Author Topic: Tech-related problems (Read 484024 times)

thatguy · « **Reply #1040 on:** June 23, 2007, 01:14:29 PM »

MKV is just a container that holds standard content (such as divx or xvid video, mp3 audio, etc)--it just happens to be fairly sophisticated since it can also hold multiple video/audio tracks as well as subtitles and chapter info, whereas AVI is much more limited. The good news is that since the content inside is still standard, there's no technological barrier. But the trouble is that since MKV is really quite advanced, if your particular MKV file has a lot of features on it (beyond just one video and one audio), when converting it to burn onto DVD you'll lose those features, and the process might be a little tricky.

In any case, Matroska's own website has some information as well as a couple links to the programs you'll be interested in. Check it out here.

BigDnm01 · « **Reply #1041 on:** June 23, 2007, 09:08:57 PM »

my thanks to *thatguy* for thatguy's help. (sorry bout the pun). hehe

StreakInTheSky · « **Reply #1042 on:** June 23, 2007, 11:40:03 PM »

Quote from: BigDnm01 on June 23, 2007, 09:08:57 PM

my thanks to *thatguy* for thatguy's help. (sorry bout the pun). hehe

Don't be sorry, just don't post it

shadowstar · « **Reply #1043 on:** June 25, 2007, 11:47:23 AM »

Well it's not really a "tech-related problem", but I think it's a bit too technical for me to understand

It's about my domain (which I bought in April).

What are they saying in the thing I marked in red? What will they charge me for? Will they charge me in the first place?

I just know I bought the domain, but are they just saying that they'll charge me every certain number of days if I go over a certain limit? I don't want "unexpected payments" showing up on my credit card statement, is all.

Genesis · « **Reply #1044 on:** June 25, 2007, 12:22:14 PM »

If you ever owe more than 9.23, then every 15 days they're going to bill you until they get that amount. But if you have a credit card setup and you pay off your card every month, you don't have anything to worry about.

edit: lol, I noticed you bought a one year plan, so you really don't have anything to worry about because each month you'll always owe $0 until your year is up

shadowstar · « **Reply #1045 on:** June 25, 2007, 01:06:53 PM »

Quote from: Genesis on June 25, 2007, 12:22:14 PM

If you ever owe more than 9.23, then every 15 days they're going to bill you until they get that amount. But if you have a credit card setup and you pay off your card every month, you don't have anything to worry about.

edit: lol, I noticed you bought a one year plan, so you really don't have anything to worry about because each month you'll always owe $0 until your year is up

Ah, I see now, haha. Thanks a lot!

thatguy · « **Reply #1046 on:** June 25, 2007, 01:32:14 PM »

^ durr, you mean on the 16th of every month. such as January 16th, February 16th, etc.

After your year has expired, your monthly expenses will accumulate until billing. For instance, if in one month you accumulate $5 in charges, you won't be billed that month. But if in the next you use another $5, then your total is $10 (ie: over $9.23), and then on the 16th of that month you'll be billed.

$9.23 is a rather odd amount, but I imagine that it's how they have integrated pay-per-usage services into their system. I'm willing to bet that if you continue to make all of your payments on-time, that number will grow.

In any case, payment shouldn't be an issue. You should receive an email once billed, and should be given a period (usually 1-2 weeks) before the payment is due. The purpose of scheduling it on the 16th is because that was when you opened the account, and it's used to keep track of the bandwidth you use. In other words, for the 1800+ GB of bandwidth you have, the meter gets reset on the 16th of every month. Not a big deal if you're not using it all, but if for instance you hosted lots of big files to share, it might make sense to post/share a new file on the 16th of the month, rather than the day before, so that you aren't charged for extra bandwidth.

shadowstar · « **Reply #1047 on:** June 26, 2007, 09:19:07 AM »

^ So basically, as long as I don't go over the bandwidth (and storage) limit, then I don't have to worry at all about anything?

thatguy · « **Reply #1048 on:** June 26, 2007, 09:31:04 AM »

^ yes, for the first year you paid for anyway.

huggumwuggums · « **Reply #1049 on:** July 03, 2007, 07:04:35 AM »

There's something wrong with one of my hard drives. Occasionally, when I play/copy/burn files from that drive, my PC would hang and I'd have to either wait for some write error fail message thing to come out or force reset it. I can't even defragment it past 12%. Is it dying and is there anything I can do to fix it?

thatguy · « **Reply #1050 on:** July 03, 2007, 07:23:49 AM »

Yes, it has all the signs of bad/corrupt sectors. Try to backup as much of the data as you can, and don't write anything onto it.

