Recent Posts

326

Living Room / Re: when is a cable not a cable - when it's a DVI-D

« Last post by nudone on August 19, 2011, 04:43 AM »

Maybe - but again, I've no confidence in these things working. To me, it seems reasonable to expect DVI-D "dual link" to work - the specification says it does, beyond higher resolutions of 2560 x 1600. I don't expect magic cables to be required to make it work. If things are so different in the high res world then they ought to make the sockets on the monitor completely different to avoid confusion with the non magical DVI-D socket (call it DVI-D triple link or something).

Future-proofind may be an issue for me later. But I expect it will be the same old nonsense. The HDMI cable will say it works - but it won't work beyond 2 meters unless it's only at 1920 x 1080.

I mean, this isn't cutting edge technology. LCD 30 inch monitors have been around for years - is it so hard to make a cable over 2 meters for them.

Anyway, we shall see. The Lindy cable I've ordered claims it will work at the res I need. I will be more surprised if it does work, rather than surprised that it doesn't.

327

Living Room / Re: when is a cable not a cable - when it's a DVI-D

« Last post by nudone on August 19, 2011, 04:27 AM »

Well, that's the thing, I wasn't awake enough to spot the original item description only stating 1920 x 1200, but I did make sure it said dual link - this is the item's title on ebay "3M DVI-D Male to DVI-D 25 Pin Dual Link Gold Cable Lead".

I did wonder if I was missing something obvious so I did check if there was any physical difference between the the two cables and they both look identical in connection socket terms. I've just taken a (bad) photo to show that the black plug cable looks like a normal dual link - I've several single link cables which do look different (less pins, just as wikipedia mentions).



Note the number of pins are the same, width of "flat" pin is the same (these can be different depending on spec of cable). Only difference I see is that the green socket cable (the 2m working cable) has a slightly thicker cable than the 3m black socket cable.

328

Living Room / Re: when is a cable not a cable - when it's a DVI-D

« Last post by nudone on August 19, 2011, 03:36 AM »

Good point. And, I am an idiot - it's official.

I did get the 3m cable via eBay, taking a bit of a chance and not spending much, around £5. I've just checked the item description and it DOES only state resolutions of 1920 x 1200 - that will teach me for not reading things thoroughly. I bought it because I just assumed DVI-D was going to work - regardless of the length.

I've now ordered another 3m one from Amazon. This is manufactured by Lindy and DOES claim to support "up to" 2560 x 1600. So, if that doesn't work I will be sending it back - I get the impression Amazon's returns system is quite painless. (This cable is about £25. There are others double the price so we shall see whether I have to resort to one of those yet.)

The repeaters were expensive and only stated supporting resolutions of up to 1920 x 1200.

Thanks for the explanation, 4wd. I'm surprised that cables are so rubbish over such small distances. I thought the "digitalness" would be more capable.

329

Living Room / Re: when is a cable not a cable - when it's a DVI-D

« Last post by nudone on August 19, 2011, 02:55 AM »

And does the 2 meter cable still now work with the 30"?

-cranioscopical (August 19, 2011, 02:48 AM)

Yep. The 2 meter one is fine but that came with the monitor and looks kind of "special". It looks a lot beefier than other DVI cables and has lime green coloured plugs - maybe they are made of Kryptonite.

I've also found someone else online stating they've had the same problem - only the cable that came with the monitor works (2 meters).

Can't find anyone claiming they've got a 3 meter cable to work with a 2560 x 1600 resolution screen.

Plenty of 3m cable product descriptions saying they will work at that res - but I can't say I trust them.

Maybe a repeater is the answer - but, again, I'm not sure I trust the claims unless it's from someone that has such a thing working for their own setup.

330

Living Room / when is a cable not a cable - when it's a DVI-D

« Last post by nudone on August 19, 2011, 02:15 AM »

I'm really getting tired of computers; hardware if nothing else. I simply wanted an extension cable so that I can place the monitor about 3m away from the pc.

Apparently this is just too demanding of me. The universe (or the pc hardware subset, at least) has decided that I am not allowed to have a graphics card's digital signal traverse such incredible distances of 300 centimeters.

