Bjorn Posted March 25, 2015 Man, that sucks. I'd say that I won't buy Logitech on principle (because reading this, I honestly feel like they don't deserve my business), but they have a couple of specific mouse configurations that unfortunately no competitors copy so it's hard to find a direct alternative to my latest mouse. I'd happily buy a Steelseries or Razer or whatever if they had what I like. It's really passed the point of being infuriating and just become absurd. Hell, I can't even swear for sure that I won't ever buy a Logitech mouse again. The reality is that this is the first Logitech mouse I've ever had die within three years of buying, all the other ones have ended up being retired from age or I broke them myself. I have one of their trackballs in my desk from 16 or 17 years ago that I keep as a backup, because it still works great. That's a pretty great track record. Though this has knocked the hell out of their reputation in general for me. I've always recommended Logitech stuff without a hesitation, and that won't happen anymore. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Codicier Posted March 31, 2015 I really should swear never to build a PC for family or friends ever again, the whole thing just destroys my nerves. So I went with the config I mentioned and all of it arrived today so after disassembling the case ready to reassemble it i hit a roadblock with the very 1st component i went to install. I carefully sized up the the CPU cooler onto the motherboard, before going ahead and a seating the CPU and adding the the thermal paste etc (& therefore making return a impossibility) and what do you know despite the manufacture saying it was compatible the heatsink doesn't clear the capacitors on the Mobo near the cpu socket (it has about a 7mm clearance on 3 of 4 sides & the capacitors are around 9mm tall). It's frustrating but I think I'm just going to install the stock cooler since the case still does have enough room for it (although things will be tighter), and return the Noctura. Sure the case wont be quite a quiet as i wanted but I'm really not willing to take any sort of risk with the Noctura not seating properly, it's entirely possible that placing it on top of a mounted cpu with paste on it might add that tiny mm or so needed to make this work but I'm really not keen to take that risk The bright side is that the Microsoft 3000 Wireless keyboard my parents have just decided they want to go with the set up comes in at almost the exact same price as the Noctura cooler did, so I'm go to ring up the company i bought it from and hopefully sort out a return/exhange. It's really passed the point of being infuriating and just become absurd. Hell, I can't even swear for sure that I won't ever buy a Logitech mouse again. The reality is that this is the first Logitech mouse I've ever had die within three years of buying, all the other ones have ended up being retired from age or I broke them myself. I have one of their trackballs in my desk from 16 or 17 years ago that I keep as a backup, because it still works great. That's a pretty great track record. Though this has knocked the hell out of their reputation in general for me. I've always recommended Logitech stuff without a hesitation, and that won't happen anymore. As a sidenote to this I'm going to say i don't think I'm ever going to buy a Dell monitor (or anything else from them again) because of how bad their customer service has been with this model. For whatever reason when i tried to register it & their autofill form online didn't work but the lady i contacted first time around assured me it was no prob as long as i gave her the model number and purchase details (which i then did providing her photographs of just about every code or number anywhere on the monitor or its packaging. After that point everything went downhill after not hearing anything for a fortnight i rang them back, and was passed onto a different person who once again asked for the details I'd already sent them, i asked him to send a email detailing what he needed from me & what the problem was but I never received one and instead i got repeated calls to me made during office hours (which id specifically asked for them not to do) asking either if I considered the enquiry sorted or again requesting the details they had already sent (which by this point was over a month ago). So i'm basically gathering my resolve to launch the process again from the very start along with a very clear note in the original enquiry saying that I want all communication by email, & if its not cleared up within 14 days I'm going to basically make a complaint to the uk regulatory body (and although i wont say this in the email see if making a post on/to one of the prominent consumer rights forums/twitter personalities provides either advice or at least some bad publicity for Dell. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bjorn Posted April 1, 2015 And on the 69th day of wandering in the mouse wilderness, the UPS Driver dideth deliver upon me a new mouse, a G502. This thing looks like an angsty teenager compared to my G9x. It feels cheaper than my G9x, but it's got rave reviews, so maybe I'm just being overly critical. Logitech did not have me ship the G9x to them, so now I can try and repair it as well! I'd really dig holding onto it if I can get the left click fixed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Spenny Posted April 1, 2015 I do really dig how unassuming the G9x looks, I mean it looks like a computer mouse, and thats about it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bjorn Posted April 1, 2015 The G9x is probably my favorite mouse ever. Like you said, it's unassuming, but still looks nice. It fits my hand great. And the build quality I thought was excellent (except for the spring on the left click). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeusthecat Posted April 1, 2015 Why does Steam try to install DirectX and Visual Studio redistributables with every single new game I boot up? Is there something I need to do to get it to detect that I already have all of that installed? