luxshokk

Thanks for your answer! I have occasionally left my computer on over night, so I know that won't help. As I said, I looked at the update history, and all it's showing me is updates for Windows Defender:

I am reading this way too late, but that sounds like an awesome option (though kinda expensive). But I already bought an other regular switch with a remote which works way better than my old one. By the way, if anyone is interested in what I got: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07VJLYK6H This works perfectly for me and doesn't interfere with my soundbar. It even has a second output, rendering my separate splitter redundant. I really should have just gotten this instead of the splitter back then, because now I have two toslink devices laying around without me using them. But at least my setup is working now.

I have an installation of Windows 10 that suspiciously doesn't seem to nag me about updates anymore. This has been the case for quite some time, and while I appreciate not having to deal with constant nags for updates, I am worried about security flaws that don't get patched. If I manually look for updates, it keeps saying I'm all up to date and all the past updates seem to only be for Windows Defender but not for Windows itself. Apparently I'm on version 1903 and build 18362.1256 which seems to be quite out of date. Did Microsoft shadowban me from updates because they think my license is illegitimate? I am using a license that was originally for my laptop on my desktop, so that may be a reason? But it is still activated. However, I also don't want to buy a new license if that doesn't fix the problem. Also, on my virtual machine where I never entered a key, it nags me about updates, so why would Microsoft treat me worse than someone with no license at all? Has anyone ever experienced this before? Maybe it isn't even related to the license?

Thanks, but by now I have kinda lost motivation to go that route and would like to just have something that I can buy and it works with no further hardware tinkering.

No, I have two sources and two output devices. The latter two are already connected to a splitter. I need a switch that switches the two sources.

Hi, I have the following problem: I have a Toslink switch (this one to be precise: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07YY8C3B5?psc=1 ) which switches whether my headphones and my sound bar receive their sound from my computer or my TV. It actually had an IR Receiver that I can use in order to switch it without walking up to it. This has worked somewhat fine before I got my soundbar, because apparently the signal from my sound bar's remote sometimes (but only sometimes, not in a way you can reproduce on command) will be misinterpreted by that toslink switch's IR receiver as a command to switch input channel. This means that I had to remove the IR emitter so I don't suddenly get my content interrupted when I just want to change the volume. The sound bar is a Samsung Q-Soundbar HW-Q600B in case that's relevant. However, I would still like to be able to switch my toslink input remotely. I have tried different DIY solutions: First I tried to figure out the protocol of the IR receiver with the idea of faking signals using a Raspberry Pi but as far as I could tell, both channels just seem to have a 50Hz clock and I didn't see any difference when I actually pressed the buttons. But accidentally short-circuiting them for a moment would sometimes (but only sometimes) switch the input, which makes me think the original problem is the toslink switch's fault, not the soundbar's. My next idea was to hook up the indicator LEDs and the switch button on the device itself to a Raspberry Pi. This seems to kinda work, but it was a PIA to connect everything on the switch's side and now in my tests, there seems to be loose connections. I could try and fix that but I am starting to feel that this would be a recurring source of extra work and not worth it in the long run. So I decided to go for a less ghetto route in solving the problem: I should get a new switch. I would like to be able to switch it remotely without having to worry about the interference from the soundbar's remote. Buying an other switch with a remote would make me worry that the IR receiver will work the same way and have the same flaws. So maybe a switch that can be switched via LAN, maybe using MQTT? However, I haven't found anything like that on Amazon, but maybe I just don't know the correct search terms? Maybe someone knows of these kinds of switches? Or maybe someone knows more about the IR receivers the switches use and could recommend one that won't suffer under that sort of interference?

