Thursday, July 03, 2008
Turning an Aging Computer into a Media Center - Part 5 - Realizing you're an idiot
The problems with my video card? For the most part, imaginary. I cannot believe how many hours I’ve wasted on this. I’ve done about three repair installations and completely reinstalled the OS twice. There was no driver conflict. It was just the driver doing something a little unexpected, and I do mean a little.
Why did I wait until my third OS repair installation to go to ATI’s website and look for answers? I dunno. Because I’m a nincompoop. There, clearly explained in two short paragraphs, was my answer. During the Windows bootup, when the video drivers are being loaded up, it would sense two monitors plugged into the video card. I had my monitor and the TV plugged in. During setup, it picks one to be the primary and sends the video there. My monitor kept losing the video signal because it was being sent to the TV, but because I never had the TV on while I was troubleshooting, I never noticed.
What I should have done, and this was what I did before the whole TV tuner business, was to unplug the TV from the video card. After the driver has been set up and rebooted and it looks great, then plug in the TV. So… damn… simple. *smacking forehead repeatedly*
The other thing I spent way too much time on can be categorized as a stupid user trick. I’m almost too ashamed to admit it. While setting up the sound, I wanted output to go to both the TV and the PC speakers, that way we could listen to music without having to have the TV on. So I plugged the speakers into one jack and the TV into another jack. The PC speakers worked perfectly, but there was no sound coming out of the TV. Just to be sure, I cranked up the volume all the way and finally heard a tiny bit of the sound.
It was baffling. All the volume settings on the computer were maxed out. I researched online for a long time and the only solution was to get an amplifier. More time wasted trying to locate the right kind. I picked up a Boostaroo from Radio Shack and it worked a little, but it still wasn’t powerful enough. I needed something better.
It wasn’t until two days later that the light bulb over my head blinked on. The realization hit me while I was plugging a pair of headphones into my laptop. I had plugged the PC speakers into the headphone jack. This causes the main sound output to be muted. I stormed over to the computer, yanked out the speaker cord, and the TV sound immediately started working normally. Oh. My. Fuckingod. I am a complete idiot. I’m just going to go sit in the corner and drool on myself for awhile.
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Categories: • Random acts of geekery