GoRedwings19's Computer Help Hotline

I've pretty much had enough of my PSC 1315 HP All-in-one printer. It's not a bad printer in itself, it's just a pain in the ass. Feeds papers wrong, ocassionally refuses to scan, ocassionally refuses to print, drains ink, simply refuses to cancel prints unless the drivers are reinstalled, check cartidge warnings, check paper warnings...it's just too much to handle. So, in your opinion, who do you feel makes the better printers. Canon, Epson, Lexmark, Brother...? Before I've had Canon, and all I can remember is that Canon ink is cheap as hell.

Well, the title is a bit misleading, as what I'm actually aiming to do is to print a filled-out pdf file with data saved in an FDF file. Here's the thing: at work, there is a blank form in pdf format that has fillable textboxes. What's been done until now is that a group of people painstakingly copy-paste client info into each field. And I was asked to do that today.... ...blech! Always seeking to automate whenever possible, I found that the info is copied from an Excel file, so I started looking for a way to get that info from Excel unto the pdf form. (we all have Acrobat Reader, not the full version) I came across the FDF format, which is a file that sto…

I have to unplug and reattach my iPod to the Mac several times before it registers in iTunes -- is this a common problem, is there a fix for it, or should I send it back for a replacement? I'm worried about killing the battery. The Mac is at 10.5.5, iTunes is at 8.0.1 (12), and iPod is at 1.1.2 Mac. (And no, I don't plug it and unplug it willy-nilly -- I give it a chance to register every time. One time it even caused iTunes to stop responding, and I had to reboot the computer.)

I suddenly find myself inundated in projects, all with different final deadlines, and all with multiple progress points. For instance, I have a project I want to complete by May 1, but in order to do that I'll need to complete part A of it by March 30th, and part B by April 14th, and send out part C by March 21st, etc. There is obviously lots of project software out there, but most seems geared toward groups, or has too many features. I am looking for simple - no need for discussion boards, bug tracking, user management, etc. Does anyone know or use something that works well?

It's time.

A few months back I bought a used NAS device on here and initially I had no issues getting it setup and recognized on my network for use as a media server to get files streamed or copied to my PS3. In the beginning it would recognize the NAS drive as a media server with no associated software and would also recognize the Twonky media server that was also installed on the NAS. About a month ago the PS3 started randomly not connecting with the drive or would connect and then lose the connection quickly causing dropouts and major annoyance. But Twonky still recognized just fine, until tonight that is. Now, I can't get that to recognize. Now all the time every other devi…

Is the PS3 a useful device if you don't do much gaming? I remember reading about it being a "great" blu-ray player and SACD capable. Whaddya say?

I've been cleaning the spare around my computer, and in the process I put about six wallwarts in a box. One of them goes to my BlacX. I've got a couple that fit the power socket on the unit. Unfortunately, Thermaltake saw fit to not mark the BlacX's voltage requirement on the back of it. It just says "DC IN." Mine is the SATA model with USB and E-SATA out. Any head-casers have a BlacX and PSU handy? Can you tell me the voltage and tip polarity?

I went ahead and got a XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 Black Edition last week, but I discovered that I needed 1x 8-pin PCI-E connector and 1x 6-pin PCI-E connector to power this card. I'm not sure what type of PSU would be good. I have a 620W not-so-good PSU right now, and it's a single rail old design one (I have no idea what I'm talking about, I showed it to someone and they told me this rail thing.) Any recommendation for what PSU to get? I'm running 4 HDDs, but that is no problem because most of the newer PSUs have more than enough connectors. Does this look like a good PSU to purchase? Antec - Signature 850 or the 650W version... Antec - Signature 650 Pleas…

I decided a while ago that I wanted to get a small pc to use with my headphone rig and also as an HTPC for watching the occasional movie on. My recent acquisition of a new dac, the Auralic Vega and it's ability to do hi-rez pcm and dsd over usb made this more of a priority. Now normally I'd just go ahead and build something like this myself as I've built well over 100 desktops/servers over the years. After considering that I didn't want to spend my time dealing the tight spaces of really small cases I decided to buy something fully assembled. Naturally I did keep a close eye on parts cost vs cost of the assembled system, if the difference was high enough I'd just bu…

I've been eyeing the slick all in one NAS boxes like QNAP TS-639. I wish it were able to do RAID 10, but I think I might just end up with two volumes (work stuff in RAID 1, media files in RAID 5). I really like the slick UI and ease of use. Of course it's not cheap. Otherwise, I could upgrade my old server. It's a Pentium M based mobo with an old 3Ware PATA 7410 RAID card with 4x 400GB Seagates in RAID 10. (OS is on the Mobo RAID 1 with 2x 2.5" drives) It's been pretty much rock solid reliable for years. Unfortunately, Windows 2000 as a server is a PITA to deal with, and not quite as rock solid as the hardware. I'm thinking of rebuilding it with adding a …

So my brother is looking to build a box for doing CAD. His budget is ~1k. I can pretty much make him a decent desktop, but where my expertise and those I normally talk to regarding hardware draws a blank is the Nvidia Quadro line or other workstation/pro cards. What is the difference between a gamer/consumer card and a more pro workstation card? What would someone recommend with a max of probably ~500 bucks though preferably less unless the performance sweet spot demands the higher price? I don't think he's doing anything especially zany as I believe he intends to use this mostly for small projects.

