Random Tech Questions

[thelastdisciple]

I guess my first world / WPP issue is that I don't understand why you'd bother setting up a computer without an internet connection. lol

I mean I do, but that's only after thinking about it and not on first blush.

Only speaking for myself, you're right that it likely wouldn't matter for the average user but I just like to have certain things a bit detached from internet requirements. I'm the same way with always-on internet based DRM when it comes to games, things like that become such hoops to jump through if you actually have a faulty connection or there's some dumb issue with the verification servers. Want to travel and have games on the go? oops, can't.. Internet required. I haaaaaaaaate hate hate hate that stuff. Regardless of if i mostly use online features If there isn't an offline mode included somewhere I typically won't bother with it, same goes with consoles. When i set up my PS4 for the first time, i could skip the wifi setup and it didn't demand me to be online all the time.

[allegate]

totally. like when I want to use my switch remotely and it makes me click through several screens and wait while it searches for a wifi signal just to finally say "hey I guess you can't use cloud saves right now".

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

No, that’s true but 8 and 10 have been around for SO LONG that a lot of the Win7 machines are old with minimum capabilities intended for Win7; Win10 has a compatibility checker that tells you when it won’t update. Win7 came out 11 years ago.

We don’t know the answer to your question, the dude with the problem hasn’t logged back in.

Gotcha, gotcha lol. I thought I was missing something there. Hope that gets sorted!

[elevenism]

Ok so, yeah, y'all. It's a lock screen.

We upgraded from win 8 to win 10 to be able to read a multipartition micro SD card.

On win 8, the username was permanently there: it was upon booting up the computer: say, if the power went out, that I'd have to answer the password.

But NOW, the username is not there, now that it's upgraded.

I'm assuming it's one of my mom's old email addresses. But we have NO FUCKING IDEA which one it was.

I think this thing is like, seven years old?

So, like, holy fucking Christ!

I WOULD just say "fuck this computer" and get a new (used) one for cheap, but, it has about 5,000 family photos on it going back ten years or so.

Like, we dumped.the photos from old digital.cameras and cell phones onto it. It also contains my plex server, which is like, our main form of entertainment. We have share4shared with so many people that we have access to like, WAY more movies and shows than Netflix and Hulu combined.

Do you guys think a tech shop can get around it?

I'm losing my goddamn mind here.

[elevenism]

So I figured out that we can choose to login with a phone number, and the phone number registered as correct, and is connected to one of my mom's old hotmail accounts ( which she no longer has access to,) but, curiously, the phone number does not match the original password for the lock screen.

So, we tried to do a password reset/account recovery, where we had to fill in my mom's name, birthday, passwords that have been used on the account, and a security question.

I've failed entering this security question using an alternative recovery method multiple times: I'm not sure if it's the CITY and the team, the city, the team, the team's nickname, the city PLUS the team's nickname, and, what is and isn't capitalized.

So my mom gets an email within 24 hours to find out if we guessed enough old shit to be able to log into our FUCKING GODDAMNED FAMILY COMPUTER that no one's ever fucking TOUCHED other than the three of us, that didn't need a fucking LOCK SCREEN.

Lololol. Yeah. Good GOD I hope this works. Sorry, everyone, that I didn't log back in for so long.

My brother, niece and nephew are here, and my mom is going through some really intense medical shit: not dangerous- just uncomfortable shit.

But yeah. Good GOD I hope.this works.

If I can't get it to work, can I take it to a computer repair shop?

[allegro]

I'm assuming it's one of my mom's old email addresses. But we have NO FUCKING IDEA which one it was.

Did you try the hotmail email as the login?

Hotmail is Microsoft.

Enter the entire hotmail email address (e.g. momsemail@hotmail.com)

And once you get it running, again, for the love of Buddha BACK THE FUCKING THING UP, even if it’s only by uploading the photos to a free Dropbox account.

[elevenism]

Did you try the hotmail email as the login?

Hotmail is Microsoft.

Enter the entire hotmail email address (e.g. momsemail@hotmail.com)

And once you get it running, again, for the love of Buddha BACK THE FUCKING THING UP, even if it’s only by uploading the photos to a free Dropbox account.

It's just that we don't REMEMBER the hotmail login email. I'm praying we get it back.

That's what we're trying to do, is an "account recovery" thing.

