# Yet more idiocy



## robert@fm (Jan 18, 2017)

I have a shiny new laptop (an Asus ROG G752VL — the Toshiba Satellite laptop which I bought for about £250 in August 2013 is decidedly underpowered these days, and the keyboard hasn't worked properly since September 2013, so I've been using a plug-in keyboard since March 2014). One trouble is, it runs Windows 10 Home, and I'm not sure I like how that works. (Another problem is that the optical drive is only a BD-ROM, not a BD-RE as I thought it was; still, it can burn CDs and DVDs, and can play Blu-Rays; and if I need to burn a Blu-Ray, such as for archive purposes, I have a plug-in BD-RE drive.)

Not long ago, I tried playing some music; my music files are stored on the network share \\readynas\music, under which (as with the copies I have on my phone and tablet) the actual music files are under .\mp3s (in subfolders by artiste and in subfolders under those by album) and the playlists are under .\playlists — simple and logical, I would have thought. However, I tried playing an album by opening the playlist with Groove (the music player supplied with Windows 10, at least on Asus ROG machines); it first said some rubbish about "needing" to add the playlist to its library (why couldn't it just use my existing library; after all, I'd already told it where that was by opening the playlist), so I had to go into Settings and change the default library folder from C:\Users\Robert\Music to the correct location (apart from anything else, I have long-since learned to never store important user files in system folders such as those under C:\Users, as doing so causes problems with accessing them across the network), and even after that, the files came up in Groove as by "Unknown Artist_[sic]_". (Common grammatical error there; an artist is someone who creates, not someone who performs.) Evidently Groove has no idea what ID3 tags are, and instead of determining album, artiste etc. from the tags as it should, it was misinterpreting my folder structure.

The final straw was that Groove complained that I had no internet connection, and it thus couldn't stream the files so I couldn't play them!  (In case you're wondering, I'm typing this on my old laptop, which can use an emergency w-fi connection which I have in the event of my broadband going down, as it frequently does.) Who said anything about streaming? I didn't; I just wanted to play the files, which were on a local share, and if I wanted to stream them I would be doing so to another device on my local network, not to someone on the internet. 

So I heaved a sigh, exited that idiot program, and installed Winamp. It may be outdated and no longer supported, but it works, straight out of the install, and has proper drag-and-drop functionality; no having to create a Winamp-specific library if you don't want one (As I, for one, don't; as I said above, I play my music on multiple devices.)

In the long term, I will probably install Windows 7 Professional on the Asus, as it's the OS I prefer (it's the one I have on the Toshiba). To do that, I need to back-up the Asus and find out how to boot into the BIOS (F8 doesn't work, I tried that).


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## mikeyB (Jan 18, 2017)

You lost me after the second sentence there, Robert, but I do feel your pain. Best of luck sorting it all out.

I've got one PC with state of the art graphics and sound, run Windows 10 home quite happily, but use WordPerfect instead of the awful Word. One tablet, Apple iPad. One phone, Apple iPhone 6. No headaches.


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## Amigo (Jan 18, 2017)

Robert, try F2, F12 or delete on power up to take you into the bios settings as F8 will only get you into Safe Mode.

My husband uses the old Windows media player from Windows 7 as he couldn't get the Groove to work either.


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## Vicsetter (Jan 18, 2017)

robert@fm said:


> In the long term, I will probably install Windows 7 Professional on the Asus, as it's the OS I prefer (it's the one I have on the Toshiba). To do that, I need to back-up the Asus and find out how to boot into the BIOS (F8 doesn't work, I tried that).


Thats a monster of a laptop : 17.3 inch screen!

I use Windows Media Player, or can you not run Plex on your Nas box?

The boot to Bios is F2 (see http://www.asus.com/uk/support/FAQ/1008829/)


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## Mark Parrott (Jan 20, 2017)

Mine is 19 inches.  Not that i'm boasting or anything.


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## Redkite (Jan 20, 2017)

Robert, all I understood from your post is that you are way more tech savvy than me, yet the flipping things can still cause you problems!


