Author Topic: Hardware/OS Geek Thread (Read 56356 times)

Minty Fresh · « **Reply #950:** June 20, 2011, 07:57:02 AM »

Uh oh.

Typing from wife's laptop this morning because my desktop is ill. Recently my son kept complaining about the tower randomly shutting itself off. He would turn it right back on but it would turn off again in 1/2 hour or so.

Yesterday while watching the game online, the tower shut down on me for the first time. I started it right back up and had no problems through the remainder of the game. I went outside to mow the lawn and came back in to my son upset because the tower shut down on him again but this time it wouldn't "restart."

Upon inspection this morning, there's no power to the unit. The speakers work, the monitor works, my blackberry charges so it's not the power to the outlet/surge protector.

I will say that I had noticed th tower getting rather hot at times so I placed a small fan next to the back end of the unit in an attempt to cool it down and it seemed to work in cooling it down considerably (this was about a week ago shortly after the problem started happening to my son).

Suggestions?

PC · « **Reply #951:** June 20, 2011, 08:54:39 PM »

It sounds like a power supply problem.

The Chief · « **Reply #952:** June 20, 2011, 10:12:43 PM »

That was my first guess too, though motherboard is also a possibility.

Lintyfresh85 · « **Reply #953:** June 21, 2011, 02:14:09 PM »

Verizon is ending their unlimited data plan?

Guess that ends my usage of my smart phone.

The Chief · « **Reply #954:** June 21, 2011, 02:18:58 PM »

Pretty much all of the carriers are moving (or have already moved) away from unlimited plans. While I agree that it sucks, I'm not sure it matters that much, you can get the cheaper plans and do just fine with them unless you're a super duper hardcore user. For those people, yeah, definitely sucks.

I'm grandfathered on an unlimited plan for now at least, but I'm sure they'll find a way to force me to change it.

HalfSmokes · « **Reply #955:** June 21, 2011, 02:19:06 PM »

Quote from: Lintyfresh85 on June 21, 2011, 02:14:09 PM

Verizon is ending their unlimited data plan?

Guess that ends my usage of my smart phone.

no grandfathering?

The Chief · « **Reply #956:** June 21, 2011, 02:21:46 PM »

Quote from: HalfSmokes on June 21, 2011, 02:19:06 PM

no grandfathering?

If I had to guess, they'll "allow" grandfathering, but they'll make it so that pretty much any tiny change to contract or plan (including renewing with a new phone) will force you to change to a newer data plan, and once they do it, they'll say they can't undo it if you say you didn't know and want to go back. Or they'll just deliberately change it for no reason and feed you the same line of BS when you call them on it.

So in short, no, no grandfathering.

HalfSmokes · « **Reply #957:** June 21, 2011, 02:24:11 PM »

Quote from: The Chief on June 21, 2011, 02:21:46 PM

If I had to guess, they'll "allow" grandfathering, but they'll make it so that pretty much any tiny change to contract or plan (including renewing with a new phone) will force you to change to a newer data plan, and once they do it, they'll say they can't undo it if you say you didn't know and want to go back. Or they'll just deliberately change it for no reason and feed you the same line of BS when you call them on it.

So in short, no, no grandfathering.

hopefully AT&T doesn't pick up on that, right now, I've upgraded phones and still kept the unlimited data even though they stopped offering it a while ago.

Lintyfresh85 · « **Reply #958:** June 21, 2011, 02:32:07 PM »

Quote from: HalfSmokes on June 21, 2011, 02:19:06 PM

no grandfathering?

I heard no... but I'm hoping that was bad information.

Right now, half way through the month, and I've used 200 MB of data. I guess I wouldn't hit the 2GB cap... but I still worry about it.

MarquisDeSade · « **Reply #959:** June 21, 2011, 02:35:50 PM »

I just found out Cox has a bandwidth cap of 400gb/month.

The Chief · « **Reply #960:** June 21, 2011, 02:36:14 PM »

Quote from: MarquisDeSade on June 21, 2011, 02:35:50 PM

I just found out Cox has a bandwidth cap of 400gb/month.

That's a lot better than Comcast's 250.

