The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

Question to all---repaired a toshiba satellite laptop, reinstalled the original vista OS since client didnt want to replace hard drive and OS...everything works as it should except wireless drops. its a b/g Realtek NIC that doesnt work unless i go into properties and change it from b/g to b only. I tried changing my access point to send g only it didnt work, to send g on different channels and didnt work. tried using drivers from toshiba support and also went straight to realtek and no change, aside from the amount of options in the properties tab. anything im missing?

 

It sounds like a driver issue so what you've been doing sounds like the right path to take. I use to have Toshiba drivers for that WLAN but I can't find them right now. Make sure to totally remove the old diver before installing a new driver this will do two things, it will prevent Vista from trying to use the bad driver instead of using the new driver since it may think the old driver is better, and it will remove any Property Settings that you had changed before that could be the issue with your NIC's operation.

 

You say repaired - if you had it apart, did you verify the antenna connectors were securely attached when you put the casing back on? I find they can be a real pain and keep popping off unless attached 'properly', which depending on the layout of the laptop, can be quite a fiddly job.

 

Indeed. I have a toshiba laptop. It was quite difficult to find the right drivers. Fact is, Toshiba's site was wrong, Ralink was wrong. I ended up getting them from a third party site! Boom! Done!

 

Toshiba laptops are a nightmare to find drivers for. I also mirror Sam's thinking. Did you possibly have it apart and pop out the antenna connections?

Also, if it's a mini PCI-E half slot, they can be replaced for cheap.

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/In...0603171732:s&gclid=CMiXuf-a3r4CFdSMMgodFiAAFg

 

That is true I've used 3rd party drivers for Toshiba's too. The drivers they post when the laptop first comes out are normally good but as time goes on and they update things all goes awry. I've even used drivers for other laptops on Toshiba's site that work when the ones they have posted for a specific model don't work.

 

OK i took some time off, back at it and having difficulty. The only thing i repaired was a new harddrive, did not need to take the case apart, easy access panel. Toshiba Satellite, Vista, Home Premium, Realtek RTL8187B wireless. I've tried 4 different drivers from Toshiba website including an XP driver. I have tried a few from the Realtek website, also tried a few intel offers just in case. The driver Windows Update feeds me is crap. I have tried a few from 3rd party websites but those are mostly updates not a full installer, and whenever i try to update i can't because this thing says i already have the latest driver even though i use a update with a newer date than the driver. I will look more tonight, never had this much trouble.

 

Realtek is horrible with there Device ID's, Ive had Windows tell me realtek was a Cmedia, Intel, Ameritrend, 3com, and trendnet.

Ive also had more than a few Realtek USB,PCMIA, Mini-Pci/Pci-E Cards Fail, there Failures all start the same way you described not working on there network type or there frequency modulation is all out of whack. usually if the frequency is out you can see the PC/NIC Combo on a router capable of scanning down signals( DD-WRT and Tomato can do this) but there is nothing you can do to get it to connect. i spent days working on something just like your problem only to cave in and slap a intel wnic into it, the problems vanished after that.

 

Just an update. Recently helped an older gent upgrade his broken CRT HDTV and slightly older stereo to a brand new 42" Sony LED with an HDMI capable AV Receiver. My fee? His old AV Receiver. Was babied by an older couple in a very nice home.

Yamaha RX-V595a. 280W. Was probably about $300-400 when new, and still sells in the ~150-200 range. I'd say it was a damn good deal personally, lol. Yamaha are respected and trusted within the audio world. I've seen 1000W+ receivers at a similar price, and they do not even touch this decade old 280W Yamaha in power or quality. It has good reviews and seems well liked as a mid-range All-In-One.


I have finally replaced my Logitech X-530 cheapy 5.1s for something more substantial. 2 x 100W Teac Sound Reflectors, 2 x 80W Panasonic Thrusters, 2 x 60W Fisher surrounds. I cut the RCA plugin off the center speaker from my 5.1s and plugged it in with the bare wires. I figured it's higher wattage than the other speakers in the All-In-One set so it should stand a fair chance as a center for this slightly beefier setup given some more power. It also acts as kind of a tweeter, adding to the range of my sound system. More than powerful enough to keep up with the rest of the speakers.

