Almost two for two with electronics
As of lately I've not had much luck with my electronics; not the small items but the larger ticket items. The first to go was my computer and it wasn't a complete surprise because of the trouble I've been having with it for several weeks. The HDTV I went half and half on with my mother is a different story. The TV isn't dead per se, but I'm definitely having some interesting problems, including the inability to display a proper HD picture through my 360's component cables. Because I don't own an HDMI cable testing that mode isn't really an option yet. The computer might be a hard fix, while the TV should be an easy fix since it's under warranty.
A few weeks ago my desktop computer of nearly seven years refused to power on. The previous night I had browsed the web on it and put it into sleep mode. When I came to turn it on the next morning it came on for a brief moment then cut back off. When I pushed the power button I didn't get anything. If I waited a while the computer would come on for a moment before cutting back off. It wasn't until repeated attempts that the computer stayed on. It was actually a surprise when the computer came back on so I took the liberty of finally backing up all of my files to an external hard drive. After backing up my files the power on the computer failed once more but came "back to life."
The computer then worked for nearly two weeks until this Saturday came and it refused to turn on after going off by itself. At this point I'm not sure if the motherboard has died or if the issue is related to the power supply. I might buy a power supply tester or a multimeter later this week. If worse comes to worse I'll have to save up for a new computer. I had my eye on this special from CyberPower PC but it may be months before I have the money to buy it, especially if I want to avoid using my credit card without the funds to pay the balance off quickly. Thankfully I still have my laptop and my mom has a desktop of her own which I can use from time to time.
As for my TV, I'm putting the blame on what I now call the "Final Fantasy curse." Whenever I played Final Fantasy XII on my PS2 my controllers tended to break in the same exact ways(see the 7th paragraph down for details). So I figured if the Final Fantasy curse would continue over to Final Fantasy XIII it would hit my 360. To my surprise only hours after playing the game my HDTV malfunctioned. After playing the game and watching the morning news I set off for a full day at work. When I got home from work eager to play the game I turned on my TV and found it acting strangely. The load up screen was a different color and the TV immediately went into A/V mode. When I tried to switch to TV mode I was greeted with the message "buttons locked." So I tried turning on the my PS2 since it was hooked up via A/V cables and all I got was sound and a yellow screen. After searching Google for answers I was able to unlock the buttons.
When I finally had control of the TV I discovered that only A/V, HDMI and PC modes were available. TV, component and S-A/V video modes were gone. After more searching I found the button combo to push,which brought up a new menu where I was able to restore the TV to its previous defaults. When I was able to use TV mode the color was distorted and I had to play around with the color modes to get a normal looking picture. I then switched to component cable mode and found the colors and picture were still distorted and changing the color settings made no difference. Fearing it was my 360, I tried my PS2 in S-A/V mode and the picture displayed without distortion. So I moved my 360 to another TV with different cables and the picture was normal. I then moved the 360 back to my TV using the S-A/V cables and the picture was fine. So I then tried the component cables on my mom's HDTV and everything displayed perfectly in HD. Perplexed, I called in my service plan and they told me to contact the manufacturer. I won't be able to do so until tomorrow but for the time being I can probably play Final Fantasy XIII via the S-A/V mode. I'm going to miss that gorgeous HD mode for the time being.
Or maybe I should take this as a sign to finish up Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth on the DS and review it for Damage Control.
A few weeks ago my desktop computer of nearly seven years refused to power on. The previous night I had browsed the web on it and put it into sleep mode. When I came to turn it on the next morning it came on for a brief moment then cut back off. When I pushed the power button I didn't get anything. If I waited a while the computer would come on for a moment before cutting back off. It wasn't until repeated attempts that the computer stayed on. It was actually a surprise when the computer came back on so I took the liberty of finally backing up all of my files to an external hard drive. After backing up my files the power on the computer failed once more but came "back to life."
The computer then worked for nearly two weeks until this Saturday came and it refused to turn on after going off by itself. At this point I'm not sure if the motherboard has died or if the issue is related to the power supply. I might buy a power supply tester or a multimeter later this week. If worse comes to worse I'll have to save up for a new computer. I had my eye on this special from CyberPower PC but it may be months before I have the money to buy it, especially if I want to avoid using my credit card without the funds to pay the balance off quickly. Thankfully I still have my laptop and my mom has a desktop of her own which I can use from time to time.
As for my TV, I'm putting the blame on what I now call the "Final Fantasy curse." Whenever I played Final Fantasy XII on my PS2 my controllers tended to break in the same exact ways(see the 7th paragraph down for details). So I figured if the Final Fantasy curse would continue over to Final Fantasy XIII it would hit my 360. To my surprise only hours after playing the game my HDTV malfunctioned. After playing the game and watching the morning news I set off for a full day at work. When I got home from work eager to play the game I turned on my TV and found it acting strangely. The load up screen was a different color and the TV immediately went into A/V mode. When I tried to switch to TV mode I was greeted with the message "buttons locked." So I tried turning on the my PS2 since it was hooked up via A/V cables and all I got was sound and a yellow screen. After searching Google for answers I was able to unlock the buttons.
When I finally had control of the TV I discovered that only A/V, HDMI and PC modes were available. TV, component and S-A/V video modes were gone. After more searching I found the button combo to push,which brought up a new menu where I was able to restore the TV to its previous defaults. When I was able to use TV mode the color was distorted and I had to play around with the color modes to get a normal looking picture. I then switched to component cable mode and found the colors and picture were still distorted and changing the color settings made no difference. Fearing it was my 360, I tried my PS2 in S-A/V mode and the picture displayed without distortion. So I moved my 360 to another TV with different cables and the picture was normal. I then moved the 360 back to my TV using the S-A/V cables and the picture was fine. So I then tried the component cables on my mom's HDTV and everything displayed perfectly in HD. Perplexed, I called in my service plan and they told me to contact the manufacturer. I won't be able to do so until tomorrow but for the time being I can probably play Final Fantasy XIII via the S-A/V mode. I'm going to miss that gorgeous HD mode for the time being.
Or maybe I should take this as a sign to finish up Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth on the DS and review it for Damage Control.