Quick [tech] Questions Thread

[Salamok]

Probably the wrong place for it, but I have a large XML file that contains (among other things) two tags "title" and "url" (or something similar). Which, of course, are a bookmark title and URL.

I ONLY have this in an XML file (which is a backup of some favorites thing).

I need to scrape those two fields and write them out into something freakin' chrome can import, with the goal of eventually getting it into my stupid android phone. For reasons I am NOT sure of, my old Droid didn't sync my bookmarks (or it somehow got hosed -- everything else synced fine) so when I got my new phone, I've got squat for bookmarks.

The reason I have only the XML instead of the actual favorites/bookmarks from the old phone's browser is I never rooted my old phone, and for reasons that totally escape me, my old phone's browser (Opera, I think) decided NOT to store the bookmarks on the SD card (like I thought) but in a folder on the phone proper -- one that can only be seen if you have root.

Which I don't.

*grumble*. Any suggestions? Or am I pretty much just gonna have to write a quick scraper to yank these out and format them chrome bookmark style and drop it in the right spot on my new phone?

Well you are in luck xpath + xslt is used to query data from an xml file...  Oh wait nm that isn't any easier than just scraping the file.

[Lantyssa]

It'll probably be easier to just navigate to the pages and re-bookmark them.

[Nebu]

House got struck by lightning last night and apparently my surge protector didn't protect my computer.  Here's the problem: My computer won't start up using the start button.

- I used a paperclip to jump the power and ground on my power supply and the supply seems to be ok (fan spins, drives boot, etc.) 

Does this mean that I fried my mobo?  Is there an easy way to test if this is the case?  Could it be anything else?

Thanks.

[Trippy]

Does it smell like you fried your motherboard?

Do you have another power supply you can test with?

[Nebu]

If you jump the power and ground with a paperclip, you can test the power supply.  It's fine.   It happened late last night and I didn't notice until after work.  Any smell would have been swept away by my AC while I was at work.

I'm just trying to whittle down my other possibilities. 

[Trippy]

I would still try another power supply if you have one. The power supply puts out current on a bunch of different lines at a bunch of different voltages and may not be sending out enough current on, say, the main motherboard 12V power connector. Does your motherboard have any lights or a POST code display that light up when you try and power it on?

[Nebu]

When I jump the power supply fans work, the power supply fan spins, and CD & HDD spin.  Nothing from the mother board when I try too boot normally.  No lights, no fan, nothing.  I'm thinking that the power isn't being distributed by the mother board. 

[Trippy]

If you pull out the main motherboard power connector does either end look damaged? How hard is to remove the motherboard from the case? It may be short circuiting against the case somehow now.

[Nebu]

Worked flawlessly for 3 months.  I'm guessing something got fried on the Mobo.

[Hammond]

If the Mobo is fried most likely other things in your computer are fried also or partially damaged. I have repaired a few machines that got fried in this manner over the years and usually the best bet is to just replace it if you can afford it. You start replacing pieces of it and stuff keeps failing.

[Nebu]

If the Mobo is fried most likely other things in your computer are fried also or partially damaged. I have repaired a few machines that got fried in this manner over the years and usually the best bet is to just replace it if you can afford it. You start replacing pieces of it and stuff keeps failing.

You may be right.  I ordered a new mobo this morning and will start there.  If the mobo fried then it's likely the memory fried as well.  I'll start with one thing at a time.

[Lantyssa]

Then start with the power supply. 

Just because it turns on when you jump it doesn't mean it's good.

[Nebu]

Then start with the power supply. 

Just because it turns on when you jump it doesn't mean it's good.

I think you missed it above.  When I bypass the mobo and jump it, everything gets power just fine.  I do have a backup power supply, but I'm about 99% sure it's not the issue.

[Hammond]

Word of warning you will probably want to test the new mobo and parts with the spare power supply first. I had one buddy that replaced his fried mobo and fried his new one because he did not replace the power supply.

[Numtini]

This makes me appreciate my job where I can just snag a card or motherboard or PSU out of the pile of stripped out spare parts and bring it home to test things.

