Topic Wiki

I figured that even this thread can have a wiki.
If your computer or phone is giving you issues:

• Please read this before posting: 4 Reasons Why IT People Ignore Your Requests for Help
• Restart the computer. Hopefully this will take care of any issues
• If your problem has not yet been solved, try to Google it. There may be a very simple solution
• On a Windows computer, a system restore may do the trick.
(This is a work in progress, please feel free to add whatever you may feel is helpful)


Please post whether or not the problem was fixed

Apple iPhone Master Thread
« Last edited by Thingywingy on May 07, 2019, 08:00:02 PM »

Author Topic: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread  (Read 977084 times)

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4600 on: December 01, 2017, 06:42:00 AM »
Does anybody know a way to connect a Google Home device to a public Xfinity wifi hotspot? Apparently you can't go through a captive portal when connecting the google home so Google told me to call Xfinity and have them add the Mac address to their whitelist, but when I called Xfinity they said they can't do that. Anyone have any advise?
In your account online you don't have an option to add a MAC address?

Offline mmgfarb

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Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4601 on: December 01, 2017, 01:44:07 PM »
Does anybody know a way to connect a Google Home device to a public Xfinity wifi hotspot? Apparently you can't go through a captive portal when connecting the google home so Google told me to call Xfinity and have them add the Mac address to their whitelist, but when I called Xfinity they said they can't do that. Anyone have any advise?
Update: I ended up just spoofing the MAC address of a phone to match the Google home's MAC address, logged into xfinity on the phone, then changed the MAC back on the phone. The Google home then connected to the public xfinity network just fine since the only thing that they use to verify devices is the MAC address. The problem is that public xfinity networks use client isolation (which is a good thing really, otherwise they'd be kind of insecure) but the Google home needs to be able to connect with the phone you're using to set it up over the network which isn't possible if the network is using client isolation. Basically, this is stupid and I hate google.
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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4602 on: December 01, 2017, 02:35:24 PM »
Update: I ended up just spoofing the MAC address of a phone to match the Google home's MAC address, logged into xfinity on the phone, then changed the MAC back on the phone. The Google home then connected to the public xfinity network just fine since the only thing that they use to verify devices is the MAC address. The problem is that public xfinity networks use client isolation (which is a good thing really, otherwise they'd be kind of insecure) but the Google home needs to be able to connect with the phone you're using to set it up over the network which isn't possible if the network is using client isolation. Basically, this is stupid and I hate google.
So anyone on the xfinity wifi will be able to control your Google Home?
.
Feelings don't care about your facts

Offline David R

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4603 on: December 02, 2017, 11:46:18 PM »
Update: I ended up just spoofing the MAC address of a phone to match the Google home's MAC address, logged into xfinity on the phone, then changed the MAC back on the phone. The Google home then connected to the public xfinity network just fine since the only thing that they use to verify devices is the MAC address. The problem is that public xfinity networks use client isolation (which is a good thing really, otherwise they'd be kind of insecure) but the Google home needs to be able to connect with the phone you're using to set it up over the network which isn't possible if the network is using client isolation. Basically, this is stupid and I hate google.
I am not sure I fully understand what you need to do. (My Google Home is coming this week so I will be more familiar with it soon.) Would it help if you take your own router and set the SSID to the same as Xfinity's hot spot? Then connect your phone and your Google Home to your own hotspot and then your phone can communicate directly with the Google Home (as long is your phone is not still using the same MAC as the Google Home).

Offline mmgfarb

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4604 on: December 02, 2017, 11:50:34 PM »
I am not sure I fully understand what you need to do. (My Google Home is coming this week so I will be more familiar with it soon.) Would it help if you take your own router and set the SSID to the same as Xfinity's hot spot? Then connect your phone and your Google Home to your own hotspot and then your phone can communicate directly with the Google Home (as long is your phone is not still using the same MAC as the Google Home).
That's the thing, I don't have a router, I'm using a public xfinity hotspot.
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Offline Z56

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4605 on: December 02, 2017, 11:59:09 PM »
That's the thing, I don't have a router, I'm using a public xfinity hotspot.

I was having the same problem with my google Home using optimum wifi... got any ideas how to make this work ?
“I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success. Great things come from hard work

Offline mmgfarb

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4606 on: December 02, 2017, 11:59:51 PM »
I was having the same problem with my google Home using optimum wifi... got any ideas how to make this work ?
Not yet, I'll let you know if I do.
"JS [is] a fetid cesspool of unvarnished linguistic manure, with lots of useless drivel and post-padding." -Moishebatchy

Offline David R

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4607 on: December 03, 2017, 12:04:05 AM »
That's the thing, I don't have a router, I'm using a public xfinity hotspot.
Is this just a one-time thing that you have to do? If so, maybe you can borrow a router or use a computer that's configured to be a hotspot.

