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Tech Help (Beyond This Forum)

ArthurASCII said:
There are many applications that will solve the problem. Some are free, but Slysoft's AnyDVD is my application of choice.
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Not, I painfully discovered, if you are cursed with a Matshita DVD-Drive.
 
WhistlingJack said:
I don't know Windows 7 but have you had a look at 'Sounds and Audio Devices' (or its equivalent) in the control panel?
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Yes, I've hunted down all the various volume controls, including the cheeky little wheel hiding in the front of the machine, and checked out Sounds and Audio - all that stuff. Wondering, if worst come to worst, whether to just fork out for an external sound card - apparently there are some really dinky ones around now.
 
ArthurASCII said:
There are many applications that will solve the problem. Some are free, but Slysoft's AnyDVD is my application of choice.
Click to expand...

At the risk of talking to myself, I just discovered this:
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Remote_selector

It's awesome. No installation. Freeware. Region 2 locked drive now playing Region 3 DVDs.

I spent hours a few months ago trawling through every piece of software I could find with no success. Then *click* this worked first time.
 
Spookdaddy, have you tried updating the drivers for the soundcard and things? Failing that, maybe see if there's a Toshiba support forum for the machine and find out if other people have reported similar problems (and hopefully a solution!).
 
Spookdaddy said:
I've just bought my mum and dad a new laptop. A Toshiba L450D-113. Problem is, even when maxed, the volume is piss-poor, especially for DVD playback - and the reviews suggested that the audio quality was pretty high on this model.

A quick Google indicates that it might actually be an OS problem (its Windows 7) - but I get a mental prolapse if I spend more than 30 seconds on those techy sites and just wondered if there were any bright-sparks here who might be able to tell me what's going on, and thereby save my sanity.
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I now it is a little low (or even no) tech but check the warranty on the laptop, it may be you can just have them look it over. If not then PC World have a good service where they tinker with computers when the problem exceeds my ability to fix it, they didn't even charge for a problem they couldn't fix, which was nice.
 
Thank you Emps and myf13.

I managed to find an equaliser which was part of the Toshiba stuff rather than the Windows, and fiddling around with that has improved the situation somewhat.

Looking at some of the chatter on the web it does seem that there might be an issue with sound in Vista and 7.

Also, turns out that my machine (which is a couple of years old and runs XP) has a pretty high spec in relation to sound, so I've been a bit spoiled without realising it and that's obviously coloured my opinion of the new machine's performance.
 
Spookdaddy said:
Thank you Emps and myf13.

I managed to find an equaliser which was part of the Toshiba stuff rather than the Windows, and fiddling around with that has improved the situation somewhat.

Looking at some of the chatter on the web it does seem that there might be an issue with sound in Vista and 7.

Also, turns out that my machine (which is a couple of years old and runs XP) has a pretty high spec in relation to sound, so I've been a bit spoiled without realising it and that's obviously coloured my opinion of the new machine's performance.
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Keep checking for new updates for drivers, it might be worth checking the Toshiba site, or the sound chip makers, as well.

If you've got automatic update switched on, it's also worth checking for suggested updates as well as recommended ones.

Win7 is a bit new, some drivers may be a bit outdated.
 
Pietro_Mercurios said:
...Keep checking for new updates for drivers, it might be worth checking the Toshiba site, or the sound chip makers, as well...
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Cheers PM. I checked the Toshiba site after myf13 suggested the same thing but I didn't think of checking the sound-chip makers. I'll give it a go.

Fannying around with the equaliser has got a reasonable level of sound for spoken word stuff - which my mum has a lot of and which I'm in the process of shoving on the computer. But sound levels in DVD playback are still a little disappointing.
 
Another problem; please help.

I have a nearly four year old Acer laptop. It had good spec. for the money at the time of purchase, although, quite predictably, it's a little rickerty now. The major weak-point from day one was the battery life: I knew this from day one, but my usage patterns have meant it is seldom disconnected from mains power, so I didn't worry.

