Avi's Monthly Stupid Computer Question

YouTube · Post by **TronFAQ** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 6:28 pm

You're right, the X1600 was released in a PCI-E version. I thought ATI started PCI-E support later than that. My bad.

But your problem sounded exactly like the symptom people with AGP cards were having. The "hardware acceleration not found" issue. AGP card owners were getting that when they installed recent Catalyst drivers, and ATI had to fix that.

If you installed the very latest ATI drivers, then they just added support for the brand new 4850 card in this new release. Maybe they botched something up in the process.

I'll let you know how things go when I update to the latest 8.6 Catalyst drivers. Right now, I'm still using the 8.4 release. Even though I have a different card (3870), I'll be crossing my fingers that I don't have a similar problem. But that's why I always do a drive image before I do any kind of potentially dangerous updates. If the installation goes badly, I'll restore from the image I made.

Post by **Avi** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 6:42 am

Oops! I fixed my last post from "focused on those" to "not focused on those"...I hate when I do that.

Everything seems fine now without the Catalyst Control Center. I had problems with that thing about a year ago, but they weren't as severe as this weekend's. Some applications would just have a small crash with an error report, and a few others (mainly graphic intensive apps and games) would revert the settings to 800X600 with 16 Colors. I would recover after the crash and my screen would look like it was redesigned by a kid with finger paint. Everything would be locked up, and I'd have to restart the PC every time with the message "Your Computer Has Recovered From A Serious Error". I was getting worried for a while.

Since I can't run a second monitor at the moment, I might give my extra one to my son. He's been wanting a better one for a long time, so I guess this was a slight nudge from karma to let the kid have mine. 8)

Post by **Avi** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:25 pm

Here's this month's question:

Have any of you ever heard of a "Director Player Error"? My wife installed a game on my PC and it keeps giving that message when you start it. The website says something about updating the Flash player and using the Compatibility Wizard to make the game run at Windows 98 settings, but we keep getting the same error over and over.

Any suggestions?

I already googled it but none of the answers that I found apply to this situation. I was wondering if any of you devs have come across this ever.

Post by **Avi** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 2:38 pm

Here's a strange one:

At work, we have two PC's hooked up the the same router. When my boss tries to log into his e-mail using Firefox on his PC, it says that there was a login error. If he does it from the same PC using Internet Explorer, it opens right up. At the other PC in the building, he can access e-mail using both Firefox and IE.

So, the error only occurs when he uses Firefox from his own office PC. Somehow, Firefox causes an error on one PC but not the other, and both are accessing his mailbox from the same internet connection.

Does anyone have any idea about what might cause this?

Post by **Daddyo** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 3:33 pm

bugs bugs bugs

YouTube · Post by **TronFAQ** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 3:34 pm

Are they both the same version of Firefox?

Other than that, it sounds like the Options in Firefox have been set differently on each computer. Maybe if you compare the Option settings, you could spot what's different between them.

Post by **Avi** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 5:37 pm

The e-mail website itself is telling us that we are using the wrong password. It's not POP mail, so I don't think it would be something with the settings.

It almost appears that the password isn't being typed correctly, but you can't tell since it only shows asterisks as you type it like all websites do. I recently cleaned a particularly nasty piece of Malware out of his PC, so I am beginning to think that part of the worm is still in there. If you type the password in while using IE, it works just fine.

Post by **Jademz** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 9:11 pm

I have seen this on my PC once. my password changed somehow, and I got similar messages. I just used lost password to fix it. As for outlook errors(or something similar), I can't imagine what the problem could be, I have set it up for others, but I don't need it. I've yet to hear of a problem.. sorry if this probably isn't enough help.

I doubt it's the browser, ..you ever know.. I do notice a mail bug in pigin. I have to directly go to open inbox on the accounts tab, since it doesn't remember how to log me in. I don't know why either..

Post by **Avi** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 9:26 pm

I guess I'm still not being clear, so I'll break it down:

User Name: Avi Password: *******

This information is sent to the server that hosts our e-mail account. These are the results:

PC 1 w/Firefox: User Name Good. Password Bad.

PC 1 w/IE: User Name Good. Password Good.

PC 2 w/Firefox: User Name Good. Password Good.

PC 2 w/IE: User Name Good. Password Good.

Both PC's are hooked up to the same router. The same password was tested multiple times on both PC's using each web browser. For some reason, the very first setup doesn't send the correct password to the website. There's no need to use lost password to fix it, since the password isn't lost...it just doesn't work with Firefox on the first PC. \

But how can this be? Is Firefox sending different letters on the first PC for the password? I don't understand how any settings could be causing this. The password isn't lost, it just doesn't reach the website correctly.

Post by **Jademz** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 9:33 pm

Your logic is correct. The only way this could happen is:
copying and pasting text to the pw area.
That's the only one I can think of..

Have you tried using random pw on all 4 until one works on all 4? hehe
Then, there's reinstall.
or it's got a memory leak?? possible alternate issue..

Post by **Daddyo** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 9:42 pm

I think your pc is leaking bits

NicolA.exe · Post by **NicolA.exe** » Sat Aug 09, 2008 4:15 am

@Avi

I assume u have alot of time for spaming everywhere.

;)

Post by **Avi** » Sat Aug 09, 2008 6:13 am

Wow, speaking of spam...

Look who woke up and wallpapered LDSO.net with broken English.

Just kidding, Nicola. Welcome back.

Anyway, the problem still persists. The only thing I am going to try is reinstalling Firefox on that PC. If it still happens, I'll just have to change the default browser to IE so that the boss doesn't keep forgetting to click the IE icon when he wants to check mail. Other than that, this bug doesn't seem to be harming anything else. I'm able to log into LDSO from his PC using Firefox as well as other websites. I guess it's no big deal, it was just baffling.

Post by **SweatyPyro** » Sat Aug 09, 2008 1:22 pm

And urr....if you're going to reinstall, try different versions of Firefox.
Probably pointless, but not much effort to do that, so what the hell?

Post by **xistence** » Sat Aug 09, 2008 1:45 pm

There are so many ways something could get wrong:

-different versions of Firefox, or you use a beta and stumbled over a bug
-different plugins/addons installed where an addon is creating crap on the broken version of firefox. maybe deactivate all plugins and try again
-maybe firefox is sending a stored password regardless if you typ it or not, and maybe the stored one is wrong, try to reset the stored passwordlist or try to remove just the entry for the mail-prob
-maybe something on keyboard is crapped up, or broken firefox is not reacting correctly on keyboard-inputs.
-maybe a virus/worm/malware is trying to capture all inputs, maybe it craps up things
...

as said, so many things possible