Ask an IT Pro

[the wicked child]

Recently, started having an issue with my desktop where once it goes to sleep, it simply will not wake up, regardless of using the mouse or keyboard. Even after hard reaets, it sometimes remains in sleep mode. This is obviously frustrating. Any idea what the issue might be?

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

I know with my desktop, when I put it to sleep it requires me to press the power button for it to come back awake, not use the mouse or keyboard.

I'm not sure why yours would stay in sleep mode though.

[the wicked child]

Power button doesn't help, unfortunately. In fact, I sometimes have to completely unplug it before it will snap out of it. Seems like something might be failing on me, but I'm not much of a hardware guy.

[dodint]

Go into the BIOS, go to Power Management, see if there is a toggle to "Block S3 Sleep" and give that a whirl. It'll still sleep, but not as deeply. Computer sleep happens on a scale of 0-5 with 0 being full awake and 5 being full shut down. If it gives you more options, try moving closer to 0 until it works correctly. I know Dell's just have the option to Block S3 Sleep, presumably putting it in S2 sleep.

[BigMcK]

Is this enough of a machine for a basic user that wants to download photos, use Email, browse the web? Not used as a gaming unit and I doubt she would need Office suite.

The reviews listed as good, but I have no real experience with Acer or if they are a quality maker of desktops.

http://www.costco.com/Acer-ATC-120-UC22 ... 40286.html

[dodint]

Yes. And if they wanted something officelike without paying for the MS suite, LibreOffice is free and available for Win8.1.

I've heard good things about Acer as a budget brand but haven't used them myself. I wouldn't hesitate to buy one if I found a good deal on it though.

As mentioned before, if she doesn't like 8.1 she'll be able to upgrade to Win10 for free with that machine later this year. Win10 will have a user interface more like Win7.

That ad is just for the tower and peripherals shown. Make sure she gets a monitor that has an HDMI input to have the best experience, especially if media is a primary consideration. Here is a good breakdown as to why.

[BigMcK]

Cool. Thanks, for the answer. Inexpensive and basic. Seems like a good deal.

[dodint]

No problem.

[shmenguin]

For that type of use, these things are neato

http://www.newegg.com/Mini-Booksize-Bar ... D-1157-309" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[dodint]

Those are cool. One of those things that I really like but can't see fitting into my own network/footprint.

[tifosi77]

Is it possible to anonymize your browsing at the router level? I know there was a Kickstarter thing that got pulled (apparently it used an off-the-shelf circuit board or something?) for a product that basically put Tor downstream of the router so that all traffic that passed through was bounced all over the place. But is this something that is even conceptually possible? The more my life is consumed by Google, the less I like the idea of all internetting being known.

[dodint]

I know the device you're thinking of but I can't remember why it got shelved. There is a really interesting debate right now in security land about how governments are leaning towards making it illegal to develop encryption tools without building in a backdoor for the government. I know Steve Gibson has halted a project because of this as he won't put out an encryption product that is either illegal or doesn't encrypt against the government. Other developers are also letting applications die on the vine while they wait and see what happens. There is a lot of stuff like that happening that the mainstream just doesn't know/care about because the jargon is too thick. It wasn't too long ago Tor was found to be not as secure as we thought, and most folks have never even heard of Tor.

Illegal search and how it pertains to electronic privacy is the future of of the civil liberty struggle. I'm curious how the Fourth Amendment will stand up to it.

In short, I don't know.

Is this your box?

[tifosi77]

Well, the exploit in Tor was related to the version of Firefox they were using. It has been corrected.

And yes, that's the product I was talking about.

[dodint]

Well, the exploit in Tor was related to the version of Firefox they were using. It has been corrected.

That wasn't really what I was getting at. I'm not going to beat up something that can/was fixed with a patch. The stuff that scares me is that that NSA runs Tor nodes and has a virtually unlimited budget to analyze the traffic. Tor is probably one of the best ways to anonymize your traffic, but it might not be as secure as the project hopes. If the data is layered even further by encrypting it at your local machine that would go a long way. But if you're just hiding from Google using Tor or a VPN should be enough, right? I really don't know. I was reading that if a server reads your traffic as coming from an "Unknown" location it is kind of a red flag and you lose the protection of the herd.

If those devices are ultimately knock-offs of a Chinese tech, I'm sure you can buy the original.