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## Wirrallass (Jan 20, 2017)

Hello Peeps! Simplicity is my motto. I ditched my ailing computer a while back when it reached a go slow stop mode! I only have a Windows mobile phone now and a Samsung Tablet....that's sufficient for me. If I want a printout of anything then I use my daughters printer. The only downside is I need to wear my reading specs with the screens being small but I can live with that. Take care.


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## robert@fm (Jan 22, 2017)

I have today found (quite by accident) that my shiny new laptop will support a second display through its HDMI output; my old laptop also has an HDMI output, but the only optins avilable when pressing [Windows]+[P] are "Duplicate", "First screen only" and "Second screen only" — the latter is the one I've been using this past year, because the first screen is only WSVGA (1366x768), per usual for cheap laptops these days, whereas the second screen can be whacked up to full HD (1920x1080). My new laptop, on the other hand, also gives the "Extend" option, so I can run Power DVD 16 to play DVDs/Blu-Rays on the TV whilst using the laptop screen for something else (e.g. having PwoerDVD's virtual remote on that screen so that it doesn't get in the way of the picture). I can even use it to listen to a music DVD whilst browsing the forums, as I'm doing right now!


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## Wirrallass (Jan 22, 2017)

You've lost me Robert!!!


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## robert@fm (Jan 22, 2017)

OK: the tl;dr version is that I can now use my new laptop as a second Blu-Ray Player, one which doesn't entail crossing the room to change disc, and I can use it for other stuff at the same time.


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## muddlethru (Jan 23, 2017)

I haven't a clue what anyone is talking about. Oh if only I had a brain.


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## mikeyB (Jan 24, 2017)

Dinnae fash, muddlethru, neither do I and I've got a brain.


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## LucyLoo (Jan 26, 2017)

Robert.....I am nowhere near techie enough to understand your post (sorry ) but I had to comment just to say that your little signature thingy-ma-bob is fantastic.....it really made me chuckle


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## Wirrallass (Jan 26, 2017)

robert@fm said:


> OK: the tl;dr version is that I can now use my new laptop as a second Blu-Ray Player, one which doesn't entail crossing the room to change disc, and I can use it for other stuff at the same time.


Hi again Robert, I'm still confused.com my old brain can't take in things these days like it used to!!! Out of touch with technology and computers, life is easier for me without them take care


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## Wirrallass (Jan 27, 2017)

mikeyB said:


> Dinnae fash, muddlethru, neither do I and I've got a brain.


Hi MikeyB, I'm ashamed to say I've  never visited Scotland. My elder brother was born in Elgin....I wasn't even a twinkle in my dad's eye then! Hopefully in the not too distant future my family will take me to the Highlands as it's been on my wish list for a long time. Take care & look after yourself Mike.


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## mikeyB (Jan 27, 2017)

Thanks for that wirralass. Best come up before Theresa May rebuilds Hadrans Wall


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## Wirrallass (Jan 27, 2017)

mikeyB said:


> Thanks for that wirralass. Best come up before Theresa May rebuilds Hadrans Wall



Haha! With what you're going through I am amazed that you still have a sense of humour! I admire you M. Do take care.


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## robert@fm (Jan 27, 2017)

And a triple (perhaps quadruple) dose of idiocy this evening!

Having successfully used my new laptop as a Blu-Ray player, I tried to use it to play a 3D Blu-Ray. It turns out that Power DVD 16 doesn't support 3D playback on 2-screen setups.  (Depending on which options I try, either "Play 3D movies in 3D" is disabled, or the video gets sent to my TV in a format which the TV doesn't recognise.) This is dumb, as Blu-Rays (with a few exceptions such as the Beatles 1+ discs) cannot be controlled with mouse clicks, so you need to have the video on one screen and the virtual remote control on the other so that it doesn't get in the way of the picture. 

I tried a search for alternate software, and as a result downloaded a "free" player called DA Player (aka 5K Player) which is supposed to fit the bill; it doesn't, in fact it doesn't recognise Blu-Ray discs, and despite the description on the download page, it's not freeware, it's trialware.  So even if it worked, I probably wouldn't have bought it because of their dishonesty. One would be better off with VLC Media Player; although that can't play Blu-Rays either (if it could I would have no problem), it is genuine freeware, and is excellent for most media.

