Random Question Thread: Tech

[Boyiee]

Turns out the voltage was messed up in mobo settings going to pci slot and the card was underfed. He just had to reset CMOS.

[Kaisha]

Couple speaker/audio-related Qs.

Anyone know wtf you call a device that 'switches' from one audio input to another? I got a bit of a jerry-rigged setup here for swapping analog stereo audio input between my PS3 and PC, but the switch is worn out and causes a nice static hiss on the speakers whenever I adjust the volume, so I'm looking into replacing it with something more permanent than this cheap solution I found locally.

The other is, which I'm having trouble Googling an answer for, is there a means of converting an audio signal from optical/hdmi to 3x3.5mm jacks for 5.1? I'm illiterate when it comes to digital audio solutions vs. analog, and he speaker set I got is old, but I wouldn't mind some surround sound on the PS3 if possible since these speakers/subwoofer still work perfectly fine. For the PS3 currently I'm just using RCA out, a couple gender-benders, and feeding it into a 3.5mm adapter, which then feeds into my switch.

[Callisto]

Kind of an odd issue, but basically I just an hoping someone knowledgeable can confirm an explanation I got from an AverMedia support rep:

I have two capture cards in my PC, an Aver HD-DVR(C027) and Aver Game Broadcaster HD(C127). The end goal is to have the input of the C127 streaming through XSplit, while the C027 input is being recorded by the Aver MediCenter software. Short version is I can only get one of the two cards to work at a time. Aver support sent me this:

We would like to let you know that your user scenario won't be supported. Avermedia Center (for capture) and XSplit (for streaming) can't be utilized at the same on time on the same platform. There will be software conflict. But this is not our product related issue, in general you can't run two different capture applications at the same time.

Windows neither will be able to process video and audio from different media applications at the same time. Therefore please run application only at one time.

I've never heard of this limitation, but I also haven't really seen other people attempting to use two capture devices at once either.

[Callisto]

The other is, which I'm having trouble Googling an answer for, is there a means of converting an audio signal from optical/hdmi to 3x3.5mm jacks for 5.1?

I looked into this a while back and couldn't find crap really, there's a video switch I have that I think gets the job done as a side effect but it's like $80+ so probably not something you'd be looking for.

[Snprphnx]

Question on wireless networks

My employer is having connection issues with all of its mobile PCs we have installed on our storage warehouse forklifts. They are blaming it on employees breaking company policy and using the companies wireless network to connect our personal phones (iPhone/android), laptops, iPads, kindles, etc to the Internet (even though the company servers block 75% of the web, even Wikipedia.). They are claiming upwards of 19-20 unauthorized devices are connecting to it daily, which is roughly half the employees on shift. Most of whom don't have any clue what the network name and password is.

I was wondering, if they are trying to monitor things on their side, will the wireless network show as communication with a device even when it isn't connected. Also, am I out of lime to call bullshit on them over saying we are flooding the wireless, making the forklift PCs disconnect.

[Isiolia]

Couple speaker/audio-related Qs.

Anyone know wtf you call a device that 'switches' from one audio input to another? I got a bit of a jerry-rigged setup here for swapping analog stereo audio input between my PS3 and PC, but the switch is worn out and causes a nice static hiss on the speakers whenever I adjust the volume, so I'm looking into replacing it with something more permanent than this cheap solution I found locally.

The other is, which I'm having trouble Googling an answer for, is there a means of converting an audio signal from optical/hdmi to 3x3.5mm jacks for 5.1? I'm illiterate when it comes to digital audio solutions vs. analog, and he speaker set I got is old, but I wouldn't mind some surround sound on the PS3 if possible since these speakers/subwoofer still work perfectly fine. For the PS3 currently I'm just using RCA out, a couple gender-benders, and feeding it into a 3.5mm adapter, which then feeds into my switch.

Source selector or switch. Like this maybe?

Far as taking digital to your speaker set, there are stand-alone surround decoders that can do that, such as this one. I couldn't vouch for the quality of it, just that it exists. Friend of mine has been looking at getting one for the same purpose.

