Posts by swiftowl7

Kate Harris6 said:Hey everyone, I just powered up my PC and the screen froze right at startup. Then, after a quick restart, everything went pitch black. No signal, nothing. I tried toggling the power off and on again, and while the fans are spinning like crazy, the screen stays dead. I even left it alone for a few hours hoping for a miracle, but when I finally tried again, it gave me the option to hit F1 for boot or F2 for defaults. I tried going into F2, but nope—just straight back to a black screen. It's completely stuck.
What should my next move be?

I’d suggest opening up the case and unplugging the cables from your hard drive; maybe give the contacts a quick spray with some Western Digital cleaner, plug everything back in, and see if that does the trick. If that doesn't work, try swapping in a different working hard drive just to test things out, and let us know how it goes.

Carl Fowler said:Look, I know you can just record the audio directly, but that’s not really my style—I’d much rather just grab the video as an MP3 file.

Is recording it actually giving you that much trouble???

It sounds like you're just downloading an .mp4 container and renaming it to .mp3... honestly, it's like trying to order a steak at a diner and expecting it to be a burger just because you asked for it that way.

If that's becoming such a massive headache for you, just download the .mp4 normally and then find a decent program to export the audio, kind of like using Adobe Audition.

Carl Fowler said:I stumbled upon this YouTube link featuring some really great relaxing music in a video format, and I'd love to just grab it as an MP3 file for my collection.
I’ve already messed around with about ten different YouTube converters, but none of them seem to work; they all just keep throwing some kind of random error message at me.
Does anyone happen to know a reliable way to download this?

Honestly, most audio software that comes bundled with your sound card or interface usually includes a built-in sound recorder, so you can just fire that up, hit record, and let the YouTube video play from start to finish to capture the audio directly without even needing to download anything.

If the recording ends up in a raw format like a .wav file, you'll just need to run it through a quick converter to turn it into an MP3.

That might be your easiest bet, especially since those online tools are being such a headache for you right now.

Arthur Thomas13 said:Thanks, I get that, but I was actually wondering if it’s possible for some internal electronics to fry right where the battery connects, just from leaving an old, dead battery sitting in there on the charger for too long?

It's definitely possible that the power switch (the crystal oscillator) on the motherboard has given out. It happens quite often, especially when you're running a laptop without a battery installed. I've actually seen that exact kind of failure happen firsthand while working on a machine once. You see similar weird glitches with those tiny micro-switches in tablets all the time, too.

When that specific switch—or maybe even a chip—starts acting up, you get these annoying issues where certain laptops, like an HP for example, will go into sleep mode and then just refuse to wake up unless you physically pull the battery out, along with all sorts of other nonsense.

Now, whether that switch fails because of some faulty circuitry inside an aging battery, a sudden surge through the switch itself, or just plain old wear and tear over time... honestly, I don't think anyone truly knows for sure.

In my experience, you really ought to swap out laptop batteries as soon as you notice a significant drop in capacity, rather than waiting until they completely die on you.

PS: The battery might actually be fine, but if I were you, I'd just run the laptop strictly off the AC adapter for the rest of its life and stop messing around with putting any more batteries in it.

Do you think you could try opening it up in a different browser and let me know if that does the trick?

cosmicdriver5 said:Hey there!
So, I'm still in high school, and my exposure to CS was basically just one year in a general track. We touched on Python, but honestly, it was just the bare bones—you know, loops, functions, lists, all that stuff. I’m really itching to actually build on this, and I'm not even strictly tied to Python if there's something better.
Does anyone have any advice on where to go from here? I know the internet is drowning in online courses, but is there anything in New York City—like an actual school or some kind of private academy—where I could go to learn programming properly? And I don't mean some random five-day bootcamp that leaves you more confused than when you started. Or, if you've found some killer online courses that actually work, please let me know!

I really want hands-on experience—give me a project to solve or something to build, because just staring at theory all day sounds incredibly boring.

Help a girl out?

If you’re looking to dive into PHP and MySQL using a real-world setup, and you happen to be in the Zanes area, shoot me a DM!

