British Comedy Guide

Nerd/Boffin Technical corner. Page 12

I doubt that codecs are the solution. He should at least be able to hear Windows system sounds without adding extra codecs.

I suppose you've already asked him if he's got mute turned on, headphones plugged in, etc. Sometimes it's the most obvious stuff.

Other than that, you're right to look to drivers as the best bet, I reckon. Of course, it might be hardware -- the sound card could have packed up.

He just told me he put the old hard drive in and the sound worked.

This codec pack also contains drivers I assume. So hopefully this will work, although he ain't gonna bother trying till tomorrow. Rolling eyes

Thanks for the help.

"Realtek High Definition Audio Driver"

Does the manufacturer's website have downloadable drivers?

The company seems to be quite ambiguous. Not sure where it comes from.

Roxio 8

I copied a DVD tonight and used the 'stage to hard drive' option for the first time.

I've now lost 4Gb of hard drive space and can't find where it's saved it to! Any ideas Ode Pals?

Open it again and look where it's saving it, in the options, first?

Nah, tried that. It doesn't give any indication.

I've used Windows search on today's date, system restore back a couple of days, checked all the temp files in My Documents, programme files for Roxio.

They jus' dun vanish'd Kingfish.

Empty temporary files? Could it be on your clipboard? *shrugs*

Quote: Oldrocker @ September 28 2010, 12:17 AM BST

Nah, tried that. It doesn't give any indication.

It's bound to be set out in the options or preferences somewhere.

Search for .vob files, that might find it. Or look in the Roxio application folder itself.

Maybe someone stoled it, Dave?

Have you accidentally partitioned your hard drive? :D

Apparently my pc has a mixture of USB1 and USB2 ports. I need to locate the USB2 port to work properly with my media player. For the love of Christ, how?!

Quote: Lee Henman @ October 3 2010, 10:04 PM BST

Apparently my pc has a mixture of USB1 and USB2 ports. I need to locate the USB2 port to work properly with my media player. For the love of Christ, how?!

Are you trying to plug an external device (media player?) into your PC and it won't run? Which Operating System is your PC running on? Is it up to date - with latest updates (or "service pack 3" in the case of Windows XP)? If not, maybe you need to download and install updates/service pack. If there's a mix of USB1 and 2 ports, try each one (with your media player) and see it works. If nothing works, maybe you'll have to run BIOS and change USB speed to full.

Quote: Kenneth @ October 3 2010, 10:34 PM BST

Are you trying to plug an external device (media player?) into your PC and it won't run? Which Operating System is your PC running on? Is it up to date - with latest updates (or "service pack 3" in the case of Windows XP)? If not, maybe you need to download and install updates/service pack. If there's a mix of USB1 and 2 ports, try each one (with your media player) and see it works. If nothing works, maybe you'll have to run BIOS and change USB speed to full.

Okay it's a Dell Inspiron 531, about 3 years old running Vista Home Premium. My media player does work on the USB ports on the front but it's slow as Hell - it can take up to 5 minutes to transfer a gig of data like a movie. I read online that the Inspiron has 2 USB2 ports but it looks like they could be round the back of the tower which frankly I'm not even going to attempt - the tower is in a REALLY awkward place and surrounded by stuff that I really don't want to start unplugging. Cheers anyways :)

Quote: Lee Henman @ October 3 2010, 10:04 PM BST

Apparently my pc has a mixture of USB1 and USB2 ports. I need to locate the USB2 port to work properly with my media player. For the love of Christ, how?!

Annoying isn't it and with super duper USB3 coming along it will get even more confusing.

They are compatible, so if you plug a high speed USB2 device into a USB1 socket it works but slowly.

Usually with windows if you plug a high speed USB2 device into a USB1 socket it pops up a box saying this will run quicker if you plug it into a USB2 socket (or similar message) so try all the sockets until you find one that doesn't pop up the box.

To see exactly how they are connected, Control Panel -> system -> hardware -Device manager

Then View -Devices by connection
then expand ACPI Multiprocessor (or PC)
then expand Microsoft ACPI compliant system or similat
then expand PCI bus
then work through expanding all the USB things you see

Then when you plug in a USB device you should see it appear in the Devices manager under its connection hub.

Quote: Lee Henman @ October 3 2010, 11:05 PM BST

Okay it's a Dell Inspiron 531, about 3 years old running Vista Home Premium. My media player does work on the USB ports on the front but it's slow as Hell - it can take up to 5 minutes to transfer a gig of data like a movie. I read online that the Inspiron has 2 USB2 ports but it looks like they could be round the back of the tower which frankly I'm not even going to attempt - the tower is in a REALLY awkward place and surrounded by stuff that I really don't want to start unplugging. Cheers anyways :)

Get yourself some USB extension cables, then make ONE visit round the back to plug them in, but keep the free ends of the cables around the front so you can plug future stuff in there.

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