The New Computer Problems Thread

[Tapewolf]

Hmm... I don't know if there really are any "good" CRT monitors left out there, at least not ones that you can still buy new.

Might be an idea to get it fixed then.  It's probably something that a decent TV engineer could do pretty easily.

Now, I think my Microsoft optical mouse is going senile.  It works (most of the time - sometimes the light goes out and USB debugging information appears on the console) but the mouse pointer is trembling.  It doesn't matter where you move it, or what kind of surface it's on, the pointer gently shakes about 3 pixels each side.  Currently it's shaking horizontally although yesterday it was vertical.

Has anyone come across this before?  It might have to be new mouse time soon 

[Ryudo Lee]

I have.  It got to the point where I had to unplug it and plug it back in to make it work, and then it just up and died completely.  It's in it's death throes at this point.  Get a Logitech.

[Reese Tora]

hmm, not the best of solutions, repairing an old one.

My main criteria for 'good' in a monitor are twofold:
1: that it reproduce colors with a decent accuracy
2: that it support multiple resolutions accurately (specifically 800x600, 1024x786, and maybe 1152x864) in order to support both older games of mine and newer games as they come out (this being what lets out LCD screens as replacements)

It looks like I'm going to end up buying one of those cheap CRTs when the time comes.
(actually, I have an older monitor that I stopped using due to color bleed... getting the electron guns realligned to fix that might not be too expensive...)

[Tapewolf]

hmm, not the best of solutions, repairing an old one.

I guess so, but you seemed to be saying that it was the raster circuitry that was failing rather than the tube itself, which means it's probably just a matter of replacing a single IC.  That and I hate waste...

My main criteria for 'good' in a monitor are twofold:
1: that it reproduce colors with a decent accuracy
2: that it support multiple resolutions accurately (specifically 800x600, 1024x786, and maybe 1152x864) in order to support both older games of mine and newer games as they come out (this being what lets out LCD screens as replacements)

Yes.  This is my beef as well - most of the new display technologies are pixel-based.  When the pixel density starts to approach that of print this will become less of a problem, though.

[Aridas]

Can anyone help me out? I'm looking for one or two screen recorders... And  I need these features:

Must haves:

• Sound recording
• fullscreen recording
• window recording (manual selection gets me down. I just want to record what's inside a window without having to set it myself.)
• RELIABLE recording that doesn't go out of sync with the audio

And something i'm looking for more than that is something to record older windows games (early to mid 90's), because a good lot of them use some funky kind of display method which makes it otherwise impossible to record with conventional video grabbers. For instance, the palette on this one game was... Off. And even then it wasn't about to play in anything but virtualdub, with broken sound. Any help is appreciated.

[Tezkat]

Hmm... I don't know if there really are any "good" CRT monitors left out there, at least not ones that you can still buy new.

Might be an idea to get it fixed then.  It's probably something that a decent TV engineer could do pretty easily.

Not necessarily. TV repairmen are a dying breed, and CRTs often cost more to fix these days than to replace due to scarcity of parts. (Many of them are no longer manufactured.) It's a couple of years too late to be buying a nice 19" new, but I've seen used 19" Trinitrons selling for well under $100.

Now, I think my Microsoft optical mouse is going senile.  It works (most of the time - sometimes the light goes out and USB debugging information appears on the console) but the mouse pointer is trembling.  It doesn't matter where you move it, or what kind of surface it's on, the pointer gently shakes about 3 pixels each side.  Currently it's shaking horizontally although yesterday it was vertical.

Has anyone come across this before?  It might have to be new mouse time soon 

I've found that the wired versions of Microsoft optical mice (and I had this problem with 2 different mice) have a problem with the cord pulling slightly out of the mouse body, which drastically reduces responsiveness and makes the pointer a bit jumpy. I had to keep forcing the damn cables back in to keep them working. That may or may not be your problem.

Eventually, I came to my senses and switched to Logitech.

Logitech >>> Microsoft

Can anyone help me out? I'm looking for one or two screen recorders... And  I need these features:

Must haves:

• Sound recording
• fullscreen recording
• window recording (manual selection gets me down. I just want to record what's inside a window without having to set it myself.)
• RELIABLE recording that doesn't go out of sync with the audio

And something i'm looking for more than that is something to record older windows games (early to mid 90's), because a good lot of them use some funky kind of display method which makes it otherwise impossible to record with conventional video grabbers. For instance, the palette on this one game was... Off. And even then it wasn't about to play in anything but virtualdub, with broken sound. Any help is appreciated.

