Oh no! More boring computer problems! Oh no!

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (1739 of them)

View Previous Page...

I'm having speed issues on my ADSL

how do I best

1. test the speeds I'm getting

2. fix it so it's faster, because I know my speeds are too slow

(I was downloading tricky's mix on ILM earlier and only getting speeds of 5/6 kbps, when I'm on 2meg broadband)

― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 18:03 (twenty years ago)

1. Use the speed test here.

2. God, I wish I knew. There are all sorts of voodoo things you can do with packet sizes and the like, but they have a negligble effect from what I can tell. If you're only get 5k/s on the speedtest tho, it's probably time to call yr provider

― stet (stet), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 18:18 (twenty years ago)

downstream 280 Kbps (35.0 KB/sec) 302 Kbps (inc. overheads)
upstream 211 Kbps (26.4 KB/sec) 227 Kbps (inc. overheads)

rubbish!

I am phoning my provider

― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

(Zapping the PRAM turned out to be the answer for me.)

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 18:34 (twenty years ago)

wow: does the PRAM still have any useful purpose in OS X?! i thot it was just a relic.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 21:32 (twenty years ago)

if anything, it's got even *more* stuff in it now.

― stet (stet), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 21:33 (twenty years ago)

well bugger. me. wot like?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 07:21 (twenty years ago)

Steve Jobs' babies, obv.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 07:32 (twenty years ago)

I think the PRAM contains all sorts of magic settings for OpenFirmware to use for bootstrapping the kernel.

― ~~~~ DODONGO DISLIKES SMOKE ~~~~ (ex machina), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 08:22 (twenty years ago)

see, this suggests there's nowt exciting in there at all. i'm really intrigued as to what setting was causing casuistry's problems.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 12:23 (twenty years ago)

this is pretty much the best source of info for OF on mac page http://www.netneurotic.de/mac/openfirmware.html

if you boot into openfirmware and enter "printenv" that shows you all the stuff in there. LOTS of little things, and some of them do control how the booting progresses

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 12:33 (twenty years ago)

-- ~~~~ DODONGO DISLIKES SMOKE ~~~~ has it right. PRAM's packed with Open Firmware bits -- basically all the settings that must stay the same regardless of what disk you boot from, plus hardware configuration stuff, boot device etc etc. Also, you used about.com? eugh.

― stet (stet), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 16:43 (twenty years ago)

It has essentially all the BIOS information on the PC and then some!

― ~~~~ DODONGO DISLIKES SMOKE ~~~~ (ex machina), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 16:44 (twenty years ago)

I've had to send my Powerbook off to the menders cos:

- I got the Tiger 'let's fail to recognise the lower memory slot' problem.

- I got the Tiger 'let's fail to wake the display from sleep when the lid has been closed.

- I got the Tiger 'let's have a kernal trap when we turn Airport on/off'.

PRAM zapped and reset, PMU reset, RAM tested and still the problem remains. Think it might be a dodgy airport connection, but it's a grade A pain whatever it is.

― Dave B (daveb), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 18:12 (twenty years ago)

yea, sounds like a faulty bus

― ~~~~ DODONGO DISLIKES SMOKE ~~~~ (ex machina), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

sorry to be such a fkn computer remedial. I'm trying to forward the ports on my airport base station for soulseek (2234, 2240 &c.) but my ISP says I am on a dynamic IP address. the port forwarding I believe can only go on if I'm on a static IP. is there a way to set tht up, despite my ISP's advice? airport only allows you to forward to 10.0.1.x addresses. I'm currently on a 192.168.1.x address - using DCHP. I'm loathe to get into using "DHCP with manual" which is what I presume I need to use cos it would mean having to a. go in re-configure my network settins b. my airport settings and c. my modem settings which all seem finely balanced at the moment like some fkn annoying jenga of sloth.

:*/

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 19:27 (twenty years ago)

is airport running the DHCP server?

