PC fettling and repairs thread

[Grant Fondo]

The combination of my big speakers and a fairly small room produces too much upper bass and the lower bass response rolls off slightly quicker than I want it to

No option to bung the ports up?
I rigged up some Wharfedales with the tv and had the same problem.

 

[ColinJ]

No option to bung the ports up?
I rigged up some Wharfedales with the tv and had the same problem.

I did think about doing that!

In fact... (I'll be back! )

 

[ColinJ]

I did think about doing that!

In fact... (I'll be back! )

I inserted calculated amounts of audio damping material to the bass reflex ports of the loudspeakers and then swept test tones from 10 Hz to 150 Hz to check the resulting bass frequency response of the system. I won't give you the detailed data, just summaries...

Subjective result: The speakers sounded better!

Objective result: There was still significant bass response at 30 Hz, and the troublesome bass resonance at 60-90 Hz was significantly reduced in amplitude.

I now need to find an alternative source of damping material because I will need the tea towels next time I do the washing up!

 

[ColinJ]

I know that in theory randomly stuffing things into bass reflex ports is not a brilliant idea, but it was worth a try and does seem to help!

I probably will go ahead with my Pi project at some point in the future, but this was a quick and dirty fix which helped.

As for the tea towels... they are back in the kitchen where they belong. I found a big sponge which I cut into 2 pieces and put those in place of the towels. I suppose that I should now do the tests again!

 

[ColinJ]

I suppose that I should now do the tests again!

The speakers sound ok with the amp volume turned down but it is too late to crank them up. I'll give them a blast tomorrow when my neighbours are out at work/school.

 

[lazybloke]

I have been checking out Raspberry Pi info today after a friend reminded me that I'd said the Pi concept was interesting a while back. At some point I think I will treat myself to one with an added DSP/DAC board and start playing around with it.

I've done almost exactly what you describe. There's no audiophile blood in my body, it's just a fun electronics project for my office. Perfect for Floyd, Beatles, The Shamen, Clair de Lune, DIre Straits and other eclectic "music" eg William Shatner!

All with a RPi, rAudio software, a DAC daughterboard with built-in amp, and a pair of old Wharfedale spkrs. The latter are a bit naff so I'll have to see if my mate will let me connect up to his Kef speakers for comparison. He spent thousands on them!

There are all manner of weird FLAC,DSD and DSF files floating around on the internet, claiming to be hi-res remasters. Quite interesting to hear the differences.

 

[Grant Fondo]

Subjective result: The speakers sounded better!

Result!

 

[ColinJ]

I'll give them a blast tomorrow when my neighbours are out at work/school.

There is still a nice bass growl on this...

I'll try listening again with the ports unblocked...

Ah, okay, those ports were actually doing something...

For deep male speech, ensponged is better... For bass-heavy music, better sponge-free!

I'll use the system ensponged until I do my smart eq project.

 

[ColinJ]

I mentioned elsewhere that I have bought the most ridiculously cheap DAC on Amazon (£2.79 including leads and delivery!!!) just to see what it sounded like. I previously had to get the audio from my TV via its headphone jack because it didn't have an analogue audio output. I am gobsmacked how much better the system now sounds! I'm leaving the sponges in the ports for now. Very happy!

I actually came back on here to report something else, about my laptop battery...

I just ran the battery checker... The battery is rated at 46 Wh but a full charge now is only giving it 41.64 Wh so it has lost about 10% of its capacity. I won't mind if it carries on degrading at that rate so it were still at about 70% capacity in 7 years time. I will be a bit peeved if it suddenly flakes out in just another year or two though.

PS I just found a battery conservation mode setting. Most of the time I am happy to run with the laptop plugged in. This mode reduces maximum charge to 55-60% which reduces the stress on the battery. If I am ever going to be travelling with the laptop I will give it a full charge before setting off. Mind you, most trains have power sockets these days anyway.

That was about 3 years ago. I have used conservation mode ever since except when travelling. I just checked... ZERO further battery life degradation is being reported! Assuming that the battery is reporting its status properly, then that is a BIG thumbs up for not charging batteries fully when they don't need to be!

 

[DCBassman]

In a bored moment, decided to see how Win 11 would run, compared to 10, on my spare Asus S200E. 4GB RAM and i3-2365M, so not exactly supercharged.
It's absolutely fine, and one or two niggles I'd had about the taskbar seem to have been resolved, so checked and adjusted the main desktop too. Then upgraded the main S200E, so all 11 now.

 

[MontyVeda]

why is it every time i want to use my printer, my printer just throws a hissy fit and refuses to work?

maybe it's suffering from a lack of attention, since i only need it once in a blue moon, but when i need it, i really need it... such as printing a parcel label for a delivery I've just paid for.

The last time i needed it it just wouldn't connect to the wi-fi no matter how many times i tried, and after several hours of me spitting feathers i gave up on the wifi, plugged in a USB lead and got printing that way.

The time before that it was a case of removing it and reinstalling it.

This time i thought I'd skip the wi-fi shenanigans and went straight for the lead... oh no... it's not going to connect that way. So delete the printer and reinstall it. Nope, not gonna work that way either. Well... I'll give the wi-fi a go, that goes and connects the first time, but there's a connection error. Troubleshooter says its not the default printer (despite being the only printer), so i make it default only for it to indefinitely hang on 'spooling' whatever that means. So I go to the troubleshooter again, which has been checking the spooling service for about 20 minutes now.

Every single time i use this printer, it comes up with a different reason for doing the simple task of printing a fecking document.


edit... Printer status: Error
Trouble shooter can't find a problem*

on printer properties 'about' tab, this pops up...


Any ideas?

I'm on the brink of putting hammer through the top of this printer and binning it.


*dunno about anyone else but Windows' troubleshooter has never ever helped me resolve any issues, ever!

 

[Grant Fondo]

why is it every time i want to use my printer, my printer just throws a hissy fit and refuses to work?

maybe it's suffering from a lack of attention, since i only need it once in a blue moon, but when i need it, i really need it... such as printing a parcel label for a delivery I've just paid for.

The last time i needed it it just wouldn't connect to the wi-fi no matter how many times i tried, and after several hours of me spitting feathers i gave up on the wifi, plugged in a USB lead and got printing that way.

The time before that it was a case of removing it and reinstalling it.

This time i thought I'd skip the wi-fi shenanigans and went straight for the lead... oh no... it's not going to connect that way. So delete the printer and reinstall it. Nope, not gonna work that way either. Well... I'll give the wi-fi a go, that goes and connects the first time, but there's a connection error. Troubleshooter says its not the default printer (despite being the only printer), so i make it default only for it to indefinitely hang on 'spooling' whatever that means. So I go to the troubleshooter again, which has been checking the spooling service for about 20 minutes now.

Every single time i use this printer, it comes up with a different reason for doing the simple task of printing a fecking document.

I'm in the same boat! Can print wifi from laptop, phones etc but not main pc. Reinstalled drivers, usual checks and fettling but nope, just won't have it. Possible Win 11 issue?

 

[MontyVeda]

I'm on Win10 but this printer was a PITA when i had W7 installed.

 

[DCBassman]

Canon MX340 here, and no printing problems from 10, 11, or Linux Mint. Although getting Mint to do printing over Wi-Fi is a rather technical issue. In my fairly limited experience of printers, Canons just seem to work...

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Canon MX340 here, and no printing problems from 10, 11, or Linux Mint. Although getting Mint to do printing over Wi-Fi is a rather technical issue. In my fairly limited experience of printers, Canons just seem to work...

I'm on Xubuntu with a HP printer over wireless, I had to change a setting to get it reconized but once reconized it works very well.