Random Question Thread: Tech

[Denchi]

Radeon 7950 may be crapping out (which is weird, because it's pretty new and not OCed). But I'm able to exchange it for full price (Thanks Microcenter!) And thinking about trying a GeForce, haven't had the greatest luck with my last few AMD cards. What's a good equivalent/what should I switch to on the GeForce side? I'll have around $330 to trade with.

[Jojimbo]

660Ti is equivalent to 7950 price wise (and performance wise assuming you don't OC the 7950)

[Patb]

Is there any inexpensive way to route two different audio connections into one that will work simultaneously?

I have 2 computers on my desk, one is a laptop that I use for skype and a few other things that require a webcam, and the other is my main desktop.
Is there a way that I can hook both of these up, into one audio line that goes into one set of headphones so I don't have to switch back and forth or anything?

[Callisto]

You can probably put the audio out from one into the mic in of the other, set the mic on listen mode, and hook headphones up to that second device.

[Mellema]

Is there any inexpensive way to route two different audio connections into one that will work simultaneously?

I have 2 computers on my desk, one is a laptop that I use for skype and a few other things that require a webcam, and the other is my main desktop.
Is there a way that I can hook both of these up, into one audio line that goes into one set of headphones so I don't have to switch back and forth or anything?

This is the cheapest solution I could find. Not as good as a true mixer, but should get the job done.

[Kanriel]

This is a question about my computer chair, so maybe it shouldn't be in the "tech" section, but I figure this is just as likely, if not moreso, to get answered here than a random question thread in GD.

My computer chair is "wobbly", the entire top section of it will shift around, in any direction, and I have to balance myself to be in the middle, instead of the chair being balanced itself. This is a new issue, as I put it together months ago and it was fine until last week or so. Nothing I can see appears broken, and I can still move the chair up and down. And it is still "wobbly" regardless of how high or low my chair sits. Any ideas on a fix?

[Kiehl]

This is a question about my computer chair, so maybe it shouldn't be in the "tech" section, but I figure this is just as likely, if not moreso, to get answered here than a random question thread in GD.

My computer chair is "wobbly", the entire top section of it will shift around, in any direction, and I have to balance myself to be in the middle, instead of the chair being balanced itself. This is a new issue, as I put it together months ago and it was fine until last week or so. Nothing I can see appears broken, and I can still move the chair up and down. And it is still "wobbly" regardless of how high or low my chair sits. Any ideas on a fix?

This is hard to describe but there is usually a washer that is welded onto the bottom of the chair where the lifter post is shoved in to to attach the chair part to the lower section. That weld is probably broken or about to broken. If you can disassemble the top portion from the bottom, you should be able to see it.

Or if you stand on the legs and gently pull up on the arms of the chair and it comes apart, then you just saved yourself from it breaking with you still in it.

[Deadgye]

You can probably put the audio out from one into the mic in of the other, set the mic on listen mode, and hook headphones up to that second device.

This will work, and only requires an additional "audio to audio" cable. I currently have an audio to audio cable connecting the headphone out jack on my front panel to the line in jack on my back panel. My line in is set to play over my original speakers output port. You would just be using two computers instead of one.

[Obsidian]

I woke up this morning, pulled my computer out of sleep mode, and lo and behold, my speakers were suddenly not working. I tried restarting my PC, disabling and re-enabling my speakers, and uninstalling/re-installing my speaker drivers. Nada. They were working fine last night.

At this point I'm thinking my sound card is probably shot, but I figured I'd see if anyone here had any ideas. Having never replaced a sound card before I'm a bit reluctant to go to Best buy in the morning and buy one, especially if it isn't even the problem.

Anyone able to help me out?

Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.

[Jojimbo]

What speakers/soundcard? Have you tried using the speakers with another device, or even with just the MB (might have to enable in BIOS if it was disabled)? Tried any other speakers/headphones with the soundcard?

[Obsidian]

What speakers/soundcard? Have you tried using the speakers with another device, or even with just the MB (might have to enable in BIOS if it was disabled)? Tried any other speakers/headphones with the soundcard?

Just tried them on my laptop and they work fine. They're just the Dell speakers that came with my PC, not anything special. I'm pretty sure my sound card is an integrated one, but I'm not entirely sure how to check.

