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

[Boris Blank's glass eye]

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.

Thanks a bunch. I've had PSU failures of the "sudden restart/power down" kind, but no PSU fan failure yet.
It's a barely used - test/backup unit - second-hand Cooler Master MW 550 White V2, so it's definitely out of warranty.

 

[Fat Bastard]

Has anyone else had Brave's Tor option start crashing recently? I've been using it for over a year and only since about 2 updates back when they made it so so that the Tor windows didn't have their own icon on the taskbar have I had issues, now whenever I open up a Tor window it's not a matter of 'if' it will crash, it's 'when' and it takes all my non-Tor windows and tabs with it.

 

[Dork Of Ages]

Has anyone else had Brave's Tor option start crashing recently? I've been using it for over a year and only since about 2 updates back when they made it so so that the Tor windows didn't have their own icon on the taskbar have I had issues, now whenever I open up a Tor window it's not a matter of 'if' it will crash, it's 'when' and it takes all my non-Tor windows and tabs with it.

I am not sure if opening a Tor tab crashed all of my Brave process (in Windows 10) specifically, but I believed it might have happened to me once. And just a little while back today, opening a new normal tab annoyingly crashed my whole computer. Though this might have happened because I had my W10 session abnormally long by simply hibernating all the time when I was done using the computer, and I didn't bother updating the browser during then.

Other than that, a possible issue with using Tor tabs might be because it was accidentally leaking any onion addresses you visit to your DNS provider (link here) recently. Hopefully the current update has a fix for that. I doubt that might have to do with process crashing though. Try clearing your cookies and cache and see if that minimizes the issue.

 

[Never Scored]

Thanks a bunch. I've had PSU failures of the "sudden restart/power down" kind, but no PSU fan failure yet.
It's a barely used - test/backup unit - second-hand Cooler Master MW 550 White V2, so it's definitely out of warranty.

IMO don't play chicken with PSUs. Last spring at work I had one in an off lease refurb that I didn't replace when I bought the unit a few years back give out and it fried a 480 gig ssd. Data gone, can't format. Everything I tried sees the drive as having 0 partitions 0 free space. SeaTools can't see it anymore.

 

[Boris Blank's glass eye]

IMO don't play chicken with PSUs. Last spring at work I had one in an off lease refurb that I didn't replace when I bought the unit a few years back give out and it fried a 480 gig ssd. Data gone, can't format. Everything I tried sees the drive as having 0 partitions 0 free space. SeaTools can't see it anymore.

550-600 watts are perfectly good for me, so any recommendations on the brand? The store I usually purchase tech shit from carries Cooler Master, Chieftec, and EVGA PSUs available at a comfortable price range of $80-90. I don't think my setup warrants a fully modular 1.2 kW Platinum PSU.

 

[Never Scored]

550-600 watts are perfectly good for me, so any recommendations on the brand? The store I usually purchase tech shit from carries Cooler Master, Chieftec, and EVGA PSUs available at a comfortable price range of $80-90. I don't think my setup warrants a fully modular 1.2 kW Platinum PSU.

I usually just buy Gold certified Corsair shit and I've found them reliable, but I'm not into optimizing PC builds or PC gaming. Someone else probably has a better recommendation. I've got an RM 850x in my home PC. I only needed around 650 watts, but personally I buy a little more than I need because I'm always sticking random drives and PCI express cards I pick up off the street on bulk garbage day in my PC.

 

[Kosher Dill]

IMO don't play chicken with PSUs.

This is a good rule. When it comes to anything that transmits power, don't cheap out, don't buy chinesium, and don't push your luck.

 

[Boris Blank's glass eye]

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.

I usually just buy Gold certified Corsair shit and I've found them reliable, but I'm not into optimizing PC builds or PC gaming. Someone else probably has a better recommendation. I've got an RM 850x in my home PC. I only needed around 650 watts, but personally I buy a little more than I need because I'm always sticking random drives and PCI express cards I pick up off the street on bulk garbage day in my PC.

Thank you kindly for all your help.
In the end I bought a be quiet! Pure Power 11 500W CM, I don't think a theoretical average maximum draw of 330 watts w/o overclocking needs more than that.
It's supposed to be a solid choice, at least according to the PSU spergcialists of the Linus Tech Tips forum and it does have good reviews.

The unnerving bearing noise stopped, nothing's blown up, I don't smell anything burning, and the power supply is stable.

 

[Dr. Geronimo]

I just bought a new 4K tv and I want to be able to switch the HDMI output between the TV and my second monitor without having to get up and switch the cables. All the splitters I see online either aren't what I'm looking for or can't provide HDMI 2.1 bandwidth.

Any suggestions?

 

[Kosher Dill]

Any suggestions?

Does it absolutely have to be HDMI 2.1 (48Gbps / 10K) bandwidth?
I'd recommend something by Aten. I haven't used their splitters, only their switches, but they're the only brand I've tried that supports a full set of modern features (4K@60Hz, 4:4:4, HDR), and handles ARC correctly.

https://www.provantage.com/aten-vs182b~7ALTU04C.htm

 

[Dr. Geronimo]

Does it absolutely have to be HDMI 2.1 (48Gbps / 10K) bandwidth?
I'd recommend something by Aten. I haven't used their splitters, only their switches, but they're the only brand I've tried that supports a full set of modern features (4K@60Hz, 4:4:4, HDR), and handles ARC correctly.

https://www.provantage.com/aten-vs182b~7ALTU04C.htm

I just said 2.1 since the splitters I found only did 10Gb/s. This is exactly what I'm looking for, but fuck is it expensive. I'll probably get it payday. Thank you very much my man.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

I just bought a new 4K tv and I want to be able to switch the HDMI output between the TV and my second monitor without having to get up and switch the cables. All the splitters I see online either aren't what I'm looking for or can't provide HDMI 2.1 bandwidth.

