PC questions that don't really deserve their own thread.

[dalq]

Recently I bought a Xbox One S controller for my pc, but I am having some problems using it.
My computer doesn't have built in bluetooth, so I had to get a cheap chinese adapter. The controller pairs and works just fine, but it doesn't stay paired.
Every time I turn on the pc, I have to make the whole process again, otherwise the xbox logo just keeps flashing and doesn't connect.
Is this working as intended or what?

 

[dalq]

Double post, sorry

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Recently I bought a Xbox One S controller for my pc, but I am having some problems using it.
My computer doesn't have built in bluetooth, so I had to get a cheap chinese adapter. The controller pairs and works just fine, but it doesn't stay paired.
Every time I turn on the pc, I have to make the whole process again, otherwise the xbox logo just keeps flashing and doesn't connect.
Is this working as intended or what?

Click to shrink...

I've had that problem before with cheap bluetooth adapters, so it's likely the fault of that :/ It's definitely not intended to work like this.

 

[XR.]

Recently I bought a Xbox One S controller for my pc, but I am having some problems using it.
My computer doesn't have built in bluetooth, so I had to get a cheap chinese adapter. The controller pairs and works just fine, but it doesn't stay paired.
Every time I turn on the pc, I have to make the whole process again, otherwise the xbox logo just keeps flashing and doesn't connect.
Is this working as intended or what?

Click to shrink...

That sounds like a faulty adapter. You definitely shouldn't need to re-sync after every reboot.

 

[dgrdsv]

Recently I bought a Xbox One S controller for my pc, but I am having some problems using it.
My computer doesn't have built in bluetooth, so I had to get a cheap chinese adapter. The controller pairs and works just fine, but it doesn't stay paired.
Every time I turn on the pc, I have to make the whole process again, otherwise the xbox logo just keeps flashing and doesn't connect.
Is this working as intended or what?

Click to shrink...

BT on PC via noname USB adapters is always a pain in the ass.
Just get MS official gamepad dongle, it's working a lot better and provides additional functions too.

 

[ThorHammerstein]

Hard to tell, I'm just theorizing. Could you post a screenshot of the issue, preferably with a detailed OSD showing clocks and load % for the GPU and all you CPU cores?

Click to shrink...

I don't know how to do that but I'm working on a few things. I'll update with any progress made. :)

 

[dalq]

I've had that problem before with cheap bluetooth adapters, so it's likely the fault of that :/ It's definitely not intended to work like this.

Click to shrink...

That sounds like a faulty adapter. You definitely shouldn't need to re-sync after every reboot.

Click to shrink...

BT on PC via noname USB adapters is always a pain in the ass.
Just get MS official gamepad dongle, it's working a lot better and provides additional functions too.

Click to shrink...

Oh well, gotta just roll with it then, took me days to find a bt adapter in my city, and the MS one is not readily available in my country, and even then, they charge like, half the price I paid for the controller lol

 

[Deleted member 49611]

Recently I bought a Xbox One S controller for my pc, but I am having some problems using it.
My computer doesn't have built in bluetooth, so I had to get a cheap chinese adapter. The controller pairs and works just fine, but it doesn't stay paired.
Every time I turn on the pc, I have to make the whole process again, otherwise the xbox logo just keeps flashing and doesn't connect.
Is this working as intended or what?

Click to shrink...

need a better adapter. i don't know the best ones but might be best just to get the official one.

i use my motherboards antenna which i didn't know you could also use for bluetooth. for some reason i thought it was just for wifi and the bluetooth didn't need one lol

 

[cowbanana]

I'm having a really funky time issue with Windows 10 at the moment, that I've never experienced before. It is really baking my noodle.

I noticed last night that my Windows clock was out of sync, which is unusual. It seemed to be about an hour behind. I didn't think much of it at the time and just hit the sync button to correct the time.

Today when I booted my PC after coming home from work the time was completely messed up, saying something like 9:XX PM when in reality it was around 4 PM. The date was correct if I remember correctly. I synced the time once again and went for a walk with my wife and kids. A couple of hours later the clock was off once again by roughly 30 minutes.

