'No Stupid Questions' (NSQ) Internet & Technology Edition

[A Grey Cat]

You've just got to wrap the entire thing in glad-wrap to keep it dust free.

But seriously, taking apart the xbone is supposedly a fairly simple operation, if you really want to go that far. I'd also recommend something like a painting brush to dislodge dust that can't be removed via canned air. I recently come up against that issue with my laptop cooler. Apparently some brushes can be conductive (I don't know what they've made of, but I doubt it.), so make sure you keep it unplugged for a while and press the power button a few times while unplugged before you try.

It's probably fucked though, as there is little chance it's going to suffer thermal issues booting

Awww and I'm really gonna miss it if I have to replace it not only do I have a lot of downloads on the thing but there's a sentimental attachment to that Xbox one. It was a gift to myself bought with the first tax refund I ever earned

Anyways nothing else I can do now just wait.... If worse comes to worse I'll have to replace the consoles (Xbox one and ps3] transfer whatever content on them I can to new consoles or re-download them by logging back into my old accounts better save my usernames and passwords

 

[mandatorylurk]

Is there a reason Windows Media Player on Windows 10 has choppiness on some videos but VLC media player will play the file smoothly?

I thought it was just bad videos being downloaded (usually HLS stuff) but after using VLC it seems to be more with WMP.

 

[Vecr]

Is there a reason Windows Media Player on Windows 10 has choppiness on some videos but VLC media player will play the file smoothly?

I thought it was just bad videos being downloaded (usually HLS stuff) but after using VLC it seems to be more with WMP.

VLC is probably just better programmed software. I'm not really sure if there's one simple reason.

 

[Full Race Replay]

Is there a reason Windows Media Player on Windows 10 has choppiness on some videos but VLC media player will play the file smoothly?

I thought it was just bad videos being downloaded (usually HLS stuff) but after using VLC it seems to be more with WMP.

Maybe it depends if each program are using different decoders and one is better than the other. In addition to being better coded, it might be more lightweight than wmp if wmp is as bloated as windows 10 in general. Incase you have it, does ffplay work similarly well?

 

[mandatorylurk]

I don't have ffplay, but the bloat of Windows is what I was thinking, just wanted it somewhat confirmed. There's no bottleneck on any of my computer parts (2700x, 580 8gb, nvme, 32gb 2666 ram), I'll just switch VLC to my default video player.

 

[Boris Blank's glass eye]

I don't have ffplay, but the bloat of Windows is what I was thinking, just wanted it somewhat confirmed. There's no bottleneck on any of my computer parts (2700x, 580 8gb, nvme, 32gb 2666 ram), I'll just switch VLC to my default video player.

WMP is shitty bloatware with shitty CODECs, that's all. Use VLC or better yet K-Lite Codec Pack Mega with MPC-HC.

 

[Jones McCann]

Is there a reason Windows Media Player on Windows 10 has choppiness on some videos but VLC media player will play the file smoothly?

I thought it was just bad videos being downloaded (usually HLS stuff) but after using VLC it seems to be more with WMP.

It's a Microsoft product, thats all the explanation required to anyone who uses their software enough.

 

[artilleryfroth]

I’m on the verge of getting a Facebook account banned that I had actually used to stay in contact with friends. I had shared photos on there that I no longer have access to anywhere else. Is there an easy way to save all the photos from an FB account to one of my devices (I have PC and Apple devices available)?

 

[Dork Of Ages]

I’m on the verge of getting a Facebook account banned that I had actually used to stay in contact with friends. I had shared photos on there that I no longer have access to anywhere else. Is there an easy way to save all the photos from an FB account to one of my devices (I have PC and Apple devices available)?

If you can still login to your account, I am pretty sure that you can go to your account settings and choose "Transfer a Copy of Your Photos or Videos" (which for some reason only shows third party file storage services to choose from instead of a local download) or "Download Your Information" (which seems to allow local downloads). Unless FB limits your account options if you are in the process of being banned? Otherwise, either search for a tool that extracts profile data (which would probably be only available for public posts and media) or, if you have shared photos to your friends, ask them to download and send those to you.

