Random Question Thread: Tech

**Ratatapa** · 2012-10-02 06:59

K will try that thanks

**Ratatapa** · 2012-10-06 17:38

Looking fora good and not too pricey HDMI splitter

Have 3 HDMI on my TV atm and they are all full and i will need a 4th slot for the future WII U

**Tricen** · 2012-10-06 21:22

What is foreground data when it comes to the droid razr's browser thing? Out of nowhere, the data usage went from 10 mg to 1.5gb in a day and it says it's mostly foreground data?

**Weeks** · 2012-10-06 21:42

Originally Posted by Weeks

How can I be sure that Windows crashes and freezes are due to my power supply? I'm afraid that the only option will be to stick a naked power supply on my desk plugged into my motherboard and see if the crashes stop.

Against all the advice in the other thread, I went with my preferred build:

Antec ISK 110 VESA mITX case with 90W PSU
Intel i7 3770S
Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe motherboard
8GB Corsair RAM
128GB Samsung 830 SSD

The only things I have plugged in are the 65W TDP CPU, the 8GB RAM, a USB keyboard, my speakers, my monitor via DisplayPort, and the USB upstream cable for my monitor. Memtest via a USB clean boot showed no problems with the RAM. CPU temperatures sit in the low 50s C. Got the latest BIOS flashed. All the latest drivers installed. Windows 7 Ultimate installed and a few minor updates refuse to succeed via Windows Update (A .NET-related one and a completely irrelevant IE one).

Windows sometimes resets while I'm doing absolutely nothing. Sometimes it just freezes and never restarts until I manually power down the system. It happens sometimes when I'm doing stuff too. Twice while installing updates (But I've spent several hours doing that, so I think it was chance), once about 5 minutes after I started playing FFXI on it, once about 20 minutes into FFXI. Looking through event viewer, it just says that Windows was closed unexpectedly, which I think implicates hardware.

Just for an update: Got a new copy of Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit with SP1 in the mail today, put it on the freshly-formatted USB stick and installed it on this computer without changing anything, and it now installs all the updates with no problems and has yet to give me any hint of instability (Though I'm looking at many hours of FFXI updates before I can verify stability with FFXI).

**Gun-it** · 2012-10-07 18:00

Not sure if this the right place to ask but I got an iPhone a few months back was wondering what people use iCloud for. I understand what it does but at the moment I don't use it for anything and was just wondering what other people use it for or is it not really worth using?

**Kais** · 2012-10-08 13:38

playing with visual styles
found out i couldn't browse folders when saving or opening stuff sometimes. switched back to aero and still had the problem.

anyone have an idea on what's causing the problem?

**Caiyuo** · 2012-10-08 14:07

Normally that happens sometimes when I've used a patcher that runs in memory instead of actually patching the system files, but that wouldn't be the problem assuming you used Universal Theme Patcher that's listed in the image. Have you tried switching it to Windows 7 Basic or Windows Classic and then back to Aero in the Personalization menu? If that doesn't work then the theme files for Aero might've been deleted or replaced. Did you use any other tools/apps?

**Kais** · 2012-10-08 14:32

tried basic and classic, still no go
i think i tried bblean but deleted it not too long after
edit: nvm, got it, had to do run some scan command and then repatch with the universal theme patcher, fixed some other problems too!

**Purrrfect** · 2012-10-09 10:19

Anyone used Any Video Converter to recode movies recorded by afterburner? It reads the movies as being 30fps (which they are) but it reports the length shorter than it really is. When I play the video in the preview it plays at the right pace but the time slider goes slower than the time really is so it finishes at the end but reports a shorter time. When it encodes the output is the shorter, incorrect length but its the full video, so it plays faster than it should. Any ideas?

**Gun-it** · 2012-10-09 22:14

I am looking at getting a new desktop and I know building one can be cheaper etc, but I have never done that nor do I really have time to do so.
So pretty much what would be a good desktop to buy for about $500? Been a while since I bought a new pc is that not enough. I am really just looking to do basic stuff plus play some ffxi but not really any other games.

**Adajer** · 2012-10-10 06:16

My optical drive makes this weird noise when i power on my pc. It kinda sounds like it is grinding or trying to spin the disk inside. Does it briefly every power on. Any idea hat it is? (And it is the optical drive. I unplugged it and powered on and didn't hear the noise.) It is a Lite-on iHAS224.

**Niya** · 2012-10-10 11:27

Has is started doing it just recently or has it been that way all the time?
It's normal for CD/DVD/BD drives to produce certain noises when you power on your system, they move the lens, rotation motor and the slide it rests on for adjustment and self-test reasons, and probably also to see if there's a disc present.

**RKenshin** · 2012-10-10 12:37

Originally Posted by Gun-it

I am looking at getting a new desktop and I know building one can be cheaper etc, but I have never done that nor do I really have time to do so.
So pretty much what would be a good desktop to buy for about $500? Been a while since I bought a new pc is that not enough. I am really just looking to do basic stuff plus play some ffxi but not really any other games.

~$500 can definitely build you a decent PC, but it depends a good deal on what you already have.

Do you also need a monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse, and/or operating system? Those components can easily add up to a large chunk of your $500 budget, which would make it more difficult to fit a decent build into the budget.

A sample build I rushed to put together:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jVPg

Almost $500 on the button! (although some mail-in rebates and promotions that expire soon)

But that's a decent enough build that will easily run FFXI, and even some more modern games on decent settings. Others can feel free to adjust it from there, since I rushed a bit, but I think it's a solid setup to start with.

**hey** · 2012-10-10 12:46

Originally Posted by RKenshin

A sample build I rushed to put together:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jVPg

Single channel ram

**Adajer** · 2012-10-10 13:48

Yes, there is a disc present. I will try later on without a disc. It is a new drive.

**Jojimbo** · 2012-10-10 14:13

Originally Posted by RKenshin

A sample build I rushed to put together:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jVPg

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jWel with current gen parts

Originally Posted by Adajer

Yes, there is a disc present. I will try later on without a disc. It is a new drive.

Could try entering BIOS and changing the boot order as it might be that the PC is trying to boot off the DVD, although it's been a while since I had one in my PC (let alone booted off it) so it might be what Niya said and be doing it regardless of boot order so long a disc is in the drive.

**Niya** · 2012-10-10 15:53

It's not a matter of whether there is a disc in the drive or not, those initialization noises always come. I haven't put a disc in any of my 2 drives for months and they always scratch/screech/growl around on every boot. Boot order doesn't matter either, they ALWAYS do it ^^
As long as the noise doesn't vary or get louder/quieter on each boot everything should be fine.

**Kaisha** · 2012-10-10 16:33

What's the recommended software nowadays for making an image of a PC?

**RKenshin** · 2012-10-10 17:37

Originally Posted by hey

Single channel ram

Could've swore I filtered 1x4 out of my results when searching... my mistake.

Originally Posted by Jojimbo

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jWel with current gen parts

^ Much better than the build I first posted.

**Gun-it** · 2012-10-10 19:09

Originally Posted by RKenshin

~$500 can definitely build you a decent PC, but it depends a good deal on what you already have.

Do you also need a monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse, and/or operating system? Those components can easily add up to a large chunk of your $500 budget, which would make it more difficult to fit a decent build into the budget.

A sample build I rushed to put together:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jVPg

Almost $500 on the button! (although some mail-in rebates and promotions that expire soon)

But that's a decent enough build that will easily run FFXI, and even some more modern games on decent settings. Others can feel free to adjust it from there, since I rushed a bit, but I think it's a solid setup to start with.

I am not looking to build a pc looking for one already put together like from dell Sony etc.

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