Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Hi-Res Monitor

I got a new high resolution monitor.  It's 2560x1440 pixels IPS 27" which is just like the 27" iMac except cheaper.  They sell these on eBay direct from South Korea. Mine's a Crossover monitor and the seller was accessorieswhole.  It works very well and I'm pleased with the beautiful view.  You do have to be careful that your graphics card can support the monitor.  The sellers have little tables about this, as I'm sure you'll see if you look on eBay.  Under $500 including express shipping. 

Postscript:  I've since learned that you can get even higher res 2560x1600.  And also that it's important to get one with a stand that tilts and swivels, sometimes noted with a -P suffix.
 

Monday, June 11, 2012

Catalyst Control Center not opening

I had a problem with my graphics card.  My computer hung and I rebooted and the screen went into VGA mode.  I tried bringing up Catalyst Control Center for my ATI card, but it refused to start - no GPU found!  So I thought something's gone wrong with the card, and went to Fry's to get a new one.

Fry's didn't have any of the graphics cards I wanted - they had a couple of really high-end $500 cards, slightly discounted because they had been returned, and then a whole bunch of $50 graphics cards, not as nice as the one I had.  I finally got a cheap nVidia one.  I had a similar problem a few months ago when I went to Fry's to get a new monitor.  I wanted a high-res one.  They had exactly one - 1920 x 1200 ASUS so that's what I bought.  Used to seem like Fry's had everything, but not so much these days.  On the other hand, I got a couple of 8gig USB flash memory cards there for $6 each, a bargain.

I removed the ATI drivers, removed the ATI card and installed the nVidia card and its drivers.  Same problem!  Booted up into VGA mode, though it could handle 1920 x 1200, but graphics GPU not found.

After going down many false paths, I finally figured out the problem:  I needed to install all the latest Windows updates.  Not at all sure what's going on here, but I'm happy that it's working again.  Now the next mystery: the Windows Experience Index (right click on My Computer and choose properties to see this) is lower for the new card.  I would go back to my old card, but the computer feels faster with the new one!  Again, a head scratcher but hey it's working again and I have more important things to worry about.


Wednesday, May 2, 2012

MacBook LCD display

Bobby's MacBook had a messed up display.  Horizontal and vertical lines converged on a spot in the lower left corner. I brought it in to the Genius Bar at our local Apple store.  They diagnosed it as a broken LCD.  They showed me how pressing the screen where the lines converged made the display change.  Pressing the screen elsewhere had no effect. Kids are rough on computers, yeah we know.

The Apple would have fixed it, for a reasonable price, except that the MacBook's internal indicators showed that it had water damage (see previous post). That being the case, they would only replace all of its innards, for a cost more than a new MacBook Pro.  So I took the MacBook home and looked it up on iFixit.com.  They have step by step instructions on how to replace the LCD, and they'll sell you a new LCD and the tools you need.  I suppose these might be cheaper on eBay, but hey, I went ahead and ordered them.  The cost was about half of what the repair would have cost at the Apple store if they had been willing to do it.

I followed the instructions and replaced the LCD.  Took me about an hour.  The MacBook works fine now.  Hooray for iFixit.com!

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Water Damage

Our kids have computers and they don't always handle them gently, and I patch them up as best I can.  I will get to Bobby's latest problem with his MacBook but first I must explain the water damage and how we dealt with that.  He spilled Propel (a soft drink, not much sugar thank goodness) on his MacBook keyboard and it stopped working.

I let the laptop just sit for a few weeks, not plugged in.  The liquid will mostly evaporate if one has patience.  Then I put it in the oven on the lowest setting "Warm" which looks to be about 150 degrees (F) for 10 minutes.  I took it out of the oven and let it cool for an hour.  The heat helps get out the last of the moisture.  Then I plugged it in and let it charge.  After it charged it booted up just fine and has been running for a couple of months now.

I can't say that this approach will always work, but it costs nothing and has saved several of our devices from the recycler.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Stuck program on iOS

Let's say you've got an app on your iPhone or iPad that is "stuck" i.e. it just stays at one screen and no input affects it.  The best thing to do is to kill the running app and restart it.

Here's how:  double click the Home button.  This pops up at the bottom of the screen the icons of running apps.  Your bad boy is probably the first one.  Press and hold your app's icon until it starts wiggling. A red circle with a minus sign in it will appear at the top left of the wiggling icons.  Touch the red circle on your problem app, which stops it running.  Now press the home key once to return everything to normal.  Restart your app again by pressing its icon as usual and all should be well.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Making Windows 7 file share visible to OS/X Lion

I've got a home network with 3 PCs and 3 Macs and 1 Linux computer attached, plus printers and other bits.  For the longest time, I couldn't get OS/X Lion 10.7 computers to connect to a public share on a Windows 7 box.  All the obvious steps lead to "connection failure" on the Mac.  The PCs could see each other fine and access the files.

The fix turned out to be that I needed to turn on WINS on the Windows box.  Apparently WINS is kind of like DNS for NetBIOS.  Yikes, NetBios!  Who knew it still mattered?

The key page that did it for me is Configuring WINS Settings in Windows XP/Vista/7 which is from Virginia Tech.  Do this and then on your Mac Finder either Go Network or Connect to Server and Bob's your uncle.