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Apologies if this belongs in a software or windows thread: I have a two year old Dell XPS desktop that was purchased out of necessity during the height of the 2021 GPU shortage (at the time it was the only/easiest and most affordable way to get a decent GPU without paying scalpers/etc)—it has a 3060Ti, upgrade option “Killer” wireless card, BD drive, and IIRC a few other factory upgrades. The boot Nvme SSD died over the weekend. I can get the computer into BIOS/diagnostic mode but it won’t boot past the DELL startup screen if I try to power it on normally. Diagnostic tells me the SSD is borked (sometimes it flags RAM issues too, which makes me think it might be a MoBo issue if it’s flagging both the SSD and RAM, but since the SSD is always getting flagged and nothing on the mobo seems out of sorts let’s replace one part at a time) I purchased a replacement SSD and am in the process of making a fresh Windows install USB stick. Will I need to hunt down any specific hardware drivers for poo poo like wireless/GPU/sound card/etc or will putting Windows on this fresh drive and setting this up as a new computer handle that for me? Is there an easy way to see what hardware I have and what might need drivers/etc? I don’t know how this works when you’ve bought a PC from an OEM vendor. It came from Dell with a bunch of shovelware and antivirus and ads that I won’t miss, but there also seemed to be a fair amount of hardware specific software/control panels/etc that I assume a fresh Windows install won’t have.
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Jul 17, 2023 07:10
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Ok Comboomer posted:Apologies if this belongs in a software or windows thread: you could go over to the DELL website and check your particular model for all the drivers/bios as well as hw config https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us However DELL often uses older drivers, so not always the best choice. Just install windows, check what might be missing and the go look for those manually afterwards. F.e. check if you have proper GPU drivers installed (normally it's just basic windows drivers to get proper resolution, missing control pannel etc.) and have a look at device manager to see if anything is completely missing. Not sure what other SW dell puts on consumer desktops as I usually only deal with their business laptops, but what they have for those is complete crap and entirely not needed to run a system in a private environment, like their auto updaters.
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Jul 17, 2023 09:38
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Ok Comboomer posted:Apologies if this belongs in a software or windows thread: Dell will add their drivers to Windows Update so it should detect everything. Dell also usually uses off the shelf chipsets even if they have their motherboards mass produced for them. A clean install should be fine unless you do have motherboard and/or ram problems as well. Most Dells come with a hardware diagnostic tool in the UEFI or as a boot option if you hit the key for boot option list (F12 during boot, I think? Maybe F8?) that's pretty good at figuring out their own stuff. I've had okay luck with it, only failing to detect power supply issues or crashing during the self test if the motherboard was bad. Most Dells have a one year warranty but some are up to three for parts so you could put your product ID from the tag on the machine into their support site and see the status of the warranty. I forget if you have to make an account just to see that or not but it may be worthwhile: https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us
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Jul 17, 2023 09:47
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What's the best free software for drive cloning? Just got a new NVME drive I need to copy over to.
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Jul 19, 2023 01:22
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Macrum reflect. No question. The free version is great
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Jul 19, 2023 01:26
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MarcusSA posted:Macrum reflect. Bah looks like they replaced it with a trial; shouldn't be a big deal for me though.
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Jul 19, 2023 01:29
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Falcon2001 posted:Bah looks like they replaced it with a trial; shouldn't be a big deal for me though. Oh balls! It used to be free for home use. Hopefully the trial works because it is really good.
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Jul 19, 2023 01:31
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I might try Clonezilla (Or Rescuezilla) since it's open source and I'm not scared of a text interface, but if things go wonky I'll try Macrium.
Falcon2001 fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Jul 19, 2023 |
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Jul 19, 2023 01:38
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I used the free trial recently, it's exactly the same as it used to be. Can always help your registry forget it was installed for a trial period if you need it again in some months.
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Jul 19, 2023 01:39
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Falcon2001 posted:I might try Clonezilla since it's open source and I'm not scared of a text interface, but if things go wonky I'll try Macrium. Yeah that works too. I always suggest the other one because it’s click click click done. No fuss no muss.
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Jul 19, 2023 01:39
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Is it Macrium that will install a "helper" app on the cloned drive that requires uninstalling? It's been a minute since I cloned a drive, and I remember that as a minor annoyance.
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Jul 19, 2023 01:48
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CaptainSarcastic posted:Is it Macrium that will install a "helper" app on the cloned drive that requires uninstalling? It's been a minute since I cloned a drive, and I remember that as a minor annoyance. Not as of the last time I used it but I can’t say for sure that’s the case currently.