So I tried to sign up to the Asus ROG forums; there was one warning bell straight away, in that the ROG machines are high-powered, cutting-edge stuff, yet the forums for them are still using vBulletin instead of modern forum software.  (Possible idiocy #4?) In fact, they have the dumb standard vBulletin message "You may have to register before you can post here". (Idiocy #5? — either forums allow guest posting or (more likely) they don't, there is never any "maybe" about it.) I tried to sign up, having read the Terms & Conditions (the standard forum stuff) and made sure I checked the box saying that I had; but the dumb software claimed that I hadn't accepted them, so registration wasn't possible! 

I suppose I'll just have to continue using my hardware player for 3D movies.


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## robert@fm (Feb 3, 2017)

And another one:

Windiws 10 annoys me for several reasons (for instance, Firefox doesn't work properly; it no longer remembers passwords for me, and freezes suspiciously often, despite the new laptop having 8 times as much memory and vastly more firepower than the old one¹; Pegasus Mail doesn't work at all), but the worst is that it keeps bombarding me with spam. (I suppose someone had to pay for all those "free" upgrades.) The absolute worst was this evening, when I went to print something and found that the system had (without bothering to tell me) replaced my default printer with a trial version of a print-to-fax driver for which I have absolutely no use whatsoever, and which I didn't even know was installed!  (I didn't pay £150 for a colour laser printer, and another £50 for a powerline network setup so I can connect it to my laptop in another room, so that the idiot system can decide that it knows better than me what my needs are.) Fortunately it was a simple matter of going into "Devices and Printers" (er, Microsoft, since when were printers not devices?) and restoring the correct default (and removing the unwanted driver while I was there). Still, it was annoying to waste five minutes of my time like that.

¹I suspect these to be something to do with the dumb message I got when I first ran Firefox, saying "Microsoft Edge is 12% more secure than Firefox". Firefox may bey 10% less secure than Edge, but it's 100% less Microsoft, and that's what matters to me.  Besides, I'm used to the way it looks and works, and it remembers my tags and windows when it shuts down (Edge doesn't), and the latter alone makes it a better browser to my mind.


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## Vicsetter (Feb 4, 2017)

robert@fm said:


> And another one:
> 
> Windiws 10 annoys me for several reasons (for instance, Firefox doesn't work properly; it no longer remembers passwords for me, and freezes suspiciously often, despite the new laptop having 8 times as much memory and vastly more firepower than the old one¹; Pegasus Mail doesn't work at all), but the worst is that it keeps bombarding me with spam. (I suppose someone had to pay for all those "free" upgrades.) The absolute worst was this evening, when I went to print something and found that the system had (without bothering to tell me) replaced my default printer with a trial version of a print-to-fax driver for which I have absolutely no use whatsoever, and which I didn't even know was installed!  (I didn't pay £150 for a colour laser printer, and another £50 for a powerline network setup so I can connect it to my laptop in another room, so that the idiot system can decide that it knows better than me what my needs are.) Fortunately it was a simple matter of going into "Devices and Printers" (er, Microsoft, since when were printers not devices?) and restoring the correct default (and removing the unwanted driver while I was there). Still, it was annoying to waste five minutes of my time like that.
> 
> ¹I suspect these to be something to do with the dumb message I got when I first ran Firefox, saying "Microsoft Edge is 12% more secure than Firefox". Firefox may bey 10% less secure than Edge, but it's 100% less Microsoft, and that's what matters to me.  Besides, I'm used to the way it looks and works, and it remembers my tags and windows when it shuts down (Edge doesn't), and the latter alone makes it a better browser to my mind.



Windows 10 works fine.  I only use Firefox and it remembers my passwords when I want it to. If it caused problems people would be complaining (not just you) and they are not.
Pegasus mail ! didn't even know it was still running, Version 4.7 works on Windows 10 (32 bit version) according to the internet.  I suggest your try Postbox (spin off from the Mozilla email client), it only costs a few quid ($40) and it's got lots of great add-ons.  
Yes I've had the messages about MS Edge and ignored them, there has only been 3 (its faster, its more secure and stops more malware) (must of been from the latest upgrade).I have Firefox, Edge and Chrome installed.
If you have had your default printer changed to a trial Fax printer, then I would suspect it's because of something else you have installed, like your laser printer software.