I have other suggestions, but need to know which hard drive this is. Do you only have one, and is it your C: drive which has windows (or your OS)? Or is it something like an external hdd?

huggumwuggums · « **Reply #1051 on:** July 03, 2007, 07:28:28 AM »

Noooes D:

Well I guess it's a good thing that it's showing signs. My previous HDD died out of the blue. I've started backing up the files and haven't written anything on it since I noticed what was going on last week.

Quote

I have other suggestions, but need to know which hard drive this is. Do you only have one, and is it your C: drive which has windows (or your OS)? Or is it something like an external hdd?

It's just one of my internal drives (I have 3), it's only 80Gb and it's not the one with the OS.

thatguy · « **Reply #1052 on:** July 03, 2007, 08:22:01 AM »

Alright, then you should be able to back up the files without any problem. If it had the OS (which is always writing data) then you might have trouble.

Since it's just 80gb I figure you won't have much of a problem backing it up, so I'll just leave it at that.

arie · « **Reply #1053 on:** July 05, 2007, 07:47:08 AM »

Maybe dumb question,
But is it possible when i'm listen to an mp-3 in mediaplayer/winamp/vlc that the single/album cover-photo will be visible?
And how does it work?
I prefer winamp.

Thanks.

marktobias · « **Reply #1054 on:** July 05, 2007, 02:01:29 PM »

I have a new motherboard, a new processor, a new stick of RAM, a new power supply. The only old thing I have is my audio card but I left that out on my most recent fresh Windows install and I've still had problems. I've tried with three different hard drives but every time I install Windows there are errors. Sometimes Zone Alarm doesn't load when I boot up, sometimes AVG doesn't load when I boot up, things are extremely slow (task manager says CPU is getting up to 80/90% when I'm just transferring a file or something and the cursor starts to be juddery). On my last install I tried making a reasonably large gif and the comp just completely froze up.

A brief history of conflicts would be that when we rebuilt my computer we tried to save some files on two corrupt (but still readable) hard drives and also in the end my graphics card kept causing everything not to run properly so we binned that.

I'm just trying to mention everything I can think of but I'm at a dead end really and am expecting this Windows install to die on me every time I boot up. The usual way it dies is by not being able to log me into my profile and loading a default one because it can't read some files or something (I'm on Windows 2000).

Luckily my Dad has a laptop that I can use whenever he's not. I just can't afford to spend any more money on this machine right now and it doesn't help that I can't eliminate what's wrong with it.

thatguy · « **Reply #1055 on:** July 05, 2007, 02:11:57 PM »

@arie: as far as I know, winamp isn't configured to do this on its own. but there are a number of plugins you can search for that should get the job done.

@mark: can you provide specifics on your hardware? ZA and AVG can be resource-hogs at times, so it would help to know how fast your computer is. Also, though it should be relatively stable, Windows 2000 isn't by any means a very fast OS (it's actually the NT/server version of Win98, and is older than XP).

marktobias · « **Reply #1056 on:** July 05, 2007, 02:22:10 PM »

Thanks for the fast response.

I know 2000 is slower but it's what I had installed before I had the new hardware. It's the errors that are the main sign something major is wrong. It was faster before all this new hardware was installed (it was all replaced because the PSU was dying and somehow killed the motherboard) and my motherboard and CPU are supposed to be upgrades.

My spec.

Windows:    Windows 2000 5.0 (Build 2195) Service Pack 4
Internet Explorer:    6.0.2800.1106
Memory (RAM):     504 MB
CPU:    Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
CPU Speed:    2951.5 MHz
Sound card:     SB Audigy Audio [E400]
Display Adapters:     Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller | NetMeeting driver
Motherboard:    ASUSTeK Computer Inc. P5PE-VM

thatguy · « **Reply #1057 on:** July 05, 2007, 02:28:01 PM »

Quote from: marktobias on July 05, 2007, 02:22:10 PM

I know 2000 is slower but it's what I had installed before I had the new hardware

Do you mean you are using the same install of Windows from your last hardware? Everytime you install a major hardware component, you need to reinstall Windows. It's because of the way Windows configures its dependancies during the install. Part of the reason why a "carried over" copy of Windows is slow is because it's looking for all of your old hardware.

marktobias · « **Reply #1058 on:** July 05, 2007, 02:42:20 PM »

No, no. This is a complete fresh install. I've installed Windows too much recently

it's painful.

My latest install was this week because I got a new hard drive to test it on to see if I still had the same problems.

I just meant I've had Windows 2000 installed before so I know how it behaves.

thatguy · « **Reply #1059 on:** July 05, 2007, 03:20:04 PM »

Well, as far as I can tell, I don't see anything wrong with your hardware. Windows 2000 might not be working well with the drivers, however. XP will have all of the latest drivers, so if possible you might want to make the move to XP.