Like, it shows the email connected to the number, but it's the ka*****@hotmail.com deal. It doesn't show all of it.

[allegro]

It's just that we don't REMEMBER the hotmail login email. I'm praying we get it back.

That's what we're trying to do, is an "account recovery" thing.

Like, it shows the email connected to the number, but it's the ka*****@hotmail.com deal. It doesn't show all of it.

And none of you have ever received email from that address?

Can you search your emails and see if it comes up? Your Gmail, all mail, from @hotmail.

Your mom can’t remember an email ID that started with “ka??”

Like a cat or dog name or something?

See also this

I was able to open the command prompt before logging in and displaying the user
name was disabled some how... Enabled it and boom, username popped right up.

[elevenism]

Since when can you not upgrade from Win7 to Win10?? My Lenovo V570 ran on 7 and I upgraded with no problems. It really depends on your comps specs.

What version of Windows did you upgrade from? I recently did a clean and quick install from my windows 8 AIO and had this problem myself. I was able to open the command prompt before logging in and displaying the user
name was disabled some how... Enabled it and boom, username popped right up.

Dude, how did you open the command prompt?

[allegro]

Dude, how did you open the command prompt?

Click on the lower right, see the Power key, HOLD DOWN THE SHIFT KEY while choosing the restart key, then let go of the shift key. Blue screen appears. Click on Troubleshoot. Choose Advanced option. Choose Command Prompt. I believe choose advance startup??

[allegate]

[elevenism]

When I click on the Power key, I get

There are currently no power options available.

[elevenism]

So we're clear, get an initial screen with the picture icon and my mom's name, with "sign in to the computer" underneath.

Clicking on "sign into computer" takes me to

Unlock the PC

With fields for username and password.

Also, my mom tried to recover her old email address, by entering a bunch of information, and FAILED.

Now, they want her to fill out a more complex form, but, Windows customer service is acting buggy and won't get her past the captcha, no matter how many times we fill it in.

OH. They ALSO went ahead and BLOCKED the account we were trying to restore, for her protection.

So, even if we...FUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

I guess I start calling computer shops in Amarillo Monday morning?

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

Dude, how did you open the command prompt?

It is a bit involved.

You need a usb drive with a windows iso on it which you can get for free from the Microsoft website. I went into Bios and changed booting options to boot the flash drive first, once you get to the install screen press "Shift + F10" and the command prompt window should open.

Doing the other method with the power button and holding shift will still ask you for a password which would be redundant. There is an option that asks if you forgot your password or don't see your account? Which then lists "This list only shows administrator accounts that have previously signed into this pc, and does not include standard user or domain accounts." So pretty much you have to be signed into administrator account to do this.

For windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10 these methods should work. Here is another link I have followed in the past to get the window open. It may not be the problem with the user name being disabled, but it's worth a try if you can't get any help. For some Windows 7 machines, you can just simply press the F8 key repeatedly during boot to have the troubleshoot window open which will allow you to boot with safe mode and command prompt but you still need the password.


For the window
https://www.alphr.com/operating-syst...ws-xp-7-and-8/

For the windows installation method
https://www.digitalcitizen.life/how-...s-doesnt-boot/

[elevenism]

I think I might just buy a new computer, and, worrying about restoring this one later.

My wife THINKS we'll just need to download the latest version of Plex to a new computer, and log in, and we will still have our shares. OUR content is already on an external HD...except the photos.

This will be like losing about fifteen years of family photos, and that is very sad. I'll also lose some music I was working on, including a finished, unreleased track I made with a legendary Dallas dnb MC.

But, yeah. I need to stop panicking. I'm freaking out like someone is dying.

This all happened because I wanted to upgrade the kids' emulation handhelds by adding more games, and a nicer OS, but, it turned out that the included micro SD had multiple partitions, and, could only be read by Windows 10.

The idea of just getting another computer and returning to normalcy on there being a working family PC in the spot where there has been one for decades sounds nice: especially if I don't lose my plex shares.

[allegro]

Dying laughing.

@elevenism , I don’t understand how the fuck your Mom doesn’t remember an email address she was using not THAT long ago. Yes, they are going to give you trouble trying to recover it because they think you’re trying to hack the account.

I suppose you missed the GIANT WARNING given about backing up everything before upgrading, too.

