Random Question Thread: Tech

**greenhills** · 2012-01-02 18:31

just got a samsung smart tv. it has a usb slot which we have been running a hd through with our media but, it seems it can't read subtitle files that are bunched in a mkv and only srt outside of it. someone was telling me about a way to use plugins on the firmware to fix shortcomings with samsung tvs but, i can't find anything along those lines besides just installing different firmware. has anyone here ever 'hacked' a tv, is there an easy/non-risky way to do this?

**Kerberoz** · 2012-01-02 19:01

Anyone else's youtube favorites list not updating since the last 'tarded overhaul? When I hit the "add to favorites" button, it always says "added", but only about 1/3 actually show up on my list. It seems to be per-video, too. Hitting it once or a dozen times makes no difference.

**Aylee** · 2012-01-02 19:12

is using websites like icefilms to watch uploads of pirated videos illegal (not actually downloading them)?

My understanding is that watching them or even downloading them isant illegal its the uploading and sharing them that is the copyright violation... am i wrong?

**Omniyoji** · 2012-01-02 19:42

Originally Posted by Aylee

...(not actually downloading them)?...

Originally Posted by Aylee

am i wrong?

Yes.

**Salodin** · 2012-01-03 11:39

How good is XFX for a vid card brand? I'm now between

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102948
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150563

The XFX is an extra $35, but you get an extra gb of ram out of it. Is it worth it? Is the brand reliable? I am factoring in that I'd have to reformat...but oh well, was gonna have to happen eventually lol.

Also, I never had to think about this, but if a motherboard supports 8gb of ram, does that include ram from a video card? Or is that considered seperate?

**hey** · 2012-01-03 12:51

video ram is separate. And you probably won't see any benefit from the extra 1 gb of vram, but perhaps if you're using like 6x monitors or something you might.

**Crowort** · 2012-01-03 13:28

I ain't really that clued up on graphics cards (I don't really play many high end games) but I've been reading lately that the newer games can be bottle necked by vram.

**Jojimbo** · 2012-01-03 15:28

I don't think that will apply to a 6800 series card though, I doubt it'll be able to play anything that would max out vram at a decent framerate

**Kerberoz** · 2012-01-04 01:42

3-pin molex to 4-pin fan will function without blowing up, correct? Blue wire is just speed control?

**Pyro** · 2012-01-04 07:38

Shouldn't be a problem

**Skeelo** · 2012-01-04 14:31

Between these 3 laptops, what do you think would be the better one to get for the money? Heard great things about Asus, ive had many HP's and most recently had a Gateway FX laptop that just shat out on me.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834230028
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834230142
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834230193

Also, people are recommending getting a SSD for it. Not real familiar with these. Would i use a external or internal for laptop. And what real purpose does it serve in improving over all performance of the pc's?

Thanks in advance.

**hey** · 2012-01-04 16:18

I'd rule out the third one right away, unless you really need a blue ray writer for some reason. The video card is significantly worse than the 460 or 560, so the first one is probably going to be better than it, despite the slightly slower cpu, for gaming, and it's also cheaper. The remaining two are probably about the same bang/buck, so i'd leave the remaining choice up to you. If you think the extra power is worth $170, get it, otherwise don't.

SSDs can read/write data 10-15x faster than standard hdds, so obviously the advantage is that everything will load significantly faster. I'd definitely recommend getting one if you've got the money.

**Skeelo** · 2012-01-04 16:48

Thanks for the info. Do laptops mainly use internal or external SSD's? Guess external but like i said, im not to familiar with them.

**hey** · 2012-01-04 16:52

You should be able to use the ssd as well as a regular hdd internal.

**bluefan** · 2012-01-04 18:09

Originally Posted by Skeelo

Thanks for the info. Do laptops mainly use internal or external SSD's? Guess external but like i said, im not to familiar with them.

I say get the SSD. I got one in my Acer 3820TG and don't regret it. From the second I press the power button from a cold start, I'm in Windows within 8 seconds. Not to mention everything just loads much faster and overall system response is great.

All modern SSDs are 2.5" size. They will fit in any notebook chassis.

**Niya** · 2012-01-04 19:41

Originally Posted by Kerberoz

3-pin molex to 4-pin fan will function without blowing up, correct? Blue wire is just speed control?

You mean 4-pin fan on 3-pin mainboard header? No problem, only that the fan can't be speed controlled as intended that way.
4-pin fans have 2 pins for voltage (obvious i guess), 1 for tacho signal and 1 separate pin for PWM signals (important for speed control). When you plug it into a 3-pin header the PWM pin is unused, so the only way to control the fan is that the motherboard includes the PWM signal into the voltage lanes or reduces the voltage for lower speeds. Both MB and fan have to support that.

SSDs can read/write data 10-15x faster than standard hdds

Read, yes. Recent SSD generations can get read speeds of 300+MByte/s. But for writing SSDs are actually slower than classic magnet disc HDDs because the flash cells need quite some time to be written (look up read-modify-write if you want to know why). It's just that "normal" PC usage involves almost no write but mainly reading, so it doesn't matter.

**Darlantan** · 2012-01-04 21:49

When I start my PC, a black window comes up saying something along the lines of "4th Hard Disk S.M.A.R.T. Status Bad blablablabla hit F1 to resume".

Then windows finish starting the pc, which takes way longer than it used to, but after that, the PC works well (if not as good as it used to). Also, I havent lost any archives from whatever damage in the HD that message is reporting. I am stupid when it comes to computers, so did some research but I cant tell which is the best way to go about it.

Most say to just toss it and buy a new one "because when S.M.A.R.T. says its fucked up, its fucked up". Some others say you should turn S.M.A.R.T. off in the Bios and call it a day as most often its just some minor error happenning.

What does BG say? Thanks!

P.S. I already hit it with a water battle but it didnt fix it, assholes.

**Niya** · 2012-01-05 08:04

SMART is used to monitor certain aspects of a HDD, such as total run time, sector error count and much more stuff. When your motherboard/bios uses SMART and complains about it it's most of the time a sign that the HDD might fail soon. Rising sector errors are a very bad thing...
Use Speedfan or CrystalDiskInfo to read the SMART info under Windows and have a look at it. Both tools offer a "good/bad" index that should make it easy to see whether your HDD is really screwed or if your bios is just overreacting.

**Byrthnoth** · 2012-01-05 11:30

I think I am having some issues with speaker sound production nonlinearity at low frequency and low intensity. It seems like low intensity, low frequency sounds are drifting to an even lower frequency. Higher intensity (~70 dB and higher) are probably being represented properly.

So, trying to play a 700hz frequency at 30dB is probably showing up as ~40dBish and 400hz.

Does this sound reasonable, Audiophiles?

**Maguile** · 2012-01-05 18:56

I got a cord to hook up my pc monitor to my lcd tv, how do I access pc stuff on my tv now?

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