― ~~~~ DODONGO DISLIKES SMOKE ~~~~ (ex machina), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 19:38 (twenty years ago)

uh haha I don't know jon. I got this setup:

wall jack -> linksys ADSL modem -> airport

network settings: TCP/IP using DCHP
modem settings: PPPoA (even though it should be PPPoE? or even bridged?)
airport settings: configure TCP/IP using ethernet using DHCP

I guess the ISP is running the DHCP server?

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 19:41 (twenty years ago)

can you tell what IP(s) the airport box thinks it has?

― ~~~~ DODONGO DISLIKES SMOKE ~~~~ (ex machina), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 19:48 (twenty years ago)

It doesn't matter if your ISP gives you a dynamic or static IP for this. What you need to do is set your laptop (assuming that's the one you want to slsk) to a static IP, and have the airport forward from to that. So, set the DHCP to manual in Network pref pane, then use Airport Admin Util to forward the slks ports to the newly-static laptop IP.

Er, did that make sense?

― stet (stet), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 19:56 (twenty years ago)

You can probably configure your airport's DHCP to always give that computer the same IP also...

― ~~~~ DODONGO DISLIKES SMOKE ~~~~ (ex machina), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 19:58 (twenty years ago)

haha ok I'll give it a try

the modem keeps hanging too but that's a separate (really fkn annoying) issue

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 20:08 (twenty years ago)

hey thanks fr the help people

I think I know what's going on but I have one last (for now) question

I'm running a wireless network through airport: one mac, one PC

the mac is always on, but the PC goes on and off

I've no evidence (I've not tested) but I think the PC being rebooted / re-initialised is causing the modem to hang - and my connection is lost

is this possible?

and also if this was the case, shouldn't the modem just reconnect to the adsl (I have a linksys modem set to "keep alive", with a redial period I've now changed to 3mins instead of the prev. 1min) since the mac is still on?

― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 15 September 2005 16:40 (twenty years ago)

I was messing around with the processes in the Task Manager and trying to quit out of them to free up some memory so that I can edit some video. But after I restarted, I noticed that the little arrow in my system tray that lets me expand the tray to see 'hidden' tray icons has disappeared. Does anyone know what program it is that manages this function?

― Leeeeeeeee (Leee), Monday, 19 September 2005 23:16 (twenty years ago)

try right-clicking on yr taskbar, select properties, un-check 'hide inactive items', hit 'apply', then re-check 'hide inactive items', hit okay

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 00:34 (twenty years ago)

any ideas about this - seems very strange, and seemingly no luck on google

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7035
Date: 9/5/2005
Time: 4:53:49 PM
User: MUSIC\RH
Computer: MUSIC
Description:
The soylentgreen service was successfully sent a start control.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

― ronny longjohns (ronny longjohns), Friday, 23 September 2005 03:28 (twenty years ago)

I've no evidence (I've not tested) but I think the PC being rebooted / re-initialised is causing the modem to hang - and my connection is lost

is this possible?

I don't know if it's possible, but it used to happen to me all the time.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 23 September 2005 04:00 (twenty years ago)

ooh:

http://www.fullspeedahead.com/flyimage.aspx?nm=CK_Vigorelli.jpg&big=true

― Ed (dali), Friday, 23 September 2005 04:51 (twenty years ago)

oops, not there

― Ed (dali), Friday, 23 September 2005 04:52 (twenty years ago)

bueller?

soylentgreen service ?!?

― ronny longjohns (ronny longjohns), Friday, 23 September 2005 14:17 (twenty years ago)

So Juulia gave us DVD-Rs with the Divx files for the first season of Lost. But I can't get them to play on our Powerbook. When I put the discs in, I get a message that says there are no files on the disc that OSX recognizes, do I want to eject or ignore? I installed two different DIVX player things, but still nothing happens. Is the problem that she's using a Dell and we have a Powerbook?

