Computing desk
< July 8	<< Jun \| July \| Aug >>	July 10 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

July 9

HDTV LCD Backlight life

I'm considering buying my first HDTV, a 32" LCD. Of course the store wants me to buy an extended warranty. The only thing I can see that might wear out is the backlight tubes. What's the usual lifespan of LCD backlights and how expensive are they to replace? --72.202.150.92 05:52, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

How long is the manufacturer warranty? The extended warranty?

I think the manuf warranty is one year. The extended warranty is for 3 years and costs 1/5 the price of the TV. --72.202.150.92 14:08, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I believe Consumer Reports said that you should only buy extended warranties on a few things, one of them being high-end TVs like this. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 19:47, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds like a bad deal to me. Are you getting an additional 3 years under the extended warrantee (4 years total) or only an additional 2 years (3 years total) ? If you are only getting an additional 2 years, there would have to be over a 10% chance of product failure in each of those years, to justify the cost. Also consider that, if some component fails, you may be able to get it fixed for less money, quicker, and more conveniently at a local appliance repair shop than by making a warrantee claim. They can always squirm out of paying by saying you damaged it in some way. Also, when it fails you may want a new TV anyway, not to fix the "old one". You have a lot more flexibility if you go without the warrantee. Also, since this is essentially a type of insurance, it never makes sense to get insurance on something you can afford on your own, unless you know you are a much higher risk than the insurance company thinks. StuRat 00:12, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No one would give you warranty when they know it will break within that warranty. If they offer an extended warranty, it means that it is very likely that it will not break within that time and they simply suck more money out of you. Get the standard warranty and go home with the peace of mind that it is unlikely to break within 3 years and get over it. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:20, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

When considering a warranty, you should look at the Bathtub_curve. This concept is essential to understanding the marketing of warranties. In most cases, the curve looks like an elongated U. The failure rate can be fairly high at the begining of the objects lifetime due to parts defects. This is covered by the manufactures warranty. The next part of the curve is a long flat line representing a low failure rate. This is what is covered by the extended warranty. Finally, as the object get old and worn out, the failure rate goes up again. By this time you are usually long past any warranty period. So Buying an extended warranty is the same as buying insurance on the time when you are least likely to have a failure. Also remember, insurance is essentially a form of gambling, and the House Always Wins in the long run. Czmtzc 15:03, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but remember in the case of medical insurance and very costly medical treatment, it's always nice for the house to loose occasionally in the short run. They still may get more money out of you in the long run, but when you need immediate short term treatment, certainly it helps not to get yourself caught in a whole of debt you can't get out (debt creating more debt). Root⁴(one) 02:33, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Losing information in the edit window

I've just lost a whole lot of work from the edit window of Wikipedia in Firefox. I'm not sure what happened but by attempting to paste a link as a reference I've got a whole webpage opening up in there, and I can't hit Ctrl+Z or anything. Does anyone know why or how Firefox does this (it has happened before too) and is there any way of getting it back? It's a shame because I had written most of an article, but I can't even get the text back no matter what I do - there is just no going back. Richard001 10:22, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ha, I've manage to get it back somehow using preview. I swear that didn't work before, but it seems to have done the trick now. Why in goodness name you would want to browse through a text editing box I can't imagine, but for whatever reason it seems to be a bug with either MW or Firefox. My university has a pretty half-assed policy with regards to Firefox anyway, so it may just be a bug that has been fixed in the current version but not the one I'm using. Richard001 10:26, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Depending on your Firefox configuration, middle-clicking on the normal content area when you have a link on your clipboard/selection opens that link in the current window. It can be a bit annoying when you misclick a link (with middle-click to open in a new tab) and end up in a random page; it can also be a fast way to navigate to a URL you copied from some other application. --cesarb 03:59, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You might want to write articles in a word processor, then cut and paste them over when done. That way, you have a safe copy if Wikipedia or your browser fails. StuRat 23:55, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Firefox normally saves form contents, so this is an odd issue.