So, can anyone enlighten me as to why a DVI-D cable that is 2 meters works perfectly well (the one that came with the monitor), and a 3 meter DVI-D cable I've just purchased doesn't work at all?

The connections, i.e. number and shape of pins, that each cable has are identical - but I'm obviously a fool and can't see the blindingly obvious differences. Maybe the one that works has 10,000 angels sitting on the head of each pin (or whatever the phrase is). Somehow I need these angels to migrate over to the new 3 meter cable's pins.

Honestly, I'm just sick to death of hardware not working. This is just a DVI-D cable, how simple a piece of hardware can that be.

As a caveat: I am connecting to a 30" monitor (2560 x 1600) but I don't see why that should be an excuse.

p.s.
Yep, I've tested the 3m cable and it works perfectly well with a lower resolution monitor (1920 x 1200).

331

Living Room / Re: how does your <insert device here> stack up?

« Last post by nudone on August 18, 2011, 03:03 AM »

Hmm, I think I'll wait until Stone 2 is released (they never enable all the features on the first release).

332

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by nudone on August 18, 2011, 03:00 AM »

Thanks, Carol. I'll see what the bungee cord and the surgical tubing is like first (as they are already ordered), if they are rubbish then I'll try the elestic chord.

333

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by nudone on August 17, 2011, 05:29 PM »

I've ordered the mini hungers and the surgical tubing so I'll see what works best. The Antec case I'm using has sliding trays to put he drives in, so I think it will be easy to rig up some kind of hard drive hammock.

334

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by nudone on August 17, 2011, 02:31 AM »

Okay, thanks. Searching for "bike straps" eventually led me to "mini bungee" which appear to be about the right size; around 10 inches.

Edit:
Just had another thought: maybe surgical tubing would be a good alternative to the rubber bands idea.

335

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by nudone on August 16, 2011, 04:36 PM »

I'd also decided to avoid rubber bands as they will perish - but I did try and find those elasticated hooks on eBay, tiny ones that is.

Any idea where I can get them from, f0dder? Or anyone?

336

Living Room / Re: Firefox fixes the version number problem

« Last post by nudone on August 16, 2011, 12:19 PM »

That reminds me...

http://www.smbc-comi...cs&id=2337#comic

337

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by nudone on August 16, 2011, 12:14 PM »

Good point. But I did leave out a few details which, I think, mean there's nothing for me to worry about.

1. The hard drives are still in their Antec metal trays (which have rubber grommet anti-vibration things for the screws, but obviously don't work to reduce the annoying hum). These metal trays are resting on the foam pads - so there is a gap between pad and hard drive.

2. Both hard drives are directly behind a fan at the front of the case.

Either way, the insulation issue is worth remembering, i.e. now I won't be tempted to do something stupid and wrap the drives in lots of foam padding to try and wedge them into the case.

338

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by nudone on August 16, 2011, 03:09 AM »

at the risk of being on topic, have you considered adding some sound deadening to the case as well?

I'd try sitting the case on something (a piece of high density foam or polystyrene sheet, or even corrugated cardboard) and probably lining the sides as well (they make great drums!!)

-Target (August 15, 2011, 10:51 PM)

Good ideas but all this is happening inside an Antec case that has padded sides already. I've also tried putting the case on top of some padding but the machine is so heavy (around 3 stone, or 20 kg) that there isn't anything sufficient to put under it - maybe a bed matress (we can now discuss bed/pc mods to go with the toilet mods).

Anyway, the annoying humming noise has gone - definitely. It just isn't a silent machine overall at the moment so, when the extension cables arrive, I will be putting the machine in the other room (neighbour's toilet habits permitting).

For anyone experiencing a similar annoying hard drive hum, this is the material I've used: http://en.wikipedia....rg/wiki/Sleeping_pad



I've cut several small rectangles out from the foam so that each hard drive rests on four of these layers. This is something I shall do in future (as it works better than anything else so far) - but it requires a more secure way of restraining the drives. It's fine whilst the machine is stationary, but if I were to forget about the hd foam bed setup I could easily have hard drives smashing around inside the case when I try to carry it somewhere (I've stuck a post-it note to the side of the case to remind me about the unstable contents - yes, I am likely to forget otherwise).

