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Oddhair
Mar 21, 2004

Vin BioEthanol posted:

Recording phone calls from a laptop trrs headset jack? It's not working.

We have these:
http://headsetstore.global-teck.com/acs-gn-netcom-recording-jack-752-0880-0201/

call recording adapter with a ts/two conductor plug. Worked fine on our old laptops that had separate mic in and headphones jacks.

New laptops have the trrs headset jack, we ordered these:
http://www.startech.com/Cables/Audio-Video/Audio-Cables/35mm-4-Position-to-2x-3-Position-35mm-Headset-Adapter-Male-to-Female~MUYHSMFF

to break out the trrs to separate headphones + mic but it doesn't record any sound.

If I plug a trrs headset in to the laptop it will record from the headset's mic just fine.

If I plug this call recording thing + the adapter cable into my android, it will record just fine.

What's going on?

I think what you need to do is adapt your trrs headsets to RJ9 and back again, the way the ACS recording jack (usually) works it picks up signals from the RJ9 cable and passes them out to a recorder or a mic in jack via that simple tip-sleeve cable. This headset buddy adapter can make that switch, though I think you'll need two, plus a male-to-male trrs cable. Do you need to record from the trrs jack while also listening to audio from it, or is it mainly for recording?

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Nemesis Of Moles
Jul 25, 2007

Thanks for all the info on Hard drives everyone! I'm gonna grab some extra cables and stuff and hook up all 4 and use the like Rukus suggested, I need a good backup of this laptop before I swap over anyway.

Thanks again

Vin BioEthanol
Jan 18, 2002

by Ralp

Oddhair posted:

I think what you need to do is adapt your trrs headsets to RJ9 and back again, the way the ACS recording jack (usually) works it picks up signals from the RJ9 cable and passes them out to a recorder or a mic in jack via that simple tip-sleeve cable. This headset buddy adapter can make that switch, though I think you'll need two, plus a male-to-male trrs cable. Do you need to record from the trrs jack while also listening to audio from it, or is it mainly for recording?

It's an office phone they're recording from and they use a handset or other type headset, I only mentioned the trrs headset because I used it to prove the trrs jack on the laptop is working, just not with the adapters we have.

goddamnedtwisto
Dec 31, 2004

If you ask me about the mole people in the London Underground, I WILL be forced to kill you
Fun Shoe

Rexxed posted:

Really cheap USB powered hubs will push power into the PC even though they're not supposed to. This can cause issues with the motherboard and because of weird problems with a couple of PCs, I've replaced all of my cheap powered hubs with better ones. You can either open up the powered hub and cut the traces for 5v and ground to the PC, letting the onboard power handle all of the devices, cut the power and ground wires in the cable that goes from the hub to the PC, or get a better USB hub. I've come to like the Monoprice ones which are also sold as "Plugable" brand on amazon, they haven't given me any trouble. They do cost a bit more than the cheap ones, though.

Yeah, I'm guessing having two different power supplies on the same line is a bad idea for all sorts of reasons so I'll just stop using the thing for now - pity, because it's literally the exact right size and shape to fit under my monitor.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

Serperoth posted:

A bit of an update on my drive situation, today it won't let me in the drive at all. I got the replacement HDD, no issues there, but the external is getting stuck at 'loading', it won't even show how much space is used (it got to that point yesterday, that's how I got the more important stuff via Roadkil's). Currently I'm trying to get R-Studio to do anything to the external, but it's being hell, with the drive plugged in it won't open, and after I take it out and it opens, when I put it back in, it fails when I click Scan or Refresh.

Actually, should I move this to the Haus of Tech Support instead? I'm sorry to be pestering the thread.

All of the drive scanning and stuff you were doing to the drive was causing more damage. If it mounts at all just use roadkil's to try to get data off of it. Just being powered on is likely destroying sectors so you have a limited window to recover anything. You can try the freezer trick but don't expect miracles, sometimes it can just let you get 10-20 minutes of mostly good copies after 12 hours of freezer time which is a pretty bad ratio.

