General Computing Randomness

For general computer discussion & help, come here

Moderators: Bakhtosh, EvilHomer3k

Post Reply
User avatar
LawBeefaroni
Forum Moderator
Posts: 55316
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:08 pm
Location: Urbs in Horto, outrageous taxes on everything

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by LawBeefaroni »

Kasey Chang wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:05 am
Daehawk wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2020 9:22 pm Got a phishing email claiming to be paypal lol. I dont know who falls for those. Its clearly not from paypal in the address and if you hover the 'paypal' link they provide its like rgsshiv@imstupid.net like hahah.
People on mobile don't look at headers often like we do on the desktop.
If I'm ever in doubt on mobile I just hit reply and check out the email headers in the quoted text.
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General
"No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton

MYT
User avatar
Kasey Chang
Posts: 20750
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 4:20 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact:

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Kasey Chang »

Now here's a bit of a puzzler.

I have a Win7 desktop I bought used a long time ago, upgraded to Win10. It's low-spec, Pentium 4 dual core, or something like that. My dad uses it for his Netflix and Youtube and stuff connected to our 1080p TV. I gave him one of those palm-sized keyboards as he pretty much refused to use a full-sized keyboard.

Today, he said something's wrong. I went over and checked.

Sure enough, the palm-sized keyboard's touchpad works, but the right-side-scrolling had stopped working. You know, drag on the right side and it simulates a mouse-wheel scroll? it no longer works.

After a bit of experimentation, turns out this ONLY happens in Chrome. it works fine in Windows settings, explorer, etc. Just NOT in Chrome.

At first I thought it was that magic actions extension. So I nuked that. Nope, that wasn't it.

As it works elsewhere, it wasn't a hardware or software problem. Had to be Chrome.

But the only thing you can do to Chrome is reset it, or use something else. And reset/relaunch didn't work.

So, what do you guys say? Chrome Canary? Edge? Firefox? Chrome is not a requirement, actually.
My game FAQs | Playing: She Will Punish Them, Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, The Outer Worlds
User avatar
hitbyambulance
Posts: 10233
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:51 am
Location: Map Ref 47.6°N 122.35°W
Contact:

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by hitbyambulance »

Kasey Chang wrote: Tue Apr 21, 2020 2:20 am Now here's a bit of a puzzler.

I have a Win7 desktop I bought used a long time ago, upgraded to Win10. It's low-spec, Pentium 4 dual core, or something like that. My dad uses it for his Netflix and Youtube and stuff connected to our 1080p TV. I gave him one of those palm-sized keyboards as he pretty much refused to use a full-sized keyboard.

So, what do you guys say? Chrome Canary? Edge? Firefox? Chrome is not a requirement, actually.
dump the google spyware. go firefox

... you sure that's a Pentium 4? i assume that's SD-level video streaming.
User avatar
Jaymon
Posts: 3006
Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2008 12:51 pm

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Jaymon »

a quick google search showed your father isn't the only person with this trouble.
some folks had good results by disabling smooth scrolling on their mouse, or in chrome.

its also possible he accidentally entered another version of scrolling, by clicking the wheel sideways.

something to try, do other mice have the same behavior on this machine?
Bunnies like beer because its made from hops.
User avatar
Jaymon
Posts: 3006
Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2008 12:51 pm

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Jaymon »

there is something wrong with the internet today.
its probably level 3, now owned by centurylink. impacting the entire usa southwest and midwest.
ugh.
and there is literally nothing I can do about it.
its probably going to take an extra couple of seconds to post this. which is acceptable for posting on a 20 year old message board.

but that extra is really killing it for me at work. and there is nothing I can do about it.
Bunnies like beer because its made from hops.
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63524
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Daehawk »

On the fun side I got some extortionware today for the first time ever. Its neat. It starts out with a very old password of mine to get my attention. Its one that was stolen from leaks on multiple companies many years ago. Anyways they basically say they have videos of me doing naughty stuff thanks to using my webcam to capture them over the last year. I need to send them $2000 in bitcoin. They are a little rude in saying that if I dont know what bitcoin is then use the net to look it up. Humph.

