The Computer Thread

Have you tried getting a signal booster / repeater?

What has changed?

Normaly things don't just go to shit unless something has changed.

Don't just think about the router, but any thing that would have been moved or placed between the router and where you use the computer.

Your cable between the router and your wall socket (assuming you have one of those) could be damaged. It's one of the prime reasons for routers failing to hook up to the internet at all.

I had one quit working when a sheilded HDMI cable slid down and landed next to it.

It was honestly pretty hilarious since I did not think something so.... well... would make a router quit working.

Nothing changed as far as I know. It was working just fine two weeks ago and then everything went to shit.

I'm starting to think that it might be the network itself, because my parents wifi is fine while the one that my brother use is being unstable.

Sometimes, neither the wifi or the computers are set to broadcast at 100%. Increasing the strength may temporarily fix the problems.

Also, there is a difference between disconnecting from the wifi and disconnecting from the internet. Each will have different causes.

So I'm looking into getting a new laptop and am looking at potentially getting an Asus one. I have friends who've used their laptops and other products, but I don't have any personal experience with the brand. Anyone have an opinion to share?

edited 4th Jun '16 2:37:13 PM by strawberryflavored

I had a crap 400$ laptop from Asus before cheap 400$ laptops were a thing. It was solid state and didn't work too well. They make brilliant cheap monitors, though.

What models are you looking at in particular?

My G551 is a pretty decent performer in games and other things, although that comes at the cost of battery life and weight. The wireless antenna it shipped with was crap, though. Hard disk is OK, I guess, but it could be better. I am considering whether to get a bigger and faster HDD, an SSD or an SSHD drive as an upgrade once the warranty runs out (there is a dedicated SSD slot, but it's deliberately gimped to limit the maximum size. And it's supposed to be installed before sale).

This the place I can go to get help with my computer problems, correct?

One of several.

So, I've been having a bit of trouble with my computer's microphone lately. As of recently, it doesn't exist. Like, whenever I try to record my voice, it refuses to, saying that there is no recording device installed. I don't understand what's going on, and that's why I have turned to here. Could anyone please help me with this?

Thanks in advance!

My old laptop had cooling problems and at one point the motherboard somehow melted such that it lost its hardware connection to the internal wifi adapter and decided it didn't have a wifi adapter installed, and continued to insist that when I reinstalled the driver.

I backed the Kickstarter for CHIP, the stupidly cheap computer, and they're about to ship me mine. I intend to use it to build a media center PC, so I'm falling in all the old time sink research topics. Mainly "why has nobody implemented the desktop interface I want, like at all?"

It seems really simple. I want a desktop interface with customizable pages of grids of app icons, like every modern mobile OS has. I want to navigate between those icons with arrow keys, like a DVD menu. I don't want an application that runs on top of the DE, because I've used MythTV, and every time it crashed I'd have to get up and go get the mouse. All the different media modes are different applications anyway, so why not launch them directly from the desktop?

It'd also be nice to be able to have that as an overlay that can pop up over my media, but I'd be okay with that being another program that just mirrors the layout of the desktop.

LinuxMCE looks promising, but I'm not sure I could clear out all the irrelevant home automation junk it includes and fully customize my layout. Every time I go looking into customizing menus in Linux-based media programs, I run into coding and scripting. MythTV uses XML, which I can kind of understand, but MCE uses MySQL, which is nonsense to me, and all of the example skins I can pull up look dreadful since their aesthetics have to be coded.

I have a lot of experience designing DVD and Bluray menus in Adobe Encore, and I'd love to be able to use a similar tool for a media center menu, but it doesn't exist so now we're talking about building a completely new utility and I'm not a developer.

Other headaches: everybody wants integrated Netflix streaming but the only options on Linux right now are Chrome (breaks the settop paradigm) or a buggy heap of Windows compatibility layers.

I'd also really like to be able to use Youtube with the multidevice control/playlist thing you get on Cast and other official Youtube apps. Right now what's really working for me is to start a Youtube cast on my desktop, throw a bunch of videos in the play queue, and then use the mobile app to control playback and modify the queue. I know you can connect your mobile app to console- and settop-based apps as well.

edited 6th Jun '16 7:41:57 PM by TParadox

• What kind of Microphone is it (USB, jack, internal)?
• Have you tried re-plugging it? Does Windows attempt to search for drivers or throw an exception if you do so? If it's USB, try a different slot.
• Have you checked if the Microphone is listed in your Device Manager and activated?

It's internal, and it isn't listed in Device Manager whatsoever.

Select 'show hidden devices' under view.

Alternatively, go to playback devices. Right click both 'show disabled devices' and 'show disconnected devices'.

edited 7th Jun '16 6:17:34 AM by war877

I already tried the first method, and with the second method, I'm not given an option to "show disabled devices," which is what has been confusing me the most.

edited 7th Jun '16 6:20:15 AM by golgothasArisen

Oops, I meant navigate to recording devices. Right click the speaker symbol.

Still nothing.

That is very odd. You should at least see a line in after clicking 'show disconnected devices'. Which you get by right clicking.

There is no "show disconnected devices" button whatsoever.

Okay, something different then. Back in Device Manager, select scan for hardware changes by right clicking the top level item.

Also run the sound troubleshooter.

edited 7th Jun '16 6:43:37 AM by war877

Okay, I've done that, and a Realtek microphone showed up.

Already tried the troubleshooter. It came up empty.

edited 7th Jun '16 6:44:58 AM by golgothasArisen

Is the Realtek microphone the correct one? Does it work now or is it still not recording?

I believe it's the correct one. I mean, there's no reason for it not to be.

And I only scanned for hardware changes, so no it's still not installed.