339

Living Room / Re: Conceptual art for Apple's new headquarters

« Last post by nudone on August 16, 2011, 01:05 AM »

Hahah. Perfect.

340

General Software Discussion / Re: Problem: I can't understand how to get a W7-64 machine into an XP-32 network

« Last post by nudone on August 15, 2011, 03:47 PM »

Well done. Glad you sorted it. Now you just need to repeat the entire process to try and figure out what happened.

341

General Software Discussion / Re: Problem: I can't understand how to get a W7-64 machine into an XP-32 network

« Last post by nudone on August 15, 2011, 02:06 PM »

Chuckle. (Sorry.)

342

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by nudone on August 15, 2011, 03:55 AM »

Perhaps, with a bit of persuasion, I can use his bath to provide water cooling for the pc.

-nudone (August 15, 2011, 02:46 AM)

Build it in his toilet tank and he might not even notice it's there. 

-app103 (August 15, 2011, 02:58 AM)

Heheh. Now that would be a custom pc I'd like to see.

343

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by nudone on August 15, 2011, 02:46 AM »

I'm going to order the cables I need to put the machine in the room next door.

-nudone (August 13, 2011, 07:47 AM)

But... won't your neighbour mind having all that stuff in his bathroom?

-cranioscopical (August 13, 2011, 08:05 PM)

Good point. Never thought of that. Probably not a good idea to go drilling holes through the wall and into his bath either.

Perhaps, with a bit of persuasion, I can use his bath to provide water cooling for the pc.

344

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by nudone on August 13, 2011, 04:33 PM »

Intermod distortion makes perfect sense to me. I've become slightly perplexed by what's going on between the old and the new drives - I "believe" it could be a combination of them both spinning at the same time.

The annoying noise occurs with either drive placed outside of the case (the cables are just long enough to try this). Placing a single drive on foam rubber does not reduce the noise enough - and it seems not to matter which drive is on the foam bed. Placing both drives on a soft surface does reduce the noise by a significant amount (as I mentioned above, I believe the noise has gone).

So, in conclusion, it appears that the noise comes from having both drives powered on and at least one touching a hard surface connected to the case (even if that hard surface is the floor under the case). It also explains why either drive seems to cause the problem AND/OR not cause the problem - like some kind of weird quantum mechanical connection across spacetime. Maybe the machine is about to fall into a Worm Hole that is on the verge of forming between the two drives - gyroscopes are funny things aren't they and I think the disks could be behaving similar to that giant machine from Sagan's Contact (in the film, at least).



Epilogue:
The machine used to be very quiet. But its hardware contents were slightly different back then. I was using controllers to make four internal fans spin slower than normal and the newest 1TB drive used to be a 250GB Samsung drive. In other words, the hardware seems similar now to what it was but there are lots of rotating (vibrating) elements that are spinning differently since I put the new drive in - and no doubt creating a whole new range of waves of possible harmonic distortion.

I am beginning to feel a lot less angry with Samsung now. It is the machine itself that is annoying - I confess. I may still dangle the drives from string though; I'd already considered this but the little foam beds I've used instead were the quickest option (and are working quite well).

Edvard, thank you for making sense of the problem and giving it a name.

345

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by nudone on August 13, 2011, 11:05 AM »

I've not noticed any loud seeking type noise - BUT I do have two Raptor drives (RAID0) which I think are the noisiest seeking drives I've heard (maybe old scsi drives are louder), so maybe I've just not realised where the noise is really coming from.

To be truly honest. I'm not even sure if the old Samsung drive is any less annoying than the new one. It seems that since I've had to rebuild my machine a couple of weeks back, the drives are now annoying no matter where I put them in the case.

346

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by nudone on August 13, 2011, 07:47 AM »

Interesting point. Never thought about using 2.5 inch drives. I think the speed would put me off using them.