Offline mmgfarb

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4608 on: December 03, 2017, 12:07:20 AM »
Is this just a one-time thing that you have to do? If so, maybe you can borrow a router or use a computer that's configured to be a hotspot.
I'm not sure, I have a feeling you have to do it every time you connect it to a new network but I don't really know. I think I'm gonna try to set it up on a regular network and then see if it works if I move it to the xfinity hotpsot.
"JS [is] a fetid cesspool of unvarnished linguistic manure, with lots of useless drivel and post-padding." -Moishebatchy

Offline stooges44

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4609 on: December 03, 2017, 02:19:26 PM »
No go.

My old desktop, probably sat in the same class as yours, just updated itself to the "fall creators update" and once again my display driver went nuts but this time I'm in the same boat as you and the roll back driver button was greyed out.

What I did was manually install the legacy driver, simply letting windows install the driver is what's messing it up, the latest driver is not compatible.

Here's the link to it: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop/legacy?product=legacy2&os=Windows%208%20-%2064
« Last Edit: December 03, 2017, 02:50:49 PM by stooges44 »
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Offline David Smith

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4610 on: December 05, 2017, 09:35:45 AM »
My computer often freezes up temporarily (usually when I'm using a lot of tabs on chrome) and when I open task manager is says disk usage 100%. (I have a 256 SSD and 1TB HD.) What does that mean?
Who do you think you are fooling? You think you are going to pull a quick one on your Creator? Good luck with that.
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Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4611 on: December 05, 2017, 10:11:44 AM »
My computer often freezes up temporarily (usually when I'm using a lot of tabs on chrome) and when I open task manager is says disk usage 100%. (I have a 256 SSD and 1TB HD.) What does that mean?
Disk Usage 100% means that it is in use 100% of the time which isn't necessarily that bad. So it's really hard - if possible at all - to troubleshoot it just from this.

Offline David Smith

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4612 on: December 05, 2017, 10:16:10 AM »
Disk Usage 100% means that it is in use 100% of the time which isn't necessarily that bad. So it's really hard - if possible at all - to troubleshoot it just from this.
It's always synonymous for me with the computer freezing. As soon as disk usage drops the computer starts working again. Often the RAM is not maxed out, so I don't think that's the issue. (I have a i7-6700 that shouldn't be overwhelmed by browsing.) The only thing I could think of is slow internet connectivity aggregated by dozens of chrome tabs (and too many chrome extensions) causing systems to freeze.
Who do you think you are fooling? You think you are going to pull a quick one on your Creator? Good luck with that.
JTZ

Offline lubaby

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4613 on: December 05, 2017, 10:21:35 AM »
It's always synonymous for me with the computer freezing. As soon as disk usage drops the computer starts working again. Often the RAM is not maxed out, so I don't think that's the issue. (I have a i7-6700 that shouldn't be overwhelmed by browsing.) The only thing I could think of is slow internet connectivity aggregated by dozens of chrome tabs (and too many chrome extensions) causing systems to freeze.
Sounds like a RAM issue, possibly among other things.

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4614 on: December 05, 2017, 10:24:36 AM »
Sounds like a RAM issue, possibly among other things.
The RAM is often at 60%-70% when this happens. I definitely need more RAM, but there seems to be something else at play too.
Who do you think you are fooling? You think you are going to pull a quick one on your Creator? Good luck with that.
JTZ

Offline lubaby

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4615 on: December 05, 2017, 10:28:34 AM »
The RAM is often at 60%-70% when this happens. I definitely need more RAM, but there seems to be something else at play too.
Did this problem start recently? Did you notice it after adding any new extensions to Chrome? Try disabling some extensions that aren't necessary (or disable all, then re-enable them 1 by 1 every few hours to gauge speed)..

If some of those tabs are Google Sheets (with other collaborators constantly editing), that can be a major bog.

Offline Thingywingy

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4616 on: December 05, 2017, 06:06:52 PM »
I mostly use a bluetooth mouse on my laptop and tried disabling my trackpad but even after clicking save the trackpad still works. Any cliu why it's not disabling?
I am sometimes accused of overthinking things. I am still mulling over whether that accusation has merit.

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4617 on: December 08, 2017, 10:49:23 AM »
Is it normal for a brand new laptop (with SSD) to be making a chirping/buzzing noise?
Workflowy. You won't know what you're missing until you try it.

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4618 on: December 09, 2017, 07:22:38 PM »
I mostly use a bluetooth mouse on my laptop and tried disabling my trackpad but even after clicking save the trackpad still works. Any cliu why it's not disabling?
Where do you disable it? Where do you click save?

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Re: Computer Troubleshooting/Help Master Thread
« Reply #4619 on: December 09, 2017, 07:24:42 PM »
Is it normal for a brand new laptop (with SSD) to be making a chirping/buzzing noise?
The laptop or the charger cable power block? And yes.