Now I've monitored this a bit more closely and time seems to desync/change suddenly instead of gaining/losing time gradually.

At 6:56 PM the clock jumped back to 6:24 PM at which point I sync'd again. Following 7:59 PM the clock changed to 7 PM instead of 8 PM. At 9:21 PM the clock changed to 8:21 PM, losing exactly an hour again. WTF?

Date is never lost, only time jumps around. I've noticed no other weird system behaviour and malware scans come up clean.

Can a CMOS battery result in this weird behaviour? Because I put in a new CMOS battery just last year where the old one died - it was a clear cut case because the UEFI BIOS had to be reset due to lost settings every time I powered on the computer before it would boot. The PC otherwise worked flawlessly with the dead battery for a few days until I put in a new replacement battery that fixed the issue.

I've tried all the bla bla bla unregister/register WT32 dlls and services. Set the Windows Time Service to automatic. Changed time.windows.com to time.nist.gov. - and I'm still temporally challenged in Windows.

What to do?

Edit: And... at around 10:28 PM the clock lost precisely an hour again.

Edit 2: I powered down my PC 0:23 AM (power off at wall socket as well, like I always do) and this morning I entered the BIOS before loading Windows and the time was 0:23 AM with the correct, current date. So time did not update at all, but it's not like it is losing the date or other BIOS settings. Dafuq?

I found a very old cnet thread with the exact same issue. Unfortunately there's no final update or resolution.
https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions/date-time-doesn-t-update-when-computer-is-turned-off-548455/

Edit 3: It looks like I might have resolved this Chrono Conundrum. I'm not entirely sure what exactly was wrong, but I took out the CMOS battery and replaced it with a brand new one after 5 minutes of leaving the system without a battery. I loaded the optimised default settings in the BIOS and booted the system. Now my PC hasn't lost time in over 4 hours. Maybe it just needed a time out/reset, I'm not sure the change of battery was necessary as the old one was just a year old - but since I took it out I could just as well stick a completely new one in there.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Oh well, gotta just roll with it then, took me days to find a bt adapter in my city, and the MS one is not readily available in my country, and even then, they charge like, half the price I paid for the controller lol

Click to shrink...

If you ever find some at your place, you can't go wrong with HAMA or ASUS as a brand.

 

[kurahador]

Win10 Spotify app keep crashing my pc all of sudden. Used to be really rare, but now it happen everytime I use it for more than 10 minutes. Anyone know the reason and solution for this? Removed the app already and just use the web player now.

 

[Braag]

You can use Afterburner to create a very nice fan curve for yourself 👌 To prevent this kind of thing. Some models have funky VBios versions and can behave oddly. I see this more often with Vega and Polaris stuff, but Nvidia isn't immune depending on AIB and model.

Click to shrink...

Let us know how it goes! :)

Click to shrink...

Alright so... yeah, afterburner custom fan settings did absolutely nothing. I tried everything and my card just straight up ignored it.

I searched online and apparently this particular card (MSI Gaming X RTX 2080 TI) after 6 month - 1 year use might end up having this problem that I had where fans go crazy once the temps start getting close to 70 degrees. Apparently there are quite a few others who have this exact same problem with this card.
Someone even RMAd his card cause of this and got it back after a few weeks cause it apparently works as intended...

Someone figured out that the problem lies in the fact that the card is so bulky and heavy that once it has been hanging from your mobo for a while it doesn't sit well in the PCIe bracket any longer (or something along those lines).

I decided to give it a try.
I started playing a game where the fans go crazy at 3500 RPM and with a finger lifted the card up a bit, lo and behold 2 seconds later the fans went silent yet the card was still cool.
I tried it with 2 other games... same results.

Now I knew the cause of my problem so I needed to find a solution.
I had no idea these things even existed but apparently GPU support holders are a thing. I bought one and set it up (it looks a bit out of place in my case). Now my card's fans no longer go crazy once I get close to 70 degrees.

