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HOW TO ANSWER A QUESTION

Chris Maunder — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:09:00 GMT

Apologies for the shouting but this is important.

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or mark it down. Insults are not welcome
If the question is inappropriate then click the 'vote to remove message' button

Insults, slap-downs and sarcasm aren't welcome. Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

cheers,
Chris Maunder

The Code Project Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP

How to get an answer to your question

Chris Maunder — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:05:00 GMT

For those new to message boards please try to follow a few simple rules when posting your question.

Choose the correct forum for your message. Posting a VB.NET question in the C++ forum will end in tears.
Be specific! Don't ask "can someone send me the code to create an application that does 'X'. Pinpoint exactly what it is you need help with.
Keep the subject line brief, but descriptive. eg "File Serialization problem"
Keep the question as brief as possible. If you have to include code, include the smallest snippet of code you can.
Be careful when including code that you haven't made a typo. Typing mistakes can become the focal point instead of the actual question you asked.
Do not remove or empty a message if others have replied. Keep the thread intact and available for others to search and read. If your problem was answered then edit your message and add "[Solved]" to the subject line of the original post, and cast an approval vote to the one or several answers that really helped you.
If you are posting source code with your question, place it inside <pre></pre> tags. We advise you also check the "Encode "<" (and other HTML) characters when pasting" checkbox before pasting anything inside the PRE block, and make sure "Use HTML in this post" check box is checked.
Be courteous and DON'T SHOUT. Everyone here helps because they enjoy helping others, not because it's their job.
Please do not post links to your question into an unrelated forum such as the lounge. It will be deleted. Likewise, do not post the same question in more than one forum.
Do not be abusive, offensive, inappropriate or harass anyone on the boards. Doing so will get you kicked off and banned. Play nice.
If you have a school or university assignment, assume that your teacher or lecturer is also reading these forums.
No advertising or soliciting.
We reserve the right to move your posts to a more appropriate forum or to delete anything deemed inappropriate or illegal.

cheers,
Chris Maunder

The Code Project Co-founder

Microsoft C++ MVP

Did I Destroy My Computor

BernardIE5317 — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 02:54:00 GMT

Greetings Kind Regards

I stupidly attempted to charge a hand held vacuum cleaner via one of the USB ports on my PC. Since then the screen has been blanking momentarily out periodically id est approximately 2-3m. Did I destroy this machine?

Thank You Kindly

New Monitor and AOEMI BackUP

Choroid — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 16:23:00 GMT

I am on a Windows 7 64 bit OS and have been using AOEMI BackUP ver 4.6.0 (old version)
I have created a Bootable Media and Incremental BackUP's on a External USB Hard Drive
The last backup was with a Asus PA248 Monitor which has decided to go south after 11 years
Now I have a Asus PA279CRV with no driver support for Windows 7 so I am using the driver from the Asus PA248
I have the screen resolution on the new monitor set to 1920 X 1200 same as the old monitor

Question: If I do a incremental backup now and in the future need to do a complete system restore
will the current incremental backup's think it is running the old monitor ?
Thus it might try to find a Asus PA248 and fail because that is no longer connected to the computer.

Windows rejects driver signed by EV certificate and Microsoft hardware site [UPDATED]

Richard Andrew x64 — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 21:05:00 GMT

UPDATE: I just contacted DigiCert support, and the rep couldn't figure it out either. He said everything looks OK with my certificate, so he escalated it to their development team. I might hear back from them on Monday.

I have a Windows Filtering Platform driver that I have signed with a DigiCert EV code signing certificate.

I submitted the package to the Windows Partner Center as a hardware submission, and it was successfully signed by Microsoft. I chose "Test Signing" and I checked the boxes for every listed version of Windows that was not ARM based.

So when I run this command:

signtool verify gsllc.sys

It gives the following response:

File: gsllc.sys
Index  Algorithm  Timestamp
========================================
SignTool Error: A certificate chain processed, but terminated in a root
        certificate which is not trusted by the trust provider.

Number of errors: 1

When I attempt to load the driver into Windows, the event log shows the following error:

The gsllc service failed to start due to the following error: 
A certificate was explicitly revoked by its issuer.

My certificate is only days old, and it hasn't been revoked according to DigiCert.

Anybody have any idea what could be wrong here?

The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.

Driver Package Submission INF File [SOLVED]

Richard Andrew x64 — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 17:31:00 GMT

Hello,

I'm having trouble understanding the INF file(s) that I must submit for microsoft test driver signing.

If I'm submitting a driver for both of the x86 and x64 platforms, must I submit a separate INF file for each version of the driver?

SOLUTION:

The same INF file can be used for both x86 and x64 binaries.

The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.