Yeah Firefox normally saves the contents. Even if you navigate somewhere else, use the back button. Once you come back, you will get the contents. IE however, loses content and that infuriates me no end. I wonder why IE treats Windows Live QnA differently and remembers the content there. --soum ^talk 09:56, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Windows saves content if you aren't editting in the box when you change a page. If there's a form and you've filled it out, it will generally come back with everything but the box you were editting when you click thed the wrong button. It does for me at least, sometimes anyway. -^Violask8₁₉₇₆ 20:23, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

A networking error in my pc

I have a dialup connection in my pc which I use to connect to the internet. The phone number I dial is 172222. I am in India and my area code is 0422. But a few minutes after I have connected, the connection is cut and I hear another dialing sound from my CPU. I did not know what it was at first. But then when I went to the Network and Internet connections in my control panel I saw that a new connection has been created. The name of this connection was "Connection". I couldn't stop it from dialing because it did not display its dialing progress unlike my normal 172222 dialup connection. This new connection does not use any dialing rules and starts to dial automatically with the phone number 3660222. This happens even when I am not connected to the internet with my normal connection. Even when I am offline this connection starts dialing and interrupts whatever I am doing. I deleted this connection but it comes back again and again. Can somebody help me with this. I would be very very grateful to you. Thank you very much. If you need any more detail, just let me know. Thank you.

Most probably some spyware installed a dialler to connect to some premium service. Use an antispyware to remove that bugger and then delete the connection. And dont worry about phone charges. Premium charge services that are accessible from BSNL network start with 1. --soum ^talk 13:10, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Graphics card

Hello. I need to buy a graphics card but I am not knowledgeable about it. My computer is a Compaq computer which was bought about three years ago. My friend said that a PC EXPRESS card would not work in my computer and that only an AGP ACcELERATION CARD would work. He said something like that. Please bear with me. I do not know much about these things. Can somebody help me out. What are the specifications which I should say to the shop keeper in order to buy a graphics card? Which company is the best? I need to buy a graphics card that would work with today's games. Will that support my computer which is an old one? And where is the slot inside the CPU where I have to insert this graphics card? Please can anybody explain in detail all the problems and other things involved in buying a graphics card? I would be very much grateful to you. If u want to know my computer's model no. please tell me where I can find it. I do not have the bill with me. Where else I can find the model number? Please somebody help me with this. Thank u.

A lot of modern PCs have PCI Express slots for video cards, while earlier models had AGP and PCI cards. You'll want to verify which slot you have. I'm sure the documentation that came with the unit will describe what kind of slots you have. -- JSBillings 13:59, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

With all due respect you don't sound like the kind of person that really needs a graphics card. Are you a gamer? -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 19:45, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yep, I have to agree, two things: 1- What you need will depend wildly on your computer. If you're using a compaq, a graphics card might not even be an option. 2- You should just take it into a shop and let them deal with it if you REALLY REALLY NEED a new graphics card (you probably don't), because if you don't even know the difference between PCI-e16 and AGP, you will do nothing but damage your computer by trying to upgrade it yourself --L^augh! 20:31, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In case you are willing to learn, just turn off your PC, detach all the cables, get a screwdriver and open the computer case. You will find a lot of cool-looking electronic gadgets inside. Much of it will be modular and can be easily removed or replaced. If you're careful and take notes to remember how to put it back together, you're unlikely to break anything. Also, have a look at internet hardware guides such as [this one]. You can find pictures of AGP and PCI Express slots on wikipedia. Or you could just get someone else to do the upgrade for you, the choice is up to you. 84.239.133.38 07:50, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

PC nowadays had pretty much evolved to a point where if it fits, it will work, most of the time. --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:00, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"No bootable sector on hard drive"

I turned on my laptop after not using it for a week and all it does is go to a black screen that says no bootable sector on hard drive. Can this be fixed? How? Should I just throw the thing into on comming traffic?--ChesterMarcol 13:14, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This can happen when the boot sector of the hard drive is missing or damaged. You may have to reinstall the entire operating system unless you have a copy of the orignal master boot record to restore to the drive. Think outside the box 13:44, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It could also mean that the disk itself is damaged or disconnected, and the BIOS reports the error when it is unable to read the boot sector. You might be able to check it with a Knoppix boot CD or some other type of bootable media, to see if it is even readable and fixable. -- JSBillings 13:50, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

~~Could this also mean a HDD failure?~~ Yes it could as mentioned above--Tugjob 14:29, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It could mean the hard disc has been bricked but most commonly it is a file system error. Reformatting should be attempted. But before that try connecting it as a non boot drive to another working system and see if the data can be backed up. --soum ^talk 14:32, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent idea to try as non bootable drive, but I bet this is the only HDD drive that the questioner has in his computer. So if he can get the drive out, he would have to try it on computer with a bootable drive. If he has a floppy drive and a bootable floppy, or a CD drive and a bootable CD, I suppose that may be another way to tackle it.--Tugjob 15:06, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Are you sure it's mentioning the hard drive? About once a year, I leave a floppy disk in some computer or another and later attempt to boot the computer. The computer then complains that the media can't be booted, I panic for a moment, and then remember that it's probably trying to boot the floppy that I left in the drive. Smarter BIOS programs skip past the unbootable floppy, but that's not true of all computers...