They really dont know me. I dont have $2000. I dont care what is sent to others via my FB contact list. And lastly I dont have a webcam lol. Hell I should ask they send me some of those images as if they can actually do that I want to buy into their tech with my invisible money. Win win for both of us.

Honestly people like that should just fall dead at their keyboards. Scum.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
Z-Corn
Posts: 4894
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:16 pm

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Z-Corn »

Daehawk wrote: Tue Apr 21, 2020 4:29 pm They really dont know me. I dont have $2000. I dont care what is sent to others via my FB contact list.
Whatever dude.

Pretty sure we're all gonna get to see your wiener now. Win win for all of US.









:D
User avatar
Smoove_B
Posts: 54567
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:58 am
Location: Kaer Morhen

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Smoove_B »

Seriously. If we can get Kasey to post pictures of his underwear without even trying hard, I can't imagine what a motivated group of people could accomplish.
Maybe next year, maybe no go
User avatar
Z-Corn
Posts: 4894
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:16 pm

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Z-Corn »

I've got $1200 of Trump Bux$ burning a hole in my pocket right now...
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63524
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Daehawk »

I dont :(
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63524
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Daehawk »

Lately a lot of times my net drops to nothing and sits there a minute or two..maybe 3...then picks up. But where I normally get 100 mbps I get like 19 for a while before it fully fixes itself. it never loses connection just kinda dies. ....like now. 19 mbps..weee.

EDIT: Also today my tv is freezing. Its like pause has been hit. It will sit there with the picture frozen and no sound for 3 min to 40 min. All channels. Fun day.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
Rumpy
Posts: 12672
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:52 pm
Location: Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Rumpy »

Daehawk wrote: Tue Apr 21, 2020 4:29 pm On the fun side I got some extortionware today for the first time ever. Its neat. It starts out with a very old password of mine to get my attention. Its one that was stolen from leaks on multiple companies many years ago. Anyways they basically say they have videos of me doing naughty stuff thanks to using my webcam to capture them over the last year. I need to send them $2000 in bitcoin. They are a little rude in saying that if I dont know what bitcoin is then use the net to look it up. Humph.
I got that one 2 years ago, and I think it's a trick that's already fading in use. I got it on an old address that I hardly use anymore and it felt like a half-baked scheme as they never even mentioned Bitcoin on the version I was sent and didn't even list the password. Then I got a similar one on another address that did mention Bitcoin, but those were the only ones I ever got of that type. Not something you'd easily be able to use again without it being easily recognizable.
PC:
Ryzen 5 3600
32GB RAM
2x1TB NVMe Drives
GTX 1660 Ti
User avatar
coopasonic
Posts: 20969
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 11:43 pm
Location: Dallas-ish

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by coopasonic »



Does a Faster SSD Matter for Gamers?? - $h!t Manufacturers Say

Spoiler:
Spoiler:
They all picked the slowest (SATA) SSD as the fastest (judging based on "blind" user experience, not benchmarks) so NVME and PCI-E don't appear to make a practical difference.
-Coop
Black Lives Matter
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63524
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Daehawk »

Linus saves ya some moola.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
Kasey Chang
Posts: 20750
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 4:20 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact:

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Kasey Chang »

NVIDIA released "RTX Voice", using your video card's CUDA core and some AI to do serious background noise reduction automatically.

And it works, really. You can use it for your input (filter out noise from your kids or pets) ... OR listen to output with background noise suppressed (try it on those "street interview" youtube videos.

And the best part is... Despite the installer insisting you need an RTX card, there is a way to install it WITHOUT needing RTX card. older GTX cards will run it fine, albeit, may take 3-4% of GPU core cycles.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/gu ... tup-guide/

https://www.techradar.com/news/nvidia-r ... an-rtx-gpu
My game FAQs | Playing: She Will Punish Them, Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, The Outer Worlds
User avatar
Kasey Chang
Posts: 20750
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 4:20 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact:

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Kasey Chang »

I had some hardware problems recently, as I noticed my wifi throughput had dropped noticeably, but I was in the middle of a project and decided not to worry about it. I finally got the time to look into it last night, and it was really weird...