It's capable of RCA and SPDIF(both Toslink and Digital Coax). I currently have a TosLink cable plugged into my motherboard's onboard sound. Raw signal means all my control is in the receiver, effectively eliminating my need for a sound card. This thing does it all, with flying colors. Really only have to switch back to the analog when using headphones and a mic.


Kind of a shame that Optical is not as high bandwidth as HDMI or DisplayPort, but I haven't seemed to notice a loss in sound quality. It's still capable of lossless stereo. The large majority of my stuff is stuck in stereo now but Pro Logic upmixes all of it superbly. The receiver has excellent mixing capabilities so you'd hardly ever miss real surround. Sam and Movies, I'd like your opinions on this. Is Toslink as harmless as I'm thinking here or is there some glaring disadvantage I haven't noticed other than lack of real surround ala HDMI? I don't care about going above 48khz btw.

If only it were HDMI. It was one of the last of the good Pro Logic I units so its upmixing is great but limited compared to Pro Logic II. If it were Pro Logic II, the stereo upmixing would be so good I wouldn't even be asking the surround sound question. Alas, HDMI is probably the only practical way to get true multi-channel surround from a PC to an AV receiver. I'll probably end up with one at some point. For now, I still get the general "surround sound" effect. I can also use Dolby Digital Live on my Realtek integrated which is tailor-made to emulate surround sound on Toslink and Digital Coax, but that means no 24-bit audio. I'd have to listen long and hard before I decide to use it, and whether or not to use it along side Pro Logic on the receiver.

General audio quality absolutely blows my old Yamaha R-10 from the late 70s or early 80s out of the water on the same speakers. More clarity, more power, better sound definition overall. Really transforms my ragtag speaker system into something respectable. It really and truly sounds decent by all standards. The R-10 probably shared a similar price segment, so maybe newer technology HAS gained an edge in quality.

Will be posting pics of my new temporary setup, HDTV and new Receiver included, very soon.

 

First of all HDMI does not have higher audio bandwidth, in fact TOSLINK is MUCH higher and is much safer for you to use when connecting to a noisy device like a PC. You also will not lose signal strength when using a audio out from a sound card or the motherboard and won't have to use an isolation transformer either!

HDMI 1.3c has an audio bandwidth of: 36.86Mbit
TOSLINK has a bandwidth of: 125.00Mbit

As to your output power rating for the amp, I'm not sure where you came up with 280 watts and that isn't the proper way to view the wattage rating either. Your amp puts out a total wattage of 350 watts RMS across the full audio range 20-20KHz with 8 ohm speakers, it's a lot more dynamic power, 1K rated if you really wanted to using the marketing peoples wet dream way of rating. In fact your receiver is rated at 70 watts RMS per channel at 20-20 across all 5 channels, however that isn't truly correct either as Yamaha does lie a little to state those ratings.

You did get a great deal snagging that amp and I'm sure you'll never regret that, way to go Jeff!!!!

Stevo

 

Movies, I have heard others mention that it's capable of 80 watts per channel, but RMS isn't exactly the best indicator of capability either. The only indicator I trust is my own two ears. By that measurement it's a drastic improvement from my analog receiver.

Despite the technological drawbacks, Toslink is pretty good, huh? I know the SPDIF standard isn't capable of carrying uncompressed multi-channel audio which HDMI is capable of. I'm limited to Dolby compression technologies for multi-channel. Luckily AC-3 follows the Dolby standard, so the majority of my movies still have full surround. Games lose surround entirely though unless they are Dolby compatible.

Thankfully it has individual control for each channel so my smaller speakers can be integrated nicely. My rears are kinda weak and Pro Logic shortchanges them when upmixing, so some additional power evens them out. Pro Logic II does real stereo surround which works differently and is a much better technology than this "simulated surround". Very similar to stereo surround on my Creative X-Fi.

