Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2014 November 13

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

November 13

USB flash drive

Seeking a 256GB USB 2.0 flash drive that doesn't cost me a fortune. I've been too lazy to look very far, but the example I found was about 4 times the cost of a 128GB version, whatever that's about. ‑‑Mandruss ☎ 14:15, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

And your Q is ? StuRat (talk) 14:43, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Sorry, is there a 256GB USB 2.0 flash drive for, say, less than US$150? If there is, what is it called? ‑‑Mandruss ☎ 17:39, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Never mind, per "We don't do your homework for you" at the top. ‑‑Mandruss ☎ 17:53, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Amazon has many options within that price range: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_3/185-1037091-8291342?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=256gb+flash+drive&sprefix=256%2Caps%2C210 Justin15w (talk) 20:21, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Be cautious of cheap generic USB flash drives. The market is flooded with low capacity flash drives that have been hacked (coltroller chip parameters altered) so that they report a false inflated capacity to the operating system. True capacity 256GB flash drives run roughly $95 and up. True 128GB drives run at least $40. The $10, $20 and $30 ones are almost certainly hacked, fake-capacity drives. They will show the advertized (false) capacity in windows properties, but data written to the drive will be corrupt once the true capacity is exceeded. When in doubt, it is safest to buy products listed as "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com". Also, I would recommend only considering USB 3.0 drives. You may find transfer times for large files impractical at typical USB 2.0 drive speeds - typically 4-10 MB/sec. USB 3.0 will give you 30 MB/sec in a USB 2.0 port and many times that in a USB 3.0 port. -- Tom N talk/contrib 01:10, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

rarreg.key

I have a file called rarreg.key which I don't know where to insert to activate the installed winrar 3.42 (evaluation copy) software. I've been given 40 days of trail period... Does anyone know where to insert this rarreg.key file? If so, please provide the steps I should follow. Regards -- (Russell.mo (talk) 16:28, 13 November 2014 (UTC))

See instructions here: http://www.winrar.co.nz/winrar-register. It just needs to be placed within the winrar folder. Justin15w (talk) 20:16, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Thanks! -- (Russell.mo (talk) 14:43, 14 November 2014 (UTC))

Resolved

System's Graphics Card mitigation

Right click Computer click properties, my system information is messed up!

Long time ago, in my life time, before the second re-installation, the System section's Installed memory (RAM) was 8.00 GB (7.89 GB usable) and System type was 64-bit OS. After the second installation it turned into, Installed memory (RAM): 8.00 GB (2.65 GB usable) and System type: 32-bit OS. This is a big difference. I can't uninstall and reinstall again because this time I'm using an antivirus what I can not lose. What could I do to improve my RAM?

My Graphics card is:

Adapter information:

• Chip type: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
• DAC Type: Internal
• Adapter String: Intel(R) HD Graphics 3000
• BIOS Information: Intel Video BIOS
• Total Available Graphics Memory: 1165 MB
• Dedicated Video Memory: 64 MB
• System Video Memory: 0 MB
• Shared System Memory: 1101 MB

Can somebody help me in regards to this matter please? I need to get as much RAM back as possible because it doesn't allow me to play games...

Note: I don't have a BIOS system, meaning, when I reinstalled Windows 7 Ultimate the second time, it disabled the functionality somehow and I can't get it back...

(Russell.mo (talk) 17:53, 13 November 2014 (UTC))

Nonserver versions of 32 bit Windows will only support up to 4GB (see Physical Address Extension). Actually generally less because some of the address space is used by other components. There are further limitations in how much the kernel and how much applications use (usually up to 2GB but it can vary). I don't understand why you can't just reinstall your antivirus, but you'll have to put up with the limitations as long as you stick with 32 bit Windows. In this day and age, considering the limitations, I question the wisdom of using any 32 bit OS on an 8 gb system, regardless of whether the 32 bit OS supports 8 gb via PAE, particularly if in to high end gaming and now that the new consoles mean games may actually use more than 4GB. (Admittedly your GPU isn't very strong.) Nil Einne (talk) 18:10, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

I may be speaking nonsense, but it looks like you MAY have to reinstall Win 7 Ultimate in 64bit. Perhaps during your previous reinstall you chose a 32bit option? Justin15w (talk) 20:27, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

I didn't know my system's capability at the time of re-installation, I didn't check it thereafter either. The antivirus I'm currently using, I got it from from Canada, I can't get an antivirus here, well I can, but here [where I am] antivirus costs bucks. Therefore I am stuck with this crap 32-bit OS until I relocate, which will be after a couple of years or so. Isn't there anyway I can mitigate it?

