Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread II

[Genocidicbunny]

civ_king

looks like some heavy artifacting. The driver may have crashed or your video card ran hot (although I doubt that second one as civ 4 is not very graphically demanding.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Question: Is the proper term "page file" or "swap file." I know they're interchangeable but which is preferred.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

They're interchangeable, so either one works.

 

[civ_king]

civ_king

looks like some heavy artifacting. The driver may have crashed or your video card ran hot (although I doubt that second one as civ 4 is not very graphically demanding.

I was playing on a GEM map which is IIRC 225% as big as a Huge map and I was running with 31 civs and had been playing for ~3 hours,
so it should be safe to turn on?

 

[Genocidicbunny]

That doesnt do anything to graphics usage actually. Map size makes a difference in RAM and CPU usage, but graphics remains pretty much the same level to level.

Yes, it should be safe. If the card failed, there's already nothing you can do and turning your computer on wont make much of a difference.

 

[civ_king]

actually it seems to have been overheating, because after I let it cool down it worked fine, but now I have learned APPLE CIDER FTW!!!

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Why is my computer screen turning blank (going idle), even though I have it set NOT to go blank? (when I move the mouse, the screen returns to normal)

It also goes to the "enter password" screen even though it's set NOT to do it either.

It happens when I leave the computer alone for a few minutes.

 

[Cutlass]

Something is screwy and it's not accepting your settings, or there's another place you should be setting them.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Could it be the "Norton 360 Premier Edition" program? I tried editing the idling settings, but obviously it didn't work.

Or could it be a screwy update that Windows Update d/l'ed?

 

[Cutlass]

Possible. I haven't used any version of Norton in many years. So not familiar with the recent versions. But if something changed after you updated windows, odds seem good that your problem could be based on that. They install bits that make you do things you don't want to do until you learn to circumvent what they want for what you want.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Question: How much free space should you allow a case fan? I mean, as far as putting things beside it. on the outside. I have one fan on the top (nothing blocking that) and one on the side. I'm wondering about the side one.

 

[Cutlass]

There should be a couple of inches outside the case for it to draw air in. It doesn't need a huge space.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Question: How do you embed text into a picture? I've seen somebody do this for the code to DeCSS (#10). I want to try an experiment.

EDIT: I tried this with textfile. It didn't work.

 

[Till]

Gimp allows you to set and read PNG comments (Image -> properties).

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Thanks.

Is there any advantage to setting the affinity of Folding@Home to one core on the processor? I googled it and I found various things like an affinity changer. I did find this which mentioned something about "cache locality"(?). When I googled "cache locality" I got some code which confused me even more. Google Define didn't help.

 

[TheAlamo]

Yes. When you set it to one processor, your CPUs will give off fewer gamma rays, and they won't wear out as fast.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Yes. When you set it to one processor, your CPUs will give off fewer gamma rays, and they won't wear out as fast.

eh?????

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Media Player Classic has suddenly started crashing when I open any file. It was working just fine a few days ago.

I googled it and I found this very recent post saying something about a Vista update, but the only fix is to use MPC-HC which I don't like. (It also says that they only have trouble with Xvid/AVI. On my end, any MPEG codecs will also crash.) I also tried running as administrator but that didn't help any.

For now I use VLC, but the rendering (is that the word?) isn't quite as good.

Does anybody think I should try reinstalling the codecs? I'd rather not mess things up if I could.

EDIT: Here's the "Problem Details." I googled some of the codes and got a lot of different programs.

Spoiler :

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: mplayerc.exe
Application Version: 6.4.9.1
Application Timestamp: 4aeeddf3
Fault Module Name: mplayerc.exe
Fault Module Version: 6.4.9.1
Fault Module Timestamp: 4aeeddf3
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00080b5f
OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: fd00
Additional Information 2: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
Additional Information 3: fd00
Additional Information 4: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

Read our privacy statement:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=50163&clcid=0x0409

 

[Zelig]

Media Player Classic has suddenly started crashing when I open any file. It was working just fine a few days ago.

I googled it and I found this very recent post saying something about a Vista update, but the only fix is to use MPC-HC which I don't like. (It also says that they only have trouble with Xvid/AVI. On my end, any MPEG codecs will also crash.) I also tried running as administrator but that didn't help any.

For now I use VLC, but the rendering (is that the word?) isn't quite as good.

Does anybody think I should try reinstalling the codecs? I'd rather not mess things up if I could.

EDIT: Here's the "Problem Details." I googled some of the codes and got a lot of different programs.

Spoiler :

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: mplayerc.exe
Application Version: 6.4.9.1
Application Timestamp: 4aeeddf3
Fault Module Name: mplayerc.exe
Fault Module Version: 6.4.9.1
Fault Module Timestamp: 4aeeddf3
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00080b5f
OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: fd00
Additional Information 2: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
Additional Information 3: fd00
Additional Information 4: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

Read our privacy statement:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=50163&clcid=0x0409

Use MPC-HC, it's better.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I have tried it, but I prefer the original. HC has too many options I don't need, and plus it stretches/crops some of my videos for no reason.

EDIT: Screencaps to show what I mean

VLC

Spoiler :

MPC-HC

Spoiler :

I did try changing the aspect ratio and things but it just makes it even more stretchy. I also tried changing the renderer -- no luck.

EDIT: This file worked fine in the original MPC. So I don't think it's a codec issue.

IMPORTANT EDIT: I went to test another video and I accidentally hit "Media Player Classic," the original one. And it didn't crash. So somehow when I installed MPC-HC it made the other one work. Hmmm....





Now, another silly question: When I edit shortcuts in the Games Explorer, I notice "Unused play commands." What would the use of these? The only thing I found was something about changing the parameters. Why would you need a different shortcut to change the parameters? (I have only two games where I changed the parameters -- one is using this program to change the screen resolution, otherwise it tends to stretch off the screen. The second one is a compatibility thing to make the game only use one core on the processor.)

And another silly question: On XP, I used to every so often clear the recent programs off the start menu because sometimes they liked to get stuck. However I haven't found a quick way to do that in Vista. The only way I know is to right click them all and "Remove from this list." Is there a quick way that I missed? I looked through start menu options etc... Google tells me how to disable it but not how to just clear.
EDIT: Yay, I found something. I had to uncheck then re-check the store the recent programs thing ... Could I create a batch file from this and pin it?