, if that's still a thing like I understood it to be.I did :)
Some print modes (like STANDARD, and TWBT by extension) do use the GPU to speed things up, though.
It was a fix for some people, myself included, before any sort of multithreading. It fixed my 40d crashes all the time. It was just world gen that was a source of crashing and almost guaranteed if alt tabbing. Things are a bit more robust now.My point still stands - one of the main responsibilities of a modern OS is to keep programs from having to worry about what core(s) they're running on at any given moment (or if they're running at all, since they could be preempted at any point). An OS that causes a single-threaded program like DF to crash if not restricted to one core would likely cause many other single-threaded programs to crash too, and since I haven't seen widespread reports of that, I'm inclined to believe that restricting DF to one core wasn't actually what fixed the issue, at least by itself (although I should be clear that I didn't play 40d, and would be more inclined to believe it if it had fixed my issues). Granted, DF crashes can be pretty nondeterministic, but the most common ones I've seen are due to memory management issues, and a program's memory space is independent of what core it's running on.
Post by: Starver on May 16, 2020, 12:57:42 am
I did :)So you did. No idea how I skipped that. I don't remember the post at all, must have finger-slipped when reading everything (else!) with such interest.
Carry on...
Post by: methylatedspirit on May 18, 2020, 08:02:45 am
Why is this the case? Is it just down to single-threaded performance or having less cache, or is it more nuanced than that?
Post by: Akura on May 18, 2020, 08:22:52 am
As for the stupid question, is it safe to try using white glue or a hot glue gun to glue the rubber back into place? It doesn't need to hold for any more than a week. Of course I intend to avoid getting glue on the pins themselves.
Post by: Starver on May 18, 2020, 09:10:18 am
DF famously does a lot of things differently to other consumer software (graphical rendering being to physics calcs in a ratio quite unlike in FPSs, who often lean on GPUs' inate capabilities for the latter anyway, etc) so stress-tests by differing amounts the different elements.
edit: And the below reply too. In fact that's a better answer in all ways!
Keyboard-gluing... I've seen worse ideas, especially in the name of temporary fixing, but that's without being sure of your keyboard design. Sometimes there's a subtle layer of conductivity where it doesn't look like it, which you don't want to interfere with what was a conductive-adhesive join (though it reads like that isn't a case here) or spoil a capacitance effect of ome kind. Honestly, I'd be tempted to give it a go for myself (if I was in the scenario I think you are) but it could as easily react wrongly polymer-to-polymer for various reasons too. Trial a spot at one end first and monitor it for a duration of use?
Post by: Rose on May 18, 2020, 09:19:52 am
Why does DF tend to run better on Intel processors compared to their AMD equivalents? I read this review of the Ryzen 3 3300X and 3100, and it shows that DF generates worlds faster on an i7-7700K (3 years older than the Ryzens). (Here's the link to that section of the review, if you're interested). (https://www.anandtech.com/show/15774/the-amd-ryzen-3-3300x-and-3100-cpu-review/4) To me, it's a bit strange, given that the Ryzens tend to be on par with (or in some cases, outperform) the Intel chip being compared (the aforementioned i7-7700K), at least in the review I read.
Why is this the case? Is it just down to single-threaded performance or having less cache, or is it more nuanced than that?
AMD tend to go for many weaker cores, while Intel go for fewer stronger cores.
DF mainly cares about single core performance, so by and large, it's better in Intel.
Post by: Akura on May 18, 2020, 12:18:15 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 21, 2020, 01:49:47 am
Post by: wierd on May 21, 2020, 03:23:06 am
This is the third time I have directly installed the Intel driver pack for that chipset. I *REALLY* (demonic, gravel tone) want them to *STOP* fucking with my drivers every time they want to install updates.
Look, I fucking get it that some people don't know what they are doing and will use a driver from 1992, ok? However, if I installed a driver package from Intel, it means I want to use the drivers that have gone through Intel's QC process, since microsoft no longer has a QC department. Got it, Microsoft? I DO NOT LIKE YOUR UNTESTED BULLSHIT, STOP CHANGING IT. I DO NOT CARE THAT THE VERSION NUMBER IS HIGHER.
(rage.)
Anyhow.. I dont think there is a way to forcibly prevent window from "helpfully" reducing the volume to zero for you.
Post by: Reelya on May 21, 2020, 03:40:22 am
I don't know what causes it, but Windows keeps lowering the specific application volume on my web browser and Discord to nothing. It may have something to do with unplugging headphones, but even that isn't desired behavior. Anyone know a way tos top this?
Use the universal solvent for Windows problems. AutoHotKey.
https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=46654
So what you could do with AutoHotKey is run a time interval loop and have that reset the volume on those applications to 100% each time. Say every 5 seconds or something.
Post by: Starver on May 31, 2020, 02:45:35 pm
Compare and contrast:
1) Old Laptop (Wifi connection to home ISP router): bay12games.com (with www. or dffd. subdomains) redirected to my ISP's default Error Replacement Service (looks like an unbranded Google results for "what they they I want to connect to", mostly Paid Ads but with bay12games, bay12forums and the Patreon/bay12 pages in there for good measure. Confirmed through the likes of Ping and Tracert that traffic goes to this service. Even after I 'activated' the ISP's opt-out, which quite famously does not opt out.
2) Old PC (wired connection to home ISP router): no ad-jacking DNS, but this may be because I changed the default DNS used to something that helped a different issue. However, the browser (Firefox) nw gives the old "did you mistype/miss out the www. part?" message and a Try Again button that does nothing more, so obviously somewhere in the upstream DNS I still get something invalid.
3) Tablet, with Mobile Internet or Wifi to the same router: bay12games.com works as it always has, on either mobile (different ISP, not even one under the same umbrella due to merger/corporate assocation) or wifi. Not sure if this is because it got the working DNS info while on mobile ISP and continues to use it successfully over the home ISP, because I don't have easy access to any of the same tools for which I discovered such inner details of the Error Replacement as I have already found.
No problems with any other domains (bay12forums included) but the two offshoots bay12games I tried. I would guess (without easy tracking other than resorting to third party tools) that dffd is not even hosted on the same hardware, so why both would (initially) even return an NXDOMAIN, for it to then selectively replace with the 'helpful' URL hijack on just the one machine that does that I have no idea.
The ISP involved is notoriously bad on support (via all lines of communication). I could pester them by phone, email, livetalk, at least two different support/community forums, etc, but noting recent traffic discussing the inability to opt-out with the opt-out (and unrelated VPN troubles that this is causing, which other are having) I'm wondering what things I might have overlooked that I can test and/or tweak.
(I could perhaps (re)change the DNS being called upon, or something more drastic, but I don't want to do that lightly. Not for just bay12games access, which I don't specifically need right now and I only discovered when I got rerouted after having not typed the /smf/ ending to the bat12forums URL, in haste. I can review the rest of the site on the tablet, and have been, and there's nothing I currently need to download to Windows.)
If I was free to move equipment to a different place, I might take the laptop over to try to get through a different ISP (from the current location or mobile access) and do a suitable /refresh on the DNS info but, right without the ability to do this anywhere but its current locale, it seems it would just refail the same apart from any redirect element. Can't work out how to possibly 'break' the tablet in the same way (if it is only true right now because it recalls a working server resolution, not yet deemed needing auto /refresh) and don't much care to.
Do I make sense? Maybe not perfectly, but it's a puzzle, in case anyone wants to help me solve it before I get around to doing anything too drastic myself, or it resolves itself spontaneously.
Post by: Ziusudra on May 31, 2020, 04:32:59 pm
(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/555404726817259580/716446580844134450/Screenshot_2020-05-30_Bay_12_Games_Twitter.png)
Post by: Starver on May 31, 2020, 05:34:39 pm
Switched back to mobile ISP, top-home Ok (Dwarf Fortress, Liberal Crime Squad, WWI Medic, etc) and then gone to pages I've probably never ever visited on New Tablet like WW1Medic screenshot. Either it's very aggressive prefetched-and-optimised-for-mobile practice by mobile ISP or I've got a fully working/fixed DNS by that provider.
Mobile off, Wifi on, look at other WW1Medic screenshot. Yep, still there (i.e. totally new info from probably-remembered looked-up end-point, and not sourced from an overly-smart intermediary proxy or anything - unless it was pre-fetched by the tablet itself while on Mobile, but that looks is inconsistent with its also rather annoying data-saving features that I'm sure I haven't managed to completely turn off).
So, I'm positive it's absolutely not the server itself, if anyone can make use of this assumption, but that something within the Intertubes is causing selective NXDOMAINing (or else an anti-problem is getting around the legitimate error) and the landline ISP's opt-out issue is just arising from that and 'only' a completely different issue.
Been ages since I ever messed about seriously all with that backbone stuff (and this was with MX records, mostly) so I'm probably going to leave it at that and leave the redditers(?) to deal with it. Well, there actually are far worse options.
Anyway, apologies for spilling so much extra ASCII over this issue. It sure is nice to have a really meaty tech problem of my own. ;)
edit: Five minutes later, still on Wifi, tablet stops remembering the right destination (DNS data rechecked, found wanting, I presume), back to mobile and I can access Kobold Quest via the Other Games springboard of the home screen - a definitely rarely-visited page. Data point. Last one.
Post by: methylatedspirit on June 11, 2020, 04:32:45 am
What could I have done wrong here? It could be as simple as a header plugged in to the wrong place, since I legitimately have no idea what's going on.
Post by: wierd on June 11, 2020, 04:34:59 am
Re-attempt power-on.
Rationale:
There is protection circuitry inside the PSUs (https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supplies-101,4193-21.html) of modern systems. This circuitry prevents energizing the main power lines if there is spurious voltages on any of the connections, and the like. This can happen from any number of causes, but the biggest one is a power spike, either from ESD or from the power cord being yanked, a rocker switch sending back a sharp voltage curve, etc.
Flipping the switch on the back of the PSU disengages certain circuits in the PSU (and basically turn it off). Holding in the power button forces whatever voltage is retained in the large filtering capacitors in the PSU to fully discharge.
Returning the switch back to the operational setting, then reattempting power on after this process "resets" this protection circuitry.
Post by: methylatedspirit on June 11, 2020, 05:00:00 am
Post by: wierd on June 11, 2020, 05:08:04 am
Post by: methylatedspirit on June 11, 2020, 06:13:55 am
Post by: Reelya on June 11, 2020, 06:43:45 am
https://www.maketecheasier.com/arch-linux-review/
Quote
No Arch Linux installation is the same, and that’s the appeal to Arch users. It isn’t the friendliest Linux distro for beginners, but if you’re looking to truly understand what a Linux distro can do ...
There you go, going the ArchLinux way will ensure you have bugs and workarounds to do that are unique to your set-up and nobody has ever seen before. Say goodbye to Windows bloat and hello to the streamlined ArchLinux where even the smallest of component services will be hand installed by you, the ArchLinux master. And the best bit:
Quote
Arch is the ultimate distro for choice, so as you can expect, choosing how Arch Linux looks is really left up to you. Quite literally, as the installation ISO doesn’t come with a desktop environment at all.
Yup, ships with just a command line instead of a pesky GUI cluttering things up. Neato!
Post by: Parsely on June 17, 2020, 04:16:25 am
The device is a subwoofer with two desktop speakers (left and right) that plug into it; then it has a power cable, a little power switch/volume dial that is permanently attached by cable, and a cable to plug into the audio outlets on the back of the PC.
Troubleshooting items:
- Power cable is plugged in
- Power switch on the switch/volume control is on and has a green light to show it's on (I'm also positive that the speakers are plugged in and working because they buzz really loudly when I plug/unplug the audio cable into/from the PC)
- The PC volume is turned up
- The physical speaker volume dial is turned up
- The audio source I'm playing from a browser definitely works when I test with my headphones
- When I test the speakers I always unplug the headphones first
- I've tried switching between all available audio sources, no luck
- I tried using the win 10 built in audio troubleshooter but it's useless
Please help, my headphones are great but they're exhausting to wear for hours every day!
Post by: Reelya on June 17, 2020, 04:46:19 am
Post by: Schmaven on June 17, 2020, 05:42:26 am
Post by: Lupe on June 17, 2020, 08:05:04 pm
My best guess is there's an issue with the code for detecting when to switch between headphones and speakers.
Post by: Reelya on June 27, 2020, 12:00:03 am
Today I was wondering whether partitioning the 1TB HDD was worth it (keeping Windows and all apps in the outer part of the platter helps keep read/write speeds high (see the not at all dubiously named 'short stroking' method). But then i started looking into whether an SSD drive would speed it up and found out about NVMe drives (as opposed to SATA SSDs). Got the back off the laptop and sure enough there's an NVMe port, so i can add a type of SSD that goes straight into the PCIe bus and bypasses the SATA controller completely, and leave my HDD intact for storage purposes.
So I've ordered a new 120GB NVMe drive on ebay now for $40 to try this out. That should really make the difference with this cheap laptop.
Post by: Schmaven on June 27, 2020, 06:10:02 am
Also, install Dwarf Fortress on your SSD :)
Post by: BigD145 on June 27, 2020, 08:33:55 am
I got a new laptop and it's sluggish, though turning off animation effects (Windows 10 system settings) fixed a lot of how sluggish it feels.
Today I was wondering whether partitioning the 1TB HDD was worth it (keeping Windows and all apps in the outer part of the platter helps keep read/write speeds high (see the not at all dubiously named 'short stroking' method). But then i started looking into whether an SSD drive would speed it up and found out about NVMe drives (as opposed to SATA SSDs). Got the back off the laptop and sure enough there's an NVMe port, so i can add a type of SSD that goes straight into the PCIe bus and bypasses the SATA controller completely, and leave my HDD intact for storage purposes.
So I've ordered a new 120GB NVMe drive on ebay now for $40 to try this out. That should really make the difference with this cheap laptop.
If you plan on keeping the laptop for 5+ years then get a Samsung stick SSD in there and use it as the primary system drive. I have a middle of the road laptop from a few years back and the first thing I did was get an m2 in there. Samsung has software that balances the wear and tear on the limited writes of an SSD. You can also try Classic Shell as a start menu replacer. It's much simpler and still gives you access to the built in win10 start menu. Tuning the bells and whistles of windows is all there.
Are there other companies doing good things in SSD's? I do not know.
Post by: Starver on June 27, 2020, 08:50:00 am
If you can symbolic-link that[1] over to another drive (the same one you've set the mostly-static-OS-onna-SSD install to keep its ever-changing swapfile) then you might greatly increase the SSD lifetime. But at the cost (in both savegame and swapfile cases) of losing the bandwidth advantage of the frequent read/write files.
So, option 3: SSD for quick-load/infrequent stuff (main OS, Program Files and DF like runtime directories, wherever you actually happen to store them), plus a second SSD for frequent-access files (selected MyDocs-type stuff, savegames... ¿swapfile too?), that's perhaps not quite as top-notch, and backed up onto (however mounted, permaplugged if your system physically allows it, or as removable drive[2]) a large capacity traditional magnetic-platter disk for occasional low-performance RWing on mature and relatively more reliable technology.
...@BigD, there's balancing software (and firmware, built-in, hopefully working nice with each other), as you say, but itnall seems more like herbal remedies and sticking plaster to make up for current failings. Not that this doesn't happen every time a new storage medium is developed, of course, so please excuse my curmudgeonly attitude to this latest one, probably being the same as I was for the last one that I once worried about but now 'trust'. ;)
Spoiler: Click here for all the generally rambling Feetnete, if bothered (click to show/hide)
Post by: BigD145 on June 27, 2020, 09:24:26 am
Seasonal saves is a bit of a mystery to me unless you get frequent CTDs (ignoring the surprise tantrum spirals of yore). DF isn't saving every few minutes.
Post by: Starver on June 27, 2020, 11:24:31 am
So that's where my cynicism is based. Probably not as bad as I think it is. But, by dint of my working with hardware that needs fixing (even if I tend to put off fixing my own), I see/notice a lot more problems.
("Fast, Cheap, Good: choose one, if you're lucky" seems to often apply, in my world. ;) )
As for Seasonal Saves, I just like them. For historical reasons, in both senses. I don't usually use them (have to, or go into them for save-scumming purposes) very often at all, but I like the safety net. I'm most likely to go into (a copy of) one to re-run some experiment to see what might have happened if I'd dug a ditch/magmaduct/cavern-entrance in another way, or set up my workshops in a different manner/priority. Then revert to the "true" save to continue where I left off. And seasonal saves at least does the job of pre-anticipating my need for a test copy of the gamestate. Also, so long as I don't tidy them up often (move them around* or delete them from the disc entirely) then they're sat on prime disc-space preventing it from suffering from further RW-stress for the duration.
It does also reflect the fact that I'm a data-hoarder by nature. Loads of old-versions of files that I'm probably not even needing ever to access the newest version of the file (or can remember where it is, if I can even remember I might have it at all). Add that to my personal quirk-list, if you will. ;)
* Okay, so moving files, and even directories, on the same disc probably has minimal RW load. Just the FAT record(s).
Post by: Reelya on June 27, 2020, 12:42:45 pm
I wasn't tarring them all with the same brush, but I've seen too many "utilities" that don't quite do what they say they do
SoftRAM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftRAM) might well be the most insidious example of that. This company sold it for Windows claiming it would "double your RAM" by compressing pages in memory. Something that other software actually did. Except ...
Quote
SoftRAM and SoftRAM95 were system software products which claimed to double the available Random-access memory in Microsoft Windows without the need for a hardware upgrade. However, it later emerged that the program did not even attempt to increase available memory. In July 1996, the developer of SoftRAM, Syncronys settled charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission of "false and misleading" claims in relation to the capability of the software. The product was rated the third "Worst Tech Product of All Time" by PC World in 2006.
Quote
In December 1995, the German computing journal c't disassembled the program and determined that it did not even attempt to do what was claimed. In fact, the data passed through the VxD completely unaltered so that no compression whatsoever could have taken place. The actual drivers were in fact slightly modified versions of code examples taken from Microsoft's "Windows Development Kit". Still, the program would try to pretend that it increased system resources, by silently increasing the size of the swap file on Windows 3.1 and by giving false information on the current state of the system. Even worse, the program was compiled with the debug flag on and so ran slower than the original driver from Microsoft.
EDIT: I had a small epithany right now. I almost wanted to call it "literal snake oil for computers" but that would be misusing the word literal. Gotta get out of that habit. Thought about it and the word I should be going for is "veritable snake oil". Seems like people who say literal to mean figurative and actually looking for the word veritable.
Post by: wierd on June 28, 2020, 02:09:26 am
(Nevermind that zram is totally a thing, and it works quite well, on Linux-- and in recent years, MS themselves introduced this concept with windows 10 as a stock behavior.)
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on July 06, 2020, 04:27:41 pm
As for why I even have 2 Ipads, one used to belong to someone else before it was given to me because of the person getting a new Ipad
Post by: Reelya on July 06, 2020, 07:36:00 pm
if it's just some a software problem (unlikely) you could try backing up any personal files then restore to factory defaults.
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on July 06, 2020, 07:38:42 pm
Post by: Reelya on July 06, 2020, 07:50:09 pm
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on July 06, 2020, 07:56:31 pm
Post by: Iduno on July 07, 2020, 02:47:05 pm
I’ve successfully backed up the larger IPad data, now I’m not sure how to incorporate that data into this one, going to Manage iCloud Settings>Backups>[real name]’s IPad (2) just has the Delete Backup button. Is there not a way to add the backup data?
Unless someone has a better suggestion, you could try to download the information from the backup (unless it just overwrites everything; that doesn't help) and then back up everything.
Post by: Reelya on July 09, 2020, 11:57:51 pm
Post by: wierd on July 10, 2020, 01:04:43 am
Post by: Starver on July 10, 2020, 08:51:41 am
, and goddang is that thing laggy at stuff like bringing up the start menu.I know "what I do a lot aint what other people do a lot", but it always surprises me that I get awful lag on right-click menues or Start Menu popup.
Yes, I know in the background it isn't just a simple invariant and involves checking various 'special' {CLSID-hexstring} objects, etc, that may change the whole context (and not just which set of Open(... With)s are applicable for a given filetype) but it's the first level down into the GUI from what's accessible to whatever mouse-click or keyboard-press might be possible, and yet seems to not be considered candidate for even the most minimal prefetch-and-cache (minimal memory requirements, easier to parallel cache several such relevent items in one group-call in a moment of GUI idlenesz than individually redive into data storage for when I 'surprise' the system by asking to be served).
What gets me the most (though I don't expect quite so much prefetch) is when opening up a new folder window will display the Explorer contents, as expected, for an instant and then blank, statusbarring the message "Searching for files..." for a number of heartstopping moments before redisplaying the contents, exactly the same (apparently not even having guessed wrongly in Search Order or View Type (details, list, icons, etc) on first-flash), apparently delayed me for no reason whatsoever - especially painful when I misclicked and I know in a microsecond that I want to reverse up a level and dive into a neighbouring directory instead.
(Newer versions of Windows do a twirly-thing, or somesuch, rather than/as well as the status-bar message, depending on how much they bother to have the status-bar switched on at all, but I find so many more things annoying with newer versions that I default back to the best-of-a-bad-thing as my baseline.)
And pressing F1, accidentally... You mean F2 but transposed your hands a little while twisting and turning on your office-chair, staring at screen and various other things laid on your desk... You realise it immediately, but have to wait (or try to continue back in the original window of focus) as you wait for the help-documentation to load up in front of/behind your active windowjust so you can close it immediately. Inbuilt help-viewer is bad enough (I would not expect it, and the helpfile for it to render, to be prefetched - though for those that do actually need help it might he useful), but software (FOSS, often) that is installed with online/nonlocal HTML help-docs (calling your browser up to read them) is even more annoying. And even more so when you know you aren't even networked up and it'll take a few more moments to work out that this will predictably fail...
Sorry, several bugbears of mine, there. Nothing needing solving, just thought I'd vocalise some long-standing niggles of mine. That may not be obvious/applicable to others, but keep on recurring in my own little bubble.
Nothing to read here. Please move along, folks!
Post by: Schmaven on July 11, 2020, 08:23:58 am
Post by: Starver on July 11, 2020, 09:14:08 am
(It's not the new hardware I take issue with, mostly, so much as all the other parts to it. But I try to keep an eye on things even when I don't have an item of the newest tech somewhere in my 'playoom' full of varyingly-aged systems, and decide my own balance of regrets and frustrations as circumstances and availability permit. I've been meaning to hunt down a new (valid, and that means legal) Win7 licence for a while, to go on a bit of Win10-capable kit that I want not to install that on, but my usual source has of course delisted it. And, no, I don't want to VM it/etc. But it'll wait. Perhaps forever, as I get distracted by other things.)
Post by: Reelya on July 11, 2020, 10:05:59 am
It used to be that upgrading the RAM was really the only way to try and squeeze out some more performance from an old machine, or upgrading the video card, if they still make a video card that would go in it. But in both cases you're kind of throwing money away in that system since if you get a new box you probably won't be able to re-use those parts in a new box, or the video card will be a bottleneck.
If you haven't already, an SSD is probably the best investment for an older system that addresses the issues you mentioned. SATA if you have to, but NVMe if you can, since that's the maximum in future-proofing you can do: They make PCIe NVMe cards. The advantage of M.2 / NVMe is that it bypasses the SATA controller (which was really designed for the HDD era) and plugs your drive straight into the PCI express bus on the motherboard. The result is some really insanely low latency. If you think of the SATA controller as a tap on a tank of water, then M.2 and NVMe are like punching a hole right in the side of the tank. So, yeah just a head's up that SATA SSDs are kind of old tech now and people are just getting the NVMe drives instead since they run right off the motherboard and don't have to go through the drive controller malarkey.
Post by: Starver on July 11, 2020, 11:23:30 am
My point was more that it was something wrong from the start, just entirely more noticable these days with greater expectations (when new things don't go wrong).
Spoiler: Secondary tangent, ancient history (click to show/hide)
Which is not to say that the other person being advised how to try an SSD should not do so. I absolutely think they should, on the balance or indeed very much tilted in its favour. I'm just not sure I'm going to see much improvement by SSDing (say) my venerable old Win2k box (I can cause problems copying stuff to USB sticks while simultaneously writing to its HDD, which I've learnt to avoid, and it's not the HDD channel that is the bottleneck) that still has a continuous purpose in my life and actually suffers less from the exact issues I mention than the XP-and-greater boxes I was mostly refering to. But that's just me and the reasoning behind my caveat of "what I do a lot aint what other people do a lot". ;)
Sorry for any confusion, along the way. Please just ignore these last couple of rambles and carry on carrying on!
Post by: Reelya on July 11, 2020, 11:58:59 pm
You could theoretically put a SATA SSD in an old machine, and arguably it'd be a vast improvement, since it probably is bottlenecking pretty hard on the drive. Consider any time that you have page-file thrashing and how slow that is. That's the drive limiting performance right there.
Put SATA drive on IDE system, about $15:
https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Adapter-Convert-Devices-Compatible/dp/B002SZDOM6/
(only caveat here is that this particular adaptor doesn't have a master/slave jumper, so whatever is put on here becomes master. not an issue if it's for the boot drive).
This supports transfer rates up to 3Gbps, so it clearly won't be the bottleneck
New WD Green SATA SSDs, from about $30 for 120 GB
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B076XWDN6V/
(transfer rates up to 6Gbps)
So yeah, this stuff massively exceeds the theoretical transfer speeds of the IDE controller, so the effect would be that you've put the absolutely fastest possible drive that your system can handle in there. The only issue would be whether everything works together nicely (read through the reviews of the kingwin adaptor). Still, it's pretty cheap even for testing it out and the drive can still be used elsewhere.
Post by: wierd on July 12, 2020, 06:19:16 am
If you are going to put one in, do the setup and do the "Press F6 to install drivers" thing. (Or streamline the drivers in with nLite.) Then that 2k machine will run like a dream.
As concerns DOS gaming on 2k machines (since I positively LOVED win2k BITD), there was FOSS software called VDMSOUND, which fixed all the glaring problems with the NTVDM subsystem. You can still get it from sourceforge.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/vdmsound/
Install that, and the VDMSOUND Launchpad, and you could play 90+% of old DOS games quite nicely, with sound and VESA video modes. Good times.
Post by: methylatedspirit on July 12, 2020, 07:00:53 am
Is this card dead?
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 12, 2020, 03:18:28 pm
The alternative - that something's fried in the mobo or the power supply - is potentially much worse because it would cascade failure eventually. The thing to do would be to try a different video card or a different computer to cross-check.
Post by: methylatedspirit on July 12, 2020, 08:36:38 pm
Post by: Reelya on July 12, 2020, 08:44:01 pm
If you have a damaged video card there are several ways it can manifest. Firstly, the machine might just not boot. Second, it could boot but not register any card there. Third, it could identify the card but there are any of a number of things that go wrong with it. For example, Windows starts up but you get a bluescreen of death, since it tries to access the hardware for the additional screen but fails.
if both cards are doing the exact same thing with the exact same symptoms then that makes it a little less likely it's the cards and a little more likely it's the board.
Post by: IonMatrix on July 14, 2020, 05:17:09 am
Post by: Schmaven on July 14, 2020, 05:59:38 am
The key might be buried in one of the purchase confirmation emails they sent you. Otherwise, I'd bet it's in your steam account somewhere.
Post by: wierd on July 14, 2020, 09:10:57 am
It should display your key there.
Post by: IonMatrix on July 16, 2020, 10:44:41 am
Even more interestingly, even though I have already played it, it STILL asks for a god damn key if I launch it from steam.
Post by: Starver on July 22, 2020, 05:34:08 pm
I'm using a regexp to match (and substitute out) quote-text-quote from the start of a string (in Perl), that in trivial use is:
Code: [Select]
$text=~s/^"(.*?)"//(I actually use s||| instead of s///, here, for reasons related to nearby bits of code, but it's the same.)i.e from the start of string, match a quote, a group of as few as possible characters, then another quote. Replace with nothing. The group I found, between the quotes, is used elsewhere after the (valid) search and replace.
It needs to be an ungreedy *? because there's (usually) later ones to find and standard * would gobble far too much up. Could be further matched/replaced to stitch back in to the original, but that'd be wasteful.
Some if the quoted values are something like:
Code: [Select]
"Quoted text with \"escaped quotes\" within"Right now, I have no use for the escaped quotes, so I just pretreat $text to s/\\"//g, i.e. nuke them all before I start, but maybe I want them in the future. Or whoever else might pick up my data in the future.As I just realised, by inserting [^\\] after the (grouping) and before the proper-close-quote I perpetually strip the last character off, and it cannot find "".
If I put it at the end of the group (or give it a (grouping2) to reconcatenate it back onto the end of where (grouping) is stored, it would save the character but still would not validly find "" whenever that pops up.
So, maybe a negative look-behind, then. (?<!\\) inserted before the true quote matcher. Except now I'm worrying how to deal with the (hypothetical) situation of an escaped-\ as the true last character in the true quote. Or indeed any number of escaped-\s (an even number of raw \s), which would mean that only an odd number of \s before a quote should disqualify it from ending the pattern, and {m,n} isn't that versatile. It looks like I'd need to zero-width-pre-not-match (\\\\)*\\ or similar, i.e. \\ times 0..n plus another \. Which (if it works as I think it should, haven't tested yet) would be slightly unweildy to put into the (?<!...)" bit and hardly good for future readability.
Anyone have any better ideas?
I'm almost tempted to slice out each character in turn (or, slightly quicker, in ungreedy blocks ending positively with [\\"] and flipping an when that m/\\$/ I then slice out the next character on a free-pass (whether \, " or whatever, doesn't matter), only if it's m/"$/ do I consider it finished (or unmatchable, which might mean restoring all the sliced-off partial-matchings just to show what didn't match the original intention).
There's also switching to greedy-grouping and coming back in from the /end$/ so long as that matches in the exact right way, but that sounds even more awkward (and prone to enbuggability).
But I'm sure there's a regexp (or, ideally, perlre) guru out there who has a perfecly wonderful alternative in mind. ;)
(Until then, I'm prematching for \escapes of all kinds I expect to encounter, including \uunicode, to nuke or replace with best appropriate de-escaped and/or raw replacement version according to a separate lookup table, until it doesn't m/\\/ at all, then using the original matcher in perfect safety!)
Post by: bloop_bleep on July 23, 2020, 01:15:55 pm
EDIT: But anyway, you can just do this:
Code: [Select]
"((.*?)[^\\])"
and just extract the large group. (I don't know how Perl orders groups, but this would be group 1 in Python since its opening parenthesis is first.)
However, now if you escape the backslash, your regex will not recognize the end of string, as in this case:
"abc\\"
So you can do
Code: [Select]
"((.*?)[^\\](\\\\)*)"
allowing for an even number of backslashes before the end quote symbol.
What's lol is that if you were to write this regular expression as a string literal in Python without using raw strings it would look like this:
Code: [Select]
"\"((.*?)[^\\\\](\\\\\\\\)*)\""
That's 8 leaning toothpicks in a row, a truly rare sight. If you were to allow both single and double quotes in your input string, then you would not be able to use raw strings in Python, since you need to escape both Python string delimiters inside the string, so these would be necessary.
I wonder, what's the worst case of leaning toothpick syndrome you guys have seen? Is there perhaps 16 toothpicks running around somewhere in the wild? Maybe even 32?
Post by: Starver on July 23, 2020, 03:40:20 pm
This sounds like Programming Thread material.Whoops, yeah. That's a thread I've got on permanent "must catch up on" mode, in my head, being horribly behind but unwilling to miss anything juicy, so not contributing either...
Quote
EDIT: But anyway, you can just do this:That doesn't match (quote)""(unquote), though. I did play with (quote)[^\\]?(unquote) after the sole ungreedy-anything group, briefly (I forget how it failed, but it did, and for 'obvious' reasons[1]), before I solved it the way I stated, maybe it'd work in the nested groups format. Or pre-test for ""s before I try the other (and the \\-proof extension)Code: [Select]"((.*?)[^\\])"
PPE: [1] I remember now. It failed because the ungreedy .*? was allowed to be so ungreedy that the []? possible-single-match acted permanently as a [] always-single-matcher. So doesn't that mean it should have done exactly what I wanted it to do within the single, un-nested group? Straight after the ungreedy, where it doesn't matter that it's permanent except when not disallowing "" examples? And only still tripping over foo\\" examples to which we also may have the definitive answer by extension... Yes, that might be (the start of) the hack for this that I like most. Cheers. I knew there'd be something.
For the same reason I try to avoid excessive \\ing, I shy away from groups-within-groups, so I'd have to check for precedence/submembership conventions especially, after too long deciding I should avoid (foo((bar){3,4}baz)?)-type stuff where at all possible. But should be trivial to do, once I'm back on the Perl capable machine.
Quote
I wonder, what's the worst case of leaning toothpick syndrome you guys have seen? Is there perhaps 16 toothpicks running around somewhere in the wild? Maybe even 32?
Code: [Select]
if ($testingText=~m/
# ???On this line put the necessary regexp to uniquely match the known worst case usage, with {m} not allowed for 'reasons'???
/xg) { print "Profit!!!\n")} # :P
Post by: bloop_bleep on July 23, 2020, 06:42:11 pm
Code: [Select]
"(((.*?)[^\\](\\\\)*)?)"
Also, if you don't want groups to be captured you can just add ?: after the open parenthesis.
Post by: AzyWng on July 24, 2020, 09:35:24 pm
None of the other devices my family own have this issue.
Anything I can do to fix this problem?
Post by: Schmaven on July 24, 2020, 10:18:40 pm
Post by: AzyWng on July 24, 2020, 11:32:29 pm
Post by: Reelya on July 24, 2020, 11:56:19 pm
Post by: AzyWng on July 26, 2020, 11:36:39 am
If there's some way for me to stop these issues, please let me know.
Post by: wierd on July 26, 2020, 12:51:36 pm
Post by: Schmaven on July 26, 2020, 02:44:53 pm
I've got a question - what would prevent a computer from turning all the way off when commanded to shut down? This particular computer goes through the on screen process of shutting down, the display turns off, but the system fans remain on. I suspect it's a motherboard or power supply issue, but I suppose it could be something else too. Any ideas?
Post by: methylatedspirit on August 05, 2020, 07:58:56 am
What do I do now?
Post by: Starver on August 05, 2020, 08:25:27 am
Although most laptops these days (IME) tend to just have a small RAM-accessing door just for that purpose, so as long as you hadn't disassembled the whole thing in the first place[1] I don't see any reason you'd have been in a position to do that except if it was half-unjiggled in the first place and in turning the thing over, perhaps moving the screen beyond normal 'open' degree, you managed to pop it off completely.
Worst case scenario may be that you managed to drop something conductive in the RAM-hatch (perhaps one of the screws you thought you needed to undo) that found itself at least temporarily crossing to rather unfortunate tracks.
I can't easily imagine the RAM itself is to blame (not if it physically fit the socket, even if it was slightly the wrong sub-spec) but if you're sure it was the act of fitting that delineated working and 'dead' (apart from fan, LED, and maybe other signs of life you missed... ethernet port flickers, eventually, if it has one?) then start looking at that.
Oh, and now you have disassembled it to get to the CMOS battery (a capacitative one?) so when you reassemble, look out for things you didn't unplug but look like they shouldn't be, perhaps. Maybe a good workshop manual is available for download to double-check it all, and shake the thing to check no mini-screws are rattling around in there.
(Covering a lot of bases, there, and there's probably as many more again I didn't cover. Nothing substitutes for being hands-on, though I don't personally relish repairing laptops in person, either, with their finicky and nigh on unique-every-time nature.)
[1] Are they starting to re-permanent the BIOS power, these days? They stopped that a long time ago in favour of either the button-battery clip as per desktop mobos or a fly-leaded mini cell-pack onto a jumper-socket, precisely to allow replacement/reset, though those going for the latter made them ultra-proprietry for the usual laptop "only Dell/Toshiba/whatever-authorise parts" reasons.
Post by: Reelya on August 09, 2020, 04:37:31 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qlZmXnE1mw
Post by: Jopax on August 26, 2020, 09:53:03 am
Then, in the past few days it kinda got worse, basically it fails to turn on or get recognized by windows on startup and no amount of fiddling with the cabling helps. What does help is a light tap on the case which pretty much always gets windows to detect it.
I'm at a loss as to what might be the deal here, maybe the drive is faulty and doesn't turn on properly? But I can feel it heating up on startup, even if windows fails to detect it. The motherboard maybe? Another possibly related thing might be that when this does happen the boot time is way longer for whatever reason, hanging for a minute or longer at the motherboard screen that allows you to get into BIOS.
Post by: wierd on August 26, 2020, 10:00:18 am
Post by: Jopax on August 26, 2020, 11:04:01 am
I think the hang time on the motherboard screen is somehow connected to all of this but I'm having trouble figuring out how or why that could be.
Post by: wierd on August 26, 2020, 11:27:00 am
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/prevent-hard-drive-going-sleep-windows
(Another way is to go into device manager, and then in the power profile properties for the drive, say windows is not allowed to manage the power state of the device.)
Post by: Jopax on August 26, 2020, 12:51:40 pm
Edit: Or apparently just turn on hot-swap, that seems to work for some people too. Hopefully something fixes it.
Post by: Starver on August 26, 2020, 01:43:32 pm
It's possible that if it is 'going out of spec', as described, that the problem won't stop at that but heralds further deterioration. Not of the data, but of the means of getting (and putting) the data. Consider being prepared for it getting worse, perhaps. Not that I'm saying it'll be eventually unreadable (before it would for other reasons, always a full set of risks both natural and induced), just that it wouldn't hurt to consider it.
edited for numerous character-mishits I didn't spot before posting
Post by: Maximum Spin on August 26, 2020, 02:02:24 pm
Post by: Reelya on August 26, 2020, 07:36:31 pm
Post by: IonMatrix on August 29, 2020, 10:19:20 pm
So, today I just opened Steam like normal, and then there was a client update like normal, and I waited for it. It got stuck on the "installing update" part, and after one hour I told myself "Okay, there must be something wrong" so I closed it. Then Steam won't open no matter what and I can't run any games. I tried reinstalling and after that when I opened the newly installed Steam it told me there was a client update and then the exact same thing happend...
This is kind of a big problem since 99% of my games are on Steam.
Post by: wierd on August 29, 2020, 10:32:38 pm
Run this:
Chkdsk C: /f
It will ask if you want schedule at next boot. Say yes.
Reboot. Let it run.
Reinstall steam.
Post by: BigD145 on August 30, 2020, 03:18:18 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 31, 2020, 09:45:59 pm
#1: https://youtu.be/rxPRFQCGSgM
#2: https://youtu.be/HRXwzGh-FoY
The MVG video shoots my CPU usage into the stratosphere in Firefox (regardless of resolution), and the other does not. So I need to figure out what's different about them before I can track it down.
Post by: Reelya on August 31, 2020, 09:56:54 pm
EDIT: I'll grab both files and dump some info with ffmpeg, it won't be much work.
EDIT2: had a look at both, couldn't see a whole lot of difference between these files sorry, nor did Firefox thrash on one but not the other for me.
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 31, 2020, 11:11:21 pm
Post by: feelotraveller on September 01, 2020, 12:34:44 am
EDIT2: had a look at both, couldn't see a whole lot of difference between these files sorry, nor did Firefox thrash on one but not the other for me.
Same here. If anything the longer one used just a little more cpu for me, but hard to split the difference really.
Could it be a codec issue on the local machine?
Post by: Lord Shonus on September 01, 2020, 01:30:42 am
Post by: Starver on September 01, 2020, 02:09:33 am
I don't suppose you've also tested direct via youtube.com (?v=<stringything>) and other versions of the URI call? I know at one point they had some trouble with their redirection domain. Though not sure that did different things with the videos linking to, and probably completely fixed now anyway.
Post by: Lord Shonus on September 01, 2020, 02:43:35 am
I've had this issue with videos straight from Youtube. This is just the first one I grabbed that showed the issue. Given that all the ones that have it are the tech-y sort, and the ones that work are very much of the non-technical sort, I'm assuming they're using some fancy encoding or something that my computer doesn't like, but I don't know enough about such things to track it down.
Post by: Reelya on September 01, 2020, 10:11:03 am
Post by: Starver on September 01, 2020, 11:16:11 am
Having just recently suffered from the Android update of FF (as mentioned elsewhere) and the frankly ill-advised Chromalike change to its front end, I'm in no rush to see if the'yve gone and Fenixed-up the desktop version too, by connecting my various desktops to their updates, but has there been some sort of recent update (even minor) to whatever fork of browser you're on?
[1] Though third-party handlers installed separately, or even HALs, at a more basic level seem more likely given what you've said about your extensions. Or, furrfu, something's just generally SHONE.
Post by: feelotraveller on September 01, 2020, 02:15:38 pm
*[Following comment not to be taken too seriously by Lord Shonus but link might be worth a quick squizz to assay the basic lay of the land]
If you were on the the superior Archlinux system this (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hardware_video_acceleration (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hardware_video_acceleration)) would be helpful but I guess youse 'doze users are on your own. :P
Post by: IonMatrix on September 02, 2020, 06:38:48 am
Post by: wierd on September 02, 2020, 06:41:45 am
Are you talking, "stringing scenes together with color correction", or are you talking "Fancy VFX lighting, effects, CGI overlays, and other fun" ?
Post by: IonMatrix on September 02, 2020, 08:05:15 am
Post by: Starver on September 02, 2020, 09:15:35 am
It would cover "a bit more complicated than that" as well, like merging audio tracks (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24804928/singler-line-ffmpeg-cmd-to-merge-video-audio-and-retain-both-audios), but you might find it not as easy as a drag-and-drop 'frames' style editor for just quickly shuffling resources around. Always handy to know you can do it, though, as it might cover functions that a very basic (but intuitively visual) "stringing scenes together" package misses out, as and when you discover the need.
Post by: Reelya on September 02, 2020, 10:26:23 am
ffmpeg
mpv.io (as the viewer)
autohotkey (to extract frame positions into a file via keyboard bindings)
batch + js scripting to feed the correct info to ffmpeg
Mind you at the time I had to pay per mbyte of downloads since all my internet was tethered to my phone, but now they have unlimited mobile data plans fairly cheap so i don't bother with this anymore. The reason mpv.io was crucial here was the ability to override what's in the title bar so i could use autohotkey to extract that data.
I don't really do that with video anymore, however i mostly use ffmpeg now to batch convert downloaded music videos to mp3. The trick here is that i wrote some jscript that reads a specific folder, looks for videos then sends batches of commands to ffmpeg to convert them to mp3 in an output folder, and appends a .cnv ending onto the original file. The nice thing is that there's no screwing around with shitty video to mp3 software, i just put the files into the right folder and click a desktop shortcut and mp3s come put. That's kind of the holy grail for me, automating workflows for managing downloaded content.
Post by: dragdeler on September 03, 2020, 10:41:57 am
If I host an email service on a rasberry pi, it needs to be running 24/7 in order to be able to straight up receive mails right? Where do mails go when the server is offline? And, does that even matter if I use IMAP? Or can I basically start up my own mail server whenever I need access to any of the adresses via IMAP, see their contents, read emails, and send mails as any of the accounts? How does a mail server even know whatever name/domain I'm going to give the adress isn't taken, where does the password intervene? How secure is it to have a emailservice, say thunderbid, installed? I remember there is a password sniffer I used quite a few times to help people who had their system set up by a third person... Isn't it trivial to spy on a mailservice on a harddrive?
Post by: wierd on September 03, 2020, 12:43:20 pm
How this usually works (outside of using sendmail CLI to send a mail the old school way):
The sender's computer establishes wither a POP3 or IMAP connection with THEIR mail server, and they send the mail to that server. (Either using SMTP or IMAP, since this is an outgoing mail.) That server then accepts the message, and then tries to deliver it. Since your host (the destination) is offline, it cannot respond to the connection request. The sending system will optionally try again, before creating an automated response that it cannot deliver the mail, and dropping it in the sending user's inbox.
(When using sendmail CLI, no such broker is used-- the user's computer creates and sends the message itself. Depending on what command line switches are invoked, it may or may not alert to the system log that the recipient failed to accept the message.)
This assumes you are running your very own email server, and are not using a service like GMAIL.
When using a service like GMAIL, you have 3 methods of interacting with their server farm.
1) POP3/SMTP. This is the oldest, most legacy method. The client uses these two protocols to get incoming mail and send outgoing mail, respectively. Recent versions of these protocols allow for SSL encryption, which is one of the ways the password gets used.
2) IMAP. This is the newer methodology used, and uses different port number. Not all mail services support IMAP. It has better encryption support (as in, the transport is encrypted, not the actual message bodies.) support, and keeps messages on the mail server. (POP3 deletes the messages from the email server's inbox when it successfully pulls the messages into your mail client.)
3) The web interface. (GMAIL default, etc.)
Thunderbird does types 1 and 2. It asks which set of protocols to use when you first set it up, and tries to look up what the public server names/IP/Ports are for common mail hosts (outlook, gmail, yahoo, and pals) when it notices you use an @hotmail,@outlook; @gmail; or @yahoo address, and fills in all the blanks for you. Otherwise, it EXPECTS YOU TO KNOW. In the past, you had to hunt this information down yourself.
Once set up, it works like any other mail client. (It has a decided eudora pro feeling to me.) You can then optionally set up actual message body encryption with Enigmail plugin.
Security wise, If the handshake is set up to use SSL encryption, it at least does not send credentials in clear-text. (Otherwise, especially with POP3 and SMTP, if that option is NOT set, the user and pass *ARE* sent in clear text!!) This is only marginally better than clear text though, because it is typically SSL 1.0, which is very much broken as an encryption cipher. The basic rule is not to consider email secure. End of discussion.
This is why message body encryption with something vastly more secure, like with a 4096 bit Elliptical Curve algo, (or stronger!) is important, especially in today's world. even if somebody gets your user/pass, they cannot easily get ahold of your encryption keys, because those are kept local inside your computer, and are (if you are smart) never transmitted over an unsecured channel, and are not stored in the email server in an unencrypted form. Even if somebody gains access to your email server though snooping your user and password, they cannot actually DO anything with your messages except download a copy of gibberish, or delete the message. They would need the encryption key (since Enigmail at least, uses digital signatures and authority trust checking, to verify both sender AND recipient) set to do anything else, like actually read your mail, or send adulterated messages as a man in the middle.
Post by: dragdeler on September 03, 2020, 02:11:41 pm
What I still don't get: will IMAP just send a copy of every mail, or am I reading them on their server?
Post by: Starver on September 03, 2020, 03:30:57 pm
Or so it used to be, in the days when bandwidth was a prime concern. Probably absolutely everything is all dragged down, these days, without specific prohibitions.
The IMAP server that your initial question seems to suggest will indeed pull everything from upstream (or even be pushed to, if you ever published it/it becomes knowable, but therein lies more issues like potentially being subverted as a spam-repeater) and have everything locally. Unless set up to be selective, in its own way.
But, as I understand your designs, nothing will send your mails (push them) to either your client or server, but instead it'll be entirely up to your client/server to request a pull, with optional removal of what is there once a (more) local copy is gained - or when the message is passed upstream to no longer retain it.
Probably what you want is:
Internet ---> Gmail server --(IMAP)--> Your local client.
// for which you want a client that can handle and differentiate multiple mailbox identities
What you initially described seemed to me to be:
Internet --> Gmail server --> Your local IMAP server --(IMAP)--> Your local client
// for which you *still* need a client that can do all that, but also need to manage the local server.
If you are thinking of using IMAP to retain mails on the server (Google or Pi) such that 'Your local client' can be on your home network (the Pi, a desktop, any other device on your LAN) plus used on any additional device you take abroad (away from home, that is), or open to generic webmail access still, then you either want to:
a) Stick with Google being IMAPped to, and make sure none of your clients grab-and-delete anything you might want to access from other clients, but should be simple,
b) Set up your Pi server to be accessible from outside (NAT/VPN/whatever), likewise. (Won't support the webmail option at all unless you set up a local gateway.)
Hmmm, complicated reply. And hard to edit properly where I currently am, so maybe I tripped over my own attempted description.
Post by: dragdeler on September 03, 2020, 04:46:58 pm
I oftentimes get bullied with two step authentification by google, they are litterally trying to lock me out unless I add phone number, secret question and all those stupid other entryways to the account. If I could have a local server, that just grabs a copy of every mail when I start it, but is mostly turned off, I would prefer that, because I want to avoid becoming reliant on another service, but if I understand it right, that might be entirely redundant so long as I set up my mail client to receive the mails via IMAP, is that correct? The goal would be to avoid any kind of login process, just receive "bulk data" whenever I request it, optionally being able to send out mails as any of the accounts is a big plus but it's not super necessary.
Post by: Reelya on September 06, 2020, 05:38:02 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwkiU6GG-YU
https://ameliorated.info/
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Maximum Spin on September 06, 2020, 05:55:34 pm
Here's something I just heard about people may be interested in trying out, it's a version of the Windows 10 ISO with all the update features, telemetry etc stripped out of the base installI feel like I should probably point out that this is definitely 100% illegal to produce, download, use, and/or distribute..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwkiU6GG-YU
https://ameliorated.info/Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: BigD145 on September 06, 2020, 10:04:41 pm
Here's something I just heard about people may be interested in trying out, it's a version of the Windows 10 ISO with all the update features, telemetry etc stripped out of the base installI feel like I should probably point out that this is definitely 100% illegal to produce, download, use, and/or distribute..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwkiU6GG-YU
https://ameliorated.info/Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Maybe legal in the EU. Don't know about other countries.
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on September 07, 2020, 11:14:27 pm
I didn’t know giving updates free of spyware was illegal, I would have thought spyware was illegalHere's something I just heard about people may be interested in trying out, it's a version of the Windows 10 ISO with all the update features, telemetry etc stripped out of the base installI feel like I should probably point out that this is definitely 100% illegal to produce, download, use, and/or distribute..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwkiU6GG-YU
https://ameliorated.info/Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Reelya on September 07, 2020, 11:21:43 pm
Spyware isn't even really defined in law. There's no law against Microsoft sending telemetry data back to their servers. You're confusing right and wrong with actual law. Often "that's the wrong thing to do" is subjective and may not be easy to define. Companies like Microsoft get you to click Ok to their terms and conditions, and in the terms and conditions it includes what data they collect. This is to cover their asses legally, but, and this is the important part, there really aren't that many applicable laws here.
Turning it into an actually written down law is harder than you think. For example, if Microsoft, Google or Apple record data about when your device logged in, is that spyware that should be illegal? How about synchronizing your browsing history between devices etc? It's all gotta be stored somewhere, so having a strict "law" against spyware is not something that would be easy to define without also banning things like storing logins.
Post by: wierd on September 07, 2020, 11:29:35 pm
Which, many "You agree to these terms as soon as you read this agreement" type shrinkwrap licenses *ARE*. (which is exactly why they care considered unenforceable.)
As long as you are not violating MS's copyrights, by downloading only from them (since they are the only ones authorized by law to distribute copies of their software), you are in the grey-maybe of legality when it comes to modifying their OS in this fashion.
I would say they need a better update mechanism. Perhaps, something that scrapes the WU catalog website backstore (https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Home.aspx), and pulls the discrete updates as hotpatch files with windows wget, then installs them as a batch?
(See for instance, this generic query for "Windows 10" (https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=windows%2010). It gives straight up HTTP download links to individually packaged installers. The maintainers of this package just need to stub out enough of the windows update framework to be able to handle these stand-alone updates, and their patched version would be able to stay up to date.)
Additionally, all they really need to do to allow the network interface to know that you have internet connectivity, is replace the server being pinged from Microsoft.com, to the free DNS server 1.1.1.1 or something.
Post by: Maximum Spin on September 07, 2020, 11:54:23 pm
Spyware is not illegal, and modifying software which you don't own in contravention of the license under which you are allowed to use it is illegal, as is downloading, using, or distributing tools to do so.I didn’t know giving updates free of spyware was illegal, I would have thought spyware was illegalHere's something I just heard about people may be interested in trying out, it's a version of the Windows 10 ISO with all the update features, telemetry etc stripped out of the base installI feel like I should probably point out that this is definitely 100% illegal to produce, download, use, and/or distribute..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwkiU6GG-YU
https://ameliorated.info/Spoiler (click to show/hide)
you are in the grey-maybe of legality when it comes to modifying their OS in this fashion.There is no such thing and whoever told you there is wants you to be sued. Software use licenses are, in fact, enforceable because you do not own the software: Microsoft does. It's like you've been given a company car and you think it's maybe legal to add a nitro booster. Car is not yours.
I don't even think this is a good law but it is, in fact, the actual law.
Post by: wierd on September 08, 2020, 12:16:00 am
Learn to read please.
EG, I can make a license that requires you to self-castrate, and demonstrate proof within 30 days of purchase-- Such a condition is not legally enforceable.
It does not mean however, that I am unable to make contracts to use whatever software I might write. Just that the terms of those contracts must be within the boundaries of enforceability, typically codified on some version of English Common Law, for most contracts in the US and the UK (and on whatever political rules are present for the rest of Europe.)
In the US at least, there are rules against forcing contractual terms from positions of unfair legal advantage that are unconscionable. While "Contracts of adhesion" are enforceable, they are given a very dim view by the courts, and terms can be struck from them for being unenforceable by the court system, and this happens routinely.
https://www.universalclass.com/articles/law/contractual-situations-and-conditions-that-are-improper-and-unfair.htm
In my specific example, where I would demand that the end user castrate themselves and present proof, it falls clearly inside the exceptional cases of unconsionability and duress.
In terms of shrinkwrap licensing, this has had some time in court (but not nearly enough.)
basically, it has been found (and precedent established) that such shrinkwrap agreements CANNOT circumvent or remove federal rules governing copyright, which includes abilities to reverse engineer or produce compatible software.
http://euro.ecom.cmu.edu/program/law/08-732/Transactions/ShrinkwrapFenwick.pdf
Additionally, they cannot override or replace other agreements made explicitly with the creator of such software. (EG, if you are another company, and negotiate a separate licensing deal, the shrinkwrap license does not apply.)
There certainly is a grey area here-- However I would argue that the removal of the authorization framework constitutes a criminal offense under the DMCA's "No circumvention" verbiage. There would, however, be exceptions to that under certain rare circumstances. (that end users are VERY unlikely to qualify for, unless they are a library or something.)
IF, however, you DO IN FACT have legal license to use the software (such as via being granted through a purchase transaction), the terms of the software license cannot forbid you to make these kinds of changes, as was ruled in the cited cases in the PDF. In that framework, you are in fact allowed to modify the software in this fashion; Microsoft is just absolved from any fault or harm this may cause you.
Post by: Maximum Spin on September 08, 2020, 12:24:04 am
There certainly is a grey area here-- However I would argue that the removal of the authorization framework constitutes a criminal offense under the DMCA's "No circumvention" verbiage. There would, however, be exceptions to that under certain rare circumstances. (that end users are VERY unlikely to qualify for, unless they are a library or something.)... so you agree that this specific licensing term, the only one I'm talking about, is enforceable. Okay. Glad we're in agreement.
I agree that courts are unlikely to support your hypothetical castration license unless you are unlucky and get a really castration-happy judge, which I have just realised probably exists somewhere in America. Hopefully if the judge orders specific performance you can get an injunction pending appeal.
("reverse-engineer or produce compatible software" would not include removing portions of the existing software in contravention of the license, to be clear. The whole point of my position is that this is not fair use, and therefore the company can tell you whether or not you are allowed to do it. You could run a decompiler or disassembler on it to help write compatible driver software, but by existing precedent not change the program to convince parts you don't like not to run.)
ETA: Something else I think you're forgetting is that the "shrinkwrap license" precedent is predicated on the assumption of licenses *literally inside the shrinkwrap on a CD jewel case* so that you don't know what you're agreeing to until after you've bought and opened it. That is why companies stopped doing that, and I don't even know if you can GET Windows 10 on a CD, I guess probably, but more importantly it's not being done here. The analogy just doesn't apply, and courts are capable of recognising this.
Post by: wierd on September 08, 2020, 12:32:52 am
The creation of an alternative framework to satisfy other parts of the OS, (If created under appropriate restrictions as codified in US copyright law), is not illegal. The deployment of those alternative frameworks are also, not illegal, and the software vendor cannot forbid you from doing so.
That is the source of the grey area. It *REQUIRES* that the end user is on the up-and-up though. You have legitimately entered a license agreement with microsoft, and have paid for your license. The only issue I see, is that circumvention of the authorization framework constitutes a circumvention of a copyright protection system, and falls victim to "Not following copyright law".
Since this is handled with scripts, and presumably they are well documented, it should be possible to prevent the neutering of the authorization framework. Doing so will result in a build that would be legally compliant, assuming all other conditions are met.
RE: shrinkwrap licensing--
Often times, you are presented with the agreement upon installation of the software, not upon purchase. This still constitutes a shrinkwrap license. To qualify outside that, the software publisher must present the license agreement BEFORE a purchase transaction, so that the end user is able to reasonably decide not to complete the transaction.
Post by: methylatedspirit on September 08, 2020, 09:30:25 am
Post by: bloop_bleep on October 11, 2020, 10:04:54 pm
EDIT: Also should there be continuity between the power jack and the positive battery terminal?
Post by: Maximum Spin on October 12, 2020, 01:57:27 am
Hey guys. So my computer (laptop) recently ran out of battery and then refused to turn on when plugged in, with or without the battery attached. Also it does not shine the LED when plugged in. This led me to believe that it may be a power jack issue, as in fact the power jack was replaced in the past. However I opened it up and poked around with a multimeter, and found a couple things. Firstly, when plugged in there is a +20V potential at the power jack output pin relative to ground, so that individual piece seems to be working. Secondly, when not plugged in, there is a 50 kilo ohm resistance between the power jack output pin and ground. I have not YET noticed any shoddy soldering joints. Question: are these observations normal and what do I do from here?I admit this is not my greatest area of expertise but these both sound normal to me. As a general rule the power jack output should not be grounded (this would be what we call "counterproductive"), so having a resistance there would be expected. It sounds like your adapter block is working fine, and the problem is within the laptop (where there are many possible problems).
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 12, 2020, 02:06:21 am
Post by: Maximum Spin on October 12, 2020, 02:10:01 am
Have you tried leaving it plugged in overnight? It might rely on battery for the initial power-up (which often requires extra power compared to low-level running, and not be able to draw what it needs from the charger for various reasons. Some laptops I've had worked like that.Have you ever had a laptop that doesn't light up the charging LED in those circumstances? I agree that it's a good thing to try but I've always seen the LED on in such cases.
Post by: wierd on October 12, 2020, 02:13:51 am
That would let you know if the problem is with a voltage regulator or power trace upstream, or if the problem is inside the battery, or whatever.
Post by: BigD145 on October 12, 2020, 09:23:37 am
Post by: bloop_bleep on October 19, 2020, 12:33:40 pm
Post by: wierd on October 20, 2020, 05:30:01 am
If used, check for an invasion of dust bunnies in the radiator and heatpipe assembly. (and replace that thermal pad with real thermal compound)
If new... Hmm... Check online to see if other people have the same problem.
Post by: bloop_bleep on October 20, 2020, 08:12:24 pm
By the way, I did your suggestions for the old laptop. I might still fix it at some point. Thanks a lot!
Post by: methylatedspirit on October 20, 2020, 09:06:01 pm
The first way is to undervolt the CPU, literally feeding it less voltage than stock so it produces less heat. What I use personally is ThrottleStop; here's a guide on how to use it (https://www.ultrabookreview.com/31385-the-throttlestop-guide/). Of course, you run the risk of system instability while undervolting, so I recommend doing a stress test on the CPU after you've undervolted it. If it crashes or spits out an error during that process, you've gone too low with the voltage, and you need to raise it by 5 mV. A round of Cinebench R20 is good enough for establishing baseline stability, but what you really want is something like Prime95 on the Blend torture test for at least 24 hours straight once you've dialed in a "stable" undervolt. I'd suggest even longer; I'd go for a whole week if you can.
On my laptop, I started with -100 mV offset on Core and Cache voltages, then I worked my way down to -160 mV, using Cinebench to establish that each successive undervolt was vaguely stable. Thankfully, I run Folding@home, so that's what I used as a stress test. I left my computer on overnight, letting it crunch numbers until it crashed. After a series of crashes due to the undervolt, I eventually converged on an undervolt of -140 mV, which appears to be stable enough to survive an entire week straight.
I wouldn't recommend starting ThrottleStop on startup, though; what I do is place it on the taskbar so that you can open it manually. This is to avoid bootloops if you end up with too low of a voltage setting and end up crashing because of that. If opening TS crashes your laptop, you can delete the "ThrottleStop.ini" file in the TS directory to reset everything back to defaults and try again.
I don't think this voids your warranty; worst-case, you can delete the ThrottleStop directory, and no-one's the wiser.
Please check if your laptop has an Intel or an AMD CPU inside; ThrottleStop works only with Intel CPUs, and to my knowledge, AMD (Ryzen and earlier) has no tools for undervolting laptops.
The second method is to repaste, replacing the thermal paste between the CPU die and heatsink to increase the rate of heat transfer from the CPU to the heatsink. This is a difficult process, and usually requires disassembly down to the motherboard for a standard laptop. Gaming laptops tend to be easier in this regard. This will almost certainly void your warranty, so do this at your own risk.
The theory is fairly easy once you've disassembled the laptop far enough to see the heatsink assembly:
1. Locate the heatsink.
2. Unscrew the screws holding it to the motherboard and take it off.
3. Clean off the stock thermal paste from the heatsink and CPU die with alcohol (isopropyl alcohol seems to be the stuff of choice, but ethanol works too; I used hand sanitizer myself)
4. Apply thermal paste to the CPU die.
5. Mount the heatsink back on to the board, then screw it back in.
Of course, this is a daunting task for most people. I was positively shaking when I replaced the thermal paste on my laptop. If you do this on a new laptop, prepare yourself for disappointment (at least in my case); you won't see much difference on your thermals, but depending on the thermal paste, it might hold up better over time.
As far as choice of thermal paste, you can't really go wrong with a well-known brand like Arctic, Thermal Grizzly, Cooler Master and so on. If it appears on a list of best thermal pastes, it's probably good enough. Be careful though, you want a thermal paste intended for air cooling, and you sure as hell do not want a liquid metal thermal solution. Without proper precautions, that leads to short-circuits, and can degrade the copper/aluminum on the heatsink itself. I used Arctic MX-4 thermal paste on mine, since it claims that it'll last for 7 years, and that was what I had at the time.
Post by: wierd on October 20, 2020, 11:05:57 pm
NOPEY NOPE!!
The FTC slapped those manufacturers *HARD* for that!
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43724348
If the service is performed by a properly certified technician, etc-- they cannot ignore the warranty claim. :)
Post by: wierd on October 20, 2020, 11:11:23 pm
There's 2 ways of dealing with high temps on a laptop, and they can be combined if you're feeling lucky. Do the first one first; it's entirely reversible, unlike the second one.
The first way is to undervolt the CPU, literally feeding it less voltage than stock so it produces less heat. What I use personally is ThrottleStop; here's a guide on how to use it (https://www.ultrabookreview.com/31385-the-throttlestop-guide/). Of course, you run the risk of system instability while undervolting, so I recommend doing a stress test on the CPU after you've undervolted it. If it crashes or spits out an error during that process, you've gone too low with the voltage, and you need to raise it by 5 mV. A round of Cinebench R20 is good enough for establishing baseline stability, but what you really want is something like Prime95 on the Blend torture test for at least 24 hours straight once you've dialed in a "stable" undervolt. I'd suggest even longer; I'd go for a whole week if you can.
On my laptop, I started with -100 mV offset on Core and Cache voltages, then I worked my way down to -160 mV, using Cinebench to establish that each successive undervolt was vaguely stable. Thankfully, I run Folding@home, so that's what I used as a stress test. I left my computer on overnight, letting it crunch numbers until it crashed. After a series of crashes due to the undervolt, I eventually converged on an undervolt of -140 mV, which appears to be stable enough to survive an entire week straight.
I wouldn't recommend starting ThrottleStop on startup, though; what I do is place it on the taskbar so that you can open it manually. This is to avoid bootloops if you end up with too low of a voltage setting and end up crashing because of that. If opening TS crashes your laptop, you can delete the "ThrottleStop.ini" file in the TS directory to reset everything back to defaults and try again.
I don't think this voids your warranty; worst-case, you can delete the ThrottleStop directory, and no-one's the wiser.
Please check if your laptop has an Intel or an AMD CPU inside; ThrottleStop works only with Intel CPUs, and to my knowledge, AMD (Ryzen and earlier) has no tools for undervolting laptops.
The second method is to repaste, replacing the thermal paste between the CPU die and heatsink to increase the rate of heat transfer from the CPU to the heatsink. This is a difficult process, and usually requires disassembly down to the motherboard for a standard laptop. Gaming laptops tend to be easier in this regard. This will almost certainly void your warranty, so do this at your own risk.
The theory is fairly easy once you've disassembled the laptop far enough to see the heatsink assembly:
1. Locate the heatsink.
2. Unscrew the screws holding it to the motherboard and take it off.
3. Clean off the stock thermal paste from the heatsink and CPU die with alcohol (isopropyl alcohol seems to be the stuff of choice, but ethanol works too; I used hand sanitizer myself)
4. Apply thermal paste to the CPU die.
5. Mount the heatsink back on to the board, then screw it back in.
Of course, this is a daunting task for most people. I was positively shaking when I replaced the thermal paste on my laptop. If you do this on a new laptop, prepare yourself for disappointment (at least in my case); you won't see much difference on your thermals, but depending on the thermal paste, it might hold up better over time.
As far as choice of thermal paste, you can't really go wrong with a well-known brand like Arctic, Thermal Grizzly, Cooler Master and so on. If it appears on a list of best thermal pastes, it's probably good enough. Be careful though, you want a thermal paste intended for air cooling, and you sure as hell do not want a liquid metal thermal solution. Without proper precautions, that leads to short-circuits, and can degrade the copper/aluminum on the heatsink itself. I used Arctic MX-4 thermal paste on mine, since it claims that it'll last for 7 years, and that was what I had at the time.
I always use a good metal bearing paste, like arctic silver-- but not one of those liquid metal solutions. Sure, it will wet the surface real good, but it also deeply penetrates and dissolves the metal of both the CPU die capsule AND the CPU cooler. Such conditions can also induce the formation of alloy fingers out the sides of the junction. I can't really imagine why anyone would really do this.
Post by: methylatedspirit on October 20, 2020, 11:33:10 pm
I always use a good metal bearing paste, like arctic silver-- but not one of those liquid metal solutions. Sure, it will wet the surface real good, but it also deeply penetrates and dissolves the metal of both the CPU die capsule AND the CPU cooler. Such conditions can also induce the formation of alloy fingers out the sides of the junction. I can't really imagine why anyone would really do this.
Overclockers, man. Extreme overclockers. Extreme competitive overclockers. Those people will literally pour liquid-fucking-helium on CPUs if it means they can get a hundred more MHz over the world record. They will take literally anything (up to, including, and beyond removing the IHS, then replacing the thermal paste with liquid metal) if it means they can say they're number one. They're absolutely bonkers, but I do admire their work.
If you see impressively-high world records for benchmarks that no sane person could ever hope to match, it was probably an extreme overclocker.
'Void warranty"
NOPEY NOPE!!
The FTC slapped those manufacturers *HARD* for that!
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43724348
If the service is performed by a properly certified technician, etc-- they cannot ignore the warranty claim. :)
Depends on the country. I don't live in the US, and no-one's challenged the manufacturers in my country about this in court. As such, I don't know how enforceable the "warranty if void" sticker is. I tried searching that, and there's nothing that would say so. Lenovo's nice, though; my (gaming) laptop has zero such stickers anywhere. Not on the case, not on the heatsink assembly, nothing.
Post by: bloop_bleep on October 20, 2020, 11:46:52 pm
If the service is performed by a properly certified technician, etc-- they cannot ignore the warranty claim. :)
Unfortunately I'm not one of those. :)
Mine has a pretty good processor at good value, so I suppose the cost of that thing ate into the budget for a proper cooling system for it. I've thought of putting it on top of a plastic tupperware-like container filled with ice or ice packs, or buying one of those big laptop cooling pads (so much for the lap-top part of "laptop"), to even making my own little heat pump refrigerator pad that I can stick underneath it as a project. Not sure if I know enough physics for that yet, but maybe. I don't game much, and when I do it's mostly stuff like DF or C:DDA, so it probably doesn't need to be too powerful.
