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Thanks for the help and recommendations guys. I opened up the laptop this afternoon and the jack was just a 4 pin connector so I ordered the new power jack, found one on amazon for like  So we will see if that solves the problem, if not I guess I'm ordering a 2.5" transfer case.
GopherFlats fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Jul 21, 2016 |
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Jul 21, 2016 02:37
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GopherFlats posted:Thanks for the help and recommendations guys. I opened up the laptop this afternoon and the jack was just a 4 pin connector so I ordered the new power jack, found one on amazon for like I don't know if you need a case, just a USB-SATA interface. I got a really great Anker one for $25 Canadian, so like $3 US.
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Jul 21, 2016 03:13
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Hey, so this afternoon I'm driving my computer to my mates place about an hour away. I want to make sure that nothing is damaged in transport. The case is a CM690 ii advanced, so a pretty bulky ATX case. The biggest things I'm worried about are the TC14PE cooler and the GTX 980 GPU. I can have the computer upright in the passenger seat, but I'm considering putting it flat in my boot to avoid torsion on the motherboard from the cooler. Only problem with the boot is that it would be more likely to slide around as it has quite a bit of room. Is there a preferred method? The computer has no HDDs so I'm not worried about that.
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Jul 21, 2016 04:37
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Lay it flat, the CPU cooler is the greatest source of torsion. Shove some pillows or something around the case so it's cushioned and the torsion is reduced. It would be super if you could shove some bubble wrap or other cushions inside the case to further reduce the force, but just watch how fast you are going around corners and you will probably be fine.
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Jul 21, 2016 05:16
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I just bought a new stick of ram for my laptop (Lenovo x250). How long do I need to keep it running in memtest? Any options to include when I start it?
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Jul 21, 2016 06:58
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McCracAttack posted:Thanks for the reply. BIOS is up to date and I tried making a bootable Memtest86+ USB stick but got nowhere so I'll come back to that when I've got a bit more patience. Windows has a built in memory test. "windows memory diagnostics" in the start menu
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Jul 21, 2016 08:09
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I got a Gigabyte Z170N Wifi rev 1.0, because i wanted to be able to overclock, and use 3200 Hz RAM, but like a fool, I didn't check that it could run 8 Gb sticks at 3200Hz, and now I find out only the rev 2.0 can do this. Is this some sort of software or firmware kind of thing I can fix or am I doomed to forever have my RAM running at 2133 Hz?
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Jul 21, 2016 09:00
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HalloKitty posted:Windows has a built in memory test. "windows memory diagnostics" in the start menu Is this robust enough for my purposes also?
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Jul 21, 2016 09:50
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BurritoJustice posted:Hey, so this afternoon I'm driving my computer to my mates place about an hour away. I want to make sure that nothing is damaged in transport. The case is a CM690 ii advanced, so a pretty bulky ATX case. The biggest things I'm worried about are the TC14PE cooler and the GTX 980 GPU. I can have the computer upright in the passenger seat, but I'm considering putting it flat in my boot to avoid torsion on the motherboard from the cooler. Only problem with the boot is that it would be more likely to slide around as it has quite a bit of room. Is there a preferred method? The computer has no HDDs so I'm not worried about that. Lay it flat behind the passenger seat and recline the seat all the way back so it pinches it down onto the back seat.
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Jul 21, 2016 10:02
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I looked around and didn't see a better place to ask this question: What's the best option for securely storing and backing up photos and documents for a home network (two laptops, a few tablets and that's about it). Is there a hardware option that could do this wirelessly, or am I better off paying for a monthly online backup service? It's all extremely mundane poo poo like family photos and tax records... E: In short I want to know if network attached storage or online backup is favored these days. Thanks! egyptian rat race fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Jul 21, 2016 |
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Jul 21, 2016 16:40
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Diver Dick posted:I looked around and didn't see a better place to ask this question:
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Jul 21, 2016 17:12
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Diver Dick posted:I looked around and didn't see a better place to ask this question: Backup solutions are fairly cheap, probably go with whatever provider is recommended in the thread Alereon linked, on-top of using a cloud backup, I'd grab an external harddrive (or 2) and plop the data on those. If you REALLY REALLY care and don't want to risk losing the physical hard drives, take them out of your house and put them somewhere else that you feel is safe. Flash memory is not a good thing for a long-term backup, so avoid using USB sticks for this, just stick to platter drives, they will last a long time especially if you don't have it plugged in all the time.
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Jul 21, 2016 18:30
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Thanks! I'll start my research in the linked thread.