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JonCole Posted April 1, 2015 I can only answer the DirectX part, but I'm guessing the Visual Studio part may be similar. Basically DirectX is a huge library of binaries, some of which are required for each game. When a game says it's installing DirectX, it's installing a new version of the whole package that includes the necessary binaries. Since every game requires a number of elements within DX to work properly, each game requires a new installation of DirectX to insure that every element necessary is installed regardless of whether or not the current version on the system already has all of them. In other words, it's easier to just reinstall everything than to determine the individual configuration of each install and only add the new things. I guess it's kinda similar to something like video drivers, where everything is wiped clean with every new install rather than patched. Since it's such a complicated system of software, it's better to assure that everything works when you start from scratch each time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeusthecat Posted April 1, 2015 Okay, that makes more sense then. I use Installshield quite a bit at work to put together our installation packages and we typically just check for specific registry keys to determine if the installer needs to install any Visual Studio or DirectX components. So it's a pretty basic check in our case. I never realized having a version of DirectX installed didn't necessarily mean that you had all of the binaries for that version. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elmuerte Posted April 2, 2015 DirectX has regular updates of various of its components, or used to. There is no "easy" way to detect if all components installed are the one's included in the most recent installer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Architecture Posted April 8, 2015 that is some stellar trouble shooting though. I've had bad sticks before and makes for serious aggravation Thank you. It caused at least two hours of frustration on my part. Does anyone here have experience with adding extra case fans? I've got a front intake and a rear exhaust, but I've got slots for more and wasn't sure if that was a prudent way to improve thermal performance. My CPU tops out at around 60C under load, which is pretty good, but my card runs north of 70C when pushing polygons. I could go crazy and get a GPU water block, but that seems like overkill for a middle of the road GPU. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
toblix Posted April 8, 2015 70°C is fine for a GPU though, unless it's super old. And unless the fan noise is annoying you. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JonCole Posted April 8, 2015 Thank you. It caused at least two hours of frustration on my part. Does anyone here have experience with adding extra case fans? I've got a front intake and a rear exhaust, but I've got slots for more and wasn't sure if that was a prudent way to improve thermal performance. My CPU tops out at around 60C under load, which is pretty good, but my card runs north of 70C when pushing polygons. I could go crazy and get a GPU water block, but that seems like overkill for a middle of the road GPU. Depending on what case you have, it might be a good idea to just upgrade the OEM fans. Also, some cases come with a 120mm case fan slot that comes equipped with a 100mm case fan in the slot (I imagine for cost purposes) that could be replaced for better performance. Probably you're fine if you spent some decent cash on the case (usually the $100+ Corsair, Coolermaster, etc cases are well-stocked) but it might be worth a look. I bought a 4-pack 120mm case fan set and upgraded the two OEM fans in my wife's budget case in addition to using the other two for the CPU cooler. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Spenny Posted April 8, 2015 I had to replace the cooling system on my graphics card after the stock fan started making a lot of noise. It was pretty easy to do and now if I'm so inclined I can overclock it like a cool guy. Sticking more case fans in your computer is also super easy to do. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Architecture Posted April 9, 2015 I went with the Corsair Carbide 200R, which has a 120 intake and 120 exhaust fan. I have room for another intake on the side panel (two, actually, but my CPU cooler is too big to fit a second one on the panel at the moment) and a pair of exhaust fans on the top of the case. Is it worth the extra cash for some extra ventilation? I only have one more PWM header on my MOBO, but I know they make PWM splitters. Can you run a case fan of the optional CPU header? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
undermind9 Posted April 9, 2015 Air flow is a tough issue - I have never had a problem with heat unless something is broken or full of cat hair. Most of my case fans are on manual control (i just realized this case is 7yrs easy) - i set them to low and let the mobo control the main exhaust. It runs a 140 out the top, 120 out the back and two (only 1 functioning) intakes in the front. this is pretty close pic i found on google - i suspect mine is out of production now I only have one more PWM header on my MOBO, but I know they make PWM splitters. Can you run a case fan of the optional CPU header? To answer your question - i dont see why not, but it will likely be spinning up and down as the CPU heats up and down. This could cause problems with the fan, the CPU trying to cool and not able, or an annoying amount of spin up - I would go with the splitter if airflow / heat becomes a problem. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JonCole Posted April 9, 2015 You could also get a fan controller, which would enable more fine control and probably all the headers you need (even the cheap ones have 5+). Granted that'd require at least $20 or so, but you might spend that much on half-decent case fans as well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeusthecat Posted April 9, 2015 I've been having a weird problem lately where I am getting a ton of dropped frames when I try to stream to Twitch. Back in November, when I originally set everything up, I was able to stream Dishonored without any issues with the bit rate set at the recommended value of 2000 kb/s. Over the last month though, whenever I've tried to stream, it comes out incredibly choppy and OBS shows a very large percentage of dropped frames. Even lowering the bit rate down to 1000 kb/s still results in some dropped frames but it is overall much smoother. Even more frustrating is that when I run an internet speed test, it always shows me having about an 8-9 Mb/s upload speed which should be way more than adequate to run a stream at 2000 kb/s. One key thing about all of this is that the streams tend to start out fine and then start to degrade and drop frames after it's been running for a little while, usually 5-10 minutes or more. My immediate assumption when I noticed that was that