Overclockers, man. Extreme overclockers. Extreme competitive overclockers. Those people will literally pour liquid-fucking-helium on CPUs if it means they can get a hundred more MHz over the world record. They will take literally anything (up to, including, and beyond removing the IHS, then replacing the thermal paste with liquid metal) if it means they can say they're number one. They're absolutely bonkers, but I do admire their work.
Connect the "+" side to the "-" side of the battery bypassing all that complicated stuff in between, for maximum efficiency!
Post by: wierd on October 20, 2020, 11:55:00 pm
Undervolting the CPU will cripple its performance, but put it into the correct thermal production range for the cooling system.
Maybe someday we will see a thermal radiator that also contains those "Over-unity" LEDs, so that the radiator can actively emit IR photons to improve thermal elimination properties of the radiator. But I doubt that will be any time soon.
Post by: methylatedspirit on October 21, 2020, 01:04:03 am
Undervolting the CPU will cripple its performance, but put it into the correct thermal production range for the cooling system.
I'd like to disagree with you there. Undervolting does not reduce performance. If anything, it should increase performance because the processor is thermal throttling less than before. On my laptop, when I did those Cinebench R20 runs, I could see the score rising from ~1600 points stock to 2000 points undervolted. It was free to reach the max all-core speed of 4.0 GHz.
To get technical, here's all the possible reasons my i5-9300H can throttle based on what HWiNFO64 reads:
(https://i.imgur.com/L6gIvko.png)
It's a lot to take in, but do you see anything that would suggest "voltage too low"? There's some for "voltage too high" or "voltage regulator too hot", but nowhere does it even suggest that the processor is smart enough to detect that its voltage is too low and start throttling accordingly. If the voltage is too low, it just crashes. It is unable to recover from such an error. BTW, the "GT" fields are for the integrated graphics; it's the "IA" and "RING" ones that matter here.
I'd like to show you the ThrottleStop interface.
(https://i.imgur.com/oahRVyY.png)
You notice that near the "Limits" button, there's red text that says "HOT"? That means it's thermally throttling (which means I really need to check that heatsink). It shows the reason why it's throttling if it is. In this case, it's throttling because it's reached PROCHOT, the thermal throttling point.
Let's click that "Limits" button. This shows up:
(https://i.imgur.com/jcMHq6x.png)
Same story here. "THERMAL" means it's thermal throttling, "EDP OTHER"... that just happens whenever it thermal throttles. I don't know what's going on there. Here, it will tell you why it's throttling in very clear terms.
I'd like for you to undervolt your processor (assuming you have an Intel processor, Core 2 Duo or later). Open up ThrottleStop, dial in a nice undervolt and click on the "Limits" button to see why it's throttling. Run Cinebench/Geekbench/Prime95/anything you want, then look at that "Limit Reasons" window while the benchmark's running. Look at it. Does it ever show anything resembling "VOLTAGE"? It might show "THERMAL" + "EDP OTHER"; that's thermal throttling, but I don't think I've ever observed voltage-related reasons while undervolting. Tell me if it does. If you see "POWER", that means it's throttling due to power limits. It's still better than stock, though, because it's more efficient than it was before.
Post by: Starver on October 22, 2020, 09:35:07 pm
I'm also fairly sure I want it to be Android 10, so it doesn't drop off the back end of usefulness for as long as possible, and based on that *if I was buying today*[1] I've narrowed it down to a good-spec (relatively) cheaper one with the Go version or one almost five times the cost that isn't. Both good makes that I trust, but obviously the first one a 'budget' build in all respects.
I've been bitten by Go before. I once got a Go 9 one (mislead by the shop, in a spur-of-the-moment purchase) that refused to consider installing a very much simple app that I *still* use on an old Android 4 device and was (as in this case) a rather strange but definite key requirement for its purposefulness. Won't appear on the Store app, won't install from the page gone to on the Store website saying it's not supported. So if in the next month or two I find I'm still left with that choice, does anybody know if I'm going to be stung in this key requirement? Not been able to find anything conclusive either way.
(For not much more I could go for a Windows laptop that probably has absolutely no issues running the Zoom executable but, for her own reasons, she refuses to countanance an 'upgrade' in that direction. And I'm not too keen on Win10 myself, so unless I can find (and get working, if that's an issue) a good native Win7, or finagle a Windows-free one to work to this one particular, I'd consider that just too exorbitant an ultimate addition to either of our respective tech-graveyards. Those familiar with my occasionally mentioned habit of keeping on using practically neolithic hardware and systems will understand my own hedging, and it's obviously a genetic trait!)
[1] Actual candidate models will probably change, as online and physical stores rotate stock in the run-up to the season of goodwill and giftgiving and I try to get the best of the deals that roll around, but the relative price-points have been pretty much the same since at least April, when I first had this vague inkling, even if exact model numbers have changed.
Post by: methylatedspirit on November 07, 2020, 04:03:16 am
Here's a dump of my Computer Overview from SiSoft Sandra:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Three things to note that this dump doesn't make obvious:
a) The integrated GPU inside the CPU is disabled in BIOS, so the system doesn't see it at all. The GTX 1650 is the only thing driving the display.
b) The CPU is undervolted, and the GPU is overclocked. It's possible that these modifications are messing with something in some way.
c) They're both subject to a near-constant load throughout the 7+ day run from bootup to shutdown.
*This thing has a feature where decreasing the brightness using the function keys when already at the minimum brightness turns off the screen altogether. Raising the brightness when the screen is turned off turns the screen back on. Very useful for overnight computation.
Post by: dragdeler on November 14, 2020, 11:25:10 am
Post by: wierd on November 14, 2020, 05:41:15 pm
If the system is able to do that, and returns no errors, I would say this is a software issue, or an issue with the hard drive.
Post by: Ametsala on November 14, 2020, 06:15:44 pm
At w7 loading screen, fans flare up as usual but the motherboard starts beeping... I tried to read the code... There is none is just beeps continuously. First time it happened it booted fine and seemed stable, system ran for at least 30 minutes. I restarted because of an installation, same problem. Misdiagnosing beeps, I checked ram and if like fan cables were looking allright.
Are there any errors in the Event viewer?
Post by: dragdeler on November 14, 2020, 09:09:31 pm
Post by: Ametsala on November 15, 2020, 08:12:54 am
Just writing "eventviewer" in the start menu search box should get you the correct thing, even if your windows language isn't English. I've got Finnish, and it works.
Post by: dragdeler on November 16, 2020, 11:23:17 am
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 17, 2020, 10:16:56 am
Post by: Starver on November 17, 2020, 10:42:08 am
I wouldn't jump straight into .BATs (or .CMDs, which are a new[2] 'preferred' way of doing almost-but-not-quite the same thing - as in most things I'd write could be saved either as BAT or CMD and the system would not care) if you don't already understand and use the command-line itself, so I'd first ask what you think you need to know before starting to look for a good tutorial that suits you in that regardm
(Or, if you have specific needs, maybe we can bash out a "well, what *I* would do is..." direct example/explanation for you to pick straight up and maybe adapt.)
[1] Almost. There's some things you need to change/preconfigure slightly due to variable-replacement, but that's beyond your first few steps, probably.
[2] Well, newer than when I started... ;)
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 17, 2020, 10:50:01 am
Post by: Starver on November 17, 2020, 12:28:12 pm
But to specifically learn about batch-files isn't usually the first port of call these days. In the '80s and early '90s you might have to dive in to adjust the AUTOEXEC.BAT for various reasons. These days you might either go into the Registry (to mess with the <1% of keys that you ought to be messing with), fiddle with the Start Menu (Startup items, where used or go into some Properties dialogue or other (depending on what's wrong/needs making more right). For anything that goes beyond "let the program installer/uninstaller do its job", that is.
Do you ever use the command-prompt? If not, then it's probably a leap to start with .BATs and look to something more GUI-related to start your search for geek-skills. Perhaps learn how the Excel(/OpenOffice/LibreOffice/etc, if necessary) cell functions work; there's a lot of fun to be had with VLOOKUP(), OFFSET(), MATCH(), etc, believe me... ;)
Or learn javascript/HTML5, to create intetestingly dynamic (local) web-pages. If you have a LAMP server (a geek project of its own) then with the PHP (or, by my personal preference, Perl) that is the P you can make server-side dynamic pages. Or Python. All the rage for scripting and various forms of compatible automation, with plenty of How To material. LUA (helpful for things not unrelated to DF)? Or a proper compiled language if you're determined.
Away from coding/scripting (which .BAT files are a quite flexible but still very limited form of), learn Photoshop(/GIMP) skills, or 3D rendering/printing software. Or... or... ...many other things that I could suggest.
I'm sure others here would have their own bunch of suggestions (including not to follow something I suggested). I'm not sure there's a 'generic advice' answer to the question you ask, but maybe if you have an idea (other than Batch files for their own sake... you might as well be interested in learning COBOL - you'd probably end up being paid more, as a contractor) we can probably rustle up something of an opinion or slightly less rough guidance...
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 17, 2020, 12:31:45 pm
Post by: wierd on November 17, 2020, 05:39:11 pm
What exactly do you want to gain more knowledge of, as pertains to computers?
By that, I mean-- Do you have an interest in getting computers to do some specific task? Do you have a general interest in how they function at a raw theoretical/mechanical level? Are you interested in how a specific operating system does certain tasks?
Etc..
Think about what you want to learn more about, then jump back in here, and we would be better able to help you.
As is, the question you have posted is kinda vague, in the lines of "I want to get smarter in general science stuff." There's so many sciences out there that it would be hard to satisfy what your actual nascent curiosity is, and giving you a generic primer on scientific method would be dry and unpalatable, most likely.
Similar thing here.
Post by: bloop_bleep on November 17, 2020, 07:27:42 pm
I just want to learn Computer-Smarts(is that the right name for it)
is there a good tutorial or beginners guide or just a good place to start in general i keep hearing stories about the cool things people do with computers and i want to figure out where people learn these things
Start programming! Try Python, it's a good beginner language. Download from python.org (http://python.org). It comes with an editor and IDE; just search for IDLE. There are some good Python tutorials out there, such as the one on the official Python documentation: https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/ (https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/), though personally I learned from a good book. Some good Python books are those by No Starch Press, such as Python Crash Course, Doing Math with Python, I think there's one about writing games too.
Post by: Reelya on November 17, 2020, 09:59:00 pm
For example, make a text/console program that generates a number from 1 to 1000, then the user has to guess a number, and the program outputs whether your guess is higher, lower or equal to its number, and when you get it right, it says you won and asks if you want to play again.
This may sound super simple but it's about the right level of challenge for writing your first program.
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 21, 2020, 03:13:02 pm
(1) what is the best version of Linux and where can i get it and if i install it will it could i switch back and forth between Linux and Windows
(2) can i run Mac OS on a windows laptop
(3) is it possible to make it so that when i turn on my pc Linux will run instead of Windows or do i have to run Linux manually
Post by: bloop_bleep on November 21, 2020, 03:20:59 pm
Post by: Starver on November 21, 2020, 05:09:52 pm
The *buntu family seems to be pushed a lot for new users. I personally haven't liked their builds (visually), but for much the same reasons as I don't like newer Windowses, so you can probably ignore my feelings on that. (Also, 'buntus are very varied, I know, across their range. I think Zorin is supposed to be a good transitional one.)
Mint is touted as a beginner option (again, different - excuse the pun - 'flavours')
Elementary is Mac-like (apparently), so given the second of your couple of questions[1].
You maybe could try out something like Puppy/DamnSmall on a removal media without even messing with your Windows boot (but they tend to not be very Windows/Mac-like).
Arch/CentOs/Suse might be at the technical end to install and use, but I think there are versions of each made for "default, minimal clicking" installs.
(I'm using a slightly old Fedora distro, right now, on one of my machines. I got it sort of how I liked it, again, after the last major upgrade I did royally messed around with the simplicity and not too much style-over-substance of the install, and I didn't want to risk that again so it's slightly more archaic than it should be, apart from the occasional necessary manual updates. Don't try to be like me, though.)
[1] Which I don't know the answer to, but probably not (anywhere near as easy than if you instead go get a Mac-like Linux/reskin, anyway).
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 21, 2020, 05:21:29 pm
i will look into the different versions and decide later
Arch seems to be the thing im looking for
Post by: Starver on November 21, 2020, 05:24:42 pm
edit: I actually was just going to post the first sentence of this post, but got carried away. And I'm fairly sure there are more authoritative opinions than mine around, on the relative merits of flavours and distros. I just really wanted to say that it's a complicated thing to answer. Ah, drat, you've read and replied to it... Right, putting it into a new post.
Post by: Starver on November 21, 2020, 05:35:54 pm
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 21, 2020, 06:01:56 pm
there are 25 versions (on the download page of linux.org)
i was trying to figure out which version was right for me
im still reading about all of them
again thank you Starver for the information
Post by: feelotraveller on November 21, 2020, 06:20:44 pm
Anyways, the go to place for Arch is its wiki - https://wiki.archlinux.org/ (https://wiki.archlinux.org/) and then follow the link to the installation guide. Getting Arch up and running is a bit more complicated than many distro's (insert obligatory Gentoo mention here) but is well worth it (imo). Its wiki on the other hand is a masterpiece, a view often shared even by users of other distro's! If you are a do-it-yourself type then Arch will suit you down to the ground. It has forums if you really get stuck but be prepared to do your homework beforehand to avoid a rather frosty reception.
One of the things about an arch install is that the distro rolls, that is it remains up to date so no reinstallation necessary. I want to say that this is a great thing but it comes with the (very minimal) risk that your OS can break with an update. Be prepared by having another way to boot into your system in case this does happen. It's not common though, for me, like once in several years (and then it was just a matter of locating the update which borked it and reverting it - a working revision of the update was available from the distro within an hour or so). I've just got a thumbdrive with another distro on it, that also serves to allow me to backup the entire system from time to time.
If you've got (simplish) questions I can try to answer them. But honestly just give it a try, the tinkering is fun! Do back up your shit (to an external source) first, just in case. ;)
Fake edit: ninja'd, but still relevant (maybe)
Real edit: The place I've always found best for comparing/choosing distro's is https://distrowatch.com/ (https://distrowatch.com/). It has a very good reputation.
Post by: Ziusudra on November 21, 2020, 06:30:01 pm
ok ok i have a couple of questionsThere is no objective best version. And by partitioning your hard drive(s) you can install as many OSes as you have room for.
(1) what is the best version of Linux and where can i get it and if i install it will it could i switch back and forth between Linux and Windows
The first question you need to answer is do you want rolling release or fixed release. A fixed release is less likely to break from an update but you'll need to install a new version every so often. But a properly maintained rolling release can continue working for many years.
(2) can i run Mac OS on a windows laptopProbably not. OSX has limited driver support. And the EULA probably forbids running it on hardware that isn't Apple branded.
(3) is it possible to make it so that when i turn on my pc Linux will run instead of Windows or do i have to run Linux manuallyYes, once you install a boot manager, you choose which OS it boots by default.
Starting is with Arch is a bit like learning to swim by just jumping into the deep end of a pool. And it requires quite a bit of work to get a working system - though it will then mostly work exactly how you want it to.
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 21, 2020, 06:47:58 pm
ok ok i have a couple of questionsThere is no objective best version. And by partitioning your hard drive(s) you can install as many OSes as you have room for.
(1) what is the best version of Linux and where can i get it and if i install it will it could i switch back and forth between Linux and Windows
The first question you need to answer is do you want rolling release or fixed release. A fixed release is less likely to break from an update but you'll need to install a new version every so often. But a properly maintained rolling release can continue working for many years.(2) can i run Mac OS on a windows laptopProbably not. OSX has limited driver support. And the EULA probably forbids running it on hardware that isn't Apple branded.(3) is it possible to make it so that when i turn on my pc Linux will run instead of Windows or do i have to run Linux manuallyYes, once you install a boot manager, you choose which OS it boots by default.
Starting is with Arch is a bit like learning to swim by just jumping into the deep end of a pool. And it requires quite a bit of work to get a working system - though it will then mostly work exactly how you want it to.
boot manager?
does that come with Arch or is it a separate download
if it's the latter where can i get a boot manager?
Post by: Ziusudra on November 21, 2020, 06:54:47 pm
boot manager?Yes, Arch provides multiple to choose from (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_boot_process#Boot_loader) during installation (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide#Boot_loader).
does that come with Arch or is it a separate download
if it's the latter where can i get a boot manager?
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 21, 2020, 07:24:47 pm
boot manager?Yes, Arch provides multiple to choose from (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_boot_process#Boot_loader) during installation (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide#Boot_loader).
does that come with Arch or is it a separate download
if it's the latter where can i get a boot manager?
nice
also what are the advantages of Linux over Windows
Post by: Starver on November 21, 2020, 08:00:49 pm
Right now I think you have it the wrong way round to decide to go for Linux and then wonder what good reasons there are to do so, but you should find you have a good platform almost infinitely reconfigurable according to your needs, you can take advantage of a strong community support system that can avoid the problems of a proprietarily-authored 'hermetic' OS, any security issues that exist that you don't get fixed immediately are unlikely to be at the very top of an attacker's list (when they can profit more from trying to exploit anything Windows/its user has not properly patched), code-bloat should be easier to avoid[1] because (relative) experts like going through things like this without the pressures of management-deliverables being priority for maintaining their salaried position...
Disadvantages: 'Mainstream' software may not be written to work off of the MS/Mac/both-if-you're-lucky platform, making it at least a bit awkward, and you get all kinds of things you can do wrong that you've never known you can do wrong before... ;)
Your experience (and list of pros and cons) will probably be different, but the above probably relates most of my experience in the matter.
[1] Though not going into your respective Package Manager and selecting hundreds and hundreds of things that "you think you might want to try, some time", which is always a risk I seem to succumb to on first install of a new system with that philosphy. It takes months to decide I have too many 'gravity/physics-based arcade games', or whatever the whim was I fell for at the time... ;)
ETA: Question of my own for those familiar, after glancing at the Wiki pages on Boot Loaders... Is GRUB and GRUB Legacy essentially GRUB2 and GRUB(1)? Last time I set up anything, GRUB2 was coming in but not yet inbuilt as an option for the distro I was actually setting up, and... you know... there's been no reason to change what works since.
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 21, 2020, 08:29:26 pm
Stickin' it toBill GatesSteve BalmerSatya Nadella?
nah
im mostly in it for security
im always paranoid about malware
i wanna download stuff and visit random websites in peace knowing that the shady porn site i get sent to by accidentally typing 4chan.com instead of 4chan.org wont give me malware
Post by: Ziusudra on November 21, 2020, 09:00:37 pm
im mostly in it for securityWell, for that you're gonna have to put in work no matter what OS you use. Your best bet is to use some sort of sandboxxing or virtualization as the first line of defense and properly configured and maintained anti-malware on the host. Which you can do on either OS.
im always paranoid about malware
i wanna download stuff and visit random websites in peace knowing that the shady porn site i get sent to by accidentally typing 4chan.com instead of 4chan.org wont give me malware
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 21, 2020, 09:28:02 pm
Post by: feelotraveller on November 21, 2020, 10:13:46 pm
ETA: Question of my own for those familiar, after glancing at the Wiki pages on Boot Loaders... Is GRUB and GRUB Legacy essentially GRUB2 and GRUB(1)? Last time I set up anything, GRUB2 was coming in but not yet inbuilt as an option for the distro I was actually setting up, and... you know... there's been no reason to change what works since.
Yes.
Post by: Reelya on November 22, 2020, 02:40:56 am
Post by: wierd on November 22, 2020, 05:41:00 am
Kinda sorta... Others are correct that it is an instant EULA TOS violation. It is meant to be used on apple branded hardware only. However, there are ways to make it work on non-mac hardware, with varying levels of annoyance, pain and suffering.
See also, Hackintosh. (Clover boot manager, and various other projects as well.)
You would need a UEFI flavored laptop that is in the "known to be supportable" list. See the r/hackintosh reddit for more details.
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 22, 2020, 12:27:42 pm
If it's just for security, running a browser inside a virtual machine will in fact add a layer of security. Anything that uses the browser as the attack vector will be running inside the VM.
my shitty laptopcant run a VM
Oracle VM cant run a Arch Linux VM
Apparently i need to disable "Hardware Visualization" but when i do the error still shows and i cant leave the settings menu
Not in a hypervisor partition (HVP=0) (VERR_NEM_NOT_AVAILABLE).
VT-x is disabled in the BIOS for all CPU modes (VERR_VMX_MSR_ALL_VMX_DISABLED).
Result Code:
E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component:
ConsoleWrap
Interface:
IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}
Post by: Reelya on November 22, 2020, 01:08:02 pm
I've run Archlinux inside Oracle, it definitely works. My machine is an intel i3 circa 2011 so it's not exactly cutting edge either.
As for that error message, have you actually looked in your BIOS? It might take some doing for an old laptop, they can have an unusual keypress needed to enter the BIOS. There will be VT-x settings in the BIOS.
Usually just googling the error message helps, so you can get third-party corroboration of what I wrote:
https://techsupportwhale.com/not-in-a-hypervisor-partition/
Quote
The error “VT-x is disabled in the BIOS for all CPU modes” appears if virtualization is not enabled in your Windows computer. Many Windows computers have the virtualization disabled by default at the BIOS level and it needs to be enabled to set up a new virtual machine.
This would be especially true for laptops or bundled builds rather than self-built systems.
One nice thing once you have a VM running is Seamless Mode in Virtualbox or Unity Mode in VMWare. These allow you to treat programs running in the VM as if they're applications running in your main PC, so they can be sized as windows, moved, minimized etc, but they're still technically running in the VM sandbox.
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 22, 2020, 01:19:08 pm
You mean Hardware Virtualization.
I've run Archlinux inside Oracle, it definitely works. My machine is an intel i3 circa 2011 so it's not exactly cutting edge either.
As for that error message, have you actually looked in your BIOS? It might take some doing for an old laptop, they can have an unusual keypress needed to enter the BIOS. There will be VT-x settings in the BIOS.
Usually just googling the error message helps, so you can get third-party corroboration of what I wrote:
https://techsupportwhale.com/not-in-a-hypervisor-partition/QuoteThe error “VT-x is disabled in the BIOS for all CPU modes” appears if virtualization is not enabled in your Windows computer. Many Windows computers have the virtualization disabled by default at the BIOS level and it needs to be enabled to set up a new virtual machine.
This would be especially true for laptops or bundled builds rather than self-built systems.
where do i go to find the virtualization and BIOS settings
i presume settings
Post by: Reelya on November 22, 2020, 01:23:43 pm
Usually, it's the 'del' key. some use F1 or F2 instead. The window to hit the key can be short, i recommend tapping the key about 4 times a second after turning the machine turn on. If it gets to Windows loading then you missed the time to hit the key, or you hit the wrong key. Your PC may show a "hit del to enter settings" message at the start, or similar.
if you haven't played with the BIOS before, the main things I recommend avoiding are memory / RAM timings, clock speed. Screwing with RAM timing or speeding up the clock can theoretically brick the PC and require a physical reset (there's a backup battery on the board somewhere and removing this erases the tiny bit of memory with the BIOS setting in it). So this is unlikely to damage your machine but having to physically erase the BIOS is a pain in the ass, and more so if it's a laptop and not a desktop PC.
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 22, 2020, 01:26:06 pm
i know jack-shit about BIOS
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 22, 2020, 01:29:52 pm
google is keeping the secrets from me
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 22, 2020, 01:55:28 pm
FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted
Post by: Reelya on November 22, 2020, 02:36:35 pm
Step 1 is to make a blank file that represents the c-drive, this is where your emulated OS will go. Blank drives don't count as bootable however so will give that error message even on a normal computer, not just in a VM. For example if you put a PC together yourself and put a blank hard-drive in there, you'll get the no bootable media error since it can't find a disk with an OS on it.
Step 2 is to mount that file as C-drive and mount your DVD or ISO image as the D-drive, then tell it that D-Drive is what you want to boot from. This step can take some fiddling, there will be options or different methods for how to mount the OS installer disk.
Step 3 is start the VM now, and it'll load whichever OS installer you mounted in Step 2. Then you'll get the normal install windows stuff. After that, you unmount the install disk and set the c-drive as the one to boot from, and you can run your new OS inside the VM. I really recommend starting with an older version of Windows however and not Linux for this, at least the first time. There may be Linux-specific issues that you get stumped with so getting to grips with doing Windows installs first at least means you'll know what's a VM issue and what's a specifically Linux issue.
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 22, 2020, 02:48:42 pm
also everytime i try to run Mac OS X i get stuck on startup.nsh
Post by: Reelya on November 22, 2020, 02:52:37 pm
This makes an empty file, which represents a blank hard drive. Blank drives CANNOT be booted since they don't have anything in them.
Then there's a screen for drives in the VirtualBox settings for the new VM you're making. Set the blank "drive" file as C-drive and set some OS installer as D-Drive, tell it to boot from D-Drive
Then you run the VM and it'll run the installer
After it's done, you shut down the VM, then edit settings to remove the installer disk and set C as the main drive.
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 22, 2020, 02:54:13 pm
Look up how to create virtual hard drive for VirtualBox
This makes an empty file, which represents a blank hard drive. Blank drives CANNOT be booted since they don't have anything in them.
Then there's a screen for drives in the VirtualBox settings for the new VM you're making. Set the blank "drive" file as C-drive and set some OS installer as D-Drive, tell it to boot from D-Drive
Then you run the VM and it'll run the installer
After it's done, you shut down the VM, then edit settings to remove the installer disk and set C as the main drive.
okok i try this
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 22, 2020, 03:11:09 pm
PIIX3 cannot attach drive to the Primary Master (VERR_VD_IMAGE_READ_ONLY).
Result Code:
E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component:
ConsoleWrap
Interface:
IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}
Post by: Reelya on November 22, 2020, 03:51:03 pm
Quote
Right click on the .vdi file . Click on properties . Just uncheck Read only . And start VirtualBox with administrator priviligies. This done the trick for me . :)
I only got this by googling the error message you got, that's how you solve this type of problem. If the first Googled solution doesn't work, read down the page and try other listed solutions, if that fails look further down the google search results. It really is this simple, there's no magic trick where I know this stuff and you don't. Merely google whatever error messages you get, because that's all I'm doing 99% of the time.
I googled "failed to open image for writing due to wrong permissions" just chopping out the actual file name, since that part will be specific to you.
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 22, 2020, 04:22:35 pm
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37593209/virtualbox-doesnt-open-error-verr-vd-image-read-onlyQuoteRight click on the .vdi file . Click on properties . Just uncheck Read only . And start VirtualBox with administrator priviligies. This done the trick for me . :)
I only got this by googling the error message you got, that's how you solve this type of problem. If the first Googled solution doesn't work, read down the page and try other listed solutions, if that fails look further down the google search results. It really is this simple, there's no magic trick where I know this stuff and you don't. Merely google whatever error messages you get, because that's all I'm doing 99% of the time.
I googled "failed to open image for writing due to wrong permissions" just chopping out the actual file name, since that part will be specific to you.
Thank You so much for the help if i had any money i would pay you but this is fucking impossible
i dont know if this is asking too much but is there some way you could send me everything i need for the VM im using Oracle VM and my email is archimedeswojak@gmail.com
Thank You so so much for the help but i dont have the patience for this
Post by: Reelya on November 22, 2020, 04:32:28 pm
Other than that you just google a bunch of tutorials "how to set up virtualbox" or similar. If one tutorial doesn't work out and you can't work out what to fix by googling any errors that come up, you merely read different tutorials and see if they have different steps or some "aha" stuff written that explains something the other tutorial didn't explain that is relevant.
Then, as a result of fucking up enough you get to the point where you have some working VM files and you can play around with them and eventually you get better at trouble-shooting them.
Keep in mind however that you can copy the virtual drive files that you get working and keep them around as backups. So once you get your first working one - say a Windows XP virtual machine since they're very small and simple, make a copy of the HDD file somewhere and don't fuck with it, keep it as a "master copy" in case shit goes bad with your current install. And if you need to make different XP VMs later, you copy those from your already made "fresh" one.
Post by: bloop_bleep on November 22, 2020, 04:35:54 pm
Post by: Reelya on November 22, 2020, 04:37:24 pm
And I'm not sure if Seamless Mode in VirtualBox works with Linux like that, but you can definitely use Windows app in a VM as if they're native (seamless means there's no separate desktop, the VM programs look like they're running on your regular desktop).
Post by: bloop_bleep on November 22, 2020, 04:38:48 pm
Though I didn't have much file sharing. You'd need to set that up separately, but if you were just browsing you wouldn't even need to.
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 22, 2020, 05:01:16 pm
Post by: bloop_bleep on November 22, 2020, 05:20:17 pm
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 22, 2020, 05:21:54 pm
You don’t need one. Not a real one anyway. What you do is you connect the virtual optical disk to the .iso file on your hard disk through virtualbox. Then when the os in the vm reads from what seems to it is like an optical disk it’s reading from that file.
ok how do i do that
Post by: bloop_bleep on November 22, 2020, 05:26:54 pm
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on November 22, 2020, 05:30:52 pm
Post by: Reelya on November 22, 2020, 07:41:41 pm
In recent Windows, you just right-click on the ISO file and select "mount". That then generates a temporary drive letter / pretend drive for that ISO file. Right-Clicking on the drive letter from the "This PC" screen gives a menu option to "eject" the pretend disk, which just unmounts it / deletes the drive letter, if it's not really a DVD drive. In earlier versions of Windows you'd have needed third-party software to do all of this, but it's a standard feature with Windows 10.
Then, in your VM software, when setting up the drives you can tell it to mount a host-system drive. This can be a real drive, or one of Window's fake ones you made in the first step from an ISO, Virtualbox won't know the difference. I'm mentioning this method because it works the same this way whether you've got a real CD/DVD drive or a fake one via an ISO file.
Post by: Imic on November 24, 2020, 12:28:11 pm
Post by: Reelya on November 24, 2020, 12:41:30 pm
Apps and features is not where the issue is, it's almost always temp files, install backups, system restore points etc. you can loo in the temp folder for your users, usually a ton of deletable files in there.
Do Disk cleanup, then select the systems files option. For example, when you do a major update for Windows it keeps a copy of the previous major version for rollback purposes. If you never rollback then this is a huge chunk of drive real-estate you can get back for free.
ccleaner is a tool that removes temp files from a bunch of places (which will overlap with what disk cleanup does, but I'd let Windows to the cleanup first), you can get it on portableapps to avoid having to install ccleaner. Run the normal scan/clean process from this.
https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/ccportable
Post by: Imic on November 24, 2020, 01:16:27 pm
Post by: Reelya on November 24, 2020, 01:22:56 pm
Once you're in there however you may have a lot of apps to click on, so a good way is binary search: highlight the top half of apps, right click and view properties. do the same for the other half. You'll usually see one group of folders is far larger than the other.
EDIT: let me give you the magic which is TreeSize
https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/treesize-free-portable
i used this years ago, testing the new version. This scans your drive, displays the folders in tree view, however it sorts them from biggest to smallest too.
Post by: Mephisto on November 24, 2020, 01:36:17 pm
Post by: Reelya on November 24, 2020, 01:39:56 pm
* as in, I'm trying it out right now but don't want to actually delete anything, not 'apparently' as in they claim it can be done on the website.
Post by: bloop_bleep on November 25, 2020, 02:59:29 am
On a related note. Why do packages keep putting junk unrelated to the outward functionality of the package in my PATH. Just use paths relative to the installation directory. I don't need your stinking personal gcc installation popping up perl.
Post by: feelotraveller on November 25, 2020, 04:35:40 am
Post by: methylatedspirit on November 25, 2020, 06:36:00 am
Post by: Schmaven on November 25, 2020, 07:01:18 am
Is it bad that my laptop's 170W power brick has been hot for most of its operating life? The laptop's been pulling 75W (~45% of rated power output), day in, day out, from April at least, so I'm wondering if that will shorten the lifetime of the brick significantly. I know I should probably be worrying about the laptop more, but it's for the good of humanity, I swear.
If you don't already, unplugging it from the wall from time to time will extend its life.
Post by: bloop_bleep on November 25, 2020, 12:05:27 pm
I'd hazard a guess that your problems are distro specific. (No problem encountered on my end with setting up/using sdl/sdl2 and no weird paths with perl... not that I did anything but install packages provided by my distro...) But it is a guess since you've not said which distro. If it's Ubuntu (earlier posts) perhaps this link will help with the first: https://gist.github.com/BoredBored/3187339a99f7786c25075d4d9c80fad5 (https://gist.github.com/BoredBored/3187339a99f7786c25075d4d9c80fad5) Nothing wrong with compiling it yourself, though. The weird paths you'd have to take up with the packager.
I’m on Windows right now, actually. Thanks anyway.
As for weird paths, I’ve nuked them from PATH since they were interfering and the thing I was using Perl for didn’t seem to complain.
EDIT: It seems the problem is with libmingw32 actually. It has several unresolved external symbols. Online it suggests it may be using outdated microsoft API functions.
Post by: bloop_bleep on November 25, 2020, 01:33:07 pm
EDIT: Except msvcrt says last modified in March 2019. The C runtime changes were made in 2015. This is confusing.
EDIT: Is libmingw32 trying to link against msvcrt or something else? What other files can contain C runtime functions?
EDIT: Is there a reputable source for downloading the latest msvcrt?
EDIT: Changed search directory to C:/Windows/SysWOW64. Now it compiles and links but crashes on startup with a dll not found error code. Sigh.
Post by: Reelya on November 25, 2020, 02:34:37 pm
So you just get some old MsVC runtimes and try extracting the dlls into the folder you're using. You also do this for old VB runtimes and other files which are way too old for Windows to have anymore. Trying to mesh those into Windows system32 or syswow isn't required or a good idea.
And the point with SysWOW is that Windows scans the exe you're trying to run, extracts some version information, then it looks that up in a directory which tells it which version of the DLL to provide. If you randomly add "bonus" DLLs, it doesn't have the information to match that "bonus" DLL with any actual programs, so it will never go "here, here's the DLL version you need". It's like saying you added extra books to a library but didn't bother adding them to the card catalogue. They're in there, but the librarian is never going to direct you to them.
Post by: bloop_bleep on November 25, 2020, 02:43:26 pm
Post by: Reelya on November 25, 2020, 02:46:09 pm
There's some code that scans the exe, then it extracts version information, then it has a lookup table of which DLL to provide based on that scan. This is all retrofitting, none of that was built to work that way. If you add extra DLLs that the programmers didn't specifically write code to scan for, it can't magically know what they go with. There needs to be a dependency database entry in SysWOW that tells it how and when to deploy any specific dll it's got in it's library. It's a lookup system, so just throwing random files into the folder does fuck all. It does not scan the contents every dll when you ask for a dll, because that would be a huge hit on performance, even if it would work.
The program only goes "gimme shitgibbon.dll !" then SysWOW scans the exe and it works out things like which compiler / runtime version you built that with, and has a list of all the versions of shitgibbon.dll and which compiler it goes with. The point here is that "know about everything ever" would add massive amounts of bloat. You're giving it exes it knows nothing about and giving it DLLs it knows nothing about, so it can't possibly connected the two unless someone wrote code specifically to know about those two things and say "this goes with that". Have you seen the size of SysWOW? it's already by far the largest folder inside Windows directory, and that's because it's a huge catalogue of every version of old stuff and code for detecting when each is needed. And ... users expect this to basically happen instantly or they get pissed. So it has to work this way. They discontinue support for the really old stuff because that's the only way to even get a lid on the size of this, and it definitely can't implement "auto-scan for unknown dlls that might go with some unknown exe" due to how complicated, unpredictable and slow that would be.
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 30, 2020, 08:51:38 pm
I'd be satisifed with just the ability to show duration, honestly.
Post by: wierd on December 01, 2020, 12:03:44 am
(For instance, while I use XFCE, I dislike Thunar, and install Nemo)
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 01, 2020, 12:13:02 am
Post by: Starver on December 01, 2020, 01:02:36 am
[1] Or ffplay set up as a basic fall-back when I get something beyond VLC's abilities[2] but I don't get fancy stuff like I mention above or even playback speed hastening. Or any idea of the duration/progress even while playing... ;)
[2] It has an annoying habit of occasionally stopping working (but only since I set it up with some bluetooth earphones, whether or not they're set up as the Pi's sound output, which probably means I semi-broke it.. ) when transitioning between two playlisted items that actually forces me to kill -9 the vlc process and start it up again (as an alternative to a whole Pi restart, but I've got a handy badh script to help me with that). But I didn't come here to get this solved, just sayin'. Ffplay not only doesn't ever go gaga like this, it also seems to cover a superset of the more esoteric codecs I sometimes stumble upon needing. But it remains 'minimal' in the interface stakes, even if this helps with keyboard control issues.
[3] The Pi's at the place I left this morning and won't see again until Friday, VLCs on Windows machines in this and the next room are significantly different versions. I've also got VLC on Android, but currently no media files on there (without hunting random App caches, I suppose) to test... ;)
Post by: wierd on December 01, 2020, 02:23:40 am
It seems to be called pcmanfm.
In theory, one could install a plugin for this missing functionality. (the maintainers of PCMANFM seem to feel that the plugin support system they integrated is all they need be concerned with, and that the end user can either produce this functionality themselves using this system, or find a suitable plugin. I think that is kinda shitty of them, and a greater than 10min search turned up zero results for a suitable plugin.)
In practice, I see many suggestions to switch to the Dolphin file manager, which does it natively.
Post by: methylatedspirit on December 01, 2020, 03:33:11 am
FCLK is separate, but tied to memory clock by a ratio. For most purposes, 1:1 (FCLK : memory clock) seems to be the ideal ratio. I wonder if you locked the memory clock speed to something like 3600 MHz, but then set different ratios to end up with different and lower FCLK speeds, you'd end up with no change in DF performance because it's basically single-core. I don't have a Ryzen system on hand, else I'd be testing this hypothesis out myself.
Post by: wierd on December 01, 2020, 03:46:00 am
Post by: feelotraveller on December 01, 2020, 04:22:52 am
Minor Linux question. I've been using a Pi4 as a media player of late, and one feature I'm greatly missing is the ability to sort videos by duration. In Win10, it is trivial to do this - you just set the view to Details mode, enable Show Duration, and then click to sort. This does not seem to be an option in Linux.
I'd be satisifed with just the ability to show duration, honestly.
I'm not familiar with pcmanfm but if the option exists it should be under View->Sort.
One option would be to run a simple bash script to output the data. This should get you started https://github.com/seb0zz/get_duration_of_videos (https://github.com/seb0zz/get_duration_of_videos), easy enough to modify for your purposes (e.g. no need to copy the videos just specify the local folder/tree where they are located).
Post by: wierd on December 01, 2020, 04:30:01 am
A dumb file manager wont be able to do that, because it requires identification of a media file, the reading and then parsing of its header, and the extraction of the length information in order to make this determination.
This is why it is usually handled by a plugin to the file manager in the linux world. (your ability to parse an arbitrary media file would be dependent upon which media handling libraries you have installed, et al.)
Post by: feelotraveller on December 01, 2020, 04:43:12 am
Edit: if sortable display of the information in the GUI is desired one way to do this would be to with a script that batch renames the video files to append the duration as either a prefix or suffix. A prefix could use sort by name as an ersatz sort by duration. A little forethought on syntax would also allow the script to be run repeatedly (i.e. new videos added) without adding multiple prefixs. (So this is where one might take it beyond the start... sorry for the lack of a shiny 'install' button. :P)
Post by: methylatedspirit on December 01, 2020, 06:57:13 am
Only way to know is through structured testing.I have an idea of what the test procedure would look like, then. I'm no expert, so I'm using off-the-shelf (i.e whatever I'm aware of that I can take from elsewhere) tests.
Part 1: Adjusting FCLK
To widen the range of possible testers, I'll adjust the memory clock speed down to 3200 MHz. I think it's a reasonable speed to run at, since tech websites tend to recommend this speed for Ryzen. With that in place, I'd use FCLKs of 1600, 1400, 1200, 1000, and 800. This equates to memCLK:FCLK ratios of 1:1, 7:8, 3:4, 5:8, and 1:2. Just keep your original memory timings; I don't think it'll have much bearing on performance.
Then, in BIOS, you set the memory clock speed to 3200 MHz, then you set the ratio to get your desired FCLK.
I sense a problem here, though. Do Ryzen motherboards actually let you set any ratio you want, or are you only allowed to use a predefined list of ratios? Or even better, can you just set the FCLK directly so that we don't have to deal with this ratio nonsense?
Part 2: Testing DF performance
To test for FCLK's effect on DF performance, I'd use vosgren's DFmark (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=173762.0), running just the TESTSMALLGEN preset to test for worldgen and TESTSMALLEMBARK for embark (it tests for an entire simulated year, which would take a while on the big version). If using Windows, I'd go and use this:
Spoiler: Save as a .bat file, place in same directory as "Run_Tests.bat" in DFmark (click to show/hide)
And it does this 4 times. Since we're looking for sustained performance here, the first run of each will be discarded. As usual, the test system should be left unattended for the entire test to prevent user activity from contaminating the results. The small versions are used to prevent it from taking far too long; we need to repeat this performance testing 5 times for each FCLK setting. One round of this would take around an hour on my i5-9300H, dual-channel DDR4-2666, based on my preliminary testing.
The "Test_Results.txt" file created after each run should be saved somewhere, and the filename changed to something like "[CPU]_FCLK_xxxx", xxxx being the FCLK setting used for that run, and [CPU] being the CPU used, like "Ryzen 5 5600X".
Part 3: Compiling Data
Thing is, I'm not sure I'd trust people to compile their results in a consistent manner, so I think I'll ask them for the raw test data first so that I can compile it later. I have my own methods. I'd use Google Sheets so that people can contribute their results, but my account name is now my real name, so I don't think I could use that. Not sure I want yet another account to manage, too, so... eh.
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on December 01, 2020, 07:43:45 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 01, 2020, 08:41:38 am
He does not seem interested in sorting a command-line invocation's return; He seems interested in having his GUI file manager be able to be drop-sorted by clicking on the "length" column, and it sorting his media files in the folder based on length, ascending or descending.
This is correct. I'm never working with my entire media library (to avoid choice paralysis), so any scripting solution would be very cumbersome. I just want to be able to easily be able to say "I have time for this movie but not that movie".
Post by: Starver on December 01, 2020, 11:50:09 am
I might give this a go at the weekend, though it'll probably not be flexible enough for everyday use by the time I've finished polishing it to my own satisfaction.
Not a 'solution', but I often listen to (or watch) media at 150% speed, so hour-long things only take 40 minutes - and still perfectly understandable for it (200% can be a bit too much, unless I'm rebinging on the way to the 'good bits' for something I know well enough). Apart from making the normal-speed bit actually seem a liiitttlle biiit sssllooooww (in my head) when dropping back to that, it's a handy trick available if your media player allows it. I've got l some radio from this morning currently piping through my headphones as I write this, and it's hardly making it dilfiluct to tyep thungs att al!!!ñ ;)
[1] Or retrieved from file, having once been calculated. And if you have that, you could also do a reverse-search by popping up anything of "30m+-5m", possibly with additional theme/genre filtering if you have time to set that up as well, to give you randomised suggestions that suit. Back in the day, I had a nice little script called by the .xinitrc to check for console location (or ask me to enter it, for the IP, if not known) via a simple flatfile, with a pop-up console that let me check what other users of note were also logged in on in the same lab's machines ("abc123 @ ServerWell/Next to door") or any othe lab I decided to check (e.g. from the VT100s) to see if there were free seats. It wouldn't take much to convert that idea to your purpose, though in a much less kludgy (and no longer so X11/bashy) manner. ;)
Post by: Ziusudra on December 01, 2020, 05:43:51 pm
My iPad shows Cupertino CA’s weather when swiping right on the home screen. I live in Iowa. Location tracking is on. How do I get it to show my city’s weather by default instead of Cupertino?Does this help? https://www.iphonetricks.org/how-to-edit-weather-widget-location-in-ios-14/
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 01, 2020, 05:53:23 pm
It seems to be called pcmanfm.
In theory, one could install a plugin for this missing functionality. (the maintainers of PCMANFM seem to feel that the plugin support system they integrated is all they need be concerned with, and that the end user can either produce this functionality themselves using this system, or find a suitable plugin. I think that is kinda shitty of them, and a greater than 10min search turned up zero results for a suitable plugin.)
In practice, I see many suggestions to switch to the Dolphin file manager, which does it natively.
Dolphin doesn't want to display the duration, but allows me to sort by duration. This is close enough to what I need for now.
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on December 01, 2020, 11:34:58 pm
Yes, thank youMy iPad shows Cupertino CA’s weather when swiping right on the home screen. I live in Iowa. Location tracking is on. How do I get it to show my city’s weather by default instead of Cupertino?Does this help? https://www.iphonetricks.org/how-to-edit-weather-widget-location-in-ios-14/
Post by: bloop_bleep on December 02, 2020, 02:07:01 am
I'm on Windows.
Post by: methylatedspirit on December 04, 2020, 04:32:48 am
Looks mean nothing to me, so that's out of the question. Is there a major difference between CL16 and CL22 at 3200MHz, especially considering that I'm looking at getting an APU of some kind, which uses RAM as VRAM?
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 04, 2020, 10:08:28 am
Post by: methylatedspirit on December 04, 2020, 10:26:01 am
EDIT: It appears that the Ryzen 3000 APUs do not allow for FCLK tweaking by virtue of being on the Zen+ arch, so no dice there. I'll have to get a Ryzen 3000 CPU. GT 710, here I come!
Post by: Schmaven on December 04, 2020, 11:20:55 am
I usually compare RAM by dividing its frequency by the timing cycle number (your 16 or 22 here), and the higher the number, the quicker it can pass data to the CPU. You'll probably notice that when comparing RAM of equal clock speeds, those with tighter timings will generally cost more.
Post by: methylatedspirit on December 06, 2020, 11:01:48 pm
Post by: bloop_bleep on December 07, 2020, 12:12:41 am
Post by: wierd on December 07, 2020, 12:16:03 am
Extreme low-end nVidia offer #1 (https://www.newegg.com/msi-geforce-gt-710-gt-710-1gd3h-lp/p/N82E16814127931?Item=9SIA6V6D027512&Description=gpu&cm_re=gpu-_-14-127-931-_-Product&quicklink=true)
Generic ATI (with displayport?) (https://www.amazon.com/FireMV-PCIeX16-Workstation-102B4032600-Renewed/dp/B07QPQQVG3/ref=sr_1_14?dchild=1&keywords=video+card&qid=1607317926&refinements=p_36%3A1253504011&rnid=386442011&s=electronics&sr=1-14)
Generic nvidia quadro (with displayport) (https://www.amazon.com/PNY-2DisplayPort-PCI-Express-Profile-Renewed/dp/B07QK2DXBM/ref=sr_1_39?dchild=1&keywords=video+card&qid=1607318054&refinements=p_36%3A1253504011&rnid=386442011&s=electronics&sr=1-39)
Post by: methylatedspirit on December 07, 2020, 01:39:39 am
Does your Ryzen have integrated graphics? You wouldn't need a discrete video card then.Tentatively looking at either a Ryzen 3 3100 or a Ryzen 3 3300X, whichever is available. No integrated graphics on either of them. Technically, all I want is a Zen 2 or later chip (since those allow for FCLK tuning), and those are just the cheapest options I know of.
Post by: IonMatrix on December 09, 2020, 07:17:21 am
Post by: Schmaven on December 09, 2020, 07:55:08 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 09, 2020, 05:46:29 pm
Apparently many of my games are failing to create a Direct3D device or something, and wants me to upgrade my drivers. (Or turn down my display resolution, but it didn't work). So, I might sound like an extreme idiot posting this but, uh, how exactly do I do this?
Are this old games? You might need to install DirextX9 alongside the modern one.
Post by: Starver on December 09, 2020, 06:11:46 pm
Warning: Long and dense. You could just skip past it, as it's not a response to anyone else's problem. :P
Setup is...
Browser: Firefox for Android (does not happen on Chrome, ditto)
On-screen keyboard: Default Gboard, with long-standing visual/etc changes that predate this issue (since then, have done limited testing with other on-screen keyboards, but they behave differently in everyday use so not stuck with long)
Sites: Various places with textbox input, but notably Bay12Fourms under SMF because it's by far the biggest usage case.
Since the Firefox update this sumner that junked the page-tabs (horrible design decision, it also forced Android's native header and footer 'bars' to always be on, so the screen-space it saved got more than used up again for net loss) I've been having recurring niggles that I'm inclined to believe is a Firefox issue (not keyboard or SMF's javascript handlers, for example).
Typing away, as I am now, I might get a recurring word/string of characters in some buffer or other. Typically, it seems to have been something I typed then backspaced back to the prior spacebar (easier than repositioning the cursor on a touchscreen, when I want to insert a word so recently, or head up a different direction of sentence). From then on, until some arbitrary point up to the posting of a message being so typed (occasionally before that, during actual cursor-moving editing, but not always) whenever I re-spacebar while at the 'end' of the text I'm typing, that mysteriously buffered string gets appended. Each. Time. After the cursor (you can edit the 'paste' out) so that if it struck after "The quick brown fox jump over" is edited to "The quick brown fox jumps over" the final (uncorrected) text would be something like "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. overoverover" by the time the "." and the next space is typed.
These days, I tend to linefeed the 'spare' repeated text away down a line or two, so the cursor can be placed not at the very end of the regular text (which the repeated rebuffered word does not count for, so I suspect it's an issue involving the effective cursor position moving back upon a deletion event, but the memory-structure holding the usually expanding text-string has a misaligned pointer position. Having done so, I can do a final edit to remove the 'overflow', although I have at times posted text forgetting to do this, leaving (something like) "overoveroverover" as a final nonsensical line, until I realised and re-edited it out (sometimes quick enough to have SMF not even mark as an edited post).
I was prompted to post this when I had a sightly different variant that has some of the same effects but not quite. I wished to italicise a word in a post, so highlit the last word typed in and went up to the "I" button[1], to markup with the [i][/i] surrounds. But accidentally (bounced my finger?) activated the URL-tag button too, for a nested tagging I didn't want. Not sure which way I edited it down again (instinctively), but I did. But then whatever I typed onward (appended after the closing [/i]) would immediately relocaten (dragging the text cursor position back) to just before the end-italics tag after each new space. I tried several things to unmunge it[2], but the first that worked was to Preview the post and continue the editing in the new (prepopulated) instance of the textbox now visited.
So whatever the memory-mangle involved, that aspect got chucked while refreshing to the new page (site back-end code or browser page-session data applying) rather than linked somehow to the exact string of lead-up text activating some form of auto-correct aspect, when I don't have much more than "after a ./?/! and space, default back to upper for the next character"[3] active.
It is, of course, a bit of a Heisenbug. I can't command it to happen. Sometimes I manage to un-happen it, before finishing with the exiting, without even my identified getaround (put some other whitespace in there, then edit at a position prior to that whitespace), though the rare de-happening occasionally then re-happens later in the current missive. Either with the original recurring string (popping back up, without any re-use, so 'remembered') or a new one (a novel string drawn from what was typed just before it 're'happened, which might just be a new and independent bug-bit flipping, or whatever prompts it).
So, anyway... I doubt that too many others get this form of electronic-Tourettes. For one thing, I blame the updated Firefox for Android (in the early days of this incarnation I scanned their bug-report pages, but there were so many bugs/niggles/requests/suggestions/complaints upon the major version change that it was impossible to identify anything that related to this, and I never got round to signing on myself to place a competent set of bug-reports of my own) even after several further bugfix/operability updates, but I imagine that this isn't a setup (or platform) relevent to almost all those who would read this. If it was SMF's internal javascript handling that somehow changed last summer (though the sitecode surely has not, for much much longer!) I'd expect many would have mentioned it without me needing to ramble on about it like this... ;)
But putting it here, in sight of various (other?) clever people, just in case it rings bells for anyone. If it doesn't now, maybe it'll do so at a later date. Until 'sorted" I shall continue to deal with it, of course. Or eventually stop using this particular setup altogether.
[1] Gboard doesn't have the slash key on the 'front' keyboard I use, except when editing something like an address. In cases like this I'd have to switch to the (primary) punctuation keyboard, even though I've got all kinds of other common punctuation (including square, curly and regular brackets, the pipe symbol and even the backslash as easy long-press characters available, as configured. Very strange that it gives the backslash but not the foward one. That's not an issue I'm bothered about, but I still find it remarkable, hence this remark about it. ;)
[2] Including inserting new bare open/close-italics tags within the old 'filled' open/close then editing out the new (second) opener and old (second) closer, thinking that might de-confuse whatever character-handler was being confused, during edit. It didn't, which reinforces my "*something something something* memory text array pointer" idea, as the 'false' ending will be incremented and decremented normally to keep it just as 'wrong'.
[3] Of course, the "a" in "and" in that sentence had to be forced back to lower. As does anything where other punctuation only (like these parenthises!) Feature in and so made that 'f' uppercase, that I didn't force lower. Again, a quirk of (at least) Gboard, but at least one that always happens.
Post by: Ulfarr on December 11, 2020, 12:30:32 pm
Current specs:
i5-6500
Intel HD 530 (intergrated on the cpu)
8gb ram 2133MHz
600W PSU (I was planning to buy a dedicated gpu sooner but alas..)
Usage:
Gaming:
From a graphics standpoint, the occasional kenshi session is probably the most demanding. Still my current graphics solution doesn't really cut it and I'd like to have some more power in case a newer game picks my interest.
General stuff:
I do use the computer for various work related tasks which can vary from just a couple of open tabs in my browser to tens of them plus excel plus solver plus whatever document I might need. It's been ok thus far but a bit more ram would be nice.
Potential needs:
I've been thinking about picking up 3d modeling (blender) as a hobby. Definitely not for professional work.
What do you think?
*I can hardly find 30 different options for 2133 ddr4 ram sticks these days and my MB/cpu doesn't support any other frequency other than this and 1866 ddr3.
** With my current useage I can't really justify the price for newer/better gpus than these.
Post by: Ametsala on December 11, 2020, 02:05:06 pm
For RAM it shouldn't matter if the MHz is higher than supported. Better RAM should work just fine even in older systems, as long as it's the correct DDR-number. Wrong DDR won't fit the motherboard. I guess you currently have two sticks of ram, i.e. 4+4 gb, and your motherboard probably has 4 slots and two channels? You could just buy the cheapest 8 gb you can find to bring you to 16 gb, which should be enough for your needs (unless you seriously start to use Blender, but I'd suggest a whole new system for that.). Just make sure to install the same RAM in the same channel. They are usually labeled A and B.
I don't know that much about GPUs but, if I've understood the Intel integrated graphics correct, it should use up to half of your system memory (i.e. RAM), starting from 5th generation processors. Yours is 6th gen. Doubling RAM should double the amount of RAM available to your integrated graphics. So, maybe for you it's best to upgrade the RAM first, and if you are still not happy how Kenshi runs, then see about getting a dedicated GPU. I think even a 1050 or 1650 would still be better than an integrated one, so if you'd still like more juice for Kenshi, or something else, getting one should improve things.
In case you want to do more than little 3D modeling, you'll want as many CPU threads and GPU cores (CUDA cores for NVidia) as possible, which isn't cheap. Also, AFAIK, 64 gb of RAM is suggested for more serious modeling. Speaking as someone with 4 threads, integrated graphics, and 8 gb of RAM, I can say that small Blender projects work fine, although rendering times are longer than I'd like :). (I've been looking into this stuff because I'm getting myself a new PC that will be able to handle Blender a lot better.)
Post by: Ulfarr on December 11, 2020, 03:15:33 pm
As I said the blender stuff is mostly a potential hobby, a curiosity if you will. After spending hours trying to find weapon/armor mods for whatever game I happened to play, it just picked my interested. I don't have any experience on the matter but I doubt i'll go for any big projects (and in that case I should be looking to buy a better pc anyway).
About the gpus, according to some benchmarks all but the most low end stuff, should outperform my intergrated one and by a wide margin. It's just that since I haven't kept up with modern games I just don't know if getting such a card is going to be useful in the future or if it is already obsolete.
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 11, 2020, 11:41:40 pm
I'd suggest upgrading your RAM for now, and then getting a 3060 or ATI equivalent (don't know what that would be - ATI/AMD sucked for so long I lost track of them before they started getting good again) in 2d6 months when the market dies down a bit.
Also, the English phrase is "piqued my interest", not "picked my interest", for reference.
Post by: Ulfarr on December 12, 2020, 04:32:02 am
I'll probably just go for some extra ram and maybe save up for a new pc altogether. Squeezing some extra life/power from my current pc is a nice train of thought but it is futile at this point, at least for gaming.
I didn't know it was "piqued", thanks for the correction.
Post by: methylatedspirit on December 12, 2020, 04:59:14 am
The 30xx series are out of my reach by default, I don't have any PCie 4.0.
PCIe 4.0 isn't a necessity even for the RTX 3080. Admittedly, I'm mostly skimming through this Gamers Nexus video comparing PCIe 4.0 and 3.0 on the 3080 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DKVVtirNM8) (no article version, it seems), but, given the same setup, but one has PCIe 4.0, the other with PCIe 3.0, there's no statistically-significant difference between the two most of the time. Granted, the 3.0 one is always below the 4.0 one, but it's a 1% difference if it even exists. Only time there was a difference greater than "run-to-run variance" was in Quake II RTX, and that was a 3% gap.
A system running PCIe 3.0 and a 3080 won't suffer a performance loss due to PCIe bandwidth bottlenecking most of the time, is what I'm getting at.
Post by: Ulfarr on December 12, 2020, 05:15:30 am
Post by: methylatedspirit on December 12, 2020, 11:31:00 am
Small caveat, though. If the GPU only supports UEFI, and the mobo only supports legacy BIOS, it will not work. The BIOS can't see the UEFI card, so it can't do anything with it. This is bad if your system requires a GPU for video output. There's some workarounds you can use; Phil's Computer Lab demonstrated one method where you plug in a BIOS-supporting GPU into the system with the UEFI GPU. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMF_SPcLL0Y)
Post by: eerr on December 22, 2020, 05:24:21 pm
I was unable to reinstall it because windows is like 'Never allow reinstalling audio drivers'
that's just the way it is with audio drivers I think.
Now I have a new Bluetooth headset to replace it.
After running for a few hours, Windows 10 crashes.
also, if I'm using discord, I can't always hear sound from non-discord sources.
The error is something about:
GPC_Watchdog_Violation
What should I do? technically I can just not use the headset, but I need something that allows me to chat with people.
Post by: methylatedspirit on December 27, 2020, 08:53:17 am
I do have at least one thumb drive I can run utilities/other OSes off, so that's a class of options. What would be the lightest thing I could use to copy my files over, in that case? Ubuntu 18.xx and older don't like my laptop very much, probably due to the newness of the hardware, so I need something that's up-to-date.
Post by: wierd on December 27, 2020, 09:19:06 am
Put in the new SSD, and start windows.
Use diskutil to grow the partition to match the drive's size.
Post by: LordBaal on December 28, 2020, 06:25:30 pm
The best would be to find the games on a less shady way? If may I interject, gog installer files are a better source of games if they are there. However is better to actually buy from gog.
Post by: methylatedspirit on December 31, 2020, 05:57:20 am
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
a) Why is there a Microsoft reserved partition before the main partition?
b) Do I have to clone the Microsoft reserved partition in addition to the main partition onto my new SSD?
Post by: wierd on December 31, 2020, 06:09:35 am
Then there is the main OS partition.
The last partition is reserved space for partition alignment.
Just DD the entire device. In that case, SDA
I am guessing that /dev/sda is your current ssd, and /dev/sdb is your new one. The syntax would be like this
sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=4096
Just be VERY SURE of your input and output.
It will copy ALL partitions on the device.
Post by: methylatedspirit on December 31, 2020, 06:35:46 am
I suppose the syntax is almost the same if I plugged in the new SSD using said cable, just using "if=dev/sdb" and "of=dev/sdc" instead for the dd command?
Post by: wierd on December 31, 2020, 06:42:14 am
The next step after that is to use windows' DISKPART command to extend the partition so it fills the new volume.
That is multiple operations with diskpart, but not hard.
(run as administrator cmd.exe)
diskpart
select disk 0
select partition 2
extend
Post by: methylatedspirit on December 31, 2020, 06:48:22 am
Post by: wierd on December 31, 2020, 10:54:43 am
Post by: Starver on December 31, 2020, 11:25:17 am
Post by: methylatedspirit on January 02, 2021, 11:06:14 am
Plug in new SSD via USB-to-SATA -> Clonezilla (disk-to-disk copy to clone disks) -> Lubuntu -> KDE Partition Manager (resizing main partition to full disk capacity) -> Disassemble laptop -> (...) -> Swap SSDs -> Confirm new SSD is working -> Done
Clonezilla's so good, that when I try to plug in the old SSD, Windows refuses to mount it because of "a signature collision with another disk that is online". It's an exact, one-to-one copy. Same thing could've been accomplished with dd, but feels like way too much risk when it could be done without the fear that you've done something wrong. I wouldn't be surprised if Clonezilla actually uses dd under the hood.
Something went a little wrong in the "Swap SSDs" part, but the SSD's been working fine so far. Part of the clip to hold in the SATA header cable broke. Here's a picture of that:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Should I be concerned? How do I fix something this tiny?
Post by: LordBaal on January 02, 2021, 11:51:40 am
You still have the part that broke off? I would try to open it amd superglue it while open (so it doesnt end up shut forever) but most likely will break again.
A bit of silicon (I think it is called hot glue in english) migth help keeping it down and removing it without making futher damage is very easy. This is not really recomended but can help until a better fix is done.
The best option would be taking it to some electronic engineer or repair shop and change the whole clip if possible. But I sense that would be like too much of a hassle, specially rigth now.
If you dont have any issues with it rigth now then most likely you wont in the future unless the rest of the clip also breaks.
Post by: bloop_bleep on January 02, 2021, 04:07:39 pm
Post by: LordBaal on January 02, 2021, 04:11:09 pm
Is dielectric, can fill up space and be easily removed if needed.
Post by: King Zultan on January 03, 2021, 04:57:56 am
Clonezilla (disk-to-disk copy to clone disks)If I use this would I have to buy a new copy of Windows or would it still think the clone is the original install?
Post by: methylatedspirit on January 03, 2021, 05:45:13 am
Depends. Unless the source and target drives are both the same size, things will probably go wrong, assuming the source drive has an OS on it.Clonezilla (disk-to-disk copy to clone disks)If I use this would I have to buy a new copy of Windows or would it still think the clone is the original install?
If the source drive doesn't have an OS on it, it's perfectly fine, since there's no boot manager to screw up.
Trying to clone Windows boot drives with Clonezilla was not my finest moment. See, the annoying thing with Windows is that there's this Windows recovery partition, and it's placed pretty much at the end of the drive. I tried cloning a 1TB HDD with Windows on it to a 240GB SSD, moving the recovery partition with GParted so that it would fit in that smaller space.
Did not go well; Windows kept complaining that its essential files were corrupted and stuff. Absolute shitshow. I gave up and decided to just reinstall Windows onto the SSD, because that's far easier than trying to figure out how to stop that error. Maybe someone more competent can do it, but I can't. BTW, you can't do an upgrade-in-place and keep your files if you boot directly off the Windows install disk. You need to be able to boot into Windows first. Learned that the hard way.
That was an MBR install of Windows. I've heard that a GPT install would be more tolerant of this kind of partition screwery, but I fear that you'd still get the same error about the corrupted system files.
Overall, I don't recommend it for cloning Windows installs, but my experience is limited.
Also, you don't even need to buy a copy of Windows 10, if that's what you use. Either you can use the Media Creation Tool to download yourself an ISO file or make a USB thumb drive, or you can skip that nonsense using this article's method (changing user-agent strings) (https://www.howtogeek.com/427223/how-to-download-a-windows-10-iso-without-the-media-creation-tool/). I'd suggest skipping the tool entirely. Just get yourself an ISO of Windows 10 directly (the 64-bit version is what you probably need), and use Rufus to make yourself a Windows 10 install disk. It's the product key that costs money, not Windows itself.
Spoiler: Sidenotes for Windows 10 Install (click to show/hide)
I can't say for Linux. Maybe it's less sensitive to this kind of screwery. I think you'll have to restore the GRUB boot manager using your distro's install disk, at least.
Post by: King Zultan on January 03, 2021, 06:14:13 am
Also does the drive in your wanting to clone need to be be the one in use when cloning it?
Post by: LordBaal on January 03, 2021, 06:22:13 am
To check it out use this tool:
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html
(They have a lot more tools, all usefull overall).
On the list it will show there will be a key that will say "(Bios)".
That is your original OEM key that came with your machine when you bought it. Windows 7 users should rely on doing this on the original OS before wiping and installing anything else or in the stickers with the key somewhere in the laptop.
Now, if you have installed already another operative system and cant remeber which version of windows did you use, check it on this other program:
https://github.com/Superfly-Inc/ShowKeyPlus/releases
Among other things, that program has a tab were you can put a windows key and will let you know for which software is (not only OS's but programs too) and is safe, being open source and all, at least no problems for me so far.
Now, armed with the information of which is your key and for what specific version of windows is, go ahead, download the corresponding iso from Microsoft and do your thing...
One more thing, if by chances is not windows 10 but 7 or 8, but want to upgrade to 10, I have seen over the internet you can still upgrade it to 10 for free, but haven't really check it out.
Well shit I was hoping to salvage Windows 7 from a dying harddrive so I could fix my old laptop without having to buy a new harddrive and another copy of Windows 7.If you still have the key sticker around, or can open the OS and run the first program above to get it, and know which version of 7 is (ultimate, pro....) you can reinstall and use the same key, as long is the same mortherboard it should validate again.
Also does the drive in your wanting to clone need to be be the one in use when cloning it?
Post by: wierd on January 03, 2021, 06:24:15 am
https://www.nliteos.com/
The key is found in the registry at:
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProductId"
Get a list of all the installed updates from the history of windows update application. Then pull all the stand alone installers from the windows update support cache website.
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Home.aspx
You can pull them individually, then integrate them onto the installer using nLite. Then when you reinstall from that CD, it will immediately be up to date.
Post by: King Zultan on January 03, 2021, 06:35:50 am
Post by: methylatedspirit on January 03, 2021, 06:47:34 am
One more thing, if by chances is not windows 10 but 7 or 8, but want to upgrade to 10, I have seen over the internet you can still upgrade it to 10 for free, but haven't really check it out.I think Windows 7 and 8 keys work in Windows 10 perfectly fine, but it's tied to your motherboard, since it's a digital license. Not sure if it's invalid for Windows 7/8 after that.
Also does the drive in your wanting to clone need to be be the one in use when cloning it?
Not too clear on what that means. Interpreted as "Does the drive you wish to clone from (i.e. the source drive) need to be in use (unclear: "in use" interpreted as: "is plugged in as the main system drive using internal connectors (SATA, M.2...)") when cloning it?" Continuing with that interpretation:
Nah, as long as you've already plugged both drives in by some method (including USB-to-whatever adapters), it should be detected in Clonezilla. You could pull both the source and target drives out, and plug them into a completely unrelated system, and they would still be detected in Clonezilla. Just make sure you know which drive is which; your drives will only identified by their capacity and model number, no drive letters. I suggest using CrystalDiskInfo to know which one is which.
Post by: wierd on January 03, 2021, 06:55:52 am
One more thing, if by chances is not windows 10 but 7 or 8, but want to upgrade to 10, I have seen over the internet you can still upgrade it to 10 for free, but haven't really check it out.I think Windows 7 and 8 keys work in Windows 10 perfectly fine, but it's tied to your motherboard, since it's a digital license. Not sure if it's invalid for Windows 7/8 after that.
Might not be legal, but the windows 7 installer is offline, and does not verify the key against the windows update server on a fresh installation. It only validates that the key matches the microsoft hashing algorithm that generates keys.
Quote
Also does the drive in your wanting to clone need to be be the one in use when cloning it?