Transistors

Calin Negru — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 18:58:00 GMT

A transistor is a “device” in which a high power current acts as a switch that can turn on and off the circulation of a lower power current. The later then may act as a switch in another transistor. To get this working you need to amplify the incoming low power current from the first transistor to make it a high power current that will pass through the second transistor is this correct?

Can't write to my NTFS-formatted external hard drive on Mac, what should I do?

seekco — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 07:55:00 GMT

I've been grappling with a frustrating issue lately and thought I'd seek some advice from this knowledgeable community. The problem at hand is that I'm unable to write to my NTFS-formatted external hard drive when it's connected to my Mac.

Here's a bit of background: I've been using this NTFS-formatted external hard drive primarily on a Windows PC. However, now that I'm a recent Windows-to-macOS switcher and working on my Mac, I find myself unable to add or edit files on this drive. I need to collaborate on some documents, and it becomes a bit of a headache.

After some research, I'm aware that macOS doesn't offer native write support for NTFS drives. Formatting to exFAT is an option, but it means moving all my data somewhere else temporarily, which led me to consider third-party solutions. One NTFS for Mac solution that's come up is iBoysoft NTFS for Mac. It claims to enable full read-write access to NTFS drives on Mac, but I wanted to gather some insights and experiences from the community here.

Has anyone been through this before? If so, how did you resolve it? If you've tried iBoysoft NTFS for Mac or have alternative suggestions, please do share your thoughts and experiences. I'm eager to learn and resolve this problem.

Thanks a bunch!

Memory

Calin Negru — Sat, 21 Oct 2023 13:31:00 GMT

A memory pcb piece that comes mounted in a mother board memory slot has only about 100 pins. 4 Kilobyte of memory is a thousand ints on a 32 bit machine. How do you read or write a thousand ints through a bottleneck of 100 pins? Thank you

Cpu pins

Calin Negru — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 12:49:00 GMT

A cpu has a lot of pins. What are they meant for? Do they have a general purpose usage or does the processor have specialized groups of pins where each group talks to certain type of resource on the motherboard (video adapter, sound board, etc)

Zero insertion force (zif) connector esthetes, listen up!

RedDk — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 16:50:00 GMT

I have a very pure hardware question that only an electronics engineer would possibly be able to answer. And that is, how do I remove the infinitessimal dimples formed by lowering the "hammer" on a four-conductor zif ribbon using the tiny plastic squeeze wedge in the board-soldered receptor so-as to make the contact surface of each end of the thing flat again? I suspect, due to the nature of the moving fold, as a servo rotates, that these indentations have weathered to such an extent that my electrical signal is being lost. And I can't keep pulling the ends out and sticking them back in to get the motor swinging again ... because it's just not the solution.

I might possibly be able to obtain a new zif four-connector but if I had a solution to reduce the amount of gas required to motor north to the electronics store that would be better. A punch perhaps?

Any informed suggestions = very helpful.

Thanks!

Arduino not looping???

glennPattonWork3 — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 14:14:00 GMT

Hi All,

Using an Arduino to drive a servo motor (well trying).

C++

#include <Servo.h>

Servo myServo;
int servoPin = 2;
uint16_t i = 0;

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
 myServo.attach(servoPin);
 pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
  HERE:
  i = 0;
   for(i = 1; i <= 180; i++)
   {
    myServo.write(i);
    delay(15);
  }
 for(i = 180; i >= 1; i--)
  {
    myServo.write(i);
     delay(15);
  }
goto HERE;
}

Now what I believe Should happen is digital Pin 2 which is being used as the servo pin goes high and the due to the loop the pulse is 'stretched' from 1 to 180 which is taken by Servo and magiced it into a value and sent via pin 2, once this is done the value get counted down from 180 back to 1 by the second loop.
What happens is by scoping the pin the pulse is one get to 180 counts back and does not loop.
This started as a 'Hmmm' problem and has slowly been upgraded. I have put the loops in separate functions to see if that helps, no. Google has been a no and I can't log on to Arduino board as my Pass word was rejected ands the sent pass word link doesn't. Going fully bananas here.

Glenn

PANIC OVER THE CODE NOW WORKS!

Mini PC

VE2 — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 12:14:00 GMT

I am considering buying an MSECORE Mini PC i9-9880H.
It comes with lot of stuff (SSD, WiFi, Windows 11, etc)
Canadian price $910.
Any (well almost any) comments appreciated.