Ethan Harris52 said:thanks for the deep dive! 🙂

honestly, I was mostly freaking out because I’m pretty sure this sound wasn't there before, and now it’s popping up in those exact moments I mentioned. I don't know the first thing about electronics, so I figured it's better to ask than to wait for something to blow up. It’s not like it's deafening or anything—you really only hear it if you press your ear right against it or get super close—so it probably isn't dangerous. Thanks for calming me down though; I'll keep an eye on it. If it gets worse, I'll just take it to a repair shop or toss it in the trash.

I checked with an authorized service center about the battery price, and they sent over a quote for about $233. Felt like a total rip-off, so I'm just dealing with it as is. I am NOT dropping $233 on a battery...

You know, there's actually a specialized battery shop over on George's Avenue in Washington, D.C., where they can fix yours up for you. They did mine recently and it only cost me about $133, and honestly, the battery performs even better than it did when it was new...

Andrew Wilson77 said:Basically, I’ve laid out my issue right here in the title 😁

About 10 days ago, I upgraded from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro.
Ever since I got my software set up, working has been a total nightmare. Everything just stutters and lags... it takes me five minutes just to draw a simple line. It's become impossible to actually get anything done on this laptop.

I'm a 3D modeler by trade, so you probably get the idea of how heavy these programs are... I'm feeling pretty stuck and honestly don't know how to track down what's going wrong. Anyone have any ideas?

One thing worth mentioning: I have all my software installed on an external drive. I'm not entirely sure if that's why things are acting up, but I figured it was worth noting. If anyone has a clue why I'm dealing with these massive bugs and can barely function, please let me know. 🙂

First off, if you’re using a machine for professional work, my best advice is to keep it strictly for professional tasks on a rock-solid OS, and ideally, keep that computer away from the internet and those constant "updates." That’s truly the best tip I can give you. What kind of 3D software are you running—LightWave, Maya?

Try hitting Start and typing in... dxdiag > display > test. If that test comes back looking messy, you might want to try reinstalling DirectX.

Another thing is that sometimes the default settings within your graphics card get wiped out by a Windows update that automatically installs a driver, which often ends up being a downgrade. There isn't much I can do to help with that part.

Those kinds of Microsoft "update & new version" escapades are incredibly difficult to undo and they frequently cause serious headaches.

**
Just as an example, plenty of design and print jobs are still being handled on Windows 2000 NT today—which, in my opinion, was the best version of Windows ever made. On my end, I actually run eight different computers, each dedicated to its own specific professional purpose; I haven't moved past Windows XP on any of them, and only three of my machines even touch the internet. I've got two laptops for hanging out at the pub and one desktop for programming and browsing.

Those are the little industry secrets you need to know if you want to call yourself a professional. A workstation meant for 3D should be used for nothing but 3D and nothing else.

Back in the day, every version of Adobe Illustrator used to come bundled with its own dedicated "Stock Photos" disc. Usually, those discs were packed with all those little graphic elements you're hunting for right now.

I actually have two of them tucked away somewhere, though I honestly can't remember where I stashed them.

Honestly, tracking down those old physical discs is such a headache these days; you'd probably find it much faster to just pull up a search engine and type "refrigerator" into a clip art site.

But hey, if you’re feeling really tempted... you could always try doing it this way.

crimsonharbor313 said:The only local shop I know is over in a smaller town, but if you use a standard courier service, you could probably have it delivered to your place in Washington, D.C. by tomorrow.

You might also check out Elmark, though looking at their website right now, they seem to only carry the bulk versions without any fancy packaging.

Sorry about that, I totally missed this yesterday! Thanks so much for passing along that info too, I really appreciate it.

Jerry Robinson56 said:there's actually a battery specialist over on what used to be the longest street in Washington, D.C. (Djordjić's 😁), and they can probably get that puncture fixed for just a few bucks if I recall correctly $3.25,

👍 I know that guy personally; he works absolute magic with batteries. Thanks so much for the heads-up, I really appreciate it.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

ps: honestly, as a fan of all those little local tech shops, I'm surprised we don't have more places like that around here!

crimsonharbor313 said:or if he just feels like buying a new battery and soldering the wires himself, though I guess it really just comes down to how much effort he wants to put in.😁

Using Lemmings has a pretty high chance of causing the battery to explode. Especially if you're working with a fresh battery. And honestly, that (hypothetical) soldering would need to be incredibly micro-thin; you can't just do a quick "touch" or a single drop, you actually have to flow the solder. And flowing means a lot of heat, which is often way too much.

