The Technology Help Corner.

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

I've updated some of the front. Over the next week I'm going to be chipping into it and making changes and adding important info that covers not only Computers, but Tablets, MP3 devices, Forum codes etc etc. So if you have anything that you think should be added please dont hesitate to PM me them.

~Tim

 

[SovietX]

My computer only has one functioning USB port (and by functioning I mean capable of data transfers, connecting items like Mp3 players, webcams etc etc). So far I have just dealt with it but now it has just become too much of a nuisance. On the front of my computer I have 4 USB ports (only the one of the far left works) and only 2 of the 6 USB ports on the back work in the same way.

I have taken the side panel off the tower and looked inside and nothing appears to be unplugged. Does anyone have any solutions? I will provide pictures if needed.

Specs (Incase it matters)
Processor: Intel i7 960
Graphics Card: nVidia GTX 580
RAM Amount: 8 GB DDR3
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium

EDIT: I thought I may aswell take a screenshot of my Universal Serial Bus Controllers in the Device Manager. I am unsure on which one is the one that functions perfectly. I have already tried searching for drivers for every option

Spoiler

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

@SovietX, It's possible you've got a damaged case, I had a similar issue a few years ago with on of the cases I had. Sadly drivers can't fix it. the only way would be replacing the ports or get a new case. (the latter being the far easier option)

However, since you ALSO said only 'x' amounts work on the back, my bet is the Motherboard has faulty USB port connections/internal drivers.

 

[SovietX]

@SovietX, It's possible you've got a damaged case, I had a similar issue a few years ago with on of the cases I had. Sadly drivers can't fix it. the only way would be replacing the ports or get a new case. (the latter being the far easier option)

However, since you ALSO said only 'x' amounts work on the back, my bet is the Motherboard has faulty USB port connections/internal drivers.

Sadly I am not very good with swapping hardware and the like. I will probably just buy a USB hub capable of data transfer. Thanks anyway.

 

[JesterRaiin]

Praise the Lord, YES !
After roaming the Internet for whole month i've found it !
Probably it's old news known to everyone out there, but here it is :

http://ninite.com/

http://d3doxs0mwx271h.cloudfront.net/_cache_0cd28838_/static/app/img/ninite.png

It is an on-line tool that let's you chose your favorite apps (Internet browser, media, security and much more) and make a simple, nice installer that is able to download, update and install them.

No more "to do" lists when reinstalling your OS.
No more "oh f*ck i forgot".
No more "i don't remember an address/the name of this app, google it for yourself".

Behold and rejoice.

Sadly I am not very good with swapping hardware and the like. I will probably just buy a USB hub capable of data transfer. Thanks anyway.

Wait, wait, not so fast hombre
Have you tried usual stuff ?
You know the drill...
- disable USB ports in your BIOS/UEFI and later re-enable them.
- check how ports behave under different operating system.

 

[Pb Zeppelin]

I've been having problems with my computer crashing and giving me the blue screen of death lately. I've done a virus scan and nothing comes up. I've defragmented my hard drive to see if that would improve performance, but it still crashes. I think it may be related to the most recent Windows update that downloads automatically. It started crashing after the update.

Is there anyway to confirm this or uninstall the latest update to see if that fixes the problem?

I'm using a Toshiba Satellite laptop and its about a year and a half old.

 

[As Seen On 360]

[HEADING=2]The Escapist Forum-Related Section[/HEADING]
Section Coming Soon.

Can someone add info for this section? Particularly the formatting of posts is what I can't seem to figure out. I'm not sure if it's an option in profiles or if people do it manually but I'm not finding a GUI to format my posts (bold, underline, text size, insert picture/video, etc). If people are manually doing it I can only assume that it's bbCode, in which case disregard this request.

 

[Zelcor]

Anybody else having serious issues watching escapists videos on Chrome?

 

[inutaisho7996]

My mouse side buttons won't recognize that I'm holding them down. I've set on of my mouse's side buttons to melee in the Mass Effect 3 demo, but whenever I try to to a heavy melee, I can't; only regular melee attacks. It doesn't matter which of them I bind; neither of them will do it. Is there any way to set these buttons to be able to be held down?

 

[DaHero]

I'm having a recurring issue where I will be playing two of my games (currently, only City of Heroes and Dragon Nest are affected, however, I have not played other games much) and, during more heated battles, about once a week, my monitor goes out. It is as if it is unplugged, but shortly thereafter the audio goes out. The tower is still running, so I believe it is a video card issue (I have been getting multiple error reports for "video hardware") In light of it probably being the video card (if it might be something else, please say so) then I have picked out 2 video cards that I would like to pick from. If you have another suggestion, preferably within the price range, feel free.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130752

Here's my Speccy:

Operating System
MS Windows Vista Business 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83GHz 43 °C
Yorkfield 45nm Technology
RAM
4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 399MHz (6-6-6-31)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5N-D (Socket 775) 40 °C
Graphics
Acer H233H (1920x1080@60Hz)
512MB GeForce GTS 250 (EVGA) 48 °C
Hard Drives
488GB Seagate ST350041 8AS SCSI Disk Device (Fibre)
Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S202J ATA Device
Audio
Logitech G930 Headset

 

[Cami]

Hi,

A few days ago a friend noticed when playing videos on his laptop It would get a stutter. This was with Vids on HDD and ones streaming.

The HDD is the only HDD in the laptop.

After the videos getting so bad with the frequent stuttering he shut it down. When switched back on later it wouldn't boot. It could get BIOS and boot options like safe mode but couldn't boot in to safe mode. Or boot at all. He'd had a problem before where it wouldn't boot and it did boot in to safe mode and then it would boot normally.

