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Author Topic: Quick [tech] Questions Thread  (Read 1186549 times)
Amarr HM
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Reply #595 on: March 28, 2009, 11:11:11 AM

I'm looking for a new GFX card 512mb+ I only got about $200 to spend anyone know what's the best bang for buck around at the moment?

I'm going to escape, come back, wipe this place off the face of the Earth, obliterate it and you with it.
Yegolev
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Reply #596 on: March 28, 2009, 02:15:33 PM

I found this link to be a good read, although there are a lot of ties:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/benchmarks,30.html

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Amarr HM
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Reply #597 on: March 30, 2009, 07:30:48 AM

Found this scored quite high on Tom's benchmarks and works out about $210.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-114-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=927

I'm going to escape, come back, wipe this place off the face of the Earth, obliterate it and you with it.
Yegolev
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Reply #598 on: March 31, 2009, 07:20:03 AM

I don't know how quick this will be, but my wife has trouble with USB hard drives.  She has had at least two PCs at her desk and managed to go through at least 4 USB external drives in record time.  Sometimes I can plug them into my PC and they work, sometimes they don't and never do after that.  Last one was a very new WD MyBook that required some repair when I plugged it into my machine.  I gave her the disk and the USB cable I used, but it would not even spin up at her desk.

Currently the only thing I can think is that the power at her desk, or perhaps entire office, is the culprit.  Let's assume no one wants to rewire the office during these uncertain times, what might be done here?

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Engels
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inflicts shingles.


Reply #599 on: March 31, 2009, 08:03:52 AM

You can get a clean source of power by using a UPS. I used to have very flaky power in my old flat from the 40s and using this guy helped solve that straight away.

That said, it may be either your or your wife's power supply itself.

I should get back to nature, too.  You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer.  Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached.  Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe

I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa

Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
Yegolev
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Reply #600 on: March 31, 2009, 08:09:10 AM

If you mean the PC PSU, she has different ones due to having different PCs.  If you mean the wall-wart that comes with the USB drive, she says she uses the one that comes with it each time so there is no commonality there.  Also I don't have this issue.

I was hoping I would not have to suggest a UPS, but then I won't be paying for it so I might as well.  Turns out that everything at her desk connects to one electrical outlet and I'm not entirely sure a UPS will fix something like an overtapped circuit.  If that's the issue, I fear I'm looking for a bandage when I need a limb replacement.

Edit for clarity.  It is probably not apparent that her office is not in my house.  It is in the ramshackle tinderbox that passes for her place of business.
« Last Edit: March 31, 2009, 08:10:49 AM by Yegolev »

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Salamok
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Reply #601 on: March 31, 2009, 09:21:20 AM

You could try a maxtor mini, draws all of it's power via the USB ports, I really like mine as it is fairly compact and I don't have to lug a power brick around with it.

UPS: It's been a 4-5 years since i checked but last time I was in the market for 1 most of these were passive which probably wouldn't solve a dirty power problem much more than a power strip would.  Now if you can find an active UPS that may prove to be helpful, although it won't magically make an overloaded circuit start delivering more juice, it will convert shitty power (lots of fluctuations) to clean power (pure sine wave).

How much equipment is she running off her single outlet?  A full system (cpu/monitor or 2/printer/wireless router/cable modem) can easily run off one of the workstation level 1000/1100va UPS's for at least 30 minutes.
Engels
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Reply #602 on: March 31, 2009, 12:27:14 PM

This actually is an excellent question, regarding active vs passive. My perhaps misinformed understanding is that APC ups have two type of outlets: one bank with is just a surge protected passthrough, and another bank which is actually battery supported. My understanding is that the battery supported outlets actually provide the clean power source, whereas the passthrough ones are just protected against bad surges. Any info you guys have would be very much appreicated.

I should get back to nature, too.  You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer.  Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached.  Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe

I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa

Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
Salamok
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Reply #603 on: March 31, 2009, 12:36:31 PM

Yes in a nutshell, active (i believe tripp lite calls theirs interactive) essentially puts the battery between you and the power source, where passive only switches (very rapidly) to battery power when the power source is not available.  Looking at the tripp lite site it appears that you can get an active 700va interactive for $250.  Nothing here against APC (I had 2 smart UPS 3ks in my server room that were rock steady) but the last few personal UPS's I have had were tripp lite and I am simply a bit more familiar with them.

Edit: 700va should be enough to run your core computer components off of for 30-45minutes (cpu, single monitor and cable modem) but you are mostly interested in power quality so that is just icing i suppose.  Also, you may want to investigate the other reason I am more familiar with tripp lite, Costco looks to have a great deal on a 1500va interactive UPS
« Last Edit: March 31, 2009, 12:47:41 PM by Salamok »
Trippy
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Reply #604 on: March 31, 2009, 12:43:54 PM

If you are worried about the power coming out of your wall you don't want just an UPS, you want one with "Automatic Voltage Regulation" (AVR). AVR UPSes generate a steady amount of voltage instead of just kicking in when the voltage drops too low which is what Salamok is referring to.