Basically, you'd have to spread the solder out and let it coat that little section of the battery, and while you're doing that, there's a good chance some acid might splash right into your eyes.

It's definitely worth remembering that you shouldn't play around with a solution like that.

**
The real headache is that some batteries fit into laptops with less than half a millimeter of clearance. For an HP Mini CQ10, for instance, you wouldn't believe how thick a CR2032 battery is even without any solder on it, let alone with a blob of solder attached.

The CR2016 that was originally inside is about half the thickness of a CR2032.

The smartest move would be to just go buy these batteries somewhere. But where?

Jerry Robinson56 said:well, you've got the local electronics shop downtown—Kronos.

Yeah, that was actually the only weirdly specific place I could think of where they might stock them. Though lately, it feels like those shops are losing their focus on things like this, kind of like how Best Buy has started feeling more like an HG outlet than what it used to be.

If you're looking specifically in Washington, D.C., you might actually find some that are brand new.

For example, things like the CR2016 or CR2032 but they come with that 2-pin connector attached which is what most people need for those older laptops with BIOS/CMOS setups. They usually come wrapped in a little plastic sleeve with two wires and a 2-pin plug ready to go.

I spent some time browsing Chipotega's site, but they only carry the bare ones or basic blister packs; I checked HG spot too and it's the same story, and I haven't seen anything useful on the Links website, plus Futura doesn't offer much better options either.

I managed to save this gorgeous HP-CQ10, but finding the right battery is proving to be a real headache since none of these places seem to stock them.

Steven King78 said:I really wanted to play this game with my little girl because it's actually quite educational and just really pretty, but I can't get it to load on my home computer—it just sits there with a spinning circle on a black screen. I've already tried using both Chrome and Internet Explorer 11, but it's the exact same result, and I don't even have an antivirus running.

The funny thing is, I can open it at work without any issues in Chrome, and my office computer is actually older than the one I have at home.

https://www.crazygames.com/game/wheely-8

Haha, that game is seriously awesome! 😁

Since it's a JavaScript game, I'm not entirely sure which version of Windows you're running, but if I had to guess, it might be related to a missing Service Pack.

For what it's worth, I'm currently browsing on Windows XP, 64-bit, with the latest Service Pack 3 installed, and I believe I've got the .NET Framework 4.0 updated as well.


You might want to try searching for a JRE compatible with your version of Windows right here.

brightbadger57 said:So I click on the network, punch in my password, hit connect... and then it just sits there saying Secured, not connected. There's this little ⚠️ icon hanging out on the Wi-Fi symbol and nothing works. Can't even get a webpage to load. It's basically dead...

Just thought I'd share, but I’ve run into this exact headache a few times before, and usually, one of these quick fixes does the trick.

1. Try the classic unplug and replug method with your modem—just pull the power cord, let it sit for a few minutes while it resets, and then plug it back in.

Or

2. Give your Windows 10 machine a quick restart.

Or even

3. Go into your settings, forget the Wi-Fi network entirely, and then try reconnecting from scratch by entering the password again.

Honestly, option 3 is probably your best bet.

If none of those work, then I'm officially out of ideas!

brightbadger57 said:So, I'm trying to get connected to the modem at my place here in the States... obviously. My laptop doesn't have those dedicated internet buttons on the keyboard, so I'll just drop some links to a few screenshots of all my options since it won't let me upload images directly here. Hope that's cool. If you guys could maybe walk me through what I actually need to tweak... I already tried setting the Country/Region option in the first picture, but it's still refusing to connect. Thanks for the help!

https://prnt.sc/o3y887

https://prnt.sc/o3y91d

https://prnt.sc/o3y96i

https://prnt.sc/o3yale

Did you try entering the password for that "house abroad" into your laptop settings, specifically for the second Wi-Fi network?🙂

Melissa Phillips4 said:I honestly think the issue is definitely rooted in the macOS installation itself. It’s pretty likely they installed some kind of unauthorized version or maybe just an outdated build, and now everything is acting up and causing all these headaches.
I ran into that exact same headache when I first set up my new rig, but once I just grabbed the installer directly from the official website, everything started running smoothly again.