I took the HDD out and put it in my enclosure and connected to another computer. All 4 partitions for the HDD are showing up. But the main one which was the C: drive is not accessible. The other 3 (SYSTEM,RECOVERY and HP TOOLS) are accessible but are empty aside from a few log files.

In disk manager the main drive which was C: is listed as a RAW file system. The other 3 have NTFS or FAT32.

I tried to see if I could fix this myself using Testdisk but have not had success. Although testdisk can access the main original C: drive and I can see all the files that I want to recover. (The Users path) Although program files and windows folders are missing. EDIT: Tried a different recovery program and they arent missing, were just hidden.

A theory I heard which coincidentally might be connected is that the PSU caused it. The power cable was falling apart and he continued to use it.

Anyway, was hoping to fix the filesystem somehow but now doubting that'll be possible. Please let me know ASAP if you think it's possible to restore the drive.

In the mean time I'm copying all docs, pics and vids.

 

[Headsprouter]

When using my Xbox360 headset on my computer, voice from friends always comes through my speakers rather than my headset earphone...even when I made my headset default playback device voice from friends still persists in coming through speakers! If it matters, sound is still sent through the mic.

Ant ideas on how to fix this problem? I've tried restoring defaults, but things still don't seem to work right...

This is a problem because my friend swears a lot, which i obviously don't want coming through speakers when I still live with my nuclear family...and when anything gets loud in a game, his voice is drowned out, this especially happens in Team Fortress 2, which is a very noisy game, and this is unfortunate, because it benefits greatly from communication...

 

[Terratina.]

I dunno what's with my avatar. I've just changed it and it's supposed to be animated and shizz:

But there a blue mess instead, please help!

Edit: Fixed.

 

[Uzbekistan]

Hey guys, sorry to bug you all, but anything that I try to open pops under Chrome and normally doesn't react when I click on it on the menu bar. Any rhyme or reason for that? ((I run a gateway notebook here, unsure of the specs if needed?))

 

[mateushac]

Sorry to bother you guys, I've been having connection problems in Source Engine games which directly impact hit registering.

By enabling net_graph I found out I was getting spiking choke anywhere from 0 to 25.

Messing with the rates won't solve it, neither will changing my download settings. I even tried fidling around with some tcp/ip settings but nothing will do. I believe it's my ISP's fault somehow, but it may also be a source game only issue.

I'd like to know if you guys know any tool I can get online to check for this or even some way to enable similar connection diagnostics in one of these games:

CoD MW2
BF:BC2
Red Orchestra 2
Ruse
Splinter Cell: Conviction
Total War: Shogun 2

EDIT:
Running Windows 7 Home Premium fully updated.
10Mbps up/0.75Mbps down link (it used to work with the exact same specs on another computer at another access point, so I believe the low upstream is not a problem)

 

[Tropicaz]

Hi, i'm a complete novice with computers (only ever had a laptop) , but have been looking at getting my first desktop, and i'm wondering if it will be able to run most of the games around, and if it could run DayZ?

System specs:
- Power Supply: OCZ ZS 750w PSU
- CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.30GHz Processor
- Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 Chipset (Socket 1155) Motherboard
- RAM:Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 16GB DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
- Hard Drives: OCZ Agility 3 240GB SSD & 1TB HDD
- Graphics Card: KFA2 GeForce GTX 680 LTD OC 2048MB GDDR5
- Sound: 7.1 Channel Sound (On-Board)
- Optical Drive: OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black)
- Cooler: Prolimatech Genesis Black CPU Cooler

 

[LightningBanks]

Whenever I quit a game on my pc, the screen goes black (as it normally does) then the monitor comes back on to the desktop, only for it to go black a few seconds later. I found out turning the monitor off and on again fixed this.

But now its starting to get worse. Im having to leave more and more seconds between turning it off and on, otherwise itl come back on, show the picture and then go black again.

Should I start thinking about a new monitor, or is it something computer related?

 

[ResonanceSD]

Just a quick note for this thread guys, the GTX 660Ti has just been reviewed.

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/28178-nvidia-gtx-660-ti-2gb-performance-revealed


Roundup is here ^

 

[Frosty676]

Help build a gaming rig
Hello all.
Iv'e decided to update my gaming hardware because my six year old rig is showing signs of wear and tear.
The problem is is that the last time I was remotely interested in computer hardware was about six years ago...when I built my last rig.
Sooooo I'm begging for help as catching up on the latest hardware news is a bit hard for me...*cough*...lazy...
Here's the deal, I have around a thousand dollars budget (30,000 to build the rig, doesn't mean the whole thousand has to go But i would be grateful if what I build will be the best I can get with my current budget.
I'm open to all suggestions concerning hardware.
If anyone is willing to help I am all ears and heart.
Oh and i'm based in Moscow, not really relevant, just so you know.
And the speccy of my current ancient rig (just for the the pity)!
Operating System
MS Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit SP1
CPU
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Windsor 90nm Technology
RAM
2,00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 335MHz (5-5-5-15)
Motherboard
MSI MS-7250 (CPU 1)
Graphics
Q19wb (1440x900@60Hz)
512MB GeForce 9600 GT (ASUStek Computer Inc)
Hard Drives
233GB Western Digital WDC WD25 00KS-00MJB0 SCSI Disk Device (ATA)
Optical Drives
DTSoftBusCd00
NEC DVD_RW ND-4571A ATA Device
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

 

[HappyCastor]

I have a problem where my computer restarts after I wake it up from sleep. It usually makes a horrible whirring racket then shuts off. Any advice? Windows 7, DEll OPTIPLEX 755