I started having this weird issue a little while back with color display on my computer, which can get worse depending on what I am putting on display. Certain shades of blue and green either have this godawful purple glitch thing or a oversaturated green. This started happening when I meant to turn off my screen (which you need to hold the button for a few seconds) but I didnt hold it right and then that activates a built-in ratio correction thing. My monitor is an old VGA model of an AOC 1080p E2270SW 21.5" which I have plugged to the HDMI port of my GPU using a HDMI-to-VGA converter. So far, this gets worse if I have a video or image showing lots of blue or green, but all other colors seem to be displaying normally. I would assume this is a hardware issue (especially with the converter thing between the monitor and GPU) that I plan to upgrade anyway when I have money, but it disappears if I boot W10 in safe mode, so it could also be a software/driver issue, but I doubt it has something to do with drivers since I have those updated and 3D games open just fine (unless the visuals have a specific blue or green color that fucks it up), so I am not really sure what's going on. The best I can currently do is lower the gamma way down using Windows color calibration (the monitor only has the power button) so it wouldn't fuck some of my desktop blue or green icons right away when I power on the computer.

Attached are screenshots and photo/video captures showing the worst examples. At the very least, it should appear to you guys the fucked up visuals of the photo/video captures taken from my mobile.

My specs:

CPU: i7-8700k, currently overclocked to an average of 4.5 GHz
GPU: XFX R7 260X 2 GB
Mobo: ASUS Prime Z390-A
SSD: SanDisk SSD Plus 480GB
HDD: 1 TB Seagate Barracuda
OS: Windows 10 Pro 1909

No clue what's the model of the HDMI-to-VGA converter, but it's probably a cheap knockoff one since my dad bought it for me.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

I’m on the verge of getting a Facebook account banned that I had actually used to stay in contact with friends. I had shared photos on there that I no longer have access to anywhere else. Is there an easy way to save all the photos from an FB account to one of my devices (I have PC and Apple devices available)?

Jdownloader2 could probably rip everything to your PC but it will be a pain in the ass to set up. Or do what the guy below said, register a OneDrive account or whatever it is they back things up to and download it from there.

I started having this weird issue a little while back with color display on my computer, which can get worse depending on what I am putting on display. Certain shades of blue and green either have this godawful purple glitch thing or a oversaturated green. This started happening when I meant to turn off my screen (which you need to hold the button for a few seconds) but I didnt hold it right and then that activates a built-in ratio correction thing. My monitor is an old VGA model of an AOC 1080p E2270SW 21.5" which I have plugged to the HDMI port of my GPU using a HDMI-to-VGA converter. So far, this gets worse if I have a video or image showing lots of blue or green, but all other colors seem to be displaying normally. I would assume this is a hardware issue (especially with the converter thing between the monitor and GPU) that I plan to upgrade anyway when I have money, but it disappears if I boot W10 in safe mode, so it could also be a software/driver issue, but I doubt it has something to do with drivers since I have those updated and 3D games open just fine (unless the visuals have a specific blue or green color that fucks it up), so I am not really sure what's going on. The best I can currently do is lower the gamma way down using Windows color calibration (the monitor only has the power button) so it wouldn't fuck some of my desktop blue or green icons right away when I power on the computer.

Attached are screenshots and photo/video captures showing the worst examples. At the very least, it should appear to you guys the fucked up visuals of the photo/video captures taken from my mobile.

My specs:

CPU: i7-8700k, currently overclocked to an average of 4.5 GHz
GPU: XFX R7 260X 2 GB
Mobo: ASUS Prime Z390-A
SSD: SanDisk SSD Plus 480GB
HDD: 1 TB Seagate Barracuda
OS: Windows 10 Pro 1909

No clue what's the model of the HDMI-to-VGA converter, but it's probably a cheap knockoff one since my dad bought it for me.

Try jiggling the cable. When you fumbled turning off the monitor you might have loosened something a tiny bit. Alternatively go into the OSD->tools and reset it to factory settings.

Here's the manual which could be helpful.

https://aocmonitorap.com/upload_files/manual/E970SWN/English.pdf

 

[Dork Of Ages]

Jdownloader2 could probably rip everything to your PC but it will be a pain in the ass to set up. Or do what the guy below said, register a OneDrive account or whatever it is they back things up to and download it from there.

Try jiggling the cable. When you fumbled turning off the monitor you might have loosened something a tiny bit. Alternatively go into the OSD->tools and reset it to factory settings.

Here's the manual which could be helpful.

https://aocmonitorap.com/upload_files/manual/E970SWN/English.pdf

Hey, thanks for the response. I tried fully both deataching and reataching the VGA converter connector and the monitor's VGA connector but that didn't do anything. The next step is do a full reboot of the PC and doing that again, but I doubt it will do anything other than waste my time. And how exactly can I access OSD options? The only button on the monitor is the power button, and I don't think this model ever had an external remote controller (since the manual you linked does not mention one) that I could use.