I'd ideally want a Pro Logic II receiver or even better, an HDMI one which can handle any multi-channel signal. Not complaining about this one only having Pro Logic, but knowing the difference has helped me a learn a little about what PL is and what it does.

 

Absolutely NOT, when rating a Amp RMS at 20/20 and THD are the only real stats to go by for amps. However as I've said before stats aren't enough by themselves. Sound quality of your speakers are most important and room size/materials in the sound field are also very important too.

Your 80w claim is possibly dynamic power and even at that Yamaha's are typically weak for their true amplifier specs so 65 or even 60 watts is probably more realistic especially when you consider distortion at volume. I love Yamaha but that is their true and only weakness from my 4o years of experience with them. This is one reason I'm using PA amps now and not relying on Yamaha's amp with exception to support speakers.

Toslink has four times the capability of HDMI unless you get into 2.0 spec so it can carry more then HDMI RAW or not and I use it for surround as well as 7 CH Stereo so I can't say I follow you on that. Actually I prefer DTS Master over Dolby Labs now that they have better engineers mixing it, it's a higher standard.

Your big guns should be your fronts and center so weak rears are tolerable, no problem there for sure. If you are listening to music I would suggest only using 5 ch stereo on your receiver, pro logic, THD, or DTS is horrible for music and your bit rate drops significantly using a surround environment over Stereo.

Hope that helps clear some things up,
Stevo

 

LOL I definitely agree there. My biggest problem has been finding out how to get it to do 7 or 5 channel stereo. That would be my ideal solution. The controls and menu aren't exactly the most intuitive. If it had Pro Logic II I'd probably leave it, but multi channel stereo would be better than Pro Logic I. The audiophile rule of thumb is the less processing between source and speaker the better.

Have been reading through the manual in PDF. Will let you know if I figure out how to do 5 channel stereo.

Also, I've heard and read from several sources that SPDIF(Digital and Toslink) is simply not capable of uncompressed surround. As in, 5 or 7 totally uncompressed channels. Instead SPDIF outputs encoded stereo and relies on DSP(Digital Signal Processing) within the receiver to do all the work. This means it indeed does surround, but the audio is compressed.If it's a genuine Dolby encoded track, the quality is much better, but it's still being processed between the source and the speakers. This info comes from both the Wikipedia page about SPDIF and several audio forums.

My audio control panel confirms this as well. It simply is not capable of multi-channel output through Toslink or Digital Coax without turning on Dolby Digital Live, which compresses the sound and affects quality. It is also not capable of anything above 48KHz output, though it does do 24-bit.

 

The SPDIF issue is the same for HDMI and as I stated optical has more bandwidth period, with exception to spec 2.0 which kicks but on everything.

On your remote there should be a button labeled Stereo in the group of other sound environment buttons. Press the Stereo button repeatedly until you get multi-ch stereo, in your case 5CH, however on your remote it might be the DISP or EFFECT. Now on your Receiver your should be able to use the PROGRAM << >> buttons to toggle through all of the sound fields so 5 CH Stereo should be in there.

I'm not sure what controls you are looking at and it might just be a limitation of your unit, again the facts are it is capable whether or not it is implicated is a whole other issue and I I've said before I can use surround DSP through my Toslink so I don't know what to tell you..

 

It seems this unit lacks multi-channel stereo entirely. Pro Logic and PL Enhanced are the closest I can get.

EDIT:
Never mind. After some research, Yamaha calls their 5/7 channel stereo setting on this unit "Disco". Works great. The manual doesn't do a very good job of pointing this out. It does everything perfect, but leaves out my center channel, which is a bit of a miff but not major. Much better than listening to stereo on Pro Logic. Pro Logic still works great for games and movies though.

 

Try the Mono button on the remote that may toggle to different stereo modes and you should have the center in the stereo mix too. I'm not as up to date with some of the lower models as I typically only deal with their high-end stuff, on rare occasions like this do I get to play around with them.

I agree they did make your setup a bit confusing which is truly unlike Yamaha normally.

Glad your getting a good feel for your new baby!

 

Nice AV receiver man, when did to site font change?

 

And here it is!