What a weird problem.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Alright so... yeah, afterburner custom fan settings did absolutely nothing. I tried everything and my card just straight up ignored it.

I searched online and apparently this particular card (MSI Gaming X RTX 2080 TI) after 6 month - 1 year use might end up having this problem that I had where fans go crazy once the temps start getting close to 70 degrees. Apparently there are quite a few others who have this exact same problem with this card.
Someone even RMAd his card cause of this and got it back after a few weeks cause it apparently works as intended...

Someone figured out that the problem lies in the fact that the card is so bulky and heavy that once it has been hanging from your mobo for a while it doesn't sit well in the PCIe bracket any longer (or something along those lines).

I decided to give it a try.
I started playing a game where the fans go crazy at 3500 RPM and with a finger lifted the card up a bit, lo and behold 2 seconds later the fans went silent yet the card was still cool.
I tried it with 2 other games... same results.

Now I knew the cause of my problem so I needed to find a solution.
I had no idea these things even existed but apparently GPU support holders are a thing. I bought one and set it up (it looks a bit out of place in my case). Now my card's fans no longer go crazy once I get close to 70 degrees.

What a weird problem.

Click to shrink...

Wow what a curious issue o.o Either way I'm glad you got that sorted! :D My GTX 1070 with a Arctic Xtreme III cooler is equally hanging and sagging so I ended up putting a tower of LEGO bricks below it to support the weight.

 

[evrythngwastakn]

How does one set a GPU fan curve properly? My RX580 is a PoS that runs too loud and hot so I've tried undervolting it a bit, am gonna replace the thermal paste and I know I should set a better fan curve but I dunno what that should look like? Basically fans at less than 2500rpm aren't terrible but over 3000 they get jet engine like. What temp should I start them? How fast should it ramp up.

 

[Dec]

How does one set a GPU fan curve properly? My RX580 is a PoS that runs too loud and hot so I've tried undervolting it a bit, am gonna replace the thermal paste and I know I should set a better fan curve but I dunno what that should look like? Basically fans at less than 2500rpm aren't terrible but over 3000 they get jet engine like. What temp should I start them? How fast should it ramp up.

Click to shrink...

This is what I've used for years, I don't know if it will work well for your GPU but maybe give you an idea.

I usually see temps between 60-65C so 40% fan speed is normally the highest I see.

My goal is to keep it below 70C with a reasonable noise level, what that looks like for your GPU I can't say.

Also the fan doesn't turn on until 50C, usually idles at 36-38C. Means fans are only on when playing a game to save fan lifetime.

 

[Ran Echelon]

I recently bought a cheap Office Professional Plus 2019 key and installed it. It's telling me that i't been activated too many times and I need to call on the phone and sort this out. I was going to do that but before I did I had a look around the options in Word and I saw something suspicious. Under privacy settings I see that some options are unavailabe and I cant see how they are set:

Could there be comething set in there that would allow the key seller (or a third party) to access my doucuments in Word, emails in Outlook, etc., or take over my PC?

 

[Genio88]

Hi, i'm gonna get a Sabrent 1TB m2 SSD soon and i wanted to move Windows 10 with all the software/games installed from my current main SSD to the new one, i know there are a lot of software to clone Windows 10 and maybe someone of you already did that, so could you please point me to the best one?

 

[Dec]

I recently bought a cheap Office Professional Plus 2019 key and installed it. It's telling me that i't been activated too many times and I need to call on the phone and sort this out. I was going to do that but before I did I had a look around the options in Word and I saw something suspicious. Under privacy settings I see that some options are unavailabe and I cant see how they are set:

Could there be comething set in there that would allow the key seller (or a third party) to access my doucuments in Word, emails in Outlook, etc., or take over my PC?

Click to shrink...

Maybe a bulk professional use key.

View my privacy options in Microsoft Office - Microsoft Support

What are your privacy options, how to change settings, and how to use them.

support.microsoft.com

These are likely the settings you cannot change.

