The General "Computer Issues" Thread

[Dan's Revenge]

Okay, I looked on mine and that's the same dialog I get when uploading photos. Just pick the one you want and hit upload.

If I'm able to get to the backdoor of choosing 5 at a time, I think I can do it that way, but the regular way (hopefully just for now) it only shows me jpeg/gif images, but it says "save as" even though its not saving. Also, any other image in the folder I can't see, I can type its image name in and try to upload it that way, but it always comes up just short of finishing. Need a new virus scanner perhaps.

The other thing light be a clear type issue. Go to Start, control panel, display and pick "adjust clear type" on the left. Check the box that says turn on.

Unfortunately that wasn't the issue, as everything else, even text on this site for me is normal.

 

[Shawn Hopkins]

I'm having a very bizarre youtube problem. Some of the videos I try to watch will start at 360p and buffer a little bit, but they give up buffering when playing and when that buffer runs out they stop. If it's on Automatic the buffer will actually disappear and then jump back, which is I'm assuming youtube adjusting quality up or down. It doesn't happen on my iPad or my mom's PC on the same network. It happens over both wireless and ethernet. I checked for malware and found nothing. It happens both on Firefox and IE. I upgraded my Flash Player. I disabled my antivirus and nothing happened.

The weird thing is that I found a workaround, and the workaround is stopping the videos and changing the quality to HD. Yeah, videos that start and stop and won't buffer at 360p buffer and play just fine in HD.

So, anyone have any ideas?

Update: Seems like the problem is more with the auto quality feature than 360p. The auto always kicks in and says it's playing at 360p no matter what. If I manually set the video to 360p it usually plays okay. It works better if I set it to something else first. I wish there was just a way to turn off the auto feature but I can't find one.

Second update: This seems to be the fix for the problem. At least for now. I wonder if would cause an issue if Google moves stuff around.

http://mitchribar.com/2013/02/how-to-stop-youtube-sucking-windows-guide/

Third update: Sigh, that doesn't seem to work on all videos, especially not embedded ones. I removed it.

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

YouTube is doing the same to me, my Internet is running slowly as can be and so is my wifi. Thought that might be AT&T's fault.

 

[G. Wen]

My HP Deskjet 842c has lost its mind. Sometimes it'll print fine. Other times, it'll think it's printing (it makes those Deskjet ink spitting sounds), but it's like the ink cartridge never touched the paper because I get a blank sheet of paper. Sometimes, it'll print fine in color. Other times, it'll only print acid colors. Sometimes, it'll print the first page, but thinks it's printing the last page, but spits out a blank last page. What's going on with it?

 

[defunctzombie]

When was the last time the ink was changed? Sometimes when they get old, the cartridges quit cooperating.

 

[G. Wen]

That's what I thought at first, so I changed them, and it's still acting funky.

 

[defunctzombie]

Does your printer have any software that lets you clean the printheads? Or an alignment page? You could try that.

 

[G. Wen]

Huh, it seems like you can't clean the printheads on a HP Deskjet 842c. The ink cartridge directly touches the page, so you'll just change the cartridge if it gets clogged with ink. I'm trying to find something on the alignment page, but no luck. Does anyone know when a printer usually gets techno dementia from being too old? My printer is from 2001.

 

[defunctzombie]

Did you look on the HP website to see if you have the latest software? That's how mine cleans the printer. Mine is almost the same age as yours, and it still works, so that shouldn't be it.

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

This is very peculiar. This particular website is what I use to place holds and check my account at my local library allows me to search for things, but when I try to access my own account or information about a particular book, it doesn't do anything, I just click and nothing happens. It works on my iPhone. Sometimes, if I repeatedly refresh the page, it will let me, but generally not even then. It's irritating, and I use the site quite a bit.

 

[PunkPhantom]

Corupted Files

Some files on my flash drive are apparently "corrupted and unreadable". Is there ANY WAY to salvage these files? PLEASE.