The short of it was my 2nd router (attached directly to the DSL modem/wifi router) apparently just stopped working and reset itself to factory, losing all the settings.

Fortunately, I don't have to configure it with an Ethernet wire and a laptop on battery. I can now do it with a smartphone and an app over Wifi if I have the codes on the back of the router.

But losing that connection has a couple of side effects, like losing my ability to print, which I hadn't needed until this morning (my USPS guy keeps looking at my dark front door and drives off, never ringing the bell, so I'll print him a sign) Even when I reconfigured the router to the same SSID, I had to redo the Wifi Setup, and you can imagine how difficult that is with a PRINTER, entering the password.

I wonder what other devices will I have to redo the password on that I haven't found yet?
My game FAQs | Playing: She Will Punish Them, Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, The Outer Worlds
User avatar
The Meal
Posts: 27987
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 10:33 pm
Location: 2005 Stanley Cup Champion

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by The Meal »

Kasey Chang wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:16 am NVIDIA released "RTX Voice", using your video card's CUDA core and some AI to do serious background noise reduction automatically.

And it works, really. You can use it for your input (filter out noise from your kids or pets) ... OR listen to output with background noise suppressed (try it on those "street interview" youtube videos.

And the best part is... Despite the installer insisting you need an RTX card, there is a way to install it WITHOUT needing RTX card. older GTX cards will run it fine, albeit, may take 3-4% of GPU core cycles.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/gu ... tup-guide/

https://www.techradar.com/news/nvidia-r ... an-rtx-gpu
This works really nicely with my Discord setup. (Actually using a RTX video card, though.) Thanks for the heads-up!
"Better to talk to people than communicate via tweet." — Elontra
User avatar
Kasey Chang
Posts: 20750
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 4:20 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact:

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Kasey Chang »

Had to redo my printer, turns out. Ended up deleted it twice and adding it twice. First time, nothing would print, not even a test page. Second time around, it worked.
My game FAQs | Playing: She Will Punish Them, Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, The Outer Worlds
User avatar
Isgrimnur
Posts: 82085
Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2006 12:29 am
Location: Chookity pok
Contact:

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Isgrimnur »

Printers are the worst tech ever.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
User avatar
jztemple2
Posts: 11542
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2009 7:52 am
Location: Brevard County, Florida, USA

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by jztemple2 »

Isgrimnur wrote: Fri Apr 24, 2020 11:24 pm Printers are the worst tech ever.
When we did our tax assistance program every year, I didn't mind the setting up of 40+ computers. It was dealing with the damn 20+ printers ranging from new Brothers to old HPs, IBMs and heaven knows what brands. Up to a couple of years ago we had a couple of huge printers that needed parallel port connectors. And weirdly sometimes if a new printer was connected to a computer that already was set up for that printer model, it would generate a new printer device icon anyway, with a "copy" prefixed the name. But the most fun were printers that refused to be recognized by the computers. There had to be a dozen different approaches to try to fix the problem, among them altering the order you connected cables, whether you turned on the printer or the laptop first, cursing and finally just grabbing another printer or computer and beginning all over again :grund:
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63524
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Daehawk »

My printer before this one was a Brother and wireless but no matter what I had to use a long USB cable to connect it before wifi would connect. This last Brother I got a few years back is totally wireless. I just turned it on and it found the networks. I choose mine and typed in the password on its touchscreen and its been great since. I think I had to do it once after that when I reset my router or something .Was worried the first time was a fluke but nope it was perfect.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
Kasey Chang
Posts: 20750
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 4:20 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact:

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Kasey Chang »

Read about a new "use any photo as your webcam avatar" called avatarify, immediately got excited to download it. It requires python and a bunch of hefty downloads and a lot of manual setup. Was halfway through downloading it before realizing, WTF am I going to use this for?
My game FAQs | Playing: She Will Punish Them, Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, The Outer Worlds
User avatar
Kasey Chang
Posts: 20750
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 4:20 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact:

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Kasey Chang »

This is weird. My new headset is in, and it worked... But when it ran out of juice, I tried to charge it, and it won't charge... JUST like my old one. WTF?!

