Random Question Thread: Tech

[Caiyuo]

Mine's wired, too, but for whatever reason the analog stick and the triggers are always doing unexpected shit and/or nothing. Is yours fairly recent? Maybe it's something that's been fixed since considering mine is really old; haven't tried tinkering with drivers in awhile. I'd think it was the controller itself but it's a-okay with a 360.

[Kerberoz]

Hmm, can't find a model number on the controller, but it was sold in a "games for windows" box, maybe 3 years ago. Pretty sure it's the exact same unit as the wired "for console" version, though.

works perfectly fine for PCSX2 and all the random Steam games I've used it for.

[Caiyuo]

hrmph, exact same drivers, no fucking clue now; as for the question, I'd take Kerb's testimony for the 360 controller if you're considering one.

[Kuishen]

Do retailers even sell wired 360 controllers still? I don't remember seeing any recently, and I forgot that wired ones could be used for pc. Would be nice to just run into town and get one if they do.

[KuroTsuki]

Not sure if this belongs in the Gaming section, but I was curious what all is needed to record non-off-screen play-throughs of games? I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to that sort of thing, but I've been interested in it for awhile now. Also, if it's not too much, a good place to buy those needed items.

About the wired 360 controllers; I've seen a few of them at GameStop. Most of them are special controllers, like Black Ops and Arkham City ones.

[Caiyuo]

Do retailers even sell wired 360 controllers still? I don't remember seeing any recently, and I forgot that wired ones could be used for pc. Would be nice to just run into town and get one if they do.

I'd check google shopping to see if any nearby stores show stock for wired models. Do you already have a regular wireless 360 controller? There's a ...thing you can get for PCs that lets you use them that way, too, but another case of maybe not being local. The cheapest options would likely be that or the logitech gamepads, the 360 controller is just nice to have another if you already have a 360 anyway.

edit: the thing: http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B000HZF...etteraddons-20

[hey]

non-off-screen play-throughs of games?

what?

If you're asking how to record your console games, you have two main options. One is use a dvd recorder. The other is to use a capture card. Capture cards are generally the better option, and much easier to use, though they can be pricy for good ones. If you just need a cheap one, that records analog SD though, you can get that for <$10. If you meant something else, then you're going to need to explain.

[Kuishen]

I'd check google shopping to see if any nearby stores show stock for wired models. Do you already have a regular wireless 360 controller? There's a ...thing you can get for PCs that lets you use them that way, too, but another case of maybe not being local. The cheapest options would likely be that or the logitech gamepads, the 360 controller is just nice to have another if you already have a 360 anyway.

edit: the thing: http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B000HZF...etteraddons-20

Nah, only have the wireless ones, but having a third controller isn't necessarily a bad thing. There's a Radioshack right next to Gamestop, I'll just check both and get whatever is cheapest.

[KuroTsuki]

Capture cards. That's exactly what I meant. Sorry. Lol.

Edit: What would be a decent HD one? Nothing too crazy.

[Caiyuo]

Nah, only have the wireless ones, but having a third controller isn't necessarily a bad thing. There's a Radioshack right next to Gamestop, I'll just check both and get whatever is cheapest.

Ah, then yeah if you can spare one from the 360 that receiver should be the cheapest option other than the really barebones logitech ones. Also as a warning, everytime I've shopped at Radioshack in-store or otherwise, their prices have been ridiculous.

[CrosisX]

Are there any kind of free programs where i can see the texts i get and receive on my cellphone on my PC?

[Caiyuo]

I actually couldn't find this out, I was looking for specifics through crystal disk info and hddscan but neither were even seeing the disk, which sounded more like a program issue. I guess HP has something built into the bios that reports any SMART alerts before booting, but beyond that I couldn't find anything else, even through their own diagnostics. I was able to image it and the person gave the go-ahead to replace the hard drive, I'd just feel bad if it still had some gas in it given the prices right now.

K, so it's a BIOS or SATA controller that reads the SMART data but doesn't pass it on to the OS... Whoever thought of that shit.
w/e, a SMART warning is a SMART warning, so the replacement should be ok. At least when HP did their homework and interprets the SMART parameters correctly. There's a ton of them and most can differ for every HDD manufacturer...
Or you just hook the HDD up to another mainboard or controller and try to read the SMART values that way.

Thanks for the tip here, Niya, after putting it in an external enclosure and trying a different computer I was able to read the smart data which just amounted to 35 reallocated sectors throwing up a warning flag. Still replaced it, but asking the owner if they want to keep it since it may not die right away.

Also, holy shit thank god it hung in there, I ran into so many dumb things I didn't account for that would've totally screwed me had it died right away. Initially imaged it and bought a slightly smaller size because of the prices and that she wasn't even using 10% of her previous drive's storage; then it never dawned on me until the cloning process that the partition sizes would matter and I had to do the whole thing over after shrinking it, which it thankfully played nice for throughout. Last night was I'm pretty sure an hours long heart attack that I may or may not have survived.