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## mikeyB (Feb 4, 2017)

Doesn't matter which laptop you buy, it will nowhere near match the sheer heft of processing power and graphics and sound that's built into my PC. The four fans that keep everything cool on the various bits show the limitation of laptops. They are limited by the heat that really powerful processors and graphic cards produce. Next upgrade I'll probably have to introduce water cooling. But the main thing is it does everything I ask of it without blinking.

Mind you, the lights go dim in the street when I switch it on.


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## Wirrallass (Feb 4, 2017)

robert@fm said:


> And another one:
> 
> Windiws 10 annoys me for several reasons (for instance, Firefox doesn't work properly; it no longer remembers passwords for me, and freezes suspiciously often, despite the new laptop having 8 times as much memory and vastly more firepower than the old one¹; Pegasus Mail doesn't work at all), but the worst is that it keeps bombarding me with spam. (I suppose someone had to pay for all those "free" upgrades.) The absolute worst was this evening, when I went to print something and found that the system had (without bothering to tell me) replaced my default printer with a trial version of a print-to-fax driver for which I have absolutely no use whatsoever, and which I didn't even know was installed!  (I didn't pay £150 for a colour laser printer, and another £50 for a powerline network setup so I can connect it to my laptop in another room, so that the idiot system can decide that it knows better than me what my needs are.) Fortunately it was a simple matter of going into "Devices and Printers" (er, Microsoft, since when were printers not devices?) and restoring the correct default (and removing the unwanted driver while I was there). Still, it was annoying to waste five minutes of my time like that.
> 
> ¹I suspect these to be something to do with the dumb message I got when I first ran Firefox, saying "Microsoft Edge is 12% more secure than Firefox". Firefox may bey 10% less secure than Edge, but it's 100% less Microsoft, and that's what matters to me.  Besides, I'm used to the way it looks and works, and it remembers my tags and windows when it shuts down (Edge doesn't), and the latter alone makes it a better browser to my mind.


Robert Robert Robert @fm! What am i to do with you?! Whether you're being serious or not, I cannot help but laugh at what I can only describe as a load of gobblydegook! Well, at least to me anyway!!! Please, I mean no offence but the more I read your post, the more i am doubling up in agony with laughter and I haven't consumed even a tiny tot of white tonight! I am only about 40% computer literate to date, still learning, so do you think I should enrol on a computer course purely so i can learn to understand what the dickens you are talking about!!! Anyway, it was a good bedtime story Robert so thank you for that! I hope you have read this in the humorous vein in which it is written. Night night & take care.

Wirralass. Type2


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## Wirrallass (Feb 4, 2017)

mikeyB said:


> Doesn't matter which laptop you buy, it will nowhere near match the sheer heft of processing power and graphics and sound that's built into my PC. The four fans that keep everything cool on the various bits show the limitation of laptops. They are limited by the heat that really powerful processors and graphic cards produce. Next upgrade I'll probably have to introduce water cooling. But the main thing is it does everything I ask of it without blinking.
> 
> Mind you, the lights go dim in the street when I switch it on.


Mike, hope you don't mind me using this thread but there's a new type1 member by the name of Pearscrane 'trapped' in Ask Diabetes UK!  Asking about taking meds on holiday. I couldn't help so posted a message. Can you or Northerner or anyone help this person please. Thanks Wirralass.

It's OK,  Trophywench has picked it up. Sorry to have bothered you, Night


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## Wirrallass (Feb 4, 2017)

wirralass said:


> Mike, hope you don't mind me using this thread but there's a new type1 member by the name of Pearscrane 'trapped' in Ask Diabetes UK!  Asking about taking meds on holiday. I couldn't help so posted a message. Can you or Northerner or anyone help this person please. Thanks Wirralass.
> 
> It's OK,  Trophywench has picked it up. Sorry to have bothered you, Night


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## robert@fm (May 8, 2017)

robert@fm said:


> [...]So I tried to sign up to the Asus ROG forums; [...] I tried to sign up, having read the Terms & Conditions (the standard forum stuff) and made sure I checked the box saying that I had; but the dumb software claimed that I hadn't accepted them, so registration wasn't possible!


