The Official Computer Tech Support Thread

[djchameleon]

I don't know if anyone can help me with this minor problem but my laptop is barely two months old and the back light key and the eco system key aren't working. When I try to turn off the back light, it goes dim but then lights back up again. It's so weird because I barely ever use the back light key. I turned it on last night and now I haven't been able to turn it off now. I went to the toshiba support site to look around and see if I could get help with it but I don't know. I want them to fix this. I'm pretty sure I'm still under the limited warranty.

[debaserr]

I have been having an annoying problem with my internet. I frequently get bad latency. I usually have just done the windows connection troubleshooter then it is fine for a while, but it happens so often that I need to just fix it permanently. Here is a log from said troubleshooter:

Information for Connection ID 1
Connection started at: 2011-02-25 02:20:10-671
Auto Configuration ID: 1
Profile: 1412
SSID: 1412
SSID length: 4
Connection mode: Infra
Security: No
Pre-Association and Association
Connectivity settings provided by hardware manufacturer (IHV): No
Security settings provided by hardware manufacturer (IHV): No
Profile matches network requirements: Success
Pre-association status: Success
Association status: Success
Last AP: 00-1b-11-5e-64-f5
Security and Authentication
Configured security type: Open
Configured encryption type: None
802.1X protocol: No
Key exchange initiated: Yes
Unicast key received: No
Multicast key received: No
Number of security packets received: 0
Number of security packets sent: 0
Security attempt status: Success
Connectivity
Packet statistics
Ndis Rx: 3527529
Ndis Tx: 2836265
Unicast decrypt success: 0
Multicast decrypt success: 0
Unicast decrypt failure: 0
Multicast decrypt failure: 0
Rx success: 26235
Rx failure: 386017
Tx success: 15498
Tx failure: 39
Tx retry: 2203
Tx multiple retry: 734
Tx max lifetime exceeded: 0
Tx ACK failure: 0
Roaming history: 0 item(s)




Diagnostics Information (Wireless Connectivity)
Details about wireless connectivity diagnosis:

For complete information about this session see the wireless connectivity information event.

Helper Class: Auto Configuration
Initialize status: Success

Information for connection being diagnosed
Interface GUID: 13766bf5-b658-41cc-a2f1-6e0eecf5b4d6
Interface name: D-Link WDA-2320 Desktop Adapter
Interface type: Native WiFi

Result of diagnosis: There may be problem

[Freebase Dali]

What's your signal strength look like? Wireless access points have what you can call "gears"... If you're close and your signal strength is excellent, the AP is going to be communicating at full capacity and you'll get a lot of throughput. Further away, it has to drop some of the compression algorithms and operate at slower speeds because the quality of the RF connection to your computer's wireless card can't support it.

If you're at full signal strength and still having this problem, then that's probably not the issue.

Also, I noticed that your access point has no authentication and is unsecured. Could it be possible that your neighbors are all leeching off your internet? If so, they could definitely be sucking down your bandwidth. You can check this by logging into your wireless router and checking to see who's connected to it. Connected client lists are standard in wireless APs, so you shouldn't have any issues determining such. If this is the case, you'll want to enable security on your AP, using anything but WEP, which is easily cracked. WPA2 with TKIP is fine.

If this isn't your issue, we can explore something else, like updating your wireless card's driver, etc.., but typically those two scenarios are the most common.

[debaserr]

it's probably my signal strength. it's been at 2/5 bars for as long as I can remember. should I make a foil range booster thingy?

[Freebase Dali]

Originally Posted by eric generic

it's probably my signal strength. it's been at 2/5 bars for as long as I can remember. should I make a foil range booster thingy?