What about, how do you check how many times I installed a software... such as graphics software...? If I installed a software twice or not...? Is there anyway I can erase anything to improve the memory/graphics memory...?

(Russell.mo (talk) 15:04, 14 November 2014 (UTC))

32bit systems are physically limited to about 3 GB RAM utilization. See 3 GB barrier. Windows 7 does support Physical Address Extension, which will allow up to 4 GB utilization, but I cannot offer any comment on this, as I've never used it. Your graphics memory is a completely separate issue - you are using Intel HD 3000, which is a GPU built into your CPU. You can always upgrade to a standalone card, which will offer much better performance. As to the RAM issue, I believe your only option would be to reinstall with 64bit Windows 7. Justin15w (talk) 19:07, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

I think you're misunderstandingmy point. I don't care where you got your antivirus from, nor am I asking you to get a new antivirus. I'm asking why you can't just reinstall your current antivirus after reinstalling a 64bit version of Windows. Even if you got the AV for free from your ISP or the company you worked for or whatever, are you sure you don't have a licence which doesn't allow you to reinstall the AV if you change OS? While it's possible that you do have such a restrictive licence, I find it fairly unlikely, in any case, it would pay to read the licence terms and perhaps also ask your AV vendor. BTW, I'm fairly sure certain AV are available for free throughout the world*, without knowing what AV you are using, it's difficult to comment whether your AV is so worth hanging on to. *=well except possibly for a few places like North Korea and perhaps Cuba, but there's a good chance the EULA on your commercial AV forbids you to use it in North Korea or Cuba either. Nil Einne (talk) 20:24, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

I got this antivirus from my cousins in Canada, I don't think they know that it works in another country. And definitely they won't give me their password for me to reinstall it here. The AV is good, no problem so far except one time when my WinRAR window's information turned into arabic words... Free AV's don't protect you fully Nil Einne, only for certain time, I have full experience in this area. One good one was 'Bitdefender' but lasted for 3 months. The next time I'll get an AV is when I relocate, also if I have donation money or spare money to waste. Spending money on AV is like spending money on girlfriend, a waste in other words. I guess Justin15w is right, I don't think there is a solution if you guys can't come up with one. I have searched over the net for solutions beforehand. One thing I just about found was the BIOS thing but my BIOS thing is not there anymore (ever since I reinstalled the OS).

Thanks anyways guys, I guess there is no solution except re-installation, what I can't do. This is so crap. I'm stuck with NFS most wanted and GTA San Andreas. I really wanted to play ProEvo 2012. I'm sick and tired of working... -- (Russell.mo (talk) 05:46, 15 November 2014 (UTC))

That's not correct. There are several free AV which last foreever, or at most require you to renew the licence for free. Of course these aren't guaranteed to be supported forever and probably have far less guaranteed support than most commercial AV (although I suspect you'll find even with most home user commercial AV, the guaranteed support period isn't very long, perhaps a year at most), but there have been many that have been around in some form and free for years so frankly it sounds like your experience is a lot less than you claim. Actually, it sounds to me like you're confusing free trials, with just free.

Free AV may not have just good detection levels as commercial ones, but it is quite variable. There are commercial AV which have worse detection rates than free AV. (Detection rates are also complicated as you need to consider the level of false positives.) In any case, performance has tended to vary over time, very few AV have been consistently in the ultra top for several years so if you aren't constantly monitoring these changes, all you can really hope for is for good enough. (One unfortunate problem is it can be quite difficult to know. Many AV comparitives don't say whether they're testing a free version or just don't test them. And it's sometimes a bit hard to find out from the developer/publisher whether their free version uses a different engine or database, or just has few features.) Ultimately there is plenty of evidence that free AV can offer good levels of protection.