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Jul 21, 2016 19:06
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Red_Fred posted:I just bought a new stick of ram for my laptop (Lenovo x250). How long do I need to keep it running in memtest? Any options to include when I start it? I usually run Memtest for an hour or two, or overnight if timing suits. However, whenever it has detected a problem it has done so within the first 30 minutes.
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Jul 22, 2016 00:50
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How useful are separate sound cards, anyway? Some people swear by them and claim that there is a noticeable difference in audio quality, but other people tell there's barely a difference. What would be the case if I was considering a Xonar DG?
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Jul 22, 2016 01:46
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A lot of depends on how terrible your motherboard sound design is. Some mobos are pretty good and adding a discrete sound card is barely/unnoticeable, others suck rear end and even a non-audiophile can hear the difference. I run an old SB X-fi Platinum because I use all the I/O's, but I can't hear much difference between it and the onboard Realtek. However, on my old P67 ASUS board, there was a big difference in sound, the onboard(also Realtek) had hum and hiss under certain workloads.
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Jul 22, 2016 02:01
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rear end posted:How useful are separate sound cards, anyway? Some people swear by them and claim that there is a noticeable difference in audio quality, but other people tell there's barely a difference. What would be the case if I was considering a Xonar DG? All that to say, if you bought a high-end motherboard you probably don't need to upgrade. If you have a lower-end board it would probably help. Alereon fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Jul 22, 2016 |
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Jul 22, 2016 02:02
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rear end posted:How useful are separate sound cards, anyway? Some people swear by them and claim that there is a noticeable difference in audio quality, but other people tell there's barely a difference. What would be the case if I was considering a Xonar DG? Just listen to your music on the current sound card you have. Does it have an annoying hum or hiss that won't go away no matter what speakers/headphones you switch to? You'll benefit from a separate sound card. Otherwise, don't bother.
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Jul 22, 2016 02:44
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Wasn't sure whether to put this in this or Parts Picking. The question's perhaps too vague. It's been said that 'heat is the enemy'. I am currently discovering this. Recent hot weather is causing heat warnings(70C and higher) when playing things with any real stress. As far as I'm aware, I have the default cooling from my old-ish(Receipt says I bought the thing in 2013-I think I bought the thing from advice from here) GTX 660(Is it even worth upgrading, when the most stressful thing I play is along the lines of Dynasty Warriors 8 or World of Warcraft?), and the default fan/heatsink/whatevers that came alongside my processor, an i5-3570K. Under minor stress(Maybe too many Chrome windows) it's 40-50C. I have no idea what's 'safe' in regards to temperature, except the simplistic thoughts of 'lower is better' and that 'they wouldn't warn you without good cause'. Mainboard is Asustek P8H61, if it matters. Two thoughts: 1. Should I buy one of these fancy heatsink things? Is it a case of 'anything's better than stock'? 2. Is it worth considering upgrading the graphics card? Would an older card run hotter by default? Is age a factor in heat produced? I have no intention of overclocking, if it matters. Bloodly fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Jul 23, 2016 |
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Jul 23, 2016 01:52
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rear end posted:How useful are separate sound cards, anyway? Some people swear by them and claim that there is a noticeable difference in audio quality, but other people tell there's barely a difference. What would be the case if I was considering a Xonar DG? There's a lot of RF and electrical noise in the case, and most low-end motherboard chipsets are both poorly shielded and lack the op-amp needed to boost the Realtek's SNR (Realteks are designed to work either with out without the op-amp to give the motherboard designer cost flexibility). So the problems with your P67 are relatively common. Front audio connections tend to be particularly noisy in my experience, since there's a long run of poorly shielded cable. On the other hand, if you don't hear any problems on your newer motherboard then by all means use it. There are technically-superior DACs out there that support greater bit-depth and faster sample rates, but it's beyond the limits of human hearing for most people and it's extremely difficult to get media with that quality to begin with. The one area that you may see a noticeable improvement is if you're driving a nice pair of headphones and you need a more powerful amp than the motherboard provides. Some headphones just need a really powerful amplifier and sound funny without it even at low volumes.
