I hope this is not off-topic. D: This is more software than hardware related, and not a big deal really.

It used to work fine but for a month or so, I haven't been able to see images on Pixiv. To be more precise, I can't see the thumbnails or (which is what that site is about) and the artwork itself; I can see some small icons/avatars and images used for layout, etc. but no artwork (but you have to be logged in to see full-size art, btw; that also doesn't work).

This is what it looks to me: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/ … vvvvvv.jpg When I try accessing the image files directly, I get a 403 error. :/

I'm using Firefox 3.6.11, updated just recently. I tried clearing my cache and accessing via proxy sites but no results. The site seems to work OK on IE (I can see the images but then it displays a Java error. I also updated my Java software). I don't know why it doesn't work on Firefox, and I don't bother to switch to IE so I stopped using the site altogether because its not THAT important. I just wanted to know what might be wrong with it. It is so strange.

Thread necro!

My mom's desky now has a new problem. The fan has started rattling slightly. My questions are: is this an easy thing to replace, should I have replaced it before it started rattling, and is it still okay to use it while the fan is rattling? I know for a fact that it needs to be taken into a repair shop so we can have it professionally cleaned of any dust and gunk that's accumulated in the last ten years (it's THAT old), but I'd still like to play my Final Fantasy music rips and hop on Guild Wars whenever I feel like it in the meantime.

...honestly, it'd probably be better to go and buy a new desky entirely, but we are poor sons of bitches and can't afford a decent desky that runs 32-bit 7. I need 32 bit for my emulators and my other stupid programs, and Mom has a bunch of ancient 16 bit games that won't run at all on a 64x OS. (16 bit? Do I mean DOS? Why yes, yes I do. And now I feel older than steam. )

As always, help is appreciated greatly!

QQQQQ wrote:

interesting and informative stuff

Thanks for the advice! Still, is it safe to use the thing while the fan's being slightly wonky? I can't play my music rips on this rinky-dink 7 lappy, and I don't think I'll be allowed to install Guild Wars on it (it actually belongs to my dad).

For one, thanks for all your help, QQQQQ. I think the two most resource intensive things I play are Guild Wars and Minecraft. Minecraft is probably the more intensive of those two; I always have slowing issues. The desktop, my mom's desktop, is about ten years old, give or take a year and a half, and it's honestly a surprise it hasn't died on us yet.

As for the music rips? Well, they're not what most people think of as rips. See, I play console emulators a lot, so I can play Super Nintendo or Game Boy games on the computer as long as I have the files (ROMs) that represent the data on the games' cartridges. I also download files that allow me to play the background music for those games. These are rips in the sense that you can use an emulator to "rip" the current background music data from the moment it starts playing, and then listen to them later with special programs or Winamp plug-ins. I use Winamp, and if the desktop tanks on me I don't know what I'm gonna do to play my tunes. All I remember is that Winamp got bought out from AOL or something similar, and I can't be sure that the special plug-ins I use for my video game music will work on the shiny new 64 bit version of Windows 7.

As for why I don't just download MP3s of those tunes, I like to hear them repeat seamlessly like they would if you heard them in the actual games, and the MP3 format doesn't let me do that. My plug-ins and special music files do, though, and most of the files will play on seamless repeat as long as I care to listen to the song in question. Just something of a preference, I suppose.

Also, I got left behind in the computer know-how department like seven or eight years ago, so a lot of the newer technology is beyond me; whenever I go to help my mom work with her 7-based laptop, I try to apply what I know from working with XP to the problem and hope I find a solution.

I have a question that needs an answer like, really really soon. As in within the next 72 hours soon.

Does Windows 7 have ANY backward compatibility for MS-DOS 6? I'm not talking about the 32-bit emulation stuff I've heard it has for any version beyond Premium 64 bit. I'm talking the ancient games that's either only got DOS-version exclusives (I actually know a game that does this) or is abandonware at this point.

I'm looking to buy a lappy that can handle my DOS games, my emulators and a couple programs I paid out the nose for, and the lappy that runs Guild Wars, Second Life and Diablo III literally won't cut it because it's 64 bit Premium 7, and I'm certain that it couldn't ever run a DOS program if its life depended on it.

I'm hoping the answer is "yes, and it's stupid easy too." Because if it isn't, I'm looking at buying an off-lease from TigerDirect just because it has XP Pro 32 bit.

All the way back to MS-DOS 6.0 wow. Best bet is Dos Box with a good GUI. If you actually want to run MS-DOS though you may need to use a program like Oracle Virtual Box. Don't bother with Windows XP and trying to run DOS age software in it. With the changes done to the OS it's iffy at best.

Bluh. This is not exactly a computer fix, but an internet fix.

My parents, being the cheap people they are, when the time came to upgrade from dialup, upgraded to dsl (I can't blame them. $25 for high-speed internet is a damn good deal). A far sight better than dialup, but also slow in comparison to cable. Tolerable though. Well, a while back, the router died. They replaced it, and internet speeds in general dropped. They assume it's the particular router they got, and I'm not going to question it, but my first question is how to avoid that mistake when I inevitably replace it?

And this leads me to this last couple of days. My internet speeds have dropped from reliable (could play relatively intensive games with a tolerable amount of lag, or stream Netflix on the Wii with little issue) to ... abysmal. Dragon and I doing normal websitey things (nothing strenuous. No flash, no games, no streaming) would slow each other to crawls and/or time out websites to even load.

What on earth could possibly be causing this? I kinda would like to do things on the internet, more than read forums. (As lovely as this forum is, it does pale after a while of it being the only thing that loads anywhere near reliably) I have responsibilities and duties and suchlike.

I questioned the parents. They say it's pretty common when it rains. Which it has been, but bluh?

If it were just one of us, I'd assume it's the fault of the computer. When both computers are experiencing the same issue with speeds, it seems highly unlikely. But I haven't run a virus or malware scan in a while, so I should do that anyway.

Aine Silveria wrote:

I questioned the parents. They say it's pretty common when it rains. Which it has been, but bluh?

If it were just one of us, I'd assume it's the fault of the computer. When both computers are experiencing the same issue with speeds, it seems highly unlikely. But I haven't run a virus or malware scan in a while, so I should do that anyway.

Crap signal when it rains points to shoddy outdoor telephone wiring. The telco will have to locate the poor wiring and replace it.

The router isn't new by any stretch of the term. But it's not old. Maybe a year or two? I have poor timeline memory. That segment was there to ask advice on router-buying. The idea that maybe it was substandard is a possibility to explain the drop in performance back then.

The electrical system in this house is bloody old. I honestly don't know anything about the telephone system.

(Ugh, I don't even want to think of the work necessary to bring this house up to code electrically...)

DSL filters? If I don't know what it is, I probably am not using it, right?

*casts Animate Dead on thread*

I have a network question. Not quite an actual problem/issue, but it's something I'd like to figure out without calling my ISP.

Bluntly put, how do I determine my router's port number/address thingy, without having to call the people who set us up with the router? Assume I know nothing about hardware AND networking/telecom, because seriously. I don't.

It's a Wi-fi router, and I ask this because I'm trying to set up a Terraria server without needing to rely on Hamachi, 'cause Steam tech support claims that Hamachi can interfere with Steam's functioning, and I don't want to play hot potato with my client.