Computer Technical Support Thread

[kals]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Can anyone recommend any alternatives to VLC media player please? @SB83 recommended a program a few years ago which supports more media file types than VLC, but I can't find it anywhere on the forum and it's not on my current PC.

It's the second program on the link Erwin posted (Pot player) but I had stopped using it as latter versions of the program started installing all sorts of dangerous garbage without your permission.

Ok thanks, good to know

[Antonov]

is it really impossible to play .mp4 from an USB to iPad?

I enquired this in my nearest Apple store, and they claimed it is not possible - no such 'transformator' exists.

I'd love to watch some of my .mp4s on my iPad, and that seemed the easiest/ most convenient way.

[Michkov]

Play or move? In the end it's a file so you should be able to move the file to the ipad, if an ipad can play mp4s is another question.

[Antonov]

good point. how to move files from the pc to the ipad. I believe Apple has a VLC player app, which should give options.

[erwin greven]

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp ... fGI2WNhUc4

https://airmore.com/nl/mp4-video-op-ipad-afspelen.html

[PTRACER]

I had a horrible moment yesterday.

My external hard drive containing ALL the videos I ever captured for this forum fell on the floor. The power and USB connectors were ripped off the SATA-to-USB circuit board. I thought I could take the board off and connect the drive to the PC without it, but it turns out a chip on this board encrypts all the data, so the entire drive and all its contents were completely inaccessible and seemingly not recoverable.

Luckily some incredibly super smart guy online has found that the encryption key is stored somewhere on the HDD and if you use Linux and a bunch of commands, then you can rip the key, decrypt the drive, mount it under Linux and copy the files to another place. Which is what I was doing now via a Virtual Machine.

I'm so, so relieved as I don't have another copy of these anywhere...

[Cheeveer]

Shit, that is lucky/unlucky. Glad you could recover it.

Meanwhile, I have been busy building a new PC. Using some parts from my old one, it turned out like this:

MSI B450 Gaming Plus motherboard
Ryzen 5 2600 CPU
16GB RAM
500GB SSD harddrive

and with that my old nVidia GTX 760 GPU that I plan to upgrade soon.

should be alright for a while. And it all worked first time booting it! Really happy with that.

[PTRACER]

Shit, that is lucky/unlucky. Glad you could recover it.

Meanwhile, I have been busy building a new PC. Using some parts from my old one, it turned out like this:

MSI B450 Gaming Plus motherboard
Ryzen 5 2600 CPU
16GB RAM
500GB SSD harddrive

and with that my old nVidia GTX 760 GPU that I plan to upgrade soon.

should be alright for a while. And it all worked first time booting it! Really happy with that.

Sounds cool. What card you thinking of going for next?

[Cheeveer]

Something like a GTX 1xxx with a lot of graphics memory. Don't need anything super-flash as I am only doing racing games pretty much. But it needs to load big fields in Automobilista or rFactor 2 cleanly.

https://www.netonnet.se/art/datorkompon ... 7428.8989/

https://www.netonnet.se/art/datorkompon ... 6820.8989/

Maybe?

[kals]

Anyone have any VPN recommendations? Thinking of getting one but not sure which. Keep seeing special offers for NordVPN (3 years at just over $100), so thinking of going that direction.

[Antonov]

is it ok to leave an external hard drive plugged in at all times?

[Michkov]

Plugged in or running? Plugged in has the same overvoltage issues any other electronics have in thunderstorms maybe a wee bit more because PSUs are a bit more protective than simple power bricks. Keeping them running, I'd switch them off if the computer is off, but else, the controller will turn it off on its own after a time.

SSDs are a bit trickier I had one on a USB2, and Win10 kept forgetting the drive was there and then I had to unplug and reconnect the drive again, without dismounting it first. Not something I'd recommend but since it my scratch disk I was willing to loose the data on it.

[Antonov]

it's the PS4 Seagate 4TB external hard drive. it is plugged in to my PS4, and I put my games on there which I don't play - but don't want to uninstall.

so I don't use it actively, but it is plugged in.
should that be ok?

[Michkov]

Should be fine, if the electricity gets to the drive you'll likely use the PS4 in the process so I wouldnt worry about the drive if you dont worry about the PS

[Antonov]

thank you, @Michkov - I will leave it plugged in then.

[Antonov]

what kind of laptop would be good enough to pay rFactor (1) (and possibly 2) on full settings?
oh, and FSX Steam Edition on high settings.

looking for a working laptop, but with the possibility to play that at least.