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Jul 23, 2016 02:40
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Bloodly posted:It's been said that 'heat is the enemy'. I am currently discovering this. Recent hot weather is causing heat warnings(70C and higher) when playing things with any real stress. As far as I'm aware, I have the default cooling from my old-ish(Receipt says I bought the thing in 2013-I think I bought the thing from advice from here) GTX 660(Is it even worth upgrading, when the most stressful thing I play is along the lines of Dynasty Warriors 8 or World of Warcraft?), and the default fan/heatsink/whatevers that came alongside my processor, an i5-3570K. Under minor stress(Maybe too many Chrome windows) it's 40-50C. Step one, vacuum out your heatsinks and any dust filters. You really should do this at least once a year especially in a case without positive pressure and dust filters. If that still doesn't fix it, remove the CPU and GPU heatsinks and re-paste them using Gelid GC Extreme or Noctua NT-H1. If you can't get those, make sure whatever you use is non-conductive. You may also want to consider replacing your fans, depending on their age they may be wearing out and not moving as much air as they used to. To answer your question, anything under 90C is OK for both CPUs and GPUs. 75C or lower is preferable but there's no physical harm running in the 80s. Also, a 660 is getting up there in years and you could pick up something like a GTX 970 pretty cheaply (~2.25x as fast for ~$175), or go for a new 1060 instead ($250, 2.5x as fast, even lower power) and take a big step forward in performance. If you are having heat problems stay away from AMD. But on the other hand if you are happy with what you've got then there's no real reason to upgrade. Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Jul 23, 2016 |
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Jul 23, 2016 02:46
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fishmech posted:Uninstall Bitdefender completely. The antivirus it has is worse than Microsoft Security Essentials(Windows 7)/Windows Defender(Windows 8 and 10), and the firewall is worse than the built in Windows Firewall for actual firewall purposes. What should I use instead? Windows Defender?
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Jul 23, 2016 04:46
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goodness posted:What should I use instead? Windows Defender?
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Jul 23, 2016 05:37
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Alereon posted:Yes, use the Microsoft-provided security software for your OS. Good to know it's still good. MSE was always really good and low key. I had switched because I read that defender was bad or a memory hog, maybe I remember wrong.
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Jul 23, 2016 08:49
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On the subject of sound cards: My pc is hooked up to a tv over hdmi (via an amp) with 5.1 speakers. Picture and sound go out over hdmi, with sound from the onboard card. Would a separate sound card still send audio over hdmi or would it insist on using its own output? Cheers
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Jul 23, 2016 10:01
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all_purpose_cat_boy posted:On the subject of sound cards: There wouldn't be much of a point getting a separate sound card if all your audio is going out over hdmi currently, because that's already hard bypassing all the garbage aspects of onboard sound anyway. It's barely, if at all, involved at this point.
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Jul 23, 2016 10:58
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goodness posted:Good to know it's still good. MSE was always really good and low key. Whoever was saying that either was in the business of selling other antivirus, or was thinking of the old Windows Defender from years back, which was a very barebones thing that later got replaced by MSE.
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Jul 23, 2016 14:03
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I know the answer to this already but hoping someone can pull some magic answer out of their rear end. Cousin's hard drive is on the fritz, says at one point he managed to get it up and start dragging files but it stopped, I plugged it into the hot swap port on top of my tower and eventually a couple drives appeared but are inaccessible, telling me to scan them. Said restart PC to fix errors, restart hangs forever if I dont unplug it, same thing happened on his computer. Worst of all, hearing clicks in it. Actually worst of all, has important photos on the drive but I guess they are all down the drain now. Anything I might try to see if I can recover any of it? I did have a drive exactly like it, same size and all a while back that I was able to recover most of the data but I dont think it had the dreaded click of death.
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Jul 23, 2016 19:44
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fishmech posted:Whoever was saying that either was in the business of selling other antivirus, or was thinking of the old Windows Defender from years back, which was a very barebones thing that later got replaced by MSE.
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Jul 23, 2016 19:48
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codo27 posted:I know the answer to this already but hoping someone can pull some magic answer out of their rear end. Cousin's hard drive is on the fritz, says at one point he managed to get it up and start dragging files but it stopped, I plugged it into the hot swap port on top of my tower and eventually a couple drives appeared but are inaccessible, telling me to scan them. Said restart PC to fix errors, restart hangs forever if I dont unplug it, same thing happened on his computer. Worst of all, hearing clicks in it. Actually worst of all, has important photos on the drive but I guess they are all down the drain now. Anything I might try to see if I can recover any of it? I did have a drive exactly like it, same size and all a while back that I was able to recover most of the data but I dont think it had the dreaded click of death. Try freezing it. I've had a couple of dying, clicking, hard drives that I was able to pull data off of after an overnight stay in the freezer. I put 'em in plastic bags to minimize condensation.
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Jul 23, 2016 22:20
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Is it somehow possible to connect the case's HD AUDIO connector to a USB amplifier?
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Jul 24, 2016 00:24
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NihilCredo posted:Is it somehow possible to connect the case's HD AUDIO connector to a USB amplifier?