Foil range booster? I wouldn't go about arbitrarily adding length to the antenna(s). They're precisely cut at a specific length to account for the length (or a portion of it) of a 2.4ghz radio wave in its optimal phase. If it's not at that length or a multiple of it, you'll won't be doing yourself any favors. A better idea is to actually position the antenna(s) on the AP so that the RF propagation pattern extends more towards you. If your access point is on the same floor as you, you'll want the antenna(s) sticking straight up, vertically, as the RF propagates horizontally outward sorta like a donut. If the antennas are laying horizontally, all you're doing is wasting DB giving the roof a really good internet connection. But if you were upstairs, this is obviously a better idea.
If you're both on ground level, you should be aware that RF hates ground, and is physically repelled by it. Try putting the AP high up on a shelf or something and see if there's any difference.

So are you sure there isn't anyone leeching off your internet? Or are you the one leeching? hehe.. if it's the latter, then I'm afraid there isn't much you can do, since it's likely that a lot of other people are doing the same thing and the problem is simply one of limited bandwidth. Short of going over to that person's house and requesting that they purchase faster internet, there's little you can do.

[debaserr]

I was thinking more along the lines of This. it's not adding length.

I will try to aim my antennae towards my computer now though. they should be aimed at a 90% angle towards my computer?

no leeching is occurring. I have checked it at random times when my latency went to crap.

edit: re-positioning my antennae boosted it to 3/5 bars.

[Freebase Dali]

Originally Posted by eric generic

I was thinking more along the lines of This. it's not adding length.

I will try to aim my antennae towards my computer now though. they should be aimed at a 90% angle towards my computer?

no leeching is occurring. I have checked it at random times when my latency went to crap.

Hmm... might as well give the antenna thing a try. Can't hurt anything as long as it isn't physically touching the metallic interior of the AP's antenna. If you're on the same floor with the AP, the antennas should be vertical, 90 degrees to the floor, like the long part of an L. You don't have to worry about angling them towards the 90 degree direction of your computer, as the antennas are omni-directional and the propagation pattern is vertically "thick" enough so that you'll be in the 1st fresnel zone regardless, but by all means, experiment.

[s_k]

Here's something interesting;
When you're installing windows 7, you could run into the problem that every step takes an awful long time to load. Nothing happens or 5 to 10 minutes and all of a sudden stuf works again, until the next step. I've just been staring at 'setup is starting' for 10 minutes and I figured that I didn't want my whole setup to go that way, so I did some googling.
Turned out the solution is turning off your floppydrive in the bios (!).
People had similar problems with hooked up cardreaders and iPods.
Apparently 7 setup checks for stuff on every drive every now and then. Which is annoying.

So remember that; Slow Windows 7 setup? And I don't mean sluggish, I mean slow as in, nothing happens for long periods of time, no HDD action, no CD action; Turn off your drives with removable storage!

[Burning Down]

Originally Posted by s_k

Here's something interesting;
When you're installing windows 7, you could run into the problem that every step takes an awful long time to load. Nothing happens or 5 to 10 minutes and all of a sudden stuf works again, until the next step. I've just been staring at 'setup is starting' for 10 minutes and I figured that I didn't want my whole setup to go that way, so I did some googling.
Turned out the solution is turning off your floppydrive in the bios (!).
People had similar problems with hooked up cardreaders and iPods.
Apparently 7 setup checks for stuff on every drive every now and then. Which is annoying.

So remember that; Slow Windows 7 setup? And I don't mean sluggish, I mean slow as in, nothing happens for long periods of time, no HDD action, no CD action; Turn off your drives with removable storage!

What do you mean, when Windows 7 is being installed into the computer, or when you turn the computer on and the OS is loading?

And people still have floppy drives? O_o

[s_k]

When windows 7 is installing. The installation itselves is really really slow then.
And what you ask reminds me of another thing: If you have an asus laptop and it boots ****ing slow, check if there's a card in the cardreader

I use floppy drives, yes. I mess around a bit with old Laptops and MSX computers.
And if I remove the floppy drive there's a hole in my computer.
I will replace it with a cardreader soon, though. I'll juse an external usb floppy drive.