Hubby and I share an office and the pounding of the keyboard drives me crazy* (ok, technically it just makes me really upset, not crazy). Right now he has a USB Apple keyboard. The problem is that he uses two fingers to type and hence pounds on the keys. Please help my marriage by telling me there is a quietish keyboard solution out there. *This is probably related to my other noise issues like people eating, etc. So, if there is no such keyboard, I would appreciate the name of a good shrink or drugs.

ordered some well reviewed g skill 8gb dual channel ram for my thinkpad. computer however is less responsive (slower start up times, slower times while opening programs, lag while typing etc) than it was with the 2gb stick that was in there earlier. the timings that the bios is running are 7-7-7-20 but the timings on the ram are 9-9-9-24. would bios forcing tighter timings on the ram be causing this issue? i cant think of anything else that would cause the system to slow down as opposed to get smoother with more ram. suggestions are welcome. figured i would ask here before i send this back and get ram that matches timings in bios. Forgot to mention that I ram Memte…

So I'm using my MacBook's miniToslink port to connect to my DAC. I've been using this set up for two days now. But today, all of a sudden, I would get random noises--it's not clipping--just digital noise, which goes away in five seconds or so. The noise shows up randomly. FYI: I'm using Play as my player, and I set the output to 16/44.1 in AudioMidi utility.

Hey all. I'm having weird difficulties establishing a secure connection to certain Web sites. Some work fine (gmail, online banking, amazon, itunes etc.) but some (paypal, me.com, random ecommerce sites) will not load on my iMac in any browser -- have tried Safari, Firefox and Chrome. The pages will start to render and then hang forever with no further network activity. This only occurs when connected to our home wireless setup -- cellular data connections via iPhone or iPad are OK. I've checked the router settings and nothing is being blocked there. No difference with OS X firewall off, or with Little Snitch disabled. Even switched ISPs to see if it was something at that…

Ok... I've done it. I really did! I went ahead and bought the worse possible sound card ever with the Razer brand name smeared all over it instead of the Asus Xonar or the Azuretech Prelude, which are supposedly much better for their price and actually designed correctly. I mean... how bad could it be? Reason? Nothing really, it costs $199.99CAD here and jumped on it when saw it go for $89.99CAD in one of the Sunday special savings ad for my local computer shop. Impressions: I just installed this card into my computer less than an hour ago and I already have many complaints about it. The main reason I bought it, apart from the relatively cheap price, was…

Well, I finally got a nice job. It's half time for 4-6 months. After that, we see where we are and what the business climate is like. I know the tech-lead and this should be a fun job! I need to provide my own laptop for this job. I have a 4 year old Dell Inspiron 8600 that would probably do the job. However, I think that I'd be better off having a separate work computer. Other members of the team have recently bought this HP laptop. They did get it for $100 less but the price still is pretty reasonable. I've been pretty detached from computer hardware. Should I get this or would you laptop knowledgeable people recommend something else? This laptop will be…

I have a cable modem that has the feature of a "land line" phone. I'm not using the phone and am tired of paying for it. I can cancel the feature but then have to supply my own cable modem. I plan on buying a modem that supports Docsis 3. Can anybody recommend for or against any particular brands or models? Thanks in advance for your advice.

I'm having a bizarre network issue. Do you have a favorite free network sniffer that you can recommend for a Vista system? Thanks in advance for your recommendations.

Well, I'm finally getting around to moving to the new computer that I bought last summer. I'd appreciate it if you could recommend virus/malware checkers for Windows 10 Home Edition. The information available on line is somewhat contradictory. I'd definitely trust the info I'd get here that what's out there. Thanks.

I'm looking for an external HD for my iMac. Will be used for backup and storage. Looking for 500GB. Recommendations appreciated.

I'd like to create a database of the rear album "art" of my Blue Note LPs, often containing many historical facts about the music or musicians. So the scanner needs to be at least 12x12. Attached an image below for what an average rear cover would look like. Any recommendations?

The fan on my laptop (HP Pavillion DM4-2070us) is dying. Can anybody suggest a reliable and inexpensive site for a replacement? Thanks in advance for your help.

So I'm trying to put in a clean copy of XP Media Center on my Mom's Acer laptop (her current installation is kinda jacked) and I can't figure out quite how to do it. I'm very familiar with putting together a PC and installing OS from scratch but my biggest challenge here is finding a XP Media Center disc without actually buying one. I still have the product key, it's on the sticker under the laptop. So the million dollar question is: how/where do I get/buy a Windows XP installation disc without the product key (which I already have)?