I'm sure the people of Canada would gladly take either one.

MarquisDeSade · « **Reply #961:** June 21, 2011, 02:50:39 PM »

Probably. They used to not have one at all, which was really nice. Good thing I put the Bloomberg terminal in the closet...

Nathan · « **Reply #962:** June 21, 2011, 02:55:55 PM »

Quote from: Lintyfresh85 on June 21, 2011, 02:14:09 PM

Verizon is ending their unlimited data plan?

Guess that ends my usage of my smart phone.

Here's a hint. You've never had unlimited data. It was unlimited...as long as you used less than 5GB. That's better than 2GB obviously, but still, neither Verizon nor AT&T really offered unlimited data.

I'm grandfathered into the old plan on AT&T, but I never used close to 5GB a month of 3G data anyway. I'm usually around WiFi, and streaming every game over 3G doesn't use that much data.

Still, data caps will be the death of the internets. Stupid ISPs liked to say unlimited until people actually started to use their high speed connections for the things it was made for, like streaming video, instead of just loading webpages.

sportsfan882 · « **Reply #963:** June 21, 2011, 03:10:48 PM »

2 GB is plenty unless you are doing hardcore streaming on your phone or big downloads.

I got close to using the 2 GB limit on my iPad last month but came up a couple hundred MB short. I was streaming a couple Nats games via Slingbox over 3G which I normally only do over WI-FI but I was on the road so I used the 3G.

PANatsFan · « **Reply #964:** June 21, 2011, 04:35:26 PM »

Quote from: The Chief on June 21, 2011, 02:36:14 PM

That's a lot better than Comcast's 250.

I'm sure the people of Canada would gladly take either one.

FiOS

The Chief · « **Reply #965:** June 21, 2011, 04:36:01 PM »

Quote from: PANatsFan on June 21, 2011, 04:35:26 PM

FiOS

is still not available where I live, nor where I am likely moving to.

PANatsFan · « **Reply #966:** June 21, 2011, 04:36:46 PM »

Quote from: The Chief on June 21, 2011, 04:36:01 PM

is still not available where I live, nor where I am likely moving to.

I'm fully aware that when I move to the city I'll get borked and end up with RCN or something awful.

MarquisDeSade · « **Reply #967:** June 21, 2011, 04:51:30 PM »

Enjoy taking it up the azz in more ways than one...

Lintyfresh85 · « **Reply #968:** June 21, 2011, 05:44:48 PM »

FiOS FTW!

Nathan · « **Reply #969:** June 22, 2011, 05:22:56 PM »

Ok, this technology is pretty awesome.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/lytro-the-camera-that-could-change-photography-forever/

The Chief · « **Reply #970:** June 23, 2011, 10:58:38 AM »

and boom goes the dynamite:

http://www.dailytech.com/Verizons+New+Data+Plans+Detailed+/article21984.htm

The Chief · « **Reply #971:** June 23, 2011, 10:59:28 AM »

However:

Quote

If you have Verizon's $29.99 unlimited data plan, you will be able to keep it after July 7.
   You'll also be able to keep the $29.99 unlimited plan when you upgrade to a new phone. (No word on if there's a pricing difference or when that policy could change.)
   If you add a line to an existing account, you'll not be able to chose the $29.99 unlimited data plan.
   If you're a new customer between now and July 7, you'll still be able to choose the $29.99 plan.

Emphasis mine

Minty Fresh · « **Reply #972:** June 25, 2011, 05:43:10 PM »

PC fully resurrected. Apparently some piece inside the PSU overheated and rendered it useless. My buddy had an extra kicking around from a computer he built a year ago, substituted it in, and now it's working fine.

saltydad · « **Reply #973:** June 26, 2011, 01:04:19 AM »

It's nice to have friends like that!

Minty Fresh · « **Reply #974:** June 26, 2011, 09:45:42 AM »

Quote from: saltydad on June 26, 2011, 01:04:19 AM

It's nice to have friends like that!

Tell me about it. I went from paying someone $100 (parts and labor) to buying my buddy a six-pack of Killians Irish Red (his favorite). Then, he let me drink two of them while we fixed it.

Talk about your classic win-win.