Also, if you really really concerned about your power and you believe the marketing hype (which I don't) get a UPS that generates a sine wave instead of a square wave for it's power.
Salamok
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Reply #605 on: March 31, 2009, 12:51:28 PM

hmm the target audience seems to have changed since i last reviewed specs for UPS's they used to all shoot for a half hour of battery backup, looks like the UPS's i just posted are geared more for clean power and just enough backup power to get you shut down (3-15 minutes depending on model and load).
Yegolev
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Reply #606 on: March 31, 2009, 12:52:07 PM

Also, if you really really concerned about your power and you believe the marketing hype (which I don't) get a UPS that generates a sine wave instead of a square wave for it's power.

I'm either too smart or too stupid to believe this makes a difference, unless it's that the sine is worse.

I don't know how much juice is on that circuit she is using but my educated guess is "not enough".  Fluctuations could be from "bad power" or from devices firing up, like a printer.  She has too many things for a single outlet, I know that, but she won't be able to have the office rewired until her brother is convinced.

Consensus seem to be that power fluctuations toward the low end can destroy a USB disk.  I'll see about the low-power ones, since I'll be buying yet another one anyway.

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Trippy
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Reply #607 on: March 31, 2009, 12:57:47 PM

Also, if you really really concerned about your power and you believe the marketing hype (which I don't) get a UPS that generates a sine wave instead of a square wave for it's power.
I'm either too smart or too stupid to believe this makes a difference, unless it's that the sine is worse.
Sine is "better", it's what's coming out of your wall socket and the form of power your electronic equipment was designed to. Many UPSes, however, generate something closer to a square wave for it's power, presumably cause it's less expensive than generating a pure sine wave.
Salamok
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Reply #608 on: March 31, 2009, 01:44:51 PM

I'd kind of lean more towards the negligable benefit of having a pure sine wave.  The main benefit has to do with power loss over a large distance (which is why this is what the electric co sends you in the 1st place), combine this with the operating envelope of pretty much all consumer electronics and the benefit to the end user is pretty much invisible.  The square wave coming off a UPS is still going to be filtered to the point that it will stay within the peaks and valleys of a pure sine wave and that is probably the important aspect.
Lantyssa
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Reply #609 on: April 01, 2009, 09:19:10 AM

You don't think the sharp edges might cause extra wear on the electronics? Ohhhhh, I see.

Hahahaha!  I'm really good at this!
Yegolev
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Reply #610 on: April 01, 2009, 09:38:36 AM

I think that is what they are saying.

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Amarr HM
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Posts: 3066


Reply #611 on: April 02, 2009, 08:38:11 AM

I found this link to be a good read, although there are a lot of ties:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/benchmarks,30.html

Thanks for that it totally helped and the GTX 260 is in the post only thing is I now need to upgrade the power supply which should be fun.

I'm going to escape, come back, wipe this place off the face of the Earth, obliterate it and you with it.
Tige
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Reply #612 on: April 02, 2009, 06:09:19 PM

Is there any way to connect a PS2 to a monitor that has a DVI-D and a HD15 connection?       
Trippy
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Reply #613 on: April 02, 2009, 06:30:37 PM

Is there any way to connect a PS2 to a monitor that has a DVI-D and a HD15 connection?       
You need an S-Video/Component to VGA converter box. I don't have mine with me at my new location so I can't take a pic of it and show you what mine looks like but that's what I used to display my previous gen consoles (PS2/Xbox/GC) on my computer monitor.

Edit: here are some examples



Tige
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Reply #614 on: April 02, 2009, 06:46:21 PM

Is there any way to connect a PS2 to a monitor that has a DVI-D and a HD15 connection?       
You need an S-Video/Component to VGA converter box. I don't have mine with me at my new location so I can't take a pic of it and show you what mine looks like but that's what I used to display my previous gen consoles (PS2/Xbox/GC) on my computer monitor.

Edit: here are some examples


Gracias.

edit:  Checked amazon a saw a handful of reviews bitching about loss of picture quality.  If you have decent monitor/converter is that an issue or is it just the nature of these things to have some visual degredation?  Curious if text would wind up blurry.

« Last Edit: April 02, 2009, 07:14:54 PM by Tige »
Yegolev
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Reply #615 on: April 03, 2009, 06:15:59 AM

I'd think that component-to-vga would give the best picture, but I have not tried this.

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Trippy
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Posts: 23612


Reply #616 on: April 03, 2009, 06:48:07 AM

Component would give the best picture but S-Video works fine as long as the converter is decent enough. Mine "upscales" to 1024 x 768 and the text is fine (I played stuff like FF XII through it).

