If you have a single (or some more) question regarding any of the tech topics of this board and feel that it wouldn't justify creating an own thread just for that, feel free to post it in here.
If you know the answer to any of the questions in this thread, please help us out here! I am sure it's going to be appreciated.
I am creating this thread since there's ben popping up too many threads lately with single questions asking for help that aren't really set out to create too much interest.
Can CDRs be repaired by those kits you can buy, or the various mail order services? I have an album on CDR with a couple of scratches that are seriously affecting playback of about three tracks, but I'm not sure if those sorts of things are safe to use on writeable media.
Those things you can buy, is that those who shave off a thin slice of the surface, and then applies a new one (or whatever they do)?
The writable layer is still on the other side, so in theory it should work. I'd be pretty damn careful and/or desperate before using them though.
Have you tried filling the scratches with "that other stuff you can buy" already? It seems like a far safer bet.
And of course, if it works, make a copy immediately.
I think I've read something about this in one of Dan's Data's letter columns, but don't know which one unfortunately... ( http://www.dansdata.com/ )
Hi
I am using Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit. For some reason, my Sidebar doesn't start up in the start up when it should, because I set it to "Start in Startup". What's wrong with it?
Where can I get more gadgets for it anyway?
Right click and there should be an option.
Right click and there should be an option.
Hello,
I'm having problems with moving files with Japanese filenames between Windows XP and my GNU/Linux via FTP (both ways). I connect to my *nix box from Windows using FtpDrive (http://www.killprog.com/fdrve.html). No issues with "normal" files but the ones with Japanese names either don't copy at all (don't have the exact errors here, I can get them if you wish, but normally it's something like "can't read from file") or if they eventually do copy the filename looks like gibberish (doesn't matter which way).
Now I have the support for eastern languages installed on Windows, no problems with Japanese files at all. On the GNU/Linux machine my term is in UTF-8 and it displays Kanji/Kana characters properly, haven't noticed any problems with Japanese names either as long as they 'stay in the box'.
To determine if the problem is with my ftp software I zipped a Japanese file on Windows, renamed the ZIP file to an ASCII name, copied it to my box, but when I unpacked it the name looked like gibberish so I think my ftp software is working properly. I also tried doing it the other way (packed a file on *nix, copied and unpacked on windows), same thing.
I tried googling different keywords to see if I can find anything relevant but I wasn't successful so far. Please point me in the right direction.
I have a problem with downloading files in Firefox (2.0.0.9).
I am using Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit, normal (not true) admin account. When I click a link to download, most of the time after I confirm the download (what do you want to do with this file? save to disk/open with) it doesn't download it at all.
Can I plug in PCI-E cards in a PCI slot?
I want to buy this product:
http://www.magma.com/products/pci/13PCI/index.html
but I want to make sure I can use the latest PCI type (PCI-E) in it.
No it won't. PCI and PCI-X is the older versions of PCI, and PCI-E is the latest standard. Although PCI may fit into PCI-E.
i have a cheap flash based MP3 player that i've had for some time now, and the USB has stopped working completely - the player just switches off when it's plugged in to a computer. is there anything in particular that might cause that, or is it just generally fucked?
>>211
Sounds pretty fucked, unfortunately. But you can try another USB cable (they're generally replaceable, look at the picture on Wikipedia's USB article to see which cable you have).
Also this should go without saying, but: You have tried more than one computer, right?
Vista Ultimate 32bit user. For some reason, towards the end of a song being played in Windows Media Player, it starts to get cut off and "jumpy". I am using Intel Core2 Duo T7600 or something like that.
What's wrong?
hey. for some reason my computer has started replacing my backslash key with the yen symbol. except it only does it with some programs. i cant log into some stuff because of it. does anyone know whats going on?
let me rephrase that, Windows Media Player starts acting laggy towards the end of the song. i tried using other computers with the same file, but it's only my computer.
>>207
My first thought was that your linux box uses UTF-8, but your Windows box might use UCS2 encoded Unicode in filenames. But I don't know much about Windows, so that might not be it.
A pointer: Check Wikipedia for "mojibake", and click around from there.
