Tag: bleg

Headphone/microphone troubleshooting bleg.

I’ve got one that plugs into analog jacks on the computer – one for the microphone, the other for the speaker.  The speaker jack works fine: I can hear the sounds come through, no problem. The problem is the microphone: Skype doesn’t see it, Mumble doesn’t see it, Audible doesn’t see it, Windows 8 itself doesn’t see it.  How do I convince the computer to recognize that there’s a microphone there?

New Computer advice bleg.

Embarrassing, this: I used to have the skills to figure out what computer I’d need to buy – and that’s buy. I’m not building one. I’m not going to spend a month setting it up to get somebody else to build me one, either. I just want to order it and have it sent to me – that met these standards.  Or even approximate them:

Recommended System Requirements
Intel CPU Core i7 3770 3,4 GHz
AMD CPU AMD FX-8350 4 GHz
Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 770
AMD GPU Radeon R9 290
RAM 8GB
OS 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)
DirectX 11
HDD Space 40 GB

Continue reading New Computer advice bleg.

Computer advice bleg: my wife needs recommendations for a new computer.

Basically, she needs a good recommendation for a reasonably-priced off the shelf computer (mid three-figures) that will play Dragon Age Inquisition well.  She’s not going to build her own, because she’s not into that sort of thing; and she’s not really likely to need anything more graphics intensive for another four, five years.  With that in mind, suggestions welcome.