Random Tech Questions you want answered.

PC LOAD LETTER?!

Phishposer wrote:

I would never use wireless connectivity on a printer unless there was literally no possible way to plug it directly into your network.
I tried a lot of stuff with my Brother inkjet, including setting up a static DHCP reservation on my router, and it was not reliably online for printing and scanning until I hard wired it.

I've run into issues where printers work better for my Macs when they're on wireless and better for the Windows machines when they're plugged in...

... and not just when I had my "oops, two routers" problem.

Do what you want, but geez, the burning Epson seems a bit over the top.

I bought a well-reviewed, highly-recommended Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4640 back in 2015 - "best office color inkjet" or whatever, according to a few different tech reviewers at the time. My wife was doing a lot of printing at the time, so I wanted to get something that could print quickly, had lots of paper capacity, could print in color, supported wifi printing from Apple devices for the kids, etc. It was a gigantic beast. Print quality was usually ok. It constantly had problems with wifi printing; I'd have to restart the thing frequently, and even when it said it had an excellent connection, it still would fail to print. It also guzzled expensive ink. I finally had enough and recycled it at Best Buy earlier this year.

I've yet to meet a printer that didn't suck.

Edit: inkjet, not laserjet.

I bought a cheap Brother many years ago, just a straight-up black & white laser printer, because I wanted to print stuff like my tax returns that were done in tax prep software, etc. Aside from the wifi being totally useless, it's been solid.

misplacedbravado wrote:

I got a Brother HL-5450DN in 2013 and it’s by far the most reliable printer I’ve ever owned. And quite possibly the most reliable printer I’ve ever used.

Are you sure it's not just going into "Deep Sleep" mode randomly? I had this problem with a Brother laser printer. Found a fix similar to this navigating the menu: https://www.brother-printer-support-...

Any threads or places I should look for a tablet to read magazines, newspapers, comics, and other formats that wouldn't work well on my inkpaper kindle?

I found this thread but am looking for the latest recommendations: https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/...

I don't plan to game on this. Based on my limited understanding, I think I want something in the Android universe due to its open OS as I plan to consume content from a variety of sources including mainstream (Amazon, library Overdrive, comixology) but also more obscure apps and PDF reader.

I have an old iPad that would be perfect but it's not suppored by the latest 2-3 OS versions and therefore I can't download Kindle app and so on.

Looking for something that won't be obsolete 1.5 years from now. I don't know how much space is a factor as I know there will be OS and app sprawl.

Open to refurbished and second-hand markets. This tablet will compliment my Switch, gaming PC, powerbook, etc. Don't need anything fancy or expensive.

Samsung Galaxy tab S6 Lite regularly goes on sale for $250-275 and might be what you are looking for.
It is much more capable than other tablets around that price range.

Samsung also just released the Galaxy Tab S7 FE which is amazing but too pricy at $529.
It is essentially their high end 12in S7+ with a non Amoled screen, worse but really good processor, 2 instead of 4 speakers and a lot more plastic than metal casing. It needs to go on sale for $400 to be competitive because you can regularly find deals on S7 for $500 and S7+ for $600

In fact, if you have a decent trade in, you can get up to $300 off the new S7 line of tablets.

I replaced the screen of an Asus tablet, and it works, but the color is wrong. It's like there is no red at all, and red objects show up cyan. It's not inverted, it is something else. I have disconnected and reconnected the video cable twice. Any other thoughts?

If you're into comics and have used OverDrive with your library, you should check out Hoopla. It’s way way better for borrowing/reading comics. I’m shocked how many comics are available through my library.

Bigred, Amazon Fire 10.1" tablet is currently on sale for 100USD, 1/3 off. We have had 3 Amazon tablets and they are solid.

Just get the cheapest iPad would be my advice.

Robear wrote:

Bigred, Amazon Fire 10.1" tablet is currently on sale for 100USD, 1/3 off. We have had 3 Amazon tablets and they are solid.

Amazon Tablets have worked out really well here. Install Google Play Store on them for tons of app support. Main issue I have is Amazon's screen time stuff for kids is bad and the alternatives from Google/Microsoft don't work on Amazon tablets. My wife still prefers an iPad but as a basic tablet for media consumption the value per dollar of Amazon tablets is really high. I use mine for Xbox streaming a lot. In Canada we don't have those ads on the lock screen so I can't speak to whether that is annoying.

That's exactly how we use them, Pandasuit. I have a high-end iPad that doubles as a work device, but my wife and son use Amazon tablets for media. Works great.

Robear wrote:

That's exactly how we use them, Pandasuit. I have a high-end iPad that doubles as a work device, but my wife and son use Amazon tablets for media. Works great.

If I could get a proper screen time system running on them I’d buy 2 more immediately for my kids.

Thanks for the feedback, y'all. Was eyeing the kindle fire on and off for the last few years. Pulled the trigger on the discount. Looking forward to it arriving tomorrow thanks to overnight delivery.

