Sonu's n00bish PC questions

Discussion in 'Technology' started by Sonu, Jan 24, 2011.

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  1. Sonu\'s n00bish PC questions

    Bah I don't know. The back-up monitor on the HDMI port doesn't have any problems. I've switched the problem monitor to the second DVI port on the 5850 and it still happens. It only seems to happen after a sleep period of several hours. Normally I'd think it was the card but power cycling the monitor wont even bring up the monitor logo which makes me think the monitor is bad. But if I restart the computer the monitor works again. Very odd.
     
  2. Sonu\'s n00bish PC questions

    Did you test the cord?
     
  3. Sonu\'s n00bish PC questions

    Anyone here use SQL 2005 reporting services?

    The program I normally use to email reports can't do what I need it to in this instance as the table I am using is linked to the database as a view and it can't bring in the column name so I am forced to use reporting services. It can run the select but you have to specifically select the columns from a drop down when doing the insert and this doesn't work (they just don't show up unless it is a table).

    Anyway back to reporting services. I have it all set up fine and have the email working but when a report returns no results it still emails the empty table. Is there a way to tell it not to do this because I sure as hell can't find it anywhere. Its not a massive problem for me but I bet the people who are going to get these emails will kick up a fuss that they get emails everyday with empty tables. Is this just a limit in reporting services? It is a free extra with SQL server but I would have still expected it to be able to tell when it doesn't get any results and as a result not bother with the email.

    EDIT: Don't worry I think I managed to bodge it by using a if not exists(.......) raise error else select.......
     
  4. Sonu\'s n00bish PC questions

    Hey guys. I recorded something on my iphone (.mov file) and want to use it in a video I'm making using Windows Live Movie Maker (Windows7). The trouble is the sound on the video is far too quiet. I've been remedying this by using a program called Total Movie Converter to convert the video file (usually to .avi)) and increasing the gain. It worked fine until today when I tried to do it to a video file that was 11 minutes long. During playback everything as fine until around 7-8 minutes when the sound suddenly became out of sync with the video. Are there any solutions to this problem? A different program for increasing the volume perhaps? All I can find are programs that convert a video to another format and in the process increase the volume.
     
  5. Sonu\'s n00bish PC questions

    get a usb cap card and start making your videos the high quality way o.0
     
  6. Sonu\'s n00bish PC questions

    Do they work on consoles?
     
  7. Sonu\'s n00bish PC questions

    they actually have nothing to do with consoles. pdraggy was just suggesting as it's pretty much your only solution if you want to have the best quality capture from a console (or any other set top video device for that matter).

    you connect the capture card device directly to your pc/laptop via usb and then connect the console directly to the capture card via video cables.
     
  8. Sonu\'s n00bish PC questions

    yes I was suggesting that rather than framing it up for an iphone take. That way you don't see the added reflection from the screen, interlaced bars or whatever other unpleasantness is goin on. most likely you'll be stuck with a low res connection though (composite in the us, not sure about uk... scart isn't it??) due to copyright restrictions but still it's always TONS better than using a secondary device as a camcorder.

    I was just being a smart ass mostly, but you might want to look into picking one up. It's much easier once you set it up (and don't go internal, get a usb one, most internals are made to record tv so it's tape delayed with filters and stuff. cheaper external ones is what you want.)
     
  9. Sonu\'s n00bish PC questions

    Need a recommendation for free data recovery software. A friend is looking to recover pictures on a microSD.
     
  10. Sonu\'s n00bish PC questions

    recuva

    http://www.piriform.com/recuva
     
  11. A friend wants some help upgrading his PC to play The Old Republic. This is the only game he will be playing. His monitor is only 1440x900. This is a Gateway he upgraded slightly.

    His specs:
    Athlon X2 5000+
    Some crappy ECS motherboard
    3GB DDR2
    768mb DDR2 Geforce 9600 GSO (yuck)
    300W garbage brand PSU
    Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit

    I was probably going to recommend a 1GB Radeon HD 7750. It doesn't require an external power connector, only uses a single slot, and has a very modest TDP of only 55W. Performance is about on par with a GTX 550ti. He wants to do this as cheaply as possible and I figured that way he wouldn't have to upgrade his PSU since the new card would actually use less power than his old one. His monitor is low res, so I'm not really that worried about him being able to run the game well. Sound good or am I way off base?

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131461&Tpk=powercolor%207750
     
  12. 9600gso isn't that bad, it's actually pretty good for just one game (as far as resources it uses up) on a crappy (and probably 5 year+ old) 300w PSU. I'm not sure if I'd even go as high as 550ti! a 6570 should cover it without stressing that WILDLY inneficient PSU out. In fact I'd leave that 9600 in there if it does the trick.
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127611

    JMO, I'm just worried about that PSU running into the ground, I wouldn't worry about the video card, especially not 100 dollars worry. Are you sure he's got PCIe not AGP btw??

    here's a video of TOR running on a 6570 (low res, the comments do say a higher res is possible though, I'd estimate 30+fps at 1440x900), you don't wanna go 6450, it's too low for gaming of any kind. He may be better off putting that extra 50 bucks on RAM, especially on MMO's.

     
  13. It's the DDR2 version of the 9600 GSO, so yes, it's pretty awful. I know the ones with DDR3 were decent, but that's not what he has. He says games run like crap on it. And he definitely has PCI Express. This computer is from 2007. AGP was long gone by then. AGP was pretty well phased out in 2004.

    The Radeon 7750 uses the new 28nm manufacturing process and and has a TDP of just 55W. As I said before, it uses so little power, it doesn't even have a power connector. It would actually be much less stress on the crappy PSU than his current card as it only requires about half as much power as a 9600 GSO. Yet it performs about the same as a GTX 550ti. It seems like a really good match for his needs. I'm just wondering if there's anything that I'm missing. How are the driver's on the Radeon 7xxx series cards for instance? It's been a long time since I was on the Red Team.
     
  14. Yep, after a little more research it looks like the 7750 is his best bet. Unless he'd rather cheapen out and go 6570 at half as much :p not sure if it'll go at high settings @1440x900 though. It will do at least medium though.

    If things get slow for him, I'd have him look into upgrading his RAM (or moving to Win8 where resource management is a thing of beauty :)).

    AMD updates their drivers even more often than Nvidea! I guess you'd say it's quite good. AMD has a monthly numbering scheme in 3.12 is december 2003, 7.4 is april 2007 and so on. Its a shame that ATI was so notorious for their driver support, AMD has been great at it!

    On the notebook space, however, AMD lags behind Nv. Anything PhysX accelerated would of coarse be bad as well... but afaik TOR is just plain jane.
     
  15. AMD drivers are, in the whole grand scheme of things, fine. The only thing is that sometimes, there's some wierd graphics glitches in some games. Stuff that generally doesn't happen in the nvidia world. AMD eventually fixes them in an upcoming driver update. But if he plans on playing just a single game ever, this issue is negligible.
     
  16. I have a PC with Task Manager all jacked up. All it shows are applications. No task or performance options or tabs. Wuts up?
     
  17. Double click the border
     
  18. Worked. And that's why you get paid the big money.
     
  19. What's a good soundcard that actually works with Windows 7? Someone asked me and I have no idea what to tell them. It's been so long since I used a sound card. I run optical out to an amp. I think in general dedicated soundcards are no longer really a thing because onboard audio has gotten so much better, but this is for a somewhat older computer that has shitty onboard.

    Anyway, I'm still hearing nightmare stories about Creative's stuff. Like they still can't release a card that works properly with 7, which is pretty lame in 2012 because no enthusiasts who would be buying their cards are still running XP.