Hmm... early to mid-90's... So would that be pre-DirectX Windows games? Or MS-DOS binaries running windowed? (DirectX games are easy enough with something like FRAPS...)

What have you already tried?

[Aridas]

Well, I can't get some things that use directX with fraps anyway, but that's beside the point. And no, not MS-DOS. Just freakish windows games that use some strange kind of full screen voodoo.

[mabfan55]

I recommend the best LCD you can afford  as cheap ones go pear shaped and pink screened in Five or so years of constant usage.
I currently use a CRT at home  for now though this is my second CDT in ten years...would love a good LCD though.

[Ryudo Lee]

Okay, I have a wierd problem at work that I've been fighting with and I can't seem to find a working solution for it.

Before I start, a couple of things need to be understood.
-We can only use Windows Media Player 10.  Any other program has not been approved for use whatsoever.
-The solution needs to cost approximately $0.  There's no room in the budget for something like this.
-I work for the government, so these restrictions are ironclad.  No if's and's or but's about it.

Okay, here's my problem.  There is one guy here who has a Logitec QuickCam that he uses to record interviews he does with people.  These videos are saved in .AVI format and he is able to view them in WMP10.  The problem is that no one else can view it as a video in WMP10.  It only plays the audio.  It plays like it's an MP3 or something.

Now, on my computer (and mine alone, and it must remain that way) I also have installed DivX and Winamp.  The video will play in those two, but it will not play in WMP10.  So I know I have the proper codec to view it, but it just won't show any video in WMP10.  I used a tool called GSpot to determine what codec is needed and it tells me that I already have the correct codec. 

I tried installing all the drivers and software that came with the QuickCam on my computer, but that did not resolve the issue.

I tried reinstalling WMP10 on my computer, but that too did not resolve the issue.

I checked my installed version of DirectX, and it's current.

I'm totally out of ideas at this point.

Why isn't WMP playing this video?  Do I need to do something special to WMP to make it work?

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I would suggest that the codec is in the machine, but not linked to WMP.

You might be able to find the codec dll, and move it into the directory that WMP is running in?

[Ryudo Lee]

That didn't do it, but it led me to a solution anyway.  It seems there are two executables for WMP10.
wmplayer.exe
mplayer2.exe

mplayer2.exe will view the video, and since it came bundled with WMP10, I don't have to worry about having to get extra software approved.  So all I need to do is change the file association on the machines of the people who need to view this video.  Thanks llearch!

[DarkAudit]

So what kind of hassles would there to be to get something else approved?

VLC costs $0 and will play AVI files. The only thing going against it is that it's not WMP 10.

Otherwise I'd suggest looking at what codecs the guy with the camera is using, and compare that list to what the others have. I suspect the codecs you need were installed when the first guy installed his camera.

[superluser]

VLC costs $0 and will play AVI files. The only thing going against it is that it's not WMP 10.

If we're going to start recommending solutions that he already says are unworkable, then I'll recommend MPlayer.

[Ryudo Lee]

So what kind of hassles would there to be to get something else approved?

Red tape.  Lots of it.  I don't want to have to go through ten different people just to be able to install DivX.

Otherwise I'd suggest looking at what codecs the guy with the camera is using, and compare that list to what the others have. I suspect the codecs you need were installed when the first guy installed his camera.

I tried that.  I grabbed all the software he had and installed it all on my computer, but to no avail.

Also, it seems that the newest image has WMP11 on it, go figure.  But it too won't show this video, but again mplayer2.exe will.  Wierd.  And what's wierder is that, on the machines that have WMP11, if I set the AVI file association to mplayer2.exe, it keeps coming up with wmplayer.exe  It's like it doesn't want me to use mplayer2.exe or something.  I had to put shortcuts to mplayer2.exe on their desktops so they'll be able to view the videos.

Ah well.  It's a solution and that's all that matters.

[Tapewolf]

I appear to have totalled my 20-year-old IBM M-series keyboard.  The actual mechanism itself has shattered after a heavy impact.  Is it true that there are modern reproductions available, or am I going to have to buy another one on ebay ?

Alternatively, are there any other keyboards out there with a decent feel?  Most of the ones I've used are pretty flat and lifeless.

[Reese Tora]

The keyboard I've been using is pretty good so far as I'm concerned, but it's a USB keyboard, and it's glowy.

I'd suggest taking a look on newegg and reading the reviews, see what other people say about how the keyboards feel to use.

[superluser]

I appear to have totalled my 20-year-old IBM M-series keyboard.  The actual mechanism itself has shattered after a heavy impact.  Is it true that there are modern reproductions available, or am I going to have to buy another one on ebay ?

