Quick [tech] Questions Thread

[Yoshimaru]

Anyone have a fix for stuck pixels? I have a cluster of pixels that turned white about a month ago, I was hoping it would sort itself out but not looking like it. I've seen programs that say they can fix it by flashing colors in the area to try and reset the pixels, but not sure if that's just BS.

This is my monitor.

Depends on the reason for them being stuck. I would try: Flashing colors, all white picture or leaving the monitor off for an extended period of time (24-48 hours.)

Cool, thanks.

[NiX]

Anyone heard of Windows Validation crapping itself and claiming your OS isn't genuine? Had this happen today and it only stopped bugging me after I repaired the Validation files.

[Chimpy]

Anyone heard of Windows Validation crapping itself and claiming your OS isn't genuine? Had this happen today and it only stopped bugging me after I repaired the Validation files.

I know that for Enterprise, you need to be on the actual enterprise network it is registered to for the validation to go through. It then will work anywhere provided you don't delete the network location in "Merge/Delete Networks" that is for that network (annoying as hell for troubleshooting network issues as that step is basically step 1 on the weird network issues checklist for Vista/7) . By deleting that network location you instantly send your OS back to the "30 days to validate" BS.

I can only assume that there is a similar yet equally vague and ridiculous method of caching the registration information for other versions of 7.

[slog]

Is it worth it to upgrade from Vista to 7?

[Salamok]

Is it worth it to upgrade from Vista to 7?

yes.

[Salamok]

So other than tracking down detailed motherboard specs, is there some utility that can tell if my system will support a SATA III drive w/o downgrading it to SATA II?

Also I find it hilarious that the dell part list for my system clearly identifies the intel sticker as a part and yet the motherboard and chipset used is not apparent.

edit - Under my device manager it does say the the SATA controller is a:
Intel 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller - 3B2F

edit 2 - after searching for the controller listed above I find no mention of SATA III / 6.0 GBs capability, controller specification update pdf

[rattran]

SATA3 support is still fairly rare, and doesn't seem to make a whole lot of difference on non-ssd stuff.

[Engels]

Ya, I don't think anything from Dell is going to use SATA3. Dell also has never posted chipset specs on their documentation.

TBH, I'm not sure Intel has any chipsets that support SATA3 on the southbridge yet. They have been roadblocking it because they have their own standard coming out, I think. This info may be old.

[Salamok]

Wireless printer that will support both Vista and Mac OSX 10.3?

[Yegolev]

I'm not sure why an off-the-shelf HP would not do this.

[Salamok]

You would think so, but the printer specs on the hp site shows OSX 10.4+ or 10.5+ under system requirements.  After my last experience trying to buy something for OSX 10.3 (a webcam) I have learned that 10.4 seems to be the magic line where all kinds of peripherals just started working with Mac.

Currently looking at either an officejet all in 1 or a deskjet printer but a little gunshy about the mac support.

[Viin]

Why not upgrade? isn't it like $30 for 10.5?

[Salamok]

Why not upgrade? isn't it like $30 for 10.5?

You know how it goes you do something like that for a family member and all of a sudden you become responsible for every nitpicking thing on that system until it dies.  I'm not comfy enough with OSX to want that burden from 4 states away.  Plus a cousin who is familiar with OSX said that the hardware could handle an OS upgrade but it would probably be noticeably slower.

[Yegolev]

I agree there.  Too many people know I "work on computers".  Got a call from a cousin about how he lent his computer to a friend's son to finish some homework and now he seems to have problems with his antivirus.  I had to back away from that one.  Sent his ass to Geek Squad.

[Sky]

10.5 and .6 run pretty well on older hardware, actually. But you run into things like 10.5 won't open the cd tray on an eMac or the fact that 10.6 won't run on PPC. I think you really need to be running the newest version your hardware supports, even on a Core Duo mini 10.6 runs pretty good with only a gig of ram. Of course, all the governmental budget destruction means no upgrade for me, everyone else (EVERYONE ELSE) is running a c2d with 4GB, dernit. I was slated to upgrade next year, I put it off to afford better upgrades for everyone else. Nothing good comes of being selfless, nobody gives a thank or a shit, really.

Friends/family know I'm to be contacted for things like help removing a tree from their property, not for fixing their computers (though I usually end up doing that anyway - how the fuck are some of these bottom-feeding shysters even in business with their expensive and incompetent "support".

[Morat20]

I am ready to freaking KILL here. I mean it. I'm about ten minutes from taking a sledgehammer to this POS Linksys WRT54G fucker.

Here's my problem: I can't log into my goddamn router. 192.168.1.1. That's the address. I tripled checked. Yes, I ran ipconfig. Yes, it's my defualt gateway. I don't even get a password prompt. I get a "cannot load page" message. From IE, from Chrome, from multiple computers.

