Tech Help thread

[sharkshocker]

Hey guys, does anyone know of a good, full version of Microsoft Word I could download for free? A link, maybe?

If you're still looking for one, OpenOffice is a good, free substitute for Microsoft Office. It uses its own file extensions but you can save your files to be compatible with Microsoft Office programs if necessary.

 

[Boss1708]

If you're still looking for one, OpenOffice is a good, free substitute for Microsoft Office. It uses its own file extensions but you can save your files to be compatible with Microsoft Office programs if necessary.

Thanks man!

 

[Juliko]

Uuuuugh. I am so stupid. Just now I spilled water on my white Nintendo DSi. If I try to turn it on, it tries to turn on but then shuts itself off. I can't believe I did something this stupid, and I promised to take better care of my consoles this year! I'm not very tech savvy, so I don't know what to do. I have so many photos on there that I took, and I want to be able to save them to an SD Card instead of just throwing the whole thing away outright.

 

[dragon_nataku]

If you can get the water to evaporate it might be OK. Try lying it completely open and flat and pile a bunch of pillows on top of it for a couple of hours. I've never done this with a DS but I've done it with laptops before and the laptops were fine. Do not use a hairdryer on it though. No guarantees on fixing it though.

 

[Dolce]

Uuuuugh. I am so stupid. Just now I spilled water on my white Nintendo DSi. If I try to turn it on, it tries to turn on but then shuts itself off. I can't believe I did something this stupid, and I promised to take better care of my consoles this year! I'm not very tech savvy, so I don't know what to do. I have so many photos on there that I took, and I want to be able to save them to an SD Card instead of just throwing the whole thing away outright.

Way laaaaate, but did you put your DSi in rice? I put my 3DS in rice immediately to help get rid of the water (I dropped it in the bath while bathing my dog) and left it for a day (I recommend longer, I was impatient then). It helped my 3DS but there was a few damaged pixels on screen and notable wet spots, but it at least turned on.

 

[Doctor Floptopus]

Hey, my laptop won't turn on.
It was working fine at 3, but then it was in the boot of the car for an hour and wouldn't turn on when I got home. It got really hot at about 11, but had no problems after that. I've not downloaded anything in weeks so there's no way that could've caused a virus. I've tried plugging it in to no avail, and the charging light didn't turn on. I noticed that two screws on the back of the case, but judging by the dust in the holes that I cleared out they have been missing for a while.
I've had it for a year and a half and I'm 90% sure the warranty's run out.
Does anyone know how I might fix it?

 

[dragon_nataku]

You really shouldn't leave machines in places where they can get so overheated, like the trunk of a car, especially something as sensitive as a laptop.

The only non-heat-related reason I can think of (since you mentioned dust) is that your laptop requires cleaning. You might want to open it up and use one of those air spray duster thingies to get out any dust inside. If it still doesn't turn on after that I'm pretty sure the heat fried your laptop, m8.

 

[Doctor Floptopus]

My car isn't hot. I live in Wales. It wasn't sunny.
Besides, it's a journey I've made hundreds of times before with the laptop being unscathed. The laptop was off at that point.

 

[Serpentsounds]

While it's possible there's an internal power issue with the motherboard, the more likely option is a dead AC adapter or DC jack.

Do you have another AC adapter you can attempt to power the laptop on with? This would be the portion of your charger with the big brick. It's not uncommon for these to fail over time. If you can use or charge the laptop successfully with another charger, then that would obviously be the thing to replace. It can sometimes be difficult to find the exact replacement AC adapter, even online. Worse still is that the online marketplace is polluted with 2nd-rate products. A common thing to watch out for is the input voltage and output amperage for the charger. The input voltage from your wall may change with locality, and using one designed for a different country could easily fry it just as soon as you've replaced it. If the output amperage is too high, you risk hurting laptop's battery life or potentially even damaging internal components. But it's much more likely that you'll find one with too low of an output amperage, which will not only charge your laptop too slowly, but can cause it to periodically just lose connection completely, often until you completely unplug it, let the capacitors drain, and give it another go...to have the same thing happen 20 minutes later. Just pay special attention to what the adapter is rated for, and compare it to your current one.

If you test it with a new charger and still aren't having luck, it's likely that you may need a DC jack replacement. This is the part of your computer where you plug your charger in to, and is one of the more common parts to fail on a laptop. Replacing this usually involves special ordering a part and soldering it on to the motherboard, so I recommend having it done at a repair shop if you aren't comfortable with that. Prices can vary, but it's very possible that the whole thing could cost upwards of a $100.

If you happen to have a spare battery that fits your laptop and you can confirm has a good charge, you can also test powering it up with that. If such a test fails, your problem may be a bit more serious, and may require you getting a motherboard replacement from the manufacturer or at a repair shop. This part is more difficult to replace than and usually more expensive than a DC jack, so you could be looking at another unfortunate expensive in this scenario.