I mentioned this in another thread.  IBM sold the rights to their Model M keyboards to Lexmark, and then Lexmark sold those rights to Unicomp.

Their Customizer seems to be the direct successor to the Model M keyboard.  Buckling Spring, drain holes, the whole nine yards.

I'm typing on one right now. (Edit: I take back what I said about drain holes.  I just looked, and it doesn't have `em)

(I've also seen plans for converting a Selectric to a keyboard.  *That* would be cool)

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

That would be this one here...

Just in case anyone else is interested as well.

[superluser]

By the way, if you're interested in purchasing a Unicomp version of the Model M, Here's the Unicomp website.  Be sure you get the buckling spring one.

I remember that I had a Dell keyboard, years ago.  It took about a year before the shift keys started to go.  Before I got a new keyboard, I think I had lost a letter key.  I've never lost a key on a Model M.

[thegayhare]

hey all mind if I ask an odd computer question
would an AMD Athlon be a better processer then a pentuim 2?

I'm just wondering because I've got 3 machines I was going to canablise to upgrade ny own and I don't know which would be better

[Shadrok]

hey all mind if I ask an odd computer question
would an AMD Athlon be a better processer then a pentuim 2?

I'm just wondering because I've got 3 machines I was going to canablise to upgrade ny own and I don't know which would be better

I don't know but these links might help.

AMD Athlon     pentium 2

[superluser]

hey all mind if I ask an odd computer question
would an AMD Athlon be a better processer then a pentuim 2?

Oh, wow.  Athlon is better than Pentium 2, but I don't think that's what you mean.

The Pentium 2 came out in 1997.  You may mean the Intel Core Duo, or the Core 2 Duo.

There are quite a few Athlons, and you have to know which one you're looking at.  If you do mean the Core Duo, that's 32-bit, and the Athlon64 is 64-bit, meaning that it supports more complicated instructions and can handle more RAM (important for image manipulation), but the Core Duo is two processors.  If it's just a 32-bit Athlon, then it's far inferior to the Core Duo.

The Core 2 Duo is 64-bit, at which point, things start to get hairy.

[thegayhare]

I know my athalon is a thunderbird model and it's registering at 950 mhz

and the pentium 2's highest rating is 450 

and no I'm sure it's a pentium 2

but thanks all

Which is odd since my sis bought her machine atleast a year after so I assumed the processer was better

[superluser]

I know my athalon is a thunderbird model and it's registering at 950 mhz

and the pentium 2's highest rating is 450 

and no I'm sure it's a pentium 2

Your Athlon will be better, hands down.

Here's a comparison:

Your Athlon:

* L1-Cache: 64 + 64 KiB (Data + Instructions)
* L2-Cache: 256 KiB, fullspeed
* MMX, 3DNow!
* Front side bus: 100-133 MHz (depending)

the best Pentium II (which is probably what you have, anyways):

* L1 cache: 16 + 16 KiB (Data + Instructions)
* L2 cache: 512 KiB, external chips on CPU module with 50% of CPU-speed
* MMX
* Front side bus: 66-100 MHz (depending)

[thegayhare]

ahh you know there is nothing quite like putting together an electronic device that works to make you feel like you can fix anything

last week it was rewiring phone jacks (wich any one can tell you is just too simple)  and today I built up 2 desktops and replaced my shattered laptop display...

and they all worked perfectly

Man I feel good

thats not going to last but realy I just have to bask in the feeling

[Ryudo Lee]

Man I feel good

thats not going to last but realy I just have to bask in the feeling

I know the feeling.  I got an old server (90's era IBM server running a powerpc chip) off a friend of mine who got it from a now closed down technology company, and I've finally gotten it to accept a new OS.  They didn't even bother to wipe the drives (I took care of that for them).

[Tapewolf]

Cool!  What did you install on it?

[Ryudo Lee]

Just about the only thing I could find that would load on it - Debian.

[topher chee]

    I have recently discovered that I can no longer access properties from my desktop (right clicking desktop and selecting Properties).  Nothing appears every time I try to perform this action.  I have also tried through the control panel and still cannot access the properties.  Any suggestions?

[Reese Tora]

Run virus scan and ad scan software, right off.

Are you having problems running other programs?
Have you made any recent changes to your computer? (updates, add programs, remove programs)

As this is a windows component, you may end up needing to reinstall windows if there isn't an external cause.  Some people recommend that windows be reinstalled regularly anyway.

--edit--

There's a computer help thread stickied at the top of this board... this probalby will/should be joined to that...