Maybe someone here can help if you post exactly what kind of gibberish you get. (both in the case of zipped files and copied files)
Listing file names with ls | hexdump -C might be useful to see what is going on. UTF-8 encoded filenames have three bytes per (kanji/kana) character, and UCS2 would have two, for example.
Also, are the filenames OK if you copy the files back to the Windows box?
i have an ipod dock, through which i use an IR remote and connect it to my stereo. i usually keep my ipod in a case, however, which prevents it from fitting into the dock. now what i don't want to do is remove the ipod from its case every time i want to use the dock functions.
so what i'm after is some kind of extension cable for the ipod dock connector - i thought there would be a million companies in china churning out such things, as there are for every other nearly-useless vaguely-ipod-related product, but as it turns out i couldn't find one on ebay! do these things really, really not exist? or am i just not looking hard enough?
So...
If I have 2 PCIe cards in my computer that do the same thing...
Would they work together?
E.G I have a 256mb graphics card, and added another 768mb graphics card. Would I have a total of 1GB graphics power?
>>218 here, i've been looking at this...
there are a (very) few companies making this sort of thing, and they're ridiculously expensive! in these days when you can get a cheap chinese ipod dock for around 5£, why are the only companies making extension cables based in the US and charging apple-esque prices?
graphics does not works this way - amount of VRAM means little, graphics cards are not just memory dumps.
if you have similar graphics cards (the more similar the better) and they're the same manufacturer, you can use SLI (nvidia) or Crossfire (ATI). Note that doing so will give you a 40% increase in speed at BEST, and with heavily mismatched cards you will have a massive reduction in speed (don't try to pair a 6600GT with a 8800GTX), as the 8800GTX will run at the speed of the 6600GT. the memory will also not be "added" - in fact, the memory on the card with more VRAM may even be disabled.
tl;dr: unless you have a lot of money to spend on two identical cards with the same chipset and care about THE OMFG MOST PERFORMANCE YOU CAN BUY, stay away from SLI, get a 8800GT and be happy
>>214
it's because you've set your local language to japanese in windows
>>222
Then you will have two graphics cards.
Just like plugging in two keyboards won't make you type twice as fast. (But you will have two keyboards.)
Nothing will happen other than perhaps device driver conflicts/game crashes/a useless card in the second PCI-E slot.
Ok, so this might be a pretty dumb question but...
I have an interview with one of the school districts in my town on Monday. Now, I've heard of data mining before, but is there anyway that they could (or would want to) be able to somehow get a hold of a list of websites that I've been to recently? I was talking with this guy I know, (who is pretty darn smart) and he was saying "yeah, I wouldn't want to go to that site, (talking about a xxx site) and then try and apply for a job!" So is there any truth to this? Can companies get a big list of websites that you've gone to? I know I didn't really format my questions very well, but could someone here shed some light on all of this?
>>226
no! christ that'd just be a massive breach of privacy. wouldn't it? i suppose you're probably in the US (are you?) where employers love to snoop into what people are doing in their own time, even if it has absolutely no effect on their productivity at work (hi drug testing) but its really not possible for them to get hold of a list of websites you visited, for all kinds of reasons. the only way visiting a website on your own computer at home would damage your job prospects is if it was something illegal and you got caught.
Help with Mail for OS X, please!
Why can't I delete these two emails? "Deleting" them just greys them out and doesn't remove them, and from there, all I can do is "Undelete" them. Help?
>>227 (OP here) It'd be a huge breach of privacy, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if they somehow did it. I do live in the U.S. and it seems like this kinda stuff happens all the time.
Hello, thanks for responding! Now after doing a few tests (inspired by your reply :)) I realized some of the stuff in my previous post was not completely correct/relevant.
What I have found out is that my *nix box stores Japanese file names in UTF-8 but Windows XP stores them in Shift JIS!!!
I found that out by doing something like this:
ls | iconv -f sjis -t utf8Now I just wonder what's the best thing to do... (and asking friend google etc) :)
Thanks!
>>230
the way i see it you have 3 options, all of which involve renaming some files:
(check link above)
Windows Vista Ultimate seems to replacing a lot of icons with these annoying red Xs.
