Random Question Thread: Tech

[Caiyuo]

Yeah for video I don't know about much else that does all jobs besides MPC-HC and SMplayer, which is the windows variant of mplayer isiolia mentioned. Certainly a lot of tinkering available with any player that supports ffdshow so you have some options but I don't know what you'd do about the raw difference in resolution other than some of the CPU-intensive options like resized redrawing, sharpening, etc., available in ffdshow video but I've never been able to try any of it out.

What do you hate about MPC btw? For me if things run well on my old laptop then I'm usually just critical of interface and aesthetics, but in that regard I actually like MPC and never really found anything better than it when I was looking for alternatives. Plus when it's full-screen'd video 90% of the time I realize that's kind of a miniscule issue.

For music I swap between mediamonkey and foobar2000. Mediamonkey gold is really great and has a lot of extra functions like sleep timers and a visually appealing layout for sorting folders, playlists, smart playlists with automated podcast support as well as a ton of options in the way of display, file monitoring, syncing devices and one of the very best parts, awesome tagging & file and folder management functions.

Foobar2000 is neat, and by that I mean incredibly customizable in both appearance and function, but takes a little work to get all sorted. Worth it, though, I'm using this skin and it manages to make it the best looking media player I know of: http://br3tt.deviantart.com/art/Spot...oobar2000&qo=7

[Overburn]

I recently built my first gaming computer and everything has been going great except for the audio.I'm not too sure what specifics you need, but the bits being used as far as I can tell are my Gigabyte z68A-D3 mobo, Lian Li K62 case, and Senn 595 headphones.

Basically the audio has been fading in and out, to the point that it gets almost complete silent, than shots back up to 100% and repeats that cycle. This is happening to the point that a 4 minute youtube video can have it happen 2-3 times. I originally had this problem in Assassin's Creed but didn't really care cause people said it was a common issue, but it just started happening in TF2 where I can hear the music playing at 50%, but people talking/some other more treble sounds are at 5-10%. I currently put my headphone jack into the top slot on the front of the case since I can't seem to get the back port to recognize my headphones (looked in Control Panel ->sound ->stereo but the "Rear Green In" is the only thing I noticed, and unmuting it did nothing). I've also tried my headphones and they seem to be working fine on my ipod/laptop. The problem also sovles itself if I unplug the headphones and then plug them back in, but that seems to just reset the cycle and it drops again.

Any ideas on fixing either of these issues?

[Purrrfect]

Did you install the realtek audio driver? http://www.gigabyte.us/products/prod...px?pid=3863#dl It usually has an audio manager that may get the rear panel working. The green would be where to plug the headphones in as you found. Have you tried hooking a set of normal speakers up to it also?

[Overburn]

I have this when I plug them in, which I think is from those drivers (the rear green circle lights up if i were to plug the headphones in there):



I also don't really have access to another form of headphones/stereo, but I did try the headphones on my laptop without issue.

[jmc]

Can anyone recommend a good laptop cooler for my dell 1747?

Theres a little twist here.... every pad i've tried, doesn't really fit the laptop because mine has a lip or a stand on the bottom of it. As seen in this pic

http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/48469.jpg

[Caiyuo]

I don't know for certain but if a laptop stand with a cooling fan is an option, like if you're using at a desk, it might work since generally those work in reverse and just have a lip at the bottom that stops it. This is one I use, but shopping around might net you something better or cheaper: http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B002ELN...etteraddons-20

[Boyiee]

I need recommendations on a wireless adapter for a desktop.

The computer is almost as far from the router as it can be in a 2 story house... one floor below, and diagonally across to the farthest point. The shitty linksys usb one I have plugged in now is getting 2bars, and the internet on it is somehow slower than 3G on my iphone. I can't even ping it from my fios wizard to test it.

Card or USB adapter is fine. So far This and This have caught my eye. The one has an antenna that you can put on the desk, but the usb has incredible reviews. Pretty sure fios is sending out a B/G signal to the other adapters.

[Caiyuo]

Anyone have ideas or samples of commands/macros they bind their extra mouse buttons to? I just got a G700 and it's the first mouse I've had with any sort of extra function so I'm trying to come up with which shortcuts to use. Not actually doing any gaming with this for the foreseeable future.

[Kiarax]

So, I woke up today to be greeted by all sorts of issues when my laptop booted up. It ran a few disc checks itself and then started up fine eventually, but it seems the battery has completely died now. I'm plugged in to an AC adapter 100% of the time anyway, so I just basically want to know if I'll suffer any drop in performance or anything if I don't replace the battery? Googling is giving me all kinds of conflicting info so I figured it'd be better to ask here... so far it's been fine for normal web browsing and watching videos, but I'm not sure if I'll need to replace the battery for gaming needs. I figure it won't make any difference since afaik it doesn't even utilize the battery at all when plugged in to the AC, but I just wanted to double check since I'm kinda paranoid about it right now since I have no money to replace the laptop should shit get worse.

