I’ve had one of those days …
You know – the ones where if something can go wrong, it probably will.
Let’s see – graphics card arrived ! Hurrah ! And it works !!!
I haven’t checked out how fast it is compared to the old ones yet but … no dots on screen, no dots on video playback and that game where the textures went mental worked too. But … and there always tends to be a but …
Fire up machine after swapping over to the new card – where’s the sound. Uhoh.
The first thought (after checking the Googles) is that the graphics card has nobbled the sound. These things come with sound interfaces as well now to send sound over to tellies and monitors with speakers. I don’t do the sound that way, I have a pair of external speakers that have given me fantastic value over the decade or two that I’ve had them.
But … after much tinkering later I suspect I’ve managed to break something again …
The system is trying to make sound … it just isn’t getting to the speakers. System thinks the speakers are plugged in though and knows that it should be sending the sound that way. I’ve even managed to get sound out of the system through roundabout means …
Utility time ! Apple brought out a protocol called Airplay, which you can use to send sound and pictures across a network. I use it to send music from laptop to hifi and it’s very good indeed at doing that with no audible drop in quality compared to using a wire that I would trip over every time I went past it on the way to the loo.
Oh and I’d trip over it again when returning. THIS IS WHY I USE WIFI STREAMED AUDIO !
Anyway. I come to the point where I decide I need to spend a little more money on an external sound card.
This is something I had been thinking about anyway due to issues finding where to plug things in and a few other annoyances with the basic sound hardware in my desktop.
Off to the Mall !
At just the wrong time. I’d never have believed that places would shut around 6pm on a Saturday when they’re open later in the week. Seems a bit daft. Anyway, no sound card today. Sound card tomorrow hopefully. I think that’s the long term solution. I am also pondering getting a headset*, as this is fairly essential for multiplayer online gaming.
*(some headsets plug into the same place as speakers – but I’d get one of the USB headsets instead)
But I don’t do very much multiplayer online gaming these days (Either not invited in, or not interested in playing with random strangers), so a headset would be a waste of time.
Going back to that Airplay system – most of the time, that’s locked into Apple’s apps and devices. Itunes to Airport Express, things like that. But … you can get software that sends the audio from anything to anything else with the right software. I was watching a video on my desktop with the audio going to iPad or laptop. There are two sad things there though :
I was getting stuttering and freezes because I don’t think it liked me running the science sums at the same time.
It costs £££ to buy a licence fee;
And it puts excessive noise into the stream after 10 minutes if you don’t buy the licence.
I’d rather spend the cash on the perfect solution, instead of an imperfect answer.
It is quite frustrating though. I have a shiny new piece of kit … that I can’t really play with and find out what it’s like without the sound to go with the pictures. Perhaps Elite ? Haven’t been back into that in months and I suspect I could fly it mute. And it just finished updating …
I may return shortly with a screenshot.
PS Frustrating day but … I had messages from lovely people to brighten it up again. Feel better soon lovely little lady ! 🙂
PPS Shiny gold spaceship !
I don’t go into the microtransactions game that is the usual route for these cosmetic skins but … if it’s free and I have the ship for it ? Shiny !