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Jul 19, 2023 01:50
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CaptainSarcastic posted:Is it Macrium that will install a "helper" app on the cloned drive that requires uninstalling? It's been a minute since I cloned a drive, and I remember that as a minor annoyance. This didn't happen for me. Not sure if I just unchecked a box somewhere but yeah nothing like that.
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Jul 19, 2023 02:08
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It's been a couple years, and I can't remember which program I used, unfortunately. It wasn't a big deal - after cloning I noticed I had an app from the cloning software company that was saying it would handle backups and such - it didn't appear malicious or anything, just not something I wanted. I uninstalled it and was done with it. If I root back back through my smaller thumbdrives I might be able to figure it out, assuming I haven't overwritten the thumbdrive in question with something else in the meantime.
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Jul 19, 2023 02:53
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Minitool partition wizard does disk copying. Version 11 or so is great and free, no ads. I usually grab it off some softonic site or somewhere.
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Jul 19, 2023 07:50
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Is there a thread for av questions? I am trying to swap out an older Optiplex 7020 with a newer Optiplex 5090 in an older av/crestron podium and the only thing I can repeat in troubleshooting is the av stuff works great with any older machine but these newer models with dp++ just show up with a black screen on the projector. I’m sure the real answer is refreshing the av equipment but it would help that case if I could figure out why it’s doing it.
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Jul 19, 2023 12:34
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Issue: pc laptop detects, and connects with, my home Wi-Fi but randomly will report the WiFi as “no internet, secured”. When this occurs, my pc laptop cannot connect to the internet. My pc has a vpn. When this happens to my pc laptop, the other devices connected to my home WiFi are fine and operate as normal. Ex/ my iOS phone has the same vpn, connects to the same home WiFi, but never experiences the weird “no internet, secured” issue. What the heck is going on? Super frustrating!
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Jul 20, 2023 06:00
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You might want to ask in the home networking thread, but for now - is this a personal VPN or a corporate/work VPN? If it's the latter, my first hunch is either DNS or split tunneling - but to be honest I haven't had to touch VPN for a while now. Might need to talk to your company IT about it.
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Jul 20, 2023 06:34
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Budget Dracula posted:Is there a thread for av questions? I am trying to swap out an older Optiplex 7020 with a newer Optiplex 5090 in an older av/crestron podium and the only thing I can repeat in troubleshooting is the av stuff works great with any older machine but these newer models with dp++ just show up with a black screen on the projector. I’m sure the real answer is refreshing the av equipment but it would help that case if I could figure out why it’s doing it. I'm not familiar with DP++ but from a quick search it looks like it can use a passive adapter to output HDMI, whereas DP would need an active adapter. My guess (and it is just a guess) is that it's doing something like supplying more current than the projector expects, or the projector isn't able to return the expected information back to the computer due to the mismatch. I'd probably try using a DP to HDMI adapter (assuming the projector takes HDMI) and see if that works as expected.
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Jul 20, 2023 07:26
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TITTIEKISSER69 posted:You might want to ask in the home networking thread, but for now - is this a personal VPN or a corporate/work VPN? If it's the latter, my first hunch is either DNS or split tunneling - but to be honest I haven't had to touch VPN for a while now. Might need to talk to your company IT about it. It is my personal vpn. I assumed it would be hardware related issue because my phone has the same vpn yet works just fine. I’ll ask the networking thread 
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Jul 20, 2023 11:47
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So I bought the ASRock Z790 PG RIPTIDE motherboard back in January 2023. It has been a faulty piece of trash since day one but it took me until June to realise it was the motherboard. The stars had aligned to make me think it was the new router I had bought at exactly the same time. I have contacted ASRock support, they're next to useless. They said I can RMA it but I need an address in the US. I do not have an address in the US, nor do I have any friends or family there to give their address on my behalf. Support also told me I'm poo poo out of luck for a refund, even if the motherboard is determined to be faulty, because I am an international customer that didn't buy directly from them. Newegg is unable to refund me because it is waaaaay past the 30 day return window. I was planning on calling them tomorrow and asking them to provide me with store credit as a goodwill gesture that I can put towards getting a new (not faulty) motherboard. I have no idea if they'll agree. It feels really bad dropping $250 on a motherboard with a known hardware issue (so many people online complaining of the Killer LAN hardware and having the exact same issue as me where it immediately drops connections upon downloading anything, and my internet is just slowed to a crawl most of the time). I guess this is more of a vent because I don't think there's much in the way of advice that will change the circumstances. I just gotta hope Newegg helps out.
