Honestly, this speaker deal is pretty garbage. I don't even know what to say. You can't find a decent 2.1 system for more than $133 at this price point. I think Logitech has a model like this, but they're usually way pricier...
You'll end up in the "real" audio territory pretty fast because once you cross that $100 mark, you're playing in the big leagues. It feels stupid to blow a ton of cash on "gamer" speakers. That’s just my take, though—assuming you aren't buying them strictly for gaming or needing massive soundstages and crazy effects. 😬
IMHO; if these are just for casual gaming and listening to music, you're better off putting your money into something like this:
Try plugging the speakers into the front jack and the headphones into the back, then let me know how it goes... Honestly, I doubt it's an issue with your motherboard.
Edit:
It looks like some batches just have crappy electronics that start failing. And there's a massive chance those defective units end up in markets like ours 😬 unfortunately... Reach out to Genius, send them a few Links to similar complaints, and make sure they know this isn't your first rodeo. Demand a local replacement so you don't have to deal with shipping this junk halfway across the country...
Yeah, the LC-120 is a decent budget pick. Beyond just getting a good CPU cooler (and please, for the love of god, use some decent thermal paste!), you’ve got to think about GPU cooling and overall case airflow. That’s what actually helps the CPU cooler do its job—getting that hot air out of the case faster. I don't know what kind of case you're running, but usually, you want one 120mm fan in the front and one in the back. Front pulls fresh air in through the drives, and the rear exhausts the heat from the processor.
Besides dusting off the GPU, it’s also smart to blow the dust out of your power supply and make sure the PSU fan isn't acting up, especially if your power supply is mounted at the top of the case...
Honestly, you should probably do this in reverse. First, figure out your print volume. If you’re printing massive amounts or almost nothing at all, go with a laser printer. For high volume, it’s just cheaper per page since toner beats ink on cost. For low volume, you want to avoid the nightmare of clogged nozzles from disuse—otherwise, you're just throwing money down the 😬 hole.
Next, look at convenience. Where do you shop? Which local big-box stores or online retailers have decent third-party ink or toner available at a reasonable price? Only after that, and I mean 😬 at the very end, should you actually start looking for a printer that fits your budget.
But look, at the end of the day, most printers in that specific price bracket are pretty much identical in terms of quality and features. You'll find people praising one brand like it's holy writ and others trashing it, but don't let that get to you. That’s just personal preference and individual experience...
As for where to buy, the field is wide open. I don't have any major beef with any particular retailer or webshop, but you really ought to stick to established, mainstream stores—places that actually move more than one printer a year 😬
Regarding Extreme Digital, I personally wouldn't recommend them because they aren't actually based here. They're basically an outfit shipping goods from Canada, which can lead to headaches, even if nobody has reported any massive issues (at least not here) so far. Another thing is that if you need to use a warranty, you have to call them and ship stuff back to them, which is a total pain. Their prices aren't even significantly lower (if they are at all) enough to make it worth the hassle, at least in my book. Also, a three-year "warranty" isn't always what it sounds like. Products come with a manufacturer's warranty (which varies—6, 12, 24, 36 months...), and for printers, it's usually 12 months unless there's a special model or promotion. Anything beyond that isn't technically a standard warranty; it's more like insurance provided by an insurance company or a service provider under a separate contract. So, sure, it's a guarantee, but not under the same terms. We have similar setups here in the States too—just Google companies like Protecto or Corrigo.
These insurance-style warranties are a relatively new thing, so there isn't much feedback on them yet. It remains to be seen how they'll actually handle claims once they become common and someone actually needs to use them. I'd expect it'll be a lot easier to deal with a domestic insurance company than some company in Canada, right? We insure our cars, houses, and appliances here in America, not in Canada or somewhere else... But hey, that's just my two cents...
Look, skipping a CISS is a massive mistake. When you're printing in bulk, the difference in cost per page is night and day. It’s even better if you go with cheaper, third-party ink...
If you're constantly printing heavy loads and relying on those tiny original cartridges that barely hold a few milliliters, you're basically asking to go broke... 🤷
It all comes down to how critical the data actually is. Personally, I’ve never needed services like this, so I don't have any firsthand experience with these firms. Based on what I found online, Helpdesk is charging $233 plus tax for a logical failure, while Infolab is looking at about $125 plus tax.
That's the baseline I'm working from. Up until now, there hasn't been much chatter or many complaints about anyone in this group.
The diagnostic is free anyway, so there's no harm in checking with both of them—or maybe even someone else...
Exactly. And you can't do squat with it because Windows won't even recognize it for some reason. Don't touch those disk settings; you could lose everything in a heartbeat. Windows is going to prompt you to allocate that space or create a new partition—do that, and it's bye-bye to your data...
If the drive was working fine before, it might just be dead. It happens. Depending on how much this stuff matters to you, you've got a few options for recovery. On an external drive, it could be anything from the electronic circuitry or the power supply to the actual disk itself. If the drive is actually okay, try pulling it out of the enclosure and plugging the bare drive directly into a computer. That'll work if the issue was just the housing electronics or the power adapter.