Serperoth
Feb 21, 2013



Rexxed posted:

All of the drive scanning and stuff you were doing to the drive was causing more damage. If it mounts at all just use roadkil's to try to get data off of it. Just being powered on is likely destroying sectors so you have a limited window to recover anything. You can try the freezer trick but don't expect miracles, sometimes it can just let you get 10-20 minutes of mostly good copies after 12 hours of freezer time which is a pretty bad ratio.

:sigh:
Well, that's the same answer I got in the Haus as well, so it's good to know I'm not just being pessimistic. Going to try the freezer trick today and hope I get it to work, to salvage what I can, thanks again for the input. On the bright side, some of the files I want to save most are plain .txt ones, so at least those can survive.

Oddhair
Mar 21, 2004

Vin BioEthanol posted:

It's an office phone they're recording from and they use a handset or other type headset, I only mentioned the trrs headset because I used it to prove the trrs jack on the laptop is working, just not with the adapters we have.

Oh, I get it. You might want to chop the ends off a couple of tip-sleeve cables and solder trrs plugs onto the cut ends in both polarities, using only the sleeve and the ring adjacent to the sleeve. If you're using the cable that accompanied the ACS Recording Jack, then you don't have discrete contacts in the right positions to convey the signals you're after, or the microphone bias might simply be backwards (hence the chop up two and reverse polarity.) Adding the trrs-to-dual-3.5mm adapter still might be shorting your mono 3.5mm connector out, I'd remove it.

Edit: Well, if you do the chop-and-solder, then removing the adapter isn't necessary, and then you could still use the output.

Oddhair fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Nov 25, 2014

Snowy
Oct 6, 2010

A man whose blood
Is very snow-broth;
One who never feels
The wanton stings and
Motions of the sense



My dad needs a printer that can feed a stack of papers to scan into jpg or PDF. He's got tons of old paperwork to digitize so I'm trying to help him speed up the process. He also usually likes to keep it cheap when possible.

Are there any preferred models for that? Hoping to pick something up during the upcoming sales.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

Snowy posted:

My dad needs a printer that can feed a stack of papers to scan into jpg or PDF. He's got tons of old paperwork to digitize so I'm trying to help him speed up the process. He also usually likes to keep it cheap when possible.

Are there any preferred models for that? Hoping to pick something up during the upcoming sales.

The sheet feeders on most cheap multifunction printers will only do 10 to 20 pages at once and they're also not great and sometimes pull in the pages crooked or don't scan quite right. I spent a while looking for something to do this for a client. They opted for the not cheap but extremely good option of a Fujitsu Scansnap sheet feeding scanner. They only seem to dip down to around $400 on sale but they're really really good at what they do.
http://www.amazon.com/Fujitsu-ScanSnap-Instant-Sheet-Fed-Scanner/dp/B001V9LQH0

Maybe another goon will have used a multifunction with a good sheet feeder they can recommend, but this was my experience in trying to find something that can have 50 pages dropped into it and make a pdf.

Snowy
Oct 6, 2010

A man whose blood
Is very snow-broth;
One who never feels
The wanton stings and
Motions of the sense



Rexxed posted:


Maybe another goon will have used a multifunction with a good sheet feeder they can recommend, but this was my experience in trying to find something that can have 50 pages dropped into it and make a pdf.

Thanks for the suggestion and observations! I'll check that one out, though I'm afraid it may be a bit expensive.

Anyone else with good sheet feeder experiences?

il serpente cosmico
May 15, 2003

Best five bucks I've ever spend.
Why do wireless cards for desktops suck so bad? My Rosewill PCI card that I installed about a year and a half ago suddenly poo poo the bed over the course of a couple days. Yesterday it would hang for 5-10 seconds before it connected to anything, and now today it appears to have given up the ghost entirely. It says it's connected with internet access in windows, but it just hangs indefinitely when I try to do anything. My router has been tested with other known, working devices, so it isn't that.