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Jul 24, 2016 00:32
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Flipperwaldt posted:Give us a link to the sort of product you consider to be a USB amplifier, so we can figure out why specifically the answer is going to be no. You could do it if you chopped up the internal audio header and wired the appropriate cables for the headphone into a 3.5mm or 1/4" TRS plug. At the end of the day it's all just signal, there's nothing magical about the internal audio header that makes it special. Put the right connections on the right pins and it'll be fine. It's still a bad idea because those wires are always crappy and poorly shielded and pick up RF/electrical noise like crazy. Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Jul 24, 2016 |
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Jul 24, 2016 00:49
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Fast am-I-stupid question: Combination of Windows (8.1) and HP Stream 11 laptop. I refreshed the device to clear all the crap out of it and sort of 'start over' and it worked great a couple days. I worked with it a bit two days ago half in the sun/shade (about an 80 degree day), and it got kinda noticably warm after about 10-15 minutes of use. So was I anyway, and so I took it back to my air conditioned office. I used it another full day, no issues. Today I took it to my cool home and let it update the jack jumpin hell out of itself (Windows 8.1 updates all over again), come back home after lunch and suddenly the backlight doesn't work. If I shine a flashlight into the screen I can see brighter imagery in the murk, so it isn't an issue with the device trying to output an image to a projector that isn't there or something. I was thinking maybe it's some setting in the BIOS or in Windows that got flipped and now it doesn't trigger the backlight at first, but after additional thought, maybe I baked the little bastard and it just took a couple more days to kill itself. How screwed do you suppose I am here, and what are my options.
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Jul 24, 2016 02:38
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doctorfrog posted:Fast am-I-stupid question: Combination of Windows (8.1) and HP Stream 11 laptop. Have you tried booting into another OS using like an Ubuntu liveUSB or just the installation media for the laptop to rule out software?
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Jul 24, 2016 02:44
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tuyop posted:Have you tried booting into another OS using like an Ubuntu liveUSB or just the installation media for the laptop to rule out software? I'm going to try this next, but I'm not very confident. It's an HP, so the restore is on a separate partition, and I've already tried wiping the OS partition and reinstalling that from the restore partition, having to shine a flashlight into it the whole time. Even accessing the BIOS screen for boot options and whatnot won't light it up. I'm guessing that Linux won't fare any better, but I guess we'll see. edit: yep, no worky. Linux Mint live boots up just fine, no backlight. Bightness control shows in the gloom and does nothing. Am I boned? Next steps? doctorfrog fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Jul 24, 2016 |
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Jul 24, 2016 03:07
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doctorfrog posted:I'm going to try this next, but I'm not very confident. It's an HP, so the restore is on a separate partition, and I've already tried wiping the OS partition and reinstalling that from the restore partition, having to shine a flashlight into it the whole time. Even accessing the BIOS screen for boot options and whatnot won't light it up. I'm guessing that Linux won't fare any better, but I guess we'll see. Someone's going to recommend googling your laptop model number + backlight or screen repair. But, odds are you'll just spend $60-$300, two weeks of waiting for parts, and five hours scouring the carpet for lost screws only to break sixteen crucial paper-thin plastic tabs and plugging your laptop into a monitor for a few months while you save for a MacBook Pro so you never have to go through this again.
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Jul 24, 2016 05:49
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tuyop posted:Someone's going to recommend googling your laptop model number + backlight or screen repair. You've read my mind. I'm not handy, and it was a $200 laptop, 1.5 years old, and it was only ever my satellite machine. Maybe I'll connect an external hard drive to it and have it be a headless media server. Time to find a new cheapie.
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Jul 24, 2016 06:14
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Hey guys, small M.2 / PCIe question here. I have an Asus ROG Ranger Z170 board, and I'm wondering if buying and plugging in an M.2 SSD will cause the graphics card to run at less than x16 lanes. I know the difference between that and x8 isn't that big but I'll just get a SATA SSD if it's the case. I've tried googling it but it's difficult to find a straight answer. The CPU is a 6700k if it matters.
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Jul 24, 2016 09:54
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tuyop posted:Someone's going to recommend googling your laptop model number + backlight or screen repair. Macs break all the time, telling people to drop thousands on one so this "never happens again" is downright cruel. doctorfrog posted:Fast am-I-stupid question: Combination of Windows (8.1) and HP Stream 11 laptop. What probably happened is that the fuse on the backlight blew, if it doesn't turn on at any point. Less likely would be the backlight failing without the fuse blowing. I would only consider it likely to be a software issue if it works when you start it up and then shuts off once it gets into Windows. You can probably repair this yourself if you're careful to find the exact part numbers to buy.
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Jul 24, 2016 12:44
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