[dodint]

Interesting tidbit for those of us with small SDDs running their Windows OS's, or anyone else for that matter. I noticed my 256GB SSD (223GB useable space) was running low on space and also had Windows.old and Windows.old.000 folders on the C: drive. Kind of strange since this computer was a clean install of Windows 7. These folders are meant to archive old settings when you upgrade your OS, that way if it turns out bad you can revert back. They're meant to be deleted after a few weeks of satisfactory use. If you have them and do not need them, follow these steps from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... old-folder" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Open Disk Cleanup by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button. In the search box, type Disk Cleanup, and then, in the list of results, click Disk Cleanup.

If you're prompted to choose a drive, click the drive you just installed Windows on, and then click OK.

In the Disk Cleanup dialog box, on the Disk Cleanup tab, click Clean up system files.

If you're again prompted to choose a drive, click the drive you just installed Windows on, and then click OK.

Select the Previous Windows installation(s) check box, and any other check boxes for the files you want to delete, and then click OK.

In the message that appears, click Delete Files.

I saved over 25GB (10%) of wasted space in the span of a few minutes. There were no actual user profiles in either of these folders so I have no idea what their purpose was. You can also use this utility to clean up other areas of your hard drive. I had over a GB in the recycle bin, mostly pictures I took at my buddy's metal band concert.

[mikey287]

So...thinking about this computer/multimedia thinger...I don't really need the TV tuner, eh? I don't watch TV...I just get Roku or something...

So maybe pull this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/331302214944?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and this video card (is this overkill even?): http://www.ebay.com/itm/Inno3D-nVidia-G ... 589c9049c2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ya think?

[dodint]

A real fast fly by glimpse (cooking dinner):

I thought you wanted to hook an HDTV antenna?
That card is not overkill, probably about right for your 'low' level requirements.

[mikey287]

Haha yeah, I did...and then I thought, "why the hell would I need that...?" What does that do for me? I get 20 channels that I don't watch, right?

I watch hockey from 7 til bed basically every night. I watch football on Sundays. That's pretty much it...I watch movies from time to time, that's not cable/antenna related...I'll stream a show from time to time...that's not cable/antenna related...so what am I futzin' around with, right?

[tfrizz]

So...thinking about this computer/multimedia thinger...I don't really need the TV tuner, eh? I don't watch TV...I just get Roku or something...

So maybe pull this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/331302214944?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and this video card (is this overkill even?): http://www.ebay.com/itm/Inno3D-nVidia-G ... 589c9049c2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ya think?

Haven't read through the thread. What is it you're trying to do?

[mikey287]

A PC fit for streaming hockey videos and editing that video...

So I have to basically capture it, and then work with it...my roommate has a gaming PC and his computer can handle it easily. He has the same basic video card (or some such) and the processor of that computer is faster. So I'm thinking that computer/vid card combo could handle it...

I want a dual monitor setup...one monitor, one HDMI out to the TV...I'm assuming something exists that allows that by now...

[Avyran]

As an FYI, I'm currently doing that on my laptop, mikey. All you need is an HDMI port. Watching Ragecenter's St. Louis feed on the TV, have Firefox open on my laptop screen. It can be done by almost any computer nowadays. Shouldn't really need to worry about that (again, just make sure your computer has an HDMI port).

[mikey287]

Yeah, that video card has an HDMI thing...my current laptop does not and isn't quite powerful to edit video...so it's a necessary investment anyhow. Seems like I can pull it off for under $500 anyhow...so, seems reasonable...

If I'm not lazy, it will be helpful to the board as well...as I'll be able to actually illustrate all the things I ramble on about aimlessly and endlessly much better...

[Factorial]

If anyone bought a Lenovo computer in the last 3 or 4 months look out for the adware and root cert that they installed. This root cert compromises all https traffic:

The critical threat is present on Lenovo PCs that have adware from a company called Superfish installed. As unsavory as many people find software that injects ads into Web pages, there's something much more nefarious about the Superfish package. It installs a self-signed root HTTPS certificate that can intercept encrypted traffic for every website a user visits. When a user visits an HTTPS site, the site certificate is signed and controlled by Superfish and falsely represents itself as the official website certificate.

Even worse, the private encryption key accompanying the Superfish-signed Transport Layer Security certificate appears to be the same for every Lenovo machine. Attackers may be able to use the key to certify imposter HTTPS websites that masquerade as Bank of America, Google, or any other secure destination on the Internet. Under such a scenario, PCs that have the Superfish root certificate installed will fail to flag the sites as forgeries—a failure that completely undermines the reason HTTPS protections exist in the first place

.

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/02 ... nnections/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[columbia]

Typical ChiCom move.

[dodint]

That's really a slug in the gut to Chrome. Nice find, Factorial.