Any suggestions?

Plug a displayport cable into the monitor, use the HDMI port to connect to the TV. Set "mirror display" in the windows settings. Now they both show the same picture, doesn't matter if one screen is off or not.

 

[Dr. Geronimo]

Plug a displayport cable into the monitor, use the HDMI port to connect to the TV. Set "mirror display" in the windows settings. Now they both show the same picture, doesn't matter if one screen is off or not.

My GPU is 3 DPI and 1 HDMI and I the 2 devices only use HDMI. On top of that I'm dealing with 3 different resolutions. Main gaming monitor is 1440p, 2nd larger monitor is 1080p and the TV is 4K. It's a mess

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

My GPU is 3 DPI and 1 HDMI and I the 2 devices only use HDMI. On top of that I'm dealing with 3 different resolutions. Main gaming monitor is 1440p, 2nd larger monitor is 1080p and the TV is 4K. It's a mess

Samsung?

You don't need to buy a splitter, I think, just a converter from DP to HDMI to get that output port. Then "mirror [x display] to [y display]" while letting [z display] carry on as usual.

 

[Dr. Geronimo]

Samsung?

You don't need to buy a splitter, I think, just a converter from DP to HDMI to get that output port. Then "mirror [x display] to [y display]" while letting [z display] carry on as usual.

That won't work because either my 4KTV will output at 1080p or the picture on my 1080p screen will be zoomed in.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

That won't work because either my 4KTV will output at 1080p or the picture on my 1080p screen will be zoomed in.

Alright, baby steps here.
Turn on the TV and the monitor at the same time, mirror the 1080p screen and TV.

In powershell run:
get-ciminstance -namespace root/wmi -classname WmiMonitorConnectionParams

All your display should show up.
Turn off the TV and run it again.
You should see something like this, one display is no longer seen and it should be the TV.


Turn on the tv, run the command again, to see that it shows up. Turn off the screen using the DisplayPort and it should disappear as well. Turn both off and see what happens, could be useful. Run the TV on another input and see what it reports back, could be useful.

If everything works right we can determine if both, none or either of them are online(through status and device id). That also means we can manually set the resolution on either one if certain conditions are met(1080p screen gone, time to go 4K, both connected = 1080p, only 1080p monitor then =1080p). If only one of them ever reports their online/offline status that's good enough, make assumptions from there.

Build that into a script resolution changing script. It's going to suck.

Or make a script to override and force 4K for that display pair on the main desktop after shutting off the 1080p monitor, then a script to change it back before turning it on again. Or go into the graphics drivers, press the "I know what I'm doing" and override the resolution after turning off the 1080p.

Or just clone them and yank the cable from the monitor and set it to 4K manually without Windows protesting. Here's a cheap($9) HDMI extender that can dangle down so you don't tug at the port or exert yourself.



I would go with the HDMI yanking because I'm a lazy idiot.

 

[Dr. Geronimo]

Alright, baby steps here.
Turn on the TV and the monitor at the same time, mirror the 1080p screen and TV.

In powershell run:
get-ciminstance -namespace root/wmi -classname WmiMonitorConnectionParams

All your display should show up.
Turn off the TV and run it again.
You should see something like this, one display is no longer seen and it should be the TV.
View attachment 1962106

Turn on the tv, run the command again, to see that it shows up. Turn off the screen using the DisplayPort and it should disappear as well. Turn both off and see what happens, could be useful. Run the TV on another input and see what it reports back, could be useful.

If everything works right we can determine if both, none or either of them are online(through status and device id). That also means we can manually set the resolution on either one if certain conditions are met(1080p screen gone, time to go 4K, both connected = 1080p, only 1080p monitor then =1080p). If only one of them ever reports their online/offline status that's good enough, make assumptions from there.

Build that into a script resolution changing script. It's going to suck.

Or make a script to override and force 4K for that display pair on the main desktop after shutting off the 1080p monitor, then a script to change it back before turning it on again. Or go into the graphics drivers, press the "I know what I'm doing" and override the resolution after turning off the 1080p.

Or just clone them and yank the cable from the monitor and set it to 4K manually without Windows protesting. Here's a cheap($9) HDMI extender that can dangle down so you don't tug at the port or exert yourself.
View attachment 1962192


I would go with the HDMI yanking because I'm a lazy idiot.

Thank you for the write up, I really appreciate it. I'll test this out.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

For context:
One of my harddrives has started failing about 2 weeks ago - fortunately not the one that runs the OS. The PC would become super slow, the harddrive was working like crazy and in the task manager, activity was at 100% but the data-rate was 0. Last week, I ran checkdisk, it said that the volume bitmap was faulty, I repeated the chckdsk command with /f and /r, the PC ran for 100+ hours trying to restore/repair data. The harddrive is still a bit wonky, but it works for most basic stuff. When I try open certain folders on that harddrive, it starts shitting itself and doing nothing.

I bought a replacement today and was about to slap it into the computer and move everything by hand, now I wondered, maybe there is a better way to do it. Moving everything by hand might be a bit of a hassle and I assume it would cause some fuckery in the software registry. Any suggestions on how to do this without manually reinstalling everything?

 

[TheRetardKing]

What is a man?

 

[Boris Blank's glass eye]

I bought a replacement today and was about to slap it into the computer and move everything by hand, now I wondered, maybe there is a better way to do it. Moving everything by hand might be a bit of a hassle and I assume it would cause some fuckery in the software registry. Any suggestions on how to do this without manually reinstalling everything?

A relatively simple solution would be using TeraCopy to move everything - including hidden and locked files - to the new drive then changing the letter assignment.