[Salamok]

There are places that will test your PSU for you for a small fee (I think it is like $12 at Fry's).

[Nebu]

There are places that will test your PSU for you for a small fee (I think it is like $12 at Fry's).

I'm fortunate enough to have an O-scope and multimeter in my lab and a bunch of bored electrical engineers 3 floors down.  If the mobo doesn't fix it, I may just go bug some of the senior students.  They love playing with this stuff. 

[Nebu]

New mobo solved the problem.  Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.

[Furiously]

If you jump the power and ground with a paperclip, you can test the power supply.  It's fine.   It happened late last night and I didn't notice until after work.  Any smell would have been swept away by my AC while I was at work.

I'm just trying to whittle down my other possibilities. 

That smell NEVER goes away...

[Hoax]

Anyone want to talk me out of the Razer Taipan? It was down to that and the SteelSeries Sensei so thoughts/experiences with either would be useful. The Razer is the devil I know, I have used them for years and don't have many bad things to say about them other than they are quite easy to break and I wish they came with more replacement feet. I had an Abyssus most recently and it was a great mouse.

[ezrast]

The Sensei is a solid workhorse. I've been gaming on mine (MLG edition) since I think December and it's help up well so far; my only problem with it is that with my grip and small hands, reaching the forward side button is impossible without shifting my whole hand forward. I had the exact same issue with my old Razer Diamondback (which I still use at work, but after years of service the LMB switch and the scroll wheel detents have become too flaky for gaming) though so if you're okay with the side buttons on your current Razer stuff the Sensei should be fine.

Oh, and the other issue, if you care about this sort of thing, is that the profiling software is clunky shit and it's pretty arbitrary which settings are kept on your PC and which are kept on the mouse, so the "keep your settings onboard and use them anywhere" schtick is only true if you care only about sensitivity settings and not button assignments, which screws me over a bit as an occasional left-handed mouser. From what I recall, though, Razer's software was equally shit (Diamondback had no onboard storage so no idea there).

I consider myself a SteelSeries convert but the products are so similar in design goals that it mostly just boils down to which aesthetics and frills you prefer. Honestly the most noticeable difference between the two (that isn't accounted for by comparing a newer top-of-the-line model to an outdated middle-of-the-road one) is that I slightly prefer the casing on the Sensei. I do miss the trademark grippy, rubbery Razer feel sometimes but the slick surface on the Sensei is so much tougher and easier to clean that I don't think I'd go back... unless I could confirm that my thumb could actually reach the buttons on the Naga Hex, then I'd be all over that. First people to send me a gaming-quality mouse with multiple thumb buttons I can actually reach has me as a customer for life. I really need to try one of those super-adjustable R.A.T. things.

[Quinton]

Has anybody seen a three button mouse with three actual buttons?  Like the old Logitech wedge mice?

I would like a wheel, but I don't want the wheel to be the middle button -- the middle button should be no harder or awkward to press than the left or right buttons, and should not have any side-effects to pressing.

For CAD/modeling software, X11, games like DOTA2 where B2 is a camera control modifier, etc, I really really want an actual button.  Surely *somebody* makes a real three button mouse still?

[Trippy]

Has anybody seen a three button mouse with three actual buttons?  Like the old Logitech wedge mice?

There are plenty of mice with three or more buttons but none that I've found that have a button between the left and right buttons that's also not a scroll wheel.

I would like a wheel, but I don't want the wheel to be the middle button -- the middle button should be no harder or awkward to press than the left or right buttons, and should not have any side-effects to pressing.

I have the same issue as I use it for pasting having learned Unix on NeWS and X11 and pushing down on a scroll wheel usually causes things to scroll (as well as paste). What I do is use Logitech mice that have tilt scroll wheels and set the left and right tilts to be middle buttons (though I usually only tilt to the left). I've been using that setup for a long time now and it works very well for me.

[Quinton]

It looks like HP sells the DY651A which is a three-button optical USB mouse (no wheel).

