Category Archives: Tech

Windows 7

Tech

I upgraded to Windows 7 on Monday and it’s pretty sweet! I never had a problem with Vista, but Win7 seems much more thought out. It’s really fast, the new little features are welcome (the Snip tool is a fantastic idea).

The upgrade took almost 2 hours, but went perfectly. Didn’t have to do anything, and everything is how I left it. But…. . When I reboot, I can’t access the internet. It knows my network is there (it knows my 360 is on the network and can stream content to it. I think, gotta test to be sure), but the net won’t work. I have to go to the device manager, go to my nic card (onboard Intel) and disable it. Turn it back on and the net works instantly.

Really weird. I got the latest drivers from Intel and it didn’t fix it.

More gadgets that rule

Tech

Got a DVR this week from cablevision just in time for Lost to come back to the airwaves. It’s a much better box than we had, the SD channels look a lot better. It also has an HDMI and optical audio out port so I ordered a new optical cable from monoprice (4 bucks shipped! Eat a bag of dicks Monster). Since there is only 1 HDMI port on the tv, I’m going to switch the HDMI from the DVD player to the cablebox, put the DVD player on Component and add the optical to the cablebox. All audio sources will then have high quality connections. Hope I don’t have to change anything on the reciever for the new optical because I can’t find the stupid instruction manual.

reciept update

Tech, TV

Dad talked to a manager at Frontier and he says that they know they didn’t give us an engine replacement, that receipt lists things that were ordered in total. That sort of makes sense, but the separate lamp they ordered isn’t on there. And for comfort sake I’d want that in writing because it’d still be easy to screw us over when the time comes to get a new lamp. Speaking of the lamp, I found out how to get into the service menu of the tv, and the counter for the lamp said it was at about 600 hours. I can’t believe that’s correct. I thought for sure it’d be something like 1500 hours in the time we’ve had it. Watched a lot of movies and played a lot of games… I’ll check the counter again in a week to see what kind of time is being put on the TV and figure out an average in the next month or so.bage

4 weeks and 4 days

Tech, TV, You know what grinds my gears?

The TV actually works now! But Frontier is easily the worst company I have ever had to deal with in my life. They are liars and judging by some shady shit on the receipt, cheats as well.

The guy was 2 hours late to start with. 11-3 huh? Good to see you at 5. The “digital board” was the culporate. After some questionable looking methods to get the DB out, (he was using the screwdriver as a pry bar) he got the new one in and it kick on right away. Spin the tv around, plug shit back in and the Samsung lights again. 4 weeks and 4 days later after it died.

Now the reciept says that they replaced the “digital board” (correct) and the “Light Engine” (completely false). They ordered the light engine for fixing round #2 (which was almost 2 weeks ago) which as we all know, wasn’t the problem. Just like the bulb they brought the first time, they took it out and put the orignal light engine back into the set. So that reciept says they gave us a part that they took back! The Light Engine has a new bulb as part of the assembly so they could very possible try to fuck us over when the light actually does burn out (around $145 for a bulb)! The extended warranty we have from Best Buy means we get one bulb replacement as part of the deal. So according to how the receipt is now, they could tell us that the bulb was replaced because we got a new light engine. Which is horseshit.

So 2 things: it’s an honest mistake on the reciept. It could just take quick call to fix and we’re all good. OR they really are trying to scam us and best buy(best buy approves payment for all parts). If we didn’t watch them do everything, we would never know. By saying we have that light engine and they still have it, they could try to sell it to someone else or something.

The whole situation and really that whole company is really shady. There is an entire week of bullshit on Frontiers part. The week we left for California, I called Frontier about the part that was supposed to be ordered the previous Thursday (the day the tech was there and had the wrong part, the Light Engine). The girl told me that the part was ordered on Friday and they were waiting to get it, they’d call us when they got it in. Jump forward to that Saturday when we’re in CA and dad calls Frontier, they say they don’t have it and so he calls the Best Buy hotline number we have. They hadn’t heard from Frontier, they didn’t know what was going on. What the fuck? BB says they’re going to call Frontier and get back to us within 72 days. Tuesday Best Buy tells us they’ve talked to Fronter and are waiting on A NEW ESTIMATE to see if the tv can be fixed or just be replaced (see my previous blog post). Can anyone logically explain that? What the fuck did Frontier do that week? Why was I told the part was ordered when it never was? Best Buy approves everything they do and they didn’t know anything about that week we were waiting! If we never called where would we be right now?

So that brings us to last Friday where Frontier calls to tell us that they are coming on monday (today). So that’s where we are at. The TV is fixed but it looks like this isn’t over.

TV: Fixed on Monday?

Tech, TV, You know what grinds my gears?

It’s safe to say that Frontier did nothing for our case last week. After being lied to that the part was ordered a week ago, we find that best buy didn’t know wtf was going on. So they talked to Frontier and told us they were waiting for a new estimate on if the tv should be fixed or replaced. Friday we were told that they are coming on Monday with the necessary (lol!) parts. So if they fuck this up again, it’s safe to say we are getting a new set on them.

Man Down!

Music, Tech

Our Samsung TV is broken, troubling news indeed. No picture shows up and the tv shuts itself off after about a minute. The lamp is turning on and no warning LEDs stay on so it’s very strange. Hopefully it will be fixed by tomorrow. Maybe the lamp just needs to be reseated.

Also, the Korn Unplugged is fantastic. Airs on TV tonight at 11:30pm (EST) on MTV and the album hits stores on Tuesday.

New Monitor!

Tech

So I did my taxes and newegg had sent me a “shit on sale” email the same day. Day before mom said something about moving the hutch on my desk. Didn’t think much about it, thinking if I had a widescreen monitor, I’d need to move it. So I saw some tempting prices, figured out how much I was going to get back and said, hell yeah. I use my computer everyday and I’ve been wanting to make a nice electronics purchase (have been mulling over getting the HD DVD player for the 360) for awhile now. Been wanting a new monitor for awhile so it felt right. Newegg got it to my door in 23 hours.

The Samsung 204BW is a beautiful thing. 20″ widescreen, DVI connection, 1680 x 1050 resolution. After messing with the settings for 45 minutes I got it looking great. This resolution is just nuts, colors are gorgeous and with the cleartype font turned on text is perfect. 6ms response time so it works really well with games, only problem is that older games don’t support this resolution so they look stretched as shit (looking at you Warcraft III). I need to look around and see if there are any hacks out for some games. Company of Heros looks fantastic though, Sim City 4 as well.

I gave dad my 17″ Samsung but his computer just ate it so he needs to order a new one. It’s been a long time coming, that thing is going on 8 years old. Amazing it worked up until yesterday.

When lighting strikes…

Tech

It can really screw with electronics. We had a wild lightning storm last night and it hit really close, I was downstairs when it happened. Circuit breaker kicked in and saved the entertainment center (although I have a diesel surge protector back there too). Came upstairs and my computer was off. Turned it back on and it says a network plus wasn’t connected. So after some trouble shooting I figured that my onboard LAN connection ate it. I really have no idea how it happened, the surge or whatever must have come through the cable, through the router and then zapped that one component. A $22 dollar dent as I picked up a 10/100 ethernet card from a local computer place. Got lucky really, a lot more damage could have happened.

I’m happy that I figured out the problem and fixed it in about 5 minutes too. Even took the opportunity to clean out the inside of my computer a bit.