Edit: Well, guess I answered that myself. Stuff is running perfectly as it was before. Safe to assume there's no risk using it like this though (I guess the only thing to worry about is the cable coming out whilst the system is booted or power cuts...)?

[Arkanna]

I ran my old work laptop with a completely dead battery, on AC power for more than a year with no problems. It'll be fine, but it's obviously desk-bound now.

Question: how does an nVidia 560 GTX compare to an older Radeon HD 5870? I can't seem to find any direct comparisons. My gut tells me the Radeon is faster.

[Purrrfect]

I need recommendations on a wireless adapter for a desktop.

The computer is almost as far from the router as it can be in a 2 story house... one floor below, and diagonally across to the farthest point. The shitty linksys usb one I have plugged in now is getting 2bars, and the internet on it is somehow slower than 3G on my iphone. I can't even ping it from my fios wizard to test it.

Card or USB adapter is fine. So far This and This have caught my eye. The one has an antenna that you can put on the desk, but the usb has incredible reviews. Pretty sure fios is sending out a B/G signal to the other adapters.

Have you tried different channels? Could be some interference nearby.

[Callisto]

I recently built my first gaming computer and everything has been going great except for the audio.I'm not too sure what specifics you need, but the bits being used as far as I can tell are my Gigabyte z68A-D3 mobo, Lian Li K62 case, and Senn 595 headphones.

Basically the audio has been fading in and out, to the point that it gets almost complete silent, than shots back up to 100% and repeats that cycle. This is happening to the point that a 4 minute youtube video can have it happen 2-3 times. I originally had this problem in Assassin's Creed but didn't really care cause people said it was a common issue, but it just started happening in TF2 where I can hear the music playing at 50%, but people talking/some other more treble sounds are at 5-10%. I currently put my headphone jack into the top slot on the front of the case since I can't seem to get the back port to recognize my headphones (looked in Control Panel ->sound ->stereo but the "Rear Green In" is the only thing I noticed, and unmuting it did nothing). I've also tried my headphones and they seem to be working fine on my ipod/laptop. The problem also sovles itself if I unplug the headphones and then plug them back in, but that seems to just reset the cycle and it drops again.

Any ideas on fixing either of these issues?

I just had a bunch of problems crop up with my realtek too, my speakers keep losing connection and saying I unplugged them but they're plugged in firmly and brand new, and work fine on g/f's computer. No idea what's going on with it.

[Kaisha]

Is 90-100 Celsius a healthy temperature for a video card? My brother's GT220 has been underclocking itself lately, trying to find the cause to it. Fan appears to be working fine on it.

My GF8800 GT in comparison runs 75c under load, unless my room conditions are bad. (re: No air conditioner, summer sucks)

[Phoenyx]

Is 90-100 Celsius a healthy temperature for a video card? My brother's GT220 has been underclocking itself lately, trying to find the cause to it. Fan appears to be working fine on it.

My GF8800 GT in comparison runs 75c under load, unless my room conditions are bad. (re: No air conditioner, summer sucks)

nVidia specs state that 105C is the max temp for a GT220. What's the ambient temp in the room? Inside the case? How is airflow through the rest of the case? Stock cooler on the card?

[Kaisha]

Don't know about the temperature in the room, got no means of measuring right now. Relative to the normal days, I'd put it at around 'a tad warm'.

For airflow, case is pretty bare barebones, just the mobo and GPU in the main section. Only one fan in the case, which is at the rear, taking air inwards. Side panel of case has a sort of funnel thing that aims towards the CPU. Stock fan on the card.


Granted this past month I installed a 120mm rear fan (blowing air out of the case) onto my own PC to help keep it cooled down, where-as before it only had the side-fan blowing air in, and the CPU-fan would get roaring at times to where I had to take that panel off for the hot air to get out. The new rear fan did the trick for that.

[Phoenyx]

Might be worth it to flip the case fan and have it act as an exhaust. If possible, add an intake fan at the front of the case. If not, then see if the rear fan as an exhaust doesn't help a little.

[Kaisha]

I'll try getting him to flip his rear fan and see if it helps.

I think it's a problem of both of having cases that are 5 years old and not really meant for the heat modern parts shit out these days with ease. Neither of them have proper support for a front fan.


Also, on my brother's side panel with the funnel thing, there's a vent port near the bottom he could screw a fan to, I would assume he'd want the fan to be taking in air from down there? My general knowledge for air flow is in from the front/side, and out the back, and that's about it.

[Phoenyx]

An intake fan on the side could help. Certainly couldn't hurt. If that's a no-go for some reason, might look into an aftermarket cooler for the car, assuming the case has room for it.

[Callisto]

It looks like my yahoo email got hacked today and has been sending out spam emails...how do I go about fixing this? I'm not sure if it's some sort of virus on my actual computer, or if just changing my email pw will do the trick, any suggestions?

[Phoenyx]

Start with changing your password then scan your computer for virus/malware, especially if you use Outlook or some other mail client, but also for any keyloggers that might be present.