My next best shot is reinstalling this i-Menu software again (I had it when I had my first build installed by my dad years ago, which was probably included in the driver CD, but I doubt I have that now). Either that or buy new VGA connectors/HDMI-to-VGA converter, or a DVI one.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Hey, thanks for the response. I tried fully both deataching and reataching the VGA converter connector and the monitor's VGA connector but that didn't do anything. The next step is do a full reboot of the PC and doing that again, but I doubt it will do anything other than waste my time. And how exactly can I access OSD options? The only button on the monitor is the power button, and I don't think this model ever had an external remote controller (since the manual you linked does not mention one) that I could use.

My next best shot is reinstalling this i-Menu software again (I had it when I had my first build installed by my dad years ago, which was probably included in the driver CD, but I doubt I have that now). Either that or buy new VGA connectors/HDMI-to-VGA converter, or a DVI one.

There aren't any sneaky buttons hidden under the bezel or even behind the bezel?

 

[Road Work Ahead]

I started having this weird issue a little while back with color display on my computer, which can get worse depending on what I am putting on display. Certain shades of blue and green either have this godawful purple glitch thing or a oversaturated green. This started happening when I meant to turn off my screen (which you need to hold the button for a few seconds) but I didn't hold it right and then that activates a built-in ratio correction thing. My monitor is an old VGA model of an AOC 1080p E2270SW 21.5" which I have plugged to the HDMI port of my GPU using a HDMI-to-VGA converter. So far, this gets worse if I have a video or image showing lots of blue or green, but all other colors seem to be displaying normally. I would assume this is a hardware issue (especially with the converter thing between the monitor and GPU) that I plan to upgrade anyway when I have money, but it disappears if I boot W10 in safe mode, so it could also be a software/driver issue, but I doubt it has something to do with drivers since I have those updated and 3D games open just fine (unless the visuals have a specific blue or green color that fucks it up), so I am not really sure what's going on. The best I can currently do is lower the gamma way down using Windows color calibration (the monitor only has the power button) so it wouldn't fuck some of my desktop blue or green icons right away when I power on the computer.

Attached are screenshots and photo/video captures showing the worst examples. At the very least, it should appear to you guys the fucked up visuals of the photo/video captures taken from my mobile.

My specs:

CPU: i7-8700k, currently overclocked to an average of 4.5 GHz
GPU: XFX R7 260X 2 GB
Mobo: ASUS Prime Z390-A
SSD: SanDisk SSD Plus 480GB
HDD: 1 TB Seagate Barracuda
OS: Windows 10 Pro 1909

No clue what's the model of the HDMI-to-VGA converter, but it's probably a cheap knockoff one since my dad bought it for me.

You could try completely uninstalling your video card drivers using DDU and reinstalling. It might not work but it's pretty easy.

 

[melty]

Can anyone give me the real rundown on ways to see who viewed your social media profile, or that other people can tell if you viewed them?

I'm pretty sure most social media platforms do not provide this information but I will occasionally come across people claiming they know who viewed them. Are they just bullshitting? Where are they getting that from?

The only one I can think of that shows who viewed your profile is linkedin, where that's openly a feature that they charge a fee for. I don't know of any modern platforms that allow tracking pixels. I thought I heard you can view who saw your Instagram stories but I'm not sure that's true. People claim there's a Facebook method, but I have my doubts.

I don't spend a lot of time on any of this garbage anyway and 99% of it is on a throwaway account, but I'm pretty curious where some of these claims come from.

 

[Dork Of Ages]

There aren't any sneaky buttons hidden under the bezel or even behind the bezel?

Nope, touching every part of the monitor doesn't reveal any buttons or anything, other than the power one. Also, I installed i-Menu but the program doesn't even let me click any of the actual options to change anything or to reset the monitor to factory settings

You could try completely uninstalling your video card drivers using DDU and reinstalling. It might not work but it's pretty easy.

I'd hope that'd fix this, but this happened even before I updated drivers. I am not sure if it might help other than being another hassle. Anyway, thanks for the replies guys. I can mostly live with this for now until I can upgrade the monitor and the GPU. If it becomes a real pet peeve, I will probably ask my dad for help, or buy new connectors or a converter.

 

[longtimelurkerfirsttimepo]

Nope, touching every part of the monitor doesn't reveal any buttons or anything, other than the power one. Also, I installed i-Menu but the program doesn't even let me click any of the actual options to change anything or to reset the monitor to factory settings

I'd hope that'd fix this, but this happened even before I updated drivers. I am not sure if it might help other than being another hassle. Anyway, thanks for the replies guys. I can mostly live with this for now until I can upgrade the monitor and the GPU. If it becomes a real pet peeve, I will probably ask my dad for help, or buy new connectors or a converter.

