Random Tech Questions you want answered.

Whoops, I meant Chevy Bolt.

I was also gonna ask how you quote mpg stats for an all-electric car?

Jonman wrote:

I was also gonna ask how you quote mpg stats for an all-electric car?

Miles per kWh: https://www.electriccarfaq.com/miles...

Gaald wrote:
beanman101283 wrote:

I suspect, but am not 100% certain, that my video card may be dying. What's a good way to verify this suspicion that doesn't involve swapping in a spare? Something like a memchk for video cards?

https://www.ocbase.com/

I had really good luck with this stress test program when trying to figure out my PC issues last year. It turned out to be a CPU issue for me, and the program was key to helping me figure out that's what the problem was. But the program has several different testing parameters that can test power supplies, CPU, Memory and GPU.

When the program does the test it will spit out errors that show up and for my issues the errors were specific to a CPU problem as far as I could tell and when I sent it in for RMA it was confirmed to be bad.

It's possible running the GPU test could let you know what if anything might be causing problems if the card is bad.

Thank you! This will be invaluable now and going forward.

bepnewt wrote:

My wife would like a multi-function printer, one that can print, scan, and copy. Fax is not needed. I want it to be laser and she wants it to be color.

We've talked about laser printers here before and there was a consensus that Brother makes a good (B&W?) laser.

Do they make good color laster multi-function devices? Is there another brand you would recommend?

-BEP

My two cents on this is that most consumer level multi-function printers are crap. A decent scanner will last almost forever (mine is still going strong from like 2005-2006 and I only bought it because I no longer had a computer with SCSI so I couldn't use my old one anymore), but you are lucky to get 5 to 6 years out of most printers (and I have had inkjets that barely lasted 2 years).

I bought my Eco-Tank around 2017, I think? Maybe earlier. It's still running fine.

Yup, my Brother dates back to 2014, BUT we probably print < 100 sheets annually, so I'm not super surprised it's still ticking along.

Rykin wrote:

My two cents on this is that most consumer level multi-function printers are crap. A decent scanner will last almost forever (mine is still going strong from like 2005-2006 and I only bought it because I no longer had a computer with SCSI so I couldn't use my old one anymore), but you are lucky to get 5 to 6 years out of most printers (and I have had inkjets that barely lasted 2 years).

That has always been my stance, also. Unless space is an issue, I'd rather have a scanner, a printer, and a copier (or skip the copier).

- I bought my current Samsung ML-2250 B&W laser used 17 years ago. I have it networked via a Raspberry Pi Zero W. The machine is a workhorse.
- Our color laser was a cheap-o $90 one from Dell (Canon guts, I think) that I bought at least 12 years ago. It's still working, but with flaky WiFi.
- I had a real old (20 years old+) Canon flatbed scanner that gave up the ghost about 2 years ago so I replaced it with one of these since I rarely scan: Brother DS-940DW which works great.

The Kitter(tm), aka my wife, is a teacher and needs to do a lot of scanning and copying, now, because reasons. The portable scanner won't work for her needs. She's been hinting at wanting a multi-function device for a couple years so I finally gave in, begrudgingly. I fully expect my old B&W laser, the portable scanner, and that cheap-o Dell color laser to outlast it, but I hope I'm wrong.

Happy Wife = Happy Me = Happy Life.

-BEP

FiveIron wrote:

I didn't find a car thread, so i'll post here i guess?

i'm thinking about getting a 2015 prius C for about 19k. As you might guess, im looking at purely economics when considering a vehicle. The Prius C seems to go overkill from what i can tell though. From the reviews, it seems like i'll get bored of it after about a year, then have another 20 years to power through until it completely dies.

For 19k, does anyone have a better suggestion for a used car? looking mostly at MPG and reliability.

thanks!

This may sound dumb,but if you don't need the car *now*, look at new cars. We were looking at Kia Forte and a used one (2022,2021) was about $22/23k and new one is $21.5k .

