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Author Topic: The Generic Computer Advice Thread  (Read 573021 times)

methylatedspirit

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Re: The Generic Computer Advice Thread
« Reply #4110 on: April 16, 2020, 08:21:36 pm »

I'm considering getting an L9 (everything included, minus Windows 10) Intel NUC as a media center to plug into the TV. My plan is to install Ubuntu/Lubuntu, and then Kodi on top of that. I have 2 viable options as far as processors go. I can either get one with a Celeron J4005, or get one with a Pentium Silver J5005.

For what I'm planning to do, do I need the extra power of the Pentium, or can I do reasonably well with a Celeron? The Pentium costs the equivalent of $50 more than the Celeron.
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Lord Shonus

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Re: The Generic Computer Advice Thread
« Reply #4111 on: April 16, 2020, 08:50:52 pm »

Video decoding can be a bit intensive at higher resolutions. If you're planning to go 4K, I'd recommend going a little heavier on the processor.
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On Giant In the Playground and Something Awful I am Gnoman.
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Parsely

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Re: The Generic Computer Advice Thread
« Reply #4112 on: April 17, 2020, 09:51:02 pm »

Lately, when I play audio in a browser (replicated issue on Chrome, Firefox, and Vivaldi) or VLC, every few seconds there will be a bit of crackling and slowdown in the audio. No performance hits to rendering, it's just fucking up the audio.

I hope these are all the relevant specs?

CPU: AMD FX-6300 Six-Core Processor
RAM: 8 GB
Graphics card: AMD Radeon R9 200

I'm upgrading my RAM because I tend to multitask a lot but I hope this will help. Is there any way I could diagnose it while I'm waiting for the delivery so I can know for sure?
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wierd

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Re: The Generic Computer Advice Thread
« Reply #4113 on: April 17, 2020, 09:58:50 pm »

Is your grounding good?

Double-check.
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methylatedspirit

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Re: The Generic Computer Advice Thread
« Reply #4114 on: April 17, 2020, 10:30:05 pm »

What happens if I install an OS that is Secure Boot compliant with Secure Boot disabled, then re-enable Secure Boot? The reason I want to disable Secure Boot during the install is because I'm planning to run the OS through a multiboot menu which isn't Secure Boot compliant. I'd rather not make a separate bootable USB just for the OS if I can.
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wierd

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Re: The Generic Computer Advice Thread
« Reply #4115 on: April 17, 2020, 10:58:13 pm »

As far as I know, all that happens is that UEFI loader (specifically the crypto hashes/keys) does not get registered with the TPM if secureboot is disabled.

That means enabling it later might cause boot to fail, hard to say.

You need to keep secureboot disable to use the multiboot menu if it is not secureboot compliant all the same though, so it's moot.
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Lord Shonus

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Re: The Generic Computer Advice Thread
« Reply #4116 on: April 18, 2020, 01:05:51 am »

Lately, when I play audio in a browser (replicated issue on Chrome, Firefox, and Vivaldi) or VLC, every few seconds there will be a bit of crackling and slowdown in the audio. No performance hits to rendering, it's just fucking up the audio.

I hope these are all the relevant specs?

CPU: AMD FX-6300 Six-Core Processor
RAM: 8 GB
Graphics card: AMD Radeon R9 200

I'm upgrading my RAM because I tend to multitask a lot but I hope this will help. Is there any way I could diagnose it while I'm waiting for the delivery so I can know for sure?

Have you tried with headphones? I've had this sort of problem caused by the cables picking up CB traffic or power line noise.
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On Giant In the Playground and Something Awful I am Gnoman.
Man, ninja'd by a potentially inebriated Lord Shonus. I was gonna say to burn it.

Mephisto

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Re: The Generic Computer Advice Thread
« Reply #4117 on: April 18, 2020, 09:07:30 am »

Lately, when I play audio in a browser (replicated issue on Chrome, Firefox, and Vivaldi) or VLC, every few seconds there will be a bit of crackling and slowdown in the audio. No performance hits to rendering, it's just fucking up the audio.

I hope these are all the relevant specs?

CPU: AMD FX-6300 Six-Core Processor
RAM: 8 GB
Graphics card: AMD Radeon R9 200

I'm upgrading my RAM because I tend to multitask a lot but I hope this will help. Is there any way I could diagnose it while I'm waiting for the delivery so I can know for sure?

Additionally, are you using front panel audio? The combination of unshielded cables leading to your front panel and a bunch of interference-generating ports in one small area can cause issues.
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Starver

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Re: The Generic Computer Advice Thread
« Reply #4118 on: April 18, 2020, 10:59:43 am »

"Slowdown in the audio" suggests codec issues[1], which might or might not explain the linked crackling too. Or the glitch that somehow interferes with the speed tracker also causes 'normal' sound quality issues.

I rarely see audio go out of sync with video (if that's what I understood you to say) although sometimes I can be a bit rough with ffplay's skip on/back functionality in a high-def video stream on a low-end machine and the video is blank for a while, then 'catches' and fast-forwards a bit until it resyncs with the audio that has been playing just fine until this time. It's fun to lip-read characters (in a conversational scene with no othe cues) and try to relate what their lips are quickly saying with what I heard said a short time earlier. (Best when the desynch is at a point where a man is mouthing different words to the woman whose voice is active (or vice-versa), at a slightly different tempo, yet it still imaginably matches... ;))

Not sure how much of this helps, except for anecdotal proof that "it happens".