It could be a bit colour issue caused by your computer not realising the shiny HDMI cable is gimped by the rusty VGA adaptor and can't tell what the monitor can support. I suspect that model only supports 6 bit depth.

Go into display settings -> scroll down to advanced display settings (You should see here what bit depth the monitor is set to here) -> select your monitor and hit "display adaptor properties" -> you should see "list all modes". Try to change some of those options to 24 bit and see what happens. Also see of you can find color options in your Radeon drivers. You want to try 6 bit depth/ 24 bit colour options. I recommend this as safe mode tends to do that to prevent driver/monitor issues.

That's a horrid monitor if it's anything like the 2016/2015 model by the way, get something that you can read black text on a white background and your eyestrain will thank you. I made the same mistake and didn't realise the error of my ways until I got something better.

 

[Dork Of Ages]

It could be a bit colour issue caused by your computer not realising the shiny HDMI cable is gimped by the rusty VGA adaptor and can't tell what the monitor can support. I suspect that model only supports 6 bit depth.

Go into display settings -> scroll down to advanced display settings (You should see here what bit depth the monitor is set to here) -> select your monitor and hit "display adaptor properties" -> you should see "list all modes". Try to change some of those options to 24 bit and see what happens. Also see of you can find color options in your Radeon drivers. You want to try 6 bit depth/ 24 bit colour options. I recommend this as safe mode tends to do that to prevent driver/monitor issues.

That's a horrid monitor if it's anything like the 2016/2015 model by the way, get something that you can read black text on a white background and your eyestrain will thank you. I made the same mistake and didn't realise the error of my ways until I got something better.

Actually, Windows seems to list my monitor's bit depth as 8 bit depth and my only color options show 32 bit colours and...

Well, I opened AMD Radeon Software (didn't realize it at first that it had color changing options, I thought I could only work with color calibration or with that stupid i-Menu thing, which Radeon Software probably overrides by default) to try to change stuff and... well... simply opening the software up fucking fixed it, lol. I previously kept it disabled a while back because for some gay reason it kept spiking the CPU usage and I have an annoyingly noisy cooler when that happens. Which is really weird that this started happening, because the software starts up automatically when booting Windows up and then I'd manually close it down. So I guess my real problem is dealing with the occasional annoying fan noise (and take a stroll to the BIOS to manually change rotation speeds again) until I can upgrade the cooler as well (which I already thought of, but not because of all this before)!

I am glad I posted my problem here. I wouldn't have realized such a stupidly easy fix by myself without an input from you guys. So thank you very much @Smaug's Smokey Hole, @Road Work Ahead and @longtimelurkerfirsttimepo!

 

[pitawilson]

I’m on the verge of getting a Facebook account banned that I had actually used to stay in contact with friends. I had shared photos on there that I no longer have access to anywhere else. Is there an easy way to save all the photos from an FB account to one of my devices (I have PC and Apple devices available)?

I genuinely forgot facebook existed for a good few months until i saw this post. oh how i miss that already.

 

[Boris Blank's glass eye]

I need help.
I detected a strange, unpleasant noise coming from my comp, and narrowed it down to the PSU - disconnecting any of the case fans didn't do anything and neither did starting a game. It came and went away on its own. Since I've never had a PSU dying on me before, how scared should I be on a scale of 1 to 10, and how much damage could a sudden PSU death even cause in the other parts? Is it even dying or could it be just dirt accumulation? If it is dying, how long would it take?

 

[Dork Of Ages]

I need help.
I detected a strange, unpleasant noise coming from my comp, and narrowed it down to the PSU - disconnecting any of the case fans didn't do anything and neither did starting a game. It came and went away on its own. Since I've never had a PSU dying on me before, how scared should I be on a scale of 1 to 10, and how much damage could a sudden PSU death even cause in the other parts? Is it even dying or could it be just dirt accumulation? If it is dying, how long would it take?

Try disconnecting the PSU from your wall outlet and all the other cables from your case and hold down the power button for half a minute or so. You can try doing that everytime you shut down or hibernate the PC and you turn it on again. It probably won't help the PSU itself, but at least it should discharge any remaining power and possibly minimize any bad outcomes for the times when you really need the computer on.

In the meantime, look up your warranty possibilites (if you didn't just buy it secondhand, if so, just buy a new one) and just to be on the extra safe side, clone and backup your installation drive and any data on other drives. Your drive/data might survive a sudden irreversible power loss, but it might just not and corrupt the whole thing if you try powering it on again. So, you know.