How do I fix this problem?
The gadgets worked fine from when I first installed them, then got the Xs. I reinstalled them a lot to try to fix it but it still doesn't do anything. Before I reformatted my computer, the gadgets were fine.
>>232 here, the red X is also appearing in a lot of things.
For example the windows help and support center images.
I know this has probably already been asked a billion times but what's a good free firewall and antivirus?
thank you!
I've already posted this on one of the other boards, but turns out I was supposed to post it here XD
Whenever I try to view one of the image boards on 4chan, the only thing that will display are the advertisements on the top of the page. I've tried deleting all of my internet history files and I also did a system recovery/restore, yet the problem persists. When I tried on an XP computer (using Vista now) this did not happen and I could see the whole board.
If anyone has any suggestions or solutions I would highly appreciate it ^_^, thanks in advance.
My MP3 player sometimes claims that MP3s are "dual channel" and that it's only going to play the first channel. Obviously they're meant to be stereo, but encoded wrong or something. Dammit. Any ideas how I can fix this?
ok 4ch do you know how to change this ugly external WD's hard drive icon the default icon for internal hard drives like D:
btw picture is in link.
WANT
what is causing certain video files to be always "in use" under XP, preventing me from moving/renaming/deleting them? (without using the command prompt anyway, which is a pain in the arse with long-named files in obscure directories) is there some useless microsoft process doing that that i can just terminate?
Can I make it so whenever I turn my bluetooth shit on that windows will automatically make it the default stereo for music?
>>241
Usually you have to edit the registry to change something like that. Not worth the risk if you don't know what you're doing.
Alternately, you could just find where that icon is stored, and overwrite it. Long ago I used Microangelo to edit icons stored in DLL libraries or executables.
>>243
If renaming and then deleting doesn't work, then this might.
Caveat: I haven't tested it.
http://www.softwarepatch.com/software/moveonboot.html
>>240
Re-encode the file maybe.
Try Audacity, it's free, but it would even be worth paying $60 for it.
ok two things:
> Audacity p5b windows xp
My LCD monitor won't turn on. A while before, it wouldn't turn off, but now it won't turn on. I'd give more details if I had them. :(
>>249
yeah, i tried googling as in no.2, got no worthwhile results...but there was an updated driver available for the sound hardware that fixed the problem. so that's all fine. i think.
i'm also pretty much not willing to learn scheme just to process some images, but as it turns out i have this "Microsoft Office Picture Manager" which evidently came with some version of office or other. up until now i disregarded entirely thinking it was something worthless, but it actually does exactly what i need! which is nice.
did you check all the wires? just a basic question.
Or, is the button maybe broken? Try prodding it with a pencil or something.
>>246
Scratch that, discovered this one, works great, don't abuse it:
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
I remember recently reading about a tool that will automatically download the required dependencies of a configure process that failed a dependency check. I don't remember the name but it was called apt-??? and it depended upon apt-get. Does anybody know what I am referring to?
I downloaded some mp3's, but they're in mojibake, and I don't know the actual artist name. I'm curious to find out, but is there anyway to fix it?
>>255
Try installing support for different languages OR just google the lyrics.
Could you mean apt-file? I don't know if it auto downloads packages or not though.
http://www.debuntu.org/how-to-find-missing-packages-with-apt-file
Ok, here's the problem, I tried to boot up my PC today and, despite my BIOS settings not having "Boot From CD" as a priority, it's trying to boot from fucking CD, and I don't even have one in the drive. I'm so damned frustrated, I saved my BIOS settings, checked them after I tried to boot again, but the same thing happens.
Boot From CD:
Boot From CD:
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER
...please help, somebody?
I have some .CPS files (created with Corel Photo House), is there any way to open or convert them without the original software? because i have no idea where the disc is, i haven't used it for about eight years.
I just can't really play any video files other than .avi very well.
(I'm watching anime)
On everything the audio just zooms ahead while I have to sit and line it up back in place.
Do I have the wrong codecs, the wrong players, is my computer just that sucky?
And I guess I have a second unrelated question.
I got a hold of a used ipod, all I got with it was the usb cord.
