Interesting Computer

[SongDragon]

Alright, I've been having fun with this new laptop since I went home to Connecticut before Christmas and I finally thought to stop in and post about it here.

This is a Hewlett Packard (HP Pavilion Entertainment PC--boy has it provided entertainment)with Windows XP (but with Vista capabilities, which I have not felt brave enough to install). It has two gigabytes of Ram, 99.2 GB, WebCam and read/write DVDs and some other cool features that I definitely don't know how to use.

However whenever I shut off the sound, and sometimes when I don't (and I shut the sound off because I prefer to work with my computer on mute so I don't hear anything unless I want to), it uninstalls the sound system... It just stops it running. It's not too hard to go into the Control Panel and go to the Services and start the Windows Audio again... I just get annoyed because I don't think I should have to do that every time I want a few minutes (or hours) of peace and quiet from my computer and then want to hear something like a new clip posted.

We have our theories, but this computer has caused problems for us before (it hates working on wireless and we finally figured out that while the rest of the computers want to use one channel it will only work on a higher one, the snob). I named it Nephilim, but this is too much!

Our theory is that Windows (what did I expect when I bought Windows?) is not very good at half shutting down (like sleeping or going on standby, which is how I used to leave my other computer). However that doesn't explain why it does it with no shutting down at all.

I guess this is what I deserve for buying from the Evil Empire.

~SongDragon

P.S. Edited to clear up an ambiguity.

[DaveM]

Song....you haven't lived until you have attempted to live with an 8-bit pre-DOS, pre-hard drive, pre-Internet machine. I highly recommend a Commodore 64 if you ever want a reminder of what one use to have to go through to "use a computer". And the truly amusing thing is....we did it gladly.

Heck, I'll bet more than one of us can remember the treasured 4-banger calculator that cost $300+ and the EVERYBODY wanted to borrow!

By the way if anyone ever runs across an Altair 8080 or and IMSAI.....I want one!


Seriously, which version of Windows XP do you have? There seem to be about half a dozen of them, all with different quirks. You might want to try just turning the volume all the way down when you want quiet, rather than switching the sound off. Failing that....I fear you have a gremlin.

[Rkitko]

How do you go about turning the sound off? Is there a function key for it? My Dell has an Fn key that, when held down in conjunction with the "End" key mutes the system. (The "end" key has this predetermined function programmed into it and may be different on other models). I prefer to mute rather than to turn the sound off. With the click of two keys I'm done. Two more and I'm back up to full sound. I can really mess with the cat like that when I play the chirping birds mp3. Drives her nuts trying to figure out why they stopped.

A gremlin is a good possibility, too. Just remember not to feed your mogwai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogwai#Mogwai_in_the_Gremlins_series) after midnight.

Believe it or not, DaveM, I remember dealing with a TRS-80 (TRASH-80) with it's tiny screen, if you could call it that, and the 300 baud modem. One. character. at. a. time.

[SongDragon]

Lol.

How do I turn the volume off? I go into the control panel and mute it. Usually within a few hours of that I can still unmute it and it'll play fine. However if I wait for a while Windows will stop the entire program, and every now and then the computer will make a weird "beep" as though complaining that it stopped itself...

The same thing happens even with the volume simply turned all the way down.

Another funny symptom is that this first happened because I used the controls that are right above the keyboard rather than the control panel, then went to play something and found out I couldn't get it off mute (when Windows stops a program the control panel ends up grayed out, and the buttons don't work, until you start it again). Very mysterious. Even so programs started up when the sound wasn't working need to be restarted before the sound will work for them again, which is to be expected.

It isn't a big problem... Just odd.

Honestly I haven't a clue what version of Windows XP it's running. Greenleaf, my previous computer (stop laughing at the names, seriously... not that funny...) tended to get me annoyed, but that was more for the things it did that were odd in an almost good (if creepy) way, like finding wireless from neighbors two blocks away just because it liked the internet so much (had a wireless card, unlike this one which has it built in). If I turn the wireless off on this, though, same thing. It stops the program.