These guys sell a fancy ergo three-button mouse with wheel and fw/bk rocker switch by the thumb:
http://ergo.contour-design.com/ergonomic-mouse/contour-mouse

Ordering one of each to check them out.

Alternatively, perhaps a gaming mouse with a thumb switch or two would be workable.

[JWIV]

I'm declaring victory here. I think. Jesus what a pain in the ass. Basically, I snagged an old system off my brother and decided to take the components and move it to a better case.  I blew out the case before doing so however, as it was completely filthy. Which somehow managed to short out the DIMM slots on the motherboard. At which point, I said "Welp, Wife gets a free upgrade now" as her system runs a compatible board. However, it required a BIOS update in order to support a quad core cpu.  No problem! Looked up the specs on the board, tried ASUS's graphical tool which completely fucked up the BIOS update and was unable to recover via their 'crash free BIOS' shit. 

That all said - one BIOS chip later (thank god they didn't solder them down on the P5 boards), the wife now has moved from 4gigs of RAM and Core 2 Duo to 8 gigs and a Core 2 Quad.

Lessons learned

1) I've never blown a mother board using canned air before, but it can happen. Have to keep that in mind.
2) Never ever ever ever NEVER update a BIOS from Windows. Go into BIOS and use their EZTool instead.

[MisterNoisy]

1) I've never blown a mother board using canned air before, but it can happen. Have to keep that in mind.

Get one of these and the condensation from compressed air is a thing of the past.  Also, it's got a hell of a lot more power than a can can produce.

[Salamok]

An air compressor is one of the first tools I bought once I acquired a house, doesn't seem to have near as much condensation as air from a can and it never runs out.

[Chimpy]

An air compressor is one of the first tools I bought once I acquired a house, doesn't seem to have near as much condensation as air from a can and it never runs out.

Have to worry about oil with an air compressor though.

[Der Helm]

THIS is my motherboard and it looks like I will finally be able to replace/upgrade my memory. Apparently 4 GB RAM are a real bottleneck performancewise, I have been checking the resource monitor in the last few days and whenever I run something more demanding than Chrome or Firefox, physical memory usage is at 100% with lots and lots and lots of HD activity.
Now, could someone please, for the love of god explain to me what kind of RAM and I can (and should) install in this ancient piece of technology ?

I can't make heads or tails out of this:

- Dual Channel DDR3/DDR2 memory technology*
- 2 x DDR3 DIMM slots
- Supports DDR3 1333/1066/800 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
- Max. capacity: 4GB**
- 4 x DDR2 DIMM slots
- Supports DDR2 1066/800/667 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
- Max. capacity: 16GB**

edit: I have a feeling I have asked this question before, when I upgraded my graphic card, but could not find that post.

[rattran]

- 4 x DDR2 DIMM slots
- Supports DDR2 1066/800/667 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
- Max. capacity: 16GB**

This is the important part, you can't mix ddr2 and ddr3, so if you want to go past 4gb total memory, you'll need to get some ddr2. Either match what you have, or drop in a fresh new pair/quad. I'd suggest going with a pair of 4gb sticks, but due to being old, it'll cost nearly as much (~100€ per 4gb chip) as just upgrading your motherboard/chip/memory to something more modern.

TL;DR Old computer stuff costs too much to upgrade. Save your money and replace it soon.

Every time I type the Euro symbol, I'm amused that they picked Zoidberg as their currency symbol.

[Engels]

Ya, looks like you have one of those hybrid memory P35 chipset boards that could take DDR2 and DDR3 ram. I'm using one at the moment, my old gaming machine at work! Unless you're economically constrained for the long term, I would recommend upgrading.

If you can't, then buy the ram. It SHOULD be as simple as buying DDR2 ram, two sticks of 4 GB, and bob's your uncle. However, be sure to read any documentation on the board to make sure there's no funkiness in changing. If memory serves there were some serious problems moving from DDR2 to DDR3 on some boards that were eventually sorted out through a BIOS flash.

[Der Helm]

Ok, stuff got weird(ish). I managed to get 2 new 4 GB DDR2 667 sticks (IBM even).