Edit: also to clarify, things typically aren't going to look the same even if the converter did a "perfect" conversion job. PS2 games are "calibrated" to look their best on CRT TV-only displays. CRT computer monitors don't follow the same design specs as CRT TVs so material created for CRT TV displays don't look the same on CRT computer monitors. The same applies to CRT TV-designed material being shown on other types of computer displays like LCDs. With HDTV materials things converge more but even then there are differences.

In my previous setup the PS2 images on my Sony CRT TV are quite a bit brighter and more the colors more "vibrant" compared to what is shown on my Sony CRT monitors.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2009, 07:08:23 AM by Trippy »
NowhereMan
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Reply #617 on: April 03, 2009, 04:08:47 PM

So, DivX plug in has started crashing Firefox, IE and Opera and crashes in Chrome whenever I have a DivX movie try to load. It's just started happening after I moved into University halls so possibly being on their network is causing it but I'd have imagined that would result in error messages rather than the plug-in crashing any time it tries to play. Seen a few things on it having browser specific issues but this seems to be DivX itself. Anyone else seeing anything similar? Or have any ideas what it could be?

"Look at my car. Do you think that was bought with the earnest love of geeks?" - HaemishM
Salamok
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Reply #618 on: April 04, 2009, 08:49:28 AM

Last few releases of Divx have done nothing but piss me off, like they sold out to the competition and tanked their own product.
Trippy
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Reply #619 on: April 04, 2009, 04:56:02 PM

Divx's own MPEG-4 codec stopped being relevant a while ago when they were no longer able to compete with the work the Xvid guys were/are doing as they spent more time taking features *out* of their products instead of improving them. They are trying to be relevant again by buying out MainConcept and going with the H.264/MKV combo which has become the standard for HD reencodes.
Ookii
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Reply #620 on: April 06, 2009, 08:09:33 AM

I have a honeypot on one my work computers, all traffic is normal except for UDP port 1434.  Random computers are sending a packet to it that is 02 in hex.  There is no way the honeypot requested it (it's low interaction) so I'm trying to figure out why the aforementioned random computers are sending 02 to it.

Engels
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Reply #621 on: April 06, 2009, 08:23:21 AM

Found this on the internets. Not sure if its of any help:

http://www.websecurity.mobi/computer-security/692-firewall-reports-attck-udp-port-1434-a.html

Btw, what the heck is a honeypot?

I should get back to nature, too.  You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer.  Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached.  Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe

I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa

Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
Murgos
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Reply #622 on: April 06, 2009, 11:46:30 AM

Btw, what the heck is a honeypot?

A computer all dressed up in drag waiting for someone to come screw it.

"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
Lantyssa
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Reply #623 on: April 06, 2009, 12:10:35 PM

So, DivX plug in has started crashing Firefox, IE and Opera and crashes in Chrome whenever I have a DivX movie try to load. It's just started happening after I moved into University halls so possibly being on their network is causing it but I'd have imagined that would result in error messages rather than the plug-in crashing any time it tries to play. Seen a few things on it having browser specific issues but this seems to be DivX itself. Anyone else seeing anything similar? Or have any ideas what it could be?
If it started happening after you moved in, and given University residence hall network's plague-riddled existances, I'd recommend doing as many virus scans from as many providers as you can manage.

Hahahaha!  I'm really good at this!
Ookii
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Reply #624 on: April 06, 2009, 12:21:32 PM

That isn't it, really I just posted this for anyone who does Enterprise IT.

Salamok
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Reply #625 on: April 06, 2009, 12:46:48 PM

Sounds much like this this, try stopping the "SQL Server Service Manager" service.  Also double check that you don't have an ip conflict with another machine on the network...
Ookii
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Reply #626 on: April 06, 2009, 01:18:21 PM

Sounds much like this this, try stopping the "SQL Server Service Manager" service.  Also double check that you don't have an ip conflict with another machine on the network...

Stupid MSDE is broadcasting, you hit it right on the nose!

Salamok
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Reply #627 on: April 06, 2009, 01:31:28 PM

Sounds much like this this, try stopping the "SQL Server Service Manager" service.  Also double check that you don't have an ip conflict with another machine on the network...

Stupid MSDE is broadcasting, you hit it right on the nose!

And here I am not even an enterprise IT professional! ;P
Ookii
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Reply #628 on: April 06, 2009, 01:42:56 PM

Your google-fu is strong then sir.  I am too tired to do anything properly today!

Salamok
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Reply #629 on: April 06, 2009, 01:54:40 PM

well to be honest I do have more than a little smidge of IT in my background and once I saw that SQL server uses that port my 1st instinct was some piss poor implementation of that piece of crap that is MSDE.
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