The Technology Help Corner.

[saluraropicrusa]

so, i'm running windows 7 home premium 64-bit on my desktop
occasionally, i like to do simple little animations (aka talksprites), and when i started the program that was best for it was gimp.
however, later i discovered a problem, which i have yet to find a solution for. when i install and try to run gimp (so far i've tried with the latest version), it hangs when it tries to load fonts. now, maybe if i waited a little longer it might work, but i really don't think i should have to sit through the program being completely frozen (to the point where windows asks me if i want to end the program or not) just for it to start up.
i really don't have any other good alternatives for making gifs/talksprites. does anyone know the solution to this?
i imagine it has something to do with custom fonts... i know i have ~335 fonts installed, but i have no idea how many are custom. besides, i want to keep my custom fonts. i'm not going to give them up just for gimp.
i'd be super grateful if anyone could help me.

 

[AWAR]

-snip

I think that you will have better chances of solving your problem if you make a separate thread. Chances are I'm the only one visiting this one..

 

[AWAR]

-snip

Your PC looks pretty decent to me, how are you not able to play Skyrim at ultra? Anyways, you could get a 760 (when it's released) but I think it's a better idea to save your money and get a more substantial update in the future, such as an FX 8350 CPU as well.
As for the PSU, the only way to find out the wattage is to open your case and check on its markings.

 

[Frylock72]

Is there any way to turn off the autoplay option for videos on the Escapist?

 

[DanielBrown]

I'm considering getting a new PC, like tomorrow, since mine is extremely bad. Has worked for me for a few years since I hardly played games on the PC except for MMOs that usually don't require much. The past few months I've migrated back to PC gaming, but I'm starting to tell it's not gonna last much longer. Been unable to play lots of games lately and will start FFXIV: ARR in a few days... and I don't even pass minimum.

I'm completely clueless when it comes to computer specs. Have read lots of charts and located parts, and so far this one seems best for the price:

Intel® Core? i5-3350P Processor
8GB DDR3 RAM 1333MHz
GeForce® GT640 3GB

Another one is:

Intel Core i5-3350P processor / 3.1 GHz
AMD Radeon HD 8470 2 GB
8 GB DDR3 RAM

Both cost 5500SEK(~$845) and is about as far as I'm ready to go. I got money, but I dislike wasting so much on a PC. >.<
Is anything extremely shit, and should I go with something else?
FFXIV: ARR requires GeForce GTX 660, AMD Radeon HD 7950 or higher for recomended. I'm not sure how graphic cards work, since higher numbers only mean better card sometimes...
My current graphic card is usually what keeps me down, so I wouldn't want to replace shit with crap.

My current shit specs:
AMD Athlon(tm) II X3 435 Processor
4GB DDR2 RAM
ATI Radeon HD5450 1GB
Windows 7 x64

Edit: Did some more checking and decided to go with the GeForce PC. It's worse than GTX 660, but a shitload cheaper and still four times better than my current card. I'm kind of convinced that they make the video cards complicated on purpose so the regular man won't understand shit.
Wish I knew how to build my own PC. D:

 

[AWAR]

-snip

Honestly both PCs are pretty shit for the money and not much of an improvement compared to what you have now. Try finding a shop which does custom builds, for $800 you can do sooo much better than that, take a look at this for example.

 

[DanielBrown]

-snip

Honestly both PCs are pretty shit for the money and not much of an improvement compared to what you have now. Try finding a shop which does custom builds, for $800 you can do sooo much better than that, take a look at this for example.

Actually decided to go a bit more expensive and took a return copy of a way better PC. Went from below minimum on FFXIV: ARR to flying past recomended like it's nothing(got my sexy GTX660).

Have tried finding such sites in Sweden, but can't find anything like it. There was one I fiddled with and took the cheapest and middle options, for the important stuff. Final price came out at 11000SEK(so $1700 >.<). When this one starting to get a bit older I'll take a shot at upgrading it myself, or with the help of some store.
Thanks for responding.

 

[AWAR]

-snip

I just noticed Swedish prices on hardware are much higher compared to the rest of Europe .

Oh well, now the pre-builts don't seem that bad after all. Good luck with your new system.

 

[piinyouri]

I apologize if this is in the wrong area, but can anyone recommend a good keyboard remapper?
Specifically I'm looking for something that will let my swap map movement from the arrow keys to WASD for some old RTS's I'm playing.

I've tried quite a few thus far, but they either don;t seem to work at all, or they require a full reboot to take effect.
Is that just the alternative I'm stuck with or is there a better program?

So far I've tried:
Auto Hotkey
Sharp Key
Glovepie
and Keytweak

Again, I'm sorry if this is in the wrong area. If it is, could someone please direct me to where it would be appropriate?
Thanks!