[Niya]

Question on wireless networks

My employer is having connection issues with all of its mobile PCs we have installed on our storage warehouse forklifts. They are blaming it on employees breaking company policy and using the companies wireless network to connect our personal phones (iPhone/android), laptops, iPads, kindles, etc to the Internet (even though the company servers block 75% of the web, even Wikipedia.). They are claiming upwards of 19-20 unauthorized devices are connecting to it daily, which is roughly half the employees on shift. Most of whom don't have any clue what the network name and password is.

I was wondering, if they are trying to monitor things on their side, will the wireless network show as communication with a device even when it isn't connected. Also, am I out of lime to call bullshit on them over saying we are flooding the wireless, making the forklift PCs disconnect.

Sounds a little fishy to me... Any Access Point should be able to provide a MAC address list for all currently connected devices, and they can just cross-check that with the MAC addresses of the "allowed" devices.
Since WLAN is a shared medium and your company WLAN probably still runs on the (totally over-used) 2,4GHz band, there could be hundreds of influences that disturb the connectivity. Pretty much any wireless protocol nowadays (bluetooth, wireless remotes) and even some devices like microwaves work in or somewhere near the 2,4GHz band and disturb it.
Since no one of you knows the password for the WLAN, those mobile devices would only have 2 ways of influencing it: WLAN tethering, or active scans for networks.
A WLAN device has 2 options for finding available networks: passive (just wait for a beacon signal) or active (kind of a shoutout "hey, i want WLAN, who offers one?"). Passive is slower, but active needs more energy, so unless someone constantly hammers the "refresh WLANs" button on his/her device most of them should constantly be on passive mode.

So, the company APs would only know about your device when they record the active scans they answer. As long as you either have WLAN turned off or your device is on passive all the time (which should be the case unless you actually tell it to search for WLANs) the APs shouldn't be able to "see" your device.

[hey]

What is the easiest way to make a copy of every song in a playlist (or delete anything not in it)?

[Buffy]

Question on wireless networks

My employer is having connection issues with all of its mobile PCs we have installed on our storage warehouse forklifts. They are blaming it on employees breaking company policy and using the companies wireless network to connect our personal phones (iPhone/android), laptops, iPads, kindles, etc to the Internet (even though the company servers block 75% of the web, even Wikipedia.). They are claiming upwards of 19-20 unauthorized devices are connecting to it daily, which is roughly half the employees on shift. Most of whom don't have any clue what the network name and password is.

I was wondering, if they are trying to monitor things on their side, will the wireless network show as communication with a device even when it isn't connected. Also, am I out of lime to call bullshit on them over saying we are flooding the wireless, making the forklift PCs disconnect.

There are a series of interesting thoughts here actually. You mention warehouse, and forklifts. If your company chose a low-quality access point, in particular if they didn't use a powered node (most high-quality access points are PPOE, or have a alternate power supply to boost signal), they could be having interference just from the metal in the building, if the metal gets between the access points and the receiving locations. In my head I'm picturing a warehouse filled with a series of tall metal shelving, you would need a forklift to reach the highest level of the shelving due to height and weight. If true, the signal might not be strong enough and it could drop as the forklift drives around, or gets too much metal shelving in the way between the access point and the mobile PC. In addition, the receiver on the mobile PCs could be crap, however that seems unlikely if they were purpose built for this application. An actively powered dell receiver would do better than a simple USB wireless receiver.

If true (that they used unpowered access points or crappy wireless receivers), your employer needs to fire whoever recommended their current installation and upgrade, it will resolve the problem.

Your employer could/should take several additional steps to resolve this:

Upgrade the access points.
Change the name of the network.
Turn SSID broadcast off.
Change the password.
Restrict knowledge of the new name/password to 3 people (CFO, System Administrator, 1 technician).
Change the network name on all the mobile PCs, write down the MAC addresses.
Turn on MAC authentication. http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/w...macaddress.htm, http://www.juniper.net/techpubs/soft...pic-37917.html
Install a MAC tracking software (some routers, access points, and systems come with them installed).
Compare the MAC addresses connecting to the network vs. the approved list on a daily basis. Any non-approved MAC addresses get actively blocked using the MAC tracking software.

The entire process should take a day or two (assuming less than 100 total computers - it's literally like 5 minutes to put a wireless network on a windows pc), and now everyone can stop bitching at each other.