Not too clear on what that means. Interpreted as "Does the drive you wish to clone from (i.e. the source drive) need to be in use (unclear: "in use" interpreted as: "is plugged in as the main system drive using internal connectors (SATA, M.2...)") when cloning it?" Continuing with that interpretation:
Nah, as long as you've already plugged both drives in by some method (including USB-to-whatever adapters), it should be detected in Clonezilla. You could pull both the source and target drives out, and plug them into a completely unrelated system, and they would still be detected in Clonezilla. Just make sure you know which drive is which; your drives will only identified by their capacity and model number, no drive letters. I suggest using CrystalDiskInfo to know which one is which.
Windows Genuine Advantage was a component of windows 7, and it would keep information about the hardware an OS is installed on, so that you cannot say, bounce a removable drive between multiple hardware platforms.
When, how, and why WGA gets tripped, and then wants to call the mothership for re-authorization, is a valid source of concern.
Post by: LordBaal on January 03, 2021, 08:15:30 am
If I'm reading that right your saying I could pull the product key from the dying drive and use it to install windows 7 on a new drive and it would be okay with it and not make me buy it.So long is the same computer (mother board) it should work. Back in the day I heard tales of people changing too much their system, new video card, expansion cards, cd drives, ram or even cpu and the windows suddendly not activating because it was a "different" system, despite being still the same MB, never happened to me however.
It should be noted this is for OEM keys. Regular keys work on a number of activations instead.
Post by: King Zultan on January 04, 2021, 07:00:52 am
Post by: wierd on January 04, 2021, 07:24:26 am
Post by: Starver on January 04, 2021, 07:37:19 am
For exact current details, I'd defer to others who have done this properly (I'm still slightly regretting not getting an additional Win7 OEM licence while I still could, as I really don't like the way the Windows train went on from there) but the installs/massive rehardwarings I had to do up to Win8 (not my machines, but no sign it bothered the owners about anything like that after 30 days/whatever) were fairly painless as far as it went...
*ninjaed*
Post by: bloop_bleep on January 04, 2021, 12:20:26 pm
Post by: LordBaal on January 04, 2021, 01:38:39 pm
The board of the company decided (without input from anyone of IT, we were a headless department) it was time to adopt new technologies, so an update to windows 8 was the next move, right of the bat at the moment it came out. This kind of decisions, updating everyone at once, in the live environment without ample testing is... bad to say the least, but whatever. I opposed to the decision but the only one I could formally write about was the department boss which had not even a seat in most management meetings so... my last attempt was to at least allow for some training to the staff before the update, denied because "c'mon is very easy, I use it at home already".
Since nickle and diming is universal, of course I had to prepare and make sure every computer was capable of actually running the thing and some of them (still with XP) of course weren't, so I delayed the thing by soliciting new hardware which I knew took ages for them to process but the mother fuckers seemed to be out to get me and sent new replacement machines within a few weeks, which was a bittersweet surprise. But I digress.
The update was done and besides some compatibility issues with some programs everything went surprisingly smooth, to the point it took little over a week to do it on all computers it was possible (keep in mind I was working alone and the site was several square miles in terrain, some of the machines still run in XP to this day because of... reasons).
Soon I was flooded with calls of everyone trying to get to the desktop, confused over where the fuck the old button (start menu) was? Some printing issues but mostly the complains about the interface. While in practice it was better and performance actually improved on some machines, metro kicked around 70% of the users right in the face. After a few days the calls dropped but had to install a third party button for some of the oldest chaps, and ended up spreading like a wild fire, at the end of the month most of the machines had this software to emulate the old start menu and I was done with it.
So, long history short, 8 proved to have an UI change too radical for the average person, despite the optimization and all the good stuff, and being easily learned how to access the regular UI.
Post by: Starver on January 04, 2021, 02:27:46 pm
Spoiler: There's no TLDR, just skip this if you're not wanting to read a ramble. (click to show/hide)
...and ninjaed by LordBaal (yes, BTW, I agree with all you said here. And suggested elsewhere - to save myself making that reply. ;) ). At least my company of the time spent a good couple of years on Y2K testing (and general tested migration to 2K over many disperate 9x and even 3.x precursor desktops that came that way from equipment supliers large and small) and then a few years later (after even more testing to ensure data resilience across and between the new systems) did a mass conversion (and hardware change as necessary) to XP, I think only slightly before 7.
I left that position, jumped even... re: the other message, sounded very relatable..., before serious migration to 7 was considered. By my guess, the corporate standard is still for an Extended Support version of Seven outside of purely administrative desktops and maybe laptops, but then my recommendation was also to eschew any Wifi and yet, a few years later, I passed my old offices and checked with my Android and found a (seemingly secured, even guest-secured) corporate Wifi hotspot emanating from the premises.
Sorry, I put a whole load of GeekOut in spoilers, then GeekOut+ in the ninja-adding stuff which I now don't know how best to (also) Spoiler. This is not supposed to be me writing an Agony Aunt message. Apologies to all Normies who are only here for the proper questions and answers, not the extended nostalgia session.
Post by: dragdeler on January 09, 2021, 07:25:08 am
But I recently acquired a new SBC, an x86 this time: so a raspberry clone with an intel processer where you can install windows. That has given me the chance to see what W10 is like on real low-end systems. And really, it's not that bad. All the videos on single board computers you see online are people totally biased by linux... they will say linux isn't as sluggish, when the video drivers etc perform objectively worse (in the rare case you should be lucky enough to get it running on linux, I mean on x86 there is probably a way but Mali gpu on arm ARE A SCAM!!!!!!!!) and the only real advantage is that the desktop is a bit snappier at 1080p under linux (1080p is a but much for an atom x5-z8350, try 1024x600 on a touchscreen and tell me it isn't snappy linux nerd). W10 will actually launch in tablet mode at such resolutions, mode can be toggled with 2-3 clicks, turns out to be very good at having two windows on screen that have perfectly the same size, tablet mode sucks at the rest though. It is still more welcoming than w8 metro. I think w8 metro was just MS failed attempt at a smartphone centered future, and really they should stick to their fucking lane, why would you fuck up the whole competition with monopolistic bullshit only to copycat fucking hipsterdesigns, I swear executives are a special kind of dumb.
On the plus side: Nowadays you can set up multiscreen stuff and route every programm to another sound device directly in windows without it shitting itself too hard directsound never bluescreened on me, it's the only thing to make full use of DX12, and some stuff simply doesn't run anymore on old computers, for example, I was only able to launch path of diablo, the diablo 2 mod, on w10 ver2020h1(iirc the name). w10 is far from being perfect but compared to anything else? It just works... Sure I miss my w7 being MAIN but technology evolved.
But if you can, have an XP, 7 and 10, separately I swear I got enough stuff I can only run on one of them. Recently I tried to set up a virtual box to win98 but I couldn't get past the bootmanager to install it :(, I wanna play safecracker dammit.
Post by: King Zultan on January 09, 2021, 08:04:42 am
Recently I tried to set up a virtual box to win98 but I couldn't get past the bootmanager to install it :(, I wanna play safecracker dammit.This is why I keep around a few laptops that have 98 on them, also because I have loads of 98 and 95 games.
Also my mane problem with Win10 is that you can't disable the updates and there are some programs that no matter how many times you get rid of them they just come back.
Post by: Ulfarr on January 09, 2021, 09:00:50 am
10 Suffers from a bad reputation unfairly though.
It's not an unfair reputation. Win10 might be good enough from a technical standpoint but they're the very definition of anti-consumer policies.
When a previously working machine breaks down after their so called "update", then it's not the hardware's fault. Calling it "hacky customization" downplays the fact that they did a poor job at both making and testing said update. It's also shifts the blame to the end user because "how dare they use their previously working hardware".
When they hide the machine's settings and you have to spent hours researching how to do anything then any notion of user friendliness goes out of the window (pun intended). For fuck's sake for something as simple as changing the date format you have to 1) find the proper "control panel" because the so called "settings" don't have the needed options 2) change your region settings to country that commonly uses the format you want 3) go to the time/date settings and change the format.
When they mark otherwise unnecessary programms as vital simply becasue they happen to be products of theirs, but you don't use them , the OS doesn't use them and you can't get rid of them because even if you unistall them they'll be back in the next update then it's clear that they only care about shoving their bloatware on the end user without respect to their hardware limitations.
When their so called update that they force you to do, only changes the default programm for a certain task from your prefared one to the one their current executives want to promote then it's clear that they view your machine as their property.
Post by: dragdeler on January 09, 2021, 09:37:08 am
edit: fuck you what kind of key allows to post in one keyhit and then going back shows me a post message window with what I've written plus also a warning somebody posted, with the same message just below the box, that ain't right
anyway yeah I might go nuclear on the small pc to brick it from updating if I manage to, if I'm pleased with the results I might do it on the big one too, but I got a feeling that modern rtx shit and such won't run forever if I have that pc stuck in 2020
I agree that they are anti consumer, even more so in the long term, and evil monopolists. But I'd also say there is no consumer consideration to speak of anywhere else, to begin with:
-mac expensive proprietary hardware, annoying and limiting software formats... all that for a nice skin on the OS and good proprietary peripheral support, come throw money at your problems, meanwhile we don't even fucking bother with thermals
-android IMHO is actively working to uneducate people about tech, don't be concerned where your actual data is stored we will dillute the border between digital and RL, cloud and HDD, you have to get really hacky if you want to do whatever on android meanwhil, te the majority use it just a vector for advertising and having your personal data sold... try installing the appstore on an android that doesn't have it, or uninstalling it on an android that has it, and you will know what the fuck you're up against
-linux x86 is supposed to work but in practice, good luck hope you got very common and generic components
-linux arm their ENTIRE video acceleration hardware is a scam, not only are you fucked on the frontend for the usual linux reasons, no apparantly there is also licencing/ proprietary architecture sheenanigans concerning MALI, on top of being hardly supported by anybody or anything and opengl/es not actually being totally suited for 3d
So yeah pick your poison, I know I would be running windows7 on the maincomputer if it could support DX12.
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 09, 2021, 12:47:24 pm
But if you can, have an XP, 7 and 10, separately I swear I got enough stuff I can only run on one of them. Recently I tried to set up a virtual box to win98 but I couldn't get past the bootmanager to install it :(, I wanna play safecracker dammit.
Try PCem - it is a full x86 emulator that emulates anything up to a Pentium I (if host computer is fast enough), and runs 98 quite well. A bit of a pain to get running, but really nice once you do.
Post by: wierd on January 09, 2021, 04:35:31 pm
He should grab a win98 EBD from bootdisks.com, then use it to boot the virtual machine. Use DOS FDISK to set up the partition, and format the volume, then run the installer.
Post by: dragdeler on January 10, 2021, 10:23:04 am
Anyway I'm a bit confused about fans and their voltages etc, and kinda done spending money on experiments. Do all PWM fans support the same voltage range? Should I happen to pick a fan that was intended to go in a normal computer, will it have female ends on the cables (like for a gpio header)?
Post by: wierd on January 10, 2021, 12:32:17 pm
Post by: dragdeler on January 10, 2021, 01:27:50 pm
And just doing the exact same case with the exact same flaws, except a bit taller, seems stupid and lowballing the whole project, I am so fucking close to actual comfort of use. Fuck guess I'm not done sitting here and just looking at the damn case rev1 and googling for datasheets, holding like cardbox samples against the case.
Post by: Sensei on January 13, 2021, 08:28:13 pm
For 20H2, it tries to install and then reverts the update after bluescreening. However, I had a lot of trouble even getting into safemode. My solution was to use install media to force a safe mode boot after the first bluescreen, but before it restarted and automatically reverted the update. This time, it made things worse. At the login screen, I get the message "there was a problem with your pin". Clicking "enter pin" gives a prompt to download a program from the microsoft store (presumably the login service) which immediately fails. I have not found anyone else on the internet who has encountered this problem. There is NO option to log in with a password instead. I know the password is still tied to the account because I need to use the password for a command line boot, which works. However, I have not been able to find a way to fix the pin problem from the command line. I was able to use bcdedit to get it out of safe mode, but this did not resolve the issue. Now I seemingly have no way of reverting the update (or even checking if the update is actually installed) or logging in, and my options from the login screen or command line are limited.
I also tried a system restore on two system restore points, both of which failed.
So, if anyone knows a way to fix this particular problem, or forcibly create a new login/disable the pin, I'd love it. I do have access to the system files from another operating system.
Post by: dragdeler on January 30, 2021, 07:26:57 pm
Post by: Starver on January 30, 2021, 07:48:57 pm
I know that one can do exactly as you ask, assuming you're on a system with it/appropriate user access to it (though prob. need to "Run As Administrator"/whatever). Is the access issue your problem?
(Also, highly presuming Win10. Can't test my own Win10 system because I don't have one, or working access to anyone else's. But if you're into expanding on the question, maybe the person who is Win10ed up would appreciate knowing this. Good luck, and sorry if this looks like a lot of wordy nothingness.)
edit: Ok, I'm stupid. I read drag's answer to the long-unanswered prior issue as a brand new issue/question out of nowhere.
Post by: methylatedspirit on January 30, 2021, 07:56:42 pm
Is there a way to win+r "netplwiz" ?You mean open the Run dialogue and type in "netpwiz"? I mean, I did that in Windows 10, and got this as an Administrator-level user:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: dragdeler on January 30, 2021, 08:46:47 pm
...and type in "netpLwiz"...
Post by: Starver on January 30, 2021, 09:51:51 pm
Post by: methylatedspirit on January 30, 2021, 10:11:20 pm
Sry yes that's what I meant, it should help right? The issue is wether he'll be able to get in there in the first place
Checking back, it turns out that I put in "netplwiz" to get to that menu as intended, but when I came back to type it here, I omitted the all-important L. Oops. At least it's not like web addresses where if you mistype something, you end up with 40 different viruses on the computer. Windows just tells you off and tells you it doesn't exist. Now, if there exists typo-squatting malware for Windows commands... that would be absolutely devious. Imagine making a mistake and it just formats the entire drive. There's Suicide Linux, but I wanna see Suicide Windows.
Post by: dragdeler on February 03, 2021, 07:48:40 am
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And the only thing the search machine is willing to spit out is a bunch of idiots who don't want to install their drivers on the C drive >:(.
Post by: BigD145 on February 03, 2021, 01:11:58 pm
I have no clue how yours is set up. The installer should ask where to decompress everything. If you're using custom versions of the drivers then I don't have an answer for you.
Post by: dragdeler on February 03, 2021, 10:52:26 pm
Post by: wierd on February 03, 2021, 11:40:32 pm
Post by: BigD145 on February 04, 2021, 08:59:47 am
It did ask the first time, but ever since it will put these empty folders at the place I told him, and doesn't ask anymore :(I didn't know nvidia made garbage folders like that at all. I can't remember them ever doing that. My search turned up nothing.
Post by: dragdeler on February 04, 2021, 10:00:16 am
This is part and parcel with that "The user is too stupid to do the needful, so we will do everything for them-- Isn't that GREAT!?" trend.
They're training a generation of technologically illiterate people, I'm all for making things easier to use, but the iconification of everything goes so far beyond as to probably having an impact on alphabetism alltogether. I allways rant about this stuff but yeah, one day most people wont even think of things as files, not to mention know where they are. Go check teachers ranting about homeschooling, here is a quote I enjoyed: "Just because mom wouldn't even dare go on the store to download an app doesn't mean you're technologically competent". Ironically though among the list of complaints was students being unable to create logins containing the right info and syntaxe - instead of justing handing them out readymade ::). In conclusion we are doomed.
Post by: feelotraveller on February 04, 2021, 02:50:45 pm
I allways rant about this stuff but yeah, one day most people wont even think of things as files, not to mention know where they are.
One 'word' for you "regedit". (Actually two words, but I digress...) Oh, and a bucket of salt, hopefully directly on the wound. Only confirmation here is that windoze is smelly garbage. Please eject promptly.
Post by: Duuvian on February 05, 2021, 03:06:48 am
Also I imiagine it could be useful in driving and flying video games where on/off switches make controls jerky with keyboard sometimes because you are stuck at one angle of turn unless you tap or it's one of those hellish toggle step control schemas like the rudder in the old Red Baron 2.
I noted that playing my typing keyboard in FL Studio the guitar either blares a note at whatever settings it's at or it's not playing a note, with no ability to have quieter (or other effects variable by amount of key depression) notes from lighter keypresses. Since it's a synth guitar, it should be capable of increasing and decreasing volume or whatever in a way without a new strike of the strings like a real guitar, which would be simulated by a new keypress. I could set that up by programming (via graph music is fun) the right knobs to turn on various UI as I play but that is a real pain in the butt to do free form. Maybe guitar was a bad example... Anyways though it would be nice to be able to throw in quieter notes for more variety as well as to be able to "wiggle" a key so the same note receives whatever modifier key depression is tied to, if that level of wizardry is even possible in FL Studio.
If not, it might be useful for games maybe? Surely not a boondoggle of a really niche keyboard that doesn't exist?
Post by: dragdeler on February 05, 2021, 07:15:19 am
Tssss :D (https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/peripheral/keyboards/mk850/)
Afaik the original xbox had pressure sensitive buttons on the right side, and I don't think they discontinued them for cost reasons... buttons are kinda supposed to be 0-1.
Alternatively you find yourself a midi controller or pianokeyboard. With bome's midi controller you can map keyboard keys "globally" to it, not just in single programs.... But be it the readymade keyboard from the link or some hacked together stuff... I think there won't be a lot of games that play along if you map analog to a keyfunction, idk I never tried remapping an analog key from my gamepad to to a normal key function in a game, but I'd reckon 98% of things still would only work as vulgar key.
Post by: Mephisto on February 05, 2021, 01:35:56 pm
Check out some animations to see how linear and tactile differ. (https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/faqs.php?q=mechanical_switch_difference)
Post by: wierd on February 06, 2021, 11:50:17 am
About the only thing that really makes sense, is to have it somehow change the typematic rate, or maybe, if you POUND on the keys, have the computer interpret it as bold font?
Personally, I would say this is something that calls for a custom electronics project, with say, an ATMega or something driving it. Have it present itself as a HID class USB game pad, with 103 trigger switches.
Post by: Starver on February 06, 2021, 12:50:08 pm
As you type, with varying amounts of pressures detecected [1] it can accept 'possible' and reject 'unlikely' keys that are merely brushed and save the user the need to waste time fully depressing everything.
See also the Ig Nobel Prize for Computer Science, 2000 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners#2000)! And of course there's an xkcd (https://xkcd.com/1068/) or two (https://xkcd.com/1427/) that might be considered relevent.
(In reality, I really would like a keyboard to be definite. While at the same time I have pressed down so much on more than one set of cursor keys in (e.g.) driving games where I really want more speed/turning/etc that I've actually worn the printed arrows out, warn the textured surface flat and even worn through the surface to reveal part of the void within...)
[1] Which can also be used to somewhat identify the operator. Already there are systems that profile the typing cadence and transitions (c.f. a telegraph operator's "fist"). No longer would it be possible for the (pro/an)tagonist in a film to dust the password entry system[2] and magically come up with what the legitimate user would have entered for their own successful
[2] Personally, when it comes to the fancy electronic-screen style fancy keypads, like the one in Entrapment (Connery/Zeta-Jones, 1999) with the characters necessary for "Don't use a cannon to kill mosquitoes", I'd have thought adding a randomised position (perhaps additional words, perhaps multiple key-phrases (per authorised person (+'duress' phrases to activate silent alarms?)) with the current choices available dictating which is applicable to this instance.
Post by: Duuvian on February 10, 2021, 10:59:54 pm
Tssss :D (https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/peripheral/keyboards/mk850/)
https://store.coolermaster.com/us/mk850-red
M4: Advanced Flight Mode - Aimpad is enabled in all 8 keys: QWER, ASDF. WASD will function like the left analog stick, Q and E will function as the Right and Left triggers, R and F will function as the up and down on the Right stick.
That is much closer than what I expected existed, thanks. I'll keep an eye out for a sale. It seems to use Xbox controller drivers so it should be useful in Planetside 2, though whether I could get it to work in FL Studio is another question. I wonder if that would mean I could translate that into playing synth guitar through an Xbox controller. That would be funny.
Post by: methylatedspirit on February 16, 2021, 10:25:53 am
What's the best way to do this? I own a Windows machine myself, but I also have access to a Linux box, so I can also use that if it ends up being more convenient.
Post by: Starver on February 16, 2021, 11:07:13 am
Or use a Linear-Feedback Shift Register like the XORShift method (easier to make the elemental binary work[1] without worrying about double-double-wide bitfields needing large relative-primes to be used in the mathematics). Just check the details on periodicity and make the state-width wide enough to add enough orders of magnitude above this to be happy. Then pump each byte (as you get it, whether as a trickle or a flow) into your ~GB reference file until it's large enough. First try it on a MB (if not KB) output, with the GB-capable algorithm, just to make sure you're not gonna wait five months. Shouldn't do (and if streaming to disc, the state-memory shouldn't strain your RAM capacity) but depends on how clunkily you implemented it. ;)
Ummm... TL;DR;, look up LCG and LFSR pseudocode, and any notes on best use, and see if either tickle your fancy.
[1] I could probably hack up a very inefficient .BAT-based implementation, for at least the bitwise shuffling, but .sh, Java/Python/Perl and then actual compiled from a C-dialect/whatever would almost certainly be better with proper write-as-binary 'garbage-makers'. And if you're planning on sometbing like using the stream to flip raw pixel values, for codex-conversion/deconversion, you might be able to preformat it into the reference raw format of your choice and cut out the intermediate stage.
Post by: wierd on February 16, 2021, 01:56:12 pm
You can use such a PCIe to LPT card, along with a doubled up version of the circuit found here (https://hackaday.com/tag/entropy/) to get 8bits wide white noise on demand, at a pretty high sample rate.
You would attach the bit output lines from the 2 circuits to the D0 through D7 lines of a DB25 male connector, while connecting the common grounds to the grounds of the noise generator circuit, and then plug it into your LPT card.
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTjHYR1LF2vH3f4XNU9K1JoFwy9Rj7rMvkC8A&usqp=CAU)
(No, USB->LPT cables cannot handle bit-banging like this.)
From there, you could get a continuous, unbroken stream of random from that port whenever you read from it that is 8 bits wide. (one byte per sample)
The max sample rate of a high end parallel port is ~2mb/sec, so you are talking a good long while to get 1gb worth of random, but you can be assured that it is good quality analog random from quantum mechanical breakdown events occurring randomly in the zener diodes in your little dongle. Alternatively, you could feed the quality random source to a pseudorandom generator as a randomly changing seed, to boost random value generation rates.
Post by: methylatedspirit on February 24, 2021, 10:57:26 am
1) What RAID configuration do I use? I'd like it to be able to handle 1 disk failure (out of 4), and maximize space efficiency. Read and write speeds don't matter to me; it's long-term video storage.
2) What file system do I use? I daily drive a Windows machine, but I have intermediary drives that are compatible with Windows anyways, since it's a bit unsafe to carry 4 drives (some of which are 3.5") back and forth. The NUC itself is a Linux box. With that in mind, I want to explore other file systems that Linux is compatible with. Which ones are good for long-term storage, and are compatible with a stable software RAID config?
Post by: wierd on February 24, 2021, 12:26:26 pm
4 1TB drives will give you ~3TB of RAID storage, with 1TB of RAID parity data striped over the array. The failure of one disk, is able to be overcome using the distributed parity on the other volumes. More than a single failure will down the array without chance of recovery.
I would use EXT4, with the proper RAID options set for stripe and stride.
Linux can do all this with software based RAID, using the [md] driver and toolchain.
Post by: methylatedspirit on March 10, 2021, 10:26:02 am
Post by: Starver on March 10, 2021, 10:54:34 am
Assuming new? Assuming never ever worked? Pursue a Return+refund/Replacement maybe. Or at least the vendor may already be aware of many such prior enquiries towards that end and either understand there's a broken batch or know the very simple solution/point you at the driver update that I failed to find any evidence of.
I'm afraid my direct experience of bluetooth/wireless keyboards is limited to one that did not require actual PIN identification (sounds sensible enough an idea, above mere temporal authority) and several that were pre-tied to their own USB dongles (whatever the actual protocol used was) but that promised two-year battery life sounds good compared to what my replacement schedule has been.
Post by: Uthimienure on March 10, 2021, 01:49:48 pm
I want to scan the drive and see if it will fix it (happened before with success) and recover the data.
Tried hooking up the drive using an IDE to SATA adapter & SATA power cable to 2 other PCs, one XP and one Win10.
Neither would recognize that a drive was present.
Tried the Device Manager, no luck.
So I tried the same with the bad PC's second drive, which is known to work. Not recognized.
Not sure what I'm missing.
Post by: LordBaal on March 10, 2021, 02:25:52 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 10, 2021, 06:27:11 pm
Post by: LordBaal on March 10, 2021, 07:36:42 pm
If is not that, then yes, fiddle around with the jumpers, put them on master or auto. Also if possible check if the ide cable is good, actually start with that.
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 10, 2021, 08:15:43 pm
Post by: Uthimienure on March 10, 2021, 08:44:20 pm
It's not the power supply. The computer begins to boot, then hangs at a particular point (same every time). When this exact thing happened to the same HD in the same computer a few years back, I was able to boot using a Linux Puppy CD and then scan the drive & fix it. This time, the drive wouldn't show up in Puppy, which is weird because it's hanging exactly like it did last time, to my memory.
So I tried what I described above, since in the meantime I got the Win10 box. I've tried two IDE to SATA adapters in case one was bad, both plug directly into the IDE drive and use a jumper power cable. A separate SATA power cable goes from it to the motherboard, got 2 of those also.
The master/slave ideas I should try (this is by fiddling with jumpers) and I'll look into it. Thanks again.
Post by: wierd on March 10, 2021, 09:49:45 pm
Does it properly spin up?
Does it make repeating clicking sounds?
Post by: Uthimienure on March 10, 2021, 10:33:52 pm
When you power on the drive, listen to it carefully.
Does it properly spin up?
Does it make repeating clicking sounds?
Do I check this with the drive put back into the original computer, or with the adapter in the new PC?
Post by: wierd on March 10, 2021, 10:54:21 pm
Post by: Uthimienure on March 10, 2021, 11:18:52 pm
edit: Tried it with the jumper in all 5 positions. Scanned for new hardware with device mgr. Nothing.
Post by: King Zultan on March 11, 2021, 04:49:54 am
Also once you get the hard drive running again you should backup all the stuff on it in case it's dying.
Post by: wierd on March 11, 2021, 05:00:56 am
What hard disk model is it exactly? (the numbers on the top of the drive) I can look to see I can get specific info on it.
Post by: LordBaal on March 11, 2021, 05:54:28 am
Do not, under any condition open up the drive itself.
Post by: Uthimienure on March 11, 2021, 10:33:55 am
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: King Zultan on March 12, 2021, 03:22:58 am
Post by: Uthimienure on March 12, 2021, 07:49:43 am
Tried hooking up the drive using an IDE to SATA adapter & SATA power cable to 2 other PCs, one XP and one Win10.
Neither would recognize that a drive was present.
Tried the Device Manager, no luck.
So I tried the same with the bad PC's second drive, which is known to work. Not recognized.
Post by: wierd on March 12, 2021, 08:10:25 am
LordBaal is right; Since it is not making the click of death, the platter and read-head are probably still OK, you likely have a toasted controller board. Replacing the controller board with that from an identical drive, has a chance of letting you get at that data.
The question is if you are willing to go that far to get it or not.
Post by: gimlet on March 12, 2021, 08:17:40 am
I did this once like 10 years ago with a drive that died with the "click of death" symptom, and it did work long enough to get the few semi-important files off that had changed since I last backed it up. I would not have tried it on a drive with important irreplaceable files, but I had fairly recent backups and wanted to see if I could recover the few days of notes and savegames since then, and it was not a catastrophe if it completely killed the drive because the stuff on there wasn't important enough to try or pay for any further recovery.
Warnings: It can damage the drive further. If it does work, it's not a fix you have time measured in minutes to get the important stuff copied off. Don't plan on being able to do it over and over, whatever deteriorated to kill it is probably still happening and there's no reason it might not keep getting worse. Some files could be corrupted, be prepared because that's fairly common with old failing drives. Try absolutely everything else first. Good luck.
Post by: Uthimienure on March 12, 2021, 08:24:07 am
Replacing the board is not something I would do, so it's probably time to just give up on the drive. Freezing... maybe.
Let's call this issue closed. If I fix it some day, I'll probably post back.
:)
Post by: LordBaal on March 12, 2021, 10:21:28 am
Post by: Starver on March 12, 2021, 11:16:03 am
8)
Post by: King Zultan on March 13, 2021, 03:32:57 am
Post by: wierd on March 13, 2021, 03:47:56 am
These happen for a number of reasons, but the major ones are "Component thermal flexing during IR oven cure process", and "Insufficient soak time in IR oven".
Most printed circuit boards use a mechanically screen printed solder paste (https://www.globalsources.com/Inkjet-printer/Automatic-Injet-Solder-Paste-Printing-machine-1180644024p.htm#1180644024), onto which individual discrete components and ICs are placed using a Pick and Place machine (https://www.robotdigg.com/product/1083/Benchtop-Pick-and-Place-Machine-TVM925-or-TVM926?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIp8a_0fGs7wIV0TizAB1qPA3kEAQYAiABEgKxu_D_BwE). They are then placed into an IR curing oven (https://www.vevor.com/products/t-962a-lead-free-reflow-oven-infrared-heater-pcb-ic-soldering-station-2300w?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIiK7CrPGs7wIVZBtlCh38WgTdEAQYBiABEgIi1PD_BwE), which flash-heats the circuit board to melt the solder and make it flow on the circuit board's contact pads.
If the components flex during this process, they bend up and away from the solder pad as the solder is cooling, causing cracks and voids in the solder joint. Likewise, if there is insufficient time in the IR oven, the solder is not flowed sufficiently, and the joins are poor quality.
Your average consumer does not have a flash-heating IR oven. They MAY however, have a nice electric range oven that they can set the circuit board into to re-flow the solder with using another "IR Oven Treatment" (ahem).
It is usually preferable to use a small nozzle hot air SMD gun rather than an electric range, and to only spot-treat where the bad joins are-- OR, to use a proper hot-work workstation that has a proper IR annealing oven. BUT, unless you fix A LOT of electronics for a living, those are expensive bits of kit. The electric range oven is something a good many people have to make dinner with, and thus probably have on hand.
The more you know.
For a recent high-profile example of dry solder joints, would be the infamous "Red Ring of Death" from the XBOX360's lifecycle. (https://blog.seattlepi.com/digitaljoystick/2008/01/19/inside-source-reveal-the-truth-about-xbox-360-red-ring-of-death-failures/)
Post by: LordBaal on March 13, 2021, 06:39:51 am
It was an old Gforce 980, I remember being top-notch equipment back in the day but at that point it was already old. It worked perfectly for a while until it failed again, then it was replaced because I was not basically homeless back then and could afford the eventual hardware replacement
Post by: Starver on March 23, 2021, 07:15:56 am
Oddly, it does not appear to stop my Chrome browser, as advertised (and Firefox is OK) but it has rendered most of the entertainments on here (a couple of Idle-type games, Hill Climb Racing, etc) unusable. I imagine others may still be stumped, though, so in case they're currently reading this... Here you are.
And now a long bit with an apology at the end, on a¿n unrelated? problem that I also want to get off my chest...
On Android issues, though, I'm also getting today a lot of editing problems in places such as this here Post Reply textbox. Does not generally seem to be restricted to Firefox (though so far today I haven't had it happen in Chrome yet), nor this site (I can't find page-script reasons for it going wrong, either) and I've only ever encountered it on Android platforms, infrequently, but today it seems that every other textbox editing seems subject to it. I'm mostly blaming it on the interface with the on-screen keyboard (I've changed it in the past, but not conclusively ruled out ot happens on others... and it takes so long to get used to a subtly different implementation as well).
The most common (prior) symptom hasn't happened today, but seems related to some internal buffer-pointer value going wrong. If editing away, appending further characters, I decide to backspace a few characters (error or changed mind) very occasionally those few characters - or something similar - seem to be 'remembered' and then after every space I type as I continue this 'strange buffer' (it's not the paste-buffer) is appended to the stream of text, post-cursor. It can be deleted or not, it matters neither way, but further examples are further postpended to the cursor position whilst I'm still (nominally) tapping in to the end of my regular text. Thus if "end" is the rogue text I might end up with "A sentence with rogue text at the.|endendendendend" with "|" being the cursor position. Moving the edit-cursor away from the (intended, non-rogue) end-of-text position negates this, so one solution is to forget the last (proper) word, for now, insert it anew in front of itself and continue, then delete out the old last word and whatever "endendend"s I'd left for the duration. Another 'solution', available in this forum, is to Preview (reloads the page) which resets the behaviour to forget the 'autoappending strange-buffer', and might convince me it's a forum-code error if it weren't happening elsewhere (and never happening under Windows). In this instance I can also avoid it by never backspacing, at least not from the end-of-text position, but editing just the bit I would have backspaced to, despite being sometimes more fiddly.
It smells of an error in the cursor-position offset vs text-memory, a clash of secondary storage with buffer underflow/overflow mismatching that something is trying to reconcile by taking the 'missing' text from the buffer/character-array that did not remember the backspacing and concatenating to the character-array currently being used in the visible textbox. But only when a spacebar (perhaps certain other non-letter characters, maybe LF too?) is tapped, which implies it is closely tied to some embedded subsystem that like to recognise word-boundaries, such as a spill-chucker, or maybe Google's thing that spies on what I type to 'facilitate' future ad/search results.
The other related fault, which is actually the only one experienced today, but at a significantly greater rate than before, is interaction with the markup buttons (B I U
Not today, though (or rarely, but still annoyingly, in the past). Highlight a pre-typed word-or-words and tag, make sure the cursor is beyond the tags, continue typing and... tagged elements vanish (as if under a Selection at the time). Start a blank tag, type within, send cursor to beyond the tag (end-of-text) and type, the cursor flashes to back within the tags and you're still italicising/whatever the new text. As well as using Preview-resetting, sometimes it seems possible to move the cursor position to pre-tag, do something there (random character, then backspace it away), move the cursor to end-of-text and continue as intended, but it may have more subtleties to it as it still does not always seem to work.
In fact, because it is happening every time I use the tag-buttons, right now, I also had it where the random-char was being inserted into the end of the tag (as was backspace, if I tried the "backspace + retypechar" variant) and nothing but the Preview-reload method nullified the strange cursor-tying phenomenon. Which, again, seems likely to be something to do with conflicting ideas of text-pointer positions in various character-arrays involved. Though hard to test in Chrome as I don't have an equivalent place with tag-insertion buttons on any site I visit in that browser, and it's this feature that seems most relevent here.
I have an idea that speed of 'typing' might be the issue. For corrective backspacing away the end-of-text I may multi-hammer the backspace 'key' (of the on-screen keyboard) fast enough to cause some event.message or other to be lost between subsystems that are 'keeping count'. The tag-buttons immediately insert seven, nine, etc, characters into the (apparent) text (edit: and Horizontal Rule puts in four, leaving + /forcing/ the cursor at the very next position) and - again - this could conceivably overwhelm some message-passing, though I don't know why it is a 100% issue this morning compared to ultra-rare before last night. (In looking to investigate the page-top problem of my Idle-clicker 'fun' being aborted, I had totally restarted the tablet, so its not obviously because it needs a restart to freshen up the active memory, something I may do very occasionally otherwise, and I'm more likely to restart due to very low battery.)
Addendum: I just discovered that doing a blank-tag (the bold 'separator' now inserted between the WebView info and these later issues), typing its contents and then trying to re-edit the contents *also* sends cursor to just within the end of that tag again. Again, solved by Preview, but I'd obviously not tried that variation of editing. Annoying. I may even start to revert to /italic/, *bold* and _underline_ conventions more in the foreseeable future, where I think it won't confuse people!
Not sure, if you're even still reading, I'm hoping for a solution to this 'problem' of mine. I know I've been unable to Google-Fu any reasons (or confirmation of my suspicions) posted anywhere, in the past. Apparently nobody else has documented anything similar, that I can find. So I thought that maybe *I* should, however an obscure locale this may be to general web-traffic around these issues. At least until I find that another change (or even this initially mentioned WebView one itself?) has now made it a notable plight amongst the Android community and suddenly it is creating chaos across a very wide spread of people...
(Sorry, yes, long. There's no easy TL;DR; explanation. Though I sincerely tried!)
Post by: Schmaven on March 23, 2021, 04:21:30 pm
Post by: lethosor on March 23, 2021, 04:22:34 pm
Post by: Starver on March 23, 2021, 06:27:37 pm
Oh, darnit. Having decided to spoiler these two sections, I did them sequentially with the buttons I said (below) I'd stop using, without Previewing between to 'normalise' the changes. Datum point: It put the second Spoilers in the right spot (below), but in the procesz erased the whole first spoiler-encasement (what was here until just before).
Summary of what I said is... WebView does not exist in "Android Settings|Apps" area. Cannot getting into "Android Settings|Google services" area (it complains that "Google Play services has" stopped/similar), and there's no sign even of an unrequested update. Going to Play Store and finding the (official, Google LLC) instance suggests it is Disabled and offers no uninstall/install/reinstall/rollback options that I might have expected from other Store items (including of discontinued items) from past experience. It is dated 22 March, but whether thats pre-change, on-change or an emergency re-change when they discovered they'd broken loads of devices I don't know without a time of day (and timezone).
There's no (relevent) Apps awaiting updating, the last things that did update (asked/allowed or otherwise did so anyway) were "3 days ago" when I checked that summary yesterday, and now aren't even mentioned.
The apps that are broken I'm happy to leave broken (time-wasters, all of them - and no problems yet seen with GMail/Chrome, despite supposed to be having them on there too) and one even goes so far as to tell me how much offline 'idle progress' it made since the last (attempted) startup, so I'll probably check in on that one every day to see if it invisibly fixes itself.
@lethosor, re: keyboard
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Having vented about this[1] sudden change (which I probably shouldn't have, except that I had done a lot of personal testing and perhaps felt I should at least mention it to stop duplication of effort), I'm still rather less inclined to have to redo a new keyboard again than I am to just type my own markup for as long as it seems necessary. It's the forward-slash that annoys me most. Only ever features on the 'prime key layout' when I'm editing an address-bar, yet the backslash is here on the 'w' key as long-press alternative.
Again, sorry for the (relatively) huge write-up. If I had a blog I'd probably have been better just publishing something about this on there. Instead I chose this thread on this forum to (not entirely) randomly effuse about all this. I should have just stuck with "Hey, there's this thing Google broke. Be aware!" and kept away from trying to explain the various minutiae of my own experiences. If it helps anyone, good, but the chances are slim.
[1] These sudden changes? It does seem quite 'coincidental' that I'm suddenly getting WebView/GooglePlay issues (albeit not in browsers, though apparently I should be) from one invisible/unannounced/unrecorded system update and a separate Google Keyboard issue (increasing what was/were ultra-rare glitching(s) now to an 'absolutely every time a common action is made'), pretty much starting at the very same time. I noted the WebView thing about 28-30 hours ago, and the keyboard issue must have started 18-24 hours ago. Both changes possibly under the 'gift' of Google's coders, perhaps arising from a single codepoint revision trickling down through separate dependency chains, though it's not obvious which key change could cause this.
Post by: AzyWng on March 28, 2021, 09:45:00 pm
I'm... not really sure what to do. I got the laptop a few years ago, but I didn't expect it to show its age in quite this manner...
Post by: LordBaal on March 28, 2021, 10:00:46 pm
Most likely is the flex that communicates the screen with the motherboard, it can be either loose or failing. This is something relatively cheap and easy to replace.
The worst case is your video card is failling, and being a laptop most likely is integrated into the motherboard, so replacing it means replacing the whole motherboard.
Post by: AzyWng on March 28, 2021, 10:02:48 pm
Post by: Starver on March 29, 2021, 07:01:23 am
I'm actually guessing flex/interference, as well, as first thoughts[1], and the other things mentioned as primary fall-back theories. But that's sight-unseen and maybe a better description (or the screenshot, if it actually shows anything) would widely refine our remote opinions.
[1] If the usual ferrite ring looped with the multicore cable has cracked and fallen off, maybe? Any obvious mechanical rattles associated with the hinge area?
Post by: LordBaal on March 29, 2021, 09:05:38 am
Post by: AzyWng on March 29, 2021, 11:11:03 am
I'll try to see if I can get a screenshot/photo some time, but it only appears for a split second, so I don't know if I can actually get an image of it.
I don't hear any rattling when I open or close the laptop...
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 06, 2021, 04:30:25 am
Code: [Select]
FOR /L %%X IN (0,4,64) DO (
ffmpeg -s 32x32 -r 30 -f rawvideo -pix_fmt rgb24 -i foo-bar.raw -b:v %%Xk -c:v libx264 foo-bar-libx264-%%Xk.mkv
ffmpeg -i foo-bar-libx264-%%Xk.mkv -f rawvideo -pix_fmt rgb24 foo-bar-libx264-%%Xk.raw
)
Very naive; just goes from 0 to 64 with a step size of 4. I don't need most of those. I just need the values {1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64} (and later powers of 2, if the want arises), and I know that the easiest way is just do 2^n. Unfortunately, there is no native way to do that in Batch. You have to do loops. So I extracted this from a Stack Overflow answer (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5253356/does-a-power-to-function-in-batch-files-exist-exponent):
Code: [Select]
:: calculate x^n
SET x=3
SET n=5
SET result=1
FOR /L %%i IN (1,1,%n%) DO SET /A result*=x
ECHO %result%
Putting this in a batch file and running it from Explorer doesn't quite work. Running from cmd does work. I've redirected the output when running from Explorer, and it simply does not work; yields a result of "0" instead of the expected "243".
How do I patch that code so that it runs correctly running from Explorer? I'm running Windows 10 20H2, if that helps.
Post by: wierd on April 06, 2021, 08:40:18 am
(the shortcut points to cmd.exe, and passes the name and path of your batch file as an argument.)
Alternatively, you might consider a .hta file instead of a .bat or .cmd file. Those are executed with either the windows scripting host, or by internet explorer, and can contain VBScript, or Javascript, and thus-- have full power to do the needful.
https://599cd.com/tips/hta/beginner/B1/
They can be coaxed to fire off command line invocations--
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/how-can-i-start-an-application-from-an-hta/
This seems to be a case of "when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail", when what you really need is a screwdriver, and a screw. Either VBScript or Javascript will give you full math function, actual variables, arrays, and anything else you could reasonably ask for-- and since you can fire off commandline invocations using a string (and have access to string manipulation functions with VBS and JS), they sky would be the limit.
You could also just invoke the windows scripting host with a .vbscript file directly, and cut out the .hta container completely. (but then you couldn't make a ghetto GUI.)
Post by: Arx on April 06, 2021, 08:50:17 am
Code: [Select]
os.system for most simple use cases. And Python is probably a more long-term useful skill too...
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 06, 2021, 10:08:35 am
Code: [Select]
import os
## Define variables. Change as needed.
filename = "foo-bar"
extension = ".raw"
intermediate_extension = ".mkv"
encoder = "libx264"
inSize = "32x32"
pix_fmt = "rgb24"
framerate = "30"
# Bitrate, given in bits per second.
b = 16000
# Generates input side for encoding command
input_side_enc = " -f rawvideo" + " -s " + inSize + " -r " + framerate + " -pix_fmt " + pix_fmt + " -i " + filename + extension
#### Output filename of encoded file will be used later
output_enc_filename = filename + "-" + encoder + "-" + str (b)
# Generates output side for encoding command
output_side_enc = " -c:v " + encoder + " -b:v " + str(b) + " " + output_enc_filename + intermediate_extension
# Combining to generate full encoding command. "-y" flag used to always overwrite.
cmd_enc = "ffmpeg" + " -y " + input_side_enc + output_side_enc
# Generates input and output sides for decoding command.
input_side_dec = " -i " + output_enc_filename + intermediate_extension
output_side_dec = " -f rawvideo" + " -pix_fmt " + pix_fmt + " " + output_enc_filename + extension
# Generates output side for decoding command. "-y" flag used to always overwrite.
cmd_dec = "ffmpeg" + " -y " + input_side_dec + output_side_dec
## Prints commands used. For debugging purposes; superfluous otherwise
print(cmd_enc)
print(cmd_dec)
## Runs the actual commands
#os.system(cmd_enc)
#os.system(cmd_dec)
And the FOR-looped 2^n version is almost identical, replacing
Code: [Select]
b = 16000withCode: [Select]
for x in range (0,8):
b = 1000*2**xand indenting every line afterwards.
Post by: lethosor on April 12, 2021, 09:36:17 am
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on April 16, 2021, 07:19:35 am
Post by: Starver on April 16, 2021, 08:06:20 am
(More seriously... It won't be (just) the CPUs fault, I imagine. Have you actually seriously checked for viruses, and with what? I'm imagining you can see processes running, and taking up resources, but what are they? They might be bloatware you can uninstall/neuter.)
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 16, 2021, 08:13:35 am
For any system that's considered slow, there has to be something that is limiting its performance to the point that it gets intolerably slow. I won't discuss malware/software; that's not something I have experience with. The most likely thing, if it's a hardware issue, is a disk bottleneck (which seems to be my favorite line when encountering slow PCs), but I need more information. CPU bottlenecks are rare, as Starver mentioned.
Assuming you're running Windows 10, go into Task Manager, click on the "Performance" tab, and it will show you basic system info. I (or I guess we?) specifically need:
CPU model number
RAM size (speed not important; RAM speed is almost never a factor in system usability)
Full model number of your boot drive (usually C:)
If it's Linux you're running, the command you need is
Code: [Select]
sudo lshw -short -sanitizeAnd just copy and paste the output here. The -sanitize part is to remove sensitive details. I'll assume that you know how to pipe the output to a text file if you can't directly copy the terminal output for whatever reason.
Post by: Starver on April 16, 2021, 08:21:47 am
(Though meth has a good and comprehensive reply that will probably start you off better than my more primitive suggestions.)
Post by: LordBaal on April 16, 2021, 08:30:30 am
Have you cleaned the thing? Run Speccy and check temperatures.
Post by: anewaname on April 16, 2021, 09:12:37 am
Post by: ArchimedesWojak on April 16, 2021, 09:48:35 am
Post by: coalboat on April 20, 2021, 11:48:35 pm
Post by: wierd on April 20, 2021, 11:56:36 pm
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 20, 2021, 11:59:22 pm
If REISUB doesn't work, that means the kernel itself is unresponsive, so I'm willing to bet a hardware/system config issue first rather than a kernel issue (assuming you're not running bleeding-edge kernels). I'll wait for the syslogs, though.
Post by: wierd on April 21, 2021, 01:05:18 am
That would show up prominently in the old syslog.
Post by: coalboat on April 21, 2021, 01:35:47 am
Post by: wierd on April 21, 2021, 02:35:49 am
You will see many files with names like syslog.1.gz, syslog.2.gz, etc.
Sort by date, and pick the one appropriate to the date of the crash.
Post by: coalboat on April 21, 2021, 03:14:34 am
Post by: wierd on April 21, 2021, 03:26:33 am
Wait for it to happen a second time, then be johnny on the spot with the syslog.
Post by: coalboat on April 21, 2021, 05:02:28 am
Post by: wierd on April 21, 2021, 05:05:57 am
Graceful shutdown requires the OS to be able to service clearing the FS cache, and comitting the journal before unmounting the filesystems.
If the kernel is too bonkers to do that, the only option is hard off.
Post by: coalboat on April 21, 2021, 09:40:38 am
Post by: King Zultan on April 28, 2021, 04:06:26 am
There is a Microsoft label on the bottom of a laptop I have and on this label it says product key, is this key the one needed to install Windows on the computer?
I'm asking because the original drive with the OS from the computer is dead and I was wondering if I could use that key to put a new copy on the laptop.
I did ask some stuff about this earlier but it's looking like I won't be able to get the key from the drive.
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 28, 2021, 04:28:55 am
For Windows 7 and 8, you will need to have that key on hand. I don't think they have any kind of automatic, hardware-tied activation that works as soon as you connect to the Internet.
(Of course, if they don't work, Windows keys cost next to nothing from third-party sellers online. I don't know about the ethics of it, but the option's there.)
Post by: King Zultan on April 28, 2021, 05:55:38 am
Now here's my followup question that I have a feeling I already know the answer to but am going to ask anyway just to confirm.
The laptop in question originally had Windows 7 32 bit on it, but since that copy is dead can I replace it with Windows 7 64 bit?
Post by: BigD145 on April 28, 2021, 10:43:11 am
Post by: King Zultan on April 29, 2021, 02:49:01 am
Also are there any brands of hard drive I should avoid?
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 29, 2021, 03:25:16 am
Hard drive... for boot drives, I'd still suggest SSDs, just on basis of being faster. Windows 7 has full support for those. Regardless of what you pick, you have to use common sense here; if it comes from a brand that no-one's heard of (apart from random forum posts), I wouldn't say it's trustworthy. If its price is way lower than similar products, it's probably not trustworthy. If it has to ship from overseas, it's probably not trustworthy. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.
Post by: King Zultan on April 29, 2021, 04:30:37 am
Also I don't think I could do a separate boot driver because there doesn't seem to be room for it with out getting rid of the DVD drive or something else, and I'd rather not get rid of the DVD drive as some things needing it.
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 29, 2021, 04:44:22 am
Oh, I was thinking your situation was along the lines of "My hard drive broke, gotta buy a new one", so I thought you were looking for a replacement drive. Then again, I know that laptops can have some impressively user-hostile internal design. I suppose it is possible for the DVD drive to get in the way of the hard drive, and you'd then have to remove the DVD drive and it's all just a bigger pain in the ass than it needs to be. I can only say, "proceed with caution".
Post by: King Zultan on April 29, 2021, 04:54:18 am
"My hard drive broke, gotta buy a new one"That is the situation, I think I misunderstood what you were saying because when you said SSD for the boot drive I thought you meant a drive for the OS and a separate drive for everything else.
I'm pretty sure 4 gigs should be enough as that's what I have in my other 64 bit laptop.
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 29, 2021, 05:14:46 am
"My hard drive broke, gotta buy a new one"That is the situation, I think I misunderstood what you were saying because when you said SSD for the boot drive I thought you meant a drive for the OS and a separate drive for everything else.
Yeah, I was thinking of just replacing the hard drive outright with an SSD. SSDs tend to be more expensive (in other words, less storage for the same price) though, so you'd have to offload any particularly large files onto an external drive. As a general rule, 240 GB is about the smallest you should go. Any smaller, and you'll find yourself uninstalling programs just to avoid filling up the drive.
But as far as I know, Windows 7 doesn't suffer (or suffers less) from crippling slowdown on a hard drive like Windows 10 does. I think you could get away with a hard drive for Windows 7, but keep in mind that I haven't used Windows 7 for years now. Your mileage will vary.
Post by: King Zultan on April 29, 2021, 05:45:04 am
I've personally never noticed any slowdown on Windows 7 due to the HDD, so I think I'm good there.
What makes windows 10 slow down so much on HDDs anyway?
Post by: Schmaven on April 29, 2021, 05:59:01 am
What makes windows 10 slow down so much on HDDs anyway?
I think most Windows 10 machines ship out with SSDs now. Pretty much everything is faster with an SSD, especially the OS. So going back to a regular HDD is just going to be slower in comparison.
The speed boost is largely due to SSDs not having any moving parts: no disk to spin, no laser optics arm to move around.
Post by: methylatedspirit on April 29, 2021, 06:22:20 am
If you ever want to demonstrate a disk bottleneck due to the 'scanner, I'd suggest compiling a large program like VLC or FFmpeg without turning off the realtime protection. Watch the drive in Task Manager, as it just gets absolutely swamped with reads. Compilation produces lots of small "object files", and the scanner has to look through each and every one to make sure they're not malicious.
This is bad for performance, because there's other programs on the system that want to load their own files from disk, and they can't continue without loading in their stuff. So now they're just stuck waiting around for files, and you're the one who feels it. It's all these loading times that add up to make a slow system.
Post by: coalboat on May 09, 2021, 07:10:48 am
There are only 7 syslog files. So my computer only keeps them for a week? The crash happened at least more than a week ago.
A freezing showed up again at about between 13:40 and 13:50. This time it unfroze mid-way through the REISUB though.
Here's the log
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
What might be the problem?
Post by: wierd on May 09, 2021, 09:35:19 am
Prior to that, your computer was having a very terrible time trying to resolve an IP v6 address.
I would need a memory dump from the time of the event, a disassembler, and skills I do not possess (64 bit assembler for x86 processors) to be able to tell you more.
Post by: gimlet on May 09, 2021, 09:48:14 am
Post by: coalboat on May 09, 2021, 10:03:44 am
The log is too long to put in a single post.
Log:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: coalboat on May 09, 2021, 10:05:13 am
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: coalboat on May 09, 2021, 10:05:55 am
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: coalboat on May 09, 2021, 10:11:47 am
Prior to that, your computer was having a very terrible time trying to resolve an IP v6 address.
I installed gnome at some point but uninstalled it later. As the log shows, gnome was still running. Could this be the problem? How can I remove gnome completely?
The very basic things I always do first is to check the disk diagnostics, and run a memtest overnight. Even run one of the drive tests if it's a mechanical drive. Memory/disk problems can manifest as completely baffling symptoms and you can easily chase your tail for a long time with misleading symptoms. Very simple things to do to provide a sound starting point to diagnose something trickier...
Is there a way to know how long it would take before doing the test?
edit: I held down shift while the computer was restarting but it didn't go into the GRUB.
Post by: methylatedspirit on May 09, 2021, 10:48:26 am
The very basic things I always do first is to check the disk diagnostics, and run a memtest overnight. Even run one of the drive tests if it's a mechanical drive. Memory/disk problems can manifest as completely baffling symptoms and you can easily chase your tail for a long time with misleading symptoms. Very simple things to do to provide a sound starting point to diagnose something trickier...
Is there a way to know how long it would take before doing the test?
I don't think there is. It all depends on how much RAM you have as well as its speed. Something like MemTest86 will just display any errors that show up while it's testing, so even if it's not actually done when you wake up, you at least have some idea of how well it's doing.
The same principle should apply to hard disks, but I don't have any experience with testing those.
Post by: coalboat on May 09, 2021, 11:39:24 am
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
But GRUB doesn't show up when I hold shift.
Post by: lethosor on May 09, 2021, 03:26:26 pm
Also, posting logs to a site like Pastebin is generally preferable to making multiple forum posts.
Post by: wierd on May 09, 2021, 04:09:00 pm
sudo apt-get purge -f gnome3
That should purge gnome 3, and check for broken dependencies.
Also, as a diagnostic step, i would disable IPv6 in the network manager profile for you connections.
You also need to update your SSL certificates and verify your system time is correct.
The failed connection messages suggest a script desperate to get an NNTP reply from a google time server to sync the system clock, but being repeatedly refused.
Such refusals, hilariously, can come from ssl certs being considered invalid, for being "issued in the future". -- a thing NNTP is meant to fix!
Verify the system clock has the correct time after disconnecting the network cable and doing a cold start from power-off. if it is "very wrong", replace the CMOS battery.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 09, 2021, 05:29:24 pm
Not only do searches from the address bar go to random search engines after a bling and you miss it pop-up, if you go to Google directly your search will be replaced with a different one after a second. Unless there is a Chrome equivalent of about:config I don't even know where to look next.
Post by: Starver on May 09, 2021, 05:55:35 pm
Quote
666.666.666.666 www.google.com(The 666s won't be that, of course, but numbers for a proper IP-ranges. Or possibly even IPv6-ranges, but I've never seen or done ::::: notation there, myself. And there'd probably a number of 'traps', of various supposedly-legitimate addresses, not just that single google.com one.)
If you have such things (that you don't recognise having been put there for known reasons), then that might be the little trick inserted into the system.
Just a guess, based on ruling out the few things you've already tested for. Might not be this either.
Post by: methylatedspirit on May 09, 2021, 06:13:43 pm
Post by: Starver on May 09, 2021, 06:35:20 pm
If there's nothing in there (or if there's just hosts.sam - also lmhosts.sam) then look for something new. Don't just delete and possibly unfix something legitimately 'hosts'ed.
If there's odd things in there, then that is useful information. And should be trivially decontaminatable (at least at this step of the game[1]) because not that many people (who don't know exactly what they'd want to have in their .hosts file) will have more than a single legitimate entry or two (or a single series of like-minded redirects, or two serieses). Depending on what not-Malware-but-still-rather-Control-Freaky software they might have.
But, anyway, it's possible that you go looking in there (assuming you're already getting around the "don't show extensionless files" settings that Windows defaults to, and whatever other nonsense later-version Windowses might add under the aegis of User Access Control[2]) and it isn't that. It's just what first came to mind. Carry on carrying on!
[1] If it redirects traffic to localhost[:port], like I know some WebAV installs used to like to do at one time, to try to MITM-scan traffic, then it points at there being some self-proxying server malware that needs identifying. If it just points to some BigBadIP then that might be useful information to pass to... someone... possibly? Depends on how involved you want to go into this, trying to contact general ISP admins on addresses they actually bother to monitor, etc, etc...
[2] That might stop the user (or you as the fixer) from accessing the very files that the original malware payload had no difficulty messing around with.
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 09, 2021, 07:09:36 pm
Post by: wierd on May 09, 2021, 07:15:16 pm
https://github.com/dragokas/hijackthis/releases
It has a lot of functionality that malware bytes does not have in cleansing browser exploits from systems.
Post by: nenjin on May 09, 2021, 09:25:03 pm
Post by: coalboat on May 10, 2021, 12:27:21 am
Did you run "update-grub" afterwards?
Now I can see GRUB but there's no entry of memtest. Only "Ubuntu" and "Advanced Options for Ubuntu".
sudo apt-get purge -f gnome3
I have done this and it returned an error:
Unable to locate package gnome3
The connection to google server failed because I'm in China where google is blocked.
Post by: methylatedspirit on May 10, 2021, 12:39:39 am
The connection to google server failed because I'm in China where google is blocked.
I don't know my NTP servers (or much of Linux, admittedly), but I'll just give a list of servers that are based in China:
Code: [Select]
server 0.cn.pool.ntp.org
server 1.cn.pool.ntp.org
server 2.cn.pool.ntp.org
server 3.cn.pool.ntp.org
pool.ntp.orgCode: (Alibaba NTP server) [Select]
ntp.cloud.aliyuncs.comCode: (Backbone Network of Beijing China Education and Research Computer Network) [Select]
1.cn.pool.ntp.org
2.cn.pool.ntp.org
3.cn.pool.ntp.org
0.cn.pool.ntp.org
cn.pool.ntp.orgSurely at least one of these should work. According to Stack Overflow (https://askubuntu.com/questions/844989/how-to-change-the-time-server-for-the-in-built-internet-time-in-ubuntu-16-04-l) (and I'm plagiarizing here for convenience), the file you want to edit is in /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf, assuming an Ubuntu-like distro. You'll then have to uncomment the NTP= line, and set the one you want.
Code: [Select]
[Time]
NTP=some.ntp.server.comTo "audit" the time-synchronization events and verify the server that was contacted, use the following command:
Code: [Select]
cat /var/log/syslog | grep systemd-timesyncd
Post by: coalboat on May 10, 2021, 01:22:58 am
"cat /var/log/syslog | grep systemd-timesyncd" gives no result though.
Post by: wierd on May 10, 2021, 02:05:36 am
Did you run "update-grub" afterwards?
Now I can see GRUB but there's no entry of memtest. Only "Ubuntu" and "Advanced Options for Ubuntu".sudo apt-get purge -f gnome3
I have done this and it returned an error:
Unable to locate package gnome3
The connection to google server failed because I'm in China where google is blocked.
Try
sudo apt-get purge -f gnome*
That should get rid of basically anything associated with gnome desktop environment.
PAY ATTENTION-- It may uninstall things you want to keep!
Post by: coalboat on May 10, 2021, 02:38:56 am
It became all black and white pure text. How can I restore the GUI?
I even can still play achaea via telnet :P But I still want to restore the graphics.
Post by: wierd on May 10, 2021, 02:54:52 am
XFCE:
sudo apt-get install xfce4
LXDE;
sudo apt-get install lxde
MATE:
sudo apt-get install mate-desktop
Unity:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-unity-desktop
Gnome:
sudo apt-get install gnome
KDE:
sudo apt-get install kde-standard
Post by: coalboat on May 10, 2021, 03:28:27 am
edit: I ended up installing unity.
Post by: wierd on May 10, 2021, 03:45:57 am
Post by: coalboat on May 10, 2021, 05:21:51 am
Somehow I still see "gnome" in syslog, but I'm not going to try to remove it.
So the freezing is likely caused by either a memory problem, or an IPV6 address? If I disable IPV6, can I still use the internet? Can I just block that problematic address?
Post by: wierd on May 10, 2021, 05:50:11 am
The error happens with the libc installed on the system.
I suspect that there is a system service that relies on having a sensible response from network time server, which fails, because "YOU MIGHT BE EXPOSED TO SEDITIOUS IDEAS, CITIZEN!" from your government. This causes a downstream computation to return a null value used in division, which then BAM-- division by zero, system halt. That seems to be getting called from a .desktop file's called script. I would doctor that script to substitute the NNTP server it is trying to contact. (It's a google one.)
I would also disable IPv6, which will not do anything really. The internet in general still uses IPv4, which is all you really need. Honest. It is possible your release has buggy IPv6 support.
the next thing I would investigate would be issues with your network card's driver.
Post by: coalboat on May 10, 2021, 06:23:21 am
Post by: coalboat on May 10, 2021, 06:35:58 am
Is it safe to do-release-upgrade it now? Will this fix it?
Post by: gimlet on May 10, 2021, 09:49:31 am
Also, I suggest you make a "live linux" bootable usb, then you can boot to that gui and do your backups and diagnostics. Don't install or format anything on the laptop drive, it should be clear warnings if you are about to, just use it to access your laptop drive for backups and diagnostics, it's handy to do that because you know nothing is changing on the laptop drive when you are running off the USB OS.
Post by: coalboat on May 10, 2021, 10:17:38 am
Post by: wierd on May 10, 2021, 05:30:51 pm
Recovery console is always root, so there is no need for sudo.
drop in a usb stick, wait a bit, then check dmseg to be sure it saw it-
then run
mount
without any arguments. See if the USB stick got mounted or not. In recovery mode, it might not. If it did not, here is how to mount it from the console:
first, make a mountpoint to mount it at. Traditionally, manual mounts are done at /mnt.
So, make a folder there to serve as the mount point.
mkdir /mnt/usb
once the mountpoint is made, we can mount the USB device. The info we got from dmesg will tell us what device ID it got when it was attached. For the sake of argument, I will assume it is /dev/sdb. Substitute as appropriate.
We actually want to mount the first partition on the device, which with the example, would be /dev/sdb1
[for FAT flavored partition]
mount -t msdos /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
[for ext3 flavor partition]
mount -t ext3 /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
[for ext4 flavor partition]
mount -t ext4 /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
Verify that the mount completed by calling mount with no options again.
mount
it should show up in the list, usually toward the bottom.
verify that there is sufficient free space on the volume by calling df.
df
Once you have that done, the best way to get all your data, is to just copy *EVERYTHING* in your /home directory there. I prefer to use rsync for this, since it can resume if there is an error, and give a nice progress indication.
rsync -v -r -L -k --progress /home /mnt/usb
wait for it to finish doing its thing, then flush the cache manually with sync
sync
then unmount the USB stick
umount /dev/sdb1
you can then remove the stick safely.
For creating a bootable USB device:
Modern distro ISO files are often "Hybrid ISO" images, that can be directly written to USB devices with dd.
Pull a suitable installer image from the internet with wget. You said you are using ubuntu 18.04?
first, put the iso some place you can store it safely. /home/[your user acct] usually works fine.
cd /home/[your user account]
then get it with wget. (hopefully it is installed...)
[this will get the 64 bit flavor desktop image iso for that release.]
wget https://releases.ubuntu.com/18.04/ubuntu-18.04.5-desktop-amd64.iso
once you have it, dd the image to a USB stick.
insert the USB stick, then check dmesg to get its device ID. Once you have it, we are ready to proceed. For the sake of argument, I will assume it is /dev/sdb once again.
dd if=ubuntu-18.04.5-desktop-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4096 status=progress
Wait for it to finish. then issue sync.
sync
once it returns to console, you can safely remove, because nothing was mounted. attempt to boot on the stick, and see if it works.
Post by: coalboat on May 10, 2021, 06:31:32 pm
Before the new stick arrives, I want to backup as much as possible. Can I transfer file to another computer in the same wifi? Is it possible to upload things to github?
When I boot in recovery mode, there’s an fsck option. When I run it it says (among other things) “/etc/default/rcS no such file or directory”. What does this mean?
Post by: wierd on May 10, 2021, 08:59:40 pm
To use a windows computer as the destination/host, you will need the cifs-utils package installed.
Once it is installed, you can mount a remove windows share as if it were a disk.
syntax is like this:
mount -t cifs -o username=[windows share username],password=[user password] //[server]/[share] /mnt/[mountpoint]
For example, with my consumer NAS, I would mount it like this:
mount -t cifs -o username=guest //192.168.0.2/Public /mnt/cifs
I could then copy everything to /mnt/cifs, and it would be physically getting copied to that share.
Post by: coalboat on May 10, 2021, 09:38:46 pm
Post by: coalboat on May 11, 2021, 09:24:11 am
Post by: wierd on May 11, 2021, 05:37:03 pm
Post by: coalboat on May 11, 2021, 07:51:03 pm
Post by: Foxite on May 12, 2021, 04:37:16 am
https://tweakers.net/gallery/606715/wenslijst/?wish_id=2695910
Forgive the Dutch website, but all the necessary info is there. I wasn't able to find some of the parts on pcpartpicker.com. If you click on an item and then click on the tab that says "Kenmerken" you'll be taken to the specs of the item, which is mostly language-agnostic technical specifications. In any case you could look up the part names.
Some important requirements I had when designing this build
- ECC ram, which requires support from the motherboard, CPU, and ram itself (though I could probably be convinced that this isn't necessary)
- Raid 10 hdds
- Raid 1 M.2 ssds (which necessitates the use of identical drives and thus eliminates motherboards which have two m.2 ports with distinctive interfaces, for example one with SATA and the other with PCIe)
- Two ethernet ports (because my network is segmented and I want this thing to provide its services to two segments at once)
- No hyperthreading (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-threading#Security)
- It must be quiet because it will probably be running in my bedroom until I move. The loudest component is the 18db psu, hdds are also very quiet according to the ~160 reviews
Its purposes include:
- Database server (Postgres and Prometheus)
- Mail storage backend (several mail servers will be using its NFS mount as the location for storing mails)
- Kubernetes, docker registry, git server, nuget repository, backup archive, and of course just storing my files.
Post by: Mephisto on May 13, 2021, 10:33:47 am
Adding another RAM kit wouldn't do you wrong. That'll get you dual channel and some wiggle room.
Post by: Foxite on May 13, 2021, 10:56:51 am
I consider myself pretty technical and have my own server on which I host my own stuff but I won't touch email with a ten foot pole. I pay Migadu a pittance to do it for me.
That certainly is not a bad policy. My current email solution (which consists of a raspberry pi that stores all its data on an sd card, which I won't trust for much longer) was a nightmare to set up, but doing it has taught me a lot about how it all works. Even though I would still probably go back in time and tell myself not to do it.
In any case, having a self-hosted email server is useful to me right now because my employer is paying me to get technical experience with SSO systems, so I'm going to build one using IdentityServer4 and then integrate my current email setup with it.
Adding another RAM kit wouldn't do you wrong. That'll get you dual channel and some wiggle room.Sounds good, I'm pretty sure I'd get away with 8GB but dual channel is definitely its own pro.
Post by: wierd on May 14, 2021, 12:41:16 am
I probably can’t see images on imgur. Just what commands to use is good enough.
That's the thing-- I already kinda did that. So, I am gonna give some pretty pictures.
First, when you insert the USB stick you want to get the output of dmesg---
Spoiler: screencap of output of dmesg (click to show/hide)
As you can see, it detected the insertion of the device, and it has the ID of /dev/sda
Next, we see if it is already mounted. (I manually unmounted it, since I am NOT running at the recovery console, and it automatically mounted it on insertion.)
For that, we use mount piped through grep, with the string "/dev".
This will show us all the actual block devices that are currently mounted.