@BuzzingBee Thanks for your detailed answer! After some consideration I actually just went with a soundbar with an external subwoofer for now and would like to share my reasoning. When reflecting on what the must-haves and just nice-to-haves actually are, I arrived at these lists: Must-haves: Having better sound when watching movies / series without headphones Being able to play sound via bluetooth Easily getting the sound from either my computer or my smart TV Nice-to-haves: Surround sound Having the same (surround) sound experience when sitting in front of my PC monitors (as I mostly game with headphones or a headset anyway) Putting it like that, the sound bar seems like a cheap and easy solution to get all the must-haves while the nice-to-haves would require spending more money, effort and quality of life decreases to do achieve, as I will outline below: I was afraid of getting this answer. I guess that means more cost, but more importantly, an additional switch to switch every time I switch between watching TV and using the computer. Ah yes, the connection headache. I was hoping to be able to just use Toslink because that seems to be the only digital sound-only connector right now. But you just reminded me that there is a whole bunch of Dolby whatever technologies to keep track of and I guess 5.1 surround isn't just 5.1 surround but there are different kinds? I would hate to use HDMI for this, because that would also mean that turning on and off the AVR would mean the computer would suddenly think it gained or lost a monitor. I guess I could use it as HDMI passthrough for the TV but that would suck if I don't actually want to display anything on the TV but only play sound or vice versa. If I were to just use the AVR as a dummy monitor and clone one of my monitors onto it, I would actually have the problem of not having enough outputs on my graphics card. I guess I could try to use connectors for the integrated Intel graphics, but I guess I couldn't clone between that and my proper graphics card, so I would have to connect one of my monitors to that as well and then have it not be able to benefit from the better graphics card. That is of course assuming that the intel integrated graphics works well with all the Dolby standards I would want. If not, I would have to buy an additional graphics card to get better audio. Imagine that, needing a new GRAPHICS CARD for better AUDIO! This is why I don't understand why there isn't just a successor for Toslink and we have to deal with all this audio over HDMI BS. So right now, it's not worth the hassle for me, but maybe in the future, my situation or my priorities or just the availability of digital audio connection techonogies will change and I may refer back to this thread in that case. If anyone is interested which soundbar I ended up getting, I chose a SAMSUNG Q-Soundbar HW-Q600B, which was discounted on Alternate from 399€ to 230€ (although I saw it on 309€ on Amazon, but an 80€ or 26% discount still sounds like a good deal to me): https://www.alternate.de/SAMSUNG/Q-Soundbar-HW-Q600B/html/product/1876809

@WernliG Sorry, I didn't see your post at the time, but if it's still relevant to you: For me everything just kinda worked, but the performance was disappointing. I'm not sure if you meant that by "all lagging" but I can say that my experience was that games ran kinda fine but with not much more FPS than the internal GPU and when I put the 2080 Super into my desktop PC it just about doubled the FPS. I'm not sure if the thunderbolt port of the laptop really gives you the full four PCIe lanes it is supposed to. I also ran into limitations of running monitors (directly with a displayport splitter, not with an eGPU) through that port, that should not have been there if the full bandwidth was available. So I sent back the eGPU case and put the 2080 Super into my Desktop PC. For a while, my crazy solution of having all my stuff on my laptop while on the go and also having a superior computer at home while not synching files was to actually put the SSD from the laptop into my desktop PC when I got home and putting it back into my laptop when travelling again. Now that I don't travel for work all the time anymore that has become unnecessary as well.

Thanks for your answer! So the Roku soundbar is basically something that lets me stream Netflix etc. while also being the sound bar? The Amazon page I'm looking at says it "only works in Germany" which is weird... Anyway, my TV can already do that so that adds no additional value to me and I kind of don't want to combine these things into one device, because if I did use the streaming from this device but also want to upgrade to a different sound system, I would need to have this sound bar still there... I just looked at Onkyo and it looks like one can spend 800€ on a 5.1 system there and they even have 2.1 systems which are as expensive or even more expensive. So I'm guessing these are quite premium products. The Roku sound bar is less than 200€, so I'm confused by your comment. Are you looking to downgrade if your Onkyo system breaks or are there cheaper options from Onkyo I didn't find or are there more premium options from Roku or is the Roku soundbar just as good as your Onkyo system even though it is so much cheaper? Which Onkyo home theatre system do you have? Can you recommend it? This brand name was not familiar to me so far but it may well be a renowned brand in that space, which I wouldn't know which is exactly what makes it hard for me to make decisions on stuff like that...