maybe Cox was throttling my bandwidth because I was over my data limit or something. So I downloaded ShaperProbe to see if there was any packet shaping going on and unfortunately, it tells me that the servers are busy every time I try to run it even after a month of regular attempts (apparently they only support one client connection at a time?). In this same time span, I've continued testing my streams and have gotten the same results every time, which indicates to me that it has nothing to do with me running over on my data since the time span has overlapped two billing cycles now. At this point, I'm at a loss and super frustrated that I can't figure out exactly why I'm having this problem now when I didn't have it in November. We did get a new modem between then and now so I guess that could be a possibility but I doubt it since it is much better than the previous one we had and internet speed tests all come out higher than before. And I've done all the obvious stuff like restarting my modem and router and computer multiple times to no avail. The only other thing I can think of is that maybe my network card in my computer is going bad so the last thing I am going to try is to hook my work laptop up to my network and run a Twitch connection test to see if I get different results. Does anyone here have any experience with this kind of stuff or any thoughts on other factors that I may have overlooked? I am not very experienced when it comes to diagnosing network issues and I am mostly just learning as I go but I think I have reached a point where Google has run out of advice and troubleshooting steps for me to try. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JonCole Posted April 9, 2015 Does Twitch have different servers to which you can stream to? If so, can you try switching servers? My vague notion here is that if your upstream is good and your bitrate is reasonable, maybe the server is unresponsive because you're streaming to one far away or something? Total shot in the dark, otherwise I don't know what could be wrong. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeusthecat Posted April 9, 2015 Does Twitch have different servers to which you can stream to? If so, can you try switching servers? My vague notion here is that if your upstream is good and your bitrate is reasonable, maybe the server is unresponsive because you're streaming to one far away or something? Total shot in the dark, otherwise I don't know what could be wrong. Yeah, I've tried that and even managed to find a nice utility someone made that lets you test your bitrate and latency to every possible Twitch server. These tests actually reflect what I am seeing with my streams. My best two connections are to LA and San Francisco and the results that I get with the Twitch connection test come out to 1500 kb/s or less which is extremely low compared to the 8-9 mb/s that I get on my internet speed tests (and I've tried about 7 or 8 different speed tests). This utility also rates the quality of your connection to the Twitch servers based on these parameters and mine comes out to 0% quality across the board every single time. Something just seems wrong and from what I've researched, it doesn't sound like I'm being throttled, but that there is some other factor at play that I am missing. I thought at first that maybe it was just my timing and Twitch servers were overloaded but after seeing this issue for so long that is obviously not the problem. I'm also going to try flushing my DNS to see if that helps but I doubt it will since restarting my computer didn't have any effect either. Thanks for the response Jon. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JonCole Posted April 9, 2015 Is it possible that port forwarding could help? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeusthecat Posted April 9, 2015 I literally no nothing about how port forwarding works. But now that you've mentioned it I'll look into that as another possible remedy. Thanks again for throwing some ideas out there. This issue is consuming me and I freaking hate to leave a problem unsolved. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erkki Posted April 9, 2015 I just bought a Raspberry Pi 2 on an impulse after seeing it advertised in an electronics parts shop. Was able to stream some 3D movies even, but not all HD movies. Should it be able to do that, in 1080p? Seems to depend on codec or bitrate. I'm using OpenELEC.tv as the OS, and Universal Media Server as the server. Both computers are wired, but maybe the UMS is not re-encoding the best way for the Kodi running on the Pi. With the current chopiness, I'll stick to the PS3 as the media server client, and the Pi becomes kind of useless. Maybe I'll install a different OS on it and use it for surfing the net, which kind of sucks on the PS3. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Codicier Posted April 9, 2015 after spending a full day assembling the itx pc i posted previously, it of course fails to boot past even a black screen, the fans & drives spin up but the screen remains resolutely black and hammering the bios key on start up hopefully made no difference. i wouldn't mind so much but this case is not easy disassemble/reassemble, and worse yet after switching to a zalman cnps 8900 to replace the noctura cpu cooler i was going to do original removing the ram is going to be a bitch to remove (since the cooler overhands them)to the standard remove everything & try again test I've tried resetting the bios with the cmos jumper but its made no difference tomorrow when I'm feeling a little less like smashing the damn thing i'll unplug the battery to the bios leave it and see if that full clear does any good but im not hopeful. My worry is that when i look at the supported cpu's http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=4993 My Core i5-4960k has only been supported since version f4, but i've got no idea how I'm supposed to flash a bios which doesnt get past post or even if this should/could be the a reason why it wont get there. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeusthecat Posted April 9, 2015 Are you getting any beeps when you try to boot it up? I had a similar problem once but was lucky enough that it beeped at me when it tried to boot up and I was able to determine what the problem was by the beep code. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Codicier Posted April 9, 2015 Sadly there's no chassis speaker on the mobo, atm i'd give my right arm for a nice set of LED's or a beep code Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