Spoiler: results of mount piped through grep, checking for "/dev" (click to show/hide)
We clearly see only a single partition, /dev/sda1
Now we need to make a mount point for it, so we can mount it, and make use of it.
Again, the "Traditional" place to do this is /mnt . I will make a folder there called "usb" to serve this purpose. Only root can make folders there, so I am using "sudo su" to become the root user. Since you are in the recovery console, you are already root.
Spoiler: creation of the mountpoint (click to show/hide)
Now that the mountpoint is created, we need to mount the partition there.. This is done with the mount command, like this:
Spoiler: mounting the USB stick at /mnt/usb (click to show/hide)
Now, we want to see how much free space is available in the USB stick. We do that with the df command.
Spoiler: results of df (click to show/hide)
The last entry in the list is the freshly mounted USB stick at /mnt/usb. As you can see, it is mostly full. (I use this thing for all sorts of stuff.)
To copy your user files there, you would use either the cp command, or the rsync command. I prefer to use rsync, because it gives feedback on completion, and can recover from error, or interruption, where cp will not. It can also do recursive directory copy, can flatten symlinks (useful when copying to a fat volume, that does not support symlinks), etc.
Before I demo this, I am going to create a folder to copy data into, so I can easily clean it up off that thumbstick. ;)
Spoiler: sample commandline invocation for rsync (click to show/hide)
(minor correction, it is --ignore-errors not --ignore-error.)
After that, you want to ensure that the disk cache is flushed, by issuing sync
sync
then, you unmount the USB stick with umount.
umount /dev/sda1
then you can pull the stick and be on your merry way.
Post by: coalboat on May 14, 2021, 08:18:35 am
I ran “sudo fdisk -l” and it showed:
Device Boot Start End (something else)
/dev/sda1 (something here) FAT32 (LBA)
Is this the stick? What should I do now?
edit:
I somehow managed to mount the usb.
edit:Thanks wierd, I think this is working! 8)
Post by: wierd on May 14, 2021, 09:32:33 am
The pipe operator is used to direct the output from a program away from standard output, and use it as an input for another program. This process is called "Piping", and the past-tense of that verb is "Piped".
Thus, "mount piped through grep" means this:
mount |grep
grep is a program that functions as kind of a "filter" for a given expression: It will return any line sent to it that contains that expression, and discard all the others.
This is useful for things like the output of dmesg, which can be quite... long. If you are just looking for information about a usb device, piping dmesg through grep with a string like 'usb' on the end, will just give the lines containing the word 'usb', and omit all the others.
dmesg |grep usb
Because a running system can have lots of strange things mounted (mine has several snap containers mounted, and things like that), and we are only interested in actual hardware block devices (things in the /dev folder), I filtered the content of mount (with no options) through grep, with a filter string of "/dev"
Post by: Starver on May 14, 2021, 05:10:39 pm
I just did a Google search. Got the following at the top of the results:
Quote
It looks like there aren't many great matches for your search
Tip Try using words that might appear on the page that you’re looking for. For example, 'cake recipes' instead of 'how to make a cake'.
Need help? Take a look at other tips for searching on Google.
(For the record, the search was five perfectly cromulent words from 7 to 10 characters long (no 'silly small words', as suggested) that I woudn't be embarrassed to use in a sentence in polite company. No "quotes" to require/prefer exact matching. And, yes, it still had multiple pages of answers - it wasn't a Googlewhack - but all of them pretty much unrelated to what I actually asked for. One of the more interesting (but certainly not relevent) links given was "Topological data analysis of zebrafish patterns", and might be worth a look later for other reasons, but not at all what I was looking for in this case.)
Hey, at least I know I'm unlikely to be reinventing the wheel, on this occasion, if I actually stick with the idle programming problem I'd speculated I might like to explore this weekend if I can avoid being pestered with more mundane duties. ;)
Post by: Arx on May 31, 2021, 12:50:30 pm
Post by: gimlet on May 31, 2021, 01:21:26 pm
Post by: BigD145 on May 31, 2021, 02:06:09 pm
Post by: methylatedspirit on June 07, 2021, 03:48:21 am
Post by: King Zultan on June 07, 2021, 04:36:17 am
Post by: wierd on June 07, 2021, 04:44:47 am
I would suggest cloning the volume to a known good media, THEN doing filesystem repair.
Post by: methylatedspirit on June 07, 2021, 04:56:26 am
Post by: wierd on June 07, 2021, 05:12:23 am
Use elevated privs and dd, with redirected std-in and std-out. Like this:
Code: [Select]
ssh root@192.0.2.9 "dd if=/dev/sda " | dd of=/home/archive/linuxbackup.imgThis takes the data stream, and sends it through the ssh channel, then introduces it to the local instance of dd, which does the writing.
More sophisticated would be to wrap the data stream through gzip for more efficient network transport, then through gzip again for on-the-fly decompression, before feeding to the local dd.
even more sexy would be using gddrescue on both ends.
Post by: methylatedspirit on June 07, 2021, 05:20:28 am
Post by: wierd on June 07, 2021, 05:29:49 am
(If you have a reliable bench monkey on the other end, you could do the backup, have them switch out the SSD, and then boot on a USB linux installer in live mode, SSH in, and then apply the image remotely, then reboot.)
Take for instance, this pathway:
1) Tell remote bench monkey to insert the USB stick.
2) SSH into the remote box, then create a TMPFS mountpoint.
3) Remount the file system as read only.
4) pull a suitable linux mint ISO image using wget, and store it in the tmpfs mount.
5) DD the image into the USB stick
6) Perform the remote DD operation to salvage the file system (Or, if there is room on the USB stick, store it there.)
7) Instruct the bench monkey to switch out the SSD.
8) Instruct the bench monkey to boot on the freshly created USB medium.
9) Instruct the bench monkey to enable networking, run ifconfig to get/set the current IP address, so that you can put it in the state your port forwarding setup expects
10) SSH into the installation environment.
11) Preform the restoration process
12) Reboot
13) Profit
It does however, require you to have a trusted peer that can handle a screw driver and follow instructions.
Post by: King Zultan on June 08, 2021, 05:58:03 am
Anybody have any idea what happened because I'm at a loss.
Post by: LordBaal on June 08, 2021, 06:16:25 am
When it happened again on a new video card I panicked, then weeks, months and years went by, and saw it happening on some other machines as well so I went meh.
Try to recreate the problem to see if it repeats again. Could be a corrupted installation of the browser or your hard drive having issues.
Post by: Starver on June 08, 2021, 06:58:15 am
Assuming that no site in your history had a gigabye-sized favourite.ico (or whatever), or some related Zero-Day Exploit wot we know not the wot of..? ;)
(I take it the frozen laptop is now unfrozen? Either it recovered or you powered it down (relatively nicely or forcefully) and it rebooted nicely, perhaps even let you play L4D again. If it's not recovered at all, I'd be suggesting a mobo/sub-module failure probably in the vicinity of the GPU - but not necessarily - and/or system file corruption with either possible cause<->effect relationship with the freeze event. But I read between the lines that the return to normal (albeit frozen) did not lead to looking utterly-bricked.)
Sorry, Wild-Arsed-Guessing. Except for my deviation into .ico exploit territory (which I think is just something I made up) I just don't think there's any particular connection, over and above that which would occur for any utility. ICBW[1].
However, in the light of LordBaal, posting while I was still editing, there could be some error in the dev library FF builders use, or a skewy system call now heavily grandfathered into the sourcecode that reacts oddly for a very small subset of the possible hardware/layers it might encounter. Which might be more the fault of the vendor involved than at the Mozilla end. But with the Mozilla community being what it is, I'd still expect it to neither be an unknown (beyond you two) nor an unfixable/unfixed issue. It's a pity the few times I've had cause to check the relevent bugrep/forum pages (most recently, when they totally ruined several aspects of the Android UI, last year) I just found it far too busy to understand where the appropriate complaints might be referenced/solved, and/or how I might contribute an Opinion of my own about it.
[1] If it is "always fails on accessing History, and only then":
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: King Zultan on June 09, 2021, 03:11:41 am
Also I hope it's nothing to do with the video card, because I just spent 50 dollars to buy a new motherboard for that thing, and the old one crapped out because something with graphics went out.
Post by: Starver on June 09, 2021, 03:43:50 am
I'm open to better knowledge. This is just world-weary me, used to Heisenbugs and Higgs-Bugsons. Until proven otherwise, I can come up with possible further tests, but that's open-ended until something happens to tick a speculative tickbox. Keep an eye on it?
Post by: Sensei on June 20, 2021, 03:10:25 pm
Basically, almost every time I upload a video, there's a minute or two where the video freezes and is silent. It looks like this on the youtube editing timeline.
(https://i.ibb.co/cxmh4BC/gap.png)
In my original video file, of course, there's sound and video there, it's not a problem with my file.
This is, I assume, a result of Youtube's processing having an error. I can upload the same video file multiple times, and end up with a gap like this in different parts of the video. Sometimes though, I'll end up with a gap in the exact same spot on several consecutive attempts. I don't have any copyright warnings either. In some cases, I've succeeded in getting a video to upload without gaps by making minor changes and re-exporting it (eg, changing the music at the problematic time) but not always. I can't even say if this is helping or not, since it seems pretty much random.
Anyway, it's driving me crazy. For a video a little under an hour long, it takes me about two hours to export, and two hours to upload to youtube. My last video only worked after three exports and seven upload attempts, meaning my computer/internet is busy with this for about two days. My next video is taking even longer. It's happening to me every time, but I can't find ANYONE else having this exact same problem.
So if anyone knows a way around this, let me know. If I need to change my export settings or bitrate or something, great. Honestly, I'd be happy to know I'm not the only person on earth having this problem. All the relevant search terms bring up different issues with Youtube processing or playback, but I can't find a single example of this exact problem happening to somebody else online. Of course, there's not exactly a "youtube forum" for so I don't have a lot of places to ask around.
Post by: Schmaven on June 21, 2021, 04:52:28 am
Post by: LordBaal on June 21, 2021, 08:30:22 am
Is there a chance you could try to upload them on other internet connection?
Post by: wierd on June 21, 2021, 08:32:17 am
Try encoding your upload with a different encoder before uploading. (Youtube is going to convert it to whatever the hell it is going to convert it to regardless, but giving it something less likely to get CPU stomped during re-encode, seems reasonable.)
Post by: LordBaal on June 21, 2021, 09:01:39 am
Post by: methylatedspirit on June 21, 2021, 09:24:44 am
(Youtube is going to convert it to whatever the hell it is going to convert it to regardless, but giving it something less likely to get CPU stomped during re-encode, seems reasonable.)
For unnecessary info, Youtube transcodes to the following codecs for general web use: H.264, VP9, and AV1. These are the main codecs served to devices if you run youtube-dl -F on a video. I know that YT uses at least parts of FFmpeg for video decoding-- I once uploaded a video in ffvhuff format, which is a codec specific to FFmpeg.
Post by: delphonso on June 28, 2021, 06:31:57 pm
Post by: Schmaven on June 28, 2021, 07:48:03 pm
Is there anyone on here with experience setting up VPNs that I could ask some questions?
I've set up over a dozen various kinds for work, always from the client side once the VPN has already been established by the site's IT department though.
Edit: Usually the IT department has an install guide of some kind. There are some that require you to have a config file from them loaded into the VPN program. Some have 3rd party revolving keys. Some are just set up in the standard Windows network connections page. I've only occasionally used the same type twice. Only 1 I've I noticed blocks all internet connections on the client machine, most leave that open.
I suspect however that you're more curious about setting 1 up from scratch than connecting to an already existing VPN, in which case I have no experience there.
Post by: methylatedspirit on July 08, 2021, 09:38:45 am
Code: [Select]
[ 1%] Linking C executable rot.exe
/C/msys64/usr/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-msys/10.2.0/../../../../x86_64-pc-msys/bin/ld: cannot find -lintl
/C/msys64/usr/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-msys/10.2.0/../../../../x86_64-pc-msys/bin/ld: cannot find -lregex
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/rot.dir/build.make:101: rot.exe] Error 1
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:128: CMakeFiles/rot.dir/all] Error 2
make: *** [Makefile:156: all] Error 2
I've got rinutils compiled already. It's already linked, CMake is seeing it. (Now, I realize fortune isn't meant to run on Windows, but I'm trying to see if it even can.)
Am I missing a library? I'm using the CMake GUI, for reference.
Post by: wierd on July 19, 2021, 11:57:24 pm
The first is part of the gettext package.
The second is in libregex.
Use the package manager for msys to pull the missing dependencies.
Post by: Starver on July 20, 2021, 07:11:57 am
(j/k!)
Spoiler: ...also, good on you wierd, for answering meth (click to show/hide)
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on July 20, 2021, 11:15:03 am
Post by: wierd on July 20, 2021, 12:28:47 pm
Post by: Starver on July 20, 2021, 01:14:25 pm
I wish there was a way to mod apps while on an iPad, maybe there’s an app that allows it? I wouldn’t need to be able to upload the results on the store, it would just be cool to see what code for various apps looks likeOn the whole, I don't think you're going to get that ability for a number of reasons... Which is a complex list but probably boils down to: a) "(even if) free as in beer, not free as in speech", b) the need to sensibly decompile and/or bundle the source, c) [...]
[...yeah, ninjaed by an excellent single-point summary, I see. No need to go to into the detail I did.]
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on July 20, 2021, 01:15:54 pm
No, because virtualized code is FORBIDDEN on iDevices.why is it forbidden?
Post by: LordBaal on July 20, 2021, 07:17:59 pm
Post by: wierd on July 20, 2021, 07:53:42 pm
No, because virtualized code is FORBIDDEN on iDevices.why is it forbidden?
Several reasons.
1) It would allow code not blessed by the Apple approval process to run freely on idevices. This would be a circumvention of the apple store gatekeeper function, for the walled garden. Thus, forbidden. (This is all in one stroke a 'security measure' (see below), AND an anticompetitive practice that reinforces the role of the gatekeeper, and its 30% cut of sales.)
2) Allowing that kind of code to function inside a sandbox, runs the risk of a vulnerability being exploited to escape the sandbox, and possibly be used to gain system access. This is a security risk for the device, and apple is real negative on that kind of thing. While outright forbidding it as a policy is like trying to outlaw global sea rise (as a 'solution' for climate change), and thus a form of security through obscurity-- the actual reduction in attack surface has real value in a security role. (Fewer people being able to get code to run in such a way, because of lack of tools, mean fewer exploits discovered, means 'safer' platform. The vulnerabilities are still there, but are harder to get access to. This is related to the reason apple is REALLY NEGATIVE on the practice of emulating an iDevice for security research. (https://www.scribd.com/document/422014589/Apple-Inc-vs-Corellium-LLC#from_embed?campaign=SkimbitLtd&ad_group=73726X1523000Xb78e3d56f891f28989cf00cab6445419&keyword=660149026&source=hp_affiliate&medium=affiliate) Such an emulator allows security researchers to look for, and experimentally hook those exploits in the virtual iDevice, without the obscuration of the apple store or the apple hardware. Apple is also big on being buddy-buddy with the copyright cartels, and uses the same tactics they do, so naturally the contested that their software was not LICENSED to be run in a virtual machine, and that this constituted an EULA violation. (And of course, they wont license it for use in that way, because, then people would find security vulns, and exploit them!))
3) Allowing virtualized code allows for content that violates apple's intellectual property rules-- Things like emulators for old consoles, where the rom images are of dubious, if not blatantly illegal nature, in terms of copyright, or platform licensing. "Just Saying NO" means apple can have some legal protection against being an accessory to copyright infringement by knowingly permitting their platform to be used this way (because of how broken our legal system is in regard to this, and how greedy the copyright cartels are.)
The question really shouldn't be "Why does Apple forbid it?" and "How do open platforms manage to survive?"
Post by: LordBaal on July 21, 2021, 08:42:46 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 21, 2021, 08:58:35 pm
Post by: wierd on July 21, 2021, 09:30:45 pm
Big and important difference.
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 21, 2021, 10:14:26 pm
Post by: LordBaal on July 22, 2021, 12:41:28 am
Post by: Starver on July 22, 2021, 05:24:19 am
You therefore escaped the fate of having to read it. (But, really, this is among the many flaws of a mobile browser, though Firefox is usually better than Chrome in this regard.)
As consolation prize, I shall just pass on from short-term memory that (according to the brief research I did during that aborted edit, though I took only the first few consistent figures I saw without further advanced checking) there are just under two million Apple Store apps (may not all be available to all extant versions of iOS) compared to just under three million on Google Play (ditto for Android versions). Which are interestingly large (and close!) figures. But given the potential lucrative nature (despite the hoops that both gatekeepers force devs to go through, for reasons both logical and arguable) and the huge numbers of people willing to at least try to be even small fish in a huge pond of many other far bigger fish, the ecosystem does therefore exist for them.
But billions of people are never going to have the 'app'titude or ability to successfully jump through those hoops (wait, that's not fish, that's dolphins... but I thought that in this edit I was going to avoid such runaway analogies!) and that suits the people behind the various Stores just fine because they're already raking it in quite nicely, I suppose, sat where they are as vendor and intermediary between the producing community and the consuming one.
(i.e., there's no real incentive to make things easier, and various (good?) reasons to keep things harder. Not in that vicinity of the development phase-space, anyway.)
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on July 22, 2021, 11:59:48 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 22, 2021, 12:41:01 pm
Post by: Verlemt on July 23, 2021, 12:31:23 pm
So if someone had, say, securely compressed all my bitcoin wallets (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/business-57897444), what do you think I should try to do about it?It hurts to look at it! Although I am not a fan of mining, but still.
By the way, I also have bitcoin. But I bought this through a cryptocurrency exchange (https://bikkex.com/exchange/BTC-USDT). Hopefully the rate will rise soon and I will be able to make a good profit.
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on July 23, 2021, 05:09:59 pm
Post by: wierd on July 23, 2021, 05:52:32 pm
Really, the Maylay govt should have just sold all those hawt GPUs on ebay. They would have made a killing.
Post by: Starver on July 23, 2021, 06:17:42 pm
(I'd have extracted the innards, probably. The hard-drives would surely have needed to be forensically checked[1], anyway, attached to lab hardware. After which they could be securely wiped and donated. Anything not showing out though the backplane/vents could have been removed. Piped through a suitable reconditioner they could have help create countless 'free'/discounted computers for local schools or passed to individuals' kids as a backhander 'gift' if local politics isn't so squeaky clean. Assuming they heavily used GPU acceleration, the latter and/or eBay could be recipients of any they salvaged. The PSUs probably are the more visible and least extractable bits (pity, probably some good quality ones) but they don't have the really nice chunks of silicon in them. A mostly empty case squahes prettier (and less chance to resist rolling over and skittering away in front of the crushing wheel) with probably little difference by the casual observer of the aftermath. Well, who knows, but I'd probably even clue in the reporters as to my philanthropic repurposing - asking that they keep that quiet, and hold back on any fluff-piece about it - when the point is more the number of boxes found and put out of use.)
If I remember the article again (without revisiting), it seems the primary offence was stolen electricity, whether illegally tapped straight into the mains, by-passing any meter, 'borrowing' a neighbouring property's supply through the party-wall or squatting in an 'abandoned' building they don't own or legitimately pay the bills for. It's probably very similar to the way illicit dope is grown indoors in various ways that require grow-lamps and ways to shrug off most of the power cost/attention so long as it remains undetected.
From what I can see, only Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Morocco and Nepal have a full de jure ban on any involvement at all on cryptocurrency, though that leaves room in plenty of places to fall foul of other currency-handling regulations or perhaps an export of goods/services restriction if it's not even officially money. There are also, of course, money-laundering concerns (with various implementations or proposed changes to specifically include crypto into that), taxable income (ditto) and the like that may or may not recognise the movement of crypto as payment but should cover the 'real' (traditional fiat?) money that magically teleports the other way where so exchanged.
(IANAL. And as such I might thus be able to actually say that people abstracting electricity illegally are probably involved in other defrauding activities, at the very least, to support the mining effort and/or being supported by it. If you pay your electricity bill, as much as it comes due, then it's possible there's nothing else for you to worry about if you're also solidly not doing anything else that trips various other alarm bells by your accumulation/use of cryptowealth.)
[1] I wouldn't know enough about the setups to tell if there were any locally-accessible bitcoin wallets, actually, could have been shipped direct to the cloud and nothing 'tangible' left to reclaim, but knowledge of where/how the mining OS communicated its gains and recieved its instructions would at least be legally-useful information, in the right hands.)
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 23, 2021, 06:34:05 pm
The issue was that the bitcoin miners were STEALING the electricity to do the mining. Not that the computers were themselves illegal.
Really, the Maylay govt should have just sold all those hawt GPUs on ebay. They would have made a killing.
Apparently, those machines weren't GPU-based computers that can be repurposed, but single-purpose mining rigs that have no use for anything except killing the environment with Bitcoin.
Post by: wierd on July 23, 2021, 06:53:30 pm
If they were FPGA chips (https://www.xilinx.com/products/silicon-devices/fpga/what-is-an-fpga.html), those have IMMEDIATE use in a number of industries, including automotive-- since they can be reprogrammed to be *ANY CHIP*.
See also "Global chip shortage"
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 23, 2021, 09:53:37 pm
This is a common form of bitcoin miner.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/asic.asp
Post by: LordBaal on July 24, 2021, 02:13:01 pm
Post by: BigD145 on July 24, 2021, 02:37:25 pm
Post by: LordBaal on July 25, 2021, 09:13:19 am
Even disassembling and recycling the components seems better than rolling them over to make a point.
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on July 26, 2021, 02:56:33 pm
Educational donations could have been reasonable.A big yes to both of these. Disassembly and recycling in the event of education not being able to use them sounds much less of a waste
Even disassembling and recycling the components seems better than rolling them over to make a point.
Post by: BigD145 on July 26, 2021, 03:52:38 pm
Malaysia has been in the middle of rolling lockdowns and changes in extensions to those lockdowns. Destruction is the safest way to deal with this sort of thing in the middle of a pandemic.Educational donations could have been reasonable.A big yes to both of these. Disassembly and recycling in the event of education not being able to use them sounds much less of a waste
Even disassembling and recycling the components seems better than rolling them over to make a point.
Post by: Starver on July 26, 2021, 05:55:03 pm
Malaysia has been in the middle of rolling lockdowns and changes in extensions to those lockdowns. Destruction is the safest way to deal with this sort of thing in the middle of a pandemic....it's an either/or thing?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Unless someone here is actually involved and asking for advice about it (not just me making a funny), I'm drawing a personal line under this. Sorry if I did too much spouting off about it myself.
I had a couple of actual geeky questions, to make this post relevent again, but they soon turned into me just going "Modern technology sucks!" as I wrote them up. *SNIPPED*
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on July 26, 2021, 06:07:50 pm
Post by: bloop_bleep on July 26, 2021, 11:32:53 pm
Educational donations could have been reasonable.
Even disassembling and recycling the components seems better than rolling them over to make a point.
If they were ASICs like Lord Shonus was saying, and from the video they appear to be, then you would have no use for them unless you were mining bitcoin. They have silicon designed very specifically for one task. The most valuable component you could scavenge out of it might be a $10 fan. Or a proprietary power supply that is incompatible with almost anything unless you're ready to get out the jumper cables and the solder.
EDIT: In fact there were very probably ASICs as mining bitcoin specifically on anything other than ASICs is impractical at this point.
Post by: King Zultan on July 27, 2021, 02:06:06 am
Can a laptop work if you take the keyboard off of it, because mine is broken and it's doing shit on it's own, and I keep forgetting to look into buying a new one.
Post by: delphonso on July 27, 2021, 04:38:04 am
Post by: Starver on July 27, 2021, 04:46:12 am
[And, at this point, I went on and became ninjaed...]
In long, I think most laptops can have the keyboard alone removed (and replaced, which is what maybe you ultimately want to do - eBay may give you a make-and-model replacement unit, or a screwed-for-other-reasons laptop that you can unscrew and use for spares), although exactly how the bits come apart is vendor (and model!) specific. May be a single screw out of the bottom, lever and release the ribbon-cable, could be taking the shell apart to reach the keyboard anchor and wiggle the in-line plug off the mobo pins, could easily be something else.
If it's just some keys then you can sometimes get new key-mounts/switches (doesn't sound like you need new keytops), but if it's an entire-keyboard-only problem maybe you can do as suggested. It may change the internal ventilation scheme to run continually without keyboard in place (or not) but if you dissassemble enough to de-ribbon, the now inert unit can be put back as well, I suppose.
(Check that trackpad/whatever still works if that's on a separate connector but the same subunit. Or even if its own thing. This is generic information, and proprietry construction/connection methods may confound my expectations of what you'll find when you actually dive in there. Or also add a third-party mouse, and when the screen goes use a monitor. ;) )
You'll probably find a "How to fix <your make, your model>" video on Youtube, or other repairer's resource site, which you can use (half of) to get an idea exactly which torque wrench to strike against which USB port to find the Ark Of The Covenant, right? And if it gives no results or dire warnings against trying then maybe that's useful to know too.
Post by: LordBaal on July 27, 2021, 07:11:37 am
That is a pretty common issue with laptops, people has this innate ability to destroy or at least damage those keyboards to the point of uselessness.
Sure plug in a usb keyboard. But depending on the model it migth be pretty easy to change the original one (even not a single screw involved). The question is to find the replacement and the money for it.
More often than not laptop "peripherals" (keyboard, trackpad, sound, screen) tend to die before the actual computing parts in this cases you could use them the rest of their lives as lightweight servers, really cumbersome smart tv "sticks", really slim desktop computer, or whatever you can imagine as long you can plug in a keyboard and/or mouse and a monitor/tv. If the battery is still working is like having a computer with a internal UPS which is a huge plus in places like here.
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on July 27, 2021, 12:49:36 pm
Post by: LordBaal on July 27, 2021, 02:10:46 pm
And as mentionend, laptop keyboards tend to be more febble than desktop counterparts.
Edit: I migth be a bit biased because in general people would be more ready to buy a new desktop keyboard once it stops working while a laptop one warrants a repair of the whole laptop for the average person.
Nevertheless desktop keyboards are way more serviceable than laptop ones.
Post by: King Zultan on July 28, 2021, 03:02:53 am
Is there something I could do to prevent the humidity from damage it in the future?
Post by: LordBaal on July 28, 2021, 07:02:36 am
If you are not in a really humid place and do not spill liquids over the thing then humidity migth come from your own sweat.
Could be your hands or your legs/lap. Also make sure to dry your hands well after washing them. Oh and avoid putting the laptop over a humid surface like a table just cleaned or with those water circles left by a cold glass.
Post by: King Zultan on July 29, 2021, 03:03:20 am
Post by: bloop_bleep on July 29, 2021, 02:10:18 pm
Post by: LordBaal on July 29, 2021, 05:47:46 pm
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on July 29, 2021, 05:50:49 pm
Post by: Starver on July 29, 2021, 06:00:33 pm
Having delved into a few keyboards, I might suggest it could just happened to land on one of the tracks which serves a row/column/cluster of keys (when that includes various meta-keys, it can cause confusion as it thinks ctrl, shift and/or alt are pressed and doing things with the 'regular' keys that you might not appreciate), but even with the nature of jam (high-sugar semi-liquid that might resist drying out) and the tendency for most KBs being manufactured with minor spills/sweaty fingers in mind[1] I'm more inclined to think it's more a wider mechanical issue, probably nothing particularly to do with that jam.
If you dropped jam on it, the chances are you dropped other things in (biscuit crumbs, dandruff... though head hair[2] seems to be my main one for long-time used keyboards that I don't clean enough because I don't expect others to want to use them). With full peripheral keyboards it takes a lot to jam (NPI!) things up[3], and shear mechanical wear[4] is more likely. With laptop ones, the 'pantograph' mounting (one version of key attachment above the sprung electrical contact membane that might be used) is very delicate bits of plastic and can be jammed slightly too closed or slightly too open, again sometimes creating odd effects, though 'dead key' and undue rrrrrrrrrrrrrepetition behaviour is the usual symptoms.
I have had keyboards where something (maybe the IC that translates contact info into the "what is/are pressed" signal to the mobo) has sometimes thought that a key (the AltGr, maybe, i.e. the 'right Alt' for those who don't have it as anything as special is pressed even when it definitely is mechanically not. If it is AltGr, it actually does much less than you'd expect (not everything that the normal Alt does), but some things react with it (it's how I get the € symbol, but it's the more esoteric Shift-Alt-scoping behaviour that usually tells me when it's gone wrong). When something seems wrong I'll press and release it and the (as I presume) keyboard controller chip goes "pressed? I thought it was already pressed... And now it's released..." and then things are back to normal. I tend to just hit-release both shifts, both alts, both ctrls, both 'Windows' keys and the 'Windows menu' keys, by rote, though, just to 'officially unpress' whichever single one of them may have been logically-only 'stuck', unless it's obvious which one it is. ;) Restarting the PC (without touching the troublesome bits of the keyboard) also seems to clear it, so there are at least some instances where it was never physical stickiness.
Ach, I'm trying to cover all the bases here, and making it all much too complicated, I know. In short: see if you can get any strands of hair out of the keyboard (can be awkward, if it's moved under the keytops and not just lying along the key-'cracks' between rows/columns), check for 'avalanches' if you incline your board/laptop (with power off if the fan's too loud) and if any key feels slightly funny then that might be going/about-to-go either with dandruff/sugar/salt or a dodgy bit of ridiculously small bit of plastic that is replacable (but whether you should try or not is beyond my remit to suggest).
[1] But if you somehow periodically have condensation on a closed screen, KZ, I'd suggest something a bit more troublesome.
[2] I presume. It's not particularly short and curly... Not that I can imagine anything below the neck gets a chance to drop in there, anyway, and it's not obviously the colour of my facial hair either.
[3] I remember one keyboard, in a place I worked at many years ago, made a notable 'avalanche' sound when held up and tilted. It wasn't broken, but I opened it up anyway when the person wasn't using it for a while and it had a lot of fine white crystaline grains in it. I didn't test it (especially not taste it to see if it was either sugar (spilt in one or few instances of preparing a desktop coffee?) or salt (maybe snack-based, but possibly also the remains of many slight amounts of finger-sweat?) or whatever-else-it-might-have-been... But I felt better after emptying it out. (Modern keyboards seem to have in-built 'drainage' holes to deal better with spilt liquids, which would have helped with granuals too, but this one was not designed so usefully and needed a flat screwdriver and some careful persistance to open up enough.)
[4] One computer has not only had most of the (commoner) keytops wiped clean of the printed characters (luckily I'm fairly good at my own variety of touch-typing, at least on a physical keyboard) but a number of them have worn so much from use that there's a hole in them where I've effectively rubbed them through to the inner void of the keytop. ;)
Post by: bloop_bleep on July 30, 2021, 01:18:56 am
With laptop ones, the 'pantograph' mounting (one version of key attachment above the sprung electrical contact membane that might be used) is very delicate bits of plastic and can be jammed slightly too closed or slightly too open, again sometimes creating odd effects, though 'dead key' and undue rrrrrrrrrrrrrepetition behaviour is the usual symptoms.
Yes, I have a laptop keyboard and those are the symptoms. Mostly occasional dead key but when it works again it sometimes repeats too. Worth noting that the laptop is advertised as having an "air-inlet" keyboard which is another reason I
think there might be dust under the keys.
And yes they seem to be pantograph switches looking under the keys.
Post by: LordBaal on July 30, 2021, 06:55:48 am
If you are handy try to service the keyboard, if it's serviceable at all. I have encountered some keyboards that are "sealed" and to open them you had to destroy them to some extent, or used the classic security screws which migth make you ponder which is cheaper to buy, a set of those screwdrivers and the thing in the end might be just irreparable or a new keyboard.
While starver discarded it outright, if you tend to eat around the laptop, still check for insects too, and everything he wrote which is a good explanation of most things that could go wrong.
I'm hesitant that two droplets of jam on the edge of a key would have got so inside the thing or reached the board tracks as liquid would do.
Post by: Starver on August 03, 2021, 08:04:49 am
I was just going to upload a screenshot, but I forget that imgur (and other image hosts I have some trust in) try to push their Apps to mobile-browsers (even when I don't want it - another point to add to the footnote, below?) and it's not practical right now. So I shall have to describe it... Have you ever played DOOM and used the no-clip cheat/found a WAD glitch to go outside the map area and got the weird 'vertically-stratified worldview' that undulates and flashes around as you move and the engine does its best to render things through the wrong side of a one-sided (external) map wall? Like that but horizontal. The wikipedia header hovers mid-screen, while some body text that I've drag-scrolled down to appears in multiple fragmented and partially overlaid copies above it, while embedded graphics on the page seem to obey their own rendering rules with non-identical multiple-overlaying '1-D Moiré' effects as I scroll. (Readability is possible, after a fashion, but as if I'm trying to use a fresnel-lens/flicker-grating improperly, and clearly I'm getting some elements out of order, as well as mashed-up with themselves, compared to the competently-rendered version.)
This is not universal to Wiki. Another page (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/74181) renders faultlessly (SFAICT), and though my first impression is that maybe the faulting page has SVG imagery embedded where the non-faulting one is illustrated purely through raster (PNG?), that is a pure shot in the dark on my part.
Chrome recently was updated. Amongst other changes, since this update, is that changing 'tabs' (or the list of available-to-open pages, given Tabs-as-tabs are apparently out of style, now even in Firefox) presents one not with the tabbed page but refocusses to the address bar of the switched-to page as if to copy/edit the URI (which makes no sense to me) and I need to explicitly dismiss that/the on-screen keyboard (or refresh the page, with possible reloading implications for certain dynamic page content) to get what was an immediate tab-switch beforehand. But I've seen this multiphasic rendering thing on an isolated Wiki page maybe a month or two ago, so it's probably not just the latest UI/UX changes or dependency-changes that caused this but an unfortunate prior component-code update that's less easy to narrow down. (Chrome's update 'information' in the Play update section tends to be rather bland, unlike those whose authors include handy "Changed the rendering code to a faster version", or whatever.)
And I'm fairly certain (though I will check later, back home) that this isn't happening on a proper desktop's browser (I'm sure I've got chrome installed on one older machine, which I can update, but I'm mostly an FF user at home, with other non-default and possibly legacy browsers there for the occasional handy cross-comparison/separation of Cookie-tracking purposes).
The last time I tried to put anything up to the Devs' pages for various browsers I found myself drowned in a sea of suggestions/bugreps immediately following major version changes that may or may not have already included the observations I myself would have liked to post. In fact, I don't think I ever did manage to get a FF 'account' to report my displeasures over last year's major UX changes, just had to adapt, and the Chrome login is stored on a different device so I'm venting here (it seems) in immediate leiu. Not the best place to get resolution, but more likely to be seen by technically competent laypeople who can yet say "actually, it is just you" or else suggest something better than my inline-SVG theory as to why I'm getting consistent glitching (noting that reloading, flushing caches or even restarting the device don't 'solve' anything) only on certain pages, based upon their own similar experiences.
So, not laying too many demands upon you lot, am I? ;)
[1] There must also be a way to force wikipedia-domain (or anywhere else I need) to not auto mobile-version itself upon loading. The layout lacks ease-of-use beyond mere reading. On another site it 'helpfully' reframes apparently to be easier in extreme portrait, when I arrive via tablet, but as I stick to landscape orientation by choice it makes it worse when the extesive sidebar menu now 'leads in' the main frame of page information, etc. But that's not my intended bugbear here, just sayin'...
Post by: Solifuge on August 05, 2021, 06:04:05 pm
I really don't want to have to use Windows 10... so as a Linux newbie, any advice for how to get packages onto my Linux box without internet?
Alternatively, would anyone in the US like to buy a mid-high-end Windows 10 computer, so I can make a new build that actually runs Linux? >:I
Post by: wierd on August 05, 2021, 11:14:06 pm
I have that problem with my USB CUDY wireless AC adapter.
What B550 motherboard do you have? I will look to see if I can find a tarball for a suitable driver.
Post by: Solifuge on August 07, 2021, 05:19:58 pm
If there's a compatible 3rd party driver, I've not found one yet. >:I >:I
Post by: wierd on August 08, 2021, 11:50:24 am
https://www.realtek.com/en/directly-download?downloadid=c4676ea8d1adc3c6f28a4ae2c3e2787a
Your ethernet is a Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5G, which is not in mainline kernel source tree. Realtek provides a driver as a source package however, which is what I linked.
The wifi chip is an intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E, which is supported by mainline kernel since 5.1 (you might need a different distro from mint, maybe xubuntu hirsute)
Post by: Mephisto on August 27, 2021, 10:07:49 am
Finally, I ran a memory test. Boom. Locked up completely, requiring a hard reset. I've been dealing with that exact event for a year and Windows' logging gave me no pointers.
This is an older HP Spectre x360 with soldered CPU and RAM. One ebay purchase and a bit of waiting later, new mobo installed and it's all hunky dory. It was a pleasure to work on, being at an odd intersection between user-serviceable (screwed-in battery, phillips and torx screws, mobo only held in with light adhesive to keep it from moving) and unserviceable (aforementioned soldered CPU and RAM).
All that to say, is there any utility in a laptop motherboard with one or more bum RAM chips? I could list it on ebay but I don't want to bother if the only thing a purchaser could do with it is toss it at an e-waste recycler.
Post by: bloop_bleep on August 27, 2021, 11:42:43 am
Post by: LordBaal on August 27, 2021, 12:25:26 pm
Post by: Mephisto on August 27, 2021, 12:29:54 pm
Post by: LordBaal on August 27, 2021, 02:47:13 pm
Post by: delphonso on August 28, 2021, 04:56:29 am
Post by: George_Chickens on August 28, 2021, 04:57:15 am
I bought a soldering iron and a heatgun. What can I solder to my laptop to make it look cooler?Solder your laptop to your brain so that you can see the cyberspace in real life.
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on August 28, 2021, 05:32:16 am
I wish computers worked like that. Imagine the knowledge that could be hadI bought a soldering iron and a heatgun. What can I solder to my laptop to make it look cooler?Solder your laptop to your brain so that you can see the cyberspace in real life.
Post by: LordBaal on August 28, 2021, 05:36:31 am
Post by: George_Chickens on August 28, 2021, 05:52:59 am
We don't know that they don't for sure until someone has done it. Be that pioneer.I wish computers worked like that. Imagine the knowledge that could be hadI bought a soldering iron and a heatgun. What can I solder to my laptop to make it look cooler?Solder your laptop to your brain so that you can see the cyberspace in real life.
Post by: delphonso on August 28, 2021, 07:27:53 am
This is mostly just porn and conspiracy theories.
Post by: Starver on August 28, 2021, 08:24:29 am
(Might not be a heat-attaching process, if not a megal casing.But bonus points if you can get gears to tjrrn. Bonus bonus points if you can get them to turn on command/command upon being turned. ;) )
Clichéd, perhaps, but maybe a gateway idea to the Next Big Thing , that everybody will want to copy off you, in future!
Post by: Mephisto on August 28, 2021, 09:17:54 am
I bought a soldering iron and a heatgun. What can I solder to my laptop to make it look cooler?
All-in-one cooler. It'll definitely make your laptop look cooler.
Post by: AzyWng on September 04, 2021, 10:05:57 pm
What might be wrong, and what can I do to solve the issue?
Post by: LordBaal on September 05, 2021, 06:50:27 am
If the error happens when doing video intensive stuff then most likely is the video card, or its drivers. Try to check if the video drivers are up to date. Which OS are you using?
Post by: delphonso on September 05, 2021, 07:37:33 am
Post by: Starver on September 05, 2021, 09:01:25 am
That's if it's not consistently stuttering at the same point in the same media playback, every time, when it might be codec issues (a permanently 'awkward' unpacking/rendering situation). But you probably would have noted that already.
What's your OS? (Esp. if not Win10, which I think we're presuming.)
What's your media player? (Windows's/whatever's default {whatever that is at the moment..}, VLC {might be worth a try, if not ready, to see if it's better/worse}, FF {ffplay, part of winff package if necessary, could be a tad more technical to use but plays pretty much anything that any other non-proprietry player can - processing power allowing}, etc, etc.)
Do you know if/how much hardware acceleration is being used, or is it all going through the CPU?
For the games, do you mean normal interactive action, as well as cit-scenes? (More inclined to blame GPU momentary underpoweredness, but also other data bottlenecking/timeouting could still be at play.)
Have you checked for CPU/Memory/Disk/Pagefile(=Memory+Disk) use occasionally spiking in any way? (And also looked for odd spikes when you aren'tviewing/playing, so that normally you'd not see the knock-on-effect.)
Are the media files *huge* BluRay rips at a 4k resolution that is overkill for your (high-end, but not 'home cinema'-quality) setup, or (conversely) are they low-res files which you're somehow on-the-fly upscaling to match your super-hi-res monitor/screen?
You're not screen/session-mirroring (VNC, TeamViewer, etc) or networking some or all the rest of the data-moving tasks (involving rssh, scp, etc..). (Probably not, but while I'm asking questions I thought I'd ask that too.)
...now see, that's why I didn't reply earlier.
You do really want a Friendly Neighbourhood
[1] Odds on are that it won't (mis)perform in front of suchban audience, though. That's a fundamental law of the universe..
Post by: AzyWng on September 06, 2021, 12:18:54 am
If it gets worse, I'll take it to the manufacturer and all that.
Post by: Starver on September 06, 2021, 02:57:49 am
(Ideally, you get an honest guy who can say "yeah, I can get you clean of that trivial but scary-looking ransomware" or "I can get a new screen hinge off eBay and fit it for you", and charge you just a genuine amount for their time+parts. But finding that kind of person in the first place is the trick.)
But I understand a lot about living with minor niggles, even as they gradually become annoyingly major niggles. ;)
[1] A few bottom-line letters swapped with spaces. Because the L is next to the backspace, "scheduled" became "scheded" and maybe other similar errors. Other things that came out wrong because there's no tactility to hint at where I should re-edit because my fingers slipped a micrometre off the proper spot...
Post by: King Zultan on September 07, 2021, 01:37:03 am
Post by: Starver on September 07, 2021, 03:04:08 am
ffmpeg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFmpeg) is (as I think I've said before) my go-to for pretty-much-anything to pretty-much-anything conversion (as ffplay is my pretty-much-anything player, which would make a good 'test' to see if it can recognise and extract the frames) and comes in all kinds of OS installs and flavours, including winff for Windows (GUI interface for selecting options) if you don't like having to (correctly) type loads and loads of command-line parameters every single time for batch-conversion (or get a single .BAT working!).
Re-rendering vector animation probably won't work with that, though. It needs something that can step-through and (internally?) export as frames that then (also internally? ...if not, ffmpeg can do that bit for you too[1]) packed together again in a standard video-frame of choice. I'm sure this is a solved problem, too, by some else who needed to kludge it. Though whether better or worse than the built-in one (if that's the mode it satisfies) you might need to go shopping around to improve your chances. I'm sure there's also Shockwave to HTML5 <canvas> converters these days, or should be, but with the same caveat as to how well featured and the markuped conversion's gonna be huge. Really, only go this way if it's not embedded video that can be de-/re-encapsulated, as above.
Hope that helps, at least in pointing in the right direction.
[1] And merge back in any sound-channel(s) that you may need to otherwise rip
Post by: King Zultan on September 07, 2021, 03:15:32 am
Post by: Starver on September 07, 2021, 04:09:32 am
If you've got the original source and development environment perhaps you can painstakingly grab details (to recreate) or step-by-step renderings. Otherwise, screen-recording software? If you can at least play it (and at whatever scale you would like it to be, as rasterised).
- This is just me giving maybes, first mostly from not knowing quite what parameters but being intruigued and then following up with some half-hearted Google-Fu stuff, as I was passing through. Some other more knowledgable passer-by who has actually done this can surely lay out the true lowdown. ;)
(I just rumaged around, I've got an unopened Macromedia Flash 5 box[1], and the pretty pictures and blurb on the back indicates that there's XML exporting, etc, in that, which might be useful if you need to go that way and still exists in the newer IDE.)
[1] Highest © date mentioned is 2000, which shows how much I committed to using that little project, since I thought I might dabble. ;)
Post by: King Zultan on September 07, 2021, 04:38:24 am
And I'm hoping the solution doesn't involve dissembling the finished animation so I can reassemble it in another program.
Post by: LordBaal on September 07, 2021, 06:35:39 am
Post by: Starver on September 07, 2021, 03:34:28 pm
Freemake video converter?I find the details ambiguous whether SWF is just an reencodable-to format or also a valid source (presumably only non-interactive presentations). It definitely claims it can output to Flash-files (SWF included) and is included amongst the many formats it knows of, but doesn't actually say it can source from SWF for any other output.
But it certainly looks like it has a lot of capabilities, and maybe you know for certain that it can do what's needed. (This may be partly because it (allegedly) directly includes ff's functionality, without following the proper licencing/acknowledgement required of using it. - That does not stop anyone using it, of course, especially if it works and nothing else would.)
Interesting, any which way.
Post by: King Zultan on September 08, 2021, 04:39:02 am
I just read that I can put the FLV into that after affects program and can make it into a MP4 or AVI, now I just need to figure out how to get the thing.
Thanks Starver and LordBaal for the ideas I'll screw around with stuff and see what I can get to happen.
Post by: Starver on September 08, 2021, 08:21:56 am
8)
[1] If there are, it may be giving codecs to use, explicitly, and/or -copyts to preserve timestamps (if audio desynching is an issue) and/or some other refinement. Winff (last I used it) seems to suggest a whole range of presets (as well as bit-by-bit tweaks) to save you the trouble of typing every combination compatible list of options you can think of after glancing at ffmpeg --help/whatever. But if it works satisfactorarily without, it's probably simpler and quicker than most GUI interfaces.
-- This advertainment message was paid for by FFAGS, the FF* Advocacy Group (Scotland) Yoyo and Nodding Bird investments may go down as well as up.Your home is at risk if you use nuclear weapons to clean your oven.
Post by: Gentlefish on September 08, 2021, 02:15:07 pm
There was probably an update that borked something along the way because FireFox HATES it when I even look at the minecraft launcher, it feels like.
Post by: wierd on September 09, 2021, 12:36:40 am
Unstable, top-heavy, and generally doesnt play nice.
Post by: delphonso on September 10, 2021, 12:05:13 am
I think I understand all the necessary parts to set up a NAS which is accessible while on the network. I want to make it accessible away from home, though.
So let's say I'm using Samba to set up the drive. Let's name it something memorable like MyTinyPiNAS. I would normally access the filesystem from another computer using the Pi's IP address. Example: \\192.168.1.10/MyTinyPiNAS. This is handled by the File Manager, it seems.
Let's say I want to make it accessible online. I can use a DDNS host to connect that device's IP to a domain name. If I do that, will I just like...see the file system in my browser? It seems far too easy and that I'll need to do more than that. Anyone have experience with this? (Currently at work and working this out on a napkin. Will attempt to do the real thing tonight.)
(This is a continuation/mutation of an attempt to set up a VPN myself. It is effectively the same as I understand it, except, being in China, it doesn't provide many benefits. Preferably, this would be a way for my family and I to share photos, etc, without needing to use a VPN or Google.)
Post by: LordBaal on September 10, 2021, 06:09:02 am
Here is a video I found on internet, its from 2015 so I don't really know if it still applicable to your case.
https://youtu.be/tu0SjDYforo
Post by: Starver on September 10, 2021, 07:40:32 am
But getting a (pseudo-)static address is the necessary first step, so as well as the DDNS hostnaming (may not be needed if you can get the number static enough for your purposes) you need to know that the 192.168/16 address won't be usable beyond your local router (or maybe one layer up, depending upon setup) and you'd need to use NAT (configure the internet-facing router/cable-modem to allow the relevent port-forwarding, probably) and then give your access-point's IP to the outside service/your contacts for as long as it doesn't get reassigned onward (maybe next time you power cycle and it has to renegotiate with the ISP - depending on exact setup in a whole complicated wkrld of possibilities).
All doable, I'm sure, just raising all this in case you aren't already aware, to save disappointment later when the project-creel reveals 'just one more thing' needs wrangling to get it working.
(Never worked with a DDNS, I'm imagining that it works by your system logging in to officially announce your current IP (by login packet source, assuming you've got the necessary NATting to work to make it useful) and adopt that as the current destination to resolve to by name-led visitors. Now I'm intrigued, though, wondering if there's a cleverer/smarter system.)
[1] A bit of autosetup, enough to get it working like a classic Windows Shared Folder, which always was a lot less tunable than most other networking setups (*nix, Novell, etc) but quick-and-dirty.
Post by: Gentlefish on September 10, 2021, 01:18:22 pm
I am sure to get the "hot take" sticker on me again for it, but that has ALWAYS been my experience with the JVM...
Unstable, top-heavy, and generally doesnt play nice.
No you're pretty much spot-on. By its very design it's like running a whole extra computer on your computer, so Java programs can run on basically any OS they've programmed the JVM to work on.
Post by: wierd on September 10, 2021, 04:02:04 pm
Using a Raspberry Pi to set up a Network Attached Storage.
I think I understand all the necessary parts to set up a NAS which is accessible while on the network. I want to make it accessible away from home, though.
So let's say I'm using Samba to set up the drive. Let's name it something memorable like MyTinyPiNAS. I would normally access the filesystem from another computer using the Pi's IP address. Example: \\192.168.1.10/MyTinyPiNAS. This is handled by the File Manager, it seems.
Let's say I want to make it accessible online. I can use a DDNS host to connect that device's IP to a domain name. If I do that, will I just like...see the file system in my browser? It seems far too easy and that I'll need to do more than that. Anyone have experience with this? (Currently at work and working this out on a napkin. Will attempt to do the real thing tonight.)
(This is a continuation/mutation of an attempt to set up a VPN myself. It is effectively the same as I understand it, except, being in China, it doesn't provide many benefits. Preferably, this would be a way for my family and I to share photos, etc, without needing to use a VPN or Google.)
The SMB protocol is unsafe to share over the naked internet. Despite microsoft's best efforts, it is just ASKING for trouble.
NFS is a similar kidney, with some additional caveats about how you would have to open several dangerous remote procedure call ports, AND would need to use only soft-mounts, due to the instability of the link...
My best suggestion, is to look into OpenVPN, and set-up / establish a secure portal to your private home network, and access the NAS via this VPN connection. This would place the SMB or NFS connection inside a cryptographically secured tunnel.
https://openvpn.net/vpn-server-resources/install-openvpn-access-server-on-raspberry-pi/
Others have suggested FTP-- This is absurdly unsafe, and would not function in the way you wish it to anyway.
SFTP is better, in that it uses a secure protocol (SSH), but still is not really what you want.
Both of those are file transfer protocols, but are not Network Attached Storage protocols. NFS, AFP, and SMB are the industry NAS protocols, and are what other operating systems expect to find or use with "mapped remote drives."
(Honorable mention to iSCSI, but that is a SAN protocol.)
With the Pi hosting OpenVPN Access Server, it can permit you to connect to ANY DEVICE in your home network as if you were physically attached to your home network, and does so over an encrypted transport to maintain security. This is the proper way to deal with the security vulns of SMB, NFS, AFP and pals, as you still get to use the industry standard protocols, without allowing outside hackers to prod at them. (they see a furious exchange of random looking garbage, due to the encryption, and thus cannot easily target the weaknesses of those protocols.)
Post by: delphonso on September 11, 2021, 07:23:43 am
Unfortunately OpenVPN is blocked in China (even if I could get the dependencies and files downloaded, the protocol they use is actively shot down).
I'll look into the NAS protocols and such. I think FTP doesn't play nice with samba? Not sure how I'd set it up anyway, since the server is GUI-less and has no web browser. I'd be proud of myself if I can just get the router to have a static IP and access this thing once. Even if completely unsecure, the sense of achievement is what I'm chasing.
Post by: wierd on September 11, 2021, 08:13:00 am
https://www.rapid7.com/blog/post/2020/09/18/nicer-protocol-deep-dive-internet-exposure-of-smb/
China being idiots about VPNs is what it is. They are hamstringing a LOT of remote work, and effacing their own cyber security in the companies trying to make due without VPNs, just so that they can make sure people aren't talking about DREAD DEMOCRACY or sharing pictures of Xi Jinping photo-shopped onto Whinnie the Pooh. Basically, their priorities are totally fucked up here.
If you get real desperate, there are ways to tunnel openVPN through an SSH tunnel, but it is far from ideal.
Post by: delphonso on September 11, 2021, 09:00:06 am
Post by: Starver on September 11, 2021, 12:36:03 pm
Post by: LordBaal on September 11, 2021, 02:56:50 pm
A long time ago (like 15 years ago) I found an actual free hosting that allowed you to have a kind of private facebook or google photos and you just shared the password with anyone you wanted but I can't recall the exact name, guess there are plenty of such services now and far more secure. I never used that beyond some meaningless stuff because you truly don't know who is behind or what they do with whatever you put in there.
Dunno men, being lazy, I would make a gmail account shared with your family, sinc the disk with it and call it a day. It's not a vpn and is not a direct share but might save you a lot of headaches (while inducing others).
Post by: wierd on September 17, 2021, 05:59:18 am
If you want to open up that can of worms anyway--
For an old school FTP server, you need to have your router pass port 21 through using port forwarding. The FTP server ideally needs to be set up and run under its own user account and group, that has only just enough access to be able to work with its 'home folder', and nothing else.
The server uses a config file to determine usernames and passwords, and what access levels each user/pass combination has. In old-school FTP, the user/pass exchange is unencrypted, plain text. This is one of many reasons why FTP is not safe on the current internet.
For SFTP, you need to have port 22 forwarded. OpenSSH daemon is able to be configured as an SFTP daemon (https://learn.akamai.com/en-us/webhelp/netstorage/netstorage-user-guide/GUID-B7AFF2FB-1CBC-4A8A-9343-ACFB20B49442.html), and it uses the same users and credentials defined for access to the system's console. To use this reasonably safely, you need to generate a **GOOD** keypair. I suggest a 4096bit (minimum) eliptical curve (ECDSA) cipher. (RSA keys are known to have backdoor vulns, ever since the Snowden leaks, and should not be used. Diffie-Helmann keys are technologically compromised in the modern world, and can be trivially beaten down. Eliptical Curve on the other hand, is still robustly difficult to break through.)
If you DO happen to have another linux box, you *CAN* access the remote file system as if it were a NAS protocol, using many linux file manager applications, when using SFTP. (https://askubuntu.com/questions/640744/how-can-i-connect-to-a-server-via-scp-in-lubuntu-15) For the most part however, such as when trying to connect through windows, you would have to use a special client, and it acts more like old school FTP. (such as winSCP (https://winscp.net/eng/index.php))
Of the possible options, I would strongly suggest SFTP if you cannot use an actual VPN tunnel with a real NAS protocol.
An alternative to using a static IP address, is to use a dynamic DNS service. Dyndns.org still has free offers, last I checked and there is a linux scriptlet that can run on your Pi, that will automatically update the DNS redirection service when your router's IP address changes.
Post by: delphonso on September 17, 2021, 07:19:50 am
Post by: Starver on September 17, 2021, 08:27:34 am
With optional "HEREIS fileattached.ext", you can relive the heady days of yet another fairly common way of pre-web filesharing that should need nothing but a compatibly-connectable email service. ;)
(Not sure I like the look of that GUI configurator of that random example I linked, though. It spoils the vibe!)
...While I'm here, without any other obvious active thread for this, RIP Clive Sinclair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Sinclair)...
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Post by: delphonso on September 30, 2021, 12:02:47 am
(I'm also interested in an answer, because I've been considering building a new PC)
Post by: wierd on September 30, 2021, 12:07:09 am
Additionally, you dont have to worry about battery depletion or roasting your crotch.
Post by: Starver on September 30, 2021, 04:13:43 am
There may be exceptions/deals to be had. But a given capability is more expensive to get in (or put into) a laptop case, compared to a desktop/floor-standing 'beige box'[1]. And you just know you can more easily replace your GPU, processor, expad your RAM[6] or even redo your entire mobo+rest in six months' time, in the latter, should the opportunity arise. If you need a (new? adittional?[2]) optical drive then it's (much more) trivial. Should USB4/etc ports come about, there'll be a rear-plane or front-slot option far more likely (or just add more USB<=3 slots rather than being forced to daisy-chain additional hubs.
Secondarily to that, less fuss if the screen goes dead[3], wifi/bluetooth burns out, you spill mead[5] on your keyboard, or the HDD needs replacing[6].
And someone who breaks in and cadually rifles through your dearest posessions is unlikely to wander down the street soon after with your mini-tower under their arm. ;)
Advantages to the laptop are if you aren't sticking to one clear working position (or possibly if your personally chosen workstation is vextraordinarily tight, or the armchair in front of the TV?) and needed portability. Because you also wouldn't want to be carrying a mini-tower, or even a SFF box, around too much. And laptops may have inbuilt webcam(s), fingerprint scanner, memory-card slots, etc, that you'd have to add on and install yourself (card slots a possible exception), but will be part of the price for at least some laptops.
But you know your circumstances, plus what's on sale, so there is room for a laptop to be better for you. I just rail a bit against those who think laptop==better. (When the Covid thing forced the need to help with remote-learning, for schools, I was annoyed that there was so much "laptops for the disadvantaged". Especially as it probably was also a Child Safeguarding issue, whereas a stationary computer placed firmly in the family-space could be less likely to be a predator-fest via the closed bedroom door.)
Hope that helps, though.
[1] Though black seems to be the current vogue, and no sign of it changing, transparent sides and glowy elements notwithstanding.
[2] Also out of vogue, it seems, and treated as dust-traps as much as floppy-slots once were.
[3] Technically also an upgrade-benefit, unless you get the other input peripherals and start to use your laptop closed as a microthin 'box', as if a non-laptop.
[5] Or any drink, but humour me on this. ;)
[6] HDD (or RAM) might be easily swapped in some laptops, but you still are constrained to the more expensive thin-form drives, and some laptop manufacturers of time past (Dell, Toshiba, IIRC) got a bit proprietary with their not-quite-IDE-like connectors for their HDDs, that were otherwise the same form-factor as other laptop HDDs - maybe all strict SATA these days, but I imagine there's still some instances.
Post by: LordBaal on September 30, 2021, 07:02:44 am
Starver covers the two more or less completely. To hand out a specific and proper advice without extending so much you would need be specific of the requirements, budget and so on...
LAPTOPS:
Pros:
-In short a laptop is more practical on dynamic environments (moving around the house/office).
- Requires very little in the way of physically installation.
- Have the nice feature of being black out proof if the battery is working properly.
- Not being on the floor generally, means less dust build up. Some models makes very easier to clean the cooling system of dust, but this is not the norm or something the laymen dares to do.
Cons:
- Its also somewhat more difficult to service.
- Tend to be prone to accidents (like spills and broken screens) which are harder to fix and can damage the whole system.
- They migth be technical inferior to what you migth get on a desktop.
- Are harder to upgrade and sometimes/somethings migth be simply outright impossible to upgrade.
- Given the reduced space some laptops tend to produce scorching temperatures. If your laptop has no easy access to the cooling system to clean up then this issue intensifies.
DESKTOP
Pros:
- Cheaper, in theory, for the same level in power.
- Easy to update. It has its limits but is far easier.
- Easier to service.
- A spill on the keyboard or a broken screen is not such a potential catastrophic failure.
Cons:
- Basically its another furniture in the house. Requires its own space which means a proper desk at least so this means mobility, while not impossible is harder and more cumbersome.
- It requires more in the physical installation, to the point of laymen people asking to a technician to do it.
- If you want to be blackout proof you need to also buy an UPS.
- If the case is on the floor or near it will gather dust over time. LOTS. I've seen some crazy things men... in general they atract more dust but there are some cases with easy servicieable filters that can help a lot to mitigate this.
Post by: Starver on September 30, 2021, 11:39:45 am
Just some (additional) additional experience gained from sorting out diverse problems for others. ;)
(The self-UPS capabity is a good additional point. My big excuse for missing it is that I use a laptop so old that the battery has died (and never got around to getting a replacement, knowing I'm using it as a handy-sized house-to-house portable legacy desktop anyway, and power supply being rarely off in this more fortunate place) so it's removed to prevent overheating and I always just plug it in.)
[1] Aside from the risk of snoozy crushing, or indeed any other reason you might imagine that involves the inbuilt cameras. Also, it's probably bad for sleep patterns. In both these issues. ;) )
Post by: delphonso on October 15, 2021, 07:37:10 am
Playing DF on this laptop has required some sacrifices - small maps, pocket worlds, etc. It's manageable. It was, at least, on Windows. This summer I swapped to Ubuntu and didn't play DF until recently. Almost immediately I noticed a very sickening effect. The game chugs. I mean chugs. It runs at a normal, slowish speed, but then gets like...a pulse of speed. Everything ticks really quickly for half a second, then the game returns to normal. It's bad enough I had to lower the FPS limit - putting myself into self-induced FPS death.
Any clues what this could be and how I can...fix it?
I have 8 gigs of ram, of which about 1.5 is used.
My processor is a hearty 1.10GHz - 2 cores. One core is constantly at 95~% usage, even without DF running. The other fluctuates from 10% to 60% and I suspect is the source of this issue.
EDIT:
I installed the debian package of DF (out of date, 47.04...) and it does the same, so it's definitely the computer, not the files themselves.
The normal speed is satisfactory, but the speed-ups are actually nauseating. I limited FPS to 30 and still get the pulses occasionally, but it seems to be less frequent. A larger fortress doesn't get it, as it struggles to meet 30 FPS.
Post by: dragdeler on October 15, 2021, 07:58:27 am
Also 8gig seems gigantic for that laptop you been upgrading havent you :D?
Post by: wierd on October 15, 2021, 08:47:56 am
1) Since this is a laptop, is CPU throttling happening? Often, linux distros set rather.... ... ... aggressive... throttling settings for the CPU when it detects that it has been installed on a laptop.
https://github.com/erpalma/throttled#static-fix
2) is ZRAM enabled? If it is, temporarily disable it, and see if your problem goes away. (get output of [cat /proc/swaps], and see if /dev/zram0 is a swap device.)
Post by: feelotraveller on October 15, 2021, 01:01:40 pm
Post by: delphonso on October 15, 2021, 05:42:56 pm
In terms of addressing the symptoms have you also tried reducing the G_FPS_CAP? Usual advice is to set to a multiple of the FPS setting, so try 30 or even 15.
Yeah, sorry for the lack of clarity, I lowered both to 30.
I would check these things:
1) Since this is a laptop, is CPU throttling happening? Often, linux distros set rather.... ... ... aggressive... throttling settings for the CPU when it detects that it has been installed on a laptop.
https://github.com/erpalma/throttled#static-fix
2) is ZRAM enabled? If it is, temporarily disable it, and see if your problem goes away. (get output of [cat /proc/swaps], and see if /dev/zram0 is a swap device.)
I am running an update right now, but will check these two after the fact - I would guess it's throttling, as the RAM seems fine.
Also 8gig seems gigantic for that laptop you been upgrading havent you :D?
Such a thing would certainly void my warranty, so surely not, never.
EDIT:
Upgrading to Ubuntu 21.10 seems to have fixed whatever the issue is. CPU load is equal among the cores - so no more 100% on one and 10-60% on the other, with that the pulsing is gone. Wish I knew exactly what caused it, but happy to be rid of it. I'll keep an eye on it either way.
Now I can enjoy FPS death the old fashion way.
Post by: Solifuge on November 04, 2021, 01:21:48 pm
You will need to compile this driver, and install it.
https://www.realtek.com/en/directly-download?downloadid=c4676ea8d1adc3c6f28a4ae2c3e2787a
Forgot to follow up on this. Thanks so much! The link was broken, but I was able to nab the driver and get it working on Linux, just in time for my Windows 10 install to get critically unstable (TL;DR, aging GPU issues). Been happily working in Linux in a compatability mode that doesn't stress my GPU, without the system crashing all the time. Thanks a bunch!
Post by: nickbii on November 08, 2021, 02:01:53 am
Also: how do the Apple M1 processors stack up?
Post by: wierd on November 08, 2021, 02:25:28 am
What has changed, is the width of the memory read window, and the number of concurrent operations that occur on each memory read operation.
This is is what things like "quad channel memory" are all about.
Post by: nickbii on November 08, 2021, 03:40:52 pm
The frontside bus speed has not really changed all that horrible much for a decade or more.So getting a motherboard that supports quad-channel, and then filling the four slots with the standard 1600, gonna max out FPS? Or does the new DDR5 with 5200 do better? Or should I focus on timings?
What has changed, is the width of the memory read window, and the number of concurrent operations that occur on each memory read operation.
This is is what things like "quad channel memory" are all about.
Or do we just not have data that detailed yet?
Post by: Schmaven on November 08, 2021, 09:52:29 pm
The frontside bus speed has not really changed all that horrible much for a decade or more.So getting a motherboard that supports quad-channel, and then filling the four slots with the standard 1600, gonna max out FPS? Or does the new DDR5 with 5200 do better? Or should I focus on timings?
What has changed, is the width of the memory read window, and the number of concurrent operations that occur on each memory read operation.
This is is what things like "quad channel memory" are all about.
Or do we just not have data that detailed yet?
I may be wrong, but it was my understanding that because the data DF processes is so small, that it's more a timing + speed issue than a size issue when it comes to RAM. And clock speed + timing are definitely related. If your ram operates at 2GHz, with an 8-8-8-20 timing, that would be roughly equivalent to RAM operatimg at just 1GHz but with 4-4-4-10 timing. Similarly, 2GHz RAM with 7-7-7-15 timing would be quicker, as would 3GHz RAM with 11-10-10-28 timing. You typically have to work out the algebra yourself as the manufacturer's specs typically just give raw measurements.
I don't know how multiple sticks of RAM factor in, this is just a stick to stick comparison.
Post by: wierd on November 08, 2021, 11:55:32 pm
This is where multi-channel memory comes in, as the processor can fetch more than just one data element during the mem-read operation, and have it waiting in the wings and ready to go. The size of the channel can easily offset a slower rate.
Think, "timing rate == how fast a bucket can be scooped in and out" and "channel width == how many buckets can be moved in and out at the same time".
There are functional limits to how fast you can drive silicon, so intel and pals have been improving the width, and the prefetching computation logistics. As long as DF has the data it wants in the processor cache, the issue will not be memory bound IO contention, but processor bound computation contention on a single thread.
Post by: LordBaal on November 09, 2021, 07:28:18 am
Also be mindful that not all CPUs and motherboards support dual and quad. Some support dual only. Or at least back in my time. I'm ridiculously out of date when it comes to hardware.
Post by: Starver on November 09, 2021, 11:09:07 am
If you have an Panamamax containership then it can have containers fairly quickly unloaded/loaded from it (ignore stacking order, quayside or onboard, for this analogy) with maybe 20t or so of contents at a time, perhaps several such containers at a time by several of the parallel servicing cranes, which is a lot of shifting around well within usual capabilities, and well worth the time to pack the container elsewhere and use road/rail links to get it to the port, and at the receiving port get it onto another flatbed truck/carriage to get to the distribution depot.
But if you only want to work with several disparate items that might have been scattered across many containers because it seemed logical at the time (e.g. you need to check/replace a single batch-line of goods that were constructed to the wrong spec on one of your manufacturing conveyors, but mixed in with the rest) then it might be easier (but not usually authorised!) to crack the container on the ship, or in the port grounds, and use wheelbarrows/pallette-trucks to move the requisite items out/any replacements in that you sent along in a transit van.
The highly efficient 20t-lifting cargo-handles may be overkill for the job, or even take more time.
Of course, if you're normally happy to get the sheer throughput of mass-tramsfer of data without many niggly exceptions such as this to spoil the perfection of it, then it's good. And the predictive(/look-ahead) mechanisms can probably help even when oddities are called for (needs 'understanding' by everything from the compiler to the on-chip microcode to work best, somehow anticipating things that the programmer may even expect to happen, just by examining what he ended up asking for (which might imperfectly express his expectations, or he could be wrong... How advanced is the meta-programmers' art such that they allow for this, I don't know!).
Not that it's a bad thing, in general, I reemphisise, I'm just positing a feasible outlier situation. ;)
Post by: King Zultan on November 12, 2021, 04:09:31 am
Post by: wierd on November 12, 2021, 06:44:42 am
If your junky 'tato-phone has a card slot, you can pop a 128gb card in.