Free AV may be less likely to have additional features like email detection, firewall, etc, if you need that you'll need to look around a bit more carefully. But even there, it's clearly incorrect that there are no free options are as there definitely are. The only case when I'm not sure if there is a good free option is in an enterprise setting. MSE may have been for a while, but detection rates in recent times have not been very good and many of the others may not work well in an enterprise setting (and it's probably against the licence too, although I'm not sure your current AV is following the licence anyway).

P.S. I have no idea why you think your AV is responsible for RAR info window turning into Arabic. The question isn't whether your AV is good, but whether there's any real reason for you to be so attached to it. If it isn't performing any better than some of the decent free options out there, and if it isn't offering any options you need that you really can't find elsewhere, then there's no reason to be so attached to it. Particularly since the dubious licencing status and the fact you apparently don't have the licence information means it could break at any time and you may not be able to fix it.

Not because you're in a different country, but for the simple reason that apparently lack the necessary info and control (and knowledge). If for example, it stores the username and password locally, that will only work fine as long as these don't change. If it doesn't but only stores a licence key or activation info, it's always possible you will need the username and password either to reactivate/get a new key or to download a new version if yours isn't supported. This is particularly the case if you're hoping to keep using the product for 2 years or more.

Looking for an alternative if it does ever break may seem the simpler option, on the other hand you may be more rushed to do so. (Further, it may be possible to disable realtime protection and any other conflicting options while keeping the AV and then install an alternative to evaluate while maintaining the option uninstall and keeping your current AV if the alternative doesn't pan out for you.)

Nil Einne (talk) 15:47, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

The one I have is definitely free and will last forever until or unless my cousins in Canada change their broadband company. The AV is provided via the company, I guess the company made an agreement with the AV company... I constantly update it as it wishes for me to do so. I know and experienced what you mentioned about the AVs, that's why I have not re-installed my PC for 10 months... I usually re-install my PC every year or so, unfortunately due to my situations and circumstances I am lacking in doing so. My PC was attacked once before during my terrible days/months/years (12/13 months ago) while possessing an AV, one of the type you mentioned aforetime (the same virus attack 3/4 years back while possessing a free AV), it cost me money that I didn't have for spare. I can't risk it again because I don't have the tools nor a second PC to fix or for usage... I’m attached to this PC very much because it was gifted by my dearest ones. I wish to keep it safe, secure, functional (the keyboard doesn’t bluddy work and I think the CD ROM is going all because of the country dirt, also because I hardly use both) until I’m in a better state to buy a new computer so that I can treasure this, probably/hopefully with a new AV.

I need help in my terrible days, if you guys can't help, that means no one can.

About the RAR, my PC was filled with viruses because I installed a few games (which did not work). Usually some priority level 2 (medium level) viruses create severity level 1 (disturb the cosmetics) issue in Computers, which happened to be the case. And my AV protection was off during installation, because it wasn’t allowing me to install the games.

(Russell.mo (talk) 18:22, 15 November 2014 (UTC))

You still seem to have missed my point. Regardless of whether the AV is free for your cousins, it doesn't mean it's going to be free for you. By your own admission, you're not able to reinstall. Yes you can get updates now, but these are updates which don't require any licence reactivation. It's hardly unheard of for an AV vendor to force an update (admitedly usually with a long grace period) which does require licence reactivation for some reason. I suspect this is even more likely with enterprise licencing. And from your latest details, I take back my earlier claim, it's also possible although probably unlikely that the AV may actually stop working in the future if the vendor decides to be more restrictive with their enterprise licencing.

Also it sounds like you're relying way too much on your AV. You really need to take greater personal responsibility for your computer, like being more careful in what you install. Neither paid AV or free AV are perfect, and as I've already said, some free AV have a better protection record than paid AV. Since you're unwilling to say what your AV is which is your choice, no one knows whether this applies to you, yet it's not clear to me that you yourself have even looked in to this. In any case, even if it doesn't and your paid AV is better than any free AV, you would still likely be far better protected if you take greater care rather than relying only on your AV. For example, if you're going to install dodgy (I'm guessing copyvio) software and turn off you AV, at least do a proper multi AV scan and a careful search to try and work out if what you're using in safe. (Particularly since you actually had to turn of your AV which is a fairly bad sign. Even if your AV had a false positive, any decent AV should allow you provide an exception without completely turning off the AV. And it sounds like you may not have had a false positive.) To put it a different way, no AV is perfect, free or paid and if you're relying solely on your AV for protection, that's always a recipe for disaster. If the problems malware infection causes are a big cost to you, and you care so much about your computer, that's even more reason for you to practice good computer hygeine.