Yeah, you people need to stay the fuck away from computers and call an expert. Have him/her tell you all how to set up a free Dropbox account for backup, too.

All this stupid shit is partly why I DO NOT HAVE ANY FUCKING WINDOWS MACHINES IN MY HOUSE.

FUCK WINDOWS.

I’m gonna go cleanse this discussion out of my memory with some UNIX commands. On my MAC.

[elevenism]

Dying laughing.

@elevenism, I don’t understand how the fuck your Mom doesn’t remember an email address she was using. Jesus, why don’t you guys just GUESS???

My mom doesn't exactly "do" the internet, @allegro . I showed her how a search engine worked in about 2006.

I'm fairly certain she's NEVER sent a personal email. She's had a metric fuckton of email addresses, (pretty much just to sign up for shit,) and, this is one she was using in like 2015.

We tried guessing, several times, to no avail.

Then, we tried recovering the windows account, and managed to FAIL the recovery form, so, now the email we're looking for is blocked, anyway.

Edit: this is why her Netflix account and our VPN and all that cool shit is in MY name, since I've lived here. She wanted the computer to be under her email, of course, because it was HER new badass (at the time) computer, and she was proud of it. And, that was never a problem, until today.

[elevenism]

@allegro , it was the Mrs who did the upgrade, and she's generally pretty damned good with computers.
She's just really fucking sick, and was only doing it because I asked.

And so, yeah, she was lazy about backing everything up. In fact, she made sure most everything was backed up EXCEPT the damn pics and my music.

[allegro]

@allegro , it was the Mrs who did the upgrade, and she's generally pretty damned good with computers.
She's just really fucking sick, and was only doing it because I asked.

And so, yeah, she was lazy about backing everything up. In fact, she made sure most everything was backed up EXCEPT the damn pics and my music.

Well that’s not a backup, is it?

And no offense but if she’s good with computers she’d have fixed this already.

You don’t get EMAIL addresses when you “sign up for shit,” it takes some effort to acquire email addresses.

My Mom is nearly 83 and at least writes this stuff down. She has a file folder full of this info.


Did you see this? Is the phone number on file a textable cell number?

https://account.live.com/username/recover

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...6-67a668453f4c

[elevenism]

Well that’s not a backup, is it?

And no offense but if she’s good with computers she’d have fixed this already.

You don’t get EMAIL addresses when you “sign up for shit,” it takes some effort to acquire email addresses.

My Mom is nearly 83 and at least writes this stuff down. She has a file folder full of this info.


Did you see this? Is the phone number on file a textable cell number?

https://account.live.com/username/recover

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...6-67a668453f4c

I'm saying that the reason my wife didn't do a full backup is that she was trying to do all of this in between throwing up every ten minutes, with a whole lot of other shit on her mind, and she didn't want to do it in the first place. And I don't mean she's any sort of computer genius- it's just that, 99% of the time, she can fix tablet/computer issues. Remembering someone else's email from six or seven years ago, though, who made dozens of email addresses, or knowing the answers to their security questions: yeah. She doesn't know how to.do that, and isn't on the level to know how to get around it.

And yes, my mom DOES make new email addresses to sign up for shit that requires email addresses, because she doesn't remember the old ones: at least, she did that up until fairly recently. And she does NOT write shit down.

She missed a lot of the information age.

And, yes. Those links are what we used to attempt to recover the account.
It didn't work.

Now, they have ANOTHER form, which asks for MORE information, but, it's glitching at the captcha on her phone, for now.

I'm tired of worrying about it, honestly.

[allegro]

Eek. Well, if she is making new email addresses to sign up for shit online, she’s not as dumb as you think she is.

YOU aren’t on the level of getting around it, either!

Why you making your wife do stuff while she’s puking, dude? Wtf?

[elevenism]

Eek. Well, if she is making new email addresses to sign up for shit online, she’s not as dumb as you think she is.

YOU aren’t on the level of getting around it, either!

Why you making your wife do stuff while she’s puking, dude? Wtf?

Oh, I KNOW I'm GODDAMN sure not on the level of getting around it, lol.

I'm real fucking good at PIRACY and burning CDs, and scraping metadata.