It is my observation that lots of phones that claim they cant do sdhc, actually can.
Just try a larger module in the slot, and see if the phone can use it.
Edit-- GSM Arena says this phone has an SDHC slot. You should be able to jam a 128gb module in that thing. (larger than that is SDXC, my bad)
You might need to use either adopted storage, or root+apps2sd pro if you want to have more than 32gb of apps installed. I had lots of mileage from the latter back in the day.
Post by: LordBaal on November 12, 2021, 07:24:56 am
Post by: wierd on November 12, 2021, 08:23:05 am
Some kind of root method (Magisk, SuperSu (https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/zte-zmax-z970-root-guide-faq-discussion-if-permrooted-with-kingroot.3110178/), et al..)
and an app called App2SD Pro
(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.co.pricealert.apps2sd&hl=en_US&gl=US)
App2SD Pro is able to mount an EXT4 filesystem/partition on the sdcard, and then abuse features of the ext4 file system to redirect application data folders to that partition. This lets the stock OS *THINK* an application is living on the internal storage, when it is really living on the SD card.
Since only the root user can get unfettered access to the /data folder, (where app data gets stored), you need a root method to use it.
Post by: LordBaal on November 12, 2021, 08:37:58 am
Post by: King Zultan on November 13, 2021, 04:03:55 am
Edit-- GSM Arena says this phone has an SDHC slot. You should be able to jam a 512gb module in that thing.Wait does that mean that the stuff saying the phone can't have an Micro SD card bigger than 32gig in it is a lie and I can put the biggest one in there and it work?
I'm less interested in putting apps on this thing, and more in putting loads of videos on the SD card so I can watch them when I away from home.
Post by: methylatedspirit on November 13, 2021, 05:31:05 am
The cutoff for sdhc is 128gb, not 32gb.
You probably know more than I do, but the SD Association itself says that SDHC supports only a max of 32 GB. (https://www.sdcard.org/developers/sd-standard-overview/capacity-sd-sdhc-sdxc-sduc/) That's what the standard says. Is there a source for your claim? I guess you could allow non-standard implementations, but the problem with allowing non-standard behavior is that you can't rely on them to work all the time on every device.
Wait does that mean that the stuff saying the phone can't have an Micro SD card bigger than 32gig in it is a lie and I can put the biggest one in there and it work?
I'll just answer the general case of "my phone's advertised as supporting a max of $SOME_SIZE cards, but the standard says I can put in $MAX_SUPPORTED_SIZE_FOR_STANDARD ones!". I'll hold the specific assertion here as wrong until proven otherwise, but the general idea is answerable.
Educated guess ahead: It's a matter of marketing. If you look at SDUC, it supports up to 128 TB, but (as of this writing) no-one's made them yet. Do you want to be the company saying things like "our phone supports 128 TB SD cards!"? It's technically correct, but any outsider hearing that would start asking "is $PHONE_COMPANY smoking crack again?"
...that, or "ooh, where can I find these 128 TB SD cards?", proceeds to buy a fake one off Wish, then blames $PHONE_COMPANY for the fake card once it loses the precious memories of their family or something.
Post by: wierd on November 13, 2021, 06:12:15 am
The cutoff for sdhc is 128gb, not 32gb.
You probably know more than I do, but the SD Association itself says that SDHC supports only a max of 32 GB. (https://www.sdcard.org/developers/sd-standard-overview/capacity-sd-sdhc-sdxc-sduc/) That's what the standard says. Is there a source for your claim? I guess you could allow non-standard implementations, but the problem with allowing non-standard behavior is that you can't rely on them to work all the time on every device.Wait does that mean that the stuff saying the phone can't have an Micro SD card bigger than 32gig in it is a lie and I can put the biggest one in there and it work?
I'll just answer the general case of "my phone's advertised as supporting a max of $SOME_SIZE cards, but the standard says I can put in $MAX_SUPPORTED_SIZE_FOR_STANDARD ones!". I'll hold the specific assertion here as wrong until proven otherwise, but the general idea is answerable.
Educated guess ahead: It's a matter of marketing. If you look at SDUC, it supports up to 128 TB, but (as of this writing) no-one's made them yet. Do you want to be the company saying things like "our phone supports 128 TB SD cards!"? It's technically correct, but any outsider hearing that would start asking "is $PHONE_COMPANY smoking crack again?"
...that, or "ooh, where can I find these 128 TB SD cards?", proceeds to buy a fake one off Wish, then blames $PHONE_COMPANY for the fake card once it loses the precious memories of their family or something.
This is more an issue with FAT32 (or rather, Microsoft's hard cap of 32gb for FAT32), than the signalling technology. Android runs on linux, and does not give a shit about the huge-fat implementations. It will happily format that card as fat32 with a huge-fat implementation.
See for instance, the exchange here. (https://androidforums.com/threads/128gb-micro-sd-card.922276/)
I have used huge cards in phones from that era without any problems at all. 128gb card will likely live in there just fine, but I would be leery of putting bigger.
If the device supports adopted storage, it wont use FAT filesystem at all anyway, it will use an encrypted form of EXT4, which will work all the way out to the signalling limit of the SDHC spec, which is 128gb.
Anything larger than 128gb must be supported by an SDXC controller, because it uses a different addressing technology.
The reason the SDCard association caps SDHC at 32gb, is because larger modules tend to have large erase-block sizes, and the cards wear out extra super fast if the wrong allocation unit size is used. ExFAT allows cluster sizes that are astronomically large, which is what is really needed for large capacity SDcards. (Which is why the SDCard Assn switches gears abruptly and harshly at the 32gb boundary, and says "With ExFAT" for anything larger.) It has nothing to do with the signalling tech underneath, it has to do with the typical memory granularity of the flash array being accessed, and how long the device is likely to service under heavy read-erase-modify cycles.
Microsoft limits the allocation unit size to 16kb, which translates to a maximum volume size of 32GB. FAT32 actually allows you (within actual FAT32 specification) to specify a 32k cluster size, which can handle a volume up to 2TB. This is what I mean by "Huge-Fat". Linux FAT implementation does not bat an eye at 32k cluster for FAT.
The issue, is that super-duper large SDCards, use physical eras block sizes upwards of 1MB on really large capacity modules (sometimes larger than 4mb!!), and this leads to write amplification. The SDCard Assn wants you to use ExFAT, so that you can set an extra super huge cluster size, that FAT32 does not support.
That is the real, nitty gritty, down and dirty on the subject.
Zultan's intended use case: "load it up with as many video files as possible" should not have serious issues with write amplification, since the files wont change after being written. A 128gb card should work fine.
Post by: LordBaal on November 13, 2021, 07:41:47 am
Post by: wierd on November 13, 2021, 07:43:19 am
Post by: LordBaal on November 13, 2021, 07:46:48 am
It can look bad (but only if you are close) on extra big/super HD screens but on a phone screen it's like 4k.
Even on my old 42" lg dumb tv they looked fine!
Post by: Starver on November 13, 2021, 08:44:36 am
Obviously less of a bonus if you want to transfer them up again (phone2TV broadcast), or copy them onwards for others (having had full permission from the copyright owner for every stage of this, naturally) but for anything you want to cement as a specific personal portable solution it just takes a bit of (batch-?)conversion before you plug in the cable/media/WEP-code to transfer the results.
I've also been known to speed-convert things I want to watch/listen at 1.5x (considered important/desirable to view or hear, portably, but on a device I don't have my usual playback speed-altering ability upon), but you don't get size benefits if this is just forcing a new internally recognised sampling rate and of course it's a 'funny copy' (though tones of voices/music remain the same, the tempo can be distracting to others... So a set of earphones, or general privacy, is useful, if not already implemented!
A side-suggestion, from personal experience. No idea if it helps with the original issue but mentioning anyway.
Post by: King Zultan on November 14, 2021, 04:21:43 am
Zultan's intended use case: "load it up with as many video files as possible" should not have serious issues with write amplification, since the files wont change after being written. A 128gb card should work fine.Thank you for the info, now I just need to buy one.
Post by: methylatedspirit on November 18, 2021, 02:04:22 am
a) Would they do this if I insisted?
b) Would they deduct anything from the cost, or would I still be paying the same price as the normal people who don't ask such absurd things as "I don't want Windows on this" to their salespeople?
Post by: delphonso on November 18, 2021, 02:45:54 am
I expect most distributors just receive whatever the manufacturer makes - who are almost certainly under contract with HP (for example), who likewise have a contract with Windows. I doubt they would if you insisted, as that would probably entail some modicum of risk on the distributor's part.
MSI, though, does produce good (expensive, but not over-priced) gaming laptops with Linux pre-installed. I believe you can also find a wide variety of budget laptops that come with either some Linux distro (usually Ubuntu) or that Chrome monstrosity.
Build-your-own is the best way to not pay for Windows. Certainly the folks here will flood you with far too much information on the subject, should you ask (as I plan to sometime next year)
Post by: LordBaal on November 18, 2021, 07:19:50 am
Post by: dragdeler on November 18, 2021, 11:39:07 am
Post by: LordBaal on November 18, 2021, 12:30:50 pm
For as much streamlined the process of installing an OS has become, there will always be a lot of people unwilling to do it. Like changing oil on a ICE vehicle. It's really simple, put a large enough pan or recipient below the carter, open the carter valve and let it drain, change the oil filter of the engine, fill it in with new oil. Still billions of humans refuse to do it.
Post by: wierd on November 18, 2021, 12:55:54 pm
You really do need a mittens-mode experience (such as offered by Apple, and more recently, Microsoft) for that.
The issue, is that most people do not want to learn something new, especially in the US, where our educational system quickly teaches children that there is no positive incentive to actually learning anything, and that you should instead just game the system using what you have been given, exactly what you have been given, in exactly the way it was given to you.
Linux dares to suggest that maybe, you can and should, take some initiative to understand what your computer is actually doing and why/how it is doing it, so that you can then actually manage it yourself, like a proper grown up.
There is a vast market out there that caters to people who for whatever reason, are unable or unwilling to make that investment. (eg, unable or unwilling to learn, unable or unwilling to administer, unable or unwilling to do both.)
For those people, there is MacOS, and Windows.
They deserve the mittens-- it is explicitly the reason they use the product. ("curated user experience" is literally a cognate for having mittens put on your hands, and being told you cannot deviate from the policies of the experience you have been given, in exactly the way it was given to you. EG, wearing mittens, and told not to touch.)
Post by: LordBaal on November 18, 2021, 01:59:29 pm
Post by: wierd on November 18, 2021, 02:48:59 pm
The frequency of the radio spectrum used by cellphones tends to be 600+800mhz and 900+1600mhz. These frequencies are used, because of their low attenuation in atmosphere, and thus their reliability as carrier waves for information transfer over long distances. The frequencies used by WiFi, in comparison-- 2400 mhz and 5000 mhz respectively for B/G/N and A/AC, are selected for the opposite reason-- their high attenuation through atmosphere, limiting their effective range.
Electric motors work through mutual electromagnetic repulsion of the stater coils/magnets against the armature coils. Various means of energizing the armature coils exist, which is where various classes of motor come into play, but they all operate on magnetic repulsion on a confined axis.
I happen to "just know" this. However, I do admit that I am not normal. :P
Post by: delphonso on November 18, 2021, 05:03:20 pm
You also have to admit that the barrier to entry does exist and tech guides are universally hard to understand. Especially linux which, has two modes: someone tells you a command line input to fix your problem and doesn't explain why that works or what it does, or someone offers you 8 solutions for particular use-cases, meticulously detailed with a few tossed in jokes.
This all, I think, can come back to MacOS and Windows - as you say, wierd, the mittens mode has made much of the functions of a computer obfuscated. I have to assume people would be more tech literate if we were all still on Commodore 64s.
Post by: eerr on November 28, 2021, 03:42:33 pm
With the chip shortage, I need a new computer better than the 350 dollar minimum. Eight GB of ram is just not sufficient! I need something that can run unity3d for at least three years. I also might think about upgrading stuff, which I usually haven't in the past.
Stretch goals: last six years
I'm thinking of looking at Dell.
If there is a standalone tower that isn't bundled I want that.
Post by: eerr on November 28, 2021, 06:43:19 pm
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/compare?ocs=na5400eytcs,na5400eytbs
Post by: delphonso on November 28, 2021, 07:34:50 pm
I believe CPUs are becoming the limiting factor once more - 4.7GHz should be solid to run most games, though I don't think it's very impressive either - probably good for the three year goal, but maybe not the 6.
Post by: LordBaal on November 28, 2021, 08:16:28 pm
As for GPU so far I've seen that the gt1050 migth be enough.
Im open for any suggestions guys. Also this is not something I would do this year but more something for the next year, around april for my birthday after saving up enough money.
Post by: delphonso on November 28, 2021, 08:34:22 pm
Im open for any suggestions guys. Also this is not something I would this year but more something for the next year, arounf april for my birthday after saving up enough money.
Actually completely in the same boat - I would also love a short guide on building a solid PC.
Post by: LordBaal on November 28, 2021, 08:44:59 pm
Post by: eerr on November 28, 2021, 10:44:06 pm
They recommended I upgrade my pc, The ram and an SSD.
but I think my brother helped me find something okay-ish.
https://deals.dell.com/en-us/productdetail/brw5
Yes, the graphics card is weak, but he says it should be upgradeable if I need to.
Post by: wierd on November 29, 2021, 11:37:44 am
Uninformed opinion:
I believe CPUs are becoming the limiting factor once more - 4.7GHz should be solid to run most games, though I don't think it's very impressive either - probably good for the three year goal, but maybe not the 6.
Frequency is less important than cycle efficiency. Modern CPUs are about the same freq as those from a decade ago, but do more, because they need fewer cycles to do the operations, have larger caches, etc...
Gains of this kind are not represented by a frequency number. Often, modern CPUs will up and down throttle dynamically anyway.
You want to look at single thread performance ratings, not ghz.
Post by: LordBaal on November 29, 2021, 12:06:52 pm
Post by: Starver on November 29, 2021, 01:26:46 pm
Often, modern CPUs will up and down throttle dynamically anyway.I'm still nostalgic for the "Turbo" button (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button). ;)
Post by: wierd on November 29, 2021, 01:45:46 pm
Often, modern CPUs will up and down throttle dynamically anyway.I'm still nostalgic for the "Turbo" button (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button). ;)
I would actually LOVE to see a modern board, that had a proper realmode implementation, catering to retro DOS gaming, and featured such a retro option.
Something that has shadowram UMBs, an uncluttered adapter rom region, does SB16 emulation, a proper VESA bios, and has the turbo button, but is also capable of modern gaming in full x64 mode.
There is clearly a market, as the MiSTER board community demonstrates.
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 30, 2021, 06:33:44 pm
Im confident on being able to build it, I'm just very unfamiliar with new technologies, models and brands, and very unstrusting of reviews on the net. I working on the 1155 intel socket still worth it?
What's even available in your part of the world? In most places a GTX 1050 would be an extremely poor buy, and a P8Z68 motherboard (which as far as i can tell only supports 2nd Gen Core processors, they're on 11th gen now) is little more than a paperweight, but your situation is probably pretty different than most.
Post by: LordBaal on November 30, 2021, 10:01:14 pm
So I changed my plan a bit. Basically I will buy a sata ssd for the current computer and leave it for office and browser work, which is still pretty decent at and call it a day.
And will build a new pc from 0 with current generation with the objective of playing total war and dwarf fortress more than anything. Any recomendations?
I'll buy from the internet in about 5 months from now, most likely fron USA.
Post by: Schmaven on December 01, 2021, 04:38:53 am
Post by: Mephisto on December 01, 2021, 05:16:42 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 01, 2021, 05:42:46 am
For video cards, you don't want to get any Nvidia card that doesn't begin with 30 unless it is extremely cheap or you simply have no other option (which, unfortunately, is a common issue these days). Price/performance just isn't there if you're paying retail prices.
You'll want an NVME slot on the motherboard even if you don't get that kind of drive right away - that's increasingly becoming standard, and will be a solid upgrade path later.
Splurge on the power supply. Even if you use a UPS to wash your electricity, a cheap PSU is all too likely to fail in a way that damages things later on.
Don't get the 60 pound case unless you know you'll never move it.
Post by: delphonso on December 05, 2021, 08:37:34 pm
On that note - I bought a 1TB SSD to slip into my laptop to hopefully eek out a modicum of improved performance. My intention behind this was to allow me more time to shop for parts for my PC build. I've got a simple question that I expect I already know the answer to. My laptop uses a 2.5 inch SATA - with a <20 buck adapter I can turn that into a 3.5 inch. Is there any downside to doing this when I build my PC? Do those little shell/adapters have any impact on performance? (I'm comfortable un-upgrading my laptop back to its HDD)
Post by: LordBaal on December 05, 2021, 09:33:15 pm
Post by: feelotraveller on December 05, 2021, 10:16:26 pm
My laptop uses a 2.5 inch SATA - with a <20 buck adapter I can turn that into a 3.5 inch. Is there any downside to doing this when I build my PC? Do those little shell/adapters have any impact on performance? (I'm comfortable un-upgrading my laptop back to its HDD)
Generally not any downside. Read the reviews for the particular adapter. Check that it has a transport speed at least as high as the drive and computer. Make sure that it ventilates properly. Not performance related but occasionally there is an issue with the screw fittings not matching the drive mounts of the box. Chances are it will all be good. (Personally I've been using a 2.5 inch drive in my pc box, via adpater, for several years and not had any issue.)
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 05, 2021, 10:16:48 pm
It seems buying a laptop with a nvidia 3050 seems cheaper than buying the card or a desktop.
That's not the worst plan, but it is effectively non-upgradable, and laptop parts are often a little weaker than the desktop version of the same thing. I've also had a lot of throttling issues when using laptops after the battery started wearing out - they would clock themselves down if the battery was empty even though it was plugged in.
On the other hand, if you still have irregular power, being able to run off of battery is probably a big plus.
Post by: Mephisto on December 06, 2021, 12:24:59 am
(https://i.imgur.com/CDWDYVR_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium)
Post by: delphonso on December 06, 2021, 12:40:31 am
Post by: BigD145 on December 06, 2021, 03:57:52 am
Post by: LordBaal on December 06, 2021, 07:32:15 am
Laptops with a 3050ti starts around 700~800 bucks and acording to some reviews that card along with 8GB of system ram and a modern CPU would result around 140fps on ultra settings on Total Warhammer 2 at 1080p. Generally dont trust reviews much but even if they are off by half, 70 fps is crazy performance in my book.
Another advantage of the laptop is being a single shipping to Venezuela instead of having to coordinate several separated ones. The flip side of this is putting all my eggs on a basket.
The desktop 3050 and 3050ti seems to be going to the market on january next year, so probably will wait to check those prices too before deciding.
Post by: Mephisto on December 06, 2021, 09:41:09 am
Um. I think that goes well with a shirt that says "My eyes are down here" because you'd need eyes where your nipples are to make use of a tiny monitor at that angle.
It's a pneumatic monitor arm. Your monitor mounts to the flat bit that's impaling itself in that poor asshole's chin flesh.
Post by: King Zultan on December 07, 2021, 05:21:27 am
Any advice would be appreciated.
Post by: delphonso on December 07, 2021, 05:57:25 am
PhotoRec (https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec) might work, though I have no experience with it.
GParted (https://gparted.org/) definitely works for partitioning/unpartitioning, and apparently have a recovery attempt tool. It's worth a shot. Both of these are free and open source, so...at least give it a shot, I guess? Is your SDCard off-brand? If so, it might just be reaching the end of its lifespan and might need to be replaced, unfortunately.
Post by: wierd on December 07, 2021, 01:27:14 pm
Post by: King Zultan on December 08, 2021, 05:28:25 am
Is your SDCard off-brand? If so, it might just be reaching the end of its lifespan and might need to be replaced, unfortunately.I don't know weather it's off brand or name brand but it's ether a Onn or PNY, also it shouldn't be reaching the end of life as I bought it earlier this year.
Post by: LordBaal on December 08, 2021, 08:17:01 am
Post by: delphonso on December 08, 2021, 05:19:54 pm
Post by: LordBaal on December 08, 2021, 07:12:20 pm
On all accounts data ends up lost, sometimes forever. Back in the university a lot of people got scammed by 4Gb and OH MY GAWD 8Gb pendrives when 500Mb was more or less the norm. They ended up being 32 Mb chips that corrupted everything once a certain amount of data was put into them.
Post by: methylatedspirit on December 09, 2021, 02:07:13 am
It could have been a software thing from the phone, but, yeah SD Cards on the cheap can die fast if read and written a lot. I lost one 64gb one that was used in a raspberry pi only after a few months.
Doesn't help that Raspbian (and most* distros for the Pi, from my understanding) use disk swap instead of ZRAM swap, substantially shortening the life of SD cards in the process. Here's a guide on how to set ZRAM up, and throw out disk swap entirely.
https://haydenjames.io/raspberry-pi-performance-add-zram-kernel-parameters/
Alternately, if you never ever need to save data to the SD card, ever, you can instead go into raspi-config and go to Performance Options > Overlay File System to prevent writes to the SD card. I don't know the Linux-fu to explain it beyond "sets up an overlay filesystem in RAM, so all writes that would go to the boot disk go to RAM instead".
Warning: This gives the Pi amnesia. Any files you save to the SD card will be lost on the next reboot.
*Fedora might be an exception, assuming its RPi build does the same ZRAM setup thing my Fedora 35 Workstation install does. However, Fedora doesn't officially support the RPi 4 yet. "We do not (as of 24 November 2021) officially support the Raspberry Pi 4 in any Fedora release." (https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/ARM/Raspberry_Pi#Supported_Hardware) Some stuff involving firmware flashing, then installing Fedora via the aarch64 DVD ISO is possible, but do that at your own risk.
Post by: delphonso on December 09, 2021, 02:36:55 am
Post by: King Zultan on December 09, 2021, 02:38:00 am
Post by: delphonso on December 09, 2021, 02:53:23 am
Post by: King Zultan on December 09, 2021, 04:33:40 am
Post by: LordBaal on December 09, 2021, 04:57:34 am
Price is a good indicator too, if is too good to be true, probably is because is not true. Not to say there are imitations sold at prices on par of the original products.
Finally yes, buying from recognized and/or trusted places is your best bet. Sites like SanDisk indicste that your best way to be safe is to buy from authorized dealers only.
Post by: Starver on December 09, 2021, 08:03:20 am
You could even try to make the whole startup work from that USB-platterdrive (not sure if the Pi firmware does (or can be asked to) use that in leiu/advance of a valid SD card), but a minimal loader[2] that makes all RW mounts reside elsewhere. (Perhaps put /swap and other latent amd transient high-volume data areas upon an USB Ram-based dongle if that gives better IO performance than a more mechanical or even remote read/write location, and easily replaced if/when it starts to 'wear out'.)
I haven't done so much fiddling with this sort of obsessive tweaking myself, but if someone hasn't perfected this setup already and made a handy guide (or even setup-wizard) for this already then I'm very much surprised.
[1] Possibly across a networked drive, whether Cloud or Fog or NAS variety, but takes a bit more effort than a 'keystone' .cfg file on the host's drive to explain to the receptive hard-booting nonRW startup what options had previously been decided in a previously booted-up session.
[2] That you can keep an image/copy of in the event of the first finely-tuned SD going bad from too many reads or other loss of integrity.
Post by: wierd on December 09, 2021, 10:36:13 am
While there is some voodoo involved, the card will suffer significantly less wear, and even performs moderately faster.
https://thelastmaimou.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/magic-soup-ext4-with-ssd-stripes-and-strides/
For SDCards, the same logic applies as for SSDs. Just the erase block sizes will be much larger.
Post by: delphonso on December 09, 2021, 07:40:20 pm
Post by: LordBaal on December 09, 2021, 08:23:09 pm
Post by: delphonso on December 09, 2021, 08:38:06 pm
Post by: wierd on December 10, 2021, 12:15:09 am
You'd think this would have changed in the last 8 years.
Expecting media makers to produce compatible but costly microcontrollers for the flash array, instead of "compatible" but cheap ones!?
What planet are you from!?
No, it has gotten WORSE in the past 8 years, not better.
The flash itself has gotten more durable, but the controller issue (that causes the write amplification) has only gotten worse, as erase block sizes seem to only grow.
This is especially true of very cheap flash, like SDCard.
Please, for the love of gawd, use stripe and stride-width settings, and make use of zram swap and tmpfs mounts for browser cache, when using an sdcard to host a linux system!
Post by: wierd on December 11, 2021, 01:04:12 am
I haven't tried it with Raspbian/SD-Card, but you could take a note from the Live CD Linuxes (Linii?) that let you place whole or 'differential' mountpoints on the 'host' machine's HDD[1] to overcome the default state of recurring amnesia.
You could even try to make the whole startup work from that USB-platterdrive (not sure if the Pi firmware does (or can be asked to) use that in leiu/advance of a valid SD card), but a minimal loader[2] that makes all RW mounts reside elsewhere. (Perhaps put /swap and other latent amd transient high-volume data areas upon an USB Ram-based dongle if that gives better IO performance than a more mechanical or even remote read/write location, and easily replaced if/when it starts to 'wear out'.)
I haven't done so much fiddling with this sort of obsessive tweaking myself, but if someone hasn't perfected this setup already and made a handy guide (or even setup-wizard) for this already then I'm very much surprised.
[1] Possibly across a networked drive, whether Cloud or Fog or NAS variety, but takes a bit more effort than a 'keystone' .cfg file on the host's drive to explain to the receptive hard-booting nonRW startup what options had previously been decided in a previously booted-up session.
[2] That you can keep an image/copy of in the event of the first finely-tuned SD going bad from too many reads or other loss of integrity.
The /etc/fstab file can define any volume as the / volume. The initial ramdisk and bootloader will have to live on the SDCard, but the USB 3.0 spinny disk can totally be /.
The traditional way of handling this, is having the boot partition mounted as /boot.
Personally though, the way I would deal with it is to have the SDCard remain /, but use stride and stripe-width settings appropriate for the card, turn on zram backed swap, then set a 100mb or so tmpfs mount in the appropriate part of the user's home directory to catch the browser's cache writes. Similar tmpfs mounts for /var/log and pals, but with a custom start/stop script that copies the logs to the sdcard on shutdown. (This preserves the logs, while enforcing atomic writes instead of shittons of incremental ones, and saves the card that stress. We dont give 2 shits about the browser cache being volatile; you get wiped cache and cookies as an added bonus, no extra work required. Suck it NSA.)
Browser devs want very much to pretend the system disk is an unlimited resource with no write life limits, and can actually get quite cross when you suggest tmpfs mount on the cache folder location, stating it defeats the purpose of the cache. I crossly point out that gigabytes of old web assets laying around is pointlessly wasteful, aggressive small writes are deadly to flash based disks, and spinny disks are also getting sensitive to such writes, with SMR based tech taking over. We tend to agree to disagree. With an SDCard as the volume, just accept the ram backed cache. It will save lots of headache, trust me.
I learned this lesson the hard way with a hacked chromebook. To get around the obscenely small eMMC baked in storage issue, i have a 256gb microSD living permanently in the slot, and hosting the /home directory. (eMMC is hosting /) The aggressive use of disk by the browser quickly nuked my card the first time I set it up that way, within about 6 months. It was then that I went on the crusade to minimize writes, and found that blog post.
After setting it up RIGHT, i have had the same microSD in that slot for 3+ years.
Raspbian does not turn on stride and stripe-width options on the ext4 images they peddle, so I am being a hardline fucker on this. You can set the options after the fact with tune2fs.
https://linux.die.net/man/8/tune2fs
Raspbian does not know the magic parameters needed for an arbitrary SDCard, so they just go without this protection. (But sadly dont warn you!)
The easiest way to get the erase block size is to check the SDCard before you format it, and see what clustersize the ExFAT filesystem is using. However, if you have already blown it away, you can do the black magic voodoo approach with flashbench, and interrogate it empirically.
Post by: delphonso on December 11, 2021, 01:21:31 am
https://www.pcpartpicker.com/
They don't have everything, but it's hard to find a better consolidation of all the key components to a PC and what's currently on the market. I'm starting the preliminary parts search now - including a GPU marketed towards /women/ that is about 5% cheaper than its non-gender equivalent. It comes with anime stickers and I'll be buying it as soon as I move.
Post by: King Zultan on December 11, 2021, 02:05:52 am
a GPU marketed towards /women/ that is about 5% cheaper than its non-gender equivalent. It comes with anime stickers and I'll be buying it as soon as I move.Why would you market that towards a specific gender it's not like you'll see it once the computer is put together.
Also my curiosity needs to know what kind of stickers come with it.
Post by: delphonso on December 11, 2021, 02:17:12 am
Why would you market that towards a specific gender it's not like you'll see it once the computer is put together.
Also my curiosity needs to know what kind of stickers come with it.
Nowadays most cases have glass sides - I was also surprised that motherboards and ram are now all stylish with built in lights. Kids these days...
(I'll post a picture of the stickers when/if they arrive.)
Post by: wierd on December 11, 2021, 02:21:24 am
The "waifu" gpus tend to be poor performers with bad cooling.
RESEARCH EXHAUSTIVELY FIRST!
Post by: delphonso on December 11, 2021, 02:53:03 am
In university, I always had a dream of building a PC out of 3 box fans - taking the fan bits out of the middle one and mounting the board inside of it - extra points if I could turn it on by turning the fan toggle.
Post by: Starver on December 11, 2021, 08:31:12 am
Yeah, I was anticipating that, but wondering if it could have been 'BIOS set' (as it were). From what I know, the (pseudo-)RTC on later Pis now at least remembers what time it was when it was last working[1], but I'm not sure if that's picking up off the (continually updated/written-on-shutdown) SD or there's actually some small-volume EPROM/similar that the bare metal checks and can be entirely re-instructed to prebootload elsewhere. The self-contained drive/partition drivers needed may be the sticking point. Design it exactly for SD-Card spec and you don't need to worry about FAT/ext/whatever variations, and more hardware-related divergences.[...] (not sure if the Pi firmware does (or can be asked to) use that in leiu/advance of a valid SD card), but a minimal loader[2] that makes all RW mounts reside elsewhere. [...])The /etc/fstab file can define any volume as the / volume. The initial ramdisk and bootloader will have to live on the SDCard, but the USB 3.0 spinny disk can totally be /.
And there's not obviously any battery(/supercapacitor?)-sustained CMOS as per the older, bigger brothers in the motherboard world. BICBW.
(Which reminds me, I need a new 2032 cell for one of my older PCs. But by now I'm so used to telling it F1 to continue, whenever I do need to boot back up. Even while the mains power seems to keep the RTC going (unplug/powercut sends me back to the '80s, or whenever!), it doesn't ever trust itself to know that the only drive it can find is the one it should reboot up upon again and keeps on asking me and I keep on telling it "Yes!", as it lacks the "Try to boot anyway" option of other later Mobo configs.. ;) )
I really ought to RTFM on all the RP's features, but this was never something I needed to look at. Maybe a jumper, whatever they might use for firmware re-flashing. I'm sure must be possible because I remember vague warnings about how not to brick the thing.
Anyway, just thinking aloud. Maybe I'll actually check at some point. This was intended as food for thought, for others but now it's just me speaking with my mouth full. 8)
[1] It syncs to world-time when connected (as per SD-stored bootup connectivity arameters), perhaps polling the ITS, but my main Pi use is disconnected and standalone, so while they used to reset to their personal firmware epoch+constant, now it just acts as an offline-ptime()-like thing. They may have changed it again since my last basic Pi board purchase!
Post by: wierd on December 11, 2021, 01:26:00 pm
What it DOES do, is allow absurdly huge cluster sizes. (In the multiple megabyte ranges) which is what allows a factory formatted sdcard to not die extremely quickly from write amplification.
The SDCard Assn pointedly and purposefully does not standardize erase block sizes. This is why Raspbian does not have "industry defaults!" to fall back on, and why they dont set the extended ext4fs options to get erase-block size atomic writes.
Ext4fs is tailored for modern spinny disks, and uses a 4k cluster size, fixed.
The filesystem driver will queue up sectors to write in a software buffer until the appropriate atomic write size is reached, then commit them in batches-- when the raid options are enabled. This is intended for efficient writes across an array, but a flash disk is best viewed as an interleaved raid-0 LUN. This is why the raid feature works so well to maximize life and IOP thruput to a flash based single disk.
SDCards especially, can change radically from one production run to the next, based entirely on commodity component pricing and availability, which is precisely why the assn does not standardize erase block configurations, and instead focuses on the filesystem used: as long as the chunks are consistent, the manufacturer can use whatever arrangement they want, format the device accordingly, and spec compliant devices will commit chunks of that size. Medium stays happy, healthy, and speedy.
This is why the easiest way to learn the eraseblock size is just to get the exfat cluster size used by the factory.
Otherwise, you have to use flashbench, and voodoo.
The volatility between production runs means that yku cannot just say "its a 256gb Transend", and have known block sizes. The actual flash chip and the microcontroller that services it can be any combination of dozens of offerings, and still be "256gb Transend".
SSDs tend to be vastly more consistent, and manufacturers are less guarded about what is actually in there driving it.
Rules of thumb for SDCards:
Look at the size of the gap at the start of the disk, before the start of the first partition, on the factory format.
Look at the cluster size of the ExFAT filesystem of the factory format.
These will tell you the erase block and page sizes, respectively.
(The card manufacturer wants to avoid having the partition table and primary FAT get compromised by excessive writes, so they pad THE ENTIRE ERASE UNIT that these structures live in, by setting the start of the partition that size apart from the start of the volume, on the very beginning of the NEXT block. Tjis is why the gap reveals the page size.
The micro controller that controls the flash array itself, has a finite amount of RAM it can use to do operations on that array with. This is the page size. The manufacturer optimizes the exfat filesystem to work in chunks of this size, so the controller does not waste iop cycles. This is especially true for "high speed" SDCards.)
What the "Stride" and "Stripe-Width" parameters do, is define how much data to write across an array to optimally write on all disks equally, and what size increments to send to the array controller to maximize card cache use efficiency. These are directly analogous to the erase block, and page size. Thats why it works.
In terms of a real RTC inside a Pi, NO. It does not have one. The SoC it leverages, must be configured on each and every boot. This is one of the many reasons for the Pi-Specific pi config file.
It is also why the Pi must initially boot from the SDCard. That boot process COULD be chainloaded, in a manner similar to other embedded devices with uboot and pals, but it would not give much utility, and would still need to be protected/managed by the OS.
Post by: LordBaal on December 11, 2021, 01:51:04 pm
Post by: Mephisto on December 17, 2021, 05:31:13 pm
For context, I'm coming from a 3rd gen i5, GTX 960, and 12 gigs of DDR3 something-or-other.
(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/898011604824776757/921526502208725002/Screenshot_20211217-154332.jpg)
Not really computer advice, other than "go through a system integrator nowadays if you can."
Post by: LordBaal on December 17, 2021, 06:03:35 pm
Post by: Mephisto on December 17, 2021, 06:06:56 pm
Post by: wierd on December 18, 2021, 02:22:13 am
I could only afford the ryzen 9, moboard, and a miniscule early installment on RAM.
GPUs just too pricy right now. :(
Post by: LordBaal on December 18, 2021, 06:49:07 am
Post by: Reudh on December 18, 2021, 07:41:47 pm
Bought my first new PC since '13 and hoo boy this is going to be game changing.
For context, I'm coming from a 3rd gen i5, GTX 960, and 12 gigs of DDR3 something-or-other.
(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/898011604824776757/921526502208725002/Screenshot_20211217-154332.jpg)
Not really computer advice, other than "go through a system integrator nowadays if you can."
phwoar, quite the rebuild! I did mine pretty recently (incrementally due to part prices) going from a 4th gen i5, 1060, and 16GB DDR3.
Currently using:
i5-10500 - it gets the job done, probably the weak point in the build right now
32GB Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR4RAM
Inno3D Geforce RTX 3080 TI (12GB VRAM) (this was like 65% of the rebuild cost right there, something like $2,400AUD), jumping from a clapped out mining 1080ti a mate gave me
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 19, 2021, 05:21:04 am
Is too crazy. Someone was offering 3080 cards here on 600 dollars. It seems too good to be true, probably is just a scam.
Nvidia has a policy of brick in cards known to be stolen. So those might well be from a diveted shipment that turned out to be useless.
Post by: Mephisto on December 19, 2021, 11:11:14 am
Post by: Starver on December 19, 2021, 12:15:37 pm
(Also, from a technical perspective, there almost certainly is* a way to accomplish the latter in such an apocalyptic way, it's just probably a rather tricky emergent bug that's not yet discovered (or used) by whoever might have actually worked out one exists.)
Not including the obvious method of planting bogus instructions on how to mis-reflash hardware (there are so many 'driver' sites out there that could be subverted) and getting the gullible end-users to break things themselves, just as careless ones already do.
* - still. There have been scares in this vein, in the past, patched up or otherwise mitigated. And, no, not the one explaine ed in the Good Times warning.
Post by: LordBaal on December 19, 2021, 02:01:08 pm
Post by: Arx on December 24, 2021, 04:43:05 am
The only thing I can think of that might have caused it is the most recent Windows update, but I haven't a clue how to resolve it. Updating the drivers doesn't seem to achieve anything -- in fact, I'm using GeForce Experience and it doesn't actually dismiss the "update available" after it installs which makes me question whether the update actually resolves. Reverting the Windows updates doesn't seem to have done anything either.
On the hardware side, the PCI power cable seems fine. Swapping it to the other PCI-E port doesn't help. I haven't tried it in another PC, but I may be able to later.
The precise series of events is this, repeating any time I update the driver:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Presumably the exact IDs are only useful to me, but there are the details.
Anyone have any ideas? I can't find anything more than what I've mentioned so far because of the glut of "ez fix" articles aiming for a high page rank to run ads.
Post by: feelotraveller on December 24, 2021, 05:12:15 am
Post by: LordBaal on December 24, 2021, 07:52:38 am
Post by: delphonso on December 24, 2021, 08:11:24 am
Uh oh... should not the fans start regardless of whatever.. checked them to see they are not stuck?
Some GPUs don't spin up unless they start to heat up past a certain threshold - I guess to reduce noise when not gaming (which would drown out the rest of the noise, presumably)
Post by: Arx on December 24, 2021, 12:17:18 pm
Uh oh... should not the fans start regardless of whatever.. checked them to see they are not stuck?
I think it's a software problem. The fans spin up when the PC powers on and spin back down when Windows boots, which is a little odd.
I can now add updating BIOS to the list of things I've tried that haven't apparently fixed it.
Post by: wierd on December 24, 2021, 12:24:09 pm
Mittens mode on.
All that horse shit.
In english:
Windows thinks the PCI ID for that card is ambiguous for more than one device in its driver cache, and cant figure out which one to install/enable.
Rather than simply ask you, Microsoft has taken to the belief that thier end users are beyond clueless, so to protect the hardware from the ambiguous ID (and loading potentially the wrong driver), as well as to protect the OS from an idiotic end user, it just decided for you that your GPU should use the SAFE!! generic VESA driver instead. You dont actually NEED those 3D capabilities to display a desktop, so it all fine!
Now...
There MIGHT be a way to force the driver to install, by uninstalling all prior installations of GPU software, including Experience, removing the device from the device manager, rebooting, then installing fresh.
If, after that it STILL does not work, you can try disabling driver enforcement, then MANUALLY updating the driver. (Windows will bitch quite a lot during that process though.)
Post by: Arx on December 26, 2021, 03:08:34 am
Post by: wierd on December 26, 2021, 03:31:36 am
Boot with enforcement off.
Open device manager.
Right click on the GPU under display devices.
Choose 'Update Driver'
Choose 'Let me specify a location'
Uncheck 'display only compatible devices'
Point it at the folder created by the driver installation program.
Manually pick the driver.
Windows will bitch. Ignore its snivelling.
Let it install.
Hopefully, profit.:
Post by: Arx on December 29, 2021, 02:30:03 am
Post by: Arx on December 31, 2021, 03:32:13 am
Post by: LordBaal on December 31, 2021, 07:39:57 am
Post by: King Zultan on January 16, 2022, 05:11:09 am
It's been doing this since google decided I needed to use the mobile version and I swapped it for DuckDuckGo.
Post by: LordBaal on January 16, 2022, 08:38:12 am
Post by: wierd on January 16, 2022, 08:52:40 am
Post by: King Zultan on January 17, 2022, 02:01:12 am
Post by: feelotraveller on January 17, 2022, 03:33:58 am
First step should be to back up (sync) your personal browser data so that bookmarks etc. are not lost/can be recovered. Hopefully after that a simple browser reset willl fix it. If not keep reading the above article. Sorting through your extensions to find out if one of the recent ones caused the issue is where I'd look next. MalwareBytes is free, safe and an effective tool in my experience.
If interested in further reading it is quite a well known issue - search for 'yahoo search redirect virus'. Just to note it's not yahoo.search itself but rather the intermediary sites which harvest your data that are the malicious bit, annoying as it is to constantly be losing your preferred search engine.
Post by: King Zultan on January 17, 2022, 03:55:38 am
Post by: feelotraveller on January 17, 2022, 04:40:47 am
(Wild guess on the name - it's probably scoring your searches for advertising purposes... or maybe that's just what it wants us to think...)
Post by: King Zultan on January 18, 2022, 02:45:18 am
Post by: Starver on January 26, 2022, 03:34:37 pm
Spoiler: As background to this problem (click to show/hide)
I do most of my stuff (on Android) via Firefox, which has its own quibbles and oddities and 'fixes/updates' to the UI that I actually think were backwards/perpendicular steps, but right now I'm more annoyed with this particular aspect of Chrome. And if someone thinks they know where this thing's configuration is, I might find a neighbouring setting or three that also solve other niggles.
But if nobody knows... Well, I'm used to suffering. Consider this just a moan for mainly theraputic purposes.
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 26, 2022, 09:17:09 pm
Post by: wierd on January 26, 2022, 10:21:32 pm
Not entirely sure this needs solving, but if anybody knows how to stop Chrome For Android from popping over a "View as simplified page", it'd be nice to know.Spoiler: As background to this problem (click to show/hide)
I do most of my stuff (on Android) via Firefox, which has its own quibbles and oddities and 'fixes/updates' to the UI that I actually think were backwards/perpendicular steps, but right now I'm more annoyed with this particular aspect of Chrome. And if someone thinks they know where this thing's configuration is, I might find a neighbouring setting or three that also solve other niggles.
But if nobody knows... Well, I'm used to suffering. Consider this just a moan for mainly theraputic purposes.
In the options menu (top right of screen), choose "Desktop site" checkbox. It will stop trying to fetch the mobile version of the page.
Sadly, not persistent.
There is also a checkbox under the options menu:
Menu-> settings menu-> accessibility-> simplified view for web pages
Try turning that off?
Post by: Starver on January 27, 2022, 08:14:53 am
In the options menu (top right of screen), choose "Desktop site" checkbox. It will stop trying to fetch the mobile version of the page.Not only not persistent, but from past experience (mama-bear Wikipedia, which I don't edit often, but has a very extensive mobile-specific rebrand that I'd love to turn off) I need to also remove the m-dot from the URL (www.m.wikipedia.org), and then it's likely to 're-mobilise' at various points. And certainly on a fresh visit.
Sadly, not persistent.
It's an annoying thing that both Chrome and Firefox are attracted to m-sites (despite poking and prodding in the appropriate settings menu). At least one mobile-'optimised' place (not a wiki) presumes a thin portrait view when I visit it on my tablet in wide-landscape orientation and it really does not help. (The non-mobile layout would be basically perfect, menu bars along the top rather than vertically-stacked in-line with the rest of the vertically-stacked content areas, and then the footer which is again all vertical rather than side-to-side. In fact, it's somewhat awkward in thin portrait, but that's a practical issue.)
Quote
There is also a checkbox under the options menu:There is indeed that checkbox.
Menu-> settings menu-> accessibility-> simplified view for web pages
Try turning that off?
"Simplified view for web-pages Offer to show simplified view for pages, when supported"
But it is unchecked already[1], unfortunately. I just checked it, came out of options then went back in to reuncheck it just in case. But doesn't seem to have 'taken' any better.
No, don't mind me. I probably shouldn't have been railing against this issue. It was a moment of weakness that I mentioned it.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: BigD145 on January 27, 2022, 03:01:31 pm
On Windows 10, is there a way to make sure Google Drive can never be installed? I don't use Google Drive for anything, and regularly uninstall it, but it keeps coming back and asking me to log in. I have no idea what keeps installing it.
I don't think that's a Windows 10 thing. Something else is forcing it. Did you install some freeware and not uncheck a box that install google drive?
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 27, 2022, 03:09:12 pm
I have no idea what could be installing it - I've not installed anything significant recently, and always look for checkbooks. My suspicion is that it is related to some other Google product, or else that Drive has some sort of "if this is missing, put it back" registry key to make it "idiot proof".
Post by: wierd on January 27, 2022, 04:04:56 pm
You CAN prevent it from reinstalling, using a combination of access control lists in both the windows registry, and in the locations it wants to use in %userdir%/appdata, and %systemdrive%/Program Files
Keep empty keys/folders in those locations with the names the installer wants to use, but deny all access, excepting a specific user you control, 100%. The installer will try to run, and try to make subkeys/values, and fail. It will try to extract its installation package, and fail. Basically, it will force the installer to fail. Repeatedly.
Post by: Laterigrade on February 15, 2022, 06:13:58 pm
Not only not persistent, but from past experience (mama-bear Wikipedia, which I don't edit often, but has a very extensive mobile-specific rebrand that I'd love to turn off) I need to also remove the m-dot from the URL (www.m.wikipedia.org), and then it's likely to 're-mobilise' at various points. And certainly on a fresh visit.This is annoying even on mobile. I want wikipedia to look like what I know it looks like, damnit.
Post by: Starver on February 20, 2022, 02:44:26 pm
(edited as original version was way too verbose... Those who know anything about Perl don't need the waffle, those who don't will just TL;DR; it anyway...)
This is stumping me.
Why does:
Code: [Select]
### Returns any Files Of Interest
sub FilesHere { my ($dir)=@_;
$dir="." unless $dir; ## Default
INFO "FilesHere: Looking at directory '$dir'";
opendir(DIR,$dir) || die "Cannot open dir '$dir':$!\n"; ## Standard opendir
my @files=readdir(DIR) || die "Cannot read dir '$dir':$!\n"; ## Standard readdir
INFOLIST "FilesHere: Found ".int(@files)." files:",@files;
@files=readdir(DIR) || die "Cannot read dir '$dir':$!\n"; ## Standard readdir
INFOLIST "FilesHere: Found ".int(@files)." files:",@files;
close(DIR); ## Standard closedir
# my @foi=TrimFiles($dir,@files); ## Reduce to requirements
# INFOLIST "FilesHere: FOI=".int(@files)." files:",@files;
##...etc
}
Return the current output:
Code: [Select]
C:\##Current Path##>derip.pl
(i) FilesHere: Looking at directory '.'
(i) FilesHere: Found 1 files:
.
(i) FilesHere: Found 1 files:
..
C:\##Current Path##>
Spoiler: INFO and INFOLIST are just... (click to show/hide)
As you can see from the second readdir() line (and what its reporting statement does for the ouput), it isn't readdir()ing in full 'give everything' list-context. Though it originally did, with just the first one in there and before I added anything into this sub beyond the close() statement.
It was after I added the (now remmed) lines after the close() that it started returning just one item to the list. I'm sure I didn't change anything else of significance. But I disabled them again to check what I might have done wrong. Once I'd ruled out various other silly errors (somehow passing $dir directly to @files, for example) I added the second readdir()-combo and found that it was indeed reading as if it were a single scalar value, because the second go at it gives "..", as seen. With a third I'd get the first proper file, etc...
I could re-write it as "my $file=readdir(DIR)" (with || die, etc) and loop and push to array. But I don't want to, nor should I need to.
I've obviously done a stupid error, and I think it might be entertaining (and educating) to all of us to find out what. Given I've done this sort of thing hundreds, thousands of times before, so am obviously author-blind to the very very silly error I've made.
((And, the whole "what did I do wrong?" is... it's a precedence issue of the || (or) operator over the = (assign-equals) one. If I use "or", with lower precedence, rather than the "||" version, it works.
Spoiler: Usage waffle (click to show/hide)
Post by: EuchreJack on February 25, 2022, 12:44:45 am
I imagine the Internet has more important things to do tonight than keep my games slightly more updated than yesterday...
Nevermind, once I changed from Sweden to US, the game updated quickly and successfully.
Interesting fact: FIVE download locations for Steam are located in the Ukraine. I was impressed.
Post by: AzyWng on February 28, 2022, 08:13:34 pm
I think it might be a hardware issue, so I dunno how to proceed. I’ve sent a support ticket to the manufacturer.
Post by: dragdeler on March 19, 2022, 04:57:28 am
If you got something old lying around, wifi cards are usually easy to reach.
Post by: dragdeler on March 20, 2022, 08:00:22 pm
Then today I consulted my old laptop (where serato runs fine) and was able to restitute an update path. I was able to install something like 85% out of 180 updates, I tried to respect the installing order but my old laptop lists them all as fifth october 2017. Must have despaired over some dll, or netframework, or c++ that day... Example of image I used to download by hand, not all of it since resolution of that is giant.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Now: since I'm going to backup a W7 update repository anyway, I thought it would be good to update it to nearly complete status. This is not an exact science by any means... And I think I heard MS had to roll out a hotfix for their "final patch" anyway lol. But if I had a good 70-80% of the remaining updates from october 2017 to mid 2019, possibly all the way into 2020 and the last patch, going forward I could have a reasonable expectation that any of my systems will run anything W7 shouold be able to run.
If somebody has a Windows 7 ultimate edition x64 system, with normal alphabet (no russian or japanese etc), that was regularly updated, could provide me with an image or a list of the updates from october 5th 2017 onwards, I would be very grateful. It's found in system controls, windows-update, update history in the sidebar, sort by date please.
Of course anybody who wants a .rar file of all the updates will be provided with a link, nobody should spend a day or more typing seven number codes again like I did.
Post by: wierd on March 21, 2022, 12:09:53 am
You can use ntlite to directly integrate the update packages directly into the install image, so that 'on a fresh install', they are already installed.
https://www.ntlite.com/
this way, should you ever need/want another win7 box, you dont have to play this game a second time. Your install media will do it all for you, painlessly.
Post by: dragdeler on March 21, 2022, 09:30:35 am
Post by: wierd on March 21, 2022, 10:44:28 pm
As such, your 'fully updated' win7 box is an ideal system to make that media on. It will pull all the installed updates from the local winsxs structure. All those hundreds of updates, just pulled from the local OS cache.
Never used the purported downloader.
You can use it to integrate AHCI drivers also.
Post by: dragdeler on March 27, 2022, 12:33:57 pm
Spoiler: Is this the culprit? (click to show/hide)
How fucked am I? Do I have any hope of finding the right model and soldering it on without any damages, I'm pretty bad and unequipped at soldering allways burrow my iron.
Post by: LordBaal on March 27, 2022, 01:02:33 pm
Post by: Starver on March 27, 2022, 03:42:13 pm
Though the colouring of the solder-blob to the right and slightly beyond the <whatever> has signs of overheating, if that's not a reflection of the main 'feature'. But discolouration means heat running through the solder. Meaning either overvoltage coming from some other place, that needs fixing, or over-resistance in this one, which also would need fixing. Maybe both, the one causing the other. And once you start getting PCB material contaminating the solder then you've got sufficient trouble.
Though I'm confused by overheating causing boot-up problems (by preference). That's usually the time when the system can get by without going all magma-flood on you (assuming you don't have a tardy cooling system and it's not so much on the edge that the initial spark of power isn't already in danger of vaporising some link or other), after which any failings in the system (null-points in the air-circulation, maybe) or excessive loading of a component (some peskily overused UART bus/whatever) creates anomolies.
...while I was carefully pondering this question and composing my (probably useless) reply.
Take it to a shop or someone that knows soldiering.Well, you seem to have worked out more than I have. I am wondering what you need military personel for, though. ;)
[1] The good news is that the out-of-focus capacitor top nearer the camera looks Ok, not 'popped', from how the 'safety scoring' of the top is still a regular cross and not distorted. That's always something I look at, if I can, as it seems to be my number-one self-solvable fault that I can detect. Well, it was before Maplin went bust, and I had to try to source capacitors at outlets that I wasn't quite as sure about - or even fins a mom'n'pop alladin's cave component store.
Post by: LordBaal on March 27, 2022, 04:02:32 pm
Post by: dragdeler on March 27, 2022, 06:40:34 pm
You think the cap isn't burst? I wasn't sure, might just be the glue that got ugly... but there is one or two tinyboys around the cap, that have same'ish brown... It's like the flux used from industrial soldering that got too hot, the brown spots, isnt it?
Post by: Starver on March 27, 2022, 07:09:23 pm
Could be adhesive gunk. They use it to stop large components (and a capacitor that big - at first I didn't even see it[1], but it's clearly a heavy duty one) moving around. Should be reasonably proof from thermal stress, but deep in the depths of a system there were those signs of overheating in the vicinity, so maybe it's gone beyond typical spec.
From a single difficult-to-focus photo, I'm sure I'm as wrong about other details as I am about the active combustion bit. But I know that any decent computer fixer who can deal with blown caps will also know what it actually is (and have ideas how to proceed to fix it) if they get their pair of Mk1 Eyeballs on the thing.
Which is not to say that you don't have a software/driver problem as well, that has nothing to do with this component issue that you only saw because you poked around inside. There may be other things that a soldering iron can't fix but some (different) remote advice might suffice once you're happy your mobo isn't in danger of exploding... :P
[1] Behind the 'flame', as it was, until I looked more carefully around the image... ;)
Post by: dragdeler on March 27, 2022, 07:24:17 pm
I think it's something weird to do with litteral watts, heat or power, because the fan either goes at max when it beeps (in bios, during booting or under load), or when I set the fan to max and trigger the beeping, after I untrigger the beeping it might actually forgot I told it to keep the fans on max.
Post by: wierd on March 27, 2022, 10:18:58 pm
The orange crust is the dried out liquid electrolyte from inside the capacitor. That kind of capacitor is designed with pleated seams in the top, and is meant to pop open if it gets too hot inside (which makes the electrolyte boil/decompose and release gasses, that would otherwise build up pressure until it explodes like a bomb). Leaking/spewing orange spooge all over is a common problem with electrolytic capacitors, especially on older boards from the late 90s to early 2000s. See also "Capacitor plague (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague)". That board is probably outside the era when this issue was most prevalent, but any old electrolytic cap is at risk of this happening.
You can buy them by the jillions from places like mouser electronics (https://www.mouser.com/c/passive-components/capacitors/aluminum-electrolytic-capacitors/?gclid=CjwKCAjwloCSBhAeEiwA3hVo_UwOEQOU5qXyTbV3PnO_9xaWRJ21JVfo9WzKpzILvwtAJJoIxjw3aBoCTCsQAvD_BwE).
You need the numbers on the side of the can-- the voltage, and the discharge peak in uF. (it can also be pF for very small ones) Ex-- "5v 2000uF"
Replace it with a like-spec'd lytic cap.
You need to neutralize the spooge that came out, and do it quickly. It is corrosive, and will damage the circuit traces of the motherboard if it gets underneath the solder resist mask. It is an alkaline solution in the capacitor, so use a weak acid, like lemon juice or vinegar. Let it just sit on top of the spooge mark until it stops making bubbles, wipe it up with distilled water, then dry it with 99% isopropanol.
See also, this lovely video from Adrian's Digital Basement, where he recaps an old macintosh board. (that suffers capacitor plague.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-1l6zh4K8U
Yours should be easier to do, because the cap is NOT surface mount.
When replacing the capacitor, be sure to annotate on the board the orientation of the marked leg. Bad Things Happen when you install them backward.
As for what capacitors DO-- They retain a small voltage that is applied, and then release it after the current is stopped. They are frequently used to buffer and filter power rails to level out voltage levels. This is especially true with AC power circuits. (See also, related issue "Rifa Capacitor (https://pjhenley.com/2020/03/19/not-today-rifa-cap/)", which is pretty exclusive to old linear power supplies from the 80s.)
Frequently, similar circuits are used on the motherboard to balance out/filter noise generated by the microwave frequency devices in a motherboard. (such as noise generated by north and south bridge chips) See also, "DC noise filter circuit (https://www.circuitlab.com/circuit/6m8b8dg45k34/screenshot/540x405/)" These are especially common on the 5v power rail that supplies power to the card slots on motherboards, and they are typically situated very near the ATX power input connector. they are comprised, usually, of a beefy 5v electrolytic capacitor and an inductor.
Post by: Ziusudra on March 28, 2022, 03:26:00 am
Post by: wierd on March 28, 2022, 03:30:55 am
The top is **NOT** the only place it can leak out. It can also leak out around the legs, then pool on the underside of the cap.
See these ones-- leaking around the legs. (http://www.pcstats.com/articleimages/200302/capblown_10.jpg)
Post by: Ziusudra on March 28, 2022, 03:45:31 am
The entire point of the grooves is to be the weakest point of the surface so that any pressure inside the cap will be released slowly rather than the thing exploding.
And just look at the way it is smeared on the capacitor - I really don't think that is a leak.
Post by: wierd on March 28, 2022, 03:47:07 am
Try it now.
Again, YES-- the pleats in the top of the cap are intended to release internal pressure, and do so safely.
They dont always work. Spooge on the bottoms of otherwise pristine looking caps, is very common.
Post by: dragdeler on March 28, 2022, 04:05:49 am
That cap died, when for once instead of unplugging the psu from the wall, turning off the power on the wall, or unplugging the psu laptop side... The PSU was disconnected from the wall, but not the laptop, when a friend came over and needed the space. I swear the beeping started after that. As I said I'm probably not making my case any stronger but I suspected allready there might not entirely passive elements in both the laptop and the psu that caused this.
Post by: Ziusudra on March 28, 2022, 05:09:36 am
That cap died, when for once instead of unplugging the psu from the wall, turning off the power on the wall, or unplugging the psu laptop side... The PSU was disconnected from the wall, but not the laptop, when a friend came over and needed the space. I swear the beeping started after that. As I said I'm probably not making my case any stronger but I suspected allready there might not entirely passive elements in both the laptop and the psu that caused this.Doing that would not cause that kind of damage or any kind of damage. It's no different than if the power went out.
And I took enough electronics courses that there's a associates electronics engineering diploma in a box somewhere, though that was
Post by: dragdeler on March 28, 2022, 06:56:09 am
i quit after half a year, but i've done enough practical exercices with old material that was in classroom closets since half a generation or more, to know that "shouldn't" isn't that uncommon... then they shrug at you while you triple and quadruple check your wiring on your scored work.... and in the end it turns out half of their 74xx chips are just broken and the game was actually to compete with your classmates for working shit -.-...
Post by: wierd on March 28, 2022, 05:32:15 pm
Lightly moisten a cotton swab, and wipe it against the offending area. if orange spooge gets picked up on the swab, you have a failed cap. If it does not, and is not bothered by the moistened swab at all, it is very ugly adhesive.
(adhesive might dissolve in isopropanol, so use distilled water on the swab)
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 03, 2022, 07:57:50 am
"\\?\Y:\Stream"
I've never seen the bolded bit before.
Post by: wierd on April 03, 2022, 09:28:56 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 03, 2022, 12:10:52 pm
Post by: wierd on April 06, 2022, 10:31:27 am
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/io/file-path-formats
NTFS supports both hard and soft links within the filesystem. More than likely, what you are hitting is called a "reparse point".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_reparse_point
Say for instance, you have steam installed. Rather than have multiple redundant copies of the steam DLLs in each steam app's folder heirarchy, the steam application can create hardlinks inside those steamapp folders, that then reparse-- and point to the single, easily updated, copy of those DLLs, that is managed by the steam main application.
Windows makes heavy use of this with the WinSXS folder as well.
The file object you are referencing in your example, basically says:
When you find me, go to the file (or directory) at Y:\Stream
It is presented as a path object
\\?\Y:\stream
I have manually set up such reparse points on old windows 8 tablets that have really crippled storage, by redirecting certain folders to no longer be on the internal storage (but to instead, live on a permanently installed SDCard)
The software you are using could have created these by itself, at install time. When browsing the folders in windows explorer, you would never notice a difference between a reparse point, and a folder or file.
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 06, 2022, 12:45:28 pm
Not saying that's not what it was, but it shouldn't have been.
Post by: Il Palazzo on April 11, 2022, 07:29:32 am
How do I stop/restrict win10 updates? I've an old-ish mini laptop/tablet with a 25GB sdd, most of which is taken up by the system. The reminder is not enough to complete some larger updates, but it keeps trying and failing to do so all the same. I want to give the laptop to my old folks, and I'd rather not have any confusing messages pop up on them all the time.
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 11, 2022, 09:29:59 am
If they're only going to be using it for Facebook and such, a lightweoght Linuxninstall might be a viable alternative, much as I despise Linux,
Post by: wierd on April 11, 2022, 11:32:48 am
Some parts of the windows OS can be ... relocated.. using softlinks in the NTFS file system. An SDCard formatted with NTFS (that then has a "DO NOT EVER REMOVE ME!!" sticker placed over the slot) can then play the actual physical host location.
However, linux is the better option there. The main OS itself is rather lightweight-- maybe 16gb total, for a full deployment. User data is what gobbles down the space, and again, an SDCard with a sticker that says "NEVER REMOVE ME" slapped over it and the slot, can be used to supply the /home mount point. One could put a big, juicy 256gb SDCard in there. I did that with my hacked chromebook.
Post by: Il Palazzo on April 11, 2022, 04:08:39 pm
There's no hardware upgrade option on the table either.
The security updates seem to be downloading fine. It's just the 'major feature updates' that end up clogging the drive.
I just wish I could tell windows to stop trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
Post by: dragdeler on April 13, 2022, 11:57:02 am
You can use ntlite to directly integrate the update packages directly into the install image, so that 'on a fresh install', they are already installed.
How I don't understand this program, it's bugging me that I can't edit a live windows on a free version. And I wasted time doing stupid mistakes, now I have the install medium loaded and the live windows with the updates loaded, both.
How do I do the thing do the thing. Can I really not mark more than one update at once, and then when I click add do I need to specifiy a separate directory with the installer every time? What does it even read the live windows for then?
This is very confusing.
edit: ok I added the directory, it started scanning, and then only kept like 25 out of 200 updates the others had some sort of error
Post by: dragdeler on April 13, 2022, 12:44:33 pm
Take win install cd -> drag and drop folder onto hdd -> load that -> add update directory.
I think I can move along on my own now.
Post by: Schmaven on April 17, 2022, 09:29:29 am
Post by: dragdeler on May 07, 2022, 07:03:05 am
So... I use a second router, it's supposed to be an internet free subnetwork, but it is causing me a lot of grief. I found this modem/router/wifi thingy our local telephone company gives to folks (the people who threw it away were supposed to bring it back lol), so now there is two of them and they don't seem to like eachother. I changed a setting so the PC prefers internet over wifi, that fixes most but definitly not all issues, there's a few things I can't find in the network unless I shortly switch off the wifi to establish a connection, and worse, sometimes the router without internet randomly opens a browser with the msn news site on the computer with internet, and worst, sometimes the routers get a total hangup and instead of getting internet I get the login site from the router (presumably the second without internet, I honestly never bothered to log in since I set it up to not diffuse wifi, there are hardly any options in there, and also the damn thing is difficult to reach).
I have two devolos, there are 3 pcs that need to be plugged into the subnetwork, can I solve the puzzle by connecting the routers through devolo, then cut off internet to the 2 other computers on the subnetwork router? Because that would be the easiest solution cable wise. Will a normal minimalist 4 port router behave better? Or should I get them all on the same network and just stop playing?
I'm at a total loss I know strictly nothing about networks other unplug/replug and basic windows "adapter options".
Post by: wierd on May 07, 2022, 08:19:37 am
One router that does only local LAN, and another with internet, but they can see each other?
Post by: dragdeler on May 07, 2022, 09:54:16 am
Also NDI the protocol I use to share signals over lan takes insane bandwith, windows 10 shows me that the "subnetwork" had 1477,07GB! of traffic in like 4 days (on a 1900x 200 canvas, it's insane must be uncompressed or something), so I'd rather not have my internet router handle all that traffic when it's supposed to send a stream to the web.
The computer connected to the internet takes those screen captures, mixes them in video jockey software, takes that output and sends it off to the web as a stream.
Also I scooped up a NAS in the trash, so one day (not RN I'm too lazy for that) I hope to put that on the subnetwork too, so when I add new music, I only do it on the main PC, once I'm done shifting files around and renaming them and stuff, I turn on the NAS and he copies those changes over to the two serato computers.
Post by: wierd on May 07, 2022, 10:49:00 am
Do you intend to have that network completely isolated from the network, or would some routing rules be sufficient? (we can configure that subnet to have no route to the internet. Only a route to the internet-enabled subnet.)
also, I need to know the exact models/brands of router you have acquired.
General idea:
OBS network:
192.168.2.X
Has a path in the routing table for that subnet, for how to get to 192.168.1.X, but no "all other networks" route. this means it can see, and communicate with your other network but not the internet.
Main windows network:
192.168.1.X
Has a route to the OBS subnet, and a route to the "all other networks" (aka, the internet).
Nitty gritty:
The OBS network is configured with a static IP address on its WAN port. (the one that normally plugs into an internet modem of some kind.) That number is a 192.168.1.X type number. (in this case, 192.168.1.254) The WAN port has a patch cable connecting it to an arbitrary port on the main router.
It is configured to dole out DHCP addresses in the 192.168.2.X subnet. Devices connected to its main ports will get addresses in that range.
It has a routing table that looks like this:
Code: [Select]
Network destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 10 <----This is the "All other routes" route. We point it at the reserved "Myself" address. This blackholes all other networks as 'undeliverable.'
192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.2.1 192.168.1.254 10 <----This is the route that tells traffic outbound to the internet enabled network what interface to get to that network over. This is the hard set IP for the WAN port
192.168.2.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.2.1 192.168.2.1 10 <----This is the route that says all traffic destined inside the 192.168.2.X network should use the router's internal network address (hard set) as the routing number
The main router has a routing table that looks like this:
Code: [Select]
Network destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 [WAN IP] 10 <----This is the "All other routes" route. This will be set by the DHCP functionality of the internet enabled router, as it negotiates with the ISP.
192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.1 10 <----This is the default route for within the subnet. Says to use the router's IP for all local traffic routing tasks.
192.168.2.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.254 192.168.1.254 10 <----This is the route to get to the 192.168.2.X network. Says to forward all traffic intended for that network to that that local IP address. This is the statically assigned IP of the WAN port of the other router.
The instructions for how to set up these manual routes will be specific for that model of router.
Post by: dragdeler on May 07, 2022, 11:42:34 am
They're both b-box3, is that even safe to disclose? Uhm other than portmapping, only options I find where I can type in numbers is "DHCP" and "DynDNS". The portmapper looks like this.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm kinda tempted to unplug wifi again, go in there and just set DHCP to 192.168.2.1... Is that a possibility or need I find a way to translate your table into the portmapper?
Post by: wierd on May 07, 2022, 12:02:06 pm
The routing table is how the router routes packets between networks.
Sadly, it looks like those boxes are locked up tight. No way to do a custom route.
in which case, the best option is to have one box be a .2.x one, the other a .1.x one, and just have a machine with 2 NICs.
Post by: dragdeler on May 07, 2022, 12:29:10 pm
I'll keep my eyes open for a better router, or even just a simpler one, I figured proximus is not supplying people with the good tech. People throw away perfectly usable stuff all the time, had I known I needed one I allready saw a bunch pass me by.
I never tried and I don't have one here, but I suppose those small little "generic" routers like in the picture all host a page with their settings too right?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: wierd on May 07, 2022, 12:32:11 pm
https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices
https://openwrt.org/toh/start
Ddwrt is better for novices.
Openwrt for real admins who like to administer over ssh.
Either will give you access to all the things.
I would look for a gigabit or faster router, with 64mb (or larger) flashrom, and 512m or larger ram, supported br ddwrt. (In your case. It has a better gui management portal)
Adding the custom route would be very straightforward.
Post by: dragdeler on May 07, 2022, 12:47:02 pm
Post by: wierd on May 07, 2022, 01:01:24 pm
Do it at your leisure.