This week, I have discovered that it is no longer charging (or so I thought). Even when plugged in for long periods of time, on or off, the power-meter did not rise above first 5, now 4%. I naturally supposed that the poor battery had given up and was refusing to accept a charge; my opinion was re-enforced when a search of the internet showed that several ACER battery brands have been recalled (but not this model).

However, today I decided to unplug the power, ignore the windows warnings and run it down to zero on the off chance that it would charge from there. The surprising result is that despite resolutely displaying 4% 1min remaining, I'm still typing on the thing now, despite 10mins or more having passed. Obviously, I've no way of knowing how long it may last. I may not get time to finish this post!

Reinstalling windows is not an option at this time. System restore points were recently deleted. Can anyone advise me? (Win XP)
 
Okay. Experiment result:

I managed about another 10mins power. At least 5 of those were while the power meter was displaying 0%. Perhaps I was running on the reserve tank! Now, after abruptly turning off, it appears to be charging; the power meter is updating (suspiciously quickly) as it should. Why? And am I likely to find this 'power' isn't real if i come to unplug again?

Edit: stuck on 38%!
 
I always remove the battery if I'm using it for long periods on the mains.
 
Hi Yith,

It's my opinion that you've had a good run for your money from your current battery. Leaving your laptop connected to the mains for long periods on many types of laptop keeps it on a constant state of recharge - reducing battery life. Modern Li-On batteries don't benefit from occasional complete depletion/recharge either.

Sorry I'm not much help, but you sould consider asking Santa for a new laptop or battery. :cry:
 
Unfortunately, I fear you're both right. To be honest, I didn't really know I was abusing the battery, but I'm sure the instruction manual (never read) probably advises me to remove the battery.

All said, though, it was always a crap battery. 1hr-life maximum...
 
I'm not sure I can cope with my laptop sounding like a tumble-dryer (broken fan), and having a non-functional battery, so I'm considering a new one.

I'm not a computer follower. Can anyone tell me what is 'standard' nowadays for a mid-priced (£500-600?) laptop in terms of RAM, Processor Speed and HD-size?

I'd appreciate the advice.
 
theyithian said:
...I'm not a computer follower. Can anyone tell me what is 'standard' nowadays for a mid-priced (£500-600?) laptop in terms of RAM, Processor Speed and HD-size?

I'd appreciate the advice.
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Useful little guides I bookmarked when buying a laptop for my mum here and here. Although given the speed things change they may already be out of date.

For what it's worth I've had a chunky little Toshiba U200-115 for a couple of years now and I'm really impressed with the build quality and general robustness, as well as the spec. If, like me, you're a ham-fisted oaf who isn't averse to dumping his laptop into a toolbag if no other suitable mode of transport is to hand, then you couldn't do much better than a Toshiba.
 
Cheers, Spook. Am digesting now.
 
Spookdaddy said:
theyithian said:
...I'm not a computer follower. Can anyone tell me what is 'standard' nowadays for a mid-priced (£500-600?) laptop in terms of RAM, Processor Speed and HD-size?

I'd appreciate the advice.
Click to expand...

Useful little guides I bookmarked when buying a laptop for my mum here and here. Although given the speed things change they may already be out of date.
Click to expand...

I've also owned a Toshiba: my first laptop eleven years ago. It was physically solid and lasted a long while. I've looked at the guide you posted, and although the checklist-type questions are handy, the actual figures seem out of date. I've found a lot of laptops offering 3or4gb of RAM now. With 2GB on the bog-standard models. Hard-drives - ever-growing seem to be at an average of almost 300-350GB. I might even be able to manage 500GB if I stretch my budget.

I'm pretty excited now!
 
Windows Vista needs 2gb just to run properly, without thrashing the hard disc. Especially if the laptop graphics chip is sharing the memory. Vista runs a lot of stuff on ram, allegedly to speed things up.

I've no idea about the situation with Windows 7, though they say it runs better.
 