Need help debugging a PC bootup problem. It's an ancient build from 2011. It was working fine until a day or so ago

When switched on, the MB lights turn on, case fans spin, CPU fan spins, and lights on the GPU are solid green. However, no bootup beep and the monitor doesn't detect a bootup. It then powers down about 30 seconds later, with the lights on the GPU remaining on.

Any idea what the cause might be? I have a spare tower I can switch the HDD into (the boy stopped using my former gaming rig after he got a faster Omen a few weeks ago haha). If I can't solve the issue easily I'll go with a HDD switcheroo.

Sounds like the battery on the motherboard died. Open it up and look for a small coin sized battery. Pull it carefully, read the label, buy a new one, replace.

Even with a dead battery it should post. You would just have to reconfigure the bios every time.

Remove the HDD from the equation, it should still display posting screen.

I would:

Remove HDD connector/power
Remove all RAM except 1 stick
If there's a GPU remove that and use onboard graphics if possible

If it still doesn't boot/display, try changing the RAM to a different stick if possible.

Pretty sure I’ve had systems that would not POST with a dead BIOS battery. But it was years back. This was just the first thing that came to mind with the age of the system, and anyway, it’s an inexpensive test.

astralplaydoh wrote:

Remove the HDD from the equation, it should still display posting screen.

I would:

Remove HDD connector/power
Remove all RAM except 1 stick
If there's a GPU remove that and use onboard graphics if possible

If it still doesn't boot/display, try changing the RAM to a different stick if possible.

Yep. Remove as many variables as possible.

This is why I own a test bench, with a known good PSU and spare GPU. To troubleshoot something like this, I'd take the board out and put it on the bench, eliminating PSU and case issues (shorts, etc) too. Not everyone has that, but stripping the system down as much as you possibly can as your starting point is the right idea.

There's a tech YouTuber who fixes peoples' machines, and he drives me up the goddamn wall. He troubleshoots by stabbing around in the dark, trying to figure out what the broken thing is, instead of stripping down to a baseline minimal system, establishing the minimal system works, then putting components back one by one until the breakage reveals itself.

I'd visually check the motherboard for leaking or bulging capacitors, given the age of the system and the (unlikely but small) possibility of them being from the capacitor plague of the early 2000's. If it were the PSU you likely wouldn't get anything, and the capacitors on the motherboard are the next most likely culprit for failing due to age.

I have a buddy who has worked in the car business since around 1993. He left that sector recently and is about to start a job where he goes to car businesses and other businesses and sells... stuff. It's hard to explain and it's not important.

What he needs is a way to organize his work life. He will need to keep a calendar, contacts, leads, etc. hopefully in one place. He's not a computer moron - he can learn any software - but he's not a tech guy. He has used various CRM packages in the past at the various car dealerships so is familiar with the idea of a CRM.

I did a search on "Free Online CRM", etc., and there are some candidates out there, but I am not familiar with any of them. Is anyone here familiar with any of the free or low-cost (for 1-2 users) online CRMs?

-BEP

Try Monday.com. Up to five users, free, for basic features. The next levels assume 3 users minimum looks like, but still not too bad per month. About a dollar a day.

Two questions about YouTube:

(1) Is there any way to get it to stop recommending videos that it knows I've already seen? Seems stupid to me.

(2) What's the difference between Join and Subscribe? And I think there's a third option involving a bell?

CaptainCrowbar wrote:

(1) Is there any way to get it to stop recommending videos that it knows I've already seen? Seems stupid to me.

On desktop and mobile: click/tap the 3 dots and select Not Interested (and if you want, click Tell Us Why and you can check that you've already watched the video)

On Apple TV (and probably other set-top devices): hold the Select/OK/whatever button until the pop-out menu on the right appears, select Not Interested, and Already Watched.

Along with Not Interested, you'll also find the option Don't Recommend Channel in these menus, which is the #1 most important tool for making YouTube not a complete pile of intolerable sh*t.

(2) What's the difference between Join and Subscribe? And I think there's a third option involving a bell?