For now, just set one to be active in the 192.168.2.X space, and use your OBS capture stuff on it. It wont be able to see the other network/router without the custom routes, so dont bother linking them together. When/If you get suitable network gear that actually gives you real routing capabilities, hit me up, and I will help you set it up.
Post by: chaotic skies on May 09, 2022, 03:47:22 pm
I have a set of data and a value. I believe that value to be the sum of a subset of that data, with the only apparent unique characteristic of that subset being that it is part of my sum. Is there a way to find that subset without brute-forcing it? Is there a way to brute-force it for small quantities?
Post by: LordBaal on May 09, 2022, 03:54:51 pm
Post by: chaotic skies on May 09, 2022, 03:59:14 pm
Post by: LordBaal on May 09, 2022, 04:06:00 pm
Fake edit: found a little guide: https://thedailycpa.com/identifying-excel-entries-that-add-up-to-a-specific-value/
Post by: chaotic skies on May 09, 2022, 04:18:49 pm
Post by: Starver on May 09, 2022, 06:36:54 pm
Code: (ad hoc pseudocode, obviously untested) [Select]
set List as values, sorted by value, of structure "value, List of instance contexts"
// Could be overkill, maybe we can ask the user to resolve the values back to context themselves
// But this way we also can shortcut things if multiple contexts have identical values
// ...especially if there a multiple of multiple-contexts
// PS: assuming all values are positive non-zero! If it's otherwise, still possible but slightly more complicated...
set Target = whatever // natch.
set Progress = empty // keeps track of progress, initiated 'clean'
set Answers = empty // Optional... Could just fall out with the very first identifiable success, but...
Seek(List,Target,Progress) // as defined below
define Seek(InList,CurrentTarget,CurrentProgress)
if InList.count<1 then return // One of several possible checks for having hit an empty loop
// Although, without it, it'll just not do any the following anyway. Still, does not harm to check!
while(InList has elements)
TryElement = pop InList // Shave down (this copy of) the list, each time
// See how many of this value is possible
for OptionCount = 1 to TryElement.contextList.count // Start with assumption it can be any/all of this value's contexts
ThisValMult = TryElement.value*OptionCount
if ThisValMult > CurrentTarget then next while // Bust! This element can no longer play a part in any answer
// But if not bust then possible
OnwardProgress = CurrentProgress + Summarise(OptionCount,TryElement.contextList)
// However you want to say/store it. If there's just one list item (e.g. "Photocopier Repair Costs"), that's one thing.
// But perhaps could be "Any 3 of the 4 contexts: 'Van Hire', 'Aircon Repair', 'Bob's Birthday Party', 'Given to hobo'" ;)
// I leave you to write the Summarise() function yourself, according to your preferences/sado-masochism with data!
OnwardTarget = CurrentTarget - ThisValMult
if OnwardTarget == 0 then
Answers = Answers + OnwardProgress // Or just quit with 'the' answer
next while // But if we don't why not hunt for the next possible answer(-combo)??
endif
Seek(InList,OnwardTarget,OnwardProgress) // Having not failed *or* satisfied the answer, reiterate onward
end for // end of OptionCount loop all possible context counts
end while // end of steadily decreasing TryElement candidates
end define Seek
Display(Answers) // Depends on how you stored it, and want to present the stored.
// You could always use this to function to extract the *best* answer(s) from all possibilities.
// Least/most elements needed, perhaps. Up to you and your needs.
// If you didn't just display the first achieved target you found!
Anyway, could be a sledgehammer to crack a nut. But vs a potentially 2^N checks of N items (only to eventually fail, or give you the 'best' miss, if there's actually no valid answer) it shortcuts the potentially full-fat bruteforced effort by trimming its own tree and treating essentially option-branches the same (and telling you where you are left with those options) and making sure you know where that leaves you.
There's a breadth-first option, too (build up an OnwardProgress list, each entry tied to its own OnwardTarget and remaining InList options, of course, or reconstructing on each further-inward iteration) but that'd only be best if you want to just seek the minimal 'collection' (or an awkward recursion limit) and have no worries about exponential growth of parallel dendritical search-feelers. Not otherwise recommended, but it's a design option.
That is superfluous to needs, probably. ;)
Post by: bloop_bleep on May 10, 2022, 08:39:18 am
Maybe not the best place for this, but here goes-
I have a set of data and a value. I believe that value to be the sum of a subset of that data, with the only apparent unique characteristic of that subset being that it is part of my sum. Is there a way to find that subset without brute-forcing it? Is there a way to brute-force it for small quantities?
This is the subset-sum problem (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subset_sum_problem). It is NP-complete, i.e. difficult to do quickly.
Post by: Starver on May 26, 2022, 06:12:36 am
A couple of years back, the top-of-window 'tabs' (very handily rearrangable) became a drop-downable tab-list (not rearrangable, and initially "new 'tabs' to the bottom", until probably people complained and they made it make it top-of-list addition. (The obvious drag-to-re-order method, often employed, does not work. Closing and recreating a tab shoves it to the 'new'/top-end, but that's a fudge.)
Maybe a year back, they introduced 'tab groups', which essentially filled a single tab-list slot with a series of pages that could be accessed, within thst group, by bottom-of-window (transient, you sometimes had to fiddle a bit) string of tabs-in-this-group. Almost like tabs used to be (still no re-ordering!), although jumping into a group from other top-level tab(groups) in the big vertical tab-list page present a secondary vertical tab-list for which sub-group member.
What with having various long-term tabs (of whatever era) just hanging around - though not as many as I have here in Firefox! ;) - it's messy, but you learn to live with it. The group-tab switch is also useful to bring up the onscreen keyboard when it refuses to[2].
(And, long after that last update that rejigged everything, it started to flash up a highlight of the button used to do top-level tab-switching with a hint-bubble to tell me what it's for ("Open tabs to visit several pages at the same time."), like I'm a first-time user. I think some internal 'intro' flag has been set in a way that nothing I do proves that it can now be unset. Really awful change-control by the developers...)
So now suddenly, and without apparent app-update (not even silently, SFAICT) the tabgroup situation has vanished, all its members folded intothe main tablist. The first in the group is now first in the list (not sure if that's because I created it anew, while trying to work out what was going wrong), the rest every tabgroups' members now sit (ungrouped) between the ungrouped tabs, in the gaps where the groups they cam from were. Long-hold menu still features the "Open in new tab in group" option as well as "Open in new tab", but whether that happens (and the result just appears flattened) or it now has no groups go to, I haven't yet decided.
More testing, later. For now, I just want to record my situation somewhere, and the official fora/etc are godawful, I've never been able to get on with them, so you lucky people get first refusal on telling me that I'm the one that's doing it wrong. Probably in so many ways! But you know how things are (https://xkcd.com/2224/)...
Addendum: Adding a new tab (once again) sends it to the bottom of the list again, so the first group-tab tab that made it to the top of the master-tablist was clearly its own idea, not my messing about trying to understand things.
[1] Almost exclusively used for Wiki editing and any incidental jump-off links I follow.
[2] Sometimes, when putting the focus into a textarea edit box (and only in Chrome) the onscreen keyboard does not pop into existence, however long one waits. Cut/Copy/Paste works, if that's all I need, but to unstick it 'properly' I can change tabs (within subgroup or not) and return and hey-presto it materialises for use. That's definitely not an intended operational feature. But you get used to it...
Post by: dragdeler on June 07, 2022, 01:07:11 pm
Ideally, i would get one with ddwrt or openwrt support. (Check both projects for supported hardware)
https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices
https://openwrt.org/toh/start
Worthwhile or skip this particular model? They're heavy, I allready kinda like them eventhough the power inlet is plain silly. (https://www.qnap.com/fr-fr/product/qsw-m408-4c)
Alternatively I been sitting on a netgear router that is supported, but only does 10-100mbs.
Post by: Mephisto on June 07, 2022, 01:39:01 pm
Post by: dragdeler on June 07, 2022, 01:46:42 pm
But like, are they inherently untrustworthy for not allowing those opensource firmwares, or has somebody had good experiences with the brand or something like that? I do not know how to judge this product other than by weight and appearance lol.
(also I screwed up assuming I could fit a standard 12v psu in there :-\ if they were there, by the time I get back to that parc they will be burried)
Post by: wierd on June 07, 2022, 03:29:59 pm
The builtin software in a qnap switch should be sufficient. The OSS firmware is for consumer grade devices that think you are an idiot, and dont want to give you knobs to turn. That is a professional managed switch. It comes from the factory without mittens.
In this case, you would define a vlan containing your encoders, and another containing your normal network. The switch will isolate the traffic for you.
Post by: Starver on June 17, 2022, 01:14:37 pm
Having a set of nodes with (arbitrary, but fixed) subset of 'neighbouring' relationships to which a valid node value has a dependency to the value of each neighbour. I want to run through general solutions towards a (probably non-unique) valid answer.
I could just brute-force it (O^N or greater) by trying every node-value on every node (at least until a clear violation suggests a clear lack of validity, then pass over values/backtrack to previously commited nodes and try their next possibility before redrilling-down again)nbecause it's not a large set, but maybe a tolerably pseudo-optimal method of progressing through the nodes (with no nominal value, more meaningful than simply alphebetised by label!) is to build a 'try-list' as follows:
- For all nodes, not yet in the 'sorted' grouping, choose all those that have the share (or have alone) the highest number of neighbours already in the sorted list.
- i.e. Ones that will be maximally pre-constrained in the iterating phase, drastically reducing the tree of future permutations that flow from this decision
- On looking for the first list item, every node would have zero pre-visited 'neighbours', but it becomes potentially most important once you're past that stage
- The converse would clearly force the iterative value-trying process to pursue all possibly values in a non-neighbouring scattergun effect, each potentially tried out with every possible value each before trying to fit values into spots 'between' the first few. This seems like it will waste top-of-tree cycles more than it will exlude opportunities deeper down the iterative tree. Thus seems to support the higher efficacy of the my approach.
- From all nodes satisfying the prior razor-cut (could be all of them, could be just one, which saves time) consider for use all nodes with the shared maximum count of all neighbours.
- Thus a node that (if chosen) constrain successive nodes the (equa-l?)most
- Yes, functionally identical to "count of all neighbours not yet enqueued" as (where there's a choice) "allneighbours = prequeuedneighbours + notqueuedneighbours" has inherited the same "prequeuedneighbours" from step 1. But might be more useful to know this value for other reasons, so giving it prime duty here for trivial convenience later. ;)
- Again, the converse prioritisation would bring to the fore any nodes that have proportionally few constraining partner-nodes, like isolated branches that could be (e.g.) any value that can be mopped up "at the end" (giving them any value you want once and just once, without fall-back-to-and-try-next upon failing further down the tree, correcting zero 'mistakes' in the process). Thus also convincing by counter-argument.
Then just pick any one (if there remains any choice, rather than a single 'ideal') of the nodes that passed through the two slicings.
A more advanced version could do some additional look-forward. i.e."if I choose to next choose this node (perhaps not even the most preconnected/futureconnected) it then it brings a particularly well-connected but not quite yet queue-adjacent node into range". But that'd need more of a tree-search to set up the workhorse tree-search. At the currently intended scale, a simple pick-and-add from the pool of potentialities should significantly reduce the wasted time running through the main target-seeker part.
Agree/Disagree? (On principle, at least.) I've actually already implemented it, but I'll gladly try (meta-)benchmarking against an alternate or expanded approach if anyone has any insights that I may have missed. 8)
(Just in case you're confused, I'm trying to build a smarter queue-order of setable values across which the 'dumb' iteration algorithm will then seek to try solutions by depth-first back-tracking, until validly setting the final element.)
Yes, probably reinventing the wheel, but I find it entertaining to work through from first(ish) principles.
Post by: McTraveller on June 17, 2022, 04:05:20 pm
Is this something like solving a differential equation?
Post by: Starver on June 17, 2022, 05:57:05 pm
So the 'solution' (there are many if I loosen the conditions, and I'm just planning on tightening the conditions progressively until I get to a 'nice' place, and I'm not fussed to find all exhaustive answers or to exhaustively make it find a scenario that only has the single answer) will be found by trying Node 1 with <foo> (out of <foo>, <bar>, <baz>) then Node 2 with <foo> (may not be allowed because of how Node -5 was previously set, prior to our scenario being described) <bar> (nope), <baz> (maybe)... Then try Node 3... Darnit, because of its links, there are no valid values, reverse back, to 2, change <baz> to <whatever's next>, hunt back down.
Although if Node 3 isn't barred (NPI!) by Node 2 at all, but more Node 1 and further back, I'd waste time... or my tree-of-possibilities traverser would... on Node 2, so maybe prioritising a permutation of the respective Nodes 1, 3 then 2 would be better and quickly rule out what 1 can be. i.e. based on it (in)validating 3, before it is moving onto messing with 2 at all. Numbering/order is arbitrary here, for my purposes, so I'm thus looking for a marginally (at least) more fortitious ordering just to not do it in a totally stupid way.
Spoiler: Those not bothered can skip this rest of my 'summary' (click to show/hide)
Post by: McTraveller on June 17, 2022, 06:39:46 pm
How many edges are required for your rules? Does the rule only apply to direct neighbors, or do you have rules like "if a first neighbor is foo and a second neighbor is bar"?
Post by: Starver on June 18, 2022, 12:41:43 am
But, to briefly tie up the points:
do you have a graph - yes, in the sense you clearly appreciate of a set of connectivities
and want to "color" the nodes - assign a subset of values, but yes "colour" is a good analogue, and I actually first thought I'd have to contend with a variation of the map-colouring problem (but more complex!)
starting from some initial point? - any initial point, really, but optimally that might be one of a few (or even just a clear single obvious one), identified in advance
And you want a method to figure out how to color those in a way that doesn't violate the rules? - I'm doing it pretty much the long-winded way of progressively permutating the possibilities, but there's the very long-winded way[1], or a depth-first search[2]. The DFS, in turn, seems like it can be done slightly more intelligently/stupidly, depending upon which nodes I assign to which 'depths'. My current tinkering is with how 'best' to do that DFS.
Spoiler: ...and, despite my intentions, I depart from the "briefly" promise, again (click to show/hide)
Otherwise, I've slept on this, and maybe it's 'solved'. FCVO... Tinkering aside.
[1] For N nodes of V possible values, VN permutations and then find that most of these fail just on the first handful of nodes being wrong.
[2] Hard to quantify, but slashes huge "dimensional-chunks" off the above search-space.
[3] ½N² + ½N quick checks, and a little management overhead.
Post by: McTraveller on June 18, 2022, 07:41:29 am
You don't want a "tree" approach, you want something that is more like crystal growth. You start at your seed point, then "grow outward" from that point. Each time you set a value, you make that a "seed point".
The general algorithm is
Code: [Select]
Precondition: "value fixed" flag for all nodes is not set.
Add the starting node to a "nodes to check" list.
Set the initial value of the starting node; set its "value fixed" flag.
While the "nodes to check" list is not empty
For each node X in the "nodes to check" list:
remove X from the "nodes to check" list
For each node Y connected to X
If Y doesn't have its value fixed
Set Y's value based on its rules and all its direct neighbors
Set Y's "value fixed" flag
Add Y to the "nodes to check" list
This algorithm has O(N x (average number of connections per N) x (complexity of setting Y's value) ) . So if the algorithm isn't a permutation of Y's neighbors, but is just a scan through it, it would be O(N x (connections per N)2) ) which probably isn't terrible.
The formulation would be a little different if you have to set all X's neighbors simultaneously, rather than one at a time, but the general structure is the same. Hope that helps!
Post by: Starver on June 18, 2022, 09:53:18 am
In an hour or three, I'll be over again at a desktop (this one without the runnable code, but with a copy of its originally sketched structure that I set down last weekend then forgot about until Thursday!) and I can take time to do a better and briefer show of what I do now. (Not late night/early morning stream of consciousness stuff that I regret later!) Should at least be good for a laugh, on your part.
Post by: McTraveller on June 18, 2022, 01:04:46 pm
I like this kind of algorithm discussion though. Keeps the cranial gears turning.
Post by: Il Palazzo on June 20, 2022, 06:06:30 am
Or just in general, how to keep it on? At best I can set it to 10 minutes before the screen turns off. But sometimes I need it to be on all the time.
Post by: Starver on June 20, 2022, 07:35:47 am
If an App doesn't have (or maybe does have, but it still gets over-rided) its own Don't Sleep While In Use (according to its own criteria of "In use..") then as long as you don't mind losing the security/powersaving of unattended-auto-sleep/etc (or that you have to keep switching it over, as deisired at any given occasion) then this may be your answer. Twisted via whatever OS differences there are between our own incarnations of the platform, naturally, the way they keep getting reskinned/etc... ;)
(PS, anyone wondering about my own prior question,I switched to boring McT with my long-winded discussions over in messaging, to spare the rest of you my verbosity!)
Post by: bloop_bleep on June 20, 2022, 09:11:12 pm
A net of nodes (undirected, not easily flattened in any Euclidean or even 3+D Euclidean way, and 'small-world' crosslinks between select topologically distant nodes, regardless of how I lay them down) where the links denote "if node 1 is <foo>, then node 2 cannot be <bar> (and vice-versa)", or suchlike.
So the 'solution' (there are many if I loosen the conditions, and I'm just planning on tightening the conditions progressively until I get to a 'nice' place, and I'm not fussed to find all exhaustive answers or to exhaustively make it find a scenario that only has the single answer) will be found by trying Node 1 with <foo> (out of <foo>, <bar>, <baz>) then Node 2 with <foo> (may not be allowed because of how Node -5 was previously set, prior to our scenario being described) <bar> (nope), <baz> (maybe)... Then try Node 3... Darnit, because of its links, there are no valid values, reverse back, to 2, change <baz> to <whatever's next>, hunt back down.
Although if Node 3 isn't barred (NPI!) by Node 2 at all, but more Node 1 and further back, I'd waste time... or my tree-of-possibilities traverser would... on Node 2, so maybe prioritising a permutation of the respective Nodes 1, 3 then 2 would be better and quickly rule out what 1 can be. i.e. based on it (in)validating 3, before it is moving onto messing with 2 at all. Numbering/order is arbitrary here, for my purposes, so I'm thus looking for a marginally (at least) more fortitious ordering just to not do it in a totally stupid way.Spoiler: Those not bothered can skip this rest of my 'summary' (click to show/hide)
So, if I'm getting you correctly, you have a set of nodes, some of which mutually exclude each other, and you want to find a maximum-size subset of nodes none of which exclude each other?
This is the maximum independent set problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_set_(graph_theory) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_set_(graph_theory)) . It is strongly NP-complete. What size inputs are you looking at here?
Post by: Il Palazzo on June 20, 2022, 09:25:26 pm
I've long had Settings|Battery|Sleep set to Never, on devices like this one.The thing is, I can't find any such setting anywhere. It's just not there. Not conspicuously so, at least.
Same with app-specific settings. There's just 'allow background activity', but shit still turns itself off a few minutes after the screen goes to sleep.
Post by: Ziusudra on June 20, 2022, 09:59:32 pm
If you can turn on Developer Options (I forget how, look it up), there's a "Stay awake - screen will never sleep while charging". What app do you use to listen to podcasts? Spotify keeps playing audio for me.I've long had Settings|Battery|Sleep set to Never, on devices like this one.The thing is, I can't find any such setting anywhere. It's just not there. Not conspicuously so, at least.
Same with app-specific settings. There's just 'allow background activity', but shit still turns itself off a few minutes after the screen goes to sleep.
Post by: delphonso on June 21, 2022, 12:13:44 am
Let's say I wanted to turn a Raspberry Pi into a laptop or simple desktop. I take a broken laptop's screen, add an LCD controller and now I've got an easy screen.
A raspberry pi is run on 3.3V and most LCD controllers require 12V power source. What would I use to have only one power cable running to this guy? Some sort of relay? I'm really just looking for vocabulary.
Post by: bloop_bleep on June 21, 2022, 12:34:36 am
Post by: delphonso on June 21, 2022, 12:38:53 am
Something like a Y splitter is right. Is there something a bit lower profile? Maybe the supply board is the way to go.
Post by: bloop_bleep on June 21, 2022, 01:11:22 am
Here's one that has 12V on a barrel plug: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5450 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5450)
Post by: Starver on June 21, 2022, 03:40:38 am
The number of times I've looked up a solution for an Android thing I encountered and the solution said "go into Settings|Foo|Bar|Baz" but I can't find it (no Baz under Foo|Bar, or not even Bar under Foo!), I swear that every vendor out there employs a team to reconfigure the Settings menus explicitly to confuse anyone else, even those who used a prior sub-version of the same vendor's Android devices...I've long had Settings|Battery|Sleep set to Never, on devices like this one.The thing is, I can't find any such setting anywhere. It's just not there. Not conspicuously so, at least.
But I appear to also have "|Display|Sleep=Never" set (on looking further down the menus... has identical options, but not yet checked if it's functionally linked, so that both reflect the change made on either!) so maybe its there, for you. Or even elsewhere (though it isn't also there under my "Security & Location" subtab, etc, I could imagine reasons why it might be).
Of course, it'll probably not even be called Sleep, for you, either, when you eventually find it burrowed in a sub-sub-tab of Accessibility or somesuch. ;)
So, if I'm getting you correctly, you have a set of nodes, some of which mutually exclude each other, and you want to find a maximum-size subset of nodes none of which exclude each other?
Spoiler: Long answer... (click to show/hide)
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on July 04, 2022, 07:48:13 am
Post by: Starver on July 04, 2022, 09:06:50 am
You could fire up your OS's own process-listing thing (or a third-party app with this functionality), to see what might be running at 100% of a CPU (or effectively so, for any given core(s)), what files are currently being accessed, etc. But there are so many different ways of doing that and who knows what else you have running[1] to confuse the issue if you're not already familiar with their presence in the background. If it's not a known issue then you may be asked to check this kind of thing in whatever manner the developer thinks best, but it's a bit more of a shot in the dark without more intimate knowledge of what might be going wrong.
[1] These days, Anti-Virus programs are better at not running race-conditions in certain circumstances, but if you find that that is eating up processor cycles, without even giving you an actual report of anything nasty, I'm sure both the AV and game vendors would be interested. Once any more trivial examination has been made and not helped much.
Post by: feelotraveller on July 04, 2022, 01:12:41 pm
Is there a way to troubleshoot something like this? What files to check? What would I look for?
Start by covering the general bases: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/5814-D9A3-BE42-62DF (https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/5814-D9A3-BE42-62DF) (could system requirements be an issue?).
Try uninstalling and reinstalling the game. (Yep about equivalent to turning the computer off and back on again, but still.)
After that a decent list of the location of various, possibly helpul but possibly confusing, logs is given in the last post here: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/135509758529538311/ (https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/135509758529538311/)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Another resource is the steam forum (community/discussions) for the particular game. A question there may work.
Post by: King Zultan on July 05, 2022, 01:08:06 am
Does anyone know how to download an age restricted video from youtube?
Post by: delphonso on July 05, 2022, 04:45:20 am
I have nothing to add to the above but instead came with my own question.
Does anyone know how to download an age restricted video from youtube?
Most youtube to mp4 converters just take the url (ignoring ads, restrictions, etc). If you have a link to the video, you should be able to paste it in and download it. Also prepare for heaps of shitty ads because those sites are cursed.
Post by: King Zultan on July 06, 2022, 12:38:25 am
Most youtube to mp4 converters just take the url (ignoring ads, restrictions, etc). If you have a link to the video, you should be able to paste it in and download it. Also prepare for heaps of shitty ads because those sites are cursed.I should have mentioned that I have several programs that can download videos from youtube, but none of them can download age restricted stuff, do you have any sites you could recommend.
Post by: delphonso on July 06, 2022, 01:01:13 am
Post by: Iduno on July 23, 2022, 07:26:15 am
Neither seems forthcoming about requirements, because why would they want you to *use* their stuff?
Post by: delphonso on July 26, 2022, 08:20:02 am
This didn't work, as a doc file doesn't like that sort of thing, and it just turned the whole thing to wingdings. Since it was only 20 files and it was short notice, I brute force did it by hand. I'm not a big fan of that sort of thing, especially when I'm sure I could do it automatically through the terminal (or with a bit of python, surely).
Anyone know of how to do that? Everything I saw online was just about VBA, which isn't something I use.
(as in, some tools for bash or some useful libraries. python-docx is what I'm reading about right now and it seems...bad.)
Post by: Starver on July 26, 2022, 08:56:38 am
Assuming the simplest answer wouldn't work (taking the Wingding document and reasserting that it's Arial/whatever, because only that changed and it's not a hotbed of now corrupted multi-font/multi-sized/multi-decorated text that needs more than a handful of global changes to somehow revert whatever you didn't mean to do with it), I think it might be best automated if you're using .DOCX format... Albeit that I personally avoid that for various reasons.
.DOCX and .XLSX, etc, are (from memory, can't check this) compressed by a common method (essentially .zip?) from a set of .XML resources. You may be able to extract the .docx into the component .XMLish file(s), box clever to make sure you only sed the necessary tag contents with your required substitution and repack the .XML into the .DOCX again.
If it's .DOC, it is a somewhat more proprietry format (though well studied) that you might need better file-object manipulation tools for (e.g. a Perl/Python/whatever module and then a very simple regexp between read/decode and encode/write stages, and that option also likely available for .DOCX if you're into Perl/Python/whatever already).
It depends how much time you'll spend to save (https://xkcd.com/1205/), which you might not immediately know for sure (https://xkcd.com/1319/) and even thinking about that might make it far worse for you (https://xkcd.com/1445/). I'd be tempted to take the hit of a known "open with Word, replace textA with textB, resave and close" process if it's not expected to be a daily task, though a batch-conversion would always be theoretically possible. ;)
Post by: delphonso on July 26, 2022, 09:14:52 am
Yeah, reading more about it, it seems editing the XML is the way to go and repackaging it afterwards. Unfortunately the name itself is formatted and the xml translates that roughly to:
<w:t>S</w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r>
<w:t>tarver</w:t>
plus heaps of other tags for the font, color, and italicization, though it's only this name text that needs to be swapped. It's certainly possible. I'll talk to the rest of the teachers come the next school year and see if I can write something to do this for all of us, thus saving more time (cumulatively) than it would take me to learn enough to knock this out.
Post by: LordBaal on July 30, 2022, 09:37:23 pm
Post by: Schmaven on July 30, 2022, 10:06:48 pm
Hello fellas! Long time no see, i'm going crazy with this laptop. It boots to bios and can stay like that for hours just fine, but it will turn off the very second it tries to load any OS, even live linux. It simply shut off. Is not he hard disk, is not the RAM.... what else could be?
It could be any other component starting to fail really. Cheapest next option would be the power supply. If you're lucky, it's just a bad connection, and disconnecting/reconnecting everything from the PSU might fix it. That worked for me once when I couldn't even get to the OS boot menu. Next up in cost might be the motherboard, but if you were to try a new motherboard, I would advise upgrading to the more current CPU socket model. AM5 might be dropped this autumn. I'm sure a replacement CPU that fits your mobo socket wouldn't have to break the bank to test. You might even be able to return it for a full refund if it doesn't fix your issue. Or also if it does fix your issue, and then invest in a more powerful CPU option rather than a cheap test CPU.
Post by: wierd on July 31, 2022, 02:30:25 am
It could be that the SMBUS charge controller in the battery is reporting "absurd" charge. (EG, cells are fully charged, but the charge controller thinks it is at 0%, which then triggers the OS to think that the battery is in CRITICAL_LOW state, which then triggers ACPI shutdown.)
Try booting with the battery removed?
Post by: BigD145 on July 31, 2022, 12:19:59 pm
Post by: LordBaal on August 03, 2022, 06:57:47 pm
- Checked the heat control system, it was dirty but no to the point of becoming a problem (have seen far worst), it wasn't clogged or anything. Still cleaned it and applied new thermal paste. No dice.
- Checked the disk. Crystal disks says the drive is in "caution" but personally have seen drives works for months or years in with such warnings. The drive is working so the problem is not here.
- Checked the ram in another laptop, worked fine. Tried to use another, working ram in the faulty laptop, got the same error of turning off when booting the OS. Tried in both RAM slots, same result.
- Tried booting without the battery, same old shutdown whenever it tries to load any OS.
It keeps shutting down whenever it tries to load any OS, be it a live linux distro, the OS in the hard drive or a windows installer. Maybe is something with the RAM bus that gives issues whenever the computer tries to load it up, have seen the time to shutdown varies from immediately to a few seconds up to something like 30 seconds or so.
I'm about to send route the work to an electrical engineer.
Post by: King Zultan on August 04, 2022, 03:21:58 am
Post by: wierd on August 04, 2022, 04:10:05 am
powersave=off panic=0
Post by: heydude6 on August 07, 2022, 12:32:22 am
Basically, all of my anti-aliasing is gone. Whether it be in games, or just casually looking at the icons on my desktop, or text on the screen, everything is covered in jaggies. It's crazy to see just how much post-processing is applied to your computer, and it's even worse to see what happens when it's gone. (google refuses to share any info about this feature)
Thing is, this isn't the first time this has happened to my laptop. Last time it was caused by a faulty graphics card driver update which I was able to quickly revert, but I don't know what the cause of it is this time. I wasn't around when it happened. I let my younger cousin borrow my PC while I was gone and when I came back in the evening I immediately noticed the issue. The kid insists he didn't mess with anything so tracing back my steps isn't going to help much.
Spoiler: Things I've already tried (click to show/hide)
Anyway, I feel like I've already tried all of the sensible solutions. At this point all I'm looking for is a way to find proper diagnostics (Dx11 diagnostics say that there are no issues to be found). If there was a console window I could open up that would show a useful error message, I'd feel like I was making some progress. As of now, I don't even know if this is a hardware or software issue.
Post by: wierd on August 07, 2022, 01:37:10 am
OS vers?
Graphics card make and model?
Etc.
Post by: heydude6 on August 07, 2022, 12:16:20 pm
Nvida GeForce GTX 980M
Laptop is Asus Republic of Gamers G752VY
Do you really think this info can help?
Post by: Starver on August 07, 2022, 01:25:20 pm
My first thought was that you'd changed from 24-bit true-colour to something with far less bit-depth, so that you were getting 'anti-aliasing', but only at a certain limit of possible mid-tones, but surely you'd notice the change to a more "ultra-websafe" pallette in other.
Yet I was wondering is if you can do a screenshot of the problems and view that screenshot on another device of yours (that's if you don't even care to share it) to see if the effect is carried across there or some strange post-post-processing enhancement setting that's actually trying to sharpen your image (badly?) at in the display rather than the initial video-composition.
I've seen a few strange things. Sometimes just a rogue tickbox/registry-entry setting, occasionally a slightly dodgy pin in a VGA cable! This is well before 2D/3D-acceleration GPUs started to redistribute more and more of the effort (and fault!) of getting the programmed intention into displayed reality and potentially introduces a totally different set of Heisenbugs.... Someone out there might know that this model of graphics card or even laptop has this sort of occasionaly twitchy-behaviour (or what some prankster could have changed, deliberately, deep in a reconfiguration wizard).
Post by: feelotraveller on August 07, 2022, 01:41:25 pm
Nvida GeForce GTX 980M
Have you looked at the Nvidia Control Panel settings?
Post by: heydude6 on August 17, 2022, 12:24:56 am
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I know you guys need much more than that to definitively conclude what's going on, but other examples would require before/after pictures to really see properly (The before pictures are hard to source). With a problem like this, it's very easy to get gaslit into thinking that it's always been this way. I only know I'm not imagining this because I've solved this before by reverting a bad driver update.
The pictures probably could be provided eventually, but I've resolved to try and solve things myself for a bit longer rather than waste your time.
Specifically speaking, I plan on making a back-up of my existing files and then reinstalling Windows. Right now, it's unclear if this is a hardware or a software issue and I believe a factory reset should give me a final verdict. If the issue disappears upon reset, then I know it's software and I should be able to reupload the files from my backup to return to the functional gaming laptop I had before.
If not, then I will begin making plans to get a new computer.
Are there any obvious pitfalls I should be aware of before trying to reset Windows? My main concern currently is potentially pissing off any DRM I have installed.
Post by: Schmaven on August 17, 2022, 05:47:52 am
Also, just for curiosity sake, maybe note your CPU / GPU temps and # of running processes before and after the reinstall.
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 20, 2022, 03:55:33 am
I have a Razer Blackwidow 2019 (according to the product number), and occasionally I'll have a problem where it won't recognize that a key has been depressed - it will think the key's being held down until I press another key. Pressing any other key fixes the problem, which I think eliminates it being a switch issue - if it was a stuck switch, you'd need to press the actual stuck key to make it stop. I was also able to reduce but not eliminate the problem by moving it to a USB 3 port instead of a USB 2, also suggesting a software issue.
The one guide I was able to find suggested a firmware update, but Razer's tool says I'm on the latest keyboard firmware. It also suggested macros might be a problem, but everything I can find says there's no such issue.
Any ideas what else I can try?
Post by: heydude6 on August 24, 2022, 12:24:21 am
...I've resolved to try and solve things myself for a bit longer rather than waste your time.
Specifically speaking, I plan on making a back-up of my existing files and then reinstalling Windows. Right now, it's unclear if this is a hardware or a software issue and I believe a factory reset should give me a final verdict. If the issue disappears upon reset, then I know it's software and I should be able to reupload the files from my backup to return to the functional gaming laptop I had before.
If not, then I will begin making plans to get a new computer.
So I performed the factory reset. It didn't fix the problem sadly so it's most certainly a hardware issue. Unless I decide to take the laptop apart and attempt a component level repair on the motherboard or GPU, this is the end of my story. Ultimately, it's just a quality of life issue (I can still play games on this thing after all, it'll just be ugly), but still sad.
I should receive some money in a few months, and then I'll be able to get a new PC.
Post by: Schmaven on August 24, 2022, 05:20:50 am
.
Any ideas what else I can try?
Is it the same key that always gets stuck being seen as pressed?
The behavior of not resetting until another key is pressed does sound like it could be an electrical issue. Like if a relay is stuck latched, and something about the new signal is what unlatches it. Could a crumb or small piece of debris lodged somewhere cause that sort of interference though?
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 24, 2022, 02:44:12 pm
Oddly, since I asked that question, I haven't seen it again. Maybe an update I didn't notice fixed it.
Post by: Sirus on October 14, 2022, 03:42:20 pm
One of them involves my old PC; I want to harvest the HDD from it and install it into the new case to serve as additional storage (I bought an SSD to use for the operating system and any games I'd like loaded quickly). Not really sure how difficult a task that may be or if the new computer will even be able to use the old drive without a complete reformat (or at all). I do have an external backup drive I can use in a pinch to save everything worth saving, but that will likely be a slow process and I'd worry about missing some important user data (game saves or browser passwords for example) in the shuffle.
Also my current plan is to install Windows 10 via a flash drive, which is supposedly pretty easy to do, but the room in which I am building does not have ethernet access and thus no Internet. Will that be a problem for the OS installation?
All my other issues stem from not having built a computer in many years and mostly assisting on the first one, but I'm watching plenty of tutorials on that sort of thing.
Post by: Starver on October 14, 2022, 05:14:24 pm
Exactly what to do (hardware-wise) depends upon if SATA or PATA(/IDE). If you've got space in the case. If the Mobo has enough native cables (though there are ways to get around that).
If it really isn't possible to do that, caddies/drive-docks exist that make the old internal-HDD directly into an external-HDD (USB or perhaps eSATA, generally).
No need to reformat the drive, although I'd suggest that (before you use it as a D:/E:/F:/whatever:-driive) you get some sort of Drive Image of it (live Linux-tools bootable DVD packages abound, from which you can create one or other) and store a copy or two on DVD(s)/wherever so that you can hopefully restore it if it ever becomes necessary, then you can aim to go through all the OS-level gunk and old My Documents-type stuff and either shove it into a bitbucket or make use of it as you see fit.
I mean, I tend to just let copies sit around forever (https://xkcd.com/1360/). I'm also not very good at cleanly migrating between my own old/new machines. ;)
User data acess is a trickier thing to guarantee.
Browser passwords I would (depends upon your browser how you can do this) export or review the details of and make a note of, because you might not be able to import straight from the system-level files that it has taken pains to have securely encoded such data in exactly so that nobody can recover such details. Work out how you'll have to get it into an importable/re-enterable format before you actually rip the old machine apart, because some things might not be trivial from just the drive contents being loaded into a new systems stack of storage devices. I mean, can a "remember my password cookie" be necessarily transferable? What if you've got a Password Manager of some kind that is constructed to not to have its details stolen from by any idiot with a thumbdrive? Think ahead.
Maybe savegames can be copied directly from the old drive's installed directories into the ones the new installation on the new machine has made. But I wouldn't guarantee that's possible. (And, though it works perfecly Ok like this for DF, in general trying to run the old-install from the old-drive location is probably not going to work as well as you'd want, if at all, for various reasons.)
Sight-unseen, of your particular situation, I might even suggest that it could just be simpler just to keep the old machine 'running' (turning it on only as you need to, to refer to it) rather than rushing into extracting its old drive. If it's still working where it is then you can get used to your new system and then dive into the old one as and when you need to to copy (by eye or by USB drive) whatever you want transfered into your newer computer. After a while (and having made the aforementioned drive-image!) you can finally decide that there's nothing at all new on it and then rip it out, completely repartition/reformat it and use it as a handy further drive.
Post by: Sirus on October 14, 2022, 05:48:34 pm
I'm afraid you've lost me on the Drive Image thing. I'm not sure I have any DVD-ROMs around, let alone enough to back up a few thousand GB of accumulated data. I also don't have or use Linux, so if that's required it'll also be troublesome. If a Drive Image is something a bit handier I'm willing to learn more, otherwise I'll probably have to break out the backup external drive and save things that way.
As for just leaving the HDD in the old computer and making piecemeal transfers, well that's certainly an option. I only have one monitor/mouse/keyboard because I was hoping to make a clean sweep of things but maybe that was a little overly ambitious.
Post by: LordBaal on October 14, 2022, 06:33:17 pm
- Cloning your old HDD to your SSD, size allowing of course. Most straight forward option. Then format your HDD or use it as it is as backup.
- Clean, new OS in your SSD. Fresh software install of all programs and games, then copy all personal files, home made videos, photos and audios first, then documents, then everything else like savegames and config files and mods. Once all is up and running, files are safe, format your old HDD and use it as backup for anything you want.
Post by: Starver on October 14, 2022, 07:03:42 pm
I'm afraid you've lost me on the Drive Image thing. I'm not sure I have any DVD-ROMs around, let alone enough to back up a few thousand GB of accumulated data. I also don't have or use Linux, so if that's required it'll also be troublesome. If a Drive Image is something a bit handier I'm willing to learn more, otherwise I'll probably have to break out the backup external drive and save things that way.I've used this product (https://clonezilla.org/) in the past, to good effect. In my case I burnt it to a DVD-R (maybe even CD-R? ...and it could have been on a USB memory-stick/thumbrdive/dongley-thing/whatever you call it) and used it in conjunction with an external-HDD to save verbatim images of internal-HDDs (there's some compression factor in doing that, even accounting for 'unused space' still being copied[1]), all through a GUI-like text interface that really only lets you mess up with what you do (if you don't pay attention), not how you try to do it...
Not absolutely necessary, if you don't want to, I'd just suggest it as a precautionary thing, tuned to your particular needs/desires/abilities...
Quote
I only have one monitor/mouse/keyboard because I was hoping to make a clean sweep of things but maybe that was a little overly ambitious.There's always getting some form of Remote Desktop working on the one computer (for which you now don't need IO devices, just a network-style connection of any kind) and control it from the computer for which you do permanently have your peripherals plugged in. Or find a cheap KVM. Or get a decent additional mouse and keyboard (cheap and cheerful will do) and as good a new monitor as you think you can spring to (possibly the current one doesn't even have multiple switchable video-inputs to it, or other features that you might find nice to use).
Compared to most of the hardware costs of a worthwhile new computer, only really the new monitor might be a significant increase (but I don't know how tight the purse-strings need to be for you, right now!), while the faux-KVM option of Remote Desktopping needs perhaps to learn a little about what client/server setups you can work with in your case and might be a learning-curve with (initially swapping at least the monitor between systems as you're trying to make both ends work properly). - But I'm the kind of person who has a small handful of extra monitors (even if I have to fall back to CRTs) and can probably dig up a reasonably working mouse and keyboard, without even having to 'borrow' them from work the next time I'm in the vicinity of the office concerned, so I am perhaps a bit too glib in not thinking of this as a speed-bump on the way to multi-computer nirvana...
Really, I meant to say, short and sweet, that I'm perfectly sure you can solve your problems, but the manner in which you do will depend a lot upon exactly what setup you have. I meant to keep it short and sweet, but... too much width of possible choices to give you the short-sweet answer that I really tried to give you! Sorry. It might be better if you have a techy-type friend who could actually look at what your before/after systems are, perhaps even know what sort of thing you're likely to be capable of (with or without a bit of effort along the way). Or wait for another thread-watcher to respond with a much better distillation of the relevent sage advice that you'd find useful.
((Oh look, LordBaal has indeed given advice that, yes, I'd also credit as being decent approaches. While I've been trying to make this post slightly more reasonable to read. For the cloning option, Clonezilla/the others would of course be one of the ways to do this step, for example.))
[1] Combining with a bit of actual initial disk-clean-up (wisely done) and then using a repartitioning utility[2] to shrink the partition to only the space actually used means the actual partition image is at least as small. It's very useful for creating a redeployable system almost regardless of the disc-size you'd be putting it on. Get it into the smallest-necessary clone-to-disc size and then expand it back out to fill the available hardware. But that's an advanced thing, with other considerations, not at all what you're doing.
[2] I mean, there's Live disks for that too, although gparted suggests you use a cloner first in case you mess up that, which would be a bit chicken-and-egg. But, with that caveat, this linked page suggests other cloners as well as Clonezilla that you might also want to look at.
[3] e.g. a modern mobo might not even have IDE headers, and if your old computer drive is that then you may have to look for a caddy solution, though PCI-ish cards with IDE headers or internally connecting it to an IDE-to-USB converter might also be good enough for your case. There's so many ways to do the physical connection, and even more ways to usefully progress from there and use the physically-connected drive once you've done so. And I've probably used about half of the ones I can think of, which are themselves doubtless only half of the ones that are actually practical (never mind possible) to do... (https://gparted.org/livecd.php)
Post by: Sirus on October 14, 2022, 07:54:36 pm
My computer has a 2 TB HDD and no other storage. It's partitioned into a C drive and a larger D drive, because the guy who helped me put it together in the first place said that Windows 7 could only handle C drives up to a certain size (or something). This computer does have a CD/DVD-ROM drive but the new one does not, so that option is out until and unless I pick up an external drive somewhere. I have some USB sticks hanging around but I'm not sure on their exact sizes (and I need to reserve one at least 8 GB for the Windows 10 boot drive).
Short of hauling the HDD out of its current case and plugging it into the new one, which will have its own SSD for storage, the only option for mass data transfer I currently have access to is an external backup drive that connects via USB.
I kinda like the cloning idea, but I have no idea how to make it work and I also don't really have a way to clone except by just, plugging both hard drives into a single computer anyway.
If I'm not sharing the right information here, please let me know what would be helpful. I thought I was reasonably computer-literate but the more I look at this project the more I realize I barely know anything :-[
Post by: dragdeler on October 15, 2022, 03:38:35 am
I see 0 reason to upgrade from w7 if you have the drivers and don't need modern feature levels of dx12. Even if it were more unsafe, which like, requires a bunch of suboptimal user decisions... It's just so easy to redeploy compared to w10.
Post by: King Zultan on October 15, 2022, 04:32:12 am
Also monitors are easy and cheap to get from thrift stores if you need a second one.
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 15, 2022, 05:59:25 am
I kinda like the cloning idea, but I have no idea how to make it work and I also don't really have a way to clone except by just, plugging both hard drives into a single computer anyway.
People (in my opinion) are making this way more complicated than it has to be. How I would do this (how I actually did this, when I upgraded to SSD):
Assemble the new PC with both drives. Leave the SSD blank for now, set the spinny rust drive as the boot drive.
Download a tool called Easus Partition Master, it works a lot easier than the integrated Windows tool. Since your drive is already partitioned into two drives (which was pointless - whoever set it up for you was an idiot. there IS a capacity limit in 32 bit versions of Windows, which is exactly 2TB), a smaller SSD is probably not going to be an issue here unless you bought one that is ludicrously small. Use the EAsus Clone Partition tool to clone C to the new drive.
Once you have moved the C:\ drive, switch the boot order and disconnect the spinny rust drive. Boot from the SSD to make absolutely sure your SSD is booting properly, because you'll soon be destroying the old installation. If you have any super-important files such as critical that are hard to replace, make sure that they are on the new partition (and preferably backed up to the cloud).
Reconnect the spinny rust drive.
Delete the old C:\ partition from the spinny rust drive, being very careful to ensure that it is the right one. Then extend both partitions to fill the drives. At this point, as far as your files are concerned, your setup is now identical to the old one. Everything should work exactly as it did before.
Now do an in-place upgrade to Windows 10. This is technically optional, but Windows 7 is End Of Life, meaning it no longer gets security patches. This means that you will have increasingly large security issues, and anybody who thinks that you can compensate for that with safe browsing is a fool. Equally important, you're probably going to very much want the improvements that have been made over the years if you're buying a new computer in the first place. The problems with Windows 10 are largely overhyped, and the much discussed telemetry and advertising are trivial to disable. If you're building with very new parts, Windows 11 is also an option, which I've had no issues with. Installing with no ethernet will not be a problem. Windows runs fine without activation, it just yells at you a lot and puts up a watermark. You'll eventually want to do the activation, but it isn't an immediate priority.
Post by: LordBaal on October 15, 2022, 06:11:15 am
How big is the SSD Sirus?
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 15, 2022, 06:44:46 am
Post by: Starver on October 15, 2022, 07:33:53 am
(Not that it helped when I had my computer with two physical 1GB disks... Win95 days, this was. No amount of regular repartitioning could seemlessly lend unused C: space to a nearly filled D:, or vice-versa. And was before more virtualised solutions and too much fuss to try a RAID-like recombination of drivespaces.)
TBH, I was imagining "new machine, new OS" (or install licence, at least). The ability to do Whole Body Transplants is severely restricted by the antipiracy measures MS (I assumed Windows, naturally, anything from XP onwards) has enforced in its systems, never mind the significant driver changes. OEM tools to 'denature' an install (before then re-registering with the approved registration key/etc) always used to be a key part of gettingblegal (and possibly even working) clones. Not see how post-Win8 does it, but never seen any reason to expect relaxed requirements trickle-down from MS. For one thing, the highly deprecated offline validation (8n today's xalways plugged in" world).
As such I was (at the beginning at least) assuming the donated drive would just be a legacy-data carrier once the new machine. For which my advice would be: Physical connection should he easy (with the caveat on the no-IDE headers possibility, if it's an IDE donor drive) and make sure it doesn't usurp Boot Drive position. And all that stuff about non-trivial (e.g. password) data migration that you now need to know you should look at before dismantling/remantling.
If you're doing the WBT (whether all-but-the-disc changes or all-but-the-data...) then perhaps the non-trivial data is not one of your worries, as it is actually more intrinsic to the 'mind' you're transfering between systems. But backup (or copy across to new disc and have original as your backup by default, only to overwrite once there's clearly no further issues arising) would be advisable in one form or other. IMO.
Truly, though, the difficulty is not in the doing, but in choosing which exact method of doing is best suited to you, to avoid the pitfalls you are least capable of overcomng. And for any three IT professionals, you'll find at least seven different opinions on how they would set about it. ;)
Post by: dragdeler on October 15, 2022, 07:57:52 am
If you manually insert the right updates, or slipstream them into your distro, IDK starting from which one onwards, but windows will be able again to use the default update service. It will probably reinstall all the updates once more because microsoft doesn't trust updates it provides itself unless they install them themselves...
And now to the rly funny thing: if you got a w7 that is "self updatable" and leave updates on automatic, use your computer daily and come back in a month to check what happened in your updates, you will notice that it cyclically applies a bunch of patches that are allways named the same code and indistinguishable from the endusers point of view. And one of them is deinitly called "antivirus definitions for windows defender"
Post by: Sirus on October 15, 2022, 09:49:03 am
Just pointing that setting up the disk with two partitions does have its merits. You can set up so the documents, pics, videos, downloads and desktop folders are in the largest partition, if your OS got flunked and unable to start, simply wipe the OS partition and reinstall a fresh one without worrying about personal files.2 TB, I probably could have gone larger but to be honest this is something of a budget upgrade and I was after all planning to move the HDD over for more storage. Worst case scenario, it shouldn't have any issues storing all my stuff on its own.
How big is the SSD Sirus?
As for the OS stuff, trust me I'd like to stay on 7. It's been good to me for many years, very reliable and user-friendly. But Microsoft stopped updating that thing years ago, and although I mostly stay off of the sketchy sites these days and keep browser extensions running to block potentially malicious code it only becomes more vulnerable. The reason I'm (mostly) decided on Windows 10 is because I was told that it (specifically the Pro version) is a lot easier to corral into behaving properly compared to 11. I haven't really touched either OS much so it remains to be seen whether or not it can be done.
(Another suggestion was to switch to Linux, but ehhh. We'll see how 10 works before I go diving into that labyrinth.)
-snip for space-
So just to recap these steps (making sure I have them right in my head)
1: build new computer with both drives
2: boot from old HDD
3: download this Partition Master tool
4: clone the C drive (and ONLY the C drive) into the new SSD
5: disconnect HDD and boot from SSD to see it's working
6: reconnect HDD and wipe the C drive from it
7: expand the new SSD C drive and the old HDD D drive so they fill their prospective devices
8: technically optional but will probably happen anyway: upgrade to Windows 10
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 15, 2022, 10:57:12 am
Also, 2TB is plenty of SSD. Spinny rust is still cheaper by far on a capacity basis, and good enough for most purposes.
Post by: Sirus on October 15, 2022, 11:02:32 am
Post by: LordBaal on October 16, 2022, 09:20:45 am
It is really unusual to irrevocably fuck up your OS with a problem that doesn't fuck up the entire drive nowadays. A lot of the stuff that you used to be able to avoid by partitioning doesn't care anymore.
Nah, on old windows installs is far too common, and that trick saved time more than once when you had that situation and no other disk or backup devices.
Nowdays is probably not worth the effort, I'll grant you that.
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 16, 2022, 09:53:06 am
Post by: Sirus on October 16, 2022, 10:09:06 am
I got my most important files backed up onto an external drive (I think I got them all, anyway), but I may hold off on the HDD transfer until I see that the new computer is functional without it. I've got a flash drive set up with that Windows 10 boot tool and will see how things go with that. Also scrounged up a spare monitor and keyboard for initial setup, and my mouse is wireless so it should be easily moved as needed.
Post by: Schmaven on October 16, 2022, 10:44:57 am
So thanks to not having thermal paste (and a few other things) I had to put my build off until today.
I got my most important files backed up onto an external drive (I think I got them all, anyway), but I may hold off on the HDD transfer until I see that the new computer is functional without it. I've got a flash drive set up with that Windows 10 boot tool and will see how things go with that. Also scrounged up a spare monitor and keyboard for initial setup, and my mouse is wireless so it should be easily moved as needed.
Thermal paste is such a PITA. It always takes me like 3 tries to get it right. The pastes that claim to be the best, also seem to be the most viscous. So thick, that they're more clay than paste. I always try them, but end up getting the lowest CPU temps just using the cheap, thin, almost runny thermal paste. Never has the dot, line, or shape of paste made a difference. I always have to use 1 of those little plastic spreaders some pastes come with to coat the whole CPU. YMMV, but good luck. It is a fun process, despite the seemingly endless possibilities for catastrophic failure 8)
Post by: wierd on October 16, 2022, 11:41:18 am
Like dippity-do, 'a little dab will do ya.'
If the die area is small, a tiny dot that spreads under pressure of the heat sink retainer is all you need. 'Rice sized drop' is for a full-die contact area!
Post by: Schmaven on October 16, 2022, 02:49:14 pm
The usual problem with the premium paste is over application.
Like dippity-do, 'a little dab will do ya.'
If the die area is small, a tiny dot that spreads under pressure of the heat sink retainer is all you need. 'Rice sized drop' is for a full-die contact area!
I followed those exact instructions, and it just does not spread sufficiently for some reason that I have yet to identify. Maybe I just needed to let it run super hot for a while to help spread the paste? I only gave it like 10 min of alarming temperatures before getting concerned and shutting it down to clean it off and try again. Little dot, rice size, even triple rice size. I think the only other possibility is I need to tighten the cooling block connector screws more. I figured that if it was starting to strain under pressure, that further tightening would cause damage. I'll get a torque screw driver for my next attempt, and try the little dippity-dos again. For now, spreading it around with something like a little plastic spatula has my temps in a good range.
It is pretty cool to see the various splatter patterns the thermal paste makes on the CPU between attempts. I should take some pictures of it next time.
Post by: Sirus on October 16, 2022, 06:05:42 pm
I held off on excessive RGB because
Post by: LordBaal on October 17, 2022, 01:58:23 pm
Thats the best course. Clean install and then pass whatever you need. If you don't have a real need for the old Hdd for extra space you can simply store it as backup!
Post by: Sirus on October 18, 2022, 11:46:58 am
I was wrong about a couple of things, as it turns out: my old HDD was three TB, not two (thus explaining the need for a partition) and the new SSD is only one TB. So I still have four total but the allocation was off :P
The new SSD is also some newfangled format I had never heard of before (M.2) but it works and supposedly is very reliable.
The bad news is that many programs on the old HDD do not work properly, and uninstallers are iffy; the one I tried wiped my desktop but nothing else. Thank goodness all that was on the desktop at the time were a few shortcuts. So I need to figure out the best way to get rid of those programs without messing anything up.
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 18, 2022, 12:59:46 pm
Or you can just reinstall over them - the lack of function can very likely be because it is no longer installed.
Post by: Starver on October 18, 2022, 02:04:38 pm
The SSD install neither knows nor cares (for the most part!) that 'installations' exist on the old drive. It's just all data, of various kinds, so long as you don't try to invoke the runnability of any exectable item that now sits there. It's like if you copy any Program Files (or whatever the location) items on the SSD into the My Documents on it, where it would be (almost[1]) as disassociated, and the original (SSD) install would still work nicely enough.
Uninstallers generally tell the current OS (the one on the SSD) how to remove currently installed things (that were installed on the SSD), by doing such things as removing resource files, reverting registry changes, undoing associations, deleting links to things that no longer exist.
If the SSD's system has never had these changes made, I'd actually presume that trying to run the old drive's uninstallers would immediately go "Oh, can't do that... can't do that... can't even work out how to do that..." and either suggest that it's already removed or pretend that it got rid of everything or possible tell you point-blank that it's wrong. I'm not sure why it might have reset your desktop (well, I have some ideas, but it assumes that installers/uninstallers do things that I'm not sure why they'd every do in any sane situation... which probably perfectly describes some hack/work-around situation that some (un)installers have to use for reasons dictated mainly by MS's intentional obfuscations).
But I'd suggest you just don't even try to do that. Pick up savefiles, dabble into (human-)readable config files, etc, and use this information (perhaps!) to rejig the fresh installation (of any application, itself upon the fresh installation of OS). And your old-HDD "My Pictures"/etc data can be copied across to SDD "My Pictures" at leisure... or establish a new root directory structure on old-HDD to gradually sort and shuffle things as you work out what you actually want to keep.
Then you're free to just delete all the unwanted (even system-level) directories on old-HDD. With care that you're not deleting something new-OS now thinks is part of it. Everything under "\Program Files" (or "\Program Files (x86)") can probably eventually be removed once you've checked there's nothing you actually want out of each subdir. The (hidden) "\ProgramData" directory might have some gems of usefulness in it (or under "\Documents and Settings", I forget when Windows changed their nomenclature), but it's the one currently on C: that counts (which you don't even access by explicit C:/...whatever), not the one on D: or whatever letter it is. Delving into the "\Users" structure you'll probably find (eventually!) your masses of saved MP3s, JPGs, .DOCs, etc that you might have accumulated and previously expected to see under the Documents, Pictures or media-themed areas of your designated usespace.
Possibly if you haven't actually done anything drastic, your old drive could be removed from your new computer and replaced back into the old computer to allow it to boot up (and without stopping your new one from doing so) if you still need to find out how to access the data that you think you are missing. That's if you haven't donated even more parts between the system. At this stage, though, I'll admit that I'm purely guessing as to how much fiddling you did that I would not even have thought you would. If you don't have to reverse the process, and it still works well, then I'm not going to pursuade you to try anyway. ;)
Oh, and the caveat that I'm fairly good with the system layouts of any version of Windows version prior to 8[2]
[1] By dint of the correct drivers/etc still existing in the correct directories, you could probably still run some of the cross-copied executables, but once you uninstall the main-install (or, possibly, get an update) there'll probably be confusion by the copy-executable (not changed) finding that .dlls that it might previously have picked up now being missing/changed.
[2] I could tell you about the time that I used the DOS6.2 version of DEFRAG upon my brand new Win95 machine, because I still prefered the DOS interface. Except that DOS6.2 didn't have any concept of the LFN data and wiped, so ending up with directories such as "C:/PROGRA~1/MICROS~1/..." and "C:/PROGRA~1/MICROS~2/..." was the least of my problems... And forced me to learn the ins and outs of the system quite quickly ;)
Post by: Imic on November 20, 2022, 10:28:33 am
However, in trying to recover my photos I have gotten angrier at a computer than I ever have been in my entire life. I had no backup, or this would be exponentially easier.
Please. Please god help. There's a photo of me in a choker buried somewhere in this phone that will otherwise be lost forever.
Post by: wierd on November 22, 2022, 04:12:16 am
Steps:
1) Do full phone backup over ADB.
https://9to5google.com/2017/11/04/how-to-backup-restore-android-device-data-android-basics/
2) Convert the archive into .tar by stripping the header. (requires java)
https://github.com/nelenkov/android-backup-extractor
3) Dig through the full phone backup. (this backs up everything, including private cache folders used by apps, and even the apps themselves.)
It **MIGHT** be possible to run photorec on the phone internally, with an OTG dongle and USB stick connected, but that is beyond the scope of a normal user's exercise. Root would be required to get access to the phone's block devices.
Post by: Imic on November 22, 2022, 01:51:32 pm
Post by: wierd on November 22, 2022, 05:29:39 pm
If you dont mind packages made by consummate hackers, XDA has an automated installer.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/tool-windows-adb-fastboot-august-2022.3944288/
Alternatively, you can get the full SDK from google.
https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools
Post by: Imic on November 24, 2022, 04:58:56 am
Post by: LordBaal on December 10, 2022, 04:28:30 am
Post by: Schmaven on January 08, 2023, 12:19:01 am
Post by: Robot Parade Leader on January 22, 2023, 01:58:14 pm
3 computers in house. 2 have no issues. 1 desktop does. DNS does not resolve.
Intermittently, it sometimes does not get internet to load on firefox and microsoft explorer.
Things I've tried:
1.) Pinging Google: cmd window "ping google.com" and "ping www.google.com." Also, "Ping 8.8.8.8." (sometimes replies, sometimes not)
2.) Using Google's pubic DNS: control panel > Network and Internet > Network and sharing center > Wi Fi Properties > IPv4 8.8.8.8 alternate 8.8.4.4
3.) Calling the ISP and troubleshooting it with them.
ISP says it's possible I have a virus or something else with the computer itself, given that the other machines are OK, and this one is intermittent. He seems to be able to make it work after a while, but this might be the intermittency I was talking about.
All of this started about 2 weeks ago when the ISP had a service outage and it has been intermittent...
Any thoughts? Could it be a virus or something in settings? Unclear.
Thank you for your time and consideration. Appreciate any assistance.
Edit: Currently, Edge works and Firefox does not. I have no idea why it switches between that, nothing working and both working. Also sometimes youtube videos seem to load only gray squares rather than thumbnails.
Post by: eerr on January 22, 2023, 03:57:12 pm
you could try reinstalling windows.
i hope you have a good antivirus software install.
Post by: Starver on January 22, 2023, 04:45:56 pm
If whatever-it-is hasn't subverted even this command, to hide itself, you might find a handful of extra steps out through a different gateway, acting as a kind of proxy. It's not definitive, and a long-shot, but I don't know what things your (possibly script-led) ISP has tested, both from their end and via you at your end, so it's the easiest thing i can think of suggesting except making sure your AV is updated and working.
And I would also suggest Malwarebytes, which always had been a very good on-demand finder of awkward things. I don't suggest activating its real-time capabilities (I have an historic allergy against two realtime scanners, and your existing AV should be good for that) and doggedly sticking with the free version should be sufficient (I think there's a Free Premium Trial option, but you might want to avoid that in the first instance - I'm just generally wary of all the bells and whistles that all premium versions try to offer you, often doubling up on things or adding stuff you'll never need). And it'll show all kinds of things that aren't causing this issue (BHOs, etc) but an on-demandscan might show you quite plainly that some nasty trojan/redirector has rootkitted itself somewhere into the network stack, and easily solve it.
You really need someone who knows these things well to work directly on the machine, if it's a particular awkward issue, but this is probably where I'd start, going in blind.
(I would also consider an intermittent failure in the network card/whatever. If you have access to a LiveCD or bootable USB and it also is intermittent (and not just troublesome to use to connect in the first place) then it's that. But that, more than the above, probably needs an in-person techie to solve.)
Post by: Robot Parade Leader on January 22, 2023, 06:20:11 pm
So basically I downloaded malwarebytes and they did a scan. The only thing they found was a video game emulator on the desktop I've had on this thing forever. Master of Orion 2, of all things, which has never caused me any grief in several years. I said to ignore it this time. Sticking to free version ....
Even though that was the only thing it found, stuff seems to be loading properly again. (Possible this is just the intermittent nature of it).
So what I'm hearing so far is:
1.) Comparing tracert command readouts from my various machines and see if there is a difference?
2.) Consider taking the physical machine to an actual in person technician? I don't have a computer repair person I know. Is this something Best Buy can likely deal with or? Just look for a local business? Suggestions?
Much appreciate your consideration and suggestions. Thank you.
Post by: Starver on January 22, 2023, 11:03:57 pm
1) It's a quick and easy thing you can do as soon as you get access to each (troublesome plus any working) machine, which would only look significantly different if they're set up in differing ways[1]. Though I'd expect typical malware reasons to have been caught by the Malwarebytes, already, and you already did that, so less value in doing it now. (But you could still try it... just for your own piece of mind. I was hoping you'd understand the meaning of outputs for yourself, and I'm not really wanting you to copypaste any of it here, for various reasons.)
2) I have no idea what's the best direct support, for you. I was at one time working in a social enterprise that refurbished unwanted computers and did every kind of maintenance you can think of to anyone's equipment who came along to us (or, where necessary or more convenient overall, called us out to them) and I think we did a better job (more bespoke, less fudging, less likely to just assume the machine was backed up and restore it to factory settings) than the more commercial tech store with a support desk. But then maybe I was biased/only saw the newly(/additionally) messed up stuff on the rebound, where the owner had it come out worse. But one thing I can say is that a good techie (or even a half-decent one) sat at the keyboard plugged into your machine and staring at its monitor, will probably rule out much of the speculation as to why it is going wrong much quicker than the to-and-fro that might happen here[2], and I imagine the actual answer (and any solution) will be quicker, even including the time taken for you to vet around to lugging your machine to their place of business or (especially if necessary to discover that your network cable is frayed to the point of occasional failure, or you're trying to wifi through a particularly thick wall) some guy or gal has time to get to your address with plentiful tools of both mechanical and software variety in their bag, ready to spend a long afternoon testing everything they can think of to try to nail down what might even be a Heisenbug...
Not trying to discourage you from asking here, but it's a vague problem (which is not your fault) with still many possible answers. I'd prefer to be checking the machine out first-hand, given the malware situation seems not detectable by one of the best detectors.
(Was the game emulator marked as a PUP or Riskware? As well as false positives, it might also be overcautious, and most machines I've checked show many things that are just FYIs, but I take it you've noted the sole 'non-green' result item - an interesting result in itself. Of course, there are always possible things that are effectively zero-day exploits, not yet known to any tool, but I'm willing to believe that you're not (un)lucky enough to have one of them on your system. And a long-standing risk that only just recently became undeliable as well? Long shot, even if possible.)
But if you want to try a physical test, can you temporarily set up the problem machine in the vicinity of, and/or plugged into the usual network cable for, either of the other machines? Does it still have odd outages? If you can do the opposite move, does the moved 'good' machine start going wrong? Just to rule out the wifi/ethernet link being at fault. I don't know how awkward or possible that all is for your respective setups, so maybe you can't even easily/conveniently/practically check this. Or it's already right next to another, etc.
[1] e.g., your 'normal' machines indicate an 8-hop route through your ISP, featuring in the domain-resolved addresses at steps #3 and #4, landing on google (perhaps at a domain featuring 1e100.net?) by the last or even penultimate route-hop. But your rogue machine will perhaps have ten or more hops, with something really odd (perhaps a hacked Argentinian business's servers, or a random cloudpress subdomain as the identity). But it could even be abbreviated to your tracert check. And if it's just intermittent connectivity, without maliciousness, it might fail as it's testing the hops, just as intermittently, so a few tries might build up a picture.
[2] I saw your initial message within minutes of it being posted, but I wasn't sure if I should even reply. When I decided to do so, I took 50 minutes to edit out loads of initially stupid stuff, then found another reply had happened, but went ahead with the suggestions I had anyway. I'm writing this quicker, hence why it has aot of stupid stuff in it!
Post by: wierd on January 23, 2023, 11:02:54 am
Consider running HijackThis! on the sick computer.
https://github.com/dragokas/hijackthis
You are likely dealing with a 'winsock LSP' item; that's a loadable software package. For reasons only knowable by microsoft, the IP stack (winsock) allows loadable software provider libraries to be chained in. Malware makes heavy use of this, naturally.
Post by: delphonso on January 28, 2023, 06:40:44 pm
For the price and the use, this is perfectly acceptable, but it just got me thinking.
Post by: wierd on January 29, 2023, 06:19:07 am
Busy/Wait state can take the theoretical max IOPS down real hard.
Post by: Robot Parade Leader on January 29, 2023, 10:40:45 pm
I installed malwarebytes, and some other things mentioned/including ISP materials, etc.
From what I can see, the issue may have resolved. I don't seem to have any issues presently and I appreciate the assistance. Thank you.
Post by: hector13 on February 02, 2023, 08:17:32 pm
I have a tiny SSD with my Windows install on it that is incessantly running out of space.
I did a teensy bit of reading and cloning the drive to my D drive, which is much bigger though is a hybrid SSD, seems to be my cheapest option currently, with a partition or something.
I imagine some of you may know better however, so... advice I guess on steps to take and what I may need to take them.
Post by: Starver on February 02, 2023, 09:10:11 pm
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
...right, so now I realise you have mini-SSD (for want of better description) as C: and maxi-SSD (the hybrid, actually) as D:, and you want to use space on the maxi for C:..?
For that, I'd still dig up the same Live tool (personally, as the one I had in mind for the above) to rearrange with. Only I'd probably have to deal with Primary and Extended partitions (and perhaps do some juggling/in-situ-Cloning to ensure C: and D: on the maxi-SSD alone do the job of C: on the mini- plus D: on the whole of the maxi-).
I know how I'd do it, to be safest, but my attempt to describe the steps, whilst covering all the possible permutations, got... Convoluted. And if you're not using the same tools as I'm imaging then I'm in danger of confusing the issue horribly. So... What's youractual intended sequence of transfer/adjustment? And with what? I'm sure we can sanity-test your plan easy enough...
Post by: Starver on February 03, 2023, 06:19:03 am
Let's use the following notation: [ Physical Drive ] ( Logical Partition = DriveLetter: ) and { Extended Partition }, with " > " showing nesting/containing and …Free Space… for (temporarily) unassigned areas of a drive.
A Physical drive should have a Primary logical partition on it, to boot from. Actually, up to four, but DOS doesn't recognise more than one, so I would avoid it on a matter of principle, even though this adds some complexity[1], here.
Additionally, an Extended partition can hold further multiple (non-booting) Logical partitions.