Hi everyone, I'm in the following situation: So far I have mostly used wireless headphones for any sort of audio when I'm alone and didn't invest in proper sound other than that, which means that right now if there are guests or I don't feel like wearing headphones all day, the TV internal speakers are the best speakers I have and I would like to change that. If I'm buying anything, I would like to be able to connect it to my TV, my PC or to my phone via bluetooth. Ideally that would mean that I could use Toslink for the PC and TV, so I guess that limits me to 5.1 channels. I have been doing some research and I'm still kinda lost. It seems that soundbars have become quite popular and are relatively cheap, but the more classical way would be to get an expensive AV receiver and connect all the speakers to that, but I have also seen systems with active speakers that work with wireless active speakers. The latter seems like it would be a hassle-free way to get speakers set up in the whole living room without the need to lay wires, but I have also seen reviews of such systems where the wireless connection is unreliable and there was no way to just use a wired connection so I'm a little bit wary of that. Also, Linus complained that his (expensive!) SONY HT-A9 system interfered with his Wifi. It seems like I can spend 200€, but I could also spend 2000€. I have seen complete systems, but I'm also wondering if I can just mix and match AV receivers and all kinds of speakers. About my living room layout: The room is roughly rectangular, except for a trapezoid cutout where the entrance door used to be when this was a shop. The TV is on one end, rather to the right and there is an L-shaped couch on the other side of the room, also on the right, where one would watch said TV. The PC monitors are on the same end of the room as the TV, but further to the left. Ideally, if I'm going for a 5.1 system, I would want to have it so that you can take advantage of it when watching TV from the couch but also when sitting in front of the computer, but is that even possible with the shifted positions? I should also mention that if I were to put speakers on the desk, there is a clearance of only 18cm below the monitors and I guess it would be bad practice to have them covered behind the monitors. I should also mention that in terms of volume, I don't need unreasonably loud speakers that would only upset the neighhbors, if that is the only thing making a specific setup more expensive. So in my situation, what would you recommend to buy? Is it worth trying to get surround sound to work? As for the budget, I could afford a crazy 2000€ solution, but I don't want to waste my money if that isn't going make me ten times as happy as a 200€ solution (but if I immediatly feel the need to upgrade, that is kind of a waste as well). The surround sound is also not a must-have and more of a nice-to-have, so if a proper surround solution is excessively expensive or not feasible, I would happily settle for a 2.1 system, but I'm still not sure if a soundbar or two separate speakers would be better. Maybe someone can even recommend specific models?

Hi everyone, my sister turned off her laptop, an Asus F540MA during a BIOS update. The laptop started this update on its own when she started the laptop and she freaked out and thought it was a virus. So now, the laptop won't even post because the BIOS is broken. The Asus website gave instructions to put the BIOS on a flash drive and use some BIOS recovery tool... that is part of the BIOS. Did they even think that through? Anyway, I tried actually doing that and starting the laptop with such a flash drive in it (I thought maybe the recovery tool is somewhere separate and will still work) or with a bootable flash drive and of course nothing happened. I even opened the laptop and removed the battery so I could "properly" turn it off between attempts. So I guess what is left is to try to reprogram or replace the actual BIOS chip. I found websites that list which BIOS chips are on which motherboards/laptops, but I didn't find her laptop on there. When I opened the laptop I noticed that there was a seal on one of the screws that I would have to remove in order to access the BIOS chip, so I couldn't just look at the time without voiding the warranty. She is unsure whether or not it is a good idea to go through the hassle of sending it back during the Corona crisis but I didn't want to burn that bridge for her without even knowing if I can fix it. Doing a CMOS reset was also not possible without removing that screw. So, does anyone know which BIOS chip is in that laptop or what I would need to reflash it? I found this thing on Amazon which looks kinda promising but I have no idea if this is compatible with my sister's laptop's BIOS chip: https://www.amazon.de/KeeYees-SOIC8-EEPROM-CH341A-Programmer/dp/B07SNTL5V6/ I would appreciate any advice.

Okay, I have ordered an RTX 2080 Super and a Razer Core X. And yeah, looking at the prices and performance difference between a 2080 Super and Ti I agree that it would be overkill to go for a 2080 Ti. Thanks to both of you for your advice!

Thanks for your advice! Unfortunately, that sounds rather bleak... According to Userbenchmark, the RTX 2080 Ti is 92% faster in "effective speed" compared to a 2080 MaxQ. So it sounds like building a proper gaming PC would be a sensible option. Though I'm considering just trying getting an RTX 2080 Ti in an eGPU case now and see how it goes and if it is as bad as for the Razor Blade owner from your link, I will get the remaining parts of a PC to put the RTX 2080 Ti in and then get an other GPU for the eGPU case that I can take with me on my travels. So, taking the 2080 MaxQ as a reference, I'm guessing that an RTX 2070 Super would be a reasonable choice?

Hi everyone, I hope this is the right subforum, I don't know if this qualifies as a "build" but this subforum still seemed to me to fit the best. I am traveling a lot for my job when there isn't a pandemic, so I bought the Asus Zenbook Pro Duo when it came out, because I really wanted the two screens when I'm on the go. I have made this my daily driver, because I didn't want to sync files I need to take with me all the time. Now, it comes with a "mere" RTX 2060, which I guess is fine for a laptop but when I game at home, I would like to have a better gaming experience and ideally this would also be on my laptop (which right now is basically on par with my desktop with its GTX 