GoRedwings19's Computer Help Hotline

Question for the Windows 7 HTPC users: My OEM of Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 with Blu-Ray and 3D just stopped working. Should I just go ahead and buy it (14, presumably)? I'm afraid that they're one of those "perpetually pay for upgrades" nickel-and-dime mickey-mouse bullshit software that I hate. Anything better out there? VLC? What do you use in your Windows 7 HTPC to play Blu-Rays? I do use SlySoft's AnyDVD HD for delayed viewing of rentals, but I still use Cyberlink PowerDVD to play back the video files -- if I should switch video players to something that works better with subtitles (the way I do it, I lose the subtitles during the Dothrakian sequences), please …

trying to get google voice set up so i can make phone calls from my computer. using windows 7 64 bit. the thinkpad has built in mics which sucks so i am trying to use a zalman mic that i have been using for the past 7 years without issue. i can use the mic in ventrilo (skype like program gamers use) and it works just fine so hardware is fine. current set up is as follows. usb - gamma 2 - crack - 650s (for hearing) zalman mic - thinkpad combo jack (same jack for headphones and mic) built in mics are muted. built in volume control is muted. when i go into volume control settings i only see the settings for the built in mic. when i go into google voice settin…

I asked my thunderbird to sync up to folders already on the webmail server (just started using it for uni email addy). And the sub folders which I had already created inside the thunderbird inbox vanished, replaced by the server synced folders. (I had assumed they would be added on to, not supercede). The emails in those previous folders were not returned to the main inbox, although everything in the main inbox remains the same. Nor were they moved to the deleted items bin. They've simply vanished. They're not on the main server via the website either so I can't redownload them. Obviously putting them in folders in thunderbird killed them on the server which fucks my w…

So I've got a little streak on my LCD monitor that I can't seem to get off. I think I was trying to wipe off a bit of dust and streaked grease on it or something. I've tried wiping it with a clean cotton shirt, but it doesn't seem to want to remove itself. What cleaning solution is a safe and effective way to clean my LCD. Thanks!

For those old enough to remember, want a fun read, or like to see the progress of "social"/simplified interfaces (ex. iPad) ... The Bob Chronicles

I seem unable to find information on what is used as the pigment in colored printer ink. I'm curious if traditional pigments are used like cadmium, cobalt, etc. Do any of you guys know?

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.

So my computer has started doing this thing where every time I turn it on, after about 5 minutes, give or take a minute, regardless of what I'm doing on the computer, I get a blue screen of death crash and the computer resets. The weird thing is, once it resets and starts up again, its 100% fine, no more crashes. This only occurs when I start my computer from an off state. When I start back up it always gives me the "windows has recovered from a serious error" box. The reason is something to do with bad memory. Indeed I did add some new RAM several weeks back, but I did not start experiencing this until recently. Nevertheless, I've done lots of trouble shooting in…

Someone please stop me from making a costly mistake by throwing my mac mini and Duet into the street and running it over with my Touareg. For the last month or two I've been getting drop outs that last a second to a few seconds. At first it wasn't that bad but now it's happening more and more. I probably shouldn't punish the mac mini and Duet for the problem. I have Comcast for internet which is faster then the ATT DSL I had before. My set up is that I have a Motorola Cable modem and router. I also have an Apple Time Capsule and use the router that is built in instead of the Motorola. I don't know if having them both at the same time is an issue. I connect my comp…

PNY? Centron? KByte? Some unknown brand? Should I buy two sets of two different ones and try them both out? Background: I already bought some Centron, but can buy 4G of PNY for reasonably cheap. Should I? Or is it a move sideways? What are there often sales of? Kingston? Crucial? Are those the two best at this point? I don't need best (not for this computer), I need "Honda" -- cheap (or rather, reasonably priced considering its quality, not Kia cheap) yet reliable. For the one I build myself, then I'll want "BMW" performance.

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…

Whats a really good disk defragmenter for Windows XP? Thanks

So I get home from CanJam, and my macbook is doing something weird. I'm not sure I can describe this, it's like when a picture is too big and you have to scroll on a webpage to read across, except its the desktop, and all I'm doing it touching the pad. It moves, and the tool bars on the top and bottom no longer fit the screen. Also, no matter what I have up (like this forum) the whole page moves in the direction my finger goes when I touch the pad. It's making me crazy, and I can figure out how to make it stop. Kitty took a little walk across the keyboard this afternoon. I don't know if he messed with anything or not. Anyway, any help appreciated.