The fucker's been giving me grief, refusing to load properly, for months -- it's like the damn thing is degrading. Worked fine for awhile, then suddenly wouldn't fully load, buttons wouldn't work, etc. And now it's acting like it's not even fucking there. I'm attached to the goddamn thing through a wire. It obviously works, since my computer, my laptop, my xbox -- all can get data just fine.

I just cannot get into the fucker to change some ports. I swear I'm about to kill. Does ANYONE have any ideas besides "Replace it" or "Hard Reset"?

I'd prefer NOT to go fuck around with all the wireless keys and redo all the shit for making the fucker work if I can avoid it.

[Chimpy]

Did you power cycle it for a couple minutes?

Hard reset is your best option, honestly.

If you have had the thing for more than 2-3 years you are well into the end of the life-cycle of the hardware anyway.

[Morat20]

I hard resetted it and updated it's firmware. I honestly think it's a damn bug with the model. I found people bitching EVERYWHERE about it. Of course, my favorite part was trying to update the firmware without....being able to get to the modem. Linksys used to have a utility that, while twitchy to use, would update it as long as you could get a connection with it. (Which I had in spades. Ping, tracert, and of course the stupid thing WORKS fine).

It's like the magical degrading router website.

All of this shit to try to get my wife's laptop to hook up to WoW, 'cause she's finally done with her double Master's. And, of course, 90% of the problem was Vista's damn weird-ass lock on what is, and is not, 'adiminstrator'.

[apocrypha]

I had a WRT54G. It was shit. Died after 18-ish months, doing exactly what you describe. The next step from where you are now was regular dropouts and shit wireless speeds.

Replace it now, it's not going to get better I'm afraid.

[Engels]

Now you've offended my 5 year old WRT54G and it will soon cease to function.

[Yegolev]

My experience is only with WRT54GL.  Still, sounds like drastic measures are in order.

[Salamok]

I think linksys's melt themselves to death over time.

[Morat20]

I think linksys's melt themselves to death over time.

I'm due to have U-verse installed on the 13th. Doesn't that basically come with a wireless router? (I got their triple package -- phone, internet, TV). Hopefully I'll go from my anemic and practically third-world 2.5 Mbs to 10 to 12ish.

[Salamok]

I think linksys's melt themselves to death over time.

I'm due to have U-verse installed on the 13th. Doesn't that basically come with a wireless router? (I got their triple package -- phone, internet, TV). Hopefully I'll go from my anemic and practically third-world 2.5 Mbs to 10 to 12ish.

If it is thrown in for "free" why not, if it ends up being one of those $10 a month line item for wireless charges on your bill then I think I'd rather just go get a new linksys every year for $60.

I could give a shit less about how easy valet may or may not be to set up the bottom line is if they spent $5/unit more on making the hardware more robust I would probably never need to go through the setup process more than once. Unfortunately they spend the money on adding easy setup features because you buying a new router every year is a much better business model for them.

[Yegolev]

I think linksys's melt themselves to death over time.

I'm due to have U-verse installed on the 13th. Doesn't that basically come with a wireless router? (I got their triple package -- phone, internet, TV). Hopefully I'll go from my anemic and practically third-world 2.5 Mbs to 10 to 12ish.

Yes, the Uverse modem contains a WAP, which I am currently using in favor of my WRT54GL due to LAN design issues.  It also has four ethernet ports on the back (one goes to the DVR).  I'm possibly going to yank the router out of the equation, requiring my work laptops to go wireless, since it's just acting as a passthrough which is kind of silly.

[Chimpy]

I think linksys's melt themselves to death over time.

Pretty much all consumer grade DSL/Cable modems and routers/access points have a roughly 2 year lifecycle. The chips inside get pretty hot and the poor passive cooling and thick plastic enclosures make them a lot more susceptible to failure due to thermal issues.

Sure, you can have one last longer, but if it has lasted for 2 years you can assume your next set of problems will be easiest fixed by a replacement.

[Morat20]

Yes, the Uverse modem contains a WAP, which I am currently using in favor of my WRT54GL due to LAN design issues.  It also has four ethernet ports on the back (one goes to the DVR).  I'm possibly going to yank the router out of the equation, requiring my work laptops to go wireless, since it's just acting as a passthrough which is kind of silly.

The DVR is, itself, wireless to the set-top boxes, right? I live in an older house, which means only some of my wall sockets are properly grounded. Sadly, the room my TV in is not one of them. (it's grounded by having a lovely adapter plug that grounds to the house frame via the screw holding the socket plate on. I should get that fixed. Anyways, right now I'm looking at "everything U-verse needs" having to go basically 30 feet from the TV, across a wide room. That spot is, however, close to the phone jack.