Am going in a different direction now anyway. I'm going to order the cables I need to put the machine in the room next door. I've a friend that has already put their pc tower in another room to where the monitor and keyboard/mouse are situated and it's so quiet it seems unnatural or wrong. That is what a really want, absolute dead quiet (except for the noise from the monitor). So, if I do that, the machine can make as much noise as it likes - problem solved once and for all.

347

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by nudone on August 13, 2011, 07:15 AM »

I've now placed the two 1TB Samsung drives are a nice cosy bed of foam rubber - which I "believe" has reduced the noise.

I'm not entirely sure if the noise has gone completely as I think I can hear something but I honestly don't know if I'm imagining it - or kind of exaggerating it as I strain my ears to detect any kind of annoying sound.

Anyway, next mission. Drill holes in wall and remove all annoying hardware sounds completely.

348

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by nudone on August 13, 2011, 07:11 AM »

So, sam sunging is normal behavior?

-nosh (August 13, 2011, 05:42 AM)

(with a thousand apologies to Neil Diamond...)

Sam Sung Blue, everybody loathes one
Sam Sung Blue, every write a low hum

Hard drive screws
Are subject to a little noise now and then
But when you hear that noise and it's a hum
You take it back again...
They'll send it back again

Sam Sung Blue, weeping like a willow
Sam Sung Blue, head under my pillow

Funny thing, but if you fling it with a cry of rejoice
A bitter crack then it's silenced for good
You simply got no choice...
You simply got no choice

Sam Sung Blue, I'll never buy another one
Sam Sung Blue, 'cause I just can't trust 'em...

-Edvard (August 13, 2011, 07:00 AM)

Brilliant. Though the drive really doesn't deserve such song writing creativity wasted upon it.

The problem is with SSD is that they are very expensive, aren't 1TB (or have they reached that now) and, worse, seem to have a high RMA rate. I've already been stung by one that I had to return. Having said that, I do intend to purchase an modest sized SSD in the near future - for data storage though, I wouldn't trust an SSD.

349

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by nudone on August 13, 2011, 06:45 AM »

I'm now going to attempt some kind of suspended drive setup using whatever rubber bands I can find. If that fails I'm going to do what I've been dreaming of doing for several years...

...drill a hole in the wall and put the computer in the adjacent room with all the cables fed through to this room. If I can hear any annoying noises after that then I will likely have a nervous breakdown.



As for sending the drive back. At the moment I'm just so stick of dealing with returns and hardware issues that I can't bare the thought of being questioned about the drive's faults. And I certainly don't want to get my hopes up and they send a replacement drive that has the exact same issues. I'd rather just chuck the drive in a cupboard and buy another - providing it's a brand with zero noise issues.

Which is good point: Anyone got recommendations for a brand that doesn't suck with hard drive noise issues.




App, I know I'm a bit sensitive to noises - but simply because I know there's no need for them. Ever since my first computer, I was aware of other people's machines being quieter or louder. So, I just knew it was possible to have hardware that was quiet(er) - there simply was no need to sit next to a box with an screaming hard drive inside it (nor screaming fans).

350

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by nudone on August 13, 2011, 06:07 AM »

Very true, worstje. I just feel so let down by a brand and piece of hardware I thought I could rely upon.

Here's the thread I found with similar complaints: http://www.tomshardw...-consitent-vibration

And, I'm sure you are right. Many, if not most drives will function perfectly well - I hope. But that thread mentions Samsung's reply to a returned drive, i.e. it's "normal" behaviour for such annoying noise. Replacement drives produced the exact same horrible humming. So, it obviously is "normal" in Samsung's opinion otherwise their replacement drives would be better.

The real problem is that I used to dread buying hard drives (years ago). As they always produced very annoying noises of some type or another. Then Samsung started to get positive reviews everywhere, saying how quiet their hard drives were - and they were. But now they aren't. Not 100% it seems.

I guess the real, real problem is that Samsung don't consider the low humming noise an issue. That means they aren't doing anything about the problem. That means I can't risk buying another drive made by them ever again. They don't believe their is a difference between their older drives that produced no annoying hum and thier new drives that do - they are either clearly deaf or just lying.

So, I can't trust them. Can't trust what they produce. Can't trust their standards of quality. In other words, I think I really do hate them because they've decided to become liers.