 

[Metalrocks]

ok, hope i am right here.

today i cleaned my CPU fan because it was dusty (and yes, i did switch off the power supply before disconnecting the cable). after building it in, connected all the cables like mouse, keyboard, etc, my pc doesnt start. nothing happens. no fans, no lights, nothing.

i opened my case again to see if i accidentally ripped out an important plug or anything that is not connected. but thats not the case. the cable for the "turn on" switch is still in place so as everything else. i even tried a different power cable but this dint help either. so i tried only having the power cable connected. no mouse, monitor, etc, but with no avail.

my pc is just over a year old. i build it together my self, which i have been doing for nearly 10 years. so i know what im doing.
could it be that the power supply just like that doesnt work after being disconnected from the power? i have absolutely no idea what the hell is going there that after cleaning the CPU fan the pc wont start at all. yesterday everything worked fine. no power failure,no errors, nothing.
i hope someone here has an answer to my frustrating problem.

thanks

 

[AWAR]

-snip

This might sound a bit silly, but did you remember to switch your PSU on?

 

[Metalrocks]

-snip

This might sound a bit silly, but did you remember to switch your PSU on?

yes, i did.
and i see now that i forgot to mention it.

 

[AWAR]

-snip

This is usually an issue of something not being plugged correctly. After you triple check every plug, try to run with just the bare essentials- CPU cooler, 1 stick of ram, no graphics card if you have internal graphics, mouse and keyboard.

 

[Metalrocks]

thanks for the help, but i gave it to the shop and they figured out that the motherboard short circuited. i really dont know how this could have happened by just removing the fan but there it is.

thanks again for help.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

I has a serious problem, i can not get large pictures to display on my desktop at their original size centered or tile, it always squishes them smaller and makes vectors look like they were drawn by me in paint
I also can not seem to increase my screen resolution past 1152x860 for some reason, i use an old Dell e772p screen, this is annoying

ASUS CG8250
Intel i7 3770 3,4ghz
ram 12
nvidia geforce gtx560 ti
Windows home premium service pack 1


ALSO please tell me that getting a keyboard with a USB connection will fix occasional the weirdass distortions of the mouse pointer and always unresponsiveness of the keyboard when i start computer until restart
I have one hole for old keyboard contact and no such hole for mouse, it has a picture of mouse and keyboard i think

 

[AWAR]

snip

Download and install the latest nvidia drivers. The 1152x864 might be the maximum resolution supported by your monitor. Honestly, it's such a waste of good hardware to play on ancient 17" CRT screens.
The mouse distortion is almost certainly .. a mouse problem. The PS/2 port on the back of your computer is for both a mouse and keyboard. As for the unresponsiveness of the keyboard, can you be any more clear than that?

 

[Vicarious Reality]

snip

Download and install the latest nvidia drivers. The 1152x864 might be the maximum resolution supported by your monitor. Honestly, it's such a waste of good hardware to play on ancient 17" CRT screens.
The mouse distortion is almost certainly .. a mouse problem. The PS/2 port on the back of your computer is for both a mouse and keyboard. As for the unresponsiveness of the keyboard, can you be any more clear than that?

Yeah, i dont really have money for a good flat monitor, i know the port is for both mouse and keyboard, but i dont know how you put two cords in one hole?
The keyboard and mouse stops working about 15 seconds every 30-90 seconds if i use the internet too much, about once a day does not seem to happen nearly as often with games
Also it stops working sometimes entirely and i have to shut down, start and restart the computer to get it to work again
I have the latest drivers
I am not sure why the mouse would do this, change cursor icons randomly and be slightly misaligned and squished out
It is a cheap xl-750bh mouse i got when my razer naga crapped out from life

 

[Vicarious Reality]

Could this be a memory problem, i just changed virtual memory to about 20-50000mb from like 18k and the problems seem lessened
Also sometimes when i shut off the computer it sometimes keeps going after shutting off windows, with black screen and tower noise, have to flick the power switch on cord splitter and then when it starts after that it shows some bios thing where it says to start in safe mode or normal, which i always pick normal

 

[Vicarious Reality]

But, lets talk about the background picture, it is why i came here, why can i not put it in center at normal size? It makes no sense
Now the computer is making weird whirring noise every 30 seconds, maybe fan dirt

 

[AWAR]

snip

Woah woah.. One thing at a time
1. Yes the ps/2 port at the back of your PC is for both a keyboard or a mouse. Manufacturers save money because almost all mice sold nowadays are USB, so you only need to plug your keyboard there.

2. Are you sure it's the mouse that's freezing and not the PC itself? Can you do anything while the mouse is frozen like use the keyboard? If you are 100% sure it's the mouse, well, try a new one. Regardless, you should download and run Malwarebytes. Internet usage has no negative effect on peripherals by the way.

3. That's wayyyyy too much virtual memory you set. As a rule of thumb you should have double the size of your ram, however virtual memory isn't really used by programs anyway since RAM size nowadays is adequate in most computers. It should be set at 5-8gigs max. Did you have the shutdown problem before you set the virtual memory at 50gigs? It might be caused by this.

5. As for the background image, do you mean the desktop's background? It's pretty easy to set up in: Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Personalization\Desktop Background there's a section called Picture Position, assuming you're using Windows 7 of course.