I'm not 100% sure but I would doubt you are at any security risk. Those settings in the link are probably just locked to defaults.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Regarding Steam Family Share, I know the limit is 5 accounts and 10 PCs although I wonder does me accessing my own account factor into the 5 number? Is it 4 others plus me or 5 others plus me?

 

[Goodacre0081]

I'm getting some off sound issues with Gears 5 on PC where it sounds like a stutter/freezing problem but nothing else is effected in any way(no fps drops). Happens rarely and for a very short time, say .5 seconds

this video(not my video) I linked is basically how it sounds but obviously my game and PC continues to run perfectly, unlike the video.

Computer freezes with buzzing sound while gaming.

Replacing the PSU completely resolved this freeze, it has not happened once with my new PSU (XFX TS850).Specs:Geforce GTX 980Geforce GTX 980i7-5820K @ 3.30 G...

www.youtube.com

 

[Dec]

I'm getting some off sound issues with Gears 5 on PC where it sounds like a stutter/freezing problem but nothing else is effected in any way(no fps drops). Happens rarely and for a very short time, say .5 seconds

this video(not my video) I linked is basically how it sounds but obviously my game and PC continues to run perfectly, unlike the video.

Computer freezes with buzzing sound while gaming.

Replacing the PSU completely resolved this freeze, it has not happened once with my new PSU (XFX TS850).Specs:Geforce GTX 980Geforce GTX 980i7-5820K @ 3.30 G...

www.youtube.com

Click to shrink...

Could be a lot of things, but no fps drop makes me think it is probably audio drivers crashing and recovering.

Could possibly try changing audio format within windows?

 

[Goodacre0081]

Could be a lot of things, but no fps drop makes me think it is probably audio drivers crashing and recovering.

Could possibly try changing audio format within windows?

Click to shrink...

I was thinking about trying a different audio format. It's currently set to (24bit, 48,000Hz)

is there a default setting for this I should try?

 

[XR.]

I was thinking about trying a different audio format. It's currently set to (24bit, 48,000Hz)

is there a default setting for this I should try?

Click to shrink...

24bit, 48,000Hz is what it should be at and is probably considered default already.

Is Gears 5 the only game affected by this issue?

 

[Goodacre0081]

from what I've played yes. I'm going to try 16/48000 for a while and see if it works.

EDIT: I guess I could also try my Arctic headset (USB) and see if it still happens. that would rule out the onboard audio i guess.

 

[GrrImAFridge]

I have a strange issue with one of my USB HDDs. It abruptly disconnected when I tried to access a folder while copying over a file, and while I can access the drive just fine on my laptop, it instantly disappears from My Computer when I plug it back into my PC, and I get a "access denied" error when attempting to initialise the drive via Disk Management. Clearly, the drive still works and the Windows installation on my PC is just being weird. Any ideas that aren't "reinstall Windows"?

Edit: Both my PC and laptop are running Win10 Pro.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

I have a strange issue with one of my USB HDDs. It abruptly disconnected when I tried to access a folder while copying over a file, and while I can access the drive just fine on my laptop, it instantly disappears from My Computer when I plug it back into my PC, and I get a "access denied" error when attempting to initialise the drive via Disk Management. Clearly, the drive still works and the Windows installation on my PC is just being weird. Any ideas that aren't "reinstall Windows"?

Edit: Both my PC and laptop are running Win10 Pro.

Click to shrink...

Hmm if you don't mind the work I would take the drive out of the USB enclosure for a second and then connect it directly to your PC via SATA so we can narrow down if the issue lies with the enclosure or the actual HDD inside. Aside from that as nonsensical it may sound since it works on another machine, try a different cable, systems are sometimes picky.

Oh and also make sure that this setting is also identical between your Laptop and PC: https://www.howtogeek.com/410353/how-to-optimize-usb-storage-for-better-performance-on-windows-10/ I would leave it at "Quick Removal" if you swap it around alot, maybe it got switched to "Better Performance" on your PC and that causes issues.

