A thread for boring computer questions.

xp yeah, without my having much awareness of what it was doing or could do, i got them to run chkdsk and it was what reported unrepairable problems, with no more info than that. dunno what its diagnostic powers are usually thought to be.

every dell i've worked with has a diagnostics option if you press f12 upon boot up. on a model that old, that may have to be run from a separate disc, but if it's an available option, it will tell you whether or not the hard drive has failed.

chkdsk /f /r

fixes errors and checks for bad sectors. if they are getting HD error messages it's probably time to just get a new drive. you can get 2TB for $60 these days, and it'll help future proof their setup.

Not sure if anyone can help:

I just downloaded three albums via iTunes Store but I’m without internet at home. The downloads are incomplete and coffee shop wireless doesn’t seem to enable it. Automatic downloads are on not sure why it doesn’t work

When I'm using Google to search for things, my computer is jumping to qxsearch and then https://uk.search.yahoo.com rather than finding Google answers. Is that normal??? I'm using Mozilla.

You have malware. I suggest hurling your computer into the sea.

What would a Plan B be?

Go to your add-ons and see if qxsearch is there. If it is, remove it.

Thanks. Where would I find them?

ctrl-shift-a or look under the 3-bar menu on the upper right

Thanks ... There doesn't seem to be anything much there.

How odd. It occurred to me that I have Norton Security and going through them ... they don't think there's anything wrong.

I remain vaguely paranoid, mind.

what happens if you use any other browser

what is your default search engine set to ?

about:preferences#search

I can use Google on Internet Explorer.

wouldn't you just go to settings or preferences and change the default search engine? sometimes my anti-virus security software resets mine to enable "safe search" but it's probably because they have some deal with yahoo to make it the default.

X-post. It's set to Google on Mozilla.

sarahell, I guess I could just not use Mozilla (which is where the problem seems to be happening). I'm just a bit nervous that something is going on, for some reason.

Hmm. Removing an extension called PDF 1.2.1 seems to have resolved the issue (I removed it on the grounds that it was the only extension ...)

if you think that that was responsible for the search hijack then you can report it on the add-ons page (although i don't think anybody reads the comments becuase it already says "This extension add Google Analytics in all your pages and send all personals datas to this person")

(there's certainly a shitload more code in the new version compared with 1.1.0, but it's all packed and unreadable by mere humans)

Having seemingly resolved the issue ... should I be worried about anything? My bank account hasn't been emptied (yet)!

that probably won't happen, but your operating systems has now become a cryptocurrency mining slave 4eva!

I don't even know what that means.

don't worry imo

maybe run a bit of anti malware

I'm just joking djh. I have been downloading illegal stuff from dodgy Russian torrent proxy sites for years now, never had my bank account emptied yet. Although sometimes I do suspect my slow-ass running PC is actually a cryptocurrency mining slave!

just make sure you have good password protection etc

"your operating systems has now become a cryptocurrency mining slave 4eva!"

To be honest, you could tell me anything at this point and I would believe it.

there was something on BBC WS earlier about smartphones melting, because they have been hijacked by cryptocurrency mining malware that fatally overheats them. There is definitely something going on here. When your devices processing power are being hacked - it could go on for months - with only a vague feeling things are running a bit slower being the only symptom. The only sensible solution is not to worry for 10 seconds and then scream "We are all going to die!" very loudly and panic.

"The only sensible solution is not to worry for 10 seconds and then scream "We are all going to die!" very loudly and panic."

I own this.

anyone ever have quicklook die on os x, so that it shows stills but can't play the videos containing them, or gets caught on a cycling buffering icon?

i tried running qlmanage to no apparent effect, but restarting the whole machine undid whatever the problem was.

seems to be a lot of discussion on the web about it not working at all, or breaking after os upgrades, but not this. i hadn't made any changes recently, so it seems like it had to be some kind of cache or preference corruption or something.

I’ve been having some issues with quick look and pdfs. It seems to be iCloud related, or, at least it only seems to present on files that are in an iCloud directory.

huh, i hope that's not my problem, since it would mean i have icloud turned on for a folder i didn't turn it on for

I do worry about how pervasive iCloud hooks are into the file manger and filesystem.

iCloud or OneDrive - choose your poison!

Trying to burn a CD-R and getting the following message in Windows Media Player:

Windows Media Player could not complete burning because the disc is not compatible with your drive. Try inserting a different kind of recordable media or use a disc that supports a write speed that is compatible with your drive.

while Media Jukebox 14 is telling me:

Power Calibration Area Error.

Any ideas? Clean the player, maybe?

sounds like it's complaining about the speed. you can often change the burn speed, so instead of burning at 32x, say, reduce it to something like 16x or lower and it might work (disks are rated for certain burn speeds, which might be lower than the default your drive is using)

some background reading: http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/media/dvd-media-concepts.htm

but a lot of these articles i found when searching were from 2004 when 16x was considered fast.

wmp specific help: https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-change-burn-speed-in-windows-media-player-11-2438900

Thanks Koogs - appreciated, as ever. Running a five quid PC World cleaner through it has fixed the problem (for now, at least).

Windows Media Player? 2002 called

PC World? ...

I haven't used Media Player for years, though its installed on my computer. I was trying to suss out whether it was a software or hardware issue ... I realise that burning CDs seems weird to some people, too.

a five quid PC World cleaner
like, cleaning the lens?

Ha! Yes, it was that obvious.

hehe, cool

Hi this thread. It's Black Friday and I need a backup portable HD - 4TB or more.

I already have a Seagate 4TB drive but my old one died so I really need to back it up.

My problem is that I've been a PC/Windows user all my life, but I've just acquired a new MacBook.

My OG HD is formatted for PC (haven't tried it on the Mac yet)... But all the HDs I'm seeing are either formatted for Mac or PC, but not both.

Is this a problem? What can I do? I also absolutely don't want to wipe my current HD just to use it on my Mac, that would be heinous.

hmm iirc the problem is that you can't write on a windows formatted disk on a mac (and vice versa) so you kind of have to choose what OS you want to format it for

if I were you I would consider using a cloud solution

just out of curiosity, what files do you have that take up more than 4tb?

format the new hd as exFAT and you can read/write on both

if you don't and never will have any 4GiB or larger files (unilkely, i know), then format it as FAT32, i think it's limited to 2TiB so you'd need to partition the new hd accordingly

or install good ntfs drivers on the macbook and use ntfs for all backup drives. i assume this is viable on macs but don't quote me on that

that's easy! did not know exfat was working universally