Based on my experiences, the first option is not only the most likely but also the cheapest to fix, thankfully. That being said, you mentioning it being subject to high heat is a little worrying, as that can potentially damage capacitors on your motherboard. If that did occur, option 3 is unfortunately the more likely scenario.

 

[Juliko]

So, uhh...next year, I'm considering asking my parents to buy me a Wii U for my birthday. The thing is, I only want to play certain games on the Wii U Virtual Console, like Harvest Moon SNES, Child of Light, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, etc. You can play those with only the GamePad, right? Those don't require being displayed on the TV?

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

So, uhh...next year, I'm considering asking my parents to buy me a Wii U for my birthday. The thing is, I only want to play certain games on the Wii U Virtual Console, like Harvest Moon SNES, Child of Light, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, etc. You can play those with only the GamePad, right? Those don't require being displayed on the TV?

Well, for Wii U Virtual Console games, the answer is yes: you can definitely play those on the GamePad only (Nintendo calls this Off-TV Play). The same goes for most regular Wii U and eShop games, too, although for those type of games it's the developer's choice to provide support for Off-TV Play, which means that a small number of games may not support it (Child of Light definitely does, though.)

That said, be careful not to confuse the Wii U Virtual Console with the original Wii Virtual Console. The latter has a completely different library and unfortunately doesn't support Off-TV Play. Not because you can't actually display Wii Virtual Console games on the GamePad, but because the GamePad's controls completely turn off in Wii Mode, which is what the Wii U uses to run Wii-related stuff. In fact, the only way you can control anything in Wii Mode is if you have a Wiimote or Wii Classic Controller (and the latter is required to play N64 VC games). It's completely ridiculous, but it's unfortunately something you'll have to keep in mind if the games you want are on the original Wii Virtual Console only.

One more thing: if you're thinking about getting a Wii U, you may want to try to go ahead with that as soon as you can if you want a new one, because Nintendo officially stopped production of the Wii U a few weeks ago and apparently supplies are already becoming scarce (I can't verify that, though). In addition - and this really just speculation on my part, but it could be important - it looks a lot like Nintendo is trying to break away from the Wii legacy with the Switch, given the lack of direct backwards compatibility and all. I don't know for sure what that might mean for Nintendo's online services on the original Wii in particular, but given that some of them - including the Wii Virtual Console - have been running for over a decade now, I wouldn't be surprised to see some of them disappear one of these days. That doesn't mean that you should be paranoid about it or feel pressured to buy the games you want as quickly as possible... it's just something to keep in mind, that's all.

Hope that all of this helps you!

 

[Juliko]

Thanks. If it's confirmed that Wii U VC games are being transferred to the Switch, I honestly hope the games I want to play are among them (Child of Light, Harvest Moon SNES, Kirby 64: Crystal Shards, etc.).

 

[Username19]

So I installed the update for Final Fantasy XV and it changed my game display. There is about two inches of black screen and then the game screen now. I tried going into game settings to the display option and it does nothing. I click on it and it immediately says that if my problem isn't fixed to go to system settings. Figured Id ask if anyone knew a way to fix this without going into the system settings.

 

[ReturnofMCH]

are you on ps4 or xbox one? I don't have this issue on my xbox one.

 

[Username19]

@Mathematical Enigma its PS4.

 

[ReturnofMCH]

Oh, then my guess is to wait until next update or change the aspect ratio of the ps4 itself

 

[Chibster]

@CakeFairyForever I read reports of the same issue and this is the solution taken from FFXV reddit.

Resolution: On your PS4, go to Settings -> Sound and Screen -> Display Area Settings and then enlarge it till you can't anymore, after that just restart the game.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Okay... I live in a mostly Pokemon Starved Region (India, to be exact) and I'm considering to ask my Parents to purchase a handheld to play Pokemon games (and other good things depending on the console).

Should I go for a New 3DS XL, or the Upcoming Switch? I can wait till June 2017 to ask, so I'd like to take the cheapest, and the longest-lasting alternative. I think the New 3DS XL will be cheaper, but it'll have nothing new beyond Sun/Moon, but people are reporting lag on it, whereas, I think the Switch can last longer since we haven't seen a Switch Generation yet, and there's still the virtual console, and any bundled versions.

Any advise on the matter?

EDIT: I already have a Wii (not U), so I'd like to know how much different would be my new experience... (the only handheld I've experience with is the PSP)

 

[ReturnofMCH]

The swtich won't have pokemon games for a while and the 3ds has a huge library and can play all ds games, so you got gens 4-7 of pokemon right there plus gen 2/3 remakes
And with gen 1 on 3ds VC, you have the whole franchise avalible to you.

 

[SinnohEevee]

I can't connect to the forum from Tapatalk since yesterday, I enter my username and password and I get told that I am either not logged in or that I don't have sufficient privilege to execute this action. I have no problem logging in on the website with the same information.

@Hidden Mew