My biggest issue is both my desktops lack a wireless card, although both the laptop and the Xbox have wireless setup already. Thankfully, one of the desktops is dead until I figure out what the hell burnt up, so I can always buy a cheap-o wireless card for my other one and shove it in an empty slot.

Salamok: Yeah, it's like built in. It's how you get to watch the DVR on other tvs and shit. Their set-top boxes come built in with wireless, so you really only need the one DVR.

[Lantyssa]

Why would you want to go wireless in your home?  Your speed suffers if you're not wired.

[Salamok]

Why would you want to go wireless in your home?  Your speed suffers if you're not wired.

108mbps wireless-n yeah I get that there is a ton of overhead taking up bandwidth but it is still much faster than the 5-10mbs my ISP is allocating me.  My ps3 sits about a foot from my router and I don't even bother running a wire for that.

[Morat20]

Why would you want to go wireless in your home?  Your speed suffers if you're not wired.

Well...the laptop's obvious. Xbox is...well the hell away from any jacks and the desktops. The logical places to put the Uverse boxes are also nowhere near anything except the phones.

My house is 30 years old. It's not wired for it, and I have no intention of spending the money or time trying to cable it.

And my max U-verse speed is...12Mbs. I'm pretty sure that's not going to max out my wireless, even with three TV signals (only one HD).

[Yegolev]

The DVR is, itself, wireless to the set-top boxes, right?

Mine isn't.  Is there an option?  Seems unlikely, I do not believe a wireless connection could provide the proper connection speed.  Besides the guy who installed my five units spent all fucking day running coax, testing lines and whatnot so if it was an option he would have mentioned it.  You will have a hard line from the phone jack to the modem, and it's ethernet from there to the DVR.  Additional units use coax connections run from the DVR, but not having bothered to look they might also use ethernet.  Not that you have that.

They will also install a UPS since if you lose power to your modem, your phones do not work.  Pitfall of VOIP.

My biggest issue is both my desktops lack a wireless card,

The "inside tech" should give you a USB dongle, so you're not SOL.

Also if you have an alarm system, ask the security guy if it works well with VOIP.

EDIT to add that, despite what you might have been told or inferred, you cannot pause live TV on the non-DVR units.  Pause recordings, yes.

[Yegolev]

Related, anyone want a 2Wire 2701HG-B DSL modem?  I have two spare. 

[Morat20]

The "inside tech" should give you a USB dongle, so you're not SOL.

Also if you have an alarm system, ask the security guy if it works well with VOIP.

EDIT to add that, despite what you might have been told or inferred, you cannot pause live TV on the non-DVR units.  Pause recordings, yes.

That explains the install time. USB dongle is fine, unless it's got some ridiculously low bandwidth issues. I'd assume the wireless part of their WAP is at least 54Mpbs.

Best I can understand on Uverse, they really have either 25 or (if you're fucking lucky on distance) 32 to the house. They reserve some of that for phone and TV. I think it's 8, might be twelve. I got the impression it was a hard split -- very similiar to DSL's "Here's your voice part, here's your Internet part" -- so I don't think it leeches off my internet bandwidth if I'm watching TV.

Downsides, can only view 4 channels -- (each HD counts as 2) -- live, which means if I'm watching an HD and recording an HD, then the other two tvs have to be watching DVR'd shit. (Which is one reason I got the DVR, although everyone watches Netflix most of the time anyways).

Of course, if it is a hard split, I'm getting 25Mbs to my house just to get the TV service, so why do they charged tiered prices at 3, 6, 9 and 12 Mbs for internet on top? Besides the obvious "So we can make more dough?"

[Chimpy]

UVerse says it dedicates 7 mb/s to video, but they QoS your internet down if you are watching multiple different TV streams in HD as 7 is basically just a little more than enough for one HD stream.

You have to remember that UVerse is not FiOS where the fiber comes directly to your house, they are dealing with DSL technology and the length and quality of the copper loop back to the node is a big deal. They are probably doing pair bonded profile 12a which would give you at best about 45mb/s at a wire mile if I remember the documentation I was going through at the old job.

One thing of note, if you get 4 set top boxes you should be able to watch the same channel in HD on 3 of them at the same time and still be able to watch a second on another TV as it should be multicast.

[apocrypha]

So, I've been given a NP2900 network media player as a gift and I'm having some issues getting it to play nice with media libraries.

It reads and plays from a WMP12 library on a PC fine - songs are in the right order in albums, there's artwork, etc. But I also have a D-Link NAS that runs a uPnP media server, and it'd be awesome to be able to use that as the main source rather than having to have a PC on all the time. Problem is that whatever I do, the NAS media server won't tell the NP2900 what order to play albums in, doesn't show artwork, etc.

Anyone got any ideas how I can make the NAS media server replicate the functionality of the WMP12 server? I've tried copying the WMP12 music files directly onto the NAS but no dice.