I don't see what help you want. We've already said that your only option is to install a 64 bit version of Windows (or possibly a 32 bit version of some other OS) if you want to use all your RAM. There's no way around this. We've also provided info on how you can do so and still maintain protection. You seem unwilling to accept this help which is your choice, but you should at least accept factual details like the possibility your AV could stop working given the dubious licencing status or the fact that free AV is not worse than all paid AV or the fact there's no way to get around the 4gb limit (well since some server versions support more, it's possible you could somehow use a server kernel without reinstalling, but there's a very good chance that will break your install completely if you don't know what you're doing and at the very least since these are fairly fancy servers versions, there's a good chance a lot of software is going to have no end of problems even if it does work).

Nil Einne (talk) 05:50, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

P.S. I hope you just mean a similar virus. If you were genuinely mean the same virus, even MSE would probably protect against it after 3-4 years, so most likely you were doing something majorly wrong if you somehow managed to get attacked by the same virus and yet had any up to date AV. Nil Einne (talk) 05:54, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

No, this virus doesn't turn the computer on... this virus doesn't reach up to the window's login screen after turning the PC on. I have to rely on this AV because I believe it will last long. its been eight months so, I guess I have to wait and see if it fails to provide protection or not. I guess their is no workaround the main problem rather than re-installing the OS, which I won't be able to now (for at least a couple of years)... Thank you anyways -- (Russell.mo (talk) 10:26, 17 November 2014 (UTC))

Computer games these days

Are computer games that can work on the computer locally, without requiring an Internet connection to the publisher's central servers, still being commercially developed and sold these days? Or are only hobbyist developers continuing developing games that work like they used to for the past half a century, while the entire mainstream industry considers requiring a for-pay connection to the central server for the game to even start up as taken for granted? JIP | Talk 20:12, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Yes, but admittedly not many. Retail version are getting to be quite difficult to track down. Mingmingla (talk) 01:25, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

GOG.com sells modern games with no copy protection. Most of them are low-budget indie games, but they are commercial games. The Witcher 3, with a reported development+marketing budget of ~$40 million, may be the highest-budgeted game on GOG when it's released in 2015. They already sell Brütal Legend, Assassin's Creed, and Psychonauts, which had budgets of $24, $20, and $12 million according to this page, but maybe they precede the phone-home-copy-protection era (although Brütal Legend's PC release was in 2013). -- BenRG (talk) 08:08, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

Some games sold on Humble Store or through the various Humble Bundles are also DRM free. Many Kickstarters also promise DRM free copies. There are also some other developers noted for their stance against DRM, E.g. Stardock. The Star Control reboot has a budget of $5 million, tiny compared to AAA titles but clearly far beyond the typical low-budget indie [1]. I couldn't find a budget figure for Galactic Civilisations III, but I imagine it's not that dissimilar to Star Control. Note also Mingmingla's point. The DRM on retail copies varies depending on release, place etc. Some have always-on DRM. Some require a connection before every run. Some require a one time online authentication. But I'm fairly sure some simply require the DVD to be in the drive or offline authentication of the key to run. (And yes there are surely a small number which don't require any.) Some may also allow fallback, e.g. they may attempt to authenticate the key online, but if they aren't able to do so because there's no internet connection or the servers aren't working, they'll run without problem. (However if the servers say the key is invalid, then they will prevent you from playing.) Nil Einne (talk) 14:15, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