 

[TerremotoDePorta]

Hi, i'm gonna get a Sabrent 1TB m2 SSD soon and i wanted to move Windows 10 with all the software/games installed from my current main SSD to the new one, i know there are a lot of software to clone Windows 10 and maybe someone of you already did that, so could you please point me to the best one?

Click to shrink...

AOEMI Backupper (Free)

Macrium Reflect Free Edition

 

[GrrImAFridge]

Hmm if you don't mind the work I would take the drive out of the USB enclosure for a second and then connect it directly to your PC via SATA so we can narrow down if the issue lies with the enclosure or the actual HDD inside. Aside from that as nonsensical it may sound since it works on another machine, try a different cable, systems are sometimes picky.

Oh and also make sure that this setting is also identical between your Laptop and PC: https://www.howtogeek.com/410353/how-to-optimize-usb-storage-for-better-performance-on-windows-10/ I would leave it at "Quick Removal" if you swap it around alot, maybe it got switched to "Better Performance" on your PC and that causes issues.

Click to shrink...

The drive stopped showing up on my laptop, so seeing as it was working and I could access files just fine, I'd say a component inside the enclosure has kicked the bucket. I'll fiddle around with the drive itself tomorrow; with any luck, it'll work when installed as a SATA drive and I'll just need to buy a replacement enclosure. Cheers!

 

[Skyfireblaze]

The drive stopped showing up on my laptop, so seeing as it was working and I could access files just fine, I'd say a component inside the enclosure has kicked the bucket. I'll fiddle around with the drive itself tomorrow; with any luck, it'll work when installed as a SATA drive and I'll just need to buy a replacement enclosure. Cheers!

Click to shrink...

Ah that's annoying but yeah aslong as you don't hear any clicking noises it's likely the enclosure that kicked the bucket and your data should be safe. Good luck, I hope things work out in the end :)

 

[GameShowPresident]

My previous PC stopped working so I built a new one using the same harddrive. Now Windows is asking me to Activate or get a new product key. Apparently this can happen if getting a new motherboard, but I don't know what the key was or if it was ever tied to an email address or account that I could look up. Any options I should look into before dropping 200 for a new product key?

 

[XR.]

My previous PC stopped working so I built a new one using the same harddrive. Now Windows is asking me to Activate or get a new product key. Apparently this can happen if getting a new motherboard, but I don't know what the key was or if it was ever tied to an email address or account that I could look up. Any options I should look into before dropping 200 for a new product key?

Click to shrink...

If you don't have a Microsoft-account that was associated with the license you'll have to contact support and they'll sort it out for you.

 

[Dec]

My previous PC stopped working so I built a new one using the same harddrive. Now Windows is asking me to Activate or get a new product key. Apparently this can happen if getting a new motherboard, but I don't know what the key was or if it was ever tied to an email address or account that I could look up. Any options I should look into before dropping 200 for a new product key?

Click to shrink...

Where did you get it from?

If you truly can't track down any way of recovering it, your last step would be calling them. I haven't tried that in like 15 years but they used to give you a new code if you bothered them enough.

 

[GrrImAFridge]

Ah that's annoying but yeah aslong as you don't hear any clicking noises it's likely the enclosure that kicked the bucket and your data should be safe. Good luck, I hope things work out in the end :)

Click to shrink...

Cheers. As expected, the drive still works. :) I'm glad I'm up for just $20~$30 and not $160+, haha.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Cheers. As expected, the drive still works. :) I'm glad I'm up for just $20~$30 and not $160+, haha.

Click to shrink...

I'm glad to hear that! :D Yeah replacing enclosures is thankfully cheap, drives themselves got cheaper but still :P

 

[Edgar]

I get USB device stopped responding whenever im on discord voice chat, using mic and headphones seperately . It also happens randomly sometimes too. If i unplug at least one of the usb powered devices it seems fine . What could be the issue ? Usually i have like 4 usb devices plugged in

 

[MasterC12TF]

Hi, i'm gonna get a Sabrent 1TB m2 SSD soon and i wanted to move Windows 10 with all the software/games installed from my current main SSD to the new one, i know there are a lot of software to clone Windows 10 and maybe someone of you already did that, so could you please point me to the best one?

