Attn: Computer Dorks! I Need Your Help! (tech help thread)

[Tael]

Shame they don't have a Gainward GTS450 GS-GLH.

[leokef]

High-five, dead card brother. I replaced my 8800 with a GTS250 per Flamewave's advice and it has worked out well. Performance is a bit better, actually. I thought about going with a 450 myself, but I wasn't sure added features like DX11 and tessellation support would make much difference with the horsepower it has. Although it couldn't hurt if you want to find out and have the money. Although you'd probably want to go with the 5770 since you'll get a tick up in performance too, I think.

But I wouldn't splurge beyond those two, least not with that rather sizable cost difference and you doing a proper upgrade in a year or so anyway.

[BaconFat]

I think I might just get a regular 450. That "GOES LIKE HELL" one seems cool because it "GOES LIKE HELL" but I don't think I quite need it.

[Ace!]

Steam is seriously pissing me off. It was hanging on the login screen, if I entered the wrong password, it would immediately kick me off, but if I put in the right one it would just get stuck and never log me in. I looked on the forums, and a lot of people have been having the same problem. I've been disabling programs that "might" interfere with the fucker, and it still didn't work.

Then I deleted a .blob file that was recommended, and Steam started to update itself. It went up to 8%, then back down to 6%, and then it just stayed there. Then I uninstalled, and when trying to reinstall, it told me I couldn't get on the internet. And now, it's hanging at 0%.

This is some bullshit. Has anyone else had this problem?

EDIT: I did a reinstall, and after hemming and hawing, it worked again. Then it said that I had no games. So I restarted and now it works just fine. What the shit, programmers? Why can't you make things that work perfectly every single time? Seriously.

[Martin Penwald]

I'm currently playing a mod for Civ4 BTS, and since there aren't enough city names in it (I usually play on huge maps, i.e. each civilization has a fuckton of cities), I figured I might add some myself. The data is in .xml format, but since I don't have Excel installed, I thought that this might be a good time to get Open Office.

Dowloaded it, installed it, opened the file, added names. Saved. Started the game, but it wouldn't load the file. Went back into the file, but instead of going for "save", I tried "save as" xml. Didn't work; Open Office told me to get the Java version of the program. So I did just that; installed the JRE version of OO. Opened the file, tried "save as". It started saving, but it never finished; it would go to 100% and then essentially crash.

Pissed off, I uninstalled Open Office and went for XML Copy Editor. Much simpler program, which also let's you check whether the file is compiled properly. Added the names, saved, started Civ4, BAM same error. Tried some things, still didn't work. Got rid of the program again.

Now guess which program finally worked.

[mobilisq]

notepad :]

[Martin Penwald]

yes

[mobilisq]

theres a reason they still include it in new OSes

[Red Omen]

Sometimes you just need to manipulate plain text. Word appends a bunch of garbage code to it.

[BaconFat]

Notepad++ is where it's at.

[BaconFat]

Also I bought a Gigabyte 450GTS and shoved in a slot in my computer and wheeeeee now I can use my computer again. Fallout 3 is running smoother at much higher settings. This card cost me $137... I payed like $350 for my 8800GTS a few years back!! It's also cool to see that they've worked out how to make the cards normal sized again. I had to do research to make sure the 8800GTS would fit in my case.

[leokef]

Well the unthinkable has happened. PS3 just kicked off and won't turn back on. Red light of death. It won't respond to commands to turn on by controller or remote, and when I press the power-on button it goes green, then amber, then stops at blinking red in about a second.

Guess I'll be calling their tech support to see about repair, but anyone have any ideas around here. It's out of warranty, and when I look this up online, a lot of places refer to websites that sell repair guides. Anybody know if the self-repair stuff is true? Or would it be better to send it in for repair with an unbroken warranty seal?

[gorv]

I'd send it in, if it is still covered under warranty, which it likely is for errors like that. There's no reason to crack it open yourself, and lose the ability to send it in if you're unable to fix it.

[Alceste]

[leokef]

I have heard of good will repair jobs, where they cut you a deal or do it for free. If it looks like I cracked it open at some point, I'm sure that'll piss them off, right? I don't know, this whole thing is new to me. Never had a console go out on me before, and I have ones older than my PS3 that still work. My Dreamcast probably still works!

I'm not even sure about what to do exactly. If it came down to paying $150+ (as I hear) to repair my years' old fat system, I'd probably rather drop $299 on a brand new system: get an extra controller, new warranty and confidence, and the benefits of the slimline hardware revision. Yeah I'd lose PS2 backwards compatibility, but I have a PS2 that still works (and PCSX2) so I don't care that much. It didn't even work all that great on the PS3 anyway.

'Course this is all a future concern because I can't afford $299 or even $150.