I don't understand computers at all, so I don't really know what I said in telling you all that Ram/Hard drive stuff... I wish the screen hadn't gone dead on Greenleaf or I'd use that computer for a lot of stuff still... (Still do when I have a monitor to plug it into)

Thanks for all your help... I just thought it was a good case for the Geek board. It's probably just quirks I have to get used to on Nephilim (like I got used to Greenleaf overheating and so would put it on a windowsill in winter or on the wood floor, in shade, in the summer).

Lol, I remember old computers. My father had a laptop that looked like a sewing machine. I didn't understand why he spent so much time with those machines... but the floppy disks were fun to throw around.

~Song

[Darlene]

Song try looking for a little speaker looking thing at the right bottom of the screen click on that and it should have a little slide thing and a mute box. don't click the mute box instead just slide the little slide all the way down and that should turn the sound off but I think if you click that mute button you must go back into the control panel. I don't know if it is that way on yours but I got a brand new legal copy of XP recently and that is the way it worked. And I convent your Laptop!
Peace, Darlene

[SongDragon]

Darlene, I know how to do that. That's how Greenleaf worked. This one does not have the sound icon down there (because it does have it right above the keyboard, so it wouldn't make sense to have it immediately on the desktop right immediately above it). It's not that I hit the mute. As I've said I now tend to work with the volume turned down rather than muted... But it will still do the same thing every so often if I haven't "exercised" it on any sort of sound.

One of the reasons I may never have had this problem with Greenleaf was that even when it had its sound muted (which was right in the right hand corner) I usually had its music playing also. Sometimes I turned it down all the way and woke up singing songs only to pull my computer out from beneath my bed, turn up the sound, and find out we were singing the same verse of the same song. That could get creepy.

It's mostly a software problem... Windows quirks... Not a problem of knowing how to mute it/turn the volume down since there are many various ways of doing that. One of which did not work for a while and we still don't know how we disabled it--now all of a sudden it works again. Can't explain the symptoms any better... Oh well...

~Song

[RedjackRyan]

Our theory is that Windows (what did I expect when I bought Windows?) is not very good at half shutting down (like sleeping or going on standby, which is how I used to leave my other computer). However that doesn't explain why it does it with no shutting down at all.

I guess this is what I deserve for buying from the Evil Empire.

~SongDragon



Windows hibernate and standby is the work of the devil. The few scant seconds you save on a restart isn't worth it, in my opinion. Just shut the thing down all the way and you'll likely be happier in the long run. As for the weird driver issue.. thats a new one on me.

[Amy in Vermont]

Windows hibernate and standby is the work of the devil.

You got that right! We disable hibernate completely on our images. I would like to do the same with standby, but we are a "green" institution, so that won't fly.

With Vista, MS has taken it further. The defaults on the start menu don't even include Shut Down, you have to go find it!

[aabram]

Song try looking for a little speaker looking thing at the right bottom of the screen click on that and it should have a little slide thing and a mute box. don't click the mute box instead just slide the little slide all the way down and that should turn the sound off but I think if you click that mute button you must go back into the control panel. I don't know if it is that way on yours but I got a brand new legal copy of XP recently and that is the way it worked. And I convent your Laptop!
Peace, Darlene

That's the way I do it too

Annabel

[Stephen]

That's the way I do it too

Annabel

Yeah, if you can get that little icon to show up. More often than not, it refuses to load when I start up this machine.

[Darlene]

Originally posted by Amy in Vermont: Vista, MS has taken it further. The defaults on the start menu don't even include Shut Down, you have to go find it!

I just got Vista and it took me a very long time to do the updates. So they must have worked on that one. It is not as prominent as on XP but it is on the start menu. I took me seconds to find it. The shutdown and the restart are separate now which I think is good.
Peace, Darlene

[DaveM]

Trash-80s were fun, with the cassette recorder for storage and the unbelievably expensive "memory expansion" that got you a whopping 16K to play with. I hesitate to even mention the disk expansion deck with its 8" disks (which came in a three-pack for $10).

I used one with a 110 baud modem briefly....300 was considered "high speed". To this day I wonder where we ever found the patience.

[Amy in Vermont]

Song,

You might want to go to HP's website and see if there is a driver update availble for the sound card in you computer. It sounds like a driver/hardware related issue to moi.

[Gandalf]

Hey, Song: perhaps the problem is not Windows at all. Perhaps there's a uh, feature... in the driver for the sound card. Have you tried going to the manufacturer's web site and looking for an updated driver?