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Jul 20, 2023 22:42
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Qubee posted:So I bought the ASRock Z790 PG RIPTIDE motherboard back in January 2023. It has been a faulty piece of trash since day one but it took me until June to realise it was the motherboard. The stars had aligned to make me think it was the new router I had bought at exactly the same time. That sounds really frustrating. It seems like going to a PCIe LAN card or even using USB would at least get you around the issue, although that doesn't address the hosed up lack of support issue you're facing.
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Jul 20, 2023 22:53
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Qubee posted:So I bought the ASRock Z790 PG RIPTIDE motherboard back in January 2023. It has been a faulty piece of trash since day one but it took me until June to realise it was the motherboard. The stars had aligned to make me think it was the new router I had bought at exactly the same time. If it is just a bad network port on the motherboard you can do like we used to do in the olden days (before motherboards had them built in) and just buy a separate LAN card. The cheap ones are $10.
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Jul 20, 2023 22:53
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Right, I think I'll order one off of Amazon just so I'm no longer destroying my sanity. I feel like I'm back in the Dial Up days with how slow the internet can crawl sometimes. I've gotten so used to everything moving like molasses that I think I'm gonna get sick when the issue is resolved and I'm back to enjoying 2023 internet again. Something like this would work? Qubee fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Jul 20, 2023 |
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Jul 20, 2023 22:57
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Arrath posted:Yeah I was thinking either that or an expansion card one with an external antenna. At the moment I don't have any other machines that would need to use it, but you never know. I'd recommend an external antenna over a USB card personally - you can get ones with adhesive or magnetic bases to aid in positioning for fairly cheap. As far as the card, something based on Intel AX210 should perform well and get support for a long time. Intel makes a desktop kit, but there are lots of 3rd party board manufacturers who sell slightly cheaper AX210 based PCIe x1 boards and those are equivalent in my experience.
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Jul 20, 2023 23:01
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I’ve never done an RMA before, but I had four Western Digital drives stop drawing power after a brownout. The drives are under warranty but is that something they’d actually cover? I bought some replacements already but am pretty ignorant of what to expect if/when I make a claim.
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Jul 21, 2023 01:03
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So I got an ethernet card and have set it up, it was cheap but 1Gbps speed. Still the same issue. So I have no idea how to fix this. What I've done so far: - Used my new router which prompted me to think this was the main issue - Then I swung to blaming my motherboard and what I thought was faulty hardware - Then I used my old router that used to work flawlessly without issue, internet still chugs and will immediately break network-wide when I download stuff (phone, laptop, pc all lose internet connectivity) - I then bought the PCIE Network Adapter, plugged it into the motherboard today and still have issues. I can cause my internet to crash immediately upon trying to download something from qbittorrent I'm now currently browsing entirely new routers like the D-Link 5G Wi-Fi 6 Router (DWR-2000M). But I don't know if I should drop +$200 on something that also might not work? Could this all be due to my ISP being scumbags and purposefully throttling my stuff? I find that very hard to believe as they've never been so authoritarian before and didn't take issue with torrenting (it's the Middle East, we're basically the China of the Gulf when it comes to copyright laws). Qubee fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Jul 21, 2023 |
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Jul 21, 2023 17:47
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Qubee posted:So I got an ethernet card and have set it up, it was cheap but 1Gbps speed. Still the same issue. So if stuff other than your computer is breaking then it's almost certainly not your computer at all that's the core problem. However, it could be triggering it if this is unique to certain types of downloading such as torrents/etc. You might simply have a hard limit on open network connections, and torrents like to make a lot. I think you can generally configure the number of connections in most clients, so try setting it to like 1 and see if it persists. Otherwise, it might indeed be something with your ISP/etc; if that's the case I think you get into the world of like, seedboxes and all that, but we might be veering dangerously close to :files: talk and you might be better served going to a place that specializes in talking about torrenting stuff. Another thought / edit: if this is all over wireless, cheap wireless routers have a tendency to *really* run out of connections fast, so if a bunch of people are using it/etc sometimes you can run into weird problems like that. There's also a networking thread that would probably be a better place to dig into this.
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Jul 21, 2023 20:00
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Do older scanners have image quality comparable to modern scanners, at the same resolution? Some more context. I need a flatbed book scanner for a project where an overhead book scanner is unsuitable. Image quality is very important, the pages needs to be captured as-is and not just part of an OCR pipeline. Newer ones are obscenely expensive. I've found a listing for a used unit guaranteed to work that does 600dpi at 24-bit color. The catch is, the thing is obscenely old. As in, minimum requirement when it first came out where a Windows 2000 /w a Pentium 3 with 128 MB of RAM. VueScan does support it, so drivers are not an issue. I do not care if it is obscenely slow, I am only concerned about the image quality.
