Random Tech Questions you want answered.

Many phones I think will recognize qr codes in their default camera app.

Hmmm. I'll give the heatsink a shot, but I'm worried I won't be able to get any on this drive, as it sits right underneath the GPU.

My main M2 drive came with its own heatsink. Out of curiosity, I measured how tall it is, from the motherboard to the top of the heatsink, and it ended up being 29mm and some change. My SATA ports sit right under my GPU, and they are 24mm and some change. I couldn't exactly measure the GPU card in a satisfactory way, but eyeballing it, I think there was more than 6mm between the top of the SATA ports and the bottom of the GPU. M2 drives are tiny, so you might have more clearance than you think.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Many phones I think will recognize qr codes in their default camera app.

Yup, one of those great "silent" features in iOS -- just point your iPhone camera at a QR code and a notification prompt shows up asking if you want to open the link in the browser.

Robear wrote:

What’s the answer, PaladinTom?

Sorry. I read that the last three versions of Android do support barcode scanning.

Thanks! And the Google Lens pointer was cool too.

Just bought a new monitor, and thanks to Amazon's atrocious packaging I've discovered that the bezel is neatly cracked. However, the screen appears to be perfectly fine. I already put in for a return/replacement, but it will take 2 months to ship. So, do I:

- keep this one as long as I can, then return it and wait the month going back to my older 1080p monitor, or
- cancel the return and live with it?

I barely notice the crack, but I'm also not keen on keeping something that is obviously damaged. I'd hate for some actual unknown screen issue to rear its head in 3 months. But maybe monitors are more black/white - either it works or it doesn't.

I would use the new one until its replacement arrives. You paid for it new and undamaged and that’s a long time to wait for a replacement.

This internet stranger hereby absolves you of your guilt!

I have to return it by 4/12, but the new one is not expected to arrive until 5/10. Hence the month reversion.

I think I'll hold onto it as long as possible and hope the replacement ships earlier. The actual product page says "ships in 6-10 days". I can always Female Doggo to Amazon chat help about the 2 month delay.

If you contact Amazon they will probably extend your return window.

The worry in my head is that the return window would start *after* they receive the broken unit... Have you checked that, Boudreaux?

That's been my experience as well, Robear. Though there have been a few occasions where Amazon had sent a replacement before I returned the original item, after I contacted customer service. Never for anything as large or expensive as a monitor, though.

I'd say it couldn't hurt to call their CS and see what can get done, Boudreaux.

Follow up on my overheating computer woes:

After more tests it looks like the CPU is the culprit. PSU tests were all clean, but load tests on the CPU were not so successful. Within 5 to 10 minutes and it would sent the Tctl sensor over 110°C and immediately shut down. Regreased the chip with Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and that brought idle temps down about 5-10°, but under load and it would still climb over 110°C and shut down.

So last night I (not so) reluctantly spent several hours sourcing parts for a new build.

Le sigh

Have you tried reducing the cpu's voltage? If not, that might help. If you are OCing the cpu, even with stock OC settings that could be the culprit.

Robear wrote:

The worry in my head is that the return window would start *after* they receive the broken unit... Have you checked that, Boudreaux?

The replacement already shows up as a pending order in my Amazon account, so if it were in stock I'm guessing it would already be on the way. I've done replacements with Amazon before and they're pretty good about sending a new one right away and giving you a few weeks to send the old/broken item back. In this case it's just a huge delay to get a new one to me. I'll chat with Amazon this week and see if I can either get a better estimate for delivery, or get the return window lengthened. Or maybe just see if they'll let me keep the damaged one and credit me some of the cost back.

Tycho the Mad wrote:

Have you tried reducing the cpu's voltage? If not, that might help. If you are OCing the cpu, even with stock OC settings that could be the culprit.

Thanks for the suggestion. I was already underclocking it at a lower voltage because I was concerned with the spikes in temperature even at stock speeds. It's a first gen Ryzen, I think it's just run its course at this point.

WipEout wrote:

Follow up on my overheating computer woes:

After more tests it looks like the CPU is the culprit. PSU tests were all clean, but load tests on the CPU were not so successful. Within 5 to 10 minutes and it would sent the Tctl sensor over 110°C and immediately shut down. Regreased the chip with Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and that brought idle temps down about 5-10°, but under load and it would still climb over 110°C and shut down.

So last night I (not so) reluctantly spent several hours sourcing parts for a new build.

Le sigh

Are you using a liquid cooler? The little AIOs tend to fail exactly that way.

Dumb question maybe, but how does connecting to a Soundbar work? I am used to plugging all devices into a receiver and then having one HDMI to the TV. How does it work when using a soundbar? All HDMI to the TV and then sound out from TV to the bar?

I think it's just a setting on the receiver. I don't think that they would design something that would only go to the TV. I'm guessing that you will need another cable (component, hdmi, fiberoptic) from the receiver to the sound bar, or maybe there is some daisy chain action going on.

FiveIron wrote:

I think it's just a setting on the receiver. I don't think that they would design something that would only go to the TV. I'm guessing that you will need another cable (component, hdmi, fiberoptic) from the receiver to the sound bar, or maybe there is some daisy chain action going on.