And I've tried both on known working cables, and power sources. I tried both on a powerbank which works fine. Charging other stuff works. Charging headphones do not. WTF?!
My game FAQs | Playing: She Will Punish Them, Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, The Outer Worlds
User avatar
Kasey Chang
Posts: 20750
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 4:20 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact:

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Kasey Chang »

My dad came over and asked me a computer question, which is rather surprising.

Basically, he's old-fashioned... He enters Chinese by hand (or by finger) on the phone. He doesn't do pinyin (using the "English" keyboard). And he's wondering how can he type Chinese into Chrome search bar for Youtube on the PC. He does know how on his iPhone. But that's because on mobile, the input *is* the keyboard area. There is no "separate" keyboard.

So I installed Google Input Tools into Chrome. Of course, he complains that he can't just "draw" with his finger. :D

Then I have to install the English keyboard too when he wants to switch back to English.
My game FAQs | Playing: She Will Punish Them, Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, The Outer Worlds
User avatar
stessier
Posts: 29816
Joined: Tue Dec 21, 2004 12:30 pm
Location: SC

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by stessier »

Kasey Chang wrote: Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:08 pm My dad came over and asked me a computer question, which is rather surprising.

Basically, he's old-fashioned... He enters Chinese by hand (or by finger) on the phone. He doesn't do pinyin (using the "English" keyboard). And he's wondering how can he type Chinese into Chrome search bar for Youtube on the PC. He does know how on his iPhone. But that's because on mobile, the input *is* the keyboard area. There is no "separate" keyboard.

So I installed Google Input Tools into Chrome. Of course, he complains that he can't just "draw" with his finger. :D

Then I have to install the English keyboard too when he wants to switch back to English.
Off topic - have you watched Kim's Convenience on Netflix? You might enjoy it from a different perspective than most.
I require a reminder as to why raining arcane destruction is not an appropriate response to all of life's indignities. - Vaarsuvius
Global Steam Wishmaslist Tracking
Running____2014: 1300.55 miles____2015: 2036.13 miles____2016: 1012.75 miles____2017: 1105.82 miles____2018: 1318.91 miles__2019: 2000.00 miles
User avatar
Kasey Chang
Posts: 20750
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 4:20 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact:

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Kasey Chang »

I'll tell my dad. I actually don't watch Netflix myself. :D
My game FAQs | Playing: She Will Punish Them, Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, The Outer Worlds
User avatar
gbasden
Posts: 7664
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:57 am
Location: Sacramento, CA

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by gbasden »

Daehawk wrote: Sat Apr 18, 2020 11:02 pm Im beginning to wonder Kasey just how rich you'd be now if you'd not impulse bought anything in a few years :)
I wonder how much money he'd save if he just bought one quality item instead of replacing a ton of cheap shit every year or two. :)
User avatar
Kasey Chang
Posts: 20750
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 4:20 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact:

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Kasey Chang »

gbasden wrote: Sun May 03, 2020 10:17 pm I wonder how much money he'd save if he just bought one quality item instead of replacing a ton of cheap shit every year or two. :)
I wonder how much crap I own actually break... That old BT headset's earpads are pretty beat up. This replacement that refused to charge? I can return it to Amazon whenever I want to package it up again. For $45-50 item that worked for 3 years, I'd say it worked out quite well. Do you REALLY want a set of, say, Bose earphones that works for 2x longer, but costs 5X as much?
My game FAQs | Playing: She Will Punish Them, Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, The Outer Worlds
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63524
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Daehawk »