All logical partitions that Windows (or DOS) understands as standard will be given "DriveLetter:"s, which is normally automatic (you can do limited reassigning within Windows) in order of C:, D:, etc as needed. And it would be extremely useful not to have what is effectively on what logical drive change, between booting down in one configuration and booting up as the new one. (Windows can be a mix of awkward and 'helpful', when it boots up and finds things changed.). I'll use the drive letters how they theoretically would get 'picked up', at each point, not how you will use them.
Logical partitions can also be ones not given drive-letters (see below for the type I might not be surprised to see), formatted differently from what Windows can (or wants to) give you access to. If you have ext3 or ext4 or anything like that when you start looking at partition details, rather than some 'FAT'-based name, then you probably should already know about them - if not, think back to whenever you or someone else decided to mess with Linux or something. I assume that no partition will bust the 'logical size limit' for whatever FAT-type it is. Only your C: will expand, and if that's a problem then you might have other issues to look at before adding the (usually available) FAT-type conversion into the process.
Currently, I understand your situation as:
[ Small SSD > (??) + ( System = C: ) ] + [ Hybrid SSD > (??) + ( Data = D: ) ]
...although there may or may not be a "( Backup/System/Recovery = n/a: )" sort of thing where I put the "(??)"s, depending upon what installed the original partitions and systems. If you have one on the Small SSD then it should probably be transfered alongside the C: onto the Hybrid. If there's one alongside the D: then maybe you need to shift-copy alongside D: unless you're sure you don't need it (remnant of older system install?)
But I'm going to do the following with just the Small SSD's initial "(??) +", just to cover that possibility...
N.B., I'm assuming that current D: is less than half full. If it's larger then it's not so 'simple' and you probably need extra storage space to backup/restore with.
Spoiler: ...the steps I'd take... (click to show/hide)
[ Hybrid SSD > (??) + ( System = C: ) + { ( Data = D: ) } ]
And if that's not what you're expecting then I've still not grasped your intentions, so ignore me entirely!
(Plus I still recommend various backup images, right at the start, but at modern disc sizes that can be difficult to organise. And if you can actually make backup images then you have another possible path to reshuffle things with.)
[1] The alternate method is of resizing primary D: down, flush to the RHS of the physical drive and creating space to the left sucficient to copy C: into as a new 'first primary', but... Can't guarantee the results so much. Modern versions of Windows might be happy with that, but it might totally mess things up instead. Hence my lengthy 'traditional' reshuffle version.
Post by: hector13 on February 03, 2023, 09:39:00 am
In saying that my D: drive has in total ~1TB but I think there’s only 300-odd GB of space left, whereas the C: drive is 120GB and is basically full, so I’m not sure the steps you suggest would work if I’m reading them correctly.
I might just have to buy a new SSD, clone the C: drive to that, and then format the old one for extra storage, or otherwise keep it as a backup, and just copy the important non-system files onto the D: drive so my wife doesn’t kill me.
Ah well, thanks for the help and walking me through things Starver, with the very limited information I gave you to begin with.
Post by: Starver on February 03, 2023, 10:28:40 am
If you can afford to, cloning Small-SSD to New-And-Larger-SSD as direct replacement is probably the 'simplest' upgrade/rearrangement. As per the first instructions I 'wrongly' suggested. The gods know that I'm often far more restricted to disc space (of any kind) than I'd prefer to be... Expanding things to fill most of that available[2]. BTDTGTT-s.
Given the D: being ⅔rds full, there's shuffling data[1]. Or possibly the repartioner, which can often do "resize+move" for you in one go, has "make Primary-logical into an Extended's-logical" option. Or perhaps you have a 200GB+ swapfile (or other actual junk) on your D: that you can free up and delete to make it <0.5TB used and... as per my second take on the problem.
Loads of potential options. Some of which won't work for you, but giving some pointers to them anyway. And
[1] Reduce primary-D: to minimum allowable, create the Extended>logical-E: drive as big as possible, move as much as you can into E:, go back and reduce down D: further and expand the area that Extended-E: uses into that space, ready for another fille-move. Rinse and repeat until everything (that you care about) is moved from D: is in E:... But watch out for hidden stuff, possibly keeping file-flags, may involve frequent reboots, consider using some form ofbl file-splitter utility on anything that road-blocks things by being individually bigger than the combined free space you can muster between both logical partitions..?
[2] Just yesterday, I transfered GBs of stuff to a USB stick I happily discovered to be half empty, to prevent a "Low disc space" condition on a computer's main drive. That computer having a few TB of external-HDD semipermanently connected as well as its internal HDD, but that being also stuffed to the gunnels and yet I needed to keep a few hundred GB free on that for something else planned. But I'm a bit of a packrat (https://xkcd.com/1360/)...
Post by: hector13 on February 03, 2023, 10:46:03 am
I would personally hope there isn’t 200GB of stuff I don’t regularly use though…
Also I just noticed your edit to your original reply with questions, sorry heh.
Post by: dragdeler on February 04, 2023, 05:54:51 am
I have been pretty satisfied, but whenever I needed usb3 drivers during install, I used to just hook up a sata drive containing the pertaining files. But I'm at this ultrabook and I can't / don't want to figure out how to get access to the HDD.
There was some issue that prevented me to create my boot medium under W7, so back then, I just grabbed the first w10 laptop at hand to create my install medium, that computer has since been given away.
So if I can, I would very much prefer not to create a new bootable stick, they'll make me register their software and give up an email adress for 30 days of service IIRC, any way to add files to a bootable stick?
Also, while we're at it: are there any ways to just clone the bootable drive onto a smaller stick? I have found one that's just the right size so I could free up the bigger one that serves me currently.
edit: In the end I just found a way inside the hardware, that was simpler.
Post by: Schmaven on February 16, 2023, 06:02:18 am
I suppose I could create a new account, and just be sure to remember my password next time, but I sort of like this account. I'm probably just being impatient. I'll give the reset email a few more clicks and a couple more days to arrive.
Post by: Starver on February 16, 2023, 06:54:36 am
It helping a great deal that you can still access here, I would say send a simultaneous forum PM and a direct email to Toady, each clearly referencing the other, asking for direct help. Wait (he might be busy!), perhaps answer questions he might have, and get it manually reset.
(I know that on this phone (well, tablet) I can wrangle access to view saved passwords on both of the two 'major browsers' I use. Though on an older one the 'default system browser', less featureful, seemed not to have this. Perhaps we can get you recovered, otherwise?)
Post by: Schmaven on February 16, 2023, 07:03:46 am
Post by: Starver on February 16, 2023, 08:46:29 am
I wouldn't want to distract Toady from his main work. I just have the forum itself remembering to keep me logged in; I always decline browser attempts to save passwords for me, which is probably why deleting cookies logged me off at the computer.(Sent PM. (Including 'funny' anecdote about remembering/not-remembering passwords. :P ) Not to dissuade anybody else from chiming in, just not wanting to pollute open forum with my own rather long-winded response. (And anecdotes!))
Post by: delphonso on February 16, 2023, 06:08:38 pm
I'll just toss in that I recommend people use Bitwarden or another password manager. Really no reason not to at this point (and you can even make folders with all those pesky forum logins that were only used once to ask a very specific question, I'm looking at you Manjaro forums.)
Post by: King Zultan on February 17, 2023, 03:43:04 am
Post by: Schmaven on February 17, 2023, 05:47:37 am
Post by: Starver on February 17, 2023, 09:12:49 am
And if you have a plaintext file with obvious passwords in it then you have the same issues (either losing it all, or it spilling).
I won't advise anyone to a specific approach, but perhaps combine security (safely away from others) and security (safe from loss by yourself) by using a couple of different approaches, other than pure memory, and anything 'plaintext' (.txt file, post-it note left deep in the back of a drawer, whatever) is further obfuscated (like reversed order of characters BUT NOW I'VE SAID THAT,VDO SOMETHING ELSE..!). And never spell out what each is for ("Yahoo mail: <1revethaW>; MyBank PLC: <2revetahW>; ...") but obfuscate that (e.g., but definitely think about doing it better for you, the first thing you actually bought online was cheese, so "MyBank PLC" is "Cheese"; You once had a long correspondance about rabbits, so Yahoo is "Bunnies"), assuming you can't think of better ways that work best with you.
Ditto think about how you choose your passwords. If you're a "pa$$worD1" type person, barely more than the minimum (say) eight characters, both cases, digits and 'special' characters, then "1Drow$$ap" might be a particularly bad mnemonic (from the POV of being not being detected). Maybe you could get away with the other way round (written and used switched), to thwart casual colleague/family-member intrigue, but you need to consider all the possibilities applicable to you (and what/who you're worried about). But if you faithfully wrote down your PM's 'suggested' 30-character Extended-ASCII mix of random characters, that it autogenerated, then you can probably set it down in almost any (non-vanilla) layout and you won't be giving much of a clue to anyone who doesn't know your method...
Remember to update things when you change passwords, and add new ones before you forget. And if you're inclined to want others to ever have emergency access (next of kin?) then perhaps arrange a method of conveying only those passwords you want them to have that you can convey the details of the finding of from a hospital bed or (in extremis) as a "dead man's handle" delivery or something where things are worse than that (there are numerous ways to accomplish this).
Really, think about what works for you. I'll tell you now that I'm not actually as thorough as all that myself. But I've thought a lot about it anyway, from a professional (as well as philosophical) perspective. I'm probably more lax about some things than I ought to be, with potential for unintended third-parties, and in others I'm far more 'one physical failure from oblivion' than I should be - insofar as various online presences are concerned.
Post by: Funk on March 08, 2023, 03:43:22 pm
So im 2 reinstalls in (no you can't go from pro to home) and back to the beat the computer over the head until work like xp time.
Why are hlp files now locked? why are there so many adds and shit like weather, i whant the weather i look out the dam window >:(
Post by: Funk on March 08, 2023, 08:06:25 pm
What even is the point of the "trusted installer" it my compioure if i make a mess it my problem.
I admit that i like'd XP's set up better, it shut up and did as i told it, no haveing to chabge file permistionsd and install old xp era file in order to open a .hlp file there.
Post by: Starver on March 08, 2023, 08:25:09 pm
General public advice, actually, so I'll keep it in-thread. And, again, it's honest advice that I stil ldon't often follow myself.
[1] It might be too late to really diagnose why user verification wasn't working, I think, but might have been entirely due to PEBCAK error. Which a sleep/reset command (at the wetware level) could possibly have been sufficient.
Post by: Funk on March 09, 2023, 01:03:13 am
There nothing like some one over your shoulder going "Wipe the hard drive! Why have you got an F an a G drive! why is there windows 7 on the F drive! What is that partition!" to stress you out.
I wasn't me not typeing in the password right, i might be a crap speller an a butter fingers but i can copy a freshly reset password from lap top to desk top.
But it's fixed now, 2 reinstalls later, well as fixed as you can get with haveing to reinstall an configure alot of stuff.
Post by: JoshuaFH on March 09, 2023, 09:16:00 am
Post by: Schmaven on March 09, 2023, 11:43:11 am
Post by: Starver on March 09, 2023, 11:58:41 am
Not quite sure that's what you have ("X.Y" instead of "XY" or maybe "X Y"?), but it's close, so might just be the version/brand of OSK you're using and what "helpful" features it has in-built.
(I've long since removed the auto-suggestion bar from my keyboard, where slightly missing the top row of digits was always prone to getting some random word from its current choice of three that it thought I might be interested in. There are other changes I've made, and others I'd like to (such as the above), but there doesn't seem to be any of the many configuration settings that would correct things. Another example is that, unless it specifically detects that I'm in a URL field[1], it has the little-used "\" as long-press punctuation, but I have to go via the "?123" button (for digits (again!) and the first level of extended punctuation) to get access to the rather more used "/"? No matter which broad set of keyboard layouts (within reason) I choose. Yeah, probably some logic behind it, but I don't think smartphone interface designers are DOS-heads, where C:\ is a common need.)
[1] If I am, it puts "/" into the spot reserved for the ",", otherwise, as if I never really need a comma in a URI. And adds ".org", ".com" etc as long-press options for ".", amongst other things. ;)
Post by: Starver on March 17, 2023, 08:18:43 am
There was an update, the other day, and since then grouped tabs aren't accessible. The tab list I use has "single pages" and also tabs that are groups. (Useful to keep same-site/similar-subject pages together in, given that it often dynamically reorders the top-level tab-list in ways I've never understood. Perhaps I overuse the feature, but it's there so.)
If I select a singular tab, I get that page. If I choose a group I should then get a choice of which group-member, but it errors out and quits. Is it still working for anyone else? If not then I either await a further debug update or just "flatten" my tabs out by guessing what reference pages I've got (that I don't think might be no longer current) and opening them singly, anew. (And do the latter anyway for those I need to access now-ish, obviously.)
But it might be just me. (Firefox is still Ok, but then it doesn't have grouped tabs - or I haven't yet found it and taken advantage of, anyway. ;) ) So any positive or negative correlation would be useful, just so I know where I might be..
Post by: delphonso on March 17, 2023, 08:48:48 am
Have you ensured that Grouping is enabled? Quite possibly it was flipped off during the update.
Post by: Starver on March 17, 2023, 09:42:43 am
Grumble over... Now I shall indeed dive further in. Yes, they've done this sort of thing before. But surely I'm not the only one falling foul of it
Edit: yeah, chrome://flags has the grouping things I expect to be flagged, for this, to still be flagged. And I've worked out how the Group Tabs works (messy, unintuitive) and it also creates a crashing-group as per pre-existing or in-tab-created groupings. But I've got a whole lot more of chrome://chrome-urls to work through to see if there aint something else that would hold what might be under chrome://settings on a desktop... They don't make it easy for you!
[1] Doubtless there is logic in accessing the settings, but the last time I went into Chome to that degree I vastly disagreed with their various UX/UD choices. Typical of Google, with my philosophy and theirs often being so disjointed. But for some things I seem to make myself a slave to them anyway, in some ways.
Post by: Starver on March 17, 2023, 11:00:58 am
And I've worked out how the Group Tabs works (messy, unintuitive)Follow-up on this point only (it's not the problem I'm trying to solve, of course). Now what was "Group tabs" and eventually let me drag tabs over each other to group[1] says "Select tabs". It has toggled over, and now any dragging groups things.
And, like when it stuck on "[...I am currently Selecting tabs, press this if you want to] Group tabs", it refuses to change away from "[...I am currently Grouping tabs, press this if you want to] Select tabs". Some irresponsive bug or other. Can't tell you if it's something that always/long enough was broken, as I never invoked it before. But there you go.
Still looking for a reverse operation (select a group, somehow drag items back out of it) as well as other in-roads into the original issue. But as even the reporting feature of Chrome doesn't work as I'd like it to, you're getting my current load of moaning. Sorry!
[1] Stupid way, should be more like tap-and-hold to select, then say Group them/whatever, like file-manager multi-item manipulation in Android)
Post by: Schmaven on April 05, 2023, 05:02:33 pm
Still looking for a reverse operation (select a group, somehow drag items back out of it) as well as other in-roads into the original issue.
I just stumbled across this feature recently by accident. Using the chrome app, a tap+hold on a link will bring up a menu, and I can open that link in a new tab in the group, or an incognito tab among other options. If I select "Open in new tab in group" it then appears as 1 of the icons along the bottom of the screen, along with the + to create a new new tab in the group from scratch. The ^ on the left brings up a full screen view of all the tabs in the current tab group (that bottom bar only seems to appear when scrolling up, not sure if there's another way to access it). From the tab group view, I can tap+hold any of the tabs in that tab group and then an option at the bottom appears to "Remove from group", which does not close the tab, but adds it to it's own unique tab on the higher level of tabs above (a better way to describe those parent tabs eludes me).
From the main chrome parent tab view, I can tap+hold any tab or even group of tabs, and drag them into another tab (or group of tabs) to merge them into their unique subgroup again.
I literally just stumbled across this today, so I'm not that familiar with how it works, but the process of creating tabs, grouping & ungrouping tabs together, all work fine for me. I previously just kept my tabs as single tabs, and just a handful of them, because I always fear catastrophic electronics failure, and it's easier (emotionally) to lose a small amount of data than a large amount. Though the convenience of compiling web pages of information (and now collections of pages, due to the option to group tabs together!) might just get me to risk their loss to have more at my fingertips. But I digress.
Post by: Starver on April 05, 2023, 06:19:31 pm
(And the resulting "Open app again" / "Close app" / ”Send feedback" crash-dialogue closes itself before I even get a chance to blink, never mind decide if I want to do any of them. Of course, all three options are useless, past experience has taught me... Especially trying to ellicit any useful support response through Feedback. Hence explaining it here.)
But as I'm working round it (and all the other niggles[3]), I'd probably bemoan the ways it gets fixed (https://xkcd.com/1172/), if that ever happens... 8)
[1] It was a very useful 2-branched organising method.
[2] I never tried a fullscreen view of tabs-in-group, just sidescolled the group-bar. Or open the fullscreen "single tabsvand tabgroups" top-end.
[3] The "viewing simplified web-page" pop-over is rather annoying, when it decides it wants to do so. Only appears when scrolled to the top of a page, disappears if you scroll down, but if the bit of the page you want (to click, maybe, it being a a prime bit of web-page real-estate for useful administrative links on various sites, like Wikis) is hidden by it, then scrolling the page down gets rid of the pop-over, but now the wanted bit of page is not in the scrollable view-window either. I can only imagine that this isn't the kind of issue noticed (or suffered) by most people, else surely there'd be concerted effort to fix it. So, anyway, that's just one of hundreds of such niggles that I put up with, as an example. You won't want me to catalogue them all!
Post by: Schmaven on April 05, 2023, 08:26:15 pm
The "viewing simplified web-page" pop-over is rather annoying, when it decides it wants to do so. Only appears when scrolled to the top of a page, disappears if you scroll down, but if the bit of the page you want (to click, maybe, it being a a prime bit of web-page real-estate for useful administrative links on various sites, like Wikis) is hidden by it, then scrolling the page down gets rid of the pop-over, but now the wanted bit of page is not in the scrollable view-window either.
That has frustrated me many times in particular on the DFWiki. It perfectly blocks the Wikis searchbar for me. I was happy to discover that (at least for the DFWiki pages) I am able to make it go away by tap-swiping it up immediately as it appears. Regrettably, before I figured that out, I have lost an embarassing amount of time just waiting for it to disappear on its own as I contemplated whether or not I really did want to search for whatever it was. If I could hold down spacebar or something and burn that notification out of existence, I would. It serves no use for me, and in all likelihood never will.
Post by: Schmaven on April 20, 2023, 09:43:59 pm
A browser plugin might solve the webpage side of it, but I'd probably have to switch to linux and learn how to code the OS for the settings aspect.
I suppose it's a small price to pay for such conveniences, and all things considered, the conveniences of the internet age are quite incredible compared to any other point in human history. I should probably just pause during those buffering moments and be thankful for what I have.
Post by: AzyWng on April 29, 2023, 09:39:06 pm
I've managed to install Xubuntu and get a few things running, but I've run into some problems and would like some help.
One: I'm trying to get Solaar to configure my mouse's DPI, but I keep getting the "did not have permission to open it" message even after disconnecting and reconnecting my mouse.
Two: I keep having to mount my second hard drive every time I boot up the computer. is there a way I can get it to mount automatically?
Three: My games aren't actually running when I try to launch them. I've tried Steam and Lutris on games other people have managed to get running on Linux. When I tried to open Shadows of Doubt, for instance, both Lutris and Steam behaved as though the game had started running (the Play button became a Stop button), but then stopped, and the actual game window never appeared. I have managed to get Assault Android Cactus going, but haven't tried with other games yet.
Four: My computer is one of those gaming laptops that has one integrated graphics card and one non-integrated graphics card that's much more powerful. How do I get the computer to use the non-integrated graphics card?
Post by: delphonso on April 30, 2023, 02:01:30 am
1. Sounds like a permissions problem with the software - maybe you need to chmod or just need to sudo. The programs documentation should have something there for you.
2. This is pretty odd behavior as most distros would do that automatically. Haven't messed with Xubuntu myself, but I assume whatever disk manager they have there will have some options to "mount on startup". Otherwise, it's a little process you can find here (https://discovery.endeavouros.com/storage-and-partitions/how-to-permanently-mount-external-internal-drives-in-linux/2022/02/).
3. I get this with games that aren't trying to run Steam's proton layer. The tutorials on this are frequent, but here's one (https://www.howtogeek.com/738967/how-to-use-steams-proton-to-play-windows-games-on-linux/) that has basically the same info as all the others. Though it could be related to the graphics card thing.
4. Not my area of expertise, but hopefully this (https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/116598/how-to-select-which-graphics-card-to-use) can help. Someone else will likely know better.
A few tips to get started in Linux -
learn to use 'man', which is the built-in manual for terminal commands. man chmod, for instance, will give you some information on what chmod does. A lot of it is pretty technical, so it can take some getting used to.
Also, as you probably already know, basically anything in-terminal that works on Xubuntu will work for any of the Debian-based distros, so the information on their forums/tutorials can be useful. There's no need to seek out Xubuntu specific solutions unless it's something to do with the graphical interface (most of the time)
Post by: King Zultan on April 30, 2023, 03:25:33 am
After hearing about Windows 11 and how, among other things, it comes with Tiktok and Instagram for... some... reason...Why would they do that, it's almost as if they want people to switch to Linux.
Post by: Lord Shonus on April 30, 2023, 03:34:00 am
Post by: Starver on April 30, 2023, 06:27:19 am
...yeah, not sure this helps anybody, but this greater-than-average incoherent rambling seems to want to tumble out of me. It's a worldview, highly personalised with me-specific experiences driving it. But it might amuse some people, if I'm not vastly overselling the screed.
Post by: AzyWng on April 30, 2023, 09:15:19 am
Spoiler: Terminal Message (click to show/hide)
Post by: AzyWng on April 30, 2023, 03:24:02 pm
And this resulted in a i2c timeout error when I tried to reboot the computer.
I’m… beginning to get a little irritated.
Post by: delphonso on April 30, 2023, 05:41:30 pm
Post by: wierd on May 01, 2023, 12:58:14 pm
Post by: Starver on May 05, 2023, 10:02:28 am
Long-hold on a link still gives "Open in new tab in group" option (or whatever the exact words, as well as the "Open in new tab"), but this just adds a new top-level tab. Maybe I just need to reinstate some chome:settings thing (either to redisplay each group as was, just allow new groupings to form or perhaps to have groupings back (past and/or future) exactly as 'broken' as before), but right now I'll just content myself to browse through the suddenly expanded 63ish 'top level' singlular tabs and work out what's now duplicate or actually unnecessary/historic.
...just thought it'd interest some people to know. ;)
Spoiler: Update edit, for those who might be passing. Warning: Long! (click to show/hide)
Post by: Funk on May 22, 2023, 06:42:35 pm
Hours of work mapping how every one is related by marriage, murder and 90's one night stands is gone.
Spoiler: AKA this thing. spoilers. (click to show/hide)
Post by: hector13 on May 22, 2023, 09:28:21 pm
why?
Post by: King Zultan on May 23, 2023, 12:51:03 am
Also what's in the spoiler because the image isn't showing for me.
Post by: Funk on May 23, 2023, 02:16:22 am
…
why?
Why did you chart Doctor Who?Why not?
It's a challenge and a way to make sense of what's going on.
Also what's in the spoiler because the image isn't showing for me.Its a huge chart diagram of the doctor relationships, i mean huge and deep as in the 8th doctors vampire barber.
Try opening it directly as an image, https://i.imgur.com/oPLK32U.png
Post by: King Zultan on May 23, 2023, 03:06:33 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on May 23, 2023, 04:34:11 am
Lucid chart is a crap show, my doctor who chart is gone.
Hours of work mapping how every one is related by marriage, murder and 90's one night stands is gone.Spoiler: AKA this thing. spoilers. (click to show/hide)
For something like this, and I'm being entirely serious, programs like Trizbort that were made for mapping text adventures would probably work well, as long as you don't mind the lack of graphics.
Post by: TD1 on May 23, 2023, 09:28:58 am
Post by: Funk on May 23, 2023, 06:03:16 pm
For something like this, and I'm being entirely serious, programs like Trizbort that were made for mapping text adventures would probably work well, as long as you don't mind the lack of graphics.
It looking pretty was the appeal of doing it, but i might use that if i remake it.
Post by: Starver on May 24, 2023, 05:47:28 am
But it's definitely hard to intuitively organise. I note the many compromises you already had, and a flat image (and a way to concoct it, from meta-data?) isn't going to do it justice. I saw an "Extended VR(X?)ML" thing, once, that did something with both content and context (and, presumably, style) that might have helped. Even though it only gave three dimensions, where perhaps for Who you'd need more than that[3]. Not sure if it needed a separate plugin (or an embedded .js canvas-using method) to operate, these days. Or where you'd find it, but maybe it's something worth searching for?
[1] Unrelated to this, but because (so long as you can keep it from tangling on first grab, untying and retying when you need to pass one bit 'through' another during the setup) you can even do a 'shortest path' test that's not subject to the computational limitations of Travelling Salesman-type problems. O(1), I suppose!
[2] Until mentioned by others, I hadn't seen River/Jack at all, despite scrolling it all round, then once someone prompted me to go back I spotted them (duplicated, for context obviously). Couldn't see Jackson Lake anywhere (ok, just one 'green line' relationship, which maybe Astrid should earn too), must have missed the Valyard's spot (wherever that should be placed, along with the Hidden Doctor and all the other previously hidden lineage), various Leela links/progressions and I must only presume that the various linkable Oswalds are in some bit of the image I haven't read properly. ...that was just first thoughts, though. Doesn't help your computer problem, either.
[3] Well, faux-dimensions by alternate colour-schemes, shading, shape, etc, can add additional meta-depth to however many dimensions you can exploit more freely.
Post by: Starver on May 25, 2023, 08:37:02 pm
For some bits, I have what would basically be (in line-segments) <path d="M X1 Y1 X2 Y2 X3 Y3" /> (all absolute positions, with actual numeric values instead of '[X|Y][1|2|3]'... move to a 'P1' of "X1 Y1" and then implicitly draw the line to P2 and then another onward to P3).
If the three points are calculated as being near-enough colinear[1], then it's good enough to d="M X1 Y1 X3 Y3", but otherwise I'd rather use an arc of the circle that passes through the three Ps. Right now I'm using the sequence d="M X1 Y1 A r r 0 0 0 X3 Y3" ('A' is the Arc command, rx==ry so two 'r's, then zero rotation necessary, short-arc (second 0) and, because of the way it's sorted I can currently guarantee that it's the same handedness of solution (third 0) on the way to the end coordinates). With the expectation that I can d="M X1 Y1 A r r 0 0 0 X2 Y2" (or use as part of a longer path) just to pen the exact same path/boundary but only to the midpoint, or "... X3 Y3 A r r 0 0 1 X2 Y2 ..." on the differently partial 'reverse' path, and yet follow the same P1->P3 curve.
But I'm getting inconsistent responses to the 'r's I'm giving.
I've tried working it out[3], but for self-similar triples (translated/rotated, but otherwise congruous) I'm finding I have to manually tune the value completely differently to what I think my calculus suggests until it renders aesthetically and visually most correct-looking. So it's awkward. Or I've messed something up/misunderstood the syntax.
I perhaps could use "... X1 Y1 Q XC YC X3 Y3 ..." for a single-controlpoint bezier curve, but XC YC would need to be an away-from the circle-centre adjustment of the X2 Y2 (often close-enough the curve midpoint to not worry too much about skew) by some factor or function of the true radius so that the line passes over P2, or within the line-width of it. And "... X1 Y1 Q XC YC X2 Y2 ..." / "... X3 Y3 Q XC YC X2 Y2 ..." would need entirely new (X|Y)Cs derived from calculated points P1.5 and P2.5. Even if the handedness of the curve would still then be self-evident without having to flip the given flag if reversing the sequence. Additionally, I could just build up a poly-bezier (shortcut with successive "T" path instruction(s)) to get P1->2->3 matching any other Pn->m that should coincide it or part of it.
Or maybe use the double-controlpoint bezier ("C" code, with or without its "S"-continuation). But I can even less work out how to derive all the (X|Y)C(1|2)s that would give a sufficiently circlelike path from that approach.
So... Does anyone have the same fetish as me for (semi-)handcrafting SVG, and perhaps know of a trick I may have missed/messed up along the way? I'm clearly more used to non-curving segments, as you can tell, or yer actual full circles dotted around, filled or in outline. 8)
[1] I'm arctanning the angles of each segment, and if the values of the two differs less than a convenient value (currently 0.1, of the radian-computation; I may well adjust that threshold[2], but it currently nicely delineates the cluster of states) then it's straight-enough for me!
[2] It's less problematic than (for example) working out the y=mx+c constants and comparing the 'm's, given the non-linearity of relative magnitude vs relative combined orientation and tendency to go to undefinable/infinite for vertical lines. And, though I don't have acute angles (doubling back), I can trap that if necessary.
[3] Effectively doing the divider/straight-edge method. Midpointing P1->2 and P2->3, sending off perpendiculars, calculating the crossing coordinate that'd be the circle centre PC and using the magnitude of |P[1..3]-PC| as what I understand would be the value of rx and ry (which I've checked isn't being taken as an absolute coordinate).
Post by: McTraveller on May 28, 2023, 08:41:52 pm
Post by: Starver on May 29, 2023, 03:55:29 am
Dot (and components of cross) products are powerful tools, and much faster than arctan.Probably. I did the arctan test as a starter, before I even decided whether I'd go down the route of determinants (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line%E2%80%93line_intersection#Given_two_points_on_each_line) or gradients (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line%E2%80%93line_intersection#Given_two_line_equations), for example, and all I knew is that I'd prefer the 'straight' threshold to be similar whether it was a nearly-vertical line compared to a vertical one or a nearly horizontal line compared to a horizontal one. And that would cause issues in the ((x1-x2)(y3-y4))-((y1-y2)(x3-x4)) or (m1-m2) calculation (if not any m=dx/dy precursor, when I actually have infinite slope). So I just cast this straight to angle (a friendly arctan2(dx,dy) function that means I don't have to worry about catching the sign issues (or potential zero) in the dx/dy myself. It's not a real-time thing, just a handy filter that I don't have to worry about 'uncrossing some part of the cross product' for, accidentally, when push comes to shove.
(Then I did have to worry about four x and four y variables properly used. Or rather the original three pairs for the two joined lines, two pairs for the (trivially calculated) midpoints, and two more for the cast-off perpendiculars (midpoint+<original yDiff,-original xDiff> ...probably the second most trivial bit to it all) before pushing these two latters into the intersection-finder, as I then fully went with the determinant method when I was working out what I wanted to work out. But only for any coordinate onward pair that already passed my trig test of not being sufficiently non-colineyC .)
But what I was really looking for was a "x1 y1 <centredefinedarc> xC yC x2 y2" sort of SVG solution to replace the current "A"-command where it needed radius (which seems to work inconsistently) and explicit flags to choose which of four arcs.
...so the question I gave currently has no answer, and I shouldn't have asked it. Or the answer I instead had already ended up using was non-optimal in other ways, but at least it clarified things in my mind to set it down. Even if nobody magically discovers that something exactly like what I want was right there all along (before I've moved onto my next unrelated thing to fiddle with and started to newly bore anyone about who'll be forced to hear my newest ramblings).
Post by: McTraveller on May 29, 2023, 04:53:15 pm
If I'm understanding it correctly, that is...
Spoiler: regarding dots vs arctan (click to show/hide)
Post by: Starver on May 29, 2023, 07:55:22 pm
(In all humility, though might have been kindest to save even McT my combined drivel.)
Post by: Schmaven on May 29, 2023, 09:49:40 pm
Post by: Starver on May 30, 2023, 07:21:52 am
I'm curious if you had plans to also implement a character string variable at points A & C, and animate the resultant curve plots to a network of connected variables that might be able to be arbitrarily repositioned and connected with mouse input.In short, no. I've been a good little programmer and added distinct "id="s to virtually every element, of course, but mostly as a handy descriptive (if somewhat cryptic/abbrvted!) internal label. No intention of recalculating anything dynamically once projected onto the final 'canvas'. What I get, at the end, is just the final static product that satisfies a thought experiment and surely needs no additional changes to wow the world.
Spoiler: That's if it gets that far. (click to show/hide)
Which is not to say that I might not show (not tell) something actually worthwhile to you all, eventually. Probably not this, though, which I appreciate is frustrating unless you like the theoretical elements more.
Post by: McTraveller on May 30, 2023, 11:04:24 am
Post by: Starver on May 30, 2023, 12:35:37 pm
With no "yep, here's the blatently obvious thing you missed" so soon, I rather put that bit on the back burner over the weekend/dealt with differently from how I thought I might, and I'm appreciative of your answers but it sort of became a different type of discussion from that I originally thought of (or I might have sought out the mathematics thread, instead).
In the cold light of day, I'm also very conscious of this not being a good spectator sport. It might whoosh=>[head] for many, because I'm no good at keeping a question (or answer!) short and sweet. Apols to all those affected.
Post by: McTraveller on May 31, 2023, 07:30:05 pm
Post by: Funk on June 29, 2023, 09:35:50 pm
Post by: Starver on June 29, 2023, 10:11:49 pm
My 'favourite' is the (usually, and certainly no less than) three tiles in the grid that matches the desired description. If you're asked for Tractors and you've selected the actual two tractors, you do have to decide whether to also click the non-Tractor (e.g. a road-grader) that the system clearly thinks you should think is also a tractor.
The one with individual images where clicked things get replaced by further tiles (which may or may not also be worthy of clicking) quickly devolve into keeping an eye on the tile you just tapped and seeing if you need to tap it again, what with those that never were then not being made to change.
But Traffic Lights (or perhaps "Motorcyles" - which are often mopeds, really) in a full-CAPTCHA scene as a multi-tile single source image can be more troublesome, IME.
(I do occasionally get an "I am not a robot" tickbox on a Google Search, apparently my IP (i.e via my ISP's chosen shared gateway, I presume) has been over-used for suspicious searches. But never more complicated than that, plus whatever residual meta-activity data it harvests to try and determine I'm a person browsing.)
Post by: Funk on June 29, 2023, 10:46:58 pm
An the is that an X? with a photo taken by the crappiest 240p mobile from an odd angle.
I really get the idea that where mostly training ai to deal with traffic now, gone are the days where we scanned old books.
Post by: Schmaven on July 08, 2023, 03:03:07 pm
I had to click through about a dozen or so grids of select all squares with a ___ only for it to tell me I failed. I tried a second time and failed again. So I gave up and just guessed a bunch of login possibilities until 1 worked.
If I ever truly forget a password, I think I'm going to be permanently locked out the way that system works...
Post by: LordBaal on July 09, 2023, 06:31:19 am
Post by: Lord Shonus on July 09, 2023, 06:47:40 am
I just ran into this "prove you're not a robot stuff", and it is out of control.
I had to click through about a dozen or so grids of select all squares with a ___ only for it to tell me I failed. I tried a second time and failed again. So I gave up and just guessed a bunch of login possibilities until 1 worked.
If I ever truly forget a password, I think I'm going to be permanently locked out the way that system works...
00110000 00110111 00110001 00100000 00110001 00110000 00110101 00100000 00110001 00110001 00110110 00100000 00110000 00110011 00110010 00100000 00110000 00110111 00110001 00100000 00110001 00110001 00110111 00100000 00110001 00110000 00110000
Post by: Schmaven on July 09, 2023, 11:29:30 pm
I just ran into this "prove you're not a robot stuff", and it is out of control.
I had to click through about a dozen or so grids of select all squares with a ___ only for it to tell me I failed. I tried a second time and failed again. So I gave up and just guessed a bunch of login possibilities until 1 worked.
If I ever truly forget a password, I think I'm going to be permanently locked out the way that system works...
00110000 00110111 00110001 00100000 00110001 00110000 00110101 00100000 00110001 00110001 00110110 00100000 00110000 00110011 00110010 00100000 00110000 00110111 00110001 00100000 00110001 00110001 00110111 00100000 00110001 00110000 00110000
Does not compute
Post by: King Zultan on July 10, 2023, 03:40:59 am
Post by: AzyWng on July 20, 2023, 11:58:41 pm
What else should I try next? Or is there some other information I should provide first?
Edit: I know one of the things being updated was drivers for my nvidia graphics card, so thst might be the source of the issue. Problem is I don’t quite know how to revert to a version of the drivers that works for me.
Post by: Starver on July 21, 2023, 12:52:55 am
(Although I do think it's a good chance to be graphics drivers, or something quite similar, which is also not my speciality beyond my own infrequent need to find my own particular version of this answer. But I'd expect something important to be revealed if it's failing in any halfway sane manner.)
Post by: delphonso on July 21, 2023, 01:13:29 am
Post by: wierd on July 21, 2023, 04:04:25 am
The nature of the error is important. If you can get a shell, we might be able to fix your issue.
I'd be willing to bet that this is an 'nvidia pushed an updated driver' issue
Post by: AzyWng on July 21, 2023, 05:31:40 am
Edit: looking at the photos I took, when I used the “startxfce4” command, I got a fatal server error: “Server is already active for display 0”. If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock and start again.”
EDIT 2: This morning I ran ‘sudo apt update’ and ‘sudo apt upgrade’, which caused the new nvidia driver to be installed (535, I was previously using 530). I’ve tried using ‘startx’. Last time I did this, it appeared to freeze, but maybe I just need to wait long enough?
Post by: wierd on July 21, 2023, 08:02:26 am
(also, a "Shell" is the command line. There are many different command interpreters that can be used with linux, and so they are all generalized as "A shell". The default one for xubuntu is bash.)
Try this:
sudo rm /.tmp/.X0.lock
If possible, get me the highlight reel from
/var/log/Xorg.0.log
as well. If X crashed, this will tell me why.
Anything starting with "EE" in front of the line is meaningful.
For now, just delete the lock file and see if that solves your problem.
Post by: AzyWng on July 21, 2023, 08:20:27 am
Tried to use ‘startxfce4’ instead, but got the “server already running” issue, and a message prompting me to remove ‘/tmp/.X0-lock’ and start again.
I removed the file with ‘sudo rm’, but when trying to use ‘startxfce4’ again, I got an error saying “_XSERVTransSocketUNIXCreateListener: …SocketCreateListener() failed
_XSERVTransMakeAllCOTSServerListeners: server already running
Cannot establish any listening sockets - Make sure an X server isn’t already running”.
Then I got a message saying “Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 keyxinit: giving up
xinit: unable to connect to X server: resource temporarily unavailable
xinit: server error”
I’m also prompted to check the log file at “home/arthur/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log”, though idk how to view log files in the shell.
Post by: wierd on July 21, 2023, 08:21:42 am
EDIT 2: This morning I ran ‘sudo apt update’ and ‘sudo apt upgrade’, which caused the new nvidia driver to be installed (535, I was previously using 530). I’ve tried using ‘startx’. Last time I did this, it appeared to freeze, but maybe I just need to wait long enough?
Yup. Horked up nvidia drivers. Figures.
You should simply uninstall all the nvidia drivers, and (temporarily) install nouveau
eg:
(and should probably kill the x server first)
sudo killall -9 Xorg
apt-get remove nvidia*
apt-get install nouveau
This will make the machine boot to a gui, but wont have the fastest GPU acceleration. You can then use the "hardware Drivers" applet to reinstall the nvidia drivers CORRECTLY.
EDIT:
To view the log file, use nano.
eg,
nano /var/log/Xorg.0.log
Post by: AzyWng on July 21, 2023, 08:27:23 am
Post by: wierd on July 21, 2023, 08:29:33 am
ok
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
Post by: AzyWng on July 21, 2023, 08:32:11 am
Also got a list of packages automatically installed and no longer required.
Post by: wierd on July 21, 2023, 08:33:02 am
you can trigger a reboot on the command line with:
sudo reboot now
Post by: AzyWng on July 21, 2023, 08:49:04 am
Removed the nvidia drivers and rebooted again.
Now I’m back on the desktop environment, using the noveau driver.
I’m not sure what can be done about the nvidia driver, but at least I’ve got my desktop back.
EDIT: I happen to have a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, and the drivers being listed include:
535-server-open
450-server
535-server
535
525-server
418-server
525-open
535-open
470-server
525
470
noveau (which I'm currently using).
I'm not sure which one I should go to the trouble of getting after all that stress over the previous install not working for me.
Post by: wierd on July 21, 2023, 09:28:34 am
sudo apt-get remove --purge '^nvidia-.*'
rebooting
THEN using the hardware drivers applet.
Post by: AzyWng on July 21, 2023, 09:52:52 am
32.087458] ACPI Error: No handler for Region [VRTC] (000000000a149126) [SystemCMOS] (20220331/evregion-180)
32.087539] ACPI Error: Region SystemCHOS (ID-5) has no handler (20220381/exfidio-261)
32.087617] ACPI Error: Aborting method \
_SB.PCIO.LPCB.EC._Q9A due to previous error (AE _NOT_EXIST) (20220331/psparse-529)
Purged and then rebooted, so now I’m back on nouveau again.
And now I don’t know which nvidia driver I should install, if any.
Post by: Starver on July 21, 2023, 10:12:26 am
"[...] remove /tmp/.X0-lock and start again.”
“cannot remove ‘/.tmp/.X0.lock’: no such file or directory”....perhaps the difference between
/tmp/.X0-lock
and
/.tmp/.X0.lock
...could just be a transcribing error on here, but if you need to know more about what you're prodding and poking here then do ask. You've got some good knowledgable guys here.
And though you were told to use nano to read a logfile, perhaps get to know about one or other of more, most or less commands (essentially the same, from your perspective, despite perhaps it looking like you have opposits there). You can either pipe another unpaginated output (e.g. cat filename.ext | more, or cat filename.ext | less, which will paginate it and let you scan it in ways that the respective man-pages should explain) or give whichever command the filename directly (e.g. less filename.ext, or the rest) and it'll work on that rather than the piped stream of output from something else. Depends what you want to manually move through, and perhaps more useful piped from a grep command, if you know how to do the appropriate grep-Fu on something but still get far too much/too quick an output.
There's also things like the tail command. Either piping in or naming the file, it'll (by default) return the last ...10..? lines. I tend to give it the number of lines I want, e.g. tail -n 35 filename.ext (check the man pages for other things, also to make sure I'm not too used to using a funny version!), or head [various options] filename.ext to see the intro lines instead. Because sometimes you want to see how logfile started instead of/as well as how it finished, but are probably not bothered about much of the middle. You can cat the file and take the bits that don't scroll off the top or more/less/etc it and quit once you've scanned the bit you want, but if you know you can save time. And, at others, you can find they work best for you in a shell-scripted review process, and/or in onward piping. Say "from the last 100 lines, display all lines that don't include something(s) mundane enough to skip, but then display them sorted (and perhaps rolling duplicate lines into just one unique example each) by some useful criteria"... which may not be a common need, but knowing how to do all that manually, and/or by an alias/shellscript for frequently repeated needs, will almost certainly make you able to handle many not so convoluted command-line needs in future.
No rush, but (especially if you lose the GUI again) understanding the shell environment and the usual complement of built-in/near-as-damnit-built-in shell commands can be rewarding. And, at times, inspiring. Well, maybe. ;)
Post by: AzyWng on July 21, 2023, 10:20:47 am
I don't even know what you mean when you say "pipe" or "unpaginated".
Post by: delphonso on July 21, 2023, 10:21:01 am
Post by: AzyWng on July 21, 2023, 02:09:55 pm
Cursor’s still blinking.
I’ll give it a few more minutes, then uninstall and try a different driver.
I’m beginning to get sick of this…
Edit:
Tried installing through the command line (using sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall). Still didn’t work.
Does anyone know where I should go to get help with this?
Post by: LordBaal on July 21, 2023, 04:32:33 pm
Post by: AzyWng on July 21, 2023, 06:11:29 pm
In the meantime, it turns out xubuntu has an IRC chat that can be found here (https://xubuntu.org/help/). I've managed to find help there.
Turns out I made followed some dubious advice early on and I needed to change some things.
EDIT: Looks like the problem with the drivers is all sorted now. I just need to figure out how to get the computer to use it over the integrated graphics when I'm playing games and so forth.
Post by: wierd on July 22, 2023, 01:06:03 am
I'll do my best to share in as much detail as possible in future.
In the meantime, it turns out xubuntu has an IRC chat that can be found here (https://xubuntu.org/help/). I've managed to find help there.
Turns out I made followed some dubious advice early on and I needed to change some things.
EDIT: Looks like the problem with the drivers is all sorted now. I just need to figure out how to get the computer to use it over the integrated graphics when I'm playing games and so forth.
Glad you got it sorted. Nvidia's drivers shitting the bed is a nasty situation that happens way more often than it should. Hopefully the dubious advice wasn't from me. :$
As for getting things to use the discrete graphics chip and not the IGP, see the nvidia control panel for that.
It is under the Prime Configuration heading, and you want "Performance Mode" (https://i.postimg.cc/bwjfdZ3d/nvidiasettingsprime.png). this makes the nvidia chipset the preferred video device.
Post by: AzyWng on July 22, 2023, 10:53:44 am
They don't show up at all, even though I can connect to wifi on other devices.
EDIT: After a bit of looking, I've noticed there doesn't seem to be any kind of wifi network adapter available, so I'm starting to think there's some kind of problem with it. While I do have two old usb wifi adapters, they don't seem to work just by plugging them in, and I don't know what exact model they are (I lost the package I bought them in a long time ago) ... I'm not sure what to do besides maybe get a new adapter or bring my laptop into a shop to try to fix it.
Post by: LordBaal on July 22, 2023, 11:18:47 am
The USB adapters not working are likely due missing drivers.
Which operative system you use?
Post by: AzyWng on July 22, 2023, 11:54:44 am
I don’t know if my laptop’s wifi card is integrated in the motherboard or if it’s a pci card.
I know I don’t have the right drivers, but I visited the site of the company that makes the wifi adapters and they list several different drivers and I don’t know which model my adapter is (I bought mine from before I switched to Linux, so I don’t know which driver to download and install.
I’m thinking come monday, I’ll look for a new usb adapter to buy - one that works out the box with linux, ideally.
Update: Bought a usb wifi adapter, unfortunately, I can’t seem to get it to work with Linux. I have both the adapter and the usb containing the drivers for windows. The model is the Asus AX1800 USB-AX55 Nano.
Is there any way for me to get drivers for Linux?
Update II: Someone else directed me to a github with drivers for the adapter: https://github.com/lwfinger/rtl8852au. I just followed the instructions, installed it, and now it works.
Post by: wierd on July 29, 2023, 05:39:17 am
Can you give me the output of
lspci -v
in a quote tag?
Post by: AzyWng on July 29, 2023, 04:51:15 pm
Spoiler: To prevent this one post from taking several feet of screen space (click to show/hide)
Post by: wierd on July 29, 2023, 11:43:54 pm
Using 'r8169' and 'iwlwifi' respectively.
I will google if there are problems with intel AX201 having issues with iwlwifi or not just the same though,
OK, this might be an issue with missing firmware. Can I get output of:
sudo dmesg | grep firmware
?
(Like Broadcom devices, Intel WiFi chips have a dynamically configured radio firmware that loads a binary blob into the radio before it will turn on. They call this a "Firmware", but really it is more a microcode for the radio. Intel provides these in a distribution package.)
Post by: Schmaven on July 30, 2023, 06:08:20 pm
[ /non-sequitur]
Post by: AzyWng on July 31, 2023, 09:09:11 am
[ 1.676102] psmouse serio1: elantech: assuming hardware version 4 (with firmware version 0x4f4001)
[ 6.585447] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: loaded firmware version 72.daa05125.0 QuZ-a0-hr-b0-72.ucode op_mode iwlmvm
[ 6.942401] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] Finished loading DMC firmware i915/kbl_dmc_ver1_04.bin (v1.4)
[ 8.156095] Bluetooth: hci0: Minimum firmware build 1 week 10 2014
[ 8.157667] Bluetooth: hci0: Found device firmware: intel/ibt-19-0-4.sfi
[ 9.768431] Bluetooth: hci0: Waiting for firmware download to complete
Post by: wierd on July 31, 2023, 10:20:35 am
Let's look at
sudo dmesg |grep iwlwifi
See if iwlwifi is throwing any errors.
Might as well see if bluetooth is screwing up too:
sudo dmesg |grep bluetooth
Post by: AzyWng on July 31, 2023, 11:22:21 am
[ 6.574416] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[ 6.584364] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: api flags index 2 larger than supported by driver
[ 6.584379] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: TLV_FW_FSEQ_VERSION: FSEQ Version: 89.3.35.37
[ 6.585447] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: loaded firmware version 72.daa05125.0 QuZ-a0-hr-b0-72.ucode op_mode iwlmvm
[ 6.897593] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Detected Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz, REV=0x351
[ 7.022083] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Detected RF HR B3, rfid=0x10a100
[ 7.088008] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: base HW address: e0:2b:e9:b5:24:ad
[ 7.103897] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3 wlo1: renamed from wlan0
sudo dmesg |grep bluetooth gave me no output.
Post by: wierd on July 31, 2023, 01:00:33 pm
This says that the wifi should be working?
(for bluetooth, should have been capital, mea culpa-- sudo dmesg |grep Bluetooth )
Ok, it says it created and renamed an interface. Lets see if there were errors bringing the interface online.
sudo dmesg |grep wlo1
that should get lots of traffic with it trying to activate and grab access points-- like this from my own output
Quote
[23922.419705] wlp2s0: deauthenticating from 10:be:f5:5e:7b:7c by local choice (Reason: 3=DEAUTH_LEAVING)
[23922.686351] wlp2s0: authenticate with 10:be:f5:5e:7b:7c
[23922.715975] wlp2s0: send auth to 10:be:f5:5e:7b:7c (try 1/3)
[23923.633475] wlp2s0: send auth to 10:be:f5:5e:7b:7c (try 2/3)
[23924.643014] wlp2s0: send auth to 10:be:f5:5e:7b:7c (try 3/3)
[23924.701259] wlp2s0: authenticated
[23924.705494] wlp2s0: associate with 10:be:f5:5e:7b:7c (try 1/3)
[23924.706845] wlp2s0: RX AssocResp from 10:be:f5:5e:7b:7c (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=2)
[23924.710003] wlp2s0: associated
[23924.710126] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x8348
[23924.710128] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a country code
[23924.710129] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[23924.710130] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
[23924.710131] ath: Country alpha2 being used: US
[23924.710132] ath: Regpair used: 0x3a
[23924.710133] ath: regdomain 0x8348 dynamically updated by country element
[23924.761742] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlp2s0: link becomes ready
for a successful grab of the access point.
Post by: AzyWng on August 02, 2023, 11:36:48 am
Output of sudo dmesg|grep Bluetooth
[ 8.009518] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22
[ 8.009539] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[ 8.009543] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[ 8.009544] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[ 8.009547] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
[ 8.168730] Bluetooth: hci0: Found device firmware: intel/ibt-19-0-4.sfi
[ 8.168753] Bluetooth: hci0: Boot Address: 0x24800
[ 8.168754] Bluetooth: hci0: Firmware Version: 126-5.22
[ 8.168755] Bluetooth: hci0: Firmware already loaded
[ 8.347710] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
[ 8.347712] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
[ 8.347714] Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized
[ 13.537821] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
[ 13.537825] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
[ 13.537830] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11
Post by: wierd on August 02, 2023, 09:09:38 pm
In the case of your intel integrated wifi chip, the name for its interface is 'wlo1'
If there are issues bringing the interface up, they will show up with that designator.
If you need to direct the output for easy collection, you can use this:
sudo "dmesg |grep wlo1" > /somepath/sometextfile.txt
This will create a text file at the location specified, with the name specified. The output of the dmesg query will get put in there for easy sharing.
Post by: AzyWng on August 03, 2023, 07:34:08 am
Also, for some reason my usb wifi adapter has stopped working, meaning my computer once again has no internet. I’ve tried plugging my wifi adapter into different usb ports on my laptop and that didn’t seem to help either.
Tried looking for iwlwifi, and in the output, noticed some lines reading “Failed to start RT ucode -110.
The line after that reads “WRT: Collecting data: ini trigger 13 fired (delay=0ms).
Then it says “Failed to run INIT ucode: -110”.
Then all the output appears to repeat twice, stopping when it says “retry init count 2”.
Edit:
Found a convo on Stackexchange (https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/334894/iwlwifi-failed-to-start-init-ucode-110) that suggests disabling power management. Should I give it a try?
Post by: Starver on August 03, 2023, 08:44:52 am
I tried inputting that command, but got told “command not found”.Strange. You've essentially done the same commands before. e.g. sudo dmesg|grep Bluetooth
To deconstruct sudo "dmesg |grep wlo1" > /somepath/sometextfile.txt you should have:
sudo gives you access to do (run) the given command under the su (superuser) access. (Or any other "substitute user" you can justify access to, to be correct, but superuser is the default substitute, so it's often thought of as that...)
sudo dmesg gets you access to all diagnostic messages (many that you don't want). You could run this on its own to get a mountain of (mostly) useless info, to test you've got this working. Except that we know this works.
sudo dmesg | grep FOO (optional spaces around ths pipe symbol, here for clarity only) takes the huge output and filters (with Global Regular Expression search and Print!) to show only lines with FOO in them. We know this works Ok, too.
sudo "dmesg | grep FOO" puts the pipe-and-grep as part of the superuser-doing, and I can't imagine that the su environment doesn't have access to grep, internally. (Especially as it should pass for use the relevent bits of Environment of your own shell, etc.) But perhaps try this smaller, but quoted, command (on some FOO that isn't too onerous) to check that this isn't the point of failure.
sudo "dmesg | grep FOO" > /filepath/etc/blah.de.blah is redirecting the output (that sudo produces from both dmesg and piped-grep) to a file blah.de.blah (at that /filepath/etc location). This can fail if the filepath doesn't exist(/can't be written to) or the file there is unwritable-to for some reason, but it won't be a "command not found".
(Well, it can in some situations of block device 'files', perhaps symbollically-linked to, but I doubt that's true here. Check by using echo Test text > /filepath/etc/blah.de.blah (you are of course substituting for valid filepath+file, all along) to rule out this particular unlikely strangeness..)
I can't immediately think of a reason why sudo dmesg | grep FOO > /filepath/etc/blah.de.blah would not work (sudo just the dmesg, pipe that output through the grep (outside of sudo) and then further push that output to the file). We know that non-sudoed grep works (even if we're unsure about sudoed grep being valid), so it should pipe nicely enough. But I've not got a *nix shell at hand, so this is just from memory. And deduction about how your environment works, which could be different from my expectations (even if I'm not mistaken in my own cases).
...this is more an opportunity to inform you(/people in general) of the potential beauty and utility of the command-line, for which you may already understand some of this anyway. And with the possibility of my own misassumptions/misrecollections being highlighted, because I can't be 100% sure I'm right on this (https://xkcd.com/1168/), not without hands on (an appropriate) keyboard to double-check with dry runs of my own. ;)
Post by: AzyWng on August 03, 2023, 09:22:04 am
Post by: wierd on August 03, 2023, 10:07:29 am
I just wanted to make sure the pipe did not have anomalous behavior by using quotes to control command expression, but apparently sudo is real dumb.
I entered it myself on my own console, and sure enough, it insists command not found.
Do it wouthout the quotes.
I have tested that, and it works as expected.
sudo dmesg |grep wlo1 > /somepath/somefile.txt
(I just dont like the idea of using a pipe AND output redirection, without some kind of logical control for sanity reasons)
Post by: AzyWng on August 03, 2023, 10:30:24 am
Quote from: Output of sudo dmesg|grep wlo1
[ 7.596781] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3 wlo1: renamed from wlan0
[ 11.347206] wlo1: authenticate with 4c:19:5d:50:b4:e6
[ 11.353546] wlo1: send auth to 4c:19:5d:50:b4:e6 (try 1/3)
[ 11.409683] wlo1: authenticated
[ 11.414543] wlo1: associate with 4c:19:5d:50:b4:e6 (try 1/3)
[ 11.416100] wlo1: RX AssocResp from 4c:19:5d:50:b4:e6 (capab=0x1011 status=0 aid=19)
[ 11.422999] wlo1: associated
[ 11.559626] wlo1: Limiting TX power to 24 (24 - 0) dBm as advertised by 4c:19:5d:50:b4:e6
[ 11.583436] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlo1: link becomes ready
Somehow the wifi is working again on my laptop, and I'm not sure why.
Post by: Schmaven on August 03, 2023, 02:42:03 pm
Somehow the wifi is working again on my laptop, and I'm not sure why.
Could be a failing USB adapter? Overheating causing it stop, then after a while, it cooled down enough to work again?
Post by: AzyWng on August 03, 2023, 03:42:26 pm
I suppose I could try turning the computer off for a time to let it cooldown, but that seems like a suboptimal solution.
Post by: Schmaven on August 04, 2023, 04:28:45 am
Post by: AzyWng on August 04, 2023, 02:33:29 pm
I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t take the computer into a repair shop or something to see if something’s wrong with it.
Followed the steps on this article: https://www.howtogeek.com/806845/linux-not-detecting-wi-fi-adapter/ and found out I’ve got a realtek Semiconductor co RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15) that’s currently using the kernel driver “r8169”. When I went to search for it in dmesg (sudo dmesg|grep r8169) I got a message reading “Link is down”.
I don’t know what that means exactly, though.
Post by: Starver on August 04, 2023, 05:25:35 pm
(Though if it's truly an intermittent issue, as in it works and then it stops without you/anybody else changing settings and back again, it couldn't be that. Unless it's an entirely external factor (https://xkcd.com/654/) making it an ocasional issue.)
Post by: AzyWng on August 04, 2023, 06:49:08 pm
Post by: wierd on August 05, 2023, 04:41:10 am
I'd ask on that ubuntu IRC/Discord if they can diagnose the Network-Manager no longer being bound to the wifi device interface, and no longer showing or managing connections.
Post by: AzyWng on August 05, 2023, 09:20:47 am
works.
Again.
I have no idea why at this point. Maybe it really is a problem with the adapter heating up and shutting down.
Post by: Schmaven on August 05, 2023, 03:05:25 pm
Post by: AzyWng on August 10, 2023, 09:46:14 am
I'm not sure I fully or at all understand the issues. I've been looking in some discords and so forth but haven't had much success - sometimes people don't respond or don't know enough to help me. Where do I go when these issues arise?
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 10, 2023, 09:47:29 am
Post by: King Zultan on August 11, 2023, 04:44:20 am
Post by: bloop_bleep on August 11, 2023, 09:57:59 am
To check RAM you can use memtest86. You'd need to put it on a USB drive and boot from it.
Post by: Eschar on August 11, 2023, 09:14:29 pm
Post by: Schmaven on August 11, 2023, 10:17:56 pm
Post by: Starver on August 12, 2023, 07:59:13 am
Can't test this, right now (I don't have any Windows machines within easy reach, and those within nearest non-eqsy reach ate 2K and XP, far more honest about these things), but I suspect the commandline DIR /S /A-L foo would look at the cummulative size of "foo" without following any symbolic links.
If "foo" is a directory, it'll list all things under that (that aren't softlinked) and give you a bytes total at the end. A true idea of the contents. If you're in a (hypothetical) "...\my documents\projects" directory you can DIR /S /A-L project2 for the "...my documents\projects\project2" directory contents, without (I'm imagining) following any shared-data link that might have been set up (maybe with XCOPY /B ... ... type command, or application/installation equivalent system call) to give access to the same subordinate recerence directory as "project1" has (or was similarly linked to).
If it's only a potential file-name (or a wildcard match) then it'll traverse all directories from here (or the path you prepend it) to try to find that. A different example is DIR /A-D /S /B /L \*.txt which I might use to list (in bare and lowercase format) all .txt files below the root (\) of the current drive. (The /A-D says don't list directories... as if I'd expect any directoriew to have a .txt extension (they can, of course!) ... but handily gets around the default "don't dive into hidden/system directories" behaviour because it will now search through them all.) In your case, if you think you know that you've got some particularly large (say) .avi files squirreled away somewhere under F:\JUNK, you might therefore use DIR /A-L /S F:\JUNK\*.avi and it'll show only those things truly somewhere under there and not via some link over to C: or elsewhere in F:... ((I presume, I must add.))
...because these commands (potentially) give a huge long list of contents (and, without the "/B" (bare-format) tag used, in sequential directory header, unqualified contents and directory footer), either redirect to a file with command > list.txt, to then let you notepad list.txt/similar to peruse at leisure, or else command | FIND "File(s)" to pipe through and reduce to only the individual directory footer lines (e.g. "101 File(s) 393,792,816 bytes", which you can use to spot possibly large groups of files in particular subdirs, but need to go hunting to find out which) and the final "totalising line" at the end that might say "320 File(s) 3,132,297,216 bytes" which is the cumulative count of everything matched (now filtered out). Obviously the command is your chosen DIR-form command. (Also, not so obviously, if any file(s) matches "File(s)" then they'll also pop up on the FIND-filtered list. Should be rate enough to not matter. But you could always use the "/L" (lowercase) tag, so that FIND won't match filename lines now with "file(s)", without adding the "/I" (ignore case) to that, of course. ;) )
The "/B" (bare format) for DIRectory listing doesn't give any filesize info, but usefully makes each line fully-qualified to path so a line-filtering FIND can extract all files that have the letters "xyz" in them, anything somewhere under (any) "\old\" directory listing or you can filter out (/V) things of no interest (bare command | FIND /V /I ".exe" | FIND /V /I ".od" | FIND /V /I ".bak" | FIND /I "budget" will take the bare (DIR /B ...) listing and strip it of any line looking like a .exe, all the open-document formats (.ods, .odt, etc), a .bak file (but also anything and everything under a directory with .bak extensio , which is not unknown) before then presenting all remaining lines that have "budget" (or "BUDGET" or "Budget", etc) in them. If you have a good idea what ought to be in a directory(-structure) or are content to selectively whittle away a long list as repeatedly generated in a command line, you can just keep piling on further piped FINDs to exclude/narrow down the list. I repeat, this doesn't help at all with size information (on a bare DIR listing) but may be of use tracking down things you think should (or shouldn't be) somewhere under a directory structure. e.g. finding that there's something under "...\username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IEwhatever\alphanumeric spaghetti name\..." (or more current equivalent cache space, obviously) that stands out for some reason.
TL;DR - Open command line and start with DIR /AD \ to list all (even hidden) root directories. Then for each of them (dir1, dir2, ...) do something like DIR /A-B /S \dirX | FIND "File(s)" and take note of the final line. Then DIR /AD \dirX for any interestingly large ones and then DIR /A-L /S \dirX\subdirY | FIND "File(s)" and onwards like that.
Noting that you'll be initially delving into system folder structures that are going to be legitimately large anyway, and some bits of these aren't suitable for being ripped out for archival/deletion, so use your common sense, but further subordinate parts might indeed be cruft that you don't need to keep. Or restrict yourself to whatever the Documents And Settings folder is currently called (with special attention, when you see them, to Desktop, Favorites and possibly Address Book, as I've seen large files dragged-and-dropped into these locations by misclicks on various occasions, usually this then making the user think that the original file has vanished (not moved) from the original Documents area, but occasionally it can be copied).
Anyway, have a play with this, see if it even works (for you), but take it under advisement whether to move/delete the things that you find. Leaving alone System, System32, System64 and/or whatever under the WINDOWS (or WIN, WINNT, whatever), directory is probably advisable, unless you're solving a different issue, and know how to do it. But it doesn't hurt to look around. Then if you discover an "installSoftware.temp" type subfolder for something (that you know about, or otherwise) then you can start checking to see if the 4GB of files that the 3D compositting package left there is truly supposed to still be there after installation (or especially after deinstallation) or search for what might else have left such a mucky footprint on your system and whether you should be concerned about it. Knowledge is power. (Action can be dangerous, though, without additional knowledge to back it up. This is just a general point, however, and doesn't affect my core suggestion.)
(Edited for markup typos. Other grammatical/lexical typos definitely exist, but seems not to intrude into actual commands being quoted, so not spending time on such irrelevencies.)
Post by: Starver on August 12, 2023, 09:18:27 am
Plus if you DIR /S dirX and "dirX" is something like "Documents and Settings" then you need to quote it, or it will (try to...) DIR "Documents", "and" and "Settings". Or, as part of a cascade of directories "...\Documents", ".\and" and ".\Settings\...". You can get away with DIR /flags "Documents and Settings with no closing quote if the spaced (or possibly other odd-charactered name) is last on the line, but any further bits (perhaps/probably? including attempts at piping/redirecting) invalidate that. But it's why I tend to do DIR /flags pattern rather than equally valid DIR pattern /flags, because it only needs the one character insertion when I realise I need to quote it. ;) Of course, you can quote (or quote-unnecessary mention) multiple patterns like maybe you have "Documents" and "Settings" and you want to check them both. Whoops, sorry. Going into advanced refinements of technique, there. Just thought, as I was sitting by this canal in the sunshine, about something else one could so easily trip up over if you tried to follow my original suggestion!
Post by: lemon10 on August 14, 2023, 03:42:24 pm
I'm trying to figure out what things take up the most space on my hard drive, to prioritize moving them to another drive. I can't use Windows 10 storage menu in settings to view this, since it reports obviously incorrect values (such as 707GB for a small app on my 512GB drive.) How can I find out what takes up the most space? Ideally without installing another piece of software.I heavily recommend spacesniffer (http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/).
Its free, quick, easy to use, and displays what takes up what space in a very clear way.
Its also portable so technically not installing another piece of software, but it seems so much simpler and better then the more technical way that I can't avoid recommending it.
(There are other programs that do the same thing of course, but spacesniffer is the best I've found).
Post by: Akura on August 16, 2023, 02:59:31 pm
I tested the old controllers, and besides the stick drift, they work fine. The contacts on both the console and controller are both clean. There's no reason to think it's a problem with power or data coming from the console, which is what is leading me to think it's the controller battery. Unfortunately, the Amazon page listing the controller no longer exists.
EDIT: Curious. I opened the controller. While the battery specifications(according to Wikipedia and other sources) for the Joycon battery state 3.7v, 525mAh, 1.9Wh, the battery I have in front of my shows 3.7v, 500mAh, 1.85Wh. Aside from seemingly being underpowered, the battery is physically a little too small to fit in the casing. Also looks nothing like the replacement batteries I'm seeing on various retailers' websites.
Post by: Schmaven on August 16, 2023, 06:27:40 pm
.
Curious. I opened the controller. While the battery specifications(according to Wikipedia and other sources) for the Joycon battery state 3.7v, 525mAh, 1.9Wh, the battery I have in front of my shows 3.7v, 500mAh, 1.85Wh. Aside from seemingly being underpowered, the battery is physically a little too small to fit in the casing. Also looks nothing like the replacement batteries I'm seeing on various retailers' websites.
500mAh and 1.85Wh are exactly equivalent measurements of battery capacity and have no bearing on the function of the device connected (aside from time between charging). It is the voltage output, 3.7V that is of critical importance. Since that matches between both your findings, there's no issue there. Now the battery could be failing. If it is replaceable, one with the exact same 3.7V output would work, and just about any capacity (measured in your choice of units), so long as it fits / has the same connection port.
{Watts are just volts multiplied by amps, so 3.7V × 0.5Ah(500mAh) = 1.85Wh}
Edit: If you have access to the circuit board, there could be a cracked soldering joint somewhere that would be fixable. I had a laptop battery connection issue that was solved with just a drop of additional solder in the right spot.
Post by: wierd on August 17, 2023, 11:55:49 pm
If the cell's internal resistance goes above a certain threshold, it will be disabled by the charging controller, to prevent explosions/fires.
https://www.dnkpower.com/all-things-you-need-to-know-about-internal-resistance-of-lithium-battery/
This sounds like the charge controller is having a hard time determining the health of the cell. It could be a resistance issue. Verify that all the leads to the battery are well connected, and that no solder joins have become cracked/loose, and that any cables are free of shorts or defects.
Post by: dragdeler on August 18, 2023, 07:13:49 am
Will a long cable or materials that are less optimal as copper, such as brass or nickel, increase the IR of a battery noticeably? Or is the electroconductivity negligeable at these scales? Would it suffice to just take a bigger conductor... And could it be that electric contact resistance is not negligeable EVEN if the conductor is negligeable as compared to the batteries' internal resistance?