Out of interest, if you covert the files to different formats (if you can) from your habitually cobsumed kind, does the issue happen just as much?  That means not just changing the container format, but the layer formats within, so (Ogg) Vorbis audio compared to (MP4) MPEG Audio Layer 2, or whatever applies. Might not sort the problem, might not even be practical to test, but could rule out my idle thoughts if I'm totally off track.


[1] I've got a machine that will occasionally go a bit gaga with audio (this being VLC, as the player, not ffplay as I describe I use elsewhere). As if it missed a new fourier definition or perhaps enacted one it shouldn't have in the 'pallete' of frequencies it has to service by index, everything is suddenly noticably (but must have been shifting for a while) at a lower frequency - it plays mostly spoken word, not music, so it isn't immediately obvious.  It'll gradually depen and deepen further until it sounds like a slowed-down tape (but still at 1 second/second playback, so not 'drawlingly' slowed down) which then resets on starting the next cued-up MPwhatever file. Which makes me think it's a memory glitch somehow shifting the 'frequencies needed' table each time it passes a given space-saving 'delta' difference. Replaying the file later will not show the same issue, but travelling the "progress slider" back to a timestamp before the issue was noticable and it is as bad (and continues to distort worse and worse), so it's definitely not the file data itself but something spontaneous in memory (whether main RAM or audio chip cache). But I live with it, as it's only once every thousand or (a lot?) more playings that do this.
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Parsely

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Re: The Generic Computer Advice Thread
« Reply #4119 on: April 18, 2020, 02:08:57 pm »

Is your grounding good?

Double-check.
I have no idea, so probably not. You'd have to explain or link me a tutorial, I don't know even know where to start with that.

Have you tried with headphones? I've had this sort of problem caused by the cables picking up CB traffic or power line noise.
This definitely happens with my speakers but I'm only 75% sure this happens with my headphones too, I'll check it out. I live in a city so IDK about CB traffic but I've never experienced this  there's no overhead powerlines or anything

Additionally, are you using front panel audio? The combination of unshielded cables leading to your front panel and a bunch of interference-generating ports in one small area can cause issues.
For my headphones I am, for my speakers I'm not. The back is a big gaggle of cables though. I don't do any cable management

Out of interest, if you covert the files to different formats (if you can) from your habitually cobsumed kind, does the issue happen just as much?  That means not just changing the container format, but the layer formats within, so (Ogg) Vorbis audio compared to (MP4) MPEG Audio Layer 2, or whatever applies. Might not sort the problem, might not even be practical to test, but could rule out my idle thoughts if I'm totally off track.
Unfortunately I can't replicate it right now, I'll try to get back to you on this
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Reelya

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Re: The Generic Computer Advice Thread
« Reply #4120 on: April 18, 2020, 02:14:15 pm »

For interference it doesn't need to be an external source, it can be other cables or electrical interference inside the case itself.

As well as powerline noise there can actually be noise in the wiring in your own house, not just overhead lines.

Try tidying up the cables and keep the sound cable away from the others, see if any difference.
« Last Edit: April 18, 2020, 02:18:51 pm by Reelya »
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Parsely

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Re: The Generic Computer Advice Thread
« Reply #4121 on: April 28, 2020, 02:48:11 pm »

Right after I posted that complaint, I stopped experiencing the problem, so I thought: I'm not going to bother changing anything until I know it's still going on; once it starts again, I can change things until it goes away, and I'll actually get a better idea of what's causing it.

Today while I was listening to music on YouTube in Firefox it started up again, but I'm working so I don't have time to try adjusting things. About an hour later, just as it was starting to really get on my nerves, it's gone again. This is infuriating. I'm going to try moving my cables around like Reelya said. At least if I can make it worse then I'll know it's an electrical interference issue.
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methylatedspirit

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Re: The Generic Computer Advice Thread
« Reply #4122 on: April 30, 2020, 03:44:15 pm »

The hospital that my mom works at happens to have an Alienware laptop (basically, the laptop they wanted was out of stock, so that was the only one that fit the spec sheet) and now it's really slow, to the point that no one uses it anymore. In the next week, I'm going with her to see what's wrong with it.

Why would a laptop (especially a high-end gaming laptop used for office work) slow down to unusable levels over the course of 5 years? My bets are on severe thermal throttling due to old thermal paste and dust, but I want to hear your take on it, if any.

Edit: This is after the IT guys tried formatting the disk and reinstalling. It's still unusable after that whole process.
« Last Edit: April 30, 2020, 05:50:41 pm by methylatedspirit »
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BigD145

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Re: The Generic Computer Advice Thread
« Reply #4123 on: April 30, 2020, 04:05:45 pm »

Thermal throttling seems likely if it got a full reinstall. 5 years for an Alienware? Fans breaking. Could be some other hardware issue as well.
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Schmaven

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Re: The Generic Computer Advice Thread
« Reply #4124 on: April 30, 2020, 04:08:58 pm »

You can easily confirm that with free software like speccy or cpuz that will show you various internal temperatures.
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