It looks like macOS is acting up again... I'm pretty sure I caught a virus.

I'm really glad you brought that up, because honestly, those so-called "activated" versions of macOS floating around the internet can be incredibly sketchy. I’ve heard stories about people downloading them only to find out they’re packed with nasty malware designed to cause absolute chaos—things like identity theft or draining your bank accounts. It's definitely not worth the risk.

amberwalker10 said:I was just browsing the specs over at Saturn AT, and I noticed something a bit off—it says the graphics memory is DDR6, but when you actually look closer, it’s definitely DDR5.
I honestly can't tell if they’re allowed to be that dishonest, if that's even the right way to put it...

Maybe, though it’s probably not that big of a deal.

I actually caught that whole glitch on my phone, so I've got it recorded if anyone wants to take a look. Honestly, I’d feel so much better if I could just confirm it's some minor software hiccup rather than something majorly broken under the hood...

I’m really sorry to say this, but it looks like you're dealing with a major mechanical failure here, which is honestly such a bummer. It seems pretty clear that the hardware itself is shot, so you'll most likely have to go through the whole process of getting the device replaced entirely. It doesn't sound like anything crazy or out of the ordinary—just one of those classic factory defects that occasionally slips through the cracks—but it’s still a huge headache when it happens to you. On the bright side, this is exactly what having a warranty is for, so just lean on them to make it right!

fadedbear92 said:Hey everyone!

I’m looking for some good recommendations for an app or service that lets me send really large files, specifically things like movies. Right now, I've just been relying on Gmail.
I checked out what major providers like AT&T offer, but their cloud exchange options seem strictly for businesses, and Verizon doesn't really have anything similar. I haven't had a chance to ask Comcast yet, though.
I did stumble upon this one service called Gmail

Anyway, I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have! Thanks so much!🙏

Honestly, you shouldn't try sending stuff like that via email; it's just not built for it. Depending on how much data you're actually moving, you're probably better off either renting your own FTP server or just using a file-sharing site like MediaFire. With email, you should really just be sending links.

If you need something more heavy-duty for professional work, shoot me a DM.

wiredtiger2 said:Hey there. I'm looking to pick up a tablet strictly for watching movies while I'm at the gym. My main priorities are a decent battery that can handle about 6 hours of continuous playback and a solid display—by which I mean enough brightness so I'm not straining my eyes. Since this is just a dedicated movie machine for me, I need it to be budget-friendly, and it absolutely must have an SD card slot so I can expand the storage.

I used to have a 7-inch iPad Air, and honestly, it had two major headaches. Half the video formats wouldn't play on any software I tried, whether it was the built-in player, VLC Media Player, or anything else. Plus, the screen was just too small.

Do these newer laptops handle all those different file formats better?

For your specific (and pretty limited) needs, you really should look for a 10" tablet with a 4:3 aspect ratio, often called a PAL display. These models usually come equipped with much higher capacity batteries (around 7.4 volts and 8400mAh). Because of their physical design, they're actually one of the few types that can fit those larger batteries. They typically charge with 12V/2A chargers, which are basically twice as powerful as what you see on standard tablets.

Binge-watching movies for 6 hours straight with the brightness cranked up is a huge ask for almost any modern "tablet"—it's virtually impossible for widescreen models—so a 7.4V tablet is really the only way to meet your "modest" requirements.🙂

*****
I actually have a tablet just like that sitting here. It’s perfect if you just want to snap photos or watch videos; it won't handle heavy multi-layered games or complex apps, but it gets the job done. I could let you have it for 93 miles including the charger. It's got a crisp 4K resolution. It feels very similar to an iPad in terms of build, with a large screen and a white finish. It's practically new since it was recently returned to service, and I ended up buying it for myself because it looks so sharp, but I've barely used it lately and it's mostly just been sitting idle.