What? I am seriously perplexed by your question. While there are several companies that do what you are describing, that is not at all norm. Even among large-studio AAA games, many don't require connecting to a company-owned server, e.g. the Fallout series, Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls, etc. And if you are willing to consider smaller developers as "real" dame developers, take a look at indie games, most stuff on Steam, browse kotaku, rockpapershotgun etc. for many many games that don't have central server requirements. It is true on Steam that you have to have an internet connection to download the games, but you download them from Valve's servers, not the developer's servers. I'm guessing you mean to exclude console games, but of course those are computers too, and even in the newest generation most games don't require even an internet connection. Finally, keep in mind that a "small" "indy" studio today like Behemoth has a bigger team and more money than many "flagship" game studios of the past. Maybe you've just been paying attention to wrong kinds of games... :) SemanticMantis (talk) 17:06, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

The OP said the publisher not the companies so it depends how you define "publisher". I don't think it's unresonable to consider Steam the publisher even for an EA game or whatever. In any case, for many opponents of DRM, it's largely a moot point whether it's Steam servers or EA servers or whatever. Also many Steam games do have Steam's DRM enabled meaning you do need to have an internet connection before starting the game, unless you put Steam in to offline mode. (And unlike with thirdparty DRM, Steam doesn't even generally tell you if the game has Steam DRM.) The last Fallout game was in 2010 so I don't think it's what the OP was referring to as the recent activation on play required craze only really took off recently if we ignore Steam. I can't seem to find any info on Dragon Age Inquisition's DRM so I'm not sure whether it's a good example either. That said, I do think as I mentioned above that the OP is over emphasing how common activate before run every time is, although it is increasingly uncommon to find AAA games which don't require at least some form of post download online activation. Steam is an example which is a bit iffy to call activate before run because of the offline mode, but clearly any game which uses Steam's DRM does need post download activation. You can't for example move the game between computers and expect it to work without online activation i.e. signing in to Steam. The list of games without Steam DRM is small BTW [2]. Well that list is probably incomplete, but I don't think many recent AAA should be on it but aren't. Of course, from an end user POV, signing in to Steam may in many cases be easier than digging out the DVD for your game, so many may prefer it to DVD required DRM, another reason I'm not sure the OP is approaching this from a smart angle. And backing up that DVD is difficult because of whatever tricks the vendor added, plus the requirements of the DRM layer may break on newer OSes or otherwise compatible emulators. Nil Einne (talk) 19:58, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

You're right, Steam isn't the best example. I guess my perspective is so different because I almost only buy/play non-AAA titles on "computer" platforms, and most of those are rather light on DRM/copy protection, in part because many of them are free (shout out to Spelunky, Cave Story and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!). Still, I'm nearly positive that no big releases on consoles require internet connectivity for authentication, but again, it's unclear whether we should consider those "computer games." SemanticMantis (talk) 22:17, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

Yeah, I play most of my games although most of them aren't AAA either and quite a few don't even have Steam DRM so it's not really an issue for me more that I've read enough to somewhat understand how the OP feels.

Consoles are a good example. I was thinking of the same thing when I first read the OPs message, as I too don't think online activation for base games has been particularly popular since the abandoned Xbox One plan although it seems it's needed in China for the Xbox One albeit one time only [3]. (OTOH, I think it's generally needed for DLC, and while many of these are cosmetic or other such stuff, some of them do add content. If you're lucky there will be a GOTY, Gold or whatever version which will eventually include these, but I think not always.) That said, beyond the issue of whether consoles are computers, they're also another reason why I'm not sure how well the OP has considered this. While consoles lack annoying online DRM or even keys and can usually be shared or resold without issue, they generally have restrictive inbuilt DRM when it comes to copying, often using non standard media which can't be read by anything else. Before the rise of the modern indie era and online stores, developing for a console would generally mean an NDA to get the SDKs and other info, and the hardware was fairly proprietary and because generally nearly always the same, programmers can do weird stuff relying on highly specific quirks and bugs. This has been less and less the case over time, but still the only real reason you have a hope of playing the games on future hardware is because their popularity may mean someone will develop an emulator via reverse engineering and other methods which will at least work with popular stuff. (This is somewhat the case with Windows, although despite what a certain other editor seems to think, Microsoft has made a fair amount of info available. Ditto for the x86 and Intel/AMD. For other stuff like the GPU, on a PC side it's generally at a higher level. Or to put it a different way, even if stuff like Bochs or Wine didn't exist and for some reason all non official material disappeared, if you had sufficient resources you could probaly do a decent job of programming an emulator solely from the official public material and then move forward by reverse engineering your game, even without access to any old hardware or OS which can actually play the game. I'm not sure this is the case for many older consoles.) I mention this because the ability to play the game (and effect of DRM on said ability) in the future is one of the concerns about DRM (by no means the only one).