If the drive is totally fried, you can mess around with various data recovery software programs, which sometimes manage to salvage at least a piece of the puzzle. But, if your data is genuinely critical, the smartest move is to take the drive straight to a professional and pay someone to pull the data for you. Prices aren't as astronomical as they were a few years back, so just weigh the cost against how much those files are worth to you.
There are a few data recovery firms in New York City; check their rates and see who offers free diagnostics. Let the pros figure out what's wrong with the drive, for example:
Just a heads up, there’s really no point in buying Microsoft faster than 1600 MHz. If you try to push 1866 or 2133 and actually manage to hit those speeds, you're going to end up with only two slots working. Check your motherboard specs first.
It’s possible you’ve got a dead USB port, or maybe you just haven't installed all the right motherboard, chipset, or USB drivers yet. Another thing—check if there's a thumb drive, an external hard drive, or even an SD card plugged in during bootup. Or, you might have a non-bootable DVD sitting in the drive while your BIOS is set to prioritize optical drives. 🤷
When that "unrecognized USB device" error pops up, what does Device Manager actually show? Are you seeing any yellow exclamation marks?
Jessica Hayes said:Agreed, though I think it has 640 KB conventional plus 3 MB of expansion. That makes 4 MB total. Maybe Win 3.1 or OS/2 Warp, or even Win95 (I was squinting, but looking closer, it definitely says Win95).
You could probably sell it 🙂; a buddy of mine has something similar. - And man, that DX4 75 is a beast. We barely notice speed differences these days, but back then, choosing between a 386 SX and a 386 DX (or a 486 SX vs a 486 DX) was like night and day, remember? 🙂
Yeah, you're right... Guess there are still a few of us left who remember those days. 😬 Though if I'm being honest, I remember stuff even earlier 😍 back when machines were absolute beasts...
Susan Rivera73 said:A little comparison with how things look by today's standards
View on imgur I suspect the issue won't be solved—it’s likely that dying CMOS battery on the motherboard. Every single time I power this thing up or shut it down, the BIOS resets itself back to January 1st, 1970. I go through the trouble of manually updating it to today's date, but the second it loses juice, it just reverts right back to being stuck in the past.
The link isn't working, I can't see anything. And are you even sure there's anything to boot from? Is there a hard drive actually visible?
When you're dealing with external drives or thumb drives, things can get messy fast due to the mix of USB protocols, internal components, or even just how much power the USB port actually puts out.
You didn't mention which laptop you're using or which specific port you're plugging into. You really ought to be using a USB3 port, assuming the drive itself is USB3. The cable needs to be USB3 too—these headaches pop up all the time when people try to use old USB2 or USB1.1 cables.
Try plugging the drive into a desktop PC that has a USB3 port along with a proper USB3 cable. That’s the only way to tell if the drive and the cable are actually working. And please, stop messing around in Computer Management if you don't know what you're doing; you could wipe your data permanently. Also, ignore any pop-ups saying the drive needs to be formatted—that's a trap that'll kill your files, usually because Windows just can't recognize the media properly. Take the drive to someone who actually knows their stuff, but seriously, find someone competent, not some guy who's just going to screw it up even more...
The only thing you can really test on your end is trying a different USB port or checking the properties of your USB ports. Laptops often throttle power to save battery, which causes issues. If that's happening, low-power stuff like thumb drives will work fine, while larger drives that crave more juice will just fail.
Even if the drive is actually dead (which I doubt), there's a way to recover data if it's critical. It costs money, but it's worth it if the info is vital. If you go that route, stop poking at the drive so you don't make a bad situation worse. But again, I don't think that's your problem here.
A beautiful piece of history. A solid quarter-century old. 😬
It’s worth something to collectors. Maybe. Because its actual utility is basically zero. Actually, it can't even be less than zero, but by today's standards, getting this hardware to do anything useful is nearly impossible unless you track down a 1.44" floppy with Windows 95 or some Unix/Xenix distribution (if I recall correctly, that was right around when Thorvalds was studying and just released the first Linux kernel)...
The CMOS battery might be dead, just like the main battery, but the hardware recognition probably works fine, and here is what it shows:
- You've got a sweet Intel 486 DX4 processor running at a whopping 75 MHz (that's not a typo 😬) - You have a grand total of 1 MB of memory (the 640 KB that DOS could address, plus the rest of the "extended" memory up to 1 MB that could be used as a RAM disk 😍 - You have one 1.44" floppy disk drive - There is no internal hard drive.
You could technically add a hard drive or upgrade the specs (well, you could back then—today, good luck finding working parts), but in those days, that stuff was incredibly expensive, so they shipped them in minimal configurations to keep the price down.