It's much more of a workaday tablet than I expected. Good screen resolution and color, performs well, holds charge.... I hope you'll enjoy it and at the price, you know, especially if you have Prime, it's a bargain.

pandasuit wrote:
Robear wrote:

That's exactly how we use them, Pandasuit. I have a high-end iPad that doubles as a work device, but my wife and son use Amazon tablets for media. Works great.

If I could get a proper screen time system running on them I’d buy 2 more immediately for my kids.

I've only used the Amazon Kids app on the iPad... Does it use the same parental controls as the Fire tablets? Either way, I'm curious what you'd like to see improved.

Chairman_Mao wrote:
pandasuit wrote:
Robear wrote:

That's exactly how we use them, Pandasuit. I have a high-end iPad that doubles as a work device, but my wife and son use Amazon tablets for media. Works great.

If I could get a proper screen time system running on them I’d buy 2 more immediately for my kids.

I've only used the Amazon Kids app on the iPad... Does it use the same parental controls as the Fire tablets? Either way, I'm curious what you'd like to see improved.

I’m not sure if they are the same.

I’d like to be able to manage time for every app, not just Amazon store apps. I get that Amazon doesn’t officially support Play Store apps on their devices so not their problem but the Amazon App Store is too limited so I’m not going to stop using Play Store.

I got a solid bid on my old RX580 videocard, but I forgot to take a screenshot while it was still in my desktop. Reinserting the card and reinstalling the drivers etc. would be a hassle, is there any way to bring up a sort of history of what was installed on a Windows PC in some way? Just so I can prove the card actually works without reinstalling it.

edit: sold without issues In the end I took a screenshot of my devices, in which the RX 580 was still visible as a not-installed hardware.

What would you recommend as a tablet for our kids to watch movies on during car trips? Any recommendations for car mounts, while we're at it? I would like to import our own catalogue on there mostly.

We mostly use two. iPad regular and different versions of Amazon Fire.

I'm not going to lie, the iPad is better. And I'm not an Apple person, at all. But it's also more expensive. My daughter uses the iPad in a great case and it feels indestructible, which is great, because she hucks it around like a pitcher.

We've used lots of different Fire tablets. I think they're great, because they are so cheap/ Recently we bought our son one of the new ones, because of the specs vs price. We bought the HD 10 Plus. It's great! And very comparable to the iPad. Not quite as nice, but it's good! We got this because he already plays a ton of Android games and we wanted to be able to install those types of things. It was a lightning deal for $109. Usually it's $179.

So, it came down to this for us:
Apple iPad for $329
Amazon Fire HD Plus for $179

You can sometimes find the iPad for a few dollars cheaper, but not much. $300 ish on sale.
Amazon Fire HD Plus was as low as $109.

Do you want your kids to use other apps like learning games? Then go for the iPad. If it just strictly a movie device then any cheaper tablet with a decent battery will do.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Do you want your kids to use other apps like learning games? Then go for the iPad. If it just strictly a movie device then any cheaper tablet with a decent battery will do.

Good point. Our oldest started elementary school today actually.

astralplaydoh wrote:

We mostly use two. iPad regular and different versions of Amazon Fire.

I'm not going to lie, the iPad is better. And I'm not an Apple person, at all. But it's also more expensive. My daughter uses the iPad in a great case and it feels indestructible, which is great, because she hucks it around like a pitcher.

I am in the same boat. I always bought Android phones until my previous employer gave everyone an iPhone.

But extra storage on an iPad is very expensive, and transferring movies to an Apple device is always a hassle. Fire tablets are now out as I found out that none of the Belgian TV apps are compatible - and for potential learning apps of course.

We also have a Sony Xperia tablet, probably 5 years old by now, that is still going strong. But that Android version is very outdated by now.

Leaning towards an iPad Mini 4 right now...

Slack is no longer supported on my phone, so I went to the website and chose 'sign in' and it only seems to have a link to download a desktop version after that. I tried the web version login but it still says my version is not supported. I basically can't use it anymore?

ok... I have Chrome installed on some computers, synchronised and all.

On my main computer I am not able to log in at the FWJ site, got in a loop with the captcha-thing.

Even if I try Explorer / Edge, it doesn't work. Can't get pass the captcha

Strange, if I log in on my work-laptop, it works.

Any insights are welcome!

Have you tried private/incognito mode? That sometimes helps if logins fail.

Mermaidpirate, the Slack Requirements page shows that you need either IOS 13.3 or Android 8 or higher. If you don't have those, you're gonna be out of luck; ie, you need to update your phone OS... IOS 13.3 dates to 2019, and Android 8 to 2017...

Robear wrote:

Mermaidpirate, the Slack Requirements page shows that you need either IOS 13.3 or Android 8 or higher. If you don't have those, you're gonna be out of luck; ie, you need to update your phone OS... IOS 13.3 dates to 2019, and Android 8 to 2017...

Don wanna get a new phone until this one breaks lol. Also, can't decide which new one to get, want a Pixel but don't like the Google lack of privacy, don't want an iPhone or a Samsung, got this one because it's the cheapest one my carrier had at the time but I'm in a better financial situation now so as much as this Oppo has way exceeded my expectations, not sure I want another one. There's no further firmware updates I can do on this one.

Also slack is working for me today. Huh.