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 26 September 2005 14:09 (twenty years ago)

TELL ME WHAT FILES YOU DO SEE I IMAGINE YOU HAVE TO INSTALL VIDEOLAN BYE

― ~~~~ DODONGO DISLIKES SMOKE ~~~~ (ex machina), Monday, 26 September 2005 16:21 (twenty years ago)

I don't see ANY files, because OSX doesn't see any files on the discs, so it makes me either eject it, or ignore it (which doesn't let me access the disc at all). I know the files are on there because they are the same discs that we used to watch Lost at Julia's house.

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 26 September 2005 16:41 (twenty years ago)

I suspect that the DVD-Rs were burned in a non-standard format that's only readable on the original PC. I ran into this once with some CD-Rs of mp3s. The way to double-check is to load the discs on a third computer and see what happens.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 26 September 2005 20:23 (twenty years ago)

This is a terrible fucking emergency!

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Monday, 26 September 2005 22:15 (twenty years ago)

hello
I got myself super win pe http://www.stv.ee/~butax/winpe.htm
via some torrent,
now I have an iso of like 1.63 Gigs

could someone tell me what should I burn on a cd, I want to make a boot disc.

― ez does it, Friday, 30 September 2005 19:15 (twenty years ago)

So apparently the torrent I'm dling of the lastest Lost has a sound sync issue and this guy has posted a fix as a small .rar file here:

http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3392849

How do I use this file to fix the avi file?

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 6 October 2005 09:27 (twenty years ago)

I am trying to open an excel file which

it was opened by mistake in word and now it keeps saying '[file name].xls: file format not valid'

is there any way I can either import from word or export to excel

or any other way I can fix this problem and open my spreadsheet?

― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 07:36 (twenty years ago)

You've tried opening it from excel rather than just double-clicking, right? You could try saving it in word as a doc (do 'save as...' not 'save') and then open from excel and it might retain the formatting

― beanz (beanz), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 07:49 (twenty years ago)

or right click the file > open with

― l;kjgds, Tuesday, 11 October 2005 07:51 (twenty years ago)

I'm guessing he's tried that and that the problem is that it's titled an .xls file but is actually a Word file. So maybe try changing the suffix to .doc?

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 07:54 (twenty years ago)

(I mean, it was originally an Excel file, but someone's opened it and saved it in Word, somehow overwriting the original with a Word version but retaining the file extention .xls, thus confusing Office)

Well, that's all I can think of, anyway.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 07:56 (twenty years ago)

tried opening it from excel, and double-clicking

changed suffic to .doc but don't know why:

tried opening again in excel '[file name].doc: file format not valid'

obviously

― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 07:57 (twenty years ago)

You tried opening the .doc version from Word too, yes?

In which case, I give up. I've no idea what you've done to your file.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 07:59 (twenty years ago)

Well that's me fresh outta ideas
Except - do you have open office or anything like that?

― beanz (beanz), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 08:00 (twenty years ago)

can't do it I'm afraid, you'll have to copy & paste

― Ste (Fuzzy), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 08:10 (twenty years ago)

copy & paste ugh

thank god it's not my file

it opens in word

both of the files, the .xls and .doc

but copy & paste... : /

oh well thanks for the ride!

― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 08:12 (twenty years ago)

is there any website that can be used to track what other websites are linking to particular articles, essays, and other websites?

I want to be able to copy and paste a link into some sort of link search engine and find blog entries, etc. on such

I don't think google can do this can it?

― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 12:24 (twenty years ago)

Oh, I didn't realise you could open it up in Word OK. No wonder you thought my idea was bad.

When you select the spreadsheety table in Word and then try 'Paste Special' in Excel, does it give you a variety of options?

x-post. yes, Google can do this, hang on a sec.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 12:32 (twenty years ago)

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=link%3Awww.freakytrigger.co.uk&meta=

for example.

You use the link: operator then the web address you're interested in. I always think Google is a bit stingy on results.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 12:33 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 1639 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.