2GB Mein Gott!

How is it I find windows is getting less efficient when the only thing it seems to have improved on is hardware compatibility? [Perhaps there are thousands of functions I never use that just keep getting better...]

I'd really like either the time and know-how to run linux, or a stripped down windows-lite edition.

I'm running XP now. I regularly use a horribly unstable version of Vista on a laptop of unknown spec. and was the last person I knew to be using '98. Microsoft have managed to truly turn logic on its head: to upgrade should mean to enjoy something better, to be impressed and surprised by the differences (which should be familiar yet better and intuitive to explore). On the contrary, however, nobody wants to buy the early-releases; millions delay the upgrade; and it is usually only necessity or a new purchase that forces it upon the majority.

All the models I have seen ship with Windows 7. I suppose I ought to start reading about how much of these bursting-resources are going to be eaten up by the operation system. Thanks for the heads-up Pietro.
 
I'd highly recommend upgrading to Windows 7. I did as soon as it was released and can honestly say I've not seen the infamous blue-screen-of-death since.

Boot and shutdown times are faster than any OS I have ever experienced.

W7 is everything Vista was meant to be but wasn't.
 
Am most likely getting a new computer next month...

In the meantime, is there a Tor expert out there? I'm using Tor and Foxy-proxy (Firefox add-on) together. I've edited the Torrc to only use gb (British) exit nodes to give me a solely-UK based proxy, but I can't get it to work. Although this page:
http://torcheck.xenobite.eu/index.php

assures me I'm using a Tor-exit, and I can visit websites via tor all over the internet, I can't make Tor use either the long list of British proxies (specified by nickname), or filter all possible proxies by gb-only. Proxies in Germany and California are no good to me.

Can anyone knowledgeable please assist?

edit: problem solved. For anyone attempting anything similar, the Tor's settings were wrong, so it was looking for the torrc file in the wrong location. My changing the composition of the files for 2hrs didn't make a damned bit of difference. All I had to do was to change a file-path!
 
theyithian said:
Can anyone knowledgeable please assist?
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Sorry, I don't even understand the question!

I think all this modern technology is leaving me behind... :(
 
I'm trying to watch a link you posted, Ryn!
 
I've ad-blocked the advert bar [frame] that flashes to the right of the message board and now I'm left with a big blue band where the advert used to sit. I can't seem to right-click and block that (which I had managed to do previously) irritating blue block. I want to get rid of it, as I've a lovely wide screen and a little FTMB sitiing in the middle. When I dumped all the extraneous nonsense on my old laptop, the board expanded to fill the gap left and looked 100% better. Can anyone give me either a suggestion or a URL of the component to block. I've scanned over the 'page source', but I'm not expert enough to find what i'm looking for.

Appreciated.
 
If you're running the Aardvark extension in Firefox, you could remove the blue bar that way.
 
I'm not, but I could be.
Will investigate.
Thanks
 
WhistlingJack said:
If you're running the Aardvark extension in Firefox, you could remove the blue bar that way.
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Awesomeness!

Adding the RIP add-odd allows you to block any page component from either and individual page, a website, or a domain.

Great stuff. Thanks for the lead, Jack.

Advertising free; easy on the eye...
 
I have Google advanced search bookmarked. Just now I wanted to check on something via Google, but all I got was a blank page with this message:

A license has expired on the Proxy, and your request is not permitted: "The SGOS license has expired"

WTF! I could look up 'SGOS' if I could access Google... :(

Does anyone know anything about this?
 
Try this:

SGOS = security gateway operating system
Usually refering to a server or router or proxy server utilizing the SGOS 3.0.. It can also be used in pop up blockers and instant messaging blockers using a vpn tunnels between diferent IP adresses. Look for any of the software blockers and either update them to get new permissions or remove them

http://www.computing.net/answers/window ... 14549.html
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Personally, I'd run ASC:

http://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html

I think it's the most powerful cleaner out there.
 
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