Atlant 17:30, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, be careful with this. Make sure you don't have any CDs, floppies, or even USB drives plugged in. Computers can boot from a lot nowadays, but it can also cause problems- for example, my PC absolutely refuses to boot if I have my iPod plugged into a USB drive when it's looking for bootable devices. Unplug anything it could load from -USB, CDs, floppies, SD cards, anything that stores data- and try again --L^augh! 20:28, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It once happened that the Master boot record simply disappeared on the secundary HDD of a computer I was fixing (I think the disk managed to develop a bad block exactly there). TestDisk managed to completely recover it (there were other bad blocks, but nothing else seemed to be hit; writing the new MBR probably allowed a relocation by the drive's firmware). --cesarb 03:55, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Codecs and protocols for online games

Hi, I am currently doing a research on MMOGs and the codecs, protocols and architecture by whih they function over the internet, but I have yet to get anything conclusive yet.

The first thing I would like to know is, what protocols are used to transport the information generated by clients as they move the controls?

Is there and sniffer or network analyser that can decode the data on individual packets so that I can see the codec myself? Is there any add in to wireshark that will allow me see the codec by which the game data is compressed?

I also want to know what tricks are employed to ensure that minmum amount of data is sentover the network and how latency and packet loss are dealt with in networks over which these games run.

I will appreciate any info I get on any of these questions.

Thank you.

It will depend a lot on the MMO, how it was programmed, etc. You can use Wireshark, although I have heard of at least one MMO that can detect and ban you for using it, so don't come crying to me when your Level 49 Wood Elf gets deleted. --L^augh! 20:26, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Computer network programming? Most games use proprietary schemes, but you could look at any opensource network game. Some games will even use XML. Some games will use ssl to prevent you from viewing their data. Some games will send diff updates instead of total state. Some games use compression algorithms. Many use UDP packets instead of TCP to minimize delay, and handle packet loss gracefully. Entire careers are made out of this topic; hopefully these links to articles will give you some starting resources. Nimur 21:17, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Windows 98 needs to become windows 98 SE... Or Debian

Is that possible anymore? for free that is.

and if not, can i just install windows 98 SE updates and hope they work? thnks much, Xiad e n 22:52, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No Windows 98 SE is not a free upgrade and is a standalone version. If you are still using Windows 98 for some reason, I recommend you to switch to a light weight Linux like maybe Xubuntu. --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:06, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

To build on what Antilived said, check out our Mini Linux article, it has like ten or so different distros you can try out --L^augh! 03:33, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I understand that windows 98 is no longer supported at all though. so it isn't even an available upgrade at all....
and yes i am thinking about downloading Linux. specifically Debian because i know my computer can support it. so, now my only question is: "How do I tell which stable release of Debian i should get?", as all the amd64 i386 and such is really confusing me. which branch should i get with an [b]Intel pentium three[b] processor in my machine? thanks again. Xiad e n 14:30, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

On a P3, you will want to go with x86 or i386, whichever it offers. I would recommend though, if you system can support it, to use an Ubuntu varient such as Kubuntu, as it is easily the most popular linux distro at the moment, and has very very good community support, not to mention the ease of use will help ease you into it, and you can always use something else later --L^augh! 14:40, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

thank you. will this version of linux support most applications run for linux?

Xiaden(not logged in)

Yes. All distributions support linux applications. Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 23:19, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, and Ubuntu has a very easy to use package manager (although it's based on debian I believe, I have no experience with Debian) that makes the process extremely simple for 98% of programs --L^augh! 23:33, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It also comes in a lite version called Xubuntu designed to work well on older hardware. Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 23:51, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I am a Computer expert (in a few areas) and I recommend the latest version of Kubuntu (not Debian), you will also want to check for free upgrades about every 6 months and regularly check the development progress of each upcoming version. Also try out CNR when it is available. Tcrow777 talk 00:46, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I take offense in your implication that we are NOT experts... :p Xubuntu may be better since it has lower requirements though. --antilived^{T | C | G} 03:17, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]