The same thing happened with the Gigabyte wireless card I had before this one. It worked fine for a number of months and then it started flaking out. Reading online, this seems to be a pretty common occurrence. Why do wireless cards suck so bad? I've never had an issue with any other type of hardware regularly ceasing to function properly after a relatively little amount of use. I realize wired is the way to go for a stationary desktop system, but the modem is across the house and I'm renting to I can't run anything through the walls.

il serpente cosmico fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Nov 26, 2014

Factory Factory
Mar 19, 2010

This is what
Arcane Velocity was like.
Bottom-of-the-barrel expansion cards just out-and-out blow. Try picking up an adapter based on an Intel NIC.

FCKGW
May 21, 2006

WiFi is some amazing, voodoo magic analog data transfer service and that fling bits through the air with a million different interference channels trying to gently caress your poo poo up and it's a wonder anything ever works at all god drat.

il serpente cosmico
May 15, 2003

Best five bucks I've ever spend.

Factory Factory posted:

Bottom-of-the-barrel expansion cards just out-and-out blow. Try picking up an adapter based on an Intel NIC.

Is there a professional-level card that would be reliable for years without breaking the bank?

Factory Factory
Mar 19, 2010

This is what
Arcane Velocity was like.
Intel-based WiFi is the closest you will ever get to "professional." It's the BTO option on all the corporate PCs. I'd love to tell you to get Intel's own desktop kit for the Wireless-AC 7260, but they stopped selling it. The Gigabyte kit is literally just a Gigabyte-branded antenna and slot adapter for the exact same Intel 7260-AC NIC. And, best of all, it doesn't break the bank.

Unfortunately,

FCKGW posted:

WiFi is some amazing, voodoo magic analog data transfer service and that fling bits through the air with a million different interference channels trying to gently caress your poo poo up and it's a wonder anything ever works at all god drat.

Nemesis Of Moles
Jul 25, 2007

Update on my old unused hard drives.

I ran a full backup of my laptop to the 1TB hooked up to an external adaptor last night, which caused the drive to fail at some point and require a wipe to become usable again. So that's scrapped. I'm going to run a stress test on the other two drives but I think I'll bite the bullet and pick up a new TB hard drive today. If only cause I saw the install sizes of games that came out this year and holy poo poo

Lee Harvey Oswald
Mar 17, 2007

by exmarx
I'm gonna get 1 gig Internet at my new apartment. What are the best wireless routers in the ~$100 range to get the most out of it?

HalloKitty
Sep 30, 2005

Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

Lee Harvey Oswald posted:

I'm gonna get 1 gig Internet at my new apartment. What are the best wireless routers in the ~$100 range to get the most out of it?

I doubt even the best running well would be as good as a cable.

But as for the best, you'd be looking at something with 802.11AC, and your access point and device would need 5GHz AC. I'd be interested to see what people come up with, because I can't see a <$100 AP being >1Gbit/s, but I could no doubt be extremely out of the loop.

I often hear of ASUS routers and access points being spoken of highly for the consumer sector (although I'd probably buy a Ubiquiti AP for my house).

HalloKitty fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Nov 26, 2014

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

Nemesis Of Moles posted:

Update on my old unused hard drives.

I ran a full backup of my laptop to the 1TB hooked up to an external adaptor last night, which caused the drive to fail at some point and require a wipe to become usable again. So that's scrapped. I'm going to run a stress test on the other two drives but I think I'll bite the bullet and pick up a new TB hard drive today. If only cause I saw the install sizes of games that came out this year and holy poo poo

If you want to see if your disks are failing take a look at them with CrystalDiskInfo. It allows you to view the SMART data on them and see if there are any bad sectors or other problems the drives are having:
http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

Get the Standard version and either get the portable version or if you get the installer make sure to do a "custom" install to avoid installing the adware it's bundled with. Shizuku edition has anime girls for some reason.