Edit: Well I tried right-clicking the flash drive drive and going to Properties>Tools>Error Checking, Check Now, and it seemed to be scanning it. The green bar filled up all the way but then it started over and when it filled up again, it froze! Is this a bad sign or should I just force quit it and try again?

 

[G. Wen]

O.K., guys, this is a doozie. I'm trying to access information on my 3 1/2 floppy using my old Toshiba Satellite from 2001. However, the computer says I've never formatted the disk, even though that's impossible because I have files saved on it. Is there any way I can access the information?

 

[defunctzombie]

Floppies are notorious for erasing themselves at random; it's part of the reason most stopped using them. The slightest magnetic field will blank them.

Chances are the info is gone, especially if the floppy is over ten years old.

 

[Beefy]

O.K., guys, this is a doozie. I'm trying to access information on my 3 1/2 floppy using my old Toshiba Satellite from 2001. However, the computer says I've never formatted the disk, even though that's impossible because I have files saved on it. Is there any way I can access the information?

Try a different disk or a different floppy drive to determine if the problem is with the disk or the drive. If it's the disk and you really need your files you can try a recovery utility, but they are not free.

One of the recovery tools I use is Zero Assumption Recovery. It will scan the disk for free so you can see if any files are there to recover, but if you want to recover them, you have to buy the software. The price drops at night and on the weekends, so don't buy it during the day at full price.

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

I'm not entirely sure this is the appropriate place to put this, but I'm having a weird problem with both my iPhone and my iPod classic. They're both not working correctly through the auxiliary cable to my car stereo, they work better when the plug is in a certain position. So naturally, I bought a new auxiliary cable, but I'm having the same problem. What's odd is that I don't have any problems with headphones, and it affects both units.

 

[PunkPhantom]

iTunes won't import the album correctly

So a while back I got the new Cancer Bats CD but I can't import it on iTunes correctly. I've tried multiple times but it always turns out like this.

The first "album" has tracks #2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11. The second one has track #9. The third one has track #5. And the fourth one has track #1.

I don't know what to do. I tried importing it many times and this happens every time. I can't listen to the album this way .

 

[defunctzombie]

There are two ways to fix it. First, select all of the songs. Right click and pick "apply sort field- same album". If that doesn't work, you'll have to do the second way. Go to "Get Info" or "Properties". A panel will pop up that let's you fill in artist information. Fill in the info for Artist, Album, Genre, Year, and the "of 11" for tracks. Then check every box next to the empty fields EXCEPT for the first half of track number. When you do that, it should group them together, but you'll lose the "feat." credit unless you add it to the name of the song.

 

[PunkPhantom]

There are two ways to fix it. First, select all of the songs. Right click and pick "apply sort field- same album". If that doesn't work, you'll have to do the second way. Go to "Get Info" or "Properties". A panel will pop up that let's you fill in artist information. Fill in the info for Artist, Album, Genre, Year, and the "of 11" for tracks. Then check every box next to the empty fields EXCEPT for the first half of track number. When you do that, it should group them together, but you'll lose the "feat." credit unless you add it to the name of the song.

I think that worked. Thank you!

 

[wonderfly]

So I have my computer hooked up to my computer monitor screen but I also have it hooked up to my TV through an HDMI cord.

While there are many programs my wife and I enjoy watching together, every once in a while, I'd like for her to be able to watch something on Netflix on the TV, while I maybe watch something on Hulu on my PC monitor screen. I can get that to work visually (I can be watching Hulu, she can be watching Netflix) but audio is a problem: it wants to broadcast audio for both shows on the TV.

Is there a way to get it so that I can watch (and listen!) to my shows while she can watch hers?!?

 

[defunctzombie]

Hmm. There might be a way to do it on a Mac, with its whole "spaces" setup, but I can't think of a way to split the audio in Windows. Try searching for programs that allow different browser windows to output to different speakers. Otherwise you'll have both programs playing audio at the same time.