No I mean just a soundbar, instead of a receiver. But I found the right Google term in English by now, and yes it seems like you connect everything to the tv and then through optical to the soundbar!

for those that are wondering,

i made a post about switching keyboard layouts about 3 months ago after i switched to the colemak layout. It took about a month to get comfortable with it, and now after 3 months im typing at around 60 WPM. This is about where i was on qwrty (70 or 80 WPM) before i switched.

They say that you can easily swich between the two, but going back to qwrty has me a bit confused at the moment. i think some practice switching might fix this issue though. I can say that the biggest benefit for switching has been for ergonomics. I can tell that my carpal tunnel has been significantly better while sitting at the computer for a long period of time. I think this is because my fingers travel less distance between key strokes on average.

I used to play classical guitar with the hopes of making a living on it but had to give it up because of carpal tunnel syndrome. So for me, anything that provides some relief is well worth it. But like what other people have said, probably not worth it for improved typing speed and it also confuses the heck out of people trying to use my computer.

Malor wrote:
WipEout wrote:

Follow up on my overheating computer woes:

After more tests it looks like the CPU is the culprit. PSU tests were all clean, but load tests on the CPU were not so successful. Within 5 to 10 minutes and it would sent the Tctl sensor over 110°C and immediately shut down. Regreased the chip with Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and that brought idle temps down about 5-10°, but under load and it would still climb over 110°C and shut down.

So last night I (not so) reluctantly spent several hours sourcing parts for a new build.

Le sigh

Are you using a liquid cooler? The little AIOs tend to fail exactly that way.

It's an NZXT Kraken X62, which is no slouch, but it's possible it could be failing. I've been running this PC pretty hard for nearly 5 years straight, between overclocking for games and rendering for profession. The thing is, the fans and pump are all running fine and have no dips in power or anything like that. I guess it's possible the controller is maybe giving out or something, as during some tests the fans wouldn't spin up fast enough to catch the temps before the whole thing shuts down, but the pump has never dipped below 2500 rpm.

I've been running AIOs on almost all of my computers for over 10 years now and haven't had one fail yet, but there is a first time for everything...

I talked about this more in the build thread, but I've lost 2 for 2 AIOs, and the second one died in exactly that way. Check over there for more.

Edit: Nevermind, I'm dumb. Nothing to see here.

The audio isn't loud enough on a pair of my headphones. These are sennheiser pc 363D. Windows audio is maxed. Laptop audio is maxed. Game audio is set to max. The Outer Worlds game audio is still really low.

I tried connecting a audio amp which only boosted the audio a little bit. I think the reason is because it was designed for music players or phones. Then I tried installing a couple equalizers both wont install. They don't give any errors they just wont install. I tried Equalizer APO and 3D Boom.

Using anything else the sound is fine. Like I can blow my ears out watching a movie. Or I can turn up the volume if I use a different audio output like my logitech speckers or hd 6xx headphones. I think it is because everything else gives me another option to turn up the audio or other games have better audio control. The outer worlds is the only game I have this problem on but I don't use these headphones for every game. They work in Control.

Any ideas how I can boost the audio or get those equalizers installed?

edit: I missed a sentence in your post. Read the next post first. Come back here if the answer is "it's broken with everything".

Those are only 50 ohm headphones, so they should work fine. It sounds like your PC headphone jack might be underpowered, or set too low.

Try going into the Sound control panel. Look for the headphone device; it may be the default one, which gets a little green highlight. Click that, and click Properties. Go to the second tab, Levels, and see where the audio output is set.

If it's already 100, then the next thing I'd try would be to run the control panel provided by the sound chip maker. It's usually Realtek, and you'll probably have a Realtek app. Mine is called "Realtek Audio Console". You can probably just search for Realtek from the start button.

In the app for my specific motherboard, I have a settings area for Speakers which has visual display of the impedance of the headphones (which is 300 ohms for my beefy Sennheiser HD600s), and a setting called "Amplify Level", which has three options. If you have one of those, then try bumping it up. Or look around for some kind of local sound level setting that's lower than it should be.

Another thing to try would be detaching from the headphone jack, and using a line out jack on the back of the motherboard. Alternately, if you're already plugged in there, try switching to the headphone jack. If your case doesn't have one, or if it's not hooked up, then tell us what motherboard you have, and we can see if that board actually has a headphone out. Most do, but not all.

The outer worlds is the only game I have this problem on but I don't use these headphones for every game.

Ooh, I missed this. Do your headphones fail with all games and apps, or just this one specific game?

Do you have any mods installed for Outer Worlds? You already checked for in-game audio menus?

Launch Outer Worlds. Then open the Windows Sound Mixer (right-click the sound icon in the systray, open Mixer) and make sure Outer Worlds volume is maxed.

merphle wrote:

Launch Outer Worlds. Then open the Windows Sound Mixer (right-click the sound icon in the systray, open Mixer) and make sure Outer Worlds volume is maxed.

Yeah, this has burned me in the past, and took me forever to figure out. I think it was WarThunder that was doing this to me though.

PurEvil wrote:
merphle wrote:

Launch Outer Worlds. Then open the Windows Sound Mixer (right-click the sound icon in the systray, open Mixer) and make sure Outer Worlds volume is maxed.

Yeah, this has burned me in the past, and took me forever to figure out. I think it was WarThunder that was doing this to me though.

I intentionally do this sometimes - muting a specific game so I can leave it running while I take a break to watch a bit of Youtube.