I would never buy anything Bose.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
gbasden
Posts: 7664
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:57 am
Location: Sacramento, CA

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by gbasden »

Kasey Chang wrote: Sun May 03, 2020 11:48 pm
gbasden wrote: Sun May 03, 2020 10:17 pm I wonder how much money he'd save if he just bought one quality item instead of replacing a ton of cheap shit every year or two. :)
I wonder how much crap I own actually break... That old BT headset's earpads are pretty beat up. This replacement that refused to charge? I can return it to Amazon whenever I want to package it up again. For $45-50 item that worked for 3 years, I'd say it worked out quite well. Do you REALLY want a set of, say, Bose earphones that works for 2x longer, but costs 5X as much?
I dunno. I've been using the same pair of Sennheiser HD650s for 6 or 7 years? For bluetooth headphones I've had the same pair of Sony's for around 4 years? I think Bose are overpriced, but I know people that have had the same pair for quite some time. It's like the Aeron chair that I had for 15 years - yes, it cost $500, but I've outlived at least 8 shitty $150 chairs from Staples. Well made things generally last longer.
User avatar
Kasey Chang
Posts: 20750
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 4:20 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact:

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Kasey Chang »

With my huge head, I've broken two Sony BT headsets, and a set of Logitech wired. There's a reason I don't want another Sony set.

I do agree your HD650 is nice. I have a wired SuperLux cheap on-ear that's not that bad either. 1/3 the price. But I don't use it much because, again, my huge head, that my current Roccat wired set doesn't have problem with.
My game FAQs | Playing: She Will Punish Them, Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, The Outer Worlds
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63524
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Daehawk »

Starting to want pics of yuuuuge head.

Possibly due to alcohol .
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
gbasden
Posts: 7664
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:57 am
Location: Sacramento, CA

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by gbasden »

Kasey Chang wrote: Mon May 04, 2020 4:57 pm With my huge head, I've broken two Sony BT headsets, and a set of Logitech wired. There's a reason I don't want another Sony set.

I do agree your HD650 is nice. I have a wired SuperLux cheap on-ear that's not that bad either. 1/3 the price. But I don't use it much because, again, my huge head, that my current Roccat wired set doesn't have problem with.
That's interesting. I've got a pretty enormous head as well, and I haven't had that issue. I've definitely had to be careful of headphones that clamp too tightly, though. I have to test drive them before I buy. The BT Sony headphones were from Costco and I could try them on in the beforetimes when we could go out and not fear random germs too much. I don't use them as much as the Sennheisers, but they've held up fine. The Sennheisers go into a Schiit Valhalla amp and Bifrost DAC, so yes I'm moderately picky about sound quality. But I do think they are some of the best made headphones I've seen.
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63524
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Daehawk »

You bought a Schiit amp?...ohhh wait.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
Rumpy
Posts: 12672
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:52 pm
Location: Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Rumpy »

My Dad bought a new computer and wanted to keep his old one running and off the internet. It was cheaper to buy a new one than upgrade at this point. His old one is running Windows 7, and we were going to just update it to Windows 10 until we were told it's old enough to not be supported by the hardware. What follows is a somewhat humourous Keystone cops-like sequence of events.

He only has one keyboard and one trackball/mouse, so we've had to switch them back and forth as needed. We don't have a KVM switch and besides, both of them are using the PS/2 style adapters. I don't even know if they sell KVM switches with those type of ports anymore anyway. For the second computer, we needed an extra monitor but didn't have much space for it, so he ordered a pneumatic arm mount, which looks pretty awesome with the necessary cables tucked into it. While switching the keyboard and mouse over to the new computer over several times, I noticed that after I'd done that once, there was no longer power coming to the new computer. It could be powered on again after waiting a while, as my Dad noticed. He later had to do the same thing later in the day and had the same thing happen to him with that new PC. I assumed it was a faulty power cable.