Nemesis Of Moles
Jul 25, 2007

Rexxed posted:

If you want to see if your disks are failing take a look at them with CrystalDiskInfo. It allows you to view the SMART data on them and see if there are any bad sectors or other problems the drives are having:
http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

Get the Standard version and either get the portable version or if you get the installer make sure to do a "custom" install to avoid installing the adware it's bundled with. Shizuku edition has anime girls for some reason.

Yeah that's what I'm using. It showed everything as healthy but the backup I ran threw the one hard drive from health to Caution in the sectors section.

Deanut Pancer
Nov 24, 2012

goddamnedtwisto posted:

Yeah, I'm guessing having two different power supplies on the same line is a bad idea for all sorts of reasons so I'll just stop using the thing for now - pity, because it's literally the exact right size and shape to fit under my monitor.

You could butcher/buy a USB cable and somehow cut out the 5V wire. That might still keep the hub working off its own power whilst preventing it feeding back in to your PC. You'll need to keep the data and ground lines intact. However I've no idea if the USB spec would actually support this or not...

Nemesis Of Moles
Jul 25, 2007

Ok, my hard drive issues are getting weird.

For reference here, I'm using an external enclosure to test these drives.

So far I've tested all but one drive, and all of them failed during the backup. Windows says they're corrupt and failed but the SMART stats say they're fine. The first drive I tested has Caution on its CrystalDiskInfo for Pending Sector Count and its Reallocated Sectors so I guess that's trash but the other two are Healthy and fine on both and work again after I format them, then fail during the backup process.

Am I missing something here? I kinda think maybe the enclosure is at fault, at least for the last two drives, but I can't really test the drives yet. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that these drives would keep failing so quickly but stay 'Healthy' on CrystalDiskInfo. They are old, and if all of them were failing just because of a natural lifespan issue I'd understand, but they're entirely unused. Any ideas?

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

Nemesis Of Moles posted:

Ok, my hard drive issues are getting weird.

For reference here, I'm using an external enclosure to test these drives.

So far I've tested all but one drive, and all of them failed during the backup. Windows says they're corrupt and failed but the SMART stats say they're fine. The first drive I tested has Caution on its CrystalDiskInfo for Pending Sector Count and its Reallocated Sectors so I guess that's trash but the other two are Healthy and fine on both and work again after I format them, then fail during the backup process.

Am I missing something here? I kinda think maybe the enclosure is at fault, at least for the last two drives, but I can't really test the drives yet. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that these drives would keep failing so quickly but stay 'Healthy' on CrystalDiskInfo. They are old, and if all of them were failing just because of a natural lifespan issue I'd understand, but they're entirely unused. Any ideas?

You're probably right, it sounds like the enclosure to me, too. The only way to be sure would be to connect them inside the PC or with another enclosure.

sleepy gary
Jan 11, 2006

Nemesis Of Moles posted:

Ok, my hard drive issues are getting weird.

For reference here, I'm using an external enclosure to test these drives.

So far I've tested all but one drive, and all of them failed during the backup. Windows says they're corrupt and failed but the SMART stats say they're fine. The first drive I tested has Caution on its CrystalDiskInfo for Pending Sector Count and its Reallocated Sectors so I guess that's trash but the other two are Healthy and fine on both and work again after I format them, then fail during the backup process.

Am I missing something here? I kinda think maybe the enclosure is at fault, at least for the last two drives, but I can't really test the drives yet. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that these drives would keep failing so quickly but stay 'Healthy' on CrystalDiskInfo. They are old, and if all of them were failing just because of a natural lifespan issue I'd understand, but they're entirely unused. Any ideas?

I have some experience with extremely lovely USB to SATA/PATA bridges, and this sounds like exactly that to me.

Nemesis Of Moles
Jul 25, 2007

Ok, cool, that makes me feel a little better. I bought a 1TB just in case today but I'd really like these drives to work.

Any hope that the enclosure is causing the issues for the 1TB drive? I know its less likely cause of the SMART reading.

