GoRedwings19's Computer Help Hotline

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.

Since I can't seem to get my Macbook Pro 15" (2011) working correctly with Mac OS X, I was thinking that I would try installing Linux on it (where it seems easy to turn off the discrete graphics card with a command line). I'd probably try it out with a dual boot for now. What is the best (but not too difficult to use) Linux distro out there (that will work with a Macbook Pro)? Ubuntu? Linux Mint? Something else? Pros and cons? In the past, I've like the look/feel of gnome over KDE. In order to do this, I will probably need to boot into Linux for the first time without using the GUI (command line only) since the external graphics card is (for lack of a better …

I have a Sesonic X750 GOLD 750W PSU that I purchased from NewEgg exactly 2 years ago tomorrow. It stayed in its box until I finally in late 2013. My motherboard is an Asus Sabertooth Z87. Six times over as many days, I've had a panic reboot with the BIOS reporting an error message that the system had automatically restarted because excessively high voltage coming from the PSU. It then prompts me to go in to BIOS and make any necessary changes. I have not made any changes as I don't know what is wrong. These reboots have happened in groups. Usually two within a short period of time, and then none for a few days. A week ago I had a 2 minute power outage that happened whi…

Need some help putting together a parts list for a desktop machine needed for editing photos. Will have a macbook air for everything else. The air struggles with D800 and XT1 files frequently and I can't blame it as that is not the intended purpose for that machine. I'd love to stay in the apple ecosystem but the mac mini's have the same graphics card as the air so not much in the way of performance improvements there. Intended usage for this new computer will be Lightroom and Photoshop and any other random photo editing software. Don't care about video. Will never be doing anything with video in the foreseeable future. Can anyone suggest a parts build for <$1000 …

Because of neck stiffness, I am thinking of switching from 2x 20" Apple cinema displays to a single 27" display (for the office). Given that Apple's 27" is glossy and expensive, I started looking at the Dell 27" U2713HM. Is there anything else that is a lot better in that price range? I will be using it with a Mac.

http://www.pcper.com/news/Displays/Seiki-Announces-28-32-and-40-4K-Ultra-HD-Monitors-HDMI-20-and-DisplayPort-13 Quick Rundown: Seiki will introduce three different sizes including a 28-in (28U4SEP-G02), 32-in (32U4SEP-G02) and 40-in (40U4SEP-G02) offering with the following specs: Vertical Alignment (VA) LED panel technology with 3,840 by 2,160 4K Ultra HD resolution 12-bit color processing and 14-bit gamma mode HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.3(!), MHL 3.0, DVI and VGA standards display connections Picture-by-picture (x4) and daisy chain mode USB 3.0 hub (1 upstream and 2 downstream) VESA-compliant adjustable monitor stand with quick release Probably not go…

Hopefully some of you more experienced desktop people have a solution for this problem. We have a nearly two year old Intel I7 Ivy Bridge desktop computer. It has 16G of ram, 180 GB SSD HD and a 1 T external HD with the cpu running slightly overclocked. Core speed is 4398 MHz, Multiplier X 44, Bus speed is 99.98MHz. For the past six months while gaming and often times doing nothing taxing to the cpu, we have experienced the blue screen crash with the "windows detected hardware error". I think we need to back off the CPU speed a bit but after reading the Google searches and bus recommendations, I am not confident I can do this correctly. Any suggestion…

I am looking for a small, relatively inexpensive, VPN router box for a small office. Does anyone have a suggestion of where to look? Budget is a few hundred dollars -- more than a cheapo consumer model, less than an enterprise level box. Ability to be configured by an idiot who doesn't know much about this stuff (i.e. me) would be most helpful. Sonicwall is the name that keeps popping up, but I am not sure if that is the right solution or not. I would use pfSense, but so far as I can tell, there are no Windows VPN clients that work with it that allow one to connect at login (instead requiring one to log in and then connect to the VPN). As stupid of a requirement as th…

As Flash and Java aren't supported, we'll likely to need App Store and web-based alternatives to some apps. Thought it might be useful to have a separate thread from the iPad discussion itself in prep for the iPad arriving. Here are a couple... SketchPad Harmony And 'strech just posted...

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 …

Okay, the rumors are getting pretty hard to ignore at this point. I guess we'll know in the next month or two, but here's the latest. "Secondary screen/touchpad?" Hmmm.

So I'm finally going to do something about the sagging performance of my windows lappy. Right now it's got a hybrid drive in one slot and a standard lappy drive in the other, both 500GB. I don't think I really need that much capacity so I'm thinking all I really need to replace is the primary HD with a SSD with at least ~240GB to allow for application and some document storage with a buffer. Right now I'm leaning towards the Crucial M500 or Kingston V300, both of which are under $130 for the 240GB version. If there's a compelling reason to spend a little more I could be swayed. And while it doesn't quite double the price to get to 480GB I just don't think I need that…

Just as an FYI... there is significant clipping/static/popping when using USB audio devices on the new iMac with Fusion drives. Some have had success in eliminating the issue by breaking up the drive group, however this then defeats the purpose of buying the drive. I recommend avoiding the iMac if you intend on using USB DACs until this issue is resolved.

Doing online research for a cpu that will meet my htpc needs, I came across this: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-12/05/tongue-and-bum-controller I wonder what Valve is up to... hmmm...

Anyone know if something like the Dragonfly or D3 would work with an iPad or is the current draw too high for the port?

It's time.

Figured I'd start a thread devoted to the updated gizmo. Mine still has a shipping date of October 15. Anyone get theirs yet and any impressions thus far?

I know a few use more popular services (Blaze, etc.), but anyone have any comments on DrivePop? Not quite sure how they plan to keep the doors open with their unlimited plans, but the pricing seems right. http://dealmac.com/Drive-Pop-Unlimited-Lifetime-Online-Backup-from-50-/853785.html

I used to use Delicious, until without announcement they switched to a new system and I lost around 20% of my bookmarks. I've now mostly moved everything over to Google Bookmarks. The tagging isn't as seamless as it was on the old Delicious.

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…

Carmack is one of the smartest guys in the entire PC/gaming industries and I love hearing his keynotes. They are pretty technical, but very very informative. I have it on in the background while I'm working this morning and I'm really enjoying it. Link to part 1 (starts at 15:00)

They lost me at 720p, but maybe they won't lose you. Too much dosh for me as well, so I may have been looking for a way out. US$600 today only until 1600 BST, which I don't even know what that means, it may have already passed for all I know. IndieGogo link

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.

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…

Well my main rig has a failing motherboard. (tyan)... This thing (when I was bench testing it) I am looking at a new motherboard and CPU (I cannot give up the case). Going with the new Intel i7 3770S chip and an acer z77 board (along with SSD, etc)... Anyone out there running Ivy bridge chip yet? Almost ran to Frys tonight and bought a pile of stuff (in stock), but I am testing my resolve to take my time and just do it right (and save on tax and driving). I can do it, if it is not whisky, I swear. Cheers, Mikey