[Cliron]

Perhaps not Tech related, but anyone have any suggestions for cell phone insurance? I might be getting a note 2 from someone off craiglist (so no retail insurance). I'm also moving to another part of NYC and don't have renter's insurance....are there plans that cover cell phones being lost/stolen etc?

Im normally not an advocate of 'pointless' insurances but I realised I've lost an iphone 4, and 2 S3s in the last 12months.

[Niya]

I'm pretty sure my sound card is an integrated one, but I'm not entirely sure how to check.

Easy. Are the audio plugs on the back of your PC inside the plug field where all the USB, LAN etc plugs are, or are they down at the expansion slots where your GPU plugs are?

Inside field: integrated. Might want to check BIOS settings, try to disable and then re-enable after a cold start. If it still doesn't work, it's probably fried.
Expansion slot: stand alone sound card. Try it in another PC if you can just in case. Replace if really broken.

[Obsidian]

Easy. Are the audio plugs on the back of your PC inside the plug field where all the USB, LAN etc plugs are, or are they down at the expansion slots where your GPU plugs are?

Inside field: integrated. Might want to check BIOS settings, try to disable and then re-enable after a cold start. If it still doesn't work, it's probably fried.
Expansion slot: stand alone sound card. Try it in another PC if you can just in case. Replace if really broken.

It looks like they're down by where my DVI plugins are. Unfortunately I don't have a spare computer to try the card on. I'll just buy a new card tomorrow and hope for the best I suppose. Are they difficult to install?

[Niya]

It looks like they're down by where my DVI plugins are. Unfortunately I don't have a spare computer to try the card on. I'll just buy a new card tomorrow and hope for the best I suppose. Are they difficult to install?

Difficult: no. But you should open your PC up and take a look what slots on the mainboard you have available. The old card could be either PCI or PCIe.
As an example, take a look at this mainboard picture: link
Your mainboard should look similar in layout, just probably different colors.
The orange slots on the upper left half are PCIe slots. From top down you have a short part with contacts, then a plastic bridge, and then a contacts part with different lengths. The shortest of them is PCIe x1 (3rd of the 4 orange slots), that's where most modern expansion cards belong. The very long ones with the holding clip at the end are PCIe x16, mainly used for graphic cards. There's also a slot variant called PCIe x4 that's about twice as long as the x1 slots, can also be used for expansion cards.
The green slots are PCI. PCI is pretty old and PCIe was created in 2003 to replace it, but most mainboards still have a few PCI slots for legacy reasons.

If your current sound card was PCI and you have a free PCIe x1 or x4 slot on your mainboard, better get a PCIe card as replacement. Like I said, PCI is only there for legacy reasons, so there's a high chance mainboard manufacturers will drop it completely over time.

Wall of text, i know ^^ Hope it was still understandable. And about actually replacing it: turn PC off, disconnect all cables, press its power button for a second so that all voltage rests vanish. The open it up, unscrew the holding screw of your old sound card and gently pull it out of the slot.
If the new card goes to the same slot, just push it in with a tiny bit of force until it's completely in the socket, then tighten the holding screw again and you're done.
If it goes to a different slot, remove the metal bracket that closes the slot to the outside, use it to close the now unused port, push the card in, tighten the screw, done.

General handling tip for expansion cards: don't touch the circuit board or the contact row, only the edges and the holding bracket. And before you pull them out of their anti-static bag, touch a grounded metal part like a radiator to ground yourself.

[Mugekuge]

I haven't used a partition software in like 10 years and i remember partition magic was the best back then, anyone know a good partition disk software or is partition magic still a good one?

[Jojimbo]

What do you need to do? Windows has a built in manager and might work

[Mugekuge]

I have a 2 TB fat32 external hdd (that i used on my ps3), that i want to keep 1 TB partition with fat32 and 1 TB partition with ntfs, but i don't want to lose my data already copied in the hdd, hmm i haven't checked the windows one if it let me partition without losing data.

[Elizara]

Ok, didn't wanna make a sep thread for this but..

I usually use cheap headphones. Had just gotten a new pair and..my four year old niece came along, tugged at them (she wanted to hear what I was doing too; I wear'em on my pc b/c my mom hates videogame music, so it's to respect her) and they now only sound in one ear. Any suggestions on over the ear headphones that won't break when a 4 year old tries to yank them off?! (I'm using my ipod headphones now until I can do something about this, I hate those type tho!)

[Jojimbo]

Budget and use?