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Jul 23, 2023 07:43
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Chuu posted:Do older scanners have image quality comparable to modern scanners, at the same resolution? When I first got into digital photography stuff I had a Canon flatbed capable of that, which ran off a parallel port. It was slow, very slow, but the image quality was fine.
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Jul 23, 2023 08:13
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Thanks for that response. Another scanner question! I found a scanner for very cheap, that based on the specs and physical appearance is obviously a re-badge of a hard-to-find Avision scanner. VueScan lists the Avision scanner as supported, but not the rebadge. Is there a way to hack the USB ID in Windows to convince windows that it is the other model? What are the odds that actually works?
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Aug 1, 2023 19:25
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Appx how much €€ do I need to part with to get a decent tablet/Kindle-like device? What should I look for?
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Aug 1, 2023 22:44
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PirateBob posted:Appx how much €€ do I need to part with to get a decent tablet/Kindle-like device? What should I look for? It depends what you're looking to do with it. It's hard to beat the ipad these days for a quality tablet because there aren't many companies who have put effort into android tablets. If you just want an e-reader there are the kindles and a few small companies making big e-ink/e-paper tablets but they're mainly for reading, not good for stuff moving. Samsung probably has the broadest range of decent mass market android tablets which have some of the samsung junk in the OS but tend to have decent hardware. Google did put out a pixel tablet this year that's probably pretty nice but it's also like $500. https://store.google.com/product/pixel_tablet?hl=en-US
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Aug 1, 2023 22:59
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The 9th-gen base-spec ipad is under $300 USD these days and it's an excellent all-rounder. There are shitload budget android tablets that cost for $100 or under, but the ones that cheap are largely all piles of poo poo that should be avoided at all costs. There are some name-brand tablets in the $150 - $250 market, but I don't know what's good there. The advantage to apple products is that they generally just work. The ipad's interface is smooth and responsive despite its relatively meager 3 or 4GB of memory, almost like they designed the OS and most of the stock apps specifically for the device using them (because they did). i don't own any other apple products and am not a mac guy at all, but my experience using the cheapest ipad model was so much more positive than all the random budget android crap out there. or, if you want a kindle-like device, hear me out... you could just get a kindle. they don't cost too much and are pretty nice to read stuff on.
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Aug 1, 2023 23:58
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PirateBob posted:Appx how much €€ do I need to part with to get a decent tablet/Kindle-like device? What should I look for? if you want an e-reader, you have options from Amazon (Kindle/Kindle Paperwhite) or Kobo if you want a tablet, pretty much iPad or bust IMO. Sweet spot depends on your budget and wants/needs/expectations for longevity/desires to use it as a gaming or art creation or computer replacement platform, but you can get a base model, even a slightly older/refurb/lightly used one, and have pretty much the "standard iPad experience" with everything beyond that being increasing levels of proverbial gravy.
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Aug 2, 2023 01:07
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If I get an iPad would I have any trouble using my library of pirated eBooks (.azw3) and movies (.mkv) on it? I've never owned an Apple product.
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Aug 2, 2023 08:15
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I'm a couple years late but last I did research, the Paperwhite was by far the best e-reader. In general, e-reader screens are way better at handling glare and being easy on the eyes. So unless you specifically need the capabilities of a tablet, e-readers are superior for just readin books. E: I expect piracy is possible. You can transfer your own documents after all. Never tried because 
Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 09:13 on Aug 2, 2023 |
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Aug 2, 2023 09:09
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PirateBob posted:If I get an iPad would I have any trouble using my library of pirated eBooks (.azw3) and movies (.mkv) on it? I've never owned an Apple product. Google "calibre" and see what you find. I don't think apple products let you put media or any files 'on them' in general tbh so I dunno what you're planning to do with the MKV files though. It's one of the reasons I moved away from apple phones.
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Aug 2, 2023 09:38
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You can totally copy media files onto your ipad via itunes as long as it likes the file format. it likes mp4 for instance but not mkv. I don't know if you can install any apps to fix that. I recall being able to copy files to my kindle without going through the amazon store, but the process may have been roundabout. it's honestly been a while and I can't remember the details. as for the ipad, itunes also lets you copy your own ebooks to the ipad, but i'm not sure which formats it supports. Dr. Video Games 0031 fucked around with this message at 10:03 on Aug 2, 2023 |
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Aug 2, 2023 10:00
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Pretty sure you can move any arbitrary file type onto an iPad. There's a full file manager now called Files. And I'll hazard a guess that VLC would be able to play MKVs if you have them onboard.
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Aug 2, 2023 10:07
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