JnnyThndrs
May 29, 2001

HERE ARE THE FUCKING TOWELS

DNova posted:

I have some experience with extremely lovely USB to SATA/PATA bridges, and this sounds like exactly that to me.

Same here. I'd buy another enclosure before condemning the hard drives.

Rukus
Mar 13, 2007

Hmph.

Lee Harvey Oswald posted:

I'm gonna get 1 gig Internet at my new apartment. What are the best wireless routers in the ~$100 range to get the most out of it?

This is more of a networking megathread question, but here we go:

Since you'll have a 1Gb connection the biggest thing you'll want to look for is WAN to LAN throughput on the router (how quickly it can move traffic from the internet to a computer). Generally, the ones that can route close to gigabit wire-speed are going to cost more, or have marketable features like dd-wrt/tomato support, or better 802.11AC wireless chips. SmallNetBuilder has a fairly-accurate chart that compares all the routers they've reviewed. The only caveat is that their testing methodology doesn't accurately show how a router's NAT will affect the speeds, so it can be difficult to determine the true speed with routing. (For example, the Netgear R7000 actually routes at 450Mb/s due to NAT overhead.)

For around $100 you could check out the TP-LINK Archer C7 AC1750 which doesn't currently have any third-party firmware support, but it may in the future.

To get closer to actual gigabit wire-speed routing it will cost a bit more. Your best choice is a wired-only router, an inexpensive access point or repurposed router in AP mode, and a switch (essentially all the parts of a consumer router). The go-to for this is an Edgerouter Lite, one of Ubiquiti's access points, and a Netgear 8-port switch. This would set you back about $200 but with much faster speeds than your typical $160-$200 router with the benefit of being able to swap out the AP or switch to other models that would suit your needs later on.

TITTIEKISSER69
Mar 19, 2005

SAVE THE BEES
PLANT MORE TREES
CLEAN THE SEAS
KISS TITTIESS




Snowy posted:

My dad needs a printer that can feed a stack of papers to scan into jpg or PDF. He's got tons of old paperwork to digitize so I'm trying to help him speed up the process. He also usually likes to keep it cheap when possible.

Are there any preferred models for that? Hoping to pick something up during the upcoming sales.

Printer Questions Megathread

Eifert Posting
Apr 1, 2007

Most of the time he catches it every time.
Grimey Drawer

Orcs and Ostriches posted:

I only have experience with a Surface Pro, but it's more or less replaced my laptop at work.

I've been away from America for a few years, where's the best deal on these things? Microsoft website? Walmart? I thought it'd be Newegg, but their prices seemed uncompetitive.

goddamnedtwisto
Dec 31, 2004

If you ask me about the mole people in the London Underground, I WILL be forced to kill you
Fun Shoe

Deanut Pancer posted:

You could butcher/buy a USB cable and somehow cut out the 5V wire. That might still keep the hub working off its own power whilst preventing it feeding back in to your PC. You'll need to keep the data and ground lines intact. However I've no idea if the USB spec would actually support this or not...

Meh, I could chuck a couple of diodes in but :effort: - I'm keeping it because it seems like every single thing in the world wants to charge off USB (and runs out of charge at exactly the same time) because it still works as that without a USB connection, and I've just got a cheap old passive hub for the things it was previously running.

Nemesis Of Moles
Jul 25, 2007

Update on my hard drive woes. I dug up an old PC from the basement and threw them all in there. The 2 healthy drives are working fine and I ran them both overnight doing a huge backup with 0 failure, so I'm confident that those are fine.

The 1TB drive is completely hosed. I ran chkdsk on it, and its read error rate ticked up and crystaldisk started showing it as Bad. Oh well, good job I grabbed that new drive yesterday!

Nierbo
Dec 5, 2010

sup brah?