Click to shrink...

The 'official' way would be following the instructions here

How to Clone your Disk | Sabrent

www.sabrent.com

AOEMI Backupper (Free)

Macrium Reflect Free Edition

Click to shrink...

Of course those are valid options as well :)

 

[i hate cheaters]

what's a good way to keep capslock off while still being able to use the key as an input for games?

edit;
found something that sort of works. autohotkey can remap it to something else.

 

[MasterC12TF]

I have a 500GB mechanical drive for my old 90s-early 2000s PC game installs which s.m.a.r.t. reports come back without errors, however, reading is extremely slow. Even in an external enclosure. on another system. Writing is fine. It's FAT32 with MBR. Obviously there is something wrong but what could I check before copying everything over and reformatting the disk?

 

[Skyfireblaze]

I get USB device stopped responding whenever im on discord voice chat, using mic and headphones seperately . It also happens randomly sometimes too. If i unplug at least one of the usb powered devices it seems fine . What could be the issue ? Usually i have like 4 usb devices plugged in

Click to shrink...

Where are the USB-devices connected to?

 

[Edgar]

Where are the USB-devices connected to?

Click to shrink...

At the front of the pc case

 

[Skyfireblaze]

At the front of the pc case

Click to shrink...

Could you connect them to the back if possible as a test?

 

[Aesop]

Is it okay to let all those game launchers boot on startup and keep them running for updates, or do they take away a noticeable amount of RAM/CPU power?
I have: Steam, GoG, Epic, Origin on an i7-7700K | 16GB DDR4-3200

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Is it okay to let all those game launchers boot on startup and keep them running for updates, or do they take away a noticeable amount of RAM/CPU power?
I have: Steam, GoG, Epic, Origin on an i7-7700K | 16GB DDR4-3200

Click to shrink...

Well they might take some resources away while starting-up, updating themselves or games but when they're idle it should be negligible.

 

[TheUnseenTheUnheard]

When will machine learning be used to detect if someone is hacking?

 

[Stacey]

Can 2 x 2x8gb of ddr4 kits work with no issues as long as they're the same brand, speed, CAS etc....?

 

[Deleted member 10234]

When will machine learning be used to detect if someone is hacking?

Click to shrink...

It already is

 

[TheUnseenTheUnheard]

It already is

Click to shrink...

Oh okay. Well I hope it will become widespread soon. Imagine eliminating hackers. I think I'd cry tears of joy.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Can 2 x 2x8gb of ddr4 kits work with no issues as long as they're the same brand, speed, CAS etc....?

Click to shrink...

Yeah some boards may be picky but it should work just fine.

 

[パンダさん]

Does someone here have experience with using an additional GPU for OBS to encode NVENC?
Does it completely remove the strain from the main GPU and the CPU for composition and encoding?
What would be the limiting facotor for bitrate be, the GPU model itself? Better GPU = higher bitrate?
I'm thinking about getting a cheap and silent 1650 Super (because it's the cheapest with the new NVENC) for this purpose, but I'm not sure how well it'll work.

 

[psilocybe]

Hey there,

So, I'm thinking about adding my bluetooth speaker in the kitchen/back of the living room for some occasional extra volume (or better sound distribution) while cooking and eating.

My current system is:
PC ->[HDMI] ->TV -> [optical -> active adapter -> rca] -> 2.1 system
I control the volume with an air mouse since the system does not have a remote (I leave it close to maximum and my PC is usually around 50%)
I use optical because there is no 3.5 mm jack in my LG C9 model.

If I use some bluetooth transmitter coupled with a rca splitter, could I output from both the current 2.1 and bluetooth speaker?

I know I'm due for a modernization of my sound set-up. But this is actually working pretty well for the couch at least.