When I opened my case I found that I had 2 1 GB DDR2 and 2 512 MB DDR2 installed. So I had only 3 GB of RAM instead of the 4 I always assumed. Looks like the RAM fairy sneaked into my appartment and installed some strange combination because I don't remember putting those in.

When I installed my new RAM (just the 2 new ones) my graphic card failed to send a signal. From the last time I had RAM problems (years ago) I thought I remembered that the BIOS is supposed to give warning sounds when it detects failed RAM when you start the computer.

Right now I am back to only using the 2 1 GB sticks and wonder if the ram is bad or if I did something wrong (I did NOT try to shove them in the DDR3 slots   )

Also for some reason I have the weird feeling that at least windows performance is a bit improved, is that possible ?

edit: Forget the performance gain, I was seeing things , system slowed down to a crawl. I put the old RAM back in and it seems that I was seeing things earlier because now my BIOS and Windows tell me that I got two different sets of 2 X 1 GB RAM installed. I get the feeling that I might have been trying to install hardware that was not compatible with my system.

What I got now installed is:

2X Kingston PC2 6400 DDR2-80
2X Samsung PC2 6400 DDR2-80

1 set of RAM is about half the size of the other, specwise the difference seems to be (according to Sisoftware Sandra):
Technology: 8X(128MX8) and Standard timings: 5-6-6-18 3-24-6-3 (Samsung)
Technology: 16X(24MX8) and Standard timings: 5-5-5-18 3-23-6-3 (Kingston)

The RAM I got is supposed to be "IBM PC2-5300  8GB (DIMM 240, 667 MHz, 2x 4GB) DDR2-RAM"

Also I seem to have a maximum FSB of 400 and in my Bios it is set to 266 according to my motherboard manual I should run either 800, 1066 or 1333 Mhz FSB for 667Mhz RAM. Could this be the problem ?
I suppose here is some kind of multiplier at work ?

[Rasix]

Yay, my home PC has gone into a lovely nvlddmkm.sys blue screen crash loop.  Sometimes it'll even manage to make it all of the way to loading Windows before it poops out.  Apparently this is a common problem, so I'll try some of the solutions I've seen.  Fucking nvidia.

Somewhat related, my PC seems to freeze up every day or two.  It just straight locks.  No blue screen, but mouse/kb stops working and the clock stops advancing time.  No error in the logs at all that would indicate what's happening. Could this be a motherboard issue or RAM?  I'm a bit worried that with all of the work I had to do a year or two back to fix my video card issues (RMA'd) that somehow I damaged some of the board components.

[satael]

Ok, stuff got weird(ish). I managed to get 2 new 4 GB DDR2 667 sticks (IBM even).

When I opened my case I found that I had 2 1 GB DDR2 and 2 512 MB DDR2 installed. So I had only 3 GB of RAM instead of the 4 I always assumed. Looks like the RAM fairy sneaked into my appartment and installed some strange combination because I don't remember putting those in.

When I installed my new RAM (just the 2 new ones) my graphic card failed to send a signal. From the last time I had RAM problems (years ago) I thought I remembered that the BIOS is supposed to give warning sounds when it detects failed RAM when you start the computer.

Right now I am back to only using the 2 1 GB sticks and wonder if the ram is bad or if I did something wrong (I did NOT try to shove them in the DDR3 slots  )

Also for some reason I have the weird feeling that at least windows performance is a bit improved, is that possible ?

In theory if the 512mb sticks were slower than the 1gb sticks then your memory would run at the lowest common denominator. And if that had been set in BIOS manually it could explain why your new sticks (if they were of different speed) wouldn't work when you tried.

[Der Helm]

In theory if the 512mb sticks were slower than the 1gb sticks then your memory would run at the lowest common denominator. And if that had been set in BIOS manually it could explain why your new sticks (if they were of different speed) wouldn't work when you tried.

Updated my previous post, apparently I was seeing things. RAM speed in the BIOS was set to AUTO last time I checked.