Of course, plenty of older computers and games used various forms of DRM, such as non standard floppy disk formatting or other strange things to make them hard to copy and possibly to read. When these moved to optical media and the media had to be in the drive, this posed another problem since either needed a way to fool the DRM layer, presuming it even worked which as I mentioned isn't guaranteed, in to thinking you had the original disc, or you needed the original disc and I'm not sure how realistic that would be 50 years from now (remembering you'd need something to read it). Then there were those code wheels, simpler manual questions etc. While these were less intrusive, and in particular didn't hinder resonable resale or lending ability (where you didn't try to maintain a concurrent copy), they do actually make backing up and future use a fair amount more annoying as you need to make sure you keep these too. (Of course since many older games lacked in game tutorials, for some of them lacking the manual can make things quite annoying.)

Steam is an interesting thing, while it's disliked or even hated by many of those who truly dislike DRM (like some people on GOG), many don't really mind it. Actually, you get a lot of people who think Origin or Uplay is the worst thing ever, even in cases when you only need to activate on startup or sometimes even not that. While I can understand the dislike many people have for Origin or uPlay when it's in addition to Steam, if you simply buy the game on Origin or uPlay, I don't personally see it as worse. And the EA-Ubisoft agreement means you can get Ubisoft games on Origin, or EA games on Uplay. (Of course if you're already tied in to Steam, you may not want to be forced in to another ecosystem.) Actually I'm fairly sure there are cases when Uplay and Origin are less intrusive than Steam. Unfortunately for them, they're best known for the times when it's more (like always-online, meaning you can't even disconnect while playing a single player game) and so it's perhaps true that EA and Ubisoft haven't earned the trust some have for Steam, or have even given reasons not to trust. And there are some stuff like the kalypso launcher which seem to end up just being annoying as they provide few of the benefits (e.g. the ability to redownload the game later) but do result in the disadvantages.

Nil Einne (talk) 17:40, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Although it may be a few years old, Skyrim does not require an internet connection and only features offline play. Although, there were 2 downloadable expansion packs released for it which, of course, require an internet connection to download (but not to play). Acceptable (talk) 17:24, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Are you looking for games on physical media? Or just games free of call-home DRM?

If the latter, You could get your games from the Humble Store. They have a whole category of DRM-free games.

(If the former, you may soon be relegated to console games. PC games are mostly digital delivery these days.) 75.69.10.209 (talk) 06:57, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Why did my computer quit working?

I have an HP Pavilion KT369AA-ABA a6512p Intel Pentium Dual CPU E2200 @2.20 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, 64 bits. Windows is 89583-OEM-7332157-00061 as of a previous reference desk question.

I hope this is not a sign of things to come, but twice in the past couple of weeks I've had to restart my computer after some weird problem right after I turned it on. These problems never happened.

The first time, I was in my Internet provider's email (when I click on the "e" for Internet Explorer, now 9) and the little hand wouldn't move when I moved my mouse. Thinking the computer froze, I tried turning it off. Normally, I see a message on a blue backgound saying "Shutting down" but this time the screen just went black. After plugging in and unplugging, checking to make sure everything was connected to everything else, and turning things on and off, I finally realized my monitor had gotten turned off. The "frame" (if you think of it like a picture frame) had come loose and pushing it back into place along with pushing the button on the lower right worked. Once I did all that and turned the computer on, everything was normal except Windows had not shut down normally.

Today, I clicked on a link in my email (it's a safe email from myself to myself which contains a safe link) and everything went black. I got a "No signal" message on the monitor so the monitor was working this time. I turned the computer off but nothing happened so I unplugged it, then turned it back on, and all was fine (except for the Windows not shutting down normally) until for some reason the window just disappeared before the email had come up, as if I had clicked on the red X in the upper right corner.