[Arximiro]

I'm having a hard time locating an answer on this so I decided to post it here. I am running this Ram.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145350

My motherboard the EVGA X58 FTW3 was setting it to 1066mhz by default so I went and changed it to 1600mhz 2:12 I set the timings to 9 9 9 24 like it says. Set the voltage to 1.5v exactly, then after a bit of running had a crash. So I went back and set the voltage to auto and EVGA E-Leet is showing my DRAM at 1.76v which seems high to me.

I just want to know if this is safe? I'm running an i7 960 without any OC tweaks, just the turbo option in bios that is on by default. I really only care to get the factory rated speeds out of my ram and nothing more.

Picture, is this safe? This is what auto voltage is putting me on.

[Niya]

OC RAM... general advice: don't buy them... those fancy heat spreaders are most of the time just wasted material and have no practical use, they just "look good". And most OC DIMMS NEED higher voltages to work right.
Even though corsair says they should run fine on 1.5V, that's not guaranteed.

So, either clock them down and leave voltage to standard (RAM clock doesn't have much influence on performance), or let them run on higher V like now and keep an eye on their temperature. touch them when your PC has been on a while, they should be hand-warm at most, not hot.

[Jojimbo]

1.76 is a bit too high though, I believe the safe limit for x58 boards in 1.65v (recommended by intel, although there are varying opinions as to whether going higher can actually cause damage to the CPU)

[Arximiro]

Thanks guys, I think I'm just gonna drop them down. I thought they were 1600 out of the box, I didn't realize that was an overclocked speed. I was also curious if my CPU VTT voltage is high. When I go into voltages it has it rated at 1.1 but has it set at 1.3 and it actually runs at 1.39. I never changed that one it is just on auto. Is 1.39 high or is it within the safe range? I read a lot online to keep DRAM and VTT within .5v of each other to protect the board. So if it WAS 1.1 like it says it should be then I would be outside of that.



Edit: Oh I was also wondering, is there a point to setting memory timings manually in bios when there is an auto option? If I set mine to auto they do 11 11 11 29 instead of 9 9 9 24.

[Not Kuno]

How do I burn a bootable DVD with nero? I tried a few times, and looked it up on google and such, but I've had no luck. I need to burn windows on a dvd to fix a PC but I just keep wasting DVDs cause I'm doing it wrong somehow.

[Niya]

Thanks guys, I think I'm just gonna drop them down. I thought they were 1600 out of the box, I didn't realize that was an overclocked speed. I was also curious if my CPU VTT voltage is high. When I go into voltages it has it rated at 1.1 but has it set at 1.3 and it actually runs at 1.39. I never changed that one it is just on auto. Is 1.39 high or is it within the safe range? I read a lot online to keep DRAM and VTT within .5v of each other to protect the board. So if it WAS 1.1 like it says it should be then I would be outside of that.

Never trust a windows program, check the V settings in your BIOS and set them to auto. Unless you want to OC your CPU you should never fiddle with the voltages, modern CPUs tend to set their own voltages several 100 times per second for energy saving.

Edit: Oh I was also wondering, is there a point to setting memory timings manually in bios when there is an auto option? If I set mine to auto they do 11 11 11 29 instead of 9 9 9 24.

Use CPU-Z and take a look at the SPD tab. there should be profiles for different frequencies with the timings. when they run at 1066MHz, take the row that says frequency 533MHz and set those timings if they differ from auto config. Most DIMMs can achieve lower (=faster) timings at lower frequencies.
Normally the BIOS should read the JDEC profiles automatically and set the timings according to them, but that can fail sometimes.

[Caiyuo]

How do I burn a bootable DVD with nero? I tried a few times, and looked it up on google and such, but I've had no luck. I need to burn windows on a dvd to fix a PC but I just keep wasting DVDs cause I'm doing it wrong somehow.

Not sure what's needed with nero but if you wanna make it easy on yourself, install imgburn. Once you select "write image -> disc" and select the disc it should automatically set it to bootable like this:

http://i.minus.com/jbqyCAZ54M1q9N.jpg

If that's a hassle, here's an actual guide: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/h...-dvd-disc/3317

OR you can install it with a USB key which I've had a hell of a lot more luck with which goes something like this http://arstechnica.com/business/news...lash-drive.ars

[Jojimbo]

How do I burn a bootable DVD with nero? I tried a few times, and looked it up on google and such, but I've had no luck. I need to burn windows on a dvd to fix a PC but I just keep wasting DVDs cause I'm doing it wrong somehow.

Just use ImgBurn 'Write image file to disc'