Subscribe: channel appears in your Subscriptions area. Very handy for keeping track of the channels you care about. This is probably what you want.

Join: YouTube's version of Patreon. Pay money to the content creator, maybe get access to some special stuff.

The bell: Get sent notifications for new videos. In most cases, probably not something you actually want, unless there's a particular channel you REALLY want to catch videos of whenever they go up.

*Legion* wrote:

On desktop and mobile: click/tap the 3 dots and select Not Interested (and if you want, click Tell Us Why and you can check that you've already watched the video)

On Apple TV (and probably other set-top devices): hold the Select/OK/whatever button until the pop-out menu on the right appears, select Not Interested, and Already Watched.

Along with Not Interested, you'll also find the option Don't Recommend Channel in these menus, which is the #1 most important tool for making YouTube not a complete pile of intolerable sh*t.

Yeah, I know about those options for individual videos or channels. I was hoping there was some kind of global "don't recommend anything I've already seen" setting so my recommendations page won't be half full of stuff I've already watched.

*Legion* wrote:

Subscribe: channel appears in your Subscriptions area. Very handy for keeping track of the channels you care about. This is probably what you want.

Join: YouTube's version of Patreon. Pay money to the content creator, maybe get access to some special stuff.

The bell: Get sent notifications for new videos. In most cases, probably not something you actually want, unless there's a particular channel you REALLY want to catch videos of whenever they go up.

Thanks!

Robear wrote:

Try Monday.com. Up to five users, free, for basic features. The next levels assume 3 users minimum looks like, but still not too bad per month. About a dollar a day.

Have you used it and found it to be a good product?

-BEP

bepnewt wrote:

I have a buddy who has worked in the car business since around 1993...

...I did a search on "Free Online CRM", etc., and there are some candidates out there, but I am not familiar with any of them. Is anyone here familiar with any of the free or low-cost (for 1-2 users) online CRMs?

Turns out Reddit has some good thread on this exact subject.

-BEP

BEP, I had a Federal customer who used Monday and was happy with it. I have not had occasion to, not my role.

CaptainCrowbar wrote:

Yeah, I know about those options for individual videos or channels. I was hoping there was some kind of global "don't recommend anything I've already seen" setting so my recommendations page won't be half full of stuff I've already watched.

I know exactly how you feel. Half of Youtube recommendations are videos I've already watched.

WHY?!?!

Quintin_Stone wrote:
CaptainCrowbar wrote:

Yeah, I know about those options for individual videos or channels. I was hoping there was some kind of global "don't recommend anything I've already seen" setting so my recommendations page won't be half full of stuff I've already watched.

I know exactly how you feel. Half of Youtube recommendations are videos I've already watched.

WHY?!?!

Because it works on enough people who watch it again.

If you didn't Like and Leave a comment did you really watch it?

Quick question for the experts:

My desktop PC is hooked to a 4K monitor. For some reason, after a reboot, the PC will default to 1920x1080 instead of 4K. When I first got the PC, it was fine, but after a while of me switching between 4K and standard HD when playing a game, the PC now uses HD as default, regardless of whether I switch to 4K or not when I'm using the computer.

I setup a batch file to switch the resolution, so 4K is just a double-click away, but it still annoys me. I was hoping upgrading to Windows 11 would fix that, but it did not.

So, the question is: Is there anything I can do to set the default resolution to 4K after a reboot?

Graphics card is an NVidia 3060Ti, if that makes any difference.

How does Firefox decide whether it thinks I'm typing a url or a search term? Is there any way I can affect this decision?

There are a couple ways. For one, you can turn off search in the address bar entirely, and add the "Search" box back to keep an easy search solution without browsing to an engine.

Generally, though, if you add a .com or whatever to wherever you're going, it should function as an address bar and not a search. If you just type text without making it a domain, it should treat it as a search. If you're typing .com on where you're trying to go and it still acts as a search, that's weird.

A commonly forgotten shortcut is that if you type something into the address bar and do CTRL+Enter, it will add .com and go there.