Apple announces final MacWorld, Steve Jobs won't deliver keynote - Engadget

Meh, guess I'll try asking here. Does anyone know of software that can read the SMART data from drives in USB enclosures? Is it even possible? I would like to be able to check the fitness of a drive without having to plug it in directly, especially 2.5" drives. Another question: I am concerned about the fitness of my primary drive. The raw read error rate has been around 48 since I last started monitoring it, and it flits around between 48 and 49, sometimes going up to 52. This is a Seagate drive, and I assume 100 is the maximum value. Of course, I have no idea whether Seagate is doing some weird shit with the values. I compared my drive to another identical one and…

There's a lot of conflicting and simply fuzzy information out there on using the exFAT file system in a variety of situations and drive types. Being able to use on Mac and PCs would be desirable and general specs looks good, so anyone have any advice about when to use or avoid using exFAT? Considering for a music backup drive.

I think the first time I noticed this was yesterday. Cog refuses to load any file into the playlist. Flac, mp3, nothing will play anymore. Any ideas?

Friends, I recently had JRiver reorganize my music folder by ARTST\ALBUM\TRACK. My old scheme was ARTIST - ALBUM\TRACK. I like the new one better from an aesthetic point of view, and because I enjoy folders. The problem is, now I have a shit ton of folders labelled something like "Bjork - Vespertine" that contain nothing except .log and .cue files, and perhaps some .jpg art files or liner notes. I prefer to embed that stuff in the track, so I don't need the extra files. I'd love to have a program that I could tell to delete any folder that did not contain (or whose subfolder did not contain) a music file. Does something like that exist?

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 have an old ipad 1 and phones (Google Nexus and Samsung S3) that I never use. What should I do with them? Is there a place I can donate them or should I just recycle them?

I created a seperate libarary in itunes in order to do some shuffling and converting of my existing library without touching it. Job done I came back to my original library. Except that it seems to think that all of my music is where i had previously copied the files to for the second library. The only thing unaffected is podcasts. Now I could simply recompile the library. I havent lost any files or anything. But Id have to sit and wait for all the artwork and volume levelling to process again. And the gapless stuff. And then run iVolume again. And this is all very time consuming and irritating. I'd also lose my play counts and probably my ratings (which I use f…

I just realized my 1 year iPhone warranty ran on the 13th. So I called the 1-800-Apple Store to see if they would let me purchase it late and got denied. Anyone know or heard if I'll have better luck going into my local store? Or am I just screwed. After my out of warranty Macbook debacle I didn't think I would let this happen again

I upgraded my motherboard recently. Backed up everything that was on my C drive (Windows boot drive, main drive) then proceeded to reinstall Windows XP. My setup is 2 PATA hardrives sharing the same ribbon cable on one channel. A DVDRW drive on another channel. 2x SATA drives using a RAID card. After installing the RAID card drivers those hardrives worked fine. My main C drive works fine. But I can't get the second slave PATA drive to show up in Windows. I've tried Admin Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management, which usually works fine. But this time it's not even showing up as a hidden drive. The second PATA drive is set to cable select (I beli…

I don't know whether I'm just out of touch and ignorant about Google's practices or whether our main IT guy just wants to give us a hard time by refusing to install Google Analyics and comparing Google to the Stasi. He wants to an open source thing called Piwik instead, which seems quite powerful and is actually more tweakable, but doesn't have Google Analytics's neat Adwords integration. I mean what could Google possibly want to do with our website data anyways (other than aggregating it for analysis purposes and for selling me AdWords) and they have thick privacy policy to boot. What do you think?

Ok, so my apartment is theoretically wired with Cat 5e throughout. There is a Leviton enclosure in one of my closets. I currently use Verizon FIOS for my internet, phone, and TV. The Actiontec router that Verizon gave us sits outside the closet and is connected to one of the jacks in the apartment via coax. My mac is hardwired to one of the Actiontec's ethernet ports; the rest of the 'puters connect wirelessly. I want to light up some--if not all--of the ethernet ports throughout the house in case the wireless goes down. The problem is that none of the RJ45 jacks in the apartment are connected to the Actiontec router. I suspect that I need a switch (and a s…