He needed to do work on the old PC, so after the power was out the second time on the new one, switched the mouse and keyboard back to the old PC, and this is where things take a weird turn. The mouse and keyboard now wouldn't work on the old PC. They weren't being detected anymore, as if they were dead. Luckily I had a spare USB keyboard laying around in a box, and we used my Dad's new wireless mouse he'd ordered not that long ago for his laptop, and they worked. But how odd that this would all happen in one day. Only thing I could possibly think of would be static electricity disabling the keyboard and mouse, but never had that happen.
PC:
Ryzen 5 3600
32GB RAM
2x1TB NVMe Drives
GTX 1660 Ti
User avatar
Blackhawk
Posts: 43491
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 9:48 pm
Location: Southwest Indiana

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Blackhawk »

Were you powering them down before swapping? I know that PS/2 peripherals could cause damage if hot-swapped.
(˙pǝsɹǝʌǝɹ uǝǝq sɐɥ ʎʇıʌɐɹƃ ʃɐuosɹǝd ʎW)
User avatar
hitbyambulance
Posts: 10233
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:51 am
Location: Map Ref 47.6°N 122.35°W
Contact:

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by hitbyambulance »

from wikipedia:
Hotplugging

PS/2 ports are designed to connect the digital I/O lines of the microcontroller in the external device directly to the digital lines of the microcontroller on the motherboard. They are not designed to be hot swappable. Hot swapping PS/2 devices usually does not cause damage due to the fact that more modern microcontrollers tend to have more robust I/O lines built into them which are harder to damage than those of older controllers; however, hot swapping can still potentially cause damage on older machines, or machines with less robust port implementations.

If they are hotswapped, the devices must be similar enough that the driver running on the host system recognizes, and can be used with, the new device. Otherwise, the new device will not function properly. While this is seldom an issue with standard keyboard devices, the host system rarely recognizes the new device attached to the PS/2 mouse port. In practice most keyboards can be hotswapped but this should be avoided.
so yeah, y'all fried it.

(tangent: remember in the late 80s when the two possible connections for attaching a mouse to a PC-DOS machine was either bus or serial port)
User avatar
Rumpy
Posts: 12672
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:52 pm
Location: Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Rumpy »

Ok, that does make sense. Never realized they weren't swappable. They did work for a time though on either computer though before they stopped working altogether. Then eventually they just stopped working. I guess this is one clear advantage of USB!

My Dad probably needed a change anyway, and this just prompted it. I wasn't too keen on still using the PS/2 connectors after all this time.
PC:
Ryzen 5 3600
32GB RAM
2x1TB NVMe Drives
GTX 1660 Ti
User avatar
hitbyambulance
Posts: 10233
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:51 am
Location: Map Ref 47.6°N 122.35°W
Contact:

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by hitbyambulance »

Rumpy wrote: Mon Jun 01, 2020 3:46 pm Ok, that does make sense. Never realized they weren't swappable. They did work for a time though on either computer though before they stopped working altogether. Then eventually they just stopped working.
it's shocking the input lines on every insertion - the chance of actually frying the line on a single insertion is not absolute, but you're rolling the dice each time.
I wasn't too keen on still using the PS/2 connectors after all this time.
...but why? (if they're not removed/inserted while the machine is on) they still work fine.
User avatar
Rumpy
Posts: 12672
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:52 pm
Location: Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Re: General Computing Randomness

Post by Rumpy »

hitbyambulance wrote: Mon Jun 01, 2020 4:12 pm
I wasn't too keen on still using the PS/2 connectors after all this time.
...but why? (if they're not removed/inserted while the machine is on) they still work fine.
That's exactly the reason. He likes having his on at all times. It's rare that they're actually shut off or rebooted. He didn't think swapping them while they were on would be an issue, even while I voiced a concern about it. He came to tell me he couldn't get the mouse and keyboard working on the old PC. But we know better now. USB will just make it simpler overall.
PC:
Ryzen 5 3600
32GB RAM
2x1TB NVMe Drives
GTX 1660 Ti
Post Reply