Any RFID (13.56) experts??

glennPattonWork3 — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 11:52:00 GMT

Hi,
The company I work for is using 13.56MHz RFID for a project. This project involves reading a tag and playing an audio track. I got a third party reader and could read the Tag UID fine but miss the 'extra' data embedded in the read/write section of the tag. Issue is I did my 13.56 Tag training at Texas Instruments and there was no mention of R/W sections of the tag, only an encrypted data section (used at the time for GasN'Go in Canada) so what I'm wondering has the spec changed or have we go a product using a protected area of the tag?
Glenn

This is for a DSP project

yai ck — Wed, 03 May 2023 07:52:00 GMT

I am trying to prepare my guitar signal for as best as possible ADC response in order to detect harmonics to the 5th of the highest note of the guitar (1175 Hz for 22 frets), which is about 5875 Hz. This means that I need to be sampling at about 58.75 kHz, which is possible with the microcontroller and it's DSP functions.

I am using an STM32F407 Discovery board(https://www.chipsmall.com/Products/STM32F407G-DISC1_10343216.html).

So far, I have not come across any solutions that I am happy with.

Considerations that are important:

*Guitar output impedance: about 1M ohm.[br] *Anti-aliasing for the ADC[br] *Guitar signal of 500mV Vp-p max[br] *ADC input range 0-3.3V[br] *5V single supply[br] *Frequency range from 82Hz and 5875 Hz

Does anyone have any suggestions of a circuit that I can use? I have TL082, LM358 and LM741 opamps available, but I am open to other suggestions.

The goal of this element of the projects is to be able to use the first 5 harmonics and a sampled period of the guitar signal for further DSP.

This is what I have come up with so far - although I believe it's far from ideal.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Not really a question--Just a piece of hardware info

rjmoses — Sat, 22 Apr 2023 12:01:00 GMT

Earlier this week, I started having problems with the local electricity supplier. My UPS'es kept triggering alarms and it turned out to be the power company lines were delivering over 130V.

Called the electric company and they determined that a line voltage regulator had failed. They bypassed the regulator and got my supply voltage down to about 125+- but then it would drop under the 105 volt low limit and cause my UPS'es to go into battery backup mode for a few seconds.

So here's the fun part:

One of the Windows 10 systems would failed to boot after a shutdown from the UPS---giving me a 0xc000021a stop code.

Tried Windows startup recovery, replacing the C drive, restoring backups, etc.---all the standard crap. System would not boot.

Tried disconnecting all four external disk drives that were attached via a USB 7 port hub. Still failed.

Finally disconnected everything, including internal drives and USB hubs (two attached) --- SYSTEM BOOTED!

Went through an isolation procedure to determine what was causing the boot failure. Got it down to one of the USB hubs, which was not plugged into the UPS, had gotten smoked somehow. It still looked like it was working but it caused Windows 10 to fail during the boot process.

Who would've thunk a USB hub could cause a boot failure on Windows 10?

Microsoft owes me for four days labor and several bottles of antacids.

Laptop Dual Monitors

Kevin Marois — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 22:24:00 GMT

I just bought this HP laptop[^]. I want to connect dual monitors, so I bought one of these on Amazon[^].

I hooked it up, went into Display, Multiple Displays, and clicked Detect - and it doesn't detect it.

Do I need an HP docking station? ANy thoughts on what's wrong?

If it's not broken, fix it until it is.
Everything makes sense in someone's mind.
Ya can't fix stupid.

SOLVED - Write protected hard drive...How to make writeable

Richard Andrew x64 — Sun, 12 Mar 2023 21:12:00 GMT

Hi, I Have a Seagate 1 TB USB mechanical hard drive.

It has either a corrupted partitions or they are Linux partitions. I don't know how to tell.

On my Windows machine, in Disk Management, I try to delete one of the partitions, after taking the drive offline, and it gives the error: "The media is write-protected."

Anyone know what kind of tool I can use to un-write-protect the drive?

SOLUTION:

Use the "diskpart" command line tool in Windows to remove the write protection. Simple.

The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.

Overall System Speed Performance Difference DDR3 vs DDR4

BernardIE5317 — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 23:15:00 GMT

Greetings Kind Regards May I please inquire will an appreciable/significant/useful/meaningful overall speed performance difference result comparing two PCs each w/ same version intel i7 same memory size i.e. 16GB same SSD for purpose of software development i.e. compile/link/build durations one w/ DDR3 memory other w/ DDR4 memory Thank You Kindly

Trying to use GPU detection, Google has failed me.

Jordan Reardon — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 23:43:00 GMT

I have one instance set up and working on another computer I did all the same steps (at least I think) to set it up on another computer, it works with CPU detection, but since it's an i3 I am trying to get the GPU detection working I am using an EVGA 1070 and I get this error on the log screen.

Object Detection (YOLO): (General Exception) : CUDA error: an illegal memory access was encountered

I am not sure how to troubleshoot the issue, I cloned the hard-drive from the working machine downloaded the 1070 driver and still received the same error.

I appreciate any help you have to give.