Tech/Computer advice from me

[tshile]

Lazy and willing to throw anyone under the bus as long as the fault does not lie on their shoulders.

The IT guys really isn't much help either. He just cleans things up and leaves, never getting down to the cause of it...or so it seems because he would clearly have been able to find the source of it...wouldn't he?

Well, as I said from the start, you'd have to be logging that sort of thing.
It's certainly possible to enable that logging and check it. Most people (well, most small to medium sized businesses) don't have that enabled for a variety of reasons.

So, I don't know.

What if I don't have a SIM card ?

Out of my area of expertise. I'd just be googling stuff and reciting it here, without any idea of whether it's right, wrong, etc. I would, at this point, consider them gone for good

Unless you can get a warrant for T-Mobile They have them, they're required to (good old government rules), they just don't give them to anyone without a warrant.

 

[tshile]

edit: nvm.

 

[Burgundy Burner]

What's a good email service to use? Eh, no thanks to yahoo or hotmail. Gmail is fine, but they seem to look over your shoulder too much. Any ideas?

 

[tshile]

I'm curious what makes you say that about gmail?

Get an outlook.com account. It's new from Microsoft which means you can get a good address without it being taken. It also comes with a free 2 gb skydive account which is their cloud storage. You install the app and you can sync a folder and use it as a good backup for documents. It also uses the outlook interface if you're used to it and like it. Has great spam filtering and reliability.

 

[Burgundy Burner]

Didn't realize that there was an outlook.com. I'll need to take a look at it. Thanks for the recommendation.

The gmail thing - google has prying eyes - much more than some may think.

 

[Burgundy Burner]

http://thecollegevoice.org/2012/02/...licy-and-understanding-what-it-means-for-you/

 

[tshile]

What proof do you have of google looking at your private documents?

And doesn't the outlook web email have a /owa after it? Ours does.
Posted via BGO Mobile Device

Depends on the setup but by default exchange 2007 and later uses /owa as one of many redirects. Previously it was /exchange

 

[Fear The Spear]

Are any of you guys familiar with the "Audacity" software ?

 

[Nobody]

Are any of you guys familiar with the "Audacity" software ?

I don't know specifically what it's used for, but I have heard numerous people refer to it as "the best", I just don't know what it's the best at because I've never looked it up. Apparently it's extremely user friendly.

 

[tshile]

Are any of you guys familiar with the "Audacity" software ?

I've installed it for coworkers. That's the extent of how familiar I am with it, but feel free to ask your question. I can try and help you find the answer on the interwebs

 

[Lanky Livingston]

Are any of you guys familiar with the "Audacity" software ?

I CANNOT believe you even ASKED that question!

 

[Nobody]

I CANNOT believe you even ASKED that question!

I chuckled

 

[Lanky Livingston]

I chuckled

Ha, I was hoping someone would catch that.

 

[Fear The Spear]

I've installed it for coworkers. That's the extent of how familiar I am with it, but feel free to ask your question. I can try and help you find the answer on the interwebs

I'm using it to convert audio cassettes to digital.
I connected a 1/8 jack cord from cassette player to PC, and installed the Audacity to convert it.
The first few cassettes converted somewhat fine. Then all of a sudden, it started recording at a really low volume. I put it at the highest volume for Input volume. That didn't help. I started playing with the cord, by turning it back and forth in the jack, and pushing it, thinking it was a bad connection. Then I would hear a "crackle" and randomly the sound would improve for a few seconds. The audio signal would go in and out. So, then I assumed it was a defective cord.
So I went back to Radio Shack and exchanged the cord. The new one has not made any difference, so I seem to have ruled out a bad cord.
It continues to record at an extremely low volume, that is actually worse now, and barely audible. I've tried different cassettes, and it's not the cassette, because it happens on any cassette.
What else could it be ?

