PC Tech Thread

I know, right? It is one of my better kickstarter bets... Now you know why I want to make this keyboard work at the waking department? :-)

Well, now it's obsolete I guess you will be giving it away?

Did the website not mention it can be used as a wired keyboard? 🤭

Because if you're giving it away i know a good home...

Do you happen to live there? 😉

Think of this as a chance to do much needed future proofing, the future won't have wires.

My presence already doesn’t have that many wires! 🤣

Come on I need to end of year sale to start like now. I need a new monitor NOOOOOOWWWWWW! Well, I don’t need one but I want one... roll on tomorrow! 😎😎😎

This might be a very strange thing for a very short sighted person (me) to ask, but has any tried not prescription computer glasses?

I wear contact lenses most of the time because I find cycling wearing glasses very difficult, so I am thinking of buying a pair of computer glasses for the office... so I don’t have to faff with taking off my contact lenses...

Besides, I broke my blue lens prescription glasses a while back... 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️😬

many thanks to the forumengers a few pages back and for the advice received on my pc upgrade, got a new psu then had a local repair shop add an ssd with windows 10 1tb by the company recommended, now have a nice quick pc running with 1tb ssd and 2tb hard drive ( the old c drive ) now running perfectly, nice little xmas pressie to myself for 1/2 the price of buying a new and similarly powered pc, the gifs thread is now a pleasure to view,

mending > buying new

now how do I go about repainting the letters and characters on an old and worn keyboard, and how do I referb my mouse so it scrolls and functions properly

For the keyboard I'd look at a replacement keyset, any paint you put on will soon come back off again.

As for the mouse. Unless it's a ancient 'ball' version you can't refurb modern optical/laser mice as far as I know. Could be a dirty mousemat?

Scrolling issues might be dust/gunk around the scroll wheel, might be worth opening it up.

So I finally went for a new monitor, this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BenQ-EW3270U-Enjoyment-Brightness-Intelligence/dp/B07BBRLTRH/ref=sr_1_1?crid=K550PF9TUOQ6&keywords=benq+ew3270u&qid=1577721187&sprefix=benq+ew%2Caps%2C143&sr=8-1

The colours are a bit shit, but nothing a good calibration can't solve.

However, I have found out the USB-C port doesn't seem to work and instead of returning it, I am thinking I might be able to get a discount from Amazon.

I would definitely want to return and get a new one if the USB C does charging but it doesn't so it got me thinking, I might as well just stick to the displayport for my PC and HDMI for my Mac... I'll still need 2 cables after all...

So the monitor costs me £381, how much discount is reasonable for a faulty USB C port?

PS, I have tried the usual troubleshoot and 3 different cables... so I am pretty certain it is faulty.

Update:
Done my calibration, the colours are much better but stil a bit shit, but then I knew this would be the case with it being a VA monitor and not an IPS... but since I don't do much photography these days, the colours are good enough. And the big screen make modelling much more enjoyable!! :-)

On the faulty USB-C port front, managed to get 25% off, so almost £100 off, I am pretty impressed with myself. They were going to give me 10% but I said 1 of the 4 ports don't work and that's 25% of the monitor that doesn't work... :-P

Anyone know of any good docks? Surface one seems a bit too much.

I want to open some word and excel files on my harddrive, whats the best open source free software for basic once a month housekeeping type use of these, no industrial use, no crazy macros

Google sheets for instant online saving etc or Libre office

https://www.libreoffice.org/

I haven't used MS Office for years except when I have to at work...

I've not used USB-C for video. What was the source?

My Mac, that's what the port is for - Amazon went through a tech support session with me (which I tried very hard not to LOL), 1st quesiton they asked was if it's for a Mac laptop...

I did some Internet search, it should just be plug and play.

My LG monitor at work also has a USB C port and it's amazing, but that also charges the Mac.

.

USB C? There are loads out there, what do you need from it?

I've not used a home printer in at least 10 years but my wife bagged a free one from somewhere.

After struggling with a non-existent paper jam, I've finally got the little shitter to "print" a test page which just comes through blank. The print head moves across like it's doing something. The screen says colour ink is empty, and the absence of any ink on the page makes m think the black is also finished (the printer gives no indication of the latter).

Is it worth me spending £37 on new ink to try and resurrect this thing? Such wasteful, wasteful, shit products. Have they ever not been a source of constant frustration. Just reminds me of endless "spooling errors" from the 90s.

Just get some aftermarket ink for £12.

thanks boss.

Finally got pi-hole. Game changer.