With it, you can:
- Use the full setup as-is.
- Take photos, record video, capture audio, and watch/listen to everything you record.
- Browse exclusively through Google Chrome.
- Check your emails through Google Chrome.
- Play some light, casual games.
- Everything works great, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, HDMI, and the SD card slot.

The tablet performs beautifully, except...
you won't be able to:
- Run high-end, 3D, or complex applications and games. (To be totally honest, one tiny pin on the graphics chip wasn't soldered perfectly during manufacturing, but in testing and actual use, it works perfectly fine. The apps show up and function, they might just feel a little jittery.)

Basically, it's a machine like this one, just mine happens to be white. Usually, these types of branded devices are hard to find for under 249 miles plus the charger.

Regarding your question about video formats: there isn't really a tablet out there that plays every single "PC-grade" format. A tablet isn't meant to be a total replacement for a traditional laptop or desktop when it comes to raw processing power. Your best bet is to just keep your video files in .mp4 format.

That Galaxy Tab you mentioned actually sounded pretty decent for its time if it was struggling with formats back then. Just remember, Android isn't Windows; it has its own set of limitations.

Anyway, no pressure, but if you truly only need it for the things you listed... my tablet is more than just a great choice, it's probably the only one that fits your "budget-friendly" criteria. If you aren't willing to go with something like this instead of a massive, expensive tablet, you might not find what you're looking for.

Jack Alvarez said:Does anyone happen to know why my hard drive is acting up like this? The BIOS isn't even recognizing it... I'm just trying to get in there and rescue some data.

I mean, I’ve opened and closed this thing plenty of times before without any issues, so I'm pretty sure the opening mechanism isn't what's causing the trouble here. It seems like something else is going on. Any idea what kind of motor actually burned out?

So, I’ve got this disk drive setup running on its own little motor, and I was just wondering—does the disk actually spin up the second you hit the power? When the casing is closed, you can definitely hear that distinct whirring sound, but since I've got it all laid out open right now, I feel like I should be able to see it happening too if I look closely enough.

It’s definitely possible that you're looking at a faulty drive controller—basically the logic board on the disk itself. If that's the case, you'll probably need to track down an identical logic board to act as a clone for the drive to get things moving again.

Just a quick heads-up: you almost never need to crack open a hard drive unless you’re working in a professional data recovery lab. Honestly, trying to do that kind of DIY repair at home is just asking for trouble—it’s pretty much pointless. The only time you might even consider it is if the needle gets stuck, but you'll hear that immediately anyway. Even then, there are actually ways to get the disk spinning again without ever having to break the seal on the casing.

I honestly feel like getting your hands, fingers, or even just breathing near the internal components of a hard drive is a recipe for disaster; there’s absolutely no upside to touching anything inside, and you’re really just asking for trouble, whether you're dealing with a standard drive or a specialized optical disc. I've seen it happen where the damage isn't even obvious right away, but instead, it lingers under the surface and starts causing headaches much later on, once you've finally closed the casing back up and thought everything was fine.

When you're working on a PS2, just because you've cracked open that hard drive doesn't mean it's suddenly garbage, provided you don't go out of your way to ruin it. In my experience, the biggest headaches usually come from unexpected interference like heavy radio frequency signals—think about how much cellular data is flying around us all day—or sudden shifts in the electromagnetic field. Then there's the classic issue of dust or moisture getting into the works. Even the tiny bit of static electricity clinging to your hands or your clothes can be a real nuisance if you aren't careful. Personally, I always make sure to open up my drives in a dedicated, clean workspace with specialized equipment to keep all those little variables totally under control.

So, I was thinking about it, and honestly, opening up a disk in just any old room feels like such a simple thing, though it can actually be quite an experience if you set it up right. I've run into a really massive headache here.It’s even more important if you're planning on closing that case back up and using it to store your most important gear. 🙂

I honestly can't wrap my head around why you even bothered trying to open it. Were you actually planning on intimidating him just by staring, or what?