Well I charged it, installed itunes, and when I plugged it in it wanted to update it.
I ran the update but suddenly it asked me to plug it into the wall, I couldn't so I unplugged it and set it aside.
Sometime later I finally bought a damn AC plug for it and it still wouldn't work!
Am I screwed and have to get it repaired or what?
>>260
Download CCCP, it's the best codec pack around IMO. Try flashing the iPod and reinstalling the firmware.
>>261
I have CCCP and it still lags, might be my computer just sucks...
and the ipod doesn't connect to the computer anymore...
Hi, does anyone know if there's a realplayer compatible media player for linux that provides a firefox plugin, so I can watch embedded video streams?
>>263
mplayer can play realmedia, can't it?
I'm experiencing steadily dropping bitrates whenever I try to listen to BBC streaming radio on their website; it usually starts out around 100-110kbps, then levels out at about 67 for a while, but still slowly decreasing after this point; once it dips below 64 it starts to gets unlistenable. if I stop and reconnect to the stream it'll start over at 110ish again.
anyone know what causes this?
use vlc player it plays everything >_> no annoying codecs to worry about at all
Fuck you and your shitty player. MPlayer FTW.
I just started having this problem since yesterday, when I turn on my laptop the only thing that comes up is just my document folder and nothing else(no desktop or icons or start menu). Now I been fixing it by going into the window folder and starting explorer from there but is there anything I could do so I could have explorer starts up when the laptop is turn on without going into the window folder?
>>265
Are you sure you are really seeing the bitrate drop? I don't know how the BBC does things, but it seems more likely they would use a constant bitrate (yeah, or variable bitrate, just not consistently dropping). The "drop" could be because it buffers up data and the player reports a higher initial value.
As for the actual problem, it could be anything; high load on server, home router acting up, etc. If you're listening through a browser, you could try plugging the stream directly into VLC or something and see if that makes any difference. At least it might give a "second opinion" on what's going on.
It happens because its an RTP stream, and it's not getting packet statistics- so it's lowering the bitstream/quality to use less bandwidth.
The statistics replies are usually on a separate channel - e.g. if the stream is coming in on port 50000, then the statistics might go back on port 50001 - but many firewalls and address translators mess this up.
Hi, does anyone know if 128x4 and 64x8 (ddr400) ram types are interchangeable? Would 128x8 work in a mobo that (currently) uses 64x8? =/.
Hi everyone, The portable hard drive I always use for my school work and installing temporary games stop working today. At first I thought it was the wires that was having trouble so I used an different wire but it still having trouble so does anyone have any ideas what happen? I just got the hard drive this year and have stuff on it that I need for school so I hope it's recoverable and able to be fixed.
put it in the fridge for a night inside a Tupperware box, then in the morning take it out, connect the cables and get everything off it before it heats back up
sure or not? It sounds weird...
magnets increase in strength when you cool them down
>>275
You sure it will work? I wont be messing up anything in the process?
>>276
It sometimes works, and it shouldn't hurt anything if you do it properly, but in my experience users who refer to cables as "wires" will always find a way to fuck things up.
I moved in to college a week or so ago, and noticed that the college network blocks torrent trackers and the such. I would ask my RCC but I'm too lazy, but apparently there is in fact a way to get around this. Does anyone have any idea? Thanks.
>>278
depends exactly what it blocks. ports or specific urls/ip addresses?
my college blocked everything except http traffic on port 80 via their own cache servers, and you had to use some slow as hell tunneling shit to get absolutely anything else working.
BUT if they are only blocking the urls of torrent trackers there are like a million ways around that, im sure someone less hung over than i am can be arsed to explain
oh and while i'm here, i a question: i recently bought a cheap usb hub, my computer won't boot with it installed (only the first couple of lines of post stuff appear, it doesnt even get as far as the ram test) but if its plugged in at any time after this it works fine and causes no problems. why?
because your bios is old as FUCK
get a new computer NAOW
srysly, i have a computer that cant use usb hubs, and its about 14 years old and doesn't even have on board usb (it uses plug in cards)
could be something else though, but your description perfectly matches the problem i had with my old computer
>>280
YOU
may be right
but i'm too fuckin' poor to buy a new computer
i suppose i shall have to resume the quite frankly massive inconvenience plugging the usb hub in only after it has booted.
it costs like... 50$ to buy a new motherboard, should get you going again
My connection drops a lot when a page is loading (and show that the page is loading, but nothing would happen). for example, sometimes when I click on a link, the page will show as loading, but it would never actually load.