Those were the days when software was written differently and you could actually get things done on a setup like this. You boot up Windows, swap out a floppy, pop in the one with your app and data, and you're good to go...
So—zero points. Unless you find some collector.
Otherwise, Texas Instruments is one of the true pioneers in electronics; they had the first programmable calculators and back in the 70s, they were an essential player alongside companies like Apple, Tandy/Radio Shack, Commodore, Atari, IBM PC, and Compaq....
The Extens name lived on because TI pulled out of the computer market in 1997 and sold their division to Acer, who kept developing it and kept the Extens name alive...
Don't hold your breath looking for some extra connector on those computer speakers... Honestly, you don't even need one. It's not like you're running high-end gear where digital precision actually matters, especially when you're stuck with an onboard sound card where everything is crammed onto a single cheap chip 😬 That would only matter if you were rocking a beastly dedicated sound card paired with actual studio monitors, not just "computer speakers"...
Look, 2x10W is already a step up. Having three drivers, more volume, and a heavier cabinet—all of that improves the perceived sound quality and moves more air in the room. It’s definitely an upgrade and worth the extra couple of bucks...
feraljackal21 said:Or should I just head back to the land of milk and honey where I first found this forum??
Honestly, it's probably the best you'll find at this price point. Just don't expect much from the rated wattage or driver size—they aren't going to fill a whole living room with sound.
I wouldn't count on staying under 5% just by printing text. That 5% figure is being generous anyway, considering margins, spacing, and the fact that you're often working in draft mode.
I'm not sure which printers ship with full toner cartridges and which ones just include those pathetic starter toners that last for a few hundred pages. Check the product descriptions, but most of them come with starters, so it’s smart to budget for a full set of new toners right when you buy the printer.
Look, if you're planning on heavy-duty printing over the long haul, you shouldn't pick a printer until you've actually done your homework and researched the hell out of it.
You need to find a local business or an online toner shop near you where you can grab decent, cheap third-party toners. YouTube is actually pretty helpful for finding tutorials on how to trick the printer or reset chips, and eBay is always a good bet for finding replacement ink and toner... basically everything.
Higher speed is nice, but what really matters is the cost per page. You can't just look at the price of the toner and paper; you have to factor in the other parts that need periodic replacement. For example, the OKIs (which are essentially from the same family and use the same engine—I didn't bother digging into the differences between these two specific models) require:
- replacing the color image drums every 20,000 prints for each color and every 30,000 for black - replacing the fuser unit every 60,000 prints - replacing the transfer belt every 60,000 prints
And all of that counts as regular maintenance. You should check prices with local vendors or authorized service centers, and don't forget the labor costs. If you're printing a lot, having a technician swing by once or twice a month can become a massive line item in your budget.
Also, pay attention to the duty cycle. For the C301-cu, the max is 30,000 pages a month, but (get this!) the *recommended* duty cycle is only 2,000 pages a month. Warranty is another big deal; check how long it lasts, and keep in mind that nobody is going to honor your warranty if you blow past that recommended duty cycle—the printer keeps track of that stuff. The toner capacity is 1,500 pages, with black hitting 2,200, but the starters included with the machine usually only do about 750 pages (at least that's the standard in the US, I couldn't find a specific local number).
Anything else? Yeah, power consumption. If you're running this thing for hours, the electricity bill can jump unexpectedly. Even though the 80W idle draw isn't bad, the typical usage is 480W, and the peak of 1170W is getting into the territory of a small water heater.😬
Like I said, the ES is part of the same family, so the specs probably won't be much different.
Here’s how things look for the Samsung CLP-360:
The Samsung is slower (drastically slower for color!) and takes way longer to spit out the first page. It also has manual duplexing, meaning you have to flip the paper yourself. It's easier to handle than the OKI, though, and the rated power draw is 290W. If these differences seem wild, it’s because of the tech—OKI uses LED laser, while Samsung uses a traditional laser beam. Standard toner capacity is 1,000 pages, with black at 1,500. The starter kit usually covers 500 color pages and 700 black. The max monthly duty cycle is 20,000. Drums need changing every 4,000 prints for color and 16,000 for black. Beyond the drums, you've got the fuser, ITB belt, transfer roller, waste toner bottle, and the pickup roller. All of that costs money, which you should verify, but if your livelihood depends on printing, you'll eventually learn some tricks—like ordering toner or refill kits off eBay—or whatever else you can glean from offers that don't strictly follow the manufacturer's official maintenance schedule.
As you can see, the differences in some of these items are huge, so you could easily end up pulling your hair out the very first time a technician shows up. There, I've given you enough material to study and more headaches to deal with, beyond just the stuff that caught your eye. I didn't mention the basic features since they're clearly listed everywhere, so you likely already saw them when you bought it.
This is about as close as you're ever going to get:
It's got a decent i3 processor. But you'll have to choose: either skip the SSD or ditch the macOS. Even the cheapest laptops with an i5 are already pushing $3,000, and that's without an SSD or macOS included...