I turned the computer on again and all has been fine for the past three hours.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 21:33, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

I'll ask at the store where I bought the computer, though I don't plan to go there for several weeks and hope I can avoid going there until my planned trip to the area. The two things these incidents have in common are that they happened when the computer was first turned on, and they happened when I was in the Internet provider's email.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 23:03, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

The HP Pavilion a6512p is a desktop machine with an external monitor. My immediate thoughts are a loose connection between the PC and the monitor, so check that the connections are secure - it is easy to catch the cables with your feet under a desk. If the frame around the monitor is loose and it is still in warranty (typically 12 months from new), you should be able to get a replacement monitor under the warranty. If the monitor is not in warranty, and the loose frame continues to be a problem, maybe you can repair it yourself or it might be easier to just get a new monitor (typically a little over $100 in the USA).

Alternatively, you may have some malware on your PC. Even though you stress a safe link, malware might have been installed at some time in the past and is making itself felt now. Malwarebytes anti-malware has a good reputation at seeking out malware, though there are others as well. In all cases, download software from official sites (like the Malwarebytes link I provided above), rather then some other places like torrent sites. Astronaut (talk) 15:54, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

You own this machine. The machine has this mainboard installed. The computer is equipped with a 250 Watts power supply without manufacturers information, but labeled by HP. HP often uses LiteOn power supplies. This generation of SMPSs usually uses lower switching frequency, makes need larger capacitors. I guess, the machine is 7 to 8 years old. The mainboard was manufactured by ASUS. All this is good quality. It is equipped with a less ammount of capacitors. It is possible the use of the machine, several hours daily, over night turned of, exceeded the capacitors livetime. This are passive devices under a higher work load. Typicial causes are: Sometimes the machine does not turn on, sporadic crashes, blue screens, failure in the first minutes since power up, random errors or freezing, difficult to differ in hard or software caused failures. It may be a short solution to install a new power supply. It will not run on the long term due the mainboard generates the core voltage for CPU and RAM from the 12 volts of the power supply while those voltags need to be stabilized as well. The components doing this are placed on the mainboard. There are several things more getting the machine older. Compared to an 1980s computer, it is rocket, more efficient but has a shorter lifetime. So what to do to solve this: Ensure the heat sinks are free from dust. Fans are operating. If you are not a person qualified to repair computers, television sets or similar, handling electronic and sensitive devices, of qualified to work with parts, operating with hazardous voltages, have somebody take a look who is educated and qualified is this. This minor visual check could also be done by a friend of you who has this knowledge. If everything is fine, check for malicious software and unneccessary burden of data. Windows Vista, you are using, should have the service packs and updated installed! On "my Computer", click the right button, choose properties. You should find the messages "Windows Vista" and "ServicePak 2". An antivirus software is required. Several products are free for home (private!) use. Not every software performs good on this machine. There are Microsoft Defender or Microsoft Security Essentials. If you are using old or bundled software what came installed on the computer, those security solutions will be obsolete, if no license upgrade was bought and installed. To secure some private data, there is Malwarebytes, see last answer. – btw I do not use. There is Crapcleaner to remove old temporary data and unneccessary things and clear cookies and caches. This speeds up the machine. It is recommended to create backups of all your data. First do so, if you do not have! If the failures will not end, it is hardware. As the mainboard complies the µATX form factor standard, a bundle of microATX/flexATX/ITX-mainboard, RAM and CPU including graphic adapter can be installed together with a new power supply meeting the new hardware's requirements. Before you buy, check prices and ensure the powersupply fits into the case. Windows must be reinstalled. So backup all data or get a new hard drive. Check prices on all work and the hardware to a new computer. --Hans Haase (talk) 07:33, 29 November 2014 (UTC)

Links in LibreOffice Writer document

I'd like a contents page listing the title of each section (e.g. Chapter 1, Introduction, Bibliography), so that clicking on each title will go straight to the section. Is this possible?→86.171.209.142 (talk) 22:51, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

If you used the "Heading" styles for the titles, you can make hyperlinks to them (Insert → Hyperlink). Anon126 (notify me of responses! / talk / contribs) 00:05, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for response. I'll try, though I don't really follow.→86.171.209.142 (talk) 22:31, 16 November 2014 (UTC)