Geek Thread

I thought I'd start one for those of us whom have questions or problems involving cell phones,  tablets, computers etc and hopefully someone might be able to help with some constructive advise.

Mods can delete this if they wish. I'm inspred by my Samsung Galaxy Tablet for Dummies book I got off Fishpond.

Isn't this basically the same as the Patrick appreciation thread? :p

Possibly but it might give others a chance too.

Actually, does anybody else on telecom have problems with losing connection to the network intermittently? 

I asked telecom for help today but they did the whole "is it turned on? Can you try resetting it?". Then had a robot call me. 

Is there anything in particular that may be causing it or any way to help fix it? Should I get a new sim? Or should I just take it into a telecom store and see what they reckon?

Not on a phone but Home internet yes I did.

Yes in the last 6 months I was losing connection a couple of times a day, nothing serious enough to warrant making a fuss but annoying nevertheless.

I fixed it by changing over to Vodafone which is a lot more stable.

Seriously considering that. 

Telecom messed us around when we changed, dragged their feet, etc but managed to immediately lock our xtra email account which was a pain in the arse letting everyone know our new email. Sour grapes.

Verymuch so with Telecon. I worked in this field for 9 years before being laid off with 499 other techs back in 1995. The stories I could tell....

Also consider, closer to the nearest exchange, the better the signal should be, except with vodafone, its all direct cabling to their exchange so there is no distractio s so to speak.. Example. Any fans living in say Totara Park, their Internet connection goes through the Upper Hutt North exchange, Is rerouted through the following exchanges, Upper Hutt, Naenae, Lower Hutt, Wellington Central, Courtney Place before going to the satellite dish at Mirimar or via the cabling system. Each time your signal hits an exchange it drops a miniscule amount which can add up and slow it down. Of course fibre optics that are currently being laid will certainly resolve and speed things up for sure. Hopefully everyone will benefit....but at a price of course.

Just remember that back in 1995 (And times do change to be fair), the landline to San Francisco, was costing 6 cents per hour to rent, whilst you were paying a lot more than  that for your international phone calls per minute.

Anyone recommend a good email app that lets you type up your emails etc. The Samsung Tablet version is ok but could be better.

I've had 4G data connectivity issues (ie: there is non) with Telecom recently - can't be arsed asking them as I know the numb-nuts responses I'll get. It's bluddy annoying.

 

Some Telecom prepay sim cards are affected by an intermittent data outage which has been occurring since Thursday. 

They're working on it but haven't yet identified the cause.

My Android Huawei G510-0100 phone.

Although cheap and it punches above it's weight it has random features that make it a pain the arse.

When I connect to the pc to charge it wipes everything from my music player and occasionally uninstalls apps. The music is still on the SD card but wiped from the music player. I don't press anything just connect via a USB cable. 

Huawei seems to no longer have any information on this phone on it's website...

Question for those out there who know more than I do.

I am having issues with Google Chrome lately.

I was getting "Chrome didn't shut down properly" etc everytime when I turned on my PC, so googled and it said it was a profile corruption issue, so deleted my appdata folder and then it was fine for a while longer, then it came back again.

Since then I have also done a reset of windows (Had been planning on doing one shortly anyway), it was fine for the first day redone, but then it decided to come back again today. (At least now that is my only issue).

Laptop is about 2 years old, running Windows 8.1 (PS. ARGH Telecom Router & Chrome issues with DNS ARGH!!!). Hopefully someone else can give me some advice, is kind of annoying, but I guess it could be worse.

 

I found that happened to me on a lappy using Windows 7. I found my solution was to uninstall chrome - not your passwords etc when it asks that, then reinstall it. For me it solved the issues. It might help you but then it might not.

 

I wonder if it is syncing with you Computer. Have you any music in the same folder on your comp? If it is empty, it will copy that. As for uninstalling apps. Cant help there.

As a systems administrator, Chrome is a nightmare for us because it can be installed without administrator permissions and then users expect us to support them. The only good thing it actually brings is rendering of websites tends to be a bit more hassle free than IE.

Personally I recommend a move to Firefox. I have not seen the Chrome issue you speak of. Does Googling it provide anything of note? I would say that unless you have a specific reason to use Chrome, can it.

Are there any errors in the Event Viewer?

Wow Chris, that's an impressive number of posts! Uber mb fan.