Post by: Schmaven on August 18, 2023, 05:30:28 pm
Not computer but still related:
Will a long cable or materials that are less optimal as copper, such as brass or nickel, increase the IR of a battery noticeably? Or is the electroconductivity negligeable at these scales? Would it suffice to just take a bigger conductor... And could it be that electric contact resistance is not negligeable EVEN if the conductor is negligeable as compared to the batteries' internal resistance?
Batteries only supply the voltage based on E(or V)=IR, so by increasing the cable length, or substituting a suboptimal wire material, you are merely increasing the R value. To maintain the same current (I), you would have an increased voltage. However, with a battery, the result would instead be less current output as the voltage value is fixed.
Edit: Multimeters can be found for $15, so you could measure the precise resistance difference, but nickel and brass have about 4 times the resistance as copper, so all else being equal, expect about ¼ of the current output from the battery. Since Power is voltage × current, that means ¼ the power.
Larger diameter cables would be able to negate the increased resistance. But current passes on the surface of wires, and many cables are stranded, so it would be easier to measure the resistance of what you have rather than try to calculate it. Also, parallel runs of wire would work just as well for reducing overall system resistance.
Post by: Akura on August 22, 2023, 04:03:54 pm
Post by: Schmaven on August 22, 2023, 08:20:42 pm
Ended up stripping one of the screws to the controller, so I can't even open it up to check what repair I need to do or even if I can make the repair or not. That's not quite true, I can partially open it up around the docking connector, and see as far as the battery connections, but I don't see anything particularly out of place from the limited view I have. It's not impossible to drill through the bad screw, but I don't know how I'd keep the controller casing from coming apart at that corner which is next to the release button - and it is a limited edition controller skin.
Have you tried a screw extractor bit? Might be worth the $10 if it's a valuable limited edition skin.
Post by: Iduno on August 23, 2023, 12:26:30 pm
Post by: Lord Shonus on August 23, 2023, 12:40:41 pm
Post by: delphonso on August 23, 2023, 07:20:23 pm
I have gotten around it by just opening the console and using mv (file) (usb drive).
Why does this work and the graphical interface doesn't? What is the file manager doing that I am bypassing?
Post by: Starver on August 24, 2023, 04:30:41 am
Spoiler: Waffle (click to show/hide)
...that's not to ignore the possibility of any AV (or similar) process deciding to real-time scan the data during/before it is getting passed around, which might mean unpacking compressed files (at least enough to identify the scan-worthy raw files that might be contained with). But that adds yet another 'personality' to try to psychoanalyse within the computationally composite 'mind'.
Post by: Starver on September 04, 2023, 05:18:27 am
(TL;DR; ...anything to avoid? Like "mobile" versions of Windows, or wifi cards that are basically obsolete, or particularly bad brands that use flimsy cases, or seemingly clever keyboard/screen layouts that are no more than a confusing gimmick... Sorry, it's a bit open-ended, I know, but I don't yet know what wide range of surprises (for good or ill) I might stumble across, let alone find myself(/ourselves) committed to.)
ETA: - ok, having now Spoilered the initial long explanation, I've done some basic practical research, and it looks like it'd be nice (and sufficient) to have the kind of lowish-end laptop that currently comes with 250Gb SSD as standard, but then re-equip it with larger (maybe 1Tb, but at least 500Gb) replacement. The habitual 128Gb-inclusive models might well do, too, but I've a sneaking suspicion that I'd be unfutureproofing myself (or the intended user's self, mostly) a little bit too much. The models that come supplied already with the half-/full-terrabyte tend to be overkill in all other respects of spec and ending up two, three or four times the cost of what I think I should recommend to achieve from a migrated-drive scenario. Though I'd have to be sure I'm not hitting proprietry barriers in then discovering that I can't even easily get a Tb drive/disk-on-a-chip replacement, or easily clone/reinstall the OS between the two, which might be very much dependant upon the brand-manufacturer involved.
But I'm reluctant to advise a 'bog standard' quarter-terabytes machine with (as a space-extender) external-HDD to hold the potential additional terabytes. I was already going to suggest one of those as a backup (ironically, the portable drive being less 'port'ed and more kept somewhere safe when not in use), and it might complicate matters to have another just to save the one-time hassle of upgrading.
(If it were for me, and I had the ready disposable cash to splash around, I might even have three identical extHDDs and cycle them periodically for an effective Grandfather/Father/Son backup system. Well, I'd plan it that way, but probably just end up expanding all my data to completely fill all the storage space with totally non-redundancy of storage and end up with absolutely no disaster-mitigation at all... ;) )
And that's before I start looking at other component/peripheral limitations, still. I repeat my assertion that laptops are actually far more awkward (and expensive) than any desktop equivalent. In all aspects other than actual portability!
Post by: methylatedspirit on September 19, 2023, 08:06:48 pm
What is the file manager doing that I am bypassing?
I'm gonna hazard a guess and say it's the Gio (GNOME Input/Output) abstraction layer GNOME uses instead of plain POSIX syscalls.
~snip!~
I'll answer what I know:
- Windows 10/11 don't really have crappified versions anymore like the Vista and 7 era had-- even the "S" editions (where you can only run Microsoft Store programs) can be unlocked with some officially-sanctioned hassle.
- Storage speed matters a lot more now. Do not even attempt current Windows on a spinning rust disk.
- Processors are living longer usable lives, definitely. I'd say 12th Gen Intel is where Intel really improved on power efficiency, if you care about that.
- If you're buying a used laptop, please check its GPU's hardware video decode capabilities, or you might find yourself losing battery pretty fast from software decode. For VP9 decode (i.e. the format YouTube really wants you to watch in; they don't serve >1080p H.264), that's ≥Skylake on the Intel side and all Ryzens on the AMD side.
- Yeah, I can't think of anything new that has a VGA port now. It's dongles all the way down. You might even get to enjoy the fresh hell of USB-C dongles!
- Be wary of laptops that have soldered RAM and soldered disks if you want to buy a low-end laptop and want to expand it later. In particular, if you see "eMMC": don't. It *sucks* and is slower than any competent NVMe or SATA drive in addition to being soldered straight to the board.
- Larger laptops tend to come with more expandability (HDMI, empty SATA slot), though I'm speaking from my experience of having a "gaming laptop".
Post by: Starver on September 19, 2023, 10:48:57 pm
Appreciated. I'd added a few more updates to my own research, since then (and the updated 'summary' of my thinking), but some good additional points there.~snip!~
I'll answer what I know:
~~also snip!~~
Also an excuse to post an update to what I think I mentioned here about a year ago about Android Chrome and tab-groups going strange then just plain flattening out...
An update that happened in the last week or so reintroduced tab-groups (at least for me, with possible legacy config settings that might have become active again). As I'd effectively reflattened everything useful to me (to re-sort the 'tab order', when it shuffled everything and gave me no drag-to-reorder ability any more), I only noticed it for one small group of related tabs where I'm sure I did "open link in new tab in group" off a base page during the era that this was indistinguishable from "open link in new tab" by result.
But tab-groups don't crash on trying to re-enter them (and have their own horizontal mini-selector to switch within, as before). So some fork of the disappearing functionality may have been restored. Yet to exhaustively test all original half-remembered use cases, but trivially seems to be back.
(Of course, it completely re-ordered my current set of habitual tabs (and brought the tab-group to the top of the tab-list, but that might be coincidence) again, with no obvious reason - or ability to manually reposition them - but not so badly as to pursuade me to close them and re-open-as-new to shuffle them exactly like I had them, again. But the world is often far from perfect, so...)
Post by: Lord Shonus on September 28, 2023, 05:41:59 am
I'm running a cheapo NAS in the form of OpenMediaVault on a Raspberry Pi 4, using two USB hard drives for storage. The primary purpose of this is to share (not stream) media to multiple devices running Kodi, and I'm running Jellyfin to act as a central library for metadata and images instead of having each Kodi instance generate its own local library. These drives are formatted in ext4 and are designated /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1 in OMV.
This works perfectly... for media on sda1. sdb1 is perfectly accessible via SMB share and works perfectly fine if I direct-connect Kodi to it, but that runs into the "multiple copies of the library, including on devices with rather limited internal storage space" problem. Jellyfin refuses to look at sdb1.
I know that there's theoretically a way I could create a folder linking to sdb1 on sda1, but that's an inelegant kludge, and I'd prefer it to just work. I don't know if it is some kind of strange permissions issue, or a limitation of the software.
Post by: wierd on September 30, 2023, 12:43:34 am
It sounds like jellyfin is just being dumb about the media library location, and does not like having 2 discrete libraries. Mounting sbd1 as a child of sda1 should resolve, even if that is inelegant.
EG, your /etc/fstab may look something like this:
/dev/mmcblk0p1 / EXT4 defaults 0 0
/dev/sda1 /home/pi/somepath EXT4 defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /home/pi/somepath/somedeeperfolder EXT4 defaults 0 0
The symbolic link method would be something like this:
[/etc/fstab]
/dev/mmcblk0p1 / EXT4 defaults 0 0
/dev/sda1 /home/pi/somepath EXT4 defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /home/pi/someotherpath EXT4 defaults 0 0
with a symbolic link inside /home/pi/somepath (named somefoldername) pointing at /home/pi/someotherpath:
ln -s /home/pi/someotherpath /home/pi/somepath/somefoldername
I am reading that "In Theory" Jellyfin permits multiple library locations to be defined, but that this has also been historically known in prior versions to cause anomalous behaviors. You might be encountering such an anomalous behavior.
I'd collect as much data as possible, file a bug report in their github, then implement the inelegant solution of my choosing from above (probably mountpoint, it's less complicated) and get on with my life until they fix it.
Post by: Lord Shonus on September 30, 2023, 02:53:54 am
Post by: Ulfarr on October 03, 2023, 02:40:33 am
It's been almost 7 years since I last built a pc so I haven't really kept up with new developments, do you have any suggestions for a newer cpu+mobo? As far as requirements are concerned, the only hard ones are that they need to have integrated graphics and have at least comparable if not better performance.
From a quick search the following CPUs are within my price range:
Ryzen 5 3400G i5 10400
Ryzen 5 4600G i5 10600
Ryzen 5 5600G i5 11400
Ryzen 7 5700G i5 12400
Post by: Schmaven on October 03, 2023, 03:03:20 am
It's been almost 7 years since I last built a pc so I haven't really kept up with new developments, do you have any suggestions for a newer cpu+mobo? As far as requirements are concerned, the only hard ones are that they need to have integrated graphics and have at least comparable if not better performance.
From a quick search the following CPUs are within my price range:
Ryzen 5 3400G i5 10400
Ryzen 5 4600G i5 10600
Ryzen 5 5600G i5 11400
Ryzen 7 5700G i5 12400
As far as Intel CPUs are concerned, there has been a big jump in performance with each newer processor generation, so the i5 12400 would be my choice of that bunch (12th generation). The letters after the model number indicate stuff too: F means no integrated graphics, K means it's unlocked for overclocking. AMD also has demonstrated a significant generation over generation improvement, so the 5xxxx series would be my choice of that bunch too.
If you are able to cough up an extra $200 or so on the Mobo/CPU, you could get onto the AM5 socket for AMD CPUs and have some better future proofing for upgrades.
For motherboards, I'd look for 1 with a M.2 compatible PCIe 4.0 slot for a SSD. You'll see the biggest gains in speed that way. PCIe 5.0 is overkill, SSDs can't utilize the bandwidth on that yet. PCIe 3.0 will certainly bottleneck your speeds with a newer SSD, as data flows from your hard drive to your RAM to the CPU through that M.2 PCIe connection.
Post by: Starver on October 03, 2023, 05:51:04 am
Got rid of all the desktop/taskbar widgets (don't want news/weather, etc, certainly not by default!), shifted the Start button to the left, worked out how the Taskbar as a whole actually currently works ("Pin (an installed application) to Start", "Pin (a Start-pinned application) to Taskbar", anything shortcutted on Desktop can be drag-copied to also be a Shortcut on the Taskbar if it has no Pin-route available, the Taskbar is a mix of Pinned and Running (maybe already Pinned) items, but it's easier for me to Windows-Run "cmd" than to open up a second Command Prompt by right-clicking on an already pinned+running Command Prompt) , made Systray items that we want to be actually shown (like Safe Removal Of Media, which really shouldn't hide away when needed...) be shown, etc.
Getting used to all these niggles. though. Gradually removing the "Do you want to play Age Of Empires?"-type notifications turned off, as we encounter them. (Manufacturer sponsored... thingy... trying to work out if I can or should turn off the whole manufacturer framework thing that is offering these things, or if it's perhaps useful to retain for actual vital updates/info. I obviously have avoided all this fuss in the past when building desktops from scratch with a raw OEM licence, except for the occasional issue with video card drivers coming with 'helper'-software that has pesterware eleements to it, but no such option to bypass all this in this case.)
Right this moment, most dissapointed with Notepad.
Spoiler: Grumble about Notepad (click to show/hide)
But I'm sure it's all just one of the 'joys' of just not trying to fix things that aren't broken (at my end) clashing with an apparent culture of always trying to fix things (at the other end), whether or not they were/become broken! Basic grumble over.
[1] Was going to settle on an i5, 0.5Tb, 8Gb model, but there's I saw this i7, 1TB 16Gb that's not terribly much more expensive, so...
Post by: Ulfarr on October 03, 2023, 11:39:27 am
As far as Intel CPUs are concerned, there has been a big jump in performance with each newer processor generation, so the i5 12400 would be my choice of that bunch (12th generation). The letters after the model number indicate stuff too: F means no integrated graphics, K means it's unlocked for overclocking. AMD also has demonstrated a significant generation over generation improvement, so the 5xxxx series would be my choice of that bunch too.
If you are able to cough up an extra $200 or so on the Mobo/CPU, you could get onto the AM5 socket for AMD CPUs and have some better future proofing for upgrades.
For motherboards, I'd look for 1 with a M.2 compatible PCIe 4.0 slot for a SSD. You'll see the biggest gains in speed that way. PCIe 5.0 is overkill, SSDs can't utilize the bandwidth on that yet. PCIe 3.0 will certainly bottleneck your speeds with a newer SSD, as data flows from your hard drive to your RAM to the CPU through that M.2 PCIe connection.
Thanks for the advice. Looking further into it, the 5600G is probably my best choice. From what I've read, it's better or equal to all but the 5700G and the 12400 and it's significantly cheaper than both. The 5700G might be worth it for the better graphics performance though the extra cost might be better spent for other stuff, depending on what can be salvaged from my old pc.
The 12400 already feels like an overkill for my needs so I doubt I'll need to upgrade to any of the newer AM5 cpus any time soon and in similar fashion to my current set up, by that time they'll probably be obsolete as well.
Post by: Ulfarr on October 04, 2023, 01:04:56 pm
I guess it's a drivers issue but I have no idea how to reinstall the drivers when I can't even log into windows..
My last resort would be to either format my old HDD and do a new installation or finally buy an SSD, install windows there and try to salvage whatever files I can from my old one..
Yeah... after the n-th restart/bios change it finally worked right as I posted this... ::) :D
PS I'm not sure if it means something but with the new mobo, whenever I boot my pc the first thing it shows in the screen is my mobo's layout instead of say it's maker's logo as the old did
Post by: Starver on October 04, 2023, 03:33:34 pm
Old one could have had it disabled (you generally could in a BIOS, I delve less in UEFIs), perhaps the new one even has one (by default unused) one which could be enabled? ;)
(In other words, it probably doesn't mean much at all, or serve any practical purpose. But just an observation based on time-worn experience that might be a bit outdated.)
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 24, 2023, 08:29:30 am
For cost reasons, a purpose-built NAS box is impractical - 12 TB drives seem to be the sweet spot for cost on the refurbished market, and I want to use either 4 or 5 of them. A purpose-built NAS that can hold that many drives is expensive enough to offset any cost savings. So I see two main options.
A is to build a server out of spare computers. This would be the cheapest route but I don't know if it would be powerful enough. I'd want the network connection to be the access bottleneck if possible. Ideally I would want to be able to transcode files at 480p-2460p for DNLA streaming at 720p or 1080p, but I get that this is a tall order.
B would be to get a USB RAID enclosure and just connect the new drives to my existing setup as a massive internal drive. This would give me no more capability (I'd still be bottlenecked at a USB 3.0 connection) and cost more, but it would be very simple. My issue with this option is that I have no idea what is a reliable brand of enclosure to buy, and that kind of hardware raid introduces a single failure point - anything that breaks on the server option can be replaced without loss as long as I keep a good OS backup (if I understand things correctly), but losing an enclosure would make me lose everything.
Could somebody set me straight on this if I've got anything wrong, and break down exactly what I'd need?
Post by: wierd on October 26, 2023, 04:54:27 am
There are midsize business class eSATA disk enclosures that have build in port replication features (allowing you to have many more disks per sata channel your base system sports, if the controller inside it supports port replication; some do, some do not-- research appropriately)
For instance, you could drop some bills for 2 of these (https://www.amazon.com/TERRAMASTER-D6-320-External-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B0BZHSK29B/ref=asc_df_B0BZHSK29B/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=660867728783&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14186797776898707354&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1017667&hvtargid=pla-2186571982683&psc=1), and a suitable USB-C 10gbit interface, get similar enclosures for eSATA (https://forums.unraid.net/topic/89444-how-to-configure-a-netapp-ds4243-shelf-in-unraid/) and use that, etc.
If this is still not suitable, or you find the idea insufficiently scalable... It is possible to get your hands on cast-off small datacenter equipment, and go with a small SAN.
There are offerings for numerous vendors, such as Fujitsu, IBM, HP and pals, as well as more "Cadillac" offers, like NetApp.
There are a wealth of cast-off obsolete devices, like netapp disk trays (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202032340974?epid=20030660429&hash=item2f0a10dfee:g:SlwAAOSwXudbFXQR&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4F4ggXOVhW7M7kElO%2B6R82wOrXntKfSEm5dM4sJE4xyNiac31VXg7f%2Br08OWkfKrLwz1e3FMc7X2nGFZqj2%2F8VnexPK3%2FRNoxMko6w4CmTaHdm5Qps4lj4vZVYeotSozK5jSeSkIIQFXR6UcVKza14yI3Br%2BfQWJHJdkTzejrsLGQ%2BaL1YCAVTmWU5FhaOGQz0K6r%2Fl0rCkWgkb%2BI5HK%2Fz9G269IO8hHxS5aTEYuDk1NMH0S%2F3d%2FWp%2BWx%2BGYPoHL3XZvjRu0aaWOsUSUUNX1AOpOMcCNIpeDRWNt5dCO5BUt%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4Cxy7TtYg), which will work on basically any FibreChannel HBA (https://www.amazon.com/HP-489191-001-Port-Fibre-Channel/dp/B00IYX70G2) card in any computer that can support it, but FibreChannel is a dying technology that is old, and comparatively slow to more modern offerings, like SAS
That particular disk tray also can use SAS, which is a cousin of SATA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Attached_SCSI), but not the same thing. Like with FibreChannel, there are inexpensive HBAs out there. (https://www.newegg.com/lsi-9300-8e-sata-sas/p/N82E16816118216)
Full documentation of that shelf is available online. (https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_download_file/ECMM1280301)
If small 2.5" laptop size drives are not your thing, there are also full size 3.5" drive trays as well, they just cost more. (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202404952486?epid=17031090392&hash=item2f204679a6:g:YG4AAOSw0WBhXHFm&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4EZF1bRmCDXEACiuXk0ffWqYnGXOsSTpt6%2BCRf%2FR8aHLj4DWFBmFH6J6NFaI12IxPP5FKMVz%2FYeF9Gt%2FIkFdoc10nd2Kb%2Bdh1HYz6xdVpnZsDyFx8mchWLWxIOsHqu%2FWK%2F1ry7hoE99%2BB0fbz4aFU5x3azGaNBnfzoOTfudBU0LTKT1bu2gHwfJtWOVuT7nPoAMU99oGQY3e2nYT1b92iiEj%2BORw%2BVhe7HJeCrtFCs0aTp5bkI2vOaq8I0I04c87vdeWQVm%2FYQfTKxHhILzV7%2BLnWQrNI8WUGU2q0xXDER0g%7Ctkp%3ABFBMgLHLtO1i)
Note, this is not meant to tell you what you should buy, only that these options exist, and can be in reach if you have saved your pennies, and plan ahead.
Disk trays like these are made to be stackable to an insane degree, meaning you can attach another tray on your SAS chain, and get just that many more disks on the controller. (note!! CAVEAT EMPTOR!! Older SAS trays like these may demand bonafide SAS drives, which have a different interface, and cost more, than bulk SATA drives. As the Wikipedia article on SAS points out though, newer iterations of SATA disks, support the SAS protocol, and as such, there *ARE* SAS trays that accept SATA disks! Shop wisely! The linked DS4246 is such a tray, and accepts SATA disks.)
(quick setup (https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_download_file/ECMP1115547)) (service guide (https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_download_file/ECMP1119629)) (Using with linux (https://forums.unraid.net/topic/89444-how-to-configure-a-netapp-ds4243-shelf-in-unraid/)}
The question I would have you ask yourself, is this:
Do I intend to have this controller grow ever larger, and have more and more disks on it?
If the answer is YES, consider switching to disk trays that are intended to be stacked in this manner. If the answer is NO, by all means, use one of the eSATA port replicating trays on a more or less stock SATA equipped system.
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 26, 2023, 05:26:10 am
What's the advantage of the port-replication enclosure over putting them directly into a PC with an extra SATA card if needed? I'm presuming that this would be totally incompatible with the Pi option I'm currently using, as the Pi4 has no SATA capability and OMV doesn't allow you to RAID devices connected via USB.
Post by: wierd on October 26, 2023, 07:18:09 am
In linux, the raid driver is the "md" driver, and it is 100% software controlled. (EG, by the host machine, not the disk shelf). Those netapp disk shelves are dumb LUN presenters. They just present a child device ID for the slot.
The eSATA enclosures are suitable for sticking many drives onto a single sata cable. Basically. So, if your motherboard has 4 sata connectors, and it supports port replication, you can have 2 normal disks to boot the OS with, and then 2 to put the enclosures on.
Post by: Lord Shonus on October 26, 2023, 07:58:34 am
The eSATA enclosures are suitable for sticking many drives onto a single sata cable. Basically. So, if your motherboard has 4 sata connectors, and it supports port replication, you can have 2 normal disks to boot the OS with, and then 2 to put the enclosures on.
Wouldn't that potentially slow read speed by potentially a lot compared to just putting a PCI-E SATA card in? For this application I don't see a great need for much of a graphics card. Or any graphics card at all unless you have to have one to POST, really. Most of the NAS distros I'm familiar with allow you to do everything over SSH.
I'm increasingly leaning toward the "build a server" option, because I can build it mostly out of parts (except I'll probably want a better PSU) I have lying around and upgrade later.
Post by: wierd on October 26, 2023, 02:38:31 pm
Yes-- the controller's max IOPS is important. Very important. However, a high speed eSATA link is quite speedy, and spinny disks usually are not (singly) sufficient to saturate them.
It's important to consider the disk tray as a single device, which is what happens once the drives inside it are managed by the (md) driver. For instance, let's assume the following:
We have a 6gbit sata 3 link, which has an enclosure, containing 5 disks, 12TB each (per your note on them being most cost effective).
It has an identical partner, on another 6gbit sata 3 link.
You create an md device using the 5 disks on link 1, using either JBOD or RAID4 (or 5). This gives you either 60TB with JBOD (5 data disks), or 48TB with RAID4(-5). (4 data disks, 1 parity, (interleaved))
You create ANOTHER md device, using the disks on link 2, with the same raid type.
Finally, you create yet a THIRD md device, out of the first two md devices, in a MIRROR configuration.
The final md device has an effective total bandwidth of 6gbit, and acts like a single, large disk-- as far as the system is concerned. Internally, it is using parity and data striping across the disks in the connected enclosure, which is mirrored onto the second array, on the second enclosure. If any disk in this setup fails, it can be replaced. If two disks fail in one enclosure, the duplicate copy from the second array can be used to reconstruct the first array, and it can be re-onlined.
Your typical NAS box is NOT capable of sustained 6gbit throughput, even on gigabit ethernet. You would need to have 10gbit ethernet, and even then, there will be significant protocol overhead, and link share overhead. The eSATA controllers will be more than suitable.
This assumes you have ideally partitioned the drives in the arrays, and have ideal stripes being written.
ENTER the dreaded specter of Write Alignment. (https://www.percona.com/blog/aligning-io-on-a-hard-disk-raid-the-theory/)
In addition to simply wanting to optimize the physical disk IO, alignment and stripe width, play a HUGE role in ensuring that data written to the array is always done efficiently. The linux md driver keeps metadata at the start of all the disks in created md devices, and the kernel probes for these structures, and re-builds the md devices after a reboot automatically for you. If any are missing, it goes in degraded, or offline mode, respectively. In this metadata, there is information on how large the stripe and stride are, which need to be configured with the bandwidth of this shared transport in mind. The same "shared bus adapter bandwidth" issue has been with us forever, and applies to the fancy disk shelves I mentioned earlier just as much. This problem is mitigated with an efficient stripe and stride.
Post by: Starver on November 10, 2023, 02:08:05 pm
At first we thought it was the problem of Alt-F4ing the one Notepad window (separate window, deliberately, rather than "tabbed" in the same one) would close/attempt-to-close[1], and that we have to remember to Ctrl-W or Alt-F-C to avoid this particular behaviour. But it seems that it 'autocloses' the Notepad instance(s) and the command-prompts (which have been in directories of files within which we "notepad <file>"ed to work on things). And it's messing up the long-standing workflow (https://xkcd.com/1172/) that both I and the user were always rather happy to use.
And it may have happened without any sleep/suspending. Hard to tell.
At least reopening Notepad is "reopens everything that closed", but I'm really not sure that they all opened in exactly the same state as the editor left them. That'll need further checking, until we can be sure and actually trust what 'comes back'. And then there's diving into the various working directories and keeping track of where work had got to...
Of course, it could be an error with the Sleep/suspend settings on the whole OS. (We've set it to, when powered, never sleep; but, unpowered, let it do so. An interesting side-effect is that if left untouched, with power on, and then remove the power it immediately sleeps because the 'timer' is clearly respected across the change of powered-state. I've even toyed with the possibility of actually temporarily switching it around and seeing if it'll happily sit idle for five minutes 'on battery' and then immediately sleep itself if you plug the power in... ;)
Oh, it's probably just a new behaviour that we just need to get used to. But it all seems like an unnecessary change, compared with our prior 'favourite' versions of Windows where this sort of fuss didn't happen at all. But I'm recording it here as a learning process.
(Addendum: Hmm, interesting, one of the things that quit, earlier today, was a command-prompt running CPAN, updating some of the Perl modules I'd installed. The .lock file remained and I needed to delete it but the process that had been running it was still in-process, despite the cmd.exe it was running from having been 'vanished'. This side of a complete restart of the system (due later tonight) I went and hunted down the process in the Task Manager and fully abort it, hoping that I'm not causing other problems, just to get CPAN to start up, see that it looked ok and could be quit (for now!)... It'd probably be easier on my own machine (or I'd balls it up all a lot worse!), but handed it back with a shrug and some crossed-fingers...)
[1] If it needs saving, because of change/not having been saved then it does at least hover around in the background with an appropriate Save/Cancel/Quite-type option, ready to abort them. But anything actually nicely saved/unchanged just vanishes which is... annoying... Grrr..
Post by: McTraveller on November 16, 2023, 02:00:16 pm
Am I right in assuming I should tell them to try and get Windows 10 if they can, rather than 11? And not just 10 Home? I really don't want to deal with requiring MS accounts, or all that stuff. So is that Win10 Pro?
I am, of course, recommending at least 8GB RAM/512GB SSD. Probably a 10th-gen intel or equivalent AMD (I think that's 4000 series?)
EDIT: I ask because I haven't had a Windows or Linux machine in my own house in over a decade. We're happy in Apple land, thankyouverymuch.
Post by: Starver on November 16, 2023, 04:21:06 pm
And absolutely every one of the pre-installed games are now trying to get you to enter a Freecell/Hearts/Minesweeper/etc 'tournament' and/or earn daily participation rewards. Also keep getting notifications for an XBox pass, or something, and going into the Microsoft Store is itself a minefield of micropayment invitations.
...this is Win11 Home, which hasn't been particularly jailbroken (barring that single setting to not just restrict installations to Microsoft Store), just politely but firmly declined most of the 'targetting' stuff. In setup, it asked which of several purposes it would be used for. Checking the reasoning first, it seems it wasn't going to be like a typical Linux Distro's reasoning[2], but would be used to push suggestions/alerts to you. So left it blank, in our case, which (in a worst-case scenario) will still send as many such notifications but at least not know which particular categories we would then end up dismissing/ignoring.
It's certainly seemed fairly easy (as in no worse than prior generations of Windows) to go out there and grab from source (or discs) the actually required software (LibreOffice, GIMP[3], the prefered browsers that aren't Edge...) and get them on there. Couldn't work out how to rearrange Start-pinned items other than the rigmarole of successive and tactical "Move To Front"s in the right order. Pinning to Taskbar (the widgets to the left of the Start now disabled, and Start now full-left where it traditionally has been) is perhaps more useful, once you realise how it's a combined Taskbar (Win95+) and Custom Toolbar (Win98Plus+?), though without the actual main advantages of either. But it works.
In other words, I don't think you need fear Home11, which is probably default for most retail computers (that are MS-based, anyway). But be prepared to take time adjusting things and (though it's probably not as bad going from 8.1 to 10/11 as it was for us) dealing with the various (and possibly unnecessary) foibles.
[1] Needn't be an MS one, but we made one just for it, at setup time, just for separation.
[2] Select "Home Office" and you'd get your expected FOSS office-suit added to the build, choose "Creativity" and you'd get GIMP/etc, "Programming" would add select IDE/compilers)
[3] They've updated their interface paradigm, again, of course... I think, between us, we've got five different 'generations' of GIMP across various computers, none of their interfaces exactly the same as the others (by default), with dockables docked or undocked left/right/top/bottom, combined, etc... perhaps I should just retain the installation binaries of one era and stop being astonished in the next. ;)
Post by: McTraveller on November 16, 2023, 04:52:32 pm
It really is annoying how hostile computer companies are to end users these days. I don't say "customer" because... who knows who the customers really are.
Post by: dragdeler on November 20, 2023, 08:51:14 am
-simply click shutdown
-have winkey+L screen instead
-look in confusion at your user account
-"hey sorry we couldnt shut down the computer because a user is still connected"
Hibernation is as shit as it has been on any windows that came before.
Ads got worse, telemetrics got worse, actually does need an email now...
Advantages of win10.1beta: in some scenarios the gpu can pull textures straight from the ssd. As to how that actually differs from before? Shut up you need it is all you need to know.
Post by: wierd on November 22, 2023, 10:44:50 am
I am perfectly happy on XFCE4 on xubuntu personally though. YMMV.
My main beefs with Microsoft lately, is the increased insistence on trying to tie your local user account identity on your computer, with a microsoft store ID. While I can see the obvious benefits (FOR THEM) of being able to get all that delicious installation metric data, and all that application use telemetry data, and being able to unambiguously de-anonymize it to their little hearts content--- As a computer user, and as a security minded person, I know that this is just one big databreach away from some very real shit going down, and it does not in any way actually make anything about the affected user account more secure by giving it such an attack surface.
So, I am perfectly content to ignore microsoft's OSes until they learn their lesson, which given prevailing management directions at their company, appears to be *never*.
So, XFCE + WineGE + Lutris + xubuntu it will be for the time being.
Post by: LordBaal on November 22, 2023, 11:48:18 am
Post by: wierd on November 22, 2023, 12:08:07 pm
They change up how that subsystem works, and how the oobe setup wizard does stuff. Tricks to bypass it from a few months ago no longer work, etc.
Microsoft is VERY gung-ho on this Microsoft Account BS. They VERY much want to bolt on vertical integration on a platform that historically never had it, in order to harness the microsoft store as a vendor-locked source of income, similar to apple's app store for idevices.
No. Do not want. They can pound sand.
Post by: Schmaven on November 22, 2023, 01:19:49 pm
Post by: McTraveller on November 22, 2023, 09:32:39 pm
I guess the ROI just isn’t there to support Linux - and it’s UI heavy enough that it’s not trivial to port. Probably also because Windows is too easy to put the core logic in the UI code…
Sadly it’s 2023 and we still don’t have close to a universal development platform.
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 23, 2023, 04:02:30 am
Post by: Ulfarr on November 23, 2023, 04:22:17 am
Which method would you recommend for Windows users to remove the most of the telemetry without going to the point of just installing another OS?
There's always the Adama Method (https://youtu.be/OPKGbg16ulU?si=gtk24b60Qbg6r4bk) :P
If Linux didn't have such a steep learning curve, I would switch over and never go back to Microsoft OS. But I can't even figure out which distribution would be good for me, which is likely to have long term support, what the differences are between them, and if the commands are the same or if I'd be starting over with each one. I know people figure it out, and probably if you can learn to play pre-premium DF, you can learn any software, but I had more time back then than I do now. And my last attempt got stuck with the internet not working, so I've been disheartened and discouraged about my Linux capabilities, despite all its glorious promises of freedom. If anyone has any good directions to point me in though, I haven't totally given up on the idea of switching to Linux. Each new Windows version is a fresh kick in the butt to do so.
I don't have any actual experience on Linux yet but I've been planning on setting a drive and give them a try. From what I've learned/watched so far, my understanding is that I should just pick one of the more noob-friendly distributions and just go from there as the needs arise. Mint is often quoted as a good choice for beginners.
I've found this youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisTitusTech/videos) which, while I can't really evaluate the quality of their info/opinions, I like the way the present stuff.
Post by: LordBaal on November 23, 2023, 05:43:17 am
On the subject of shutting down Windows 10 telemetry found this: https://github.com/Sycnex/Windows10Debloater
Post by: Starver on November 23, 2023, 06:13:52 am
In general, the major difference between Linux dists are not in the 'commands' (i.e. anything you'd do with shells, saving perhaps precisely what shell-based install command to use (https://xkcd.com/1654/)), but in the 'skinning' of the GUI. The package-manager interface[1] may vary a bit, but within broad 'wizard'-style bounds that make adding (and removing) functionality not really an impediment for most[2].
Once installed, GIMP is GIMP, LibreOffice is LibreOffice and that Asteroids-like game is that Asteroids-like game, no matter what wm you have (by necessity, default or choice). KDE/Gnome/whatever-based might change some of the support issues you encounter (basic apps might be KDE-specific or Gnome-specific, which might mean hoops to jump through on a basic system install), but being (potentially) as simple as Tom's/Motif or going into the Ice/Xmonad/xfce/etc is mostly bells-and-whistles (like the trend to go for the fancily rendered 'desktop furniture'). And you really don't need glorified "scrollable horizontal ribbon toolbars", a la Apple, when a (now) basic "Start button on a toolbar" gives you much the same (whichever edge/corner of the screen it inhabits) in a way long-time Windows users should be comfortable with.
(Really minimal distros might not even have a 'classic toolbar', instead you pop up a menu by right-click on the desktop, but even Puppy/Damn Small Linux (both JWM?) these days seem to include the toolbar/'start button' setup.)
If it really needs to be reconfigured to work, any half-decent thing (under open-source development) probably has had someone do the necessary work just so that it works for them.
Of course, closed-source products may be beyond use (unless WINE/etc helps). And when you're dealing with someone who gets confused when a "small icon" view is changed to a "details" one[3] then it can be a bit of a hill to climb to get used to a more widely revamped appearance and having to switch away from MSOffice to Libre and/or Photoshop to GIMP (advantages to both aside). Even if OOTB or trivially-reconfigured-OOTB functionally does exactly the same.
Horses for courses. Dists for lists (...of highly personal pros and cons).
[1] Assuming you didn't go straight to one with negligable out-of-the-'box' GUI, and even then you tend to get 'ASCII-rendered' pseudo-GUI setup and package installation tools so you don't need to do more than click-or-tap your
[2] In fact, my past tendency has often been to go "I want that, and thst, and that, and definitely that. Let's also try that, and I can always remove that later...", which was always a developing problem when disk space was a premium. ;)
[3] Actual experience of that... If I switch it, e.g. to sort/examine by file-size, I need to remember to change it back before handing back..m
Post by: dragdeler on November 23, 2023, 06:27:10 am
Well win10 is gonna hit end of support soon... Here's me hoping they keep updating "definitions for viruses" for another decade, and stop fucking messing with the system, then there won't be a thing I don't like about w10 anymore. Tho I've rarely bothered with making any changes that are known to be futile anyway.
Post by: Starver on November 23, 2023, 07:02:00 am
Also interesting to read the (now historic) reports about how Windows 10 "would be the last version". There's a bit of interesting "forward analysis" in the likes of this report (https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/7/8568473/windows-10-last-version-of-windows) (dated 2015) - though the first run-through I just did of it crashed my browser (probably a specific ad badly reacting with my system/connection), just to warn you - which may be useful to compare with what we see now.
But I digress. As usual.
[1] The hardware was originally Win98ed, so you can imagine that I couldn't even consider "reWindowsing" it, these days. But it's all happily registered through the mechanisms and standards of the day, so I'm sticking with it until it actually[2] breaks. (Tempting fate by mentioning it, yet again.)
[2] Irrevocably. The fan in the PSU actually did break free of its spindle, more than 20 years ago, shortly after I 2Ked it. Replaced it, and the new one (fan, that is, in otherwise original PSU) has been spinning ever since. ...the place I bought the fan from has long since gone out of business, actually, but I doubt it's for specifically having sold far too good spare parts! :p
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 23, 2023, 07:34:22 am
Post by: Ulfarr on November 23, 2023, 07:53:29 am
I dont like linux because when it doesn't work out of the box, the suggested solutions never work either...
For what it's worth, I've never seen a suggested solution for any windows problem that work either :P
Frequency of problems aside, it seems to me that for the last ~5 years, whenever I had to look for solutions all I found was the "same" copy-pasted answers that either didn't work or straight up told you to reinstall the OS.
Speaking of problems, excel decided to fuck itself once again. For some reason it started crashing whenever I try to import data from txt. All I know is that it doesn't do it to all files, so maybe some of them got corrupted? Googling it (even with the error code I found through the event viewer) didn't bring up anything useful, so any suggestions are welcome.
Post by: Starver on November 23, 2023, 08:21:52 am
Speaking of problems, excel decided to fuck itself once again. For some reason it started crashing whenever I try to import data from txt. All I know is that it doesn't do it to all files, so maybe some of them got corrupted? Googling it (even with the error code I found through the event viewer) didn't bring up anything useful, so any suggestions are welcome.If you re-save the .txt in different encoding (perhaps going from on or other UTF-16 to UTF-8/ASCII/whatever, possibly even going the other way?) does it import nicer (or at least not crashy)?
Have you also tried cutting it down? See if sequential chunks of (say) a hundred lines will import, individually[1], identifying "safe" bits and narrow down "unsafe" bits until lines (and perhaps fractional lines) of data are identified as your problem, perhaps where a problem with your chosen combination of delimiters (tab, comma, semicolon, space, etc) might be. Unexpected string delimiters (e.g. “”s (inter?)mixed with ""s), or issues with a form of Scientific Notation of values, might also trip it up (though shouldn't/oughtn't!)... Once identified, you might be able to work round it, or prepare your source(s) better in a simple(ish) extra step.
Not quite knowing what data or format you're handling, this is just a generic suggestion. Perhaps it includes something you haven't considered (even though I imagine you have done most of it already).
[1] Slice and resave externally, or perhaps use the "From row:" to skip a given number of original-file lines, if the issue isn't with LineFeed/NewLine stupidity itself...
Post by: dragdeler on November 23, 2023, 08:58:31 am
I dont like linux because when it doesn't work out of the box, the suggested solutions never work either...
For what it's worth, I've never seen a suggested solution for any windows problem that work either :P
Wdym whenever I stumble upon a solution that involves editing the registry I'm like "aw yiss somebody knows their stuff this is going to work", diskpart and diskmgmt.msc are great, the old control panel for the most part pretty good. Problems other than that relate more to software than OS... About the most annoying problem you could have on windows is a version of .net or c redist refusing to install because of the state of your system updates... Which yeah that's not great, and the solution usually involves ignoring a bunch of offical MS pages that have been long erased, but you will up finding it anyway because the knowledge has been formalised and copies are plenty. IMO every linux problem is that but worse: you dont know what dependancies are stopping you from doing a thing and to find out you're not simply navigating a relatively obscure update version history, but this (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg/440px-Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg.png)... And usually it wont refuse to install something incompatible that could brick your OS, windows will probably just tell you: yeah no that's not for me.
How the fuck would you go about installing a retro linux computer... I'm completly ignorant but like if the solution involved typing something into you terminal and downloading some dependancy in 2006... How is that stuff not gone by now, tell me I'm actually curious.
Aw good old win2000 machine. I love win9x... it's been a while I stopped looting computers at work that aren't at least DDR3/DDR4... but one thing I'll allways take with is computers and parts that use the AGP port. God I love my retro shit.
Post by: Ulfarr on November 23, 2023, 09:55:31 am
Speaking of problems, excel decided to fuck itself once again. For some reason it started crashing whenever I try to import data from txt. All I know is that it doesn't do it to all files, so maybe some of them got corrupted? Googling it (even with the error code I found through the event viewer) didn't bring up anything useful, so any suggestions are welcome.If you re-save the .txt in different encoding (perhaps going from on or other UTF-16 to UTF-8/ASCII/whatever, possibly even going the other way?) does it import nicer (or at least not crashy)?
Have you also tried cutting it down? See if sequential chunks of (say) a hundred lines will import, individually[1], identifying "safe" bits and narrow down "unsafe" bits until lines (and perhaps fractional lines) of data are identified as your problem, perhaps where a problem with your chosen combination of delimiters (tab, comma, semicolon, space, etc) might be. Unexpected string delimiters (e.g. “”s (inter?)mixed with ""s), or issues with a form of Scientific Notation of values, might also trip it up (though shouldn't/oughtn't!)... Once identified, you might be able to work round it, or prepare your source(s) better in a simple(ish) extra step.
Not quite knowing what data or format you're handling, this is just a generic suggestion. Perhaps it includes something you haven't considered (even though I imagine you have done most of it already).
[1] Slice and resave externally, or perhaps use the "From row:" to skip a given number of original-file lines, if the issue isn't with LineFeed/NewLine stupidity itself...
Thanks for the suggestions, I think I solved it for now, though I'll have to figure out a more elegant/permanent solution.
My data are just rows of text {"mean value" ±"sd" }, I'm basically using the import function, because I found it easier/faster to just paste into a txt, format it a bit and then import them as separate cells for {mean value} and {sd}, so I can use them for calculations.
Since I don't really care about the "source" txt file, I've been using the same one for all files, sometimes for multiple uses within the same excel file.
Now I don't understand what's happening, but for whatever reason, that messes with excel's data quarries and causes the file to crash at the end of the import. The fix is to delete the, automaticaly, saved data quarry after every import..which is quite a convoluted thing to do manualy everytime, but I haven't found how to disable it yet (if at all possible at my version).
...I dont like linux because when it doesn't work out of the box, the suggested solutions never work either...
For what it's worth, I've never seen a suggested solution for any windows problem that work either :P
I'm not sure if I just misunderstood you, but as I said a few posts ago , I've got no experience on linux. My comment was purely intended to shit on windows..or rather the current state of windows troubleshooting.
Post by: blitz4 on December 12, 2023, 03:58:01 pm
Check out GeForce NOW if you meet the minimum requirements.
https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5225
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce-now/system-reqs/
I do try to remain unbiased. The service has issues. But unlikely what you're worried about. The #1 worry of most is input latency. That's unlikely an issue if you live near one of their servers. I get 8ms ping, <20ms input latency from my server on PC and about 40ms input latency on a 5G connection on my phone when I'm stationary. You just have to try it and if you can't afford an better CPU, it's there. If you've questions I've answers.
Specs: 4080 24GB/5700x/32GB RAM
Post by: Ulfarr on December 12, 2023, 04:59:41 pm
Post by: King Zultan on December 13, 2023, 02:46:32 am
Post by: delphonso on December 13, 2023, 06:35:21 am
Post by: Ulfarr on December 13, 2023, 03:11:18 pm
Post by: King Zultan on December 14, 2023, 02:43:28 am
That's why I have stuff like that backed up on flash drives and SD cards, because those are still available when there's no power and internet.
Post by: Starver on December 14, 2023, 09:26:33 am
That time when the spinning disc no longer spins (or audibly spins but appears to think it doesn't) or the thumbdrive suddenly goes "device not recognised"... Or clearly fell out of my pocket/got left behind somewhere. Occasionally moved data wrongly or failed in some way whilst shuffling. Or the paper got too wet to read[4]... This is the situation the Cloud is meant to help with. A regime of industrial-strength backups (backup of data, backup of hardware, backup of backup-site, ...backup of access method?) to mitigate all kinds of failure-modes.
At least, of course, until something unforseeably unforseen happens ("I'm sorry, customer, everything you uploaded between March and August seems to have been... misplaced?") or equally forseeable but still your responsibility (your main synched device fails out of the blue, you can no longer remember your saved cloud-login details to and you forgot to update your backup email address when you changed ISPs two years ago). The removal of so many other single points of failure is still subject to failures, and it of course won't take the complete failure of civilisation to highly inconvenience many people who take the Cloud as a guaranteed element of data security[5] merely through faith.
Not that I actually practice what I preach, sufficiently. But duplicate your backups ("Grandfather-Father-Son") and distribute across different 'locations' (physical or online), which of course you must attend to updating regularly (or, preferably, frequently). Pre-encrypt that data yourself, whatever apparent protection[6] is already inhetent; choose your own chosen level of precaution, in this regard, even if it means keeping a PGP t-shirt somewhere and learning how to follow the algorithm through with pencil and paper. And, finally, accept that things get lost/stolen anyway. GoogleDrive, 23AndMe, etc...
Oh yes, I've lost much data. With valuable lessons learnt, or unwisely ignored. (Professionally, too, but those are stories for another day/elsewhere. And thankfully that quantity is dwarfed by the amount I've been actually involved in keeping safe.) I wouldn't consider the Cloud as a panacea. Though perhaps it can be wisely made use of, as it happens to nebulously (NPI!) exist as an option.
((But wasn't the original reference to the Cloud more to do with Cloud Computing? That's a significantly different animal, with further arguments for and against.))
[1] Not yet SD, as I haven t really used distinct SD storage.
[2] Or equivalents, which may indeed be functionally similar to SDs.
[3] e.g. painstakingly recorded/saved information that means little except for the gathering, which cannot be repeated, merely resumed with a gap.
[4] The one fate I can't currently recall ever finally killing electronic data, though of course it is a viable one, as would be loss in housefire and other 'physical' disaster.
[5] Which, as I tend to say more often than I think is decent, is two-part: a) Not to lose access to your data, b) Not to lose control of your data. Whether the entirety of your 'private' records end up in the hands of criminals(/rogue AI) is something now far beyond your control, compared to making your own individual arrangements with your own rather limited risks.
[6] Active encryption (encapsulated) or obscurity (hidden behind a keycode). Painstakingly carved into a remote antarctic cave wall using meaningful glyphs of your own design or pervading all the world's major pop-songs as a subcarrier-wave only comprehensible by one who understands the steganographic method sneaked into every major recording studio. Above all, don't just do what everyone defaults to (or only that). Use your own wits, insofar as you have confidence in them, to make yourself at least slightly higher than all the other low-hanging fruit that may at some point become ripe to be feasted upon.
Post by: wierd on December 16, 2023, 01:10:45 am
Specifically, the multidrive ones, --AND CONFIGURED CORRECTLY. Not as one giant store, but as transparent mirror copies, or better yet-- as striped RAID.
One of the drives in the unit fails? Fine-- replace it with an identical or larger sized one. Easy Peasy. Device rebuilds, and your data is still safe.
Post by: King Zultan on December 16, 2023, 02:43:52 am
Post by: dragdeler on December 16, 2023, 03:40:15 am
Pff I might have some issues... I realized I got like a very janky backup chain, and I never lost files except for the time someone stole my laptop. But I have issues justifying keeping one computer on, and if it's not on 24/7 it's hardly more practical than an external hdd. I just can't without feeling bad about it.
Post by: delphonso on December 16, 2023, 03:41:50 am
Post by: Starver on December 16, 2023, 07:16:54 am
...but this all is according to how paranoid you are about various threats to your data, and what you find worthwhile to mitigate against and what you perhaps do not think it worth the trouble for. In the opposite direction you could just stick with your original singular USB-portable-drive plugged into <whatever machine> and either manually copy over or automatically update it across the local network. At least until it is no longer there/usable. Ideally nderstand the limits to your setup, and the capabilities.
[1] "Remote RAID5"-it? Like enforce striped A-Data, B-Data and AxorB-Data distributed between 3(+) sub-NASes, which also ensures that a full third of your data is additionally encrypted? ;) But that only requires 50% extra space (or recuction to 2/3rds the base physical capacity, from the total 'shared minimum' volume of data).
Post by: wierd on December 16, 2023, 10:22:52 am
file level, and block level.
For file level, the NAS boxes can communicate with each other using rsync in daemon mode (https://www.atlantic.net/vps-hosting/how-to-setup-rsync-daemon-linux-server/)
Doing it with block level is more challenging, but doable-- You will need to configure one of them as a slave, that just hosts iSCSI LUN "Targets", and the other as an "iSCSI Initiator" This is more a SAN application however, and not a NAS operation. (NAS devices are file level devices. iSCSI hosts are SAN appliances, and offer raw disk devices over TCP/IP)
Setting up iSCSI is .... A lot... more involved, but will let you create a software RAID configuration on the NAS, that directly connects to, and incorporates the remote drives in the slaved SAN device, as if they were local disks in the array.
EG, your RAID array has drives that are local, and some that are "On the other side of the house". Suppose you made a RAID1 array, with 2 mirrored RAID4 groups. One RAID4 that is local, and the other RAID4 that is hosted on the iSCSI host, made from its LUN targets. These are combined into a RAID1 mirror group, so that data written to the local drives, gets mirrored on the remote drives, automatically.
Many consumer NAS boxes support both functions, incidentally-- but not usually with raw block devices.
Spoiler: Advanced shit (click to show/hide)
See for instance, this QNAP documentation.
RSYNC Daemon setup documentation (https://docs.qnap.com/operating-system/qts/4.5.x/en-us/GUID-C8B5E7D3-7241-4F09-8595-1279E694C7EC.html)
iSCSI setup documentation (https://www.qnap.com/en/how-to/tutorial/article/how-to-create-and-use-the-iscsi-target-service-on-a-qnap-nas)
Post by: Ulfarr on December 18, 2023, 11:40:18 am
If Linux didn't have such a steep learning curve, I would switch over and never go back to Microsoft OS. But I can't even figure out which distribution would be good for me, which is likely to have long term support, what the differences are between them, and if the commands are the same or if I'd be starting over with each one. I know people figure it out, and probably if you can learn to play pre-premium DF, you can learn any software, but I had more time back then than I do now. And my last attempt got stuck with the internet not working, so I've been disheartened and discouraged about my Linux capabilities, despite all its glorious promises of freedom. If anyone has any good directions to point me in though, I haven't totally given up on the idea of switching to Linux. Each new Windows version is a fresh kick in the butt to do so.
I don't have any actual experience on Linux yet but I've been planning on setting a drive and give them a try. From what I've learned/watched so far, my understanding is that I should just pick one of the more noob-friendly distributions and just go from there as the needs arise. Mint is often quoted as a good choice for beginners.
I've found this youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisTitusTech/videos) which, while I can't really evaluate the quality of their info/opinions, I like the way the present stuff.
A bit of a follow up on this. I've been messing around with AntiX* linux for a few days now, on an old laptop that I have.
I had a problem** during installation but the installer gave enough info on what to do that it was fixed quite easily. Apart from that, it's been going pretty smooth. Coming from windows everything, out of the box, is familiar enough that for light use (surf the internet, watch a movie, studying etc) I doubt anyone would have any problems adapting to the new environment.
* I don't now enough to compare it to other distros, but it's quite lightweight for an OS (it uses ~200 MB "sitting" at the desktop, for comparison win10 uses ~2 GB), it comes in both 32 and 64 bit versions so it can be compatible with really old computers and it's actively maintained. AntiX devs have a political agenda (antifascist/anticapitalist). They promote it somewhat, but as far as I can tell, it's limited to a few bookmarks and the name given to each release. i doubt it's going to be a dealbreaker.
**It was something about grub bootloader and the EFI / ESP partition that didn't work. I fixed it by installing grub to MBR and then reconfiguring it, using the boot repair tool that was included in the ISO. I noticed later that they do have a different way to fix it, on their site, so I might do a new install at some point.
Post by: wierd on December 19, 2023, 07:49:36 am
It is system-d free (YAY, No hentai init tendrils in EVERYTHING!), and based on Debian-Stable (Somewhat boo-- While very reliable and easy to figure out when something is wrong / get and use packages, since .DEB is well represented in the world these days-- the packages in Debian's repos are... ... ... 'old'...) distro.
It should run basically like xubuntu if you put xfce4 on it, or like lubuntu if you out lxde on it. (Or mint, if you use Cinnamon or Mate) The issue will be that you aren't used ubuntu's repos (which means a lot of stuff wont work out of box, like many network cards or nvidia's graphics driver.)
Post by: eerr on December 20, 2023, 08:47:46 pm
My environment has background noise from the computer.
I may have fucked up by uninstalling the driver and messing it up, so I get recurring audio problems.
I'm on windows 11 using discord, and last time I had the problem I was able to fix it.
but i forgot the solution.
Sans ability to fix a driver that was uninstalled (impossible!)
How do I get windows 11 to pick up slightly lower sounds rather than chopping them off?
Post by: Eschar on December 26, 2023, 08:52:54 pm
The only solution someone has suggested is disabling Auto HDR, but my monitor can't support HDR at all and there are no options to disable Auto HDR, so that can't be it. I've updated all graphics drivers, etc.
Any suggestions?
Post by: eerr on December 26, 2023, 11:32:26 pm
I have yet to be let down by any mid or late-gen bluetooth product.
Post by: anewaname on December 29, 2023, 09:25:27 pm
If you are getting a similar effect as the others had, then it is probably something similar; some sort of luminescence modifier that is overamplifying brightness, and it may be that they solved it by turning off Auto HDR when they could also have solved it by changing a game setting. Have you gone through the game's video settings and tried setting it all to "lowest" and turning off all the optional visuals? Just to see if you can get a usable visual?
Post by: wierd on December 30, 2023, 01:46:29 am
Forcibly disabling HDR in the game is the legit solution.
Post by: Schmaven on January 08, 2024, 06:28:05 pm
More useful would be to show no options until the phone is done reshuffling things. Or better yet, just have unclickable generic place-holder buttons while the links are configured.
It is helpful at times to have a list of recently used applications sorted by date. I just wish it wasn't also a constant source of opportunities to practice patience...
Post by: dragdeler on January 09, 2024, 04:12:50 am
Sry to be political in this thread.
Post by: Starver on January 09, 2024, 06:50:16 am
From your initial description, however, it seemed to be an (improbable?) error in the relevent Window Manager (or similar rendering subsys), if not downright corruption/replacement that you definitely want sorted. But 'merely' to lag with finalising basic object placement (render then rearrange) seems... If not a deliberate thing by an unseen hand (that also needs sorting, really)... a certain degree of unlikely.
But then I read the last bit as this only affecting a File Manager and/or App Manager and/or the position of app icons on the homescreen. If this is the same issue and not just a separate complaint.
I've seen my own quota of odd OS behaviours, or things switched around for no discernible reason[1], but I'm having a hard time working out if I can help, and am wondering if there's some clarification. If not for me, then for one who does know "that thing in iOS that all the support forums currently are a-buzz with"/whatever...
[1] Recently discovered that Win11 (and possible Win10 and earlier) doesn't shuffle a minimised window to the 'end' of the Alt-Tab sequence (or beginning of the Shift-Alt-Tab one) but continues to feature them as most recently active as first Alt-Tab, etc. Which ruins (along with other 'feature changes') a rather handy way of organising and proceeding through (say) the various Notepad instances that were opened to fulfill a task. An organising method that has been around at least since Win95... And (with a few key differences) even back in the Win3s or earlier.
Post by: Schmaven on January 09, 2024, 04:38:14 pm
I just have to treat everything like Windows XP now: start it, walk away for a bit / do something else, then go back once the software has figured itself out enough to be able to function.
Post by: AzyWng on January 28, 2024, 07:20:52 pm
Any ideas what might be causing this issue and how I can stop it from happening?
Post by: Starver on January 28, 2024, 10:22:49 pm
Laptops can be a bit weird with improperly explained things like that[1] (and trying to explain the traditional "triple-toggle" of laptop screen/VGA-out/both was always difficult for new users, IME, before even these days of having the added screen-extending options for separate desktops and Presentation Software self-arranging it to give "preview view" 'privately', etc).
If it's not that, then it sounds like the video driver is capable of that, but unintentionally triggered to do so internally. Which might be something happening to others so the manufacturer's forum (or third-party place that specialises in that brand) might have accumulated some complaints about. Or an obscure/unintended game-hotkey gets (thought to be?) pressed.
Not sure how you can test my first thought without keeping close eye on what you might have been hovering over, when things go funny, then trying to untoggle it and go "Aha! So that's what that blue keytop glyph means...", if you do manage to link such a cause-and-effect.
[1] For example, having to "FN-key" the function keys to get the actual F# because, by default, the straight F# press gives the 'alternative' extended function rather than the now traditional OS one (F2=rename, F3=search etc)
Post by: AzyWng on January 28, 2024, 11:17:30 pm
I should also note that I'm getting occasional freeze-ups when gaming in general. Sometimes both screens resume play like nothing happened, and other times the monitor stays frozen while the laptop's screen keeps going.
EDIT: When playing Yakuza Kiwami 2 with a gamepad, I've also got the bigger monitor freezing. So I don't think it's a situation where I'm hitting the wrong buttons on a keyboard...
SECOND EDIT: When I set the game to "Windowed" and move the game to the other monitor (I tried switching the settings so the monitors extend one another instead of mirroring them), I don't seem to have the issue anymore.
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 30, 2024, 03:50:42 pm
He wants this to be easily accessible by any of his computers, so all the SMB shares are set to "guest only". This has created a permissions issue. Right now the service is configured with a PUID:GUID of 1000:1000 for the primary user of the NAS, and the files and folders are the permission of that user and can't be edited by guests. I'm assuming there's a way to set it to guests, but when I put in the 0:0 that "id @guest" gave me it didn't solve the problem.
Post by: Starver on March 06, 2024, 11:39:56 am
(Didn't want to gratuiously want to welcome its return, as of yesterday, but I've got something else to query.)
A bit off "computing", but perhaps electronics...
Situation: A wall-mounted "Radio-controlled clock" (synchronised with so-called 'Rugby' time-signal, these days the UK broadcasting mast being based in Cumbria, but that's closer and the transfer was a whilecago now) went wrong. Showed odd times, whirred round as it adjusted (analogue, mechanical, standard clock design is to never adjust 'backwards' so it might need to sweep the hands round the best part of a full hour's revolution). Eventually, died and wouldn't work at all, no matter how much battery fiddling and button-pushing was tried. Replacement bought. Very similar, both 'powered' by a 'standard' MSF-style "quartz alarm clock" unit (single AAA battery type) set behind the 12"-or-so-diameter face.
New wall clock also has started to go wrong. Sometimes seen an hour-and-a-bit fast, independently moving second-hand seems to be correct (against LCD clocks with their own 'Rugby' connection, 'pips' on analogue radio, probably also TIM/speaking-clock and websites like time.is, etc), at least when checked, but gear-tied hours and minutes seem lost/adrift on frequent occasions. Or you hear a whir and they're readjusting back to correct (not having noticed precisely what up-to-11h:59m of 'correction' was required, but obviously the clock thinks it needs it). Not yet had the hands stop entirely, unlike when the original broke.
The clock hangs (as did the one it replaced) on a wall near a windowsill upon which an LCD RC-clock keeps (seemingly) perfect time. Obviously glass vs brick (insulation-filled cavity wall) is slightly different, but given the line-of-sight-ish direction to the Cumbria mast, probably not a great factor. And this was not a known problem prior to the predecessor starting to go off-kilter.
The only factor that seems to coincide with the errors starting to crop up, might be the installation of a smart-meter. Within the same stretch of wall is some of the electricity-feed (and, for some time before, bits of the FIT-equipment that the roof solar panels also connect to, though their inverter is elsewhere). Since the smart-meter, a battery-storage was installed (last autumn, not yet reached the time of year when it is useful, and this is after the replacement clock), also located near the inverter (though includes changed cabling to/from the meter-box). But, though it is hard to pin down, the most logical (local) change was the smart-meter installation itself. Thus intimating that either it's the (SIM-based?) call-home signal doing something to corrupt 'Rugby' reception (unlikely?), or some novel electrical flux from whatever rearrangement of supply (external and solar) got fed through the new meter and other bits and pieces inserted betwixt incoming supply and onwards towards the separate (different housing) fusebox unit.
As an experiment, have asked the owner to moun the clock on a different (internal) wall. Too early to tell, but not so much obvious periods of inaccuracy. Second-hand retains customary precision (against other clocks), and I once caught it whirring maybe from "two-ish minutes slow" to become correct again, once, but never noticed to be "running wrong" for any time at all, despite greater awareness and thus comparing with other clocks/etc, nor adjusting forward for a majority of the 12 hour sweep.
Had, at one point looked into the actual time-signal encoding. The time difference (in minutes) seemed to be 010101012 minutes 85m, 1h25m) fast, prompting ideas of a beat interference getting entangled with the broadcast 'data', but this didn't seem to hold up with either the way the signal is encoded nor the other phases of error and correctness observed. (This, admittedly, is probably the closest this issue comes to being a 'computer' problem.)
I've had both clocks 'opened'. More so with the old one, once "broken", but I've had the face-'glass' off the new one. No apparent mechanical seizure. Could not quite free the quartz-unit's casing (on the proven 'dead' old one) to poke away at the dead circuitry/internal gearing (and not even gone that far on the new 'working' one), very much designed as "no user-servicable parts", at that level, and screws and casing 'tabs' seem to have been designed as much more impregnible than the '80s-era same-style integrated travel alarm clocks (just quartz/mechanical, not RC) that I regularly dismantled and remantled just for fun way back then. ;) (I was going to actually break open the old-one's casing, but the owner went and put it into IEEE bin at the refuse site, shortly after its replacement was installed.)
Anyway, for now I'm opening up this question to anyone who might have a better technical insight than myself, as far as any more remote disgnosis might be made. If the clock's owner can't handle turning to glance at the different wall, to get an idea of the time, it may get moved back and we'll see if it goes crazy again on a(n, ironically,) irregular but very frequent basis. If the new clock actually breaks (like the old one), then its replacement might be permanently moved across. If it just runs its battery down quicker than expected (all that 12-hour forwarding?), as we think it's also been doing, then it'll probably just be lived with. ;)
Post by: McTraveller on March 08, 2024, 07:38:13 am
Spoiler: side conversation on clocks (click to show/hide)
Post by: Funk on March 09, 2024, 04:49:50 pm
I have tabs, many tab over a few dozen windows.
Then it crashs now of coruse it doesnt do a session restore.
And no you can't just use the file from last time it closed to restore the tabs...
Fire fox is much better built, it can happerly keep my 7760 tabs safe.
Post by: wierd on March 10, 2024, 12:35:34 am
Post by: Starver on March 10, 2024, 02:15:04 am
Spoiler: Personal perspective on that... (click to show/hide)
Post by: wierd on March 10, 2024, 03:19:22 am
For "Seven Thousand", you are better off with a properly sorted and manicured (eg, with dividers, and nested trees) bookmarks file. You need that ONE page out of your seven thousand you want to keep track of, you can just click 3 times to get it, always, 100% of the time. No Kvetching when something closes the tab.
The reasons for this are multitudinous, in that inactive tabs **ARE NOT INACTIVE**. They are still consuming bandwidth, are still processing javascript, are still displaying ads (if you dont have an adblocker), are still processing cookies, and in many cases, are still actively monitoring your browsing experience.
You should close that shit.(tm)
Even on android, those tabs are still "Doing shit" when you are not actively viewing them. This is true in both android chrome, and android firefox. The browser will start running the risk of being murdered repeatedly by the zygote process reaper if it gets too unwieldy. For all the reasons above, it will also destroy your data allowance very fast. --Not to mention what it does to your battery, given that javascript is still being processed. Sometimes LOTS of javascript, because of how heavy cross-site javascript tends to be these days.
There are a shitload of reasons to just Close That Shit(tm).
[I have a rooted android phone, so I can make a video about how this is true, by spying on the browser's user process with TOP over an ADB host connection {as root}, then opening and just ignoring a shitload of tabs. I might also add the zram process to the list of monitored tasks, since most modern phones use zram swap, and under memory duress, the phone will make heavy use of it, which is CPU expensive. It's been awhile since I have done a youtube video... I think I'll do this!]
Post by: King Zultan on March 12, 2024, 02:27:06 am
I used to have a lot open but these days I have somewhere around 80 open at all times and most of them are Bay12 pages I keep meaning to read, the others are related to various projects I still need to finish.
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 25, 2024, 02:57:44 pm
I've gotten it to the point where the first NAS (the only one I'm running it on at the moment) is connected to the Tailscale network, but I can't currently do anything with the connection.
Post by: wierd on March 25, 2024, 03:03:53 pm
https://linux.die.net/man/1/rsync
the ssh tunnel can encrypt the delta transfers against snooping, and adds user-definable levels of security to that effect. (All the way up to AES512, if you REALLY want to.)
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 25, 2024, 03:17:05 pm
Post by: wierd on March 26, 2024, 05:56:41 am
Also, why smb or ftp? rsync moves files all by itself. It is a general purpose file copier.
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 26, 2024, 05:59:08 am
Post by: wierd on March 27, 2024, 01:48:13 am
Otherwise, any file that the user/group that rsync is running under can be pushed with rsync anywhere rsync can talk to/reach.
this page covers both local and remote file copies.
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-rsync-to-sync-local-and-remote-directories
single files can be passed instead of a directory, just for completeness. This is useful for when say, you have an enormous virtual machine disk image (or a LUN image in a SAN server) that you only want to transfer the deltas for (because the image is 20gb in size).
the only time you would want or need smb and pals, is when you want to access one of the nodes with your local network with windows boxes or something.
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 27, 2024, 05:19:11 am
the only time you would want or need smb and pals, is when you want to access one of the nodes with your local network with windows boxes or something.
This is the main sticking point. None of the people involved (including me) would ever use Linux as a primary OS except at gunpoint.
Post by: wierd on March 27, 2024, 06:55:45 am
I have a fancy script that fires when my linux equipped laptop signs into my home wifi network, that automatically mounts my NAS's NFS share on a local folder, so I can just work with it.
In terms of speed difference, I have noted that I can get upward of 10mb/sec through the NFS mount (Using wireless AC), and only get about 6mb/sec over the same connection with SMB. Sadly, NFS support on windows is relegated to "Subsystem for Linux", and is ... not that mature or healthy.
Post by: Starver on April 01, 2024, 09:18:31 am
The other week, though, the firm who did the last wiring/equipment reconfiguring for that house's solar feed-in did a check-up on it and pursuaded the owner (noting, in passing, my own doubts doubts about this not being just an unnecessary up-selling manouever) that there was an 'overvoltage problem' and they needed to
Owner then moved the clock back to where it originally was. And it went wrong again within a day...
So it's not (all else being equal) 'overvoltage' issues, but the smart meter/etc is of course still there, and the clock clearly needs to be elsewhere for whatever reason.
Post by: Eric Blank on April 01, 2024, 03:04:45 pm
Post by: delphonso on April 03, 2024, 07:51:07 am
What VPNs do you guys trust? Specifically for a windows PC
I use Astrill here in China, which has been reliable, and without reports of bullshit. I'd also recommend ProtonVPN, as proton's services all seem to be pretty good eggs.
Post by: AzyWng on April 24, 2024, 11:58:46 am
However, I can run the game by going into the game files and running its executable. I'm not sure why that is, but I'd prefer to be able to simply run the game through the launcher(s).