Also, if your system administrator hasn't recommended these steps and at least 5 more, he should be fired.

edit: I forgot to add, they ought to be able to see who connected to the system, from what MAC address, and for how long they were connected in the past, if they have the function turned on. You aren't out of line to say bullshit about flooding the wireless. If the network was competently installed, the issue would be the network being slow due to bandwidth issues, not dropping connections entirely.

[Kuishen]

My new mobo isn't recognizing my gpu. Mobo is an ASRock Z77 Extreme 3 and GPU is a Geforce GTX460. I went into UEFI/bios -> Advanced -> North Bridge -> Primary Graphics Adapter and it's set to PCI-Express, and GPU is in the first PCIE slot.

Because of my previous issues, Windows isn't working properly and I'm waiting to reinstall windows atm because I want to get some data off of the HDD first, but I can load up comp fine with Ubuntu (from dvd) and it uses the onboard video just fine. System details in Ubuntu just say "Uknown" under the graphics area.

Any ideas?

GPU fan is running when I turn comp on so it's getting power. I tried it in the other pcie slots, same shit.

[Callisto]

Have you checked if there's a BIOS update available?

[Moss]

Gonna apologize in advance as I'm sure this question has been asked multiple times:

Any suggestions for some good noise-canceling over-ear headphones?

I've been using the generic black Sony headphones for like 10 years and I think it's time to upgrade as I listen to a lot of music. I'm thinking noise-canceling as it would be perfect for plane rides.

Thanks

[Vaspinne]

I keep getting this annoying issue when clicking on links and opening them in new tabs. I'm using Firefox 17.0.1 and it didn't happen until today but every so many new links I click on, my new tab occasionally gets hijacked and redirected to a "Windows Cleaner" tab, url: http://www.pcerrorfix.net/ld/system_...ex.php?ref=ppp .

I've tried virus scans and spyware scans with no results as to it being some sort of malware. The only thing I haven't really done is reinstall firefox. Has anyone had to deal with this before? It's annoying as fuck

Edit: After numerous scans from a handful of virus and malware scanners and absolutely 0 results as far as anything bad on my system, a simple re-installation of firefox seemed to fix everything =/. Oi veigh

[Kuishen]

Have you checked if there's a BIOS update available?

EDIT: Yeah I'm fucking retarded. I got it working.

[kuronosan]

I got notifications from my torrent sites that I haven't been uploading my torrents, but when I look at my clients they're seeding. Nothing seems to have uploaded but up until today I hadn't tried changing any configs to troubleshoot. It's still not uploading and I'm worried it'll destroy my ratio.

Could my ISP be doing something or could something else be the problem? These torrents were uploading at the beginning of the month and now suddenly they're not.

edit: utorrent also said my port isn't open, but I have never had to open it prior to updating the client.

[Siya]

To make a long story short, I got this guy here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130794 and went to run unigine to test it out. During the test I get massive fps drops (down to maybe 2 fps) every 20-30 seconds or so then it sorts itself out but it keeps happening every 20-30 seconds. Still testing the card out on various stuff, just kinda weird that unigine is doing that.

[Obsidian]

I have an internal Bluetooth dongle on my PC, and Windows bitches at me no matter what I do with it. If it's hidden, it bitches that it's hidden. If it's findable, it bitches that that's unsafe. If it's off, it bitches that it should be on.

Is there any way to turn these alerts off? They stutter my computer whenever they pop up and they're frequent and obnoxious enough to be annoying.

[Rulke]

Just looking to get some opinions on this: How long do you all hang onto a video card? I've been using my GeForce GTX 275 since Dec 09 and at present I'm still pleased with how it runs all the games I'm playing. Still, I am sure there are elements and certain higher qualities I'm missing out on. My stance is to usually keep the video card until I can't run a game at "high" or better settings. Just curious as to what others do.

[Nitsuki]

I say a good year or 2. Tbh i'm satisfied w/ my 560ti, just gonna skip the 600 series and possibly going to the 700 series.

[hey]

Just looking to get some opinions on this: How long do you all hang onto a video card? I've been using my GeForce GTX 275 since Dec 09 and at present I'm still pleased with how it runs all the games I'm playing. Still, I am sure there are elements and certain higher qualities I'm missing out on. My stance is to usually keep the video card until I can't run a game at "high" or better settings. Just curious as to what others do.

I'm pretty sure this depends on how much money you have. The answer usually being either 1) every time something better comes out, or 2) every 2-3 years.