And, c'mon...I didn't MAKE her do it. I just asked really sweetly. Now I wish I hadn't

[thelastdisciple]

For some Windows 7 machines, you can just simply press the F8 key repeatedly during boot to have the troubleshoot window open which will allow you to boot with safe mode and command prompt but you still need the password.

Oh man you have no idea how much I miss the F8 key for being able to get into safe mode.

[imail724]

I ran into such an unusual issue yesterday that I don't even know how to google it. My phone (samsung/android) was connected to my car's stereo (Nissan) via bluetooth. I was playing music as usual (BlackPlayer app/mp3s), and then one song ended, the next song started and within seconds my stereo restarted itself. I thought that was weird but who knows, just one of those things maybe. The stereo finishes rebooting, takes a few seconds to connect to bluetooth again, song starts playing and instantly the stereo restarts again. So this time I turn bluetooth of to see what happens. Low and behold: no restart. I play the radio a bit, no issues. So I go to my phone, turn on BT again, but I choose a different song. Car connects to phone and plays perfectly. I play another song on the same album with the problem track, no issue. I go back to the song in question, instant reboot. I'm clueless. How could one mp3 file cause my stereo to constantly reboot like that? I've played the song on my phone directly without BT and it plays fine.

[ickyvicky]

That's weird. Maybe something written in the mp3 file? No clue.

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

I ran into such an unusual issue yesterday that I don't even know how to google it. My phone (samsung/android) was connected to my car's stereo (Nissan) via bluetooth. I was playing music as usual (BlackPlayer app/mp3s), and then one song ended, the next song started and within seconds my stereo restarted itself. I thought that was weird but who knows, just one of those things maybe. The stereo finishes rebooting, takes a few seconds to connect to bluetooth again, song starts playing and instantly the stereo restarts again. So this time I turn bluetooth of to see what happens. Low and behold: no restart. I play the radio a bit, no issues. So I go to my phone, turn on BT again, but I choose a different song. Car connects to phone and plays perfectly. I play another song on the same album with the problem track, no issue. I go back to the song in question, instant reboot. I'm clueless. How could one mp3 file cause my stereo to constantly reboot like that? I've played the song on my phone directly without BT and it plays fine.

Is the MP3 track corrupted in any way? Sometimes files can end up corrupted, especially when converted to certain formats. I remember converting an album in the past, and two of the songs would crash my music app. Seems like syncing is also a huge culprit, so if you have any automatic syncing options for music, maybe mess with that or turn them off. If it is just this song giving you problems, download it from somewhere else and test it. Has to be something in that file itself that isn't cooperating with the bluetooth sync.

[imail724]

Is the MP3 track corrupted in any way? Sometimes files can end up corrupted, especially when converted to certain formats. I remember converting an album in the past, and two of the songs would crash my music app. Seems like syncing is also a huge culprit, so if you have any automatic syncing options for music, maybe mess with that or turn them off. If it is just this song giving you problems, download it from somewhere else and test it. Has to be something in that file itself that isn't cooperating with the bluetooth sync.

That has to be it, it's the only explanation I can come up with. It's just odd just that 1 file would get corrupted while the rest of the album is fine, and I didn't know something like an mp3 file could cause my entire car stereo to completely reboot itself. An app crash, sure, but my stereo? That's crazy. The files were converted from FLACs, so I'm going to try re-converting the original FLAC and see if that helps. If not, I'll try downloading another copy. Thanks!

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

That has to be it, it's the only explanation I can come up with. It's just odd just that 1 file would get corrupted while the rest of the album is fine, and I didn't know something like an mp3 file could cause my entire car stereo to completely reboot itself. An app crash, sure, but my stereo? That's crazy. The files were converted from FLACs, so I'm going to try re-converting the original FLAC and see if that helps. If not, I'll try downloading another copy. Thanks!

Of course! Hope you figure it out. The rebooting thing is indeed crazy to hear lol. Thanks for bringing this up too because it gave me a whole nother' topic to research more now lol.

[imail724]

Of course! Hope you figure it out. The rebooting thing is indeed crazy to hear lol. Thanks for bringing this up too because it gave me a whole nother' topic to research more now lol.

Haha well please keep me updated on your findings!

[Magnetic]

What kind of wifi speakers are worth it? I'm just looking to have two in my apartment, so I can listen to music with decent sound, but not irritate the neighbors below? This is just for pottering around; the dedicated turntable + amp + headphones will come later.