 

[tshile]

Ugh... I may be wrong here... but you may have blown your audio jack. It sounds stupid, but I've actually had a coworker do this twice with new computers when he tried to hook them up at home to play sound over his stereo system.

All it takes is a little shock and you can fry that whole port. Take a close look at it and see if you see anything that indicates something burned up. You might want to use a flash light to look into the port.

It's also possible you have dust/dog hair/cat hair/whatever in there that's interfering with the connection.

If you have another computer I'd hook it to that. If there's no problem with that computer then you know for sure it's something with the jack on your other one...

 

[Fear The Spear]

Ugh... I may be wrong here... but you may have blown your audio jack. It sounds stupid, but I've actually had a coworker do this twice with new computers when he tried to hook them up at home to play sound over his stereo system.

All it takes is a little shock and you can fry that whole port. Take a close look at it and see if you see anything that indicates something burned up. You might want to use a flash light to look into the port.

It's also possible you have dust/dog hair/cat hair/whatever in there that's interfering with the connection.

If you have another computer I'd hook it to that. If there's no problem with that computer then you know for sure it's something with the jack on your other one...

Oh I forgot to mention one other thing I tried.
I tried plugging into both the "line-in" connection, as well as the "microphone" connection on the PC. Theoretically, both should work in this scenario, although the "line-in" connection is more applicable, and would be free of excess noise. However, I once again got the same results using each connection.
Would that eliminate a "blown audio jack" possibility, or would a blown audio jack, simultaneously affect each of those connections, as being a consolidated unit ?

 

[tshile]

Oh I forgot to mention one other thing I tried.
I tried plugging into both the "line-in" connection, as well as the "microphone" connection on the PC. Theoretically, both should work in this scenario, although the "line-in" connection is more applicable, and would be free of excess noise. However, I once again got the same results using each connection.
Would that eliminate a "blown audio jack" possibility, or would a blown audio jack, simultaneously affect each of those connections, as being a consolidated unit ?

Yeah they share the same circuit board so if something got blown there's a good chance it would affect both. You would probably also have trouble with headphones when you plugged them in, though it's not a guarantee.

It could be anything, that's just a guess based on my personal experiences. I'd take what you have and try it on a different computer and see if you have the same problem. If you have the same problem then we know it's not the computer, if you don't have that problem then we know it is the computer.

 

[Fear The Spear]

Yeah they share the same circuit board so if something got blown there's a good chance it would affect both. You would probably also have trouble with headphones when you plugged them in, though it's not a guarantee.

Just headphones - or both headphones and speakers - because don't they usually use the same connection ?
I tried both the headphones and speakers and they each work fine, using the only "Out" line I could find. There's 3, right ? Microphone, In-line, and the Out-line, right ?
I don't have another PC I can try it on. I will have to ask a friend if I can use his, and then convince him that the software I need to download onto his PC to make this work, is not going to harm his PC
I assume that if it's the audio jack that was blown, it should be cheap and easy to replace, eh ? Like that power supply I replaced ?

 

[tshile]

It all depends on your computer. If it's built into the motherboard no - you'll have to swap the entire motherboard. That's only about 100$ (unless you have a fancy computer), and you have to swap the processor which is a little more complicated but still not hard.

The thing about problems like that, assuming you blew the jack, is that there's no guarantee how other parts will work. I've seen blown capacitors on motherboards and the computer still boots up and works, sometimes; othertimes it does nothing.

To troubleshoot a problem like this, especially when you don't have any expertise in the area, you have to eliminate parts. You do that by swapping them with others. If it's a problem with multiple tapes, you've tried two different cords, and a handful of different cassette players then it's with the computer.

It could be a matter of settings, but I assume you've messed with all the settings... You should be able to just play it over your computer without recording it, without using any special software. Does it sound ok when you do that?

 

[Fear The Spear]

Thanks, T.
I like and appreciate your emphasis on using the easy and cheaper method of troubleshooting and "potential problem elimination", first