Nintendo Kid posted:

Check the markings on your PS3. Some models say both 120 volt and 240 volt, and those can be used with the Australian power simply by buying a proper cable. If it just says 120 volt and 60 hz, you will need an actual power transformer that takes in the 240 volt/50 hertz power supply and converts it to 120 volt/60 hz for your PS3.

This is a label from a PS3 that WILL NOT work without a transformer, and may even need to be repaired if you plug it in with just a plug adapter or new power cord:


Gah, only says 240v.

Nintendo Kid
Aug 4, 2011

by Smythe

Nierbo posted:

Gah, only says 240v.

Yea if it's just 240 volt you'll need a power transformer for US/canada.

Eifert Posting
Apr 1, 2007

Most of the time he catches it every time.
Grimey Drawer
Got a 128gig Pro3 for 700$

Used Vyons.com. They require amazon gift vouchers as a scam tactic to lower prices, but they have a good reputation online so gonna risk it.

PRADA SLUT
Mar 14, 2006

Inexperienced,
heartless,
but even so
Is there a specific type of USB drive that would be used for archival?

I'm looking for an efficient way to store about 20gb of data in a long-term backup in a safe.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

PRADA SLUT posted:

Is there a specific type of USB drive that would be used for archival?

I'm looking for an efficient way to store about 20gb of data in a long-term backup in a safe.

You're basically looking at data rot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_rot

This is a page from a company selling a super long term storage solution: M-Disc claims 1000 years of use because it's "engraved in stone"
http://www.mdisc.com/what-is-mdisc/
Since they haven't existed for 1000 years there's no way to verify their claim but I'd give it a shot if I wanted something to be around for my lifetime, but I'd probably burn more than one of each thing just in case.

The M-Disc website says flash drives 8 years, hard disks 5 years and dvd-rs 7 years for archiving data, but they're also trying to sell M-Discs so I don't know how accurate those figures are.

Since they burn as blu-ray discs the m-discs hold 25gb.

Alereon
Feb 6, 2004

Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed
College Slice

PRADA SLUT posted:

Is there a specific type of USB drive that would be used for archival?

I'm looking for an efficient way to store about 20gb of data in a long-term backup in a safe.
You want to burn to an optical disc like a Blu-Ray for this. Data on Flash media fades with time, and may be unreadable after only a year. While they sell archival-grade optical media, I've never really seen issues with endurance that weren't due to things physically scraping against the disc and damaging the recording layer or UV light damage, and neither of those are issues for media stuffed in a safe. It would probably be a good idea to throw in oxygen absorber packets and make sure your safe is appropriately fire-rated though, if it's only rated for paper everything else will be melted when you open it after a fire. I think personally I would burn to single-layer Blu-Ray discs and put in at least two copies of every disc, as well as a decent USB flash drive just for convenience of access in the nearer term. Make sure to use file formats that are error tolerant, don't compress everything to a ZIP file first for example.

Furcifer
Apr 20, 2007
It's Furcifer, not Lucifer
Hey all,

My mom in Canada just switched internet providers from Rogers to Hitron, but was not permitted to use her old, purchased, Rogers modem. I find it a little suspect, since the new Hitron modem is also Rogers branded.

Here are the specs:

Old Rogers Modem:
SMC brand. Model # SMCD3GN-RRR
H/W Rev: 1B
S/W Rev: 1.4.0.42-RRR

New Hitron modem
Hitron brand. Model # CGN3
http://www.hitron-americas.com/products/cgn3/
H/W Rev: 1A
S/W Rev: 4.2.4.3

Would it be possible to change some setting in the old Rogers modem to work with the new Hitron service? Modem rental is $10/month!

Thanks in advance!

codo27
Apr 21, 2008

Pc audio seems way too niche to start a thread so what fuckin headset should I buy? I got a Logitech g430 today and the sound is lacking to me, although everything else is likeable. I really want surround, wireless would be nice.

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JnnyThndrs
May 29, 2001

HERE ARE THE FUCKING TOWELS
Oops, never mind.

JnnyThndrs fucked around with this message at 06:25 on Nov 29, 2014

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