I still can't play 3D movies, but I've now found that my system software includes something called "Nvidia 3D Graphics"; but I can't figure out whether that's "3D" meaning stereoscopic or "3D" meaning rendered (ideally it should be both, as in Pixar movies from _Up_ onwards, but I suspect it may just be "rendered"), so I've had another go at registering for the forums (I've done a search, and nobody on the forum seems to have had this problem). The instructions one gets when finally accepted say that to get posting rights, one has to either PM a certain named moderator, or try to post a reply to an existing thread; but I've tried both, with no luck. I can't even edit my profile. 

Looks like I may have to get another computer, one which stands some chance of actually working.  I can afford it, but shouldn't have to...


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## Wirrallass (May 8, 2017)

robert@fm said:


> I still can't play 3D movies, but I've now found that my system software includes something called "Nvidia 3D Graphics"; but I can't figure out whether that's "3D" meaning stereoscopic or "3D" meaning rendered (ideally it should be both, as in Pixar movies from _Up_ onwards, but I suspect it may just be "rendered"), so I've had another go at registering for the forums (I've done a search, and nobody on the forum seems to have had this problem). The instructions one gets when finally accepted say that to get posting rights, one has to either PM a certain named moderator, or try to post a reply to an existing thread; but I've tried both, with no luck. I can't even edit my profile.
> 
> Looks like I may have to get another computer, one which stands some chance of actually working.  I can afford it, but shouldn't have to...


For goodness sake Robert@fm so annoying - good luck
WL


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## Vicsetter (May 8, 2017)

The 3D should mean 3 Dimension and certainly not stereoscopic.  Your laptop graphics card should do 3D but only to an external 3D monitor.  You might like to look at http://www.nvidia.com/object/3dtv-play-overview.html
which is the nvidia 3D player software (free trial for 14 days and then $39.99)
It is interesting that Sony and LG have both ceased production of 3D tvs as the take-up hasn't been enough.


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## mikeyB (May 8, 2017)

3D TV was a short lived technology for broadcast TV. I occasionally watched footie in 3D but they stopped broadcasting in that format, including films, because it simply doesn't add oomph to the experience on a small screen, and by that I mean smaller than 50 inches. 4K Ultra HD does, and that's the way broadcasters are going. Or at least Amazon, Netflix and Sky are. I expect the Beeb might follow on before I pop my clogs.


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## robert@fm (May 9, 2017)

Vicsetter said:


> The 3D should mean 3 Dimension and certainly not stereoscopic.


"3D" originally meant "stereoscopic" (and has done so since the 19th century); it's only recently that it has come to mean "rendered". I am trying to enable playback of Blu-Rays, which are "3D" in the traditional sense.


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## robert@fm (May 9, 2017)

mikeyB said:


> 3D TV was a short lived technology for broadcast TV. I occasionally watched footie in 3D but they stopped broadcasting in that format, including films, because it simply doesn't add oomph to the experience on a small screen, and by that I mean smaller than 50 inches. 4K Ultra HD does, and that's the way broadcasters are going. Or at least Amazon, Netflix and Sky are. I expect the Beeb might follow on before I pop my clogs.


Sky (at least their watch-on-demand service) were streaming 3D movies until at least November 2015, which is the only time I tried it. (My Sky box only worked for three months.)


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## Ingressus (May 9, 2017)

Loll what an earth lost me at computer


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## Vicsetter (May 9, 2017)

robert@fm said:


> "3D" originally meant "stereoscopic" (and has done so since the 19th century); it's only recently that it has come to mean "rendered". I am trying to enable playback of Blu-Rays, which are "3D" in the traditional sense.


How do you spell stereoscopic with the letter D.  It means 3 Dimensional.  You obviously enjoy being pedantic rather than saying thanks for the advice I'll have a look.


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