I am about to take ownership of a brand new HP Action Cam (http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Accessories/Camera_photo_video/E8H23AA?HP-ac200w-Action-Camera) and was interested in some feedback from anyone who has used one or a similar device like a Go Pro.

Generally dont like reading online reviews as I think they can be easily misleading and biased to either side.

Anyone help?

Technically any review we post on here would be an online review!

Inspector Gadget (Patrick) has used a Go Pro

Sorry Huawei phone but you just never had the RAM to really work and I guess if you had f all apps on it you'd do the job but sadly very under powered.

Galaxy 3 not the best but pretty much all I need and a nice looking phone for $350.

Huawei off to the emergency kit for you.

So with Quay computers closing where is the next best independent comp shop that can build a decent gaming computer?

 

This should be in the RIP section. Those guys were excellent in the 90's.

Try PB Technologies. I use them for work. Cheap as chips.

PB tech or Playtech in Auckland are also top notch.

www.Computerlounge.co.nz

Probably the No.1 user rated computer shop in NZ. I have bought nearly all of my PC's parts and accessories from them for the last 10 years. nothing but great service and great prices.

Think my graphics card is on the fritz

Basically getting a "no signal" when booting from my monitor but works in safe mode.

Tried uninstalling all Nvidia drivers and reinstalling

Removed CMOS battery and put it back in.

Changed resolution of display

Updated audio drivers in case that was it.

System restore

Open device manager show hidden devices etc...

Going to open it up and have a look inside again.

Issue is the internet says that because it works in safe mode it should just be a software issue and normal mode should work ok because once you've uninstalled Nvidia drivers it should go to the default internal graphics card setting but it doesn't which suggests it's a hardware issue.

A new Nvidia-free comp I think.

Theoretically, all functional video cards will work in safe mode without drivers, usually in a 800x600 mode. When we reflash new machines with our in house Windows build, with no drivers, the cards work so if it's not working sans drivers but does work in safe mode, that is puzzling. Before you toss it under a steam roller, have you got another machine you can try it in? Are you in Auckland?

Bout to move house so considering options around net/TV/phone bundles... currently have Voda cable and telephone, seperate Sky and our mobiles are on prepay... any suggestionisms?...

we just shifted to Vodafone for all of landline/broadband/sky and have our mobiles on account with them also (mobiles are still on separate invoices but the rest is all together in one invoice). 

We get a $15 a month rebate on SKY as part of a deal, and we ended up saving about $35 a month, so pretty happy with that. It was a bit of a pain transferring our SKY account, but got there in the end.

Totally right and yet it wouldn't work.

My original issue was that War Thunder and World of Tanks would crash constantly due to Nvidia "Kernal"/stopped responding errors. 560ti card which was never hot and has always had problems.

Got it working again by completely uninstalling Nvidia from the comp using an aggressive uninstaller Revo. Then using the original software disc and the elderly 226.54 driver I reinstalled. This was the only way I could get it to work as I could not get Nvidia to download anything in safe mode even with safe mode networking.

All games now work fine WT and WOT from what I've tried with the old driver.

Question is now was it down to fragments of old drivers messing with the games, that I've now cleaned up? Or is it that the new drivers just can't cope with WT and WOT? I've tried older "stable" drivers before but they still crashed.

When updating drivers I'd recommend using revo as even trying a 'clean" install doesn't always remove all of the old drivers. 

Live in Welly but thanks for the reply.

Thanks Vickmeist, that's exactly what we're pondering. Assuming the house purchase doesn't go t!ts up!

Why is Wellington so shit for VDSL and Fibre? Most of my coworkers in Auckland have Fibre connections even those that live in the middle of nowhere on the northshore. You'd think with all the suburban embassy's and what not + the urban density that Wellington would be all over that shit.

I live just down the road from a couple of embassies and high commissions as well as a few politicians (including the deputy PM) and there's nothing scheduled for the immediate future. Porirua gets it before we do!

There's your answer. Porirua resident or politicians? Nearly everyone would choose Porirua first, they dont lie every 4 years to stay where they are or if voted out, sneek back I  on a corrupt party list.

Ink Jet Printers. I've always used either an HP or a Canon printer. I want to go wireless. I'm open to brand suggestions but there are three stipulations. Has to be wireless and range between $90 &$150 and not as big as a mini fridge. What do you guys recommend? Gonna leave it till lunch time tomorrow.

Read some reviews online but word of mouth is usually the best. Some of the printers today are bigger than a Ps4 stacked on top of an Xbox One.