How do I fix this?
Does anybody have a working solution to that lol.hta script?
I miss my internets.
is there a decent freeware firewall for windows available? (one that isn't bundled with adware, toolbars, shitty anti-spyware or other crap). i'm not such a fan of zone alarm anymore. or should i just bite the bullet and turn on the windows firewall? i always assumed that since it came with xp-sp2 it would probably be restrictive, annoying and not very configurable, but i've never actually used the thing.
I clearly did a stupid thing by installing a fuckton of fonts on my Vista laptop. Now whenever I want to use the Text tool in Photoshop CS3, Photoshop just freezes and stops responding.
What's a good solution/workaround, or, what have I done wrong here?
My font list is at about 2000+. It that a bit excessive for Photoshop to handle?
>>286
I got fonts in numbers something like that but my Photoshop is still ok on my Vista anyway but do note that my PC has 4g DDR2 RAM installed on it so....Maybe it's your plugins messing around.
It's fine now. I had to wipe all the fonts I installed from the pack. Turns out my font count was 10,000+. Whoops. I'll just install the ones I really want. Thanks for the help anyway!
When using some programs and games, certain block of text in the program is very small and there is no setting in the program to fix it.
I know it's not supposed to be like this, but there's nothing in the program to increase the font size.
Perfect Dark for reference: http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/678/43761553ct4.jpg
>>289
I solved this by changing my regional settings from Japanese to English, but now I can't run Japanese program with applocale and Windows has troubles displaying Asian characters.
is there any way to do something like this using htaccess..
make the directory index a script in one directory with the path passed to it as an argument.
e.g.:
htaccess is placed in dir "blah" along with a script say "list.cgi"
for the address blah/cocks/hello/ whats actually loaded is blah/list.cgi?path=cocks/hello
Ok I was wondering, ok my c drive is getting full, each time I uninstall a program it seem it take up more space in the drive. Why is this happening? Also as I was going through my folders on the c drive I found that there is this folder called Temp in the window folder and it has more than 10 gigs in it. Can I safely delete it to free space or will I end up messing up the computer like deleting System 32?
> Also as I was going through my folders on the c drive I found that there is this folder called Temp in the window folder and it has more than 10 gigs in it. Can I safely delete it to free space or will I end up messing up the computer like deleting System 32?
don't delete the folder, but it should be safe to delete everything in it that windows will let you delete. any files that are in use should be locked so you can't delete them.
So it's alright to delete stuff inside the folder then? Ok thanks Anon.
How do I increased my laptop's virtual memory?
So I recently obtained a new computer as a present. It's a laptop. Anyways, when I turned it on, it won't work. It mentions something about PXE and 'media test failure' and 'exit PXE rom' when I boot it up. Also, it said something about 'insert new boot media'.
You can tell that I'm a huge computer noob, so...help, please.
Your first step would be to go into the BIOS and see what the primary boot device is. Should be the hard drive.
If that's legit, try reinstalling Windows or give Ubuntu or some other gay Linux shit a shot.
If that doesn't work, get yourself a gift receipt and exchange it/get the manufacturer to repair it.
>>293
Am a different anon here but having the same problem, so I could delete everything in that folder and the stuff that can't be delete will remain untouched and safe?
Ok, so I just got back from /b/ over at 4chan and there was a small CP flood over there. My question is...is there a way to securely erase my cache? I (of course) didn't click on any of the pictures, or even go into the thread, but it still gets saved to your browser cache, right? And is there anything else I need to do?
>>296 Try pouring some cold water on the laptop especially on the keyboard. This works most of the times.
I've got a problem with my IP address. My modem is connected to my router and my router is connected to the other computers including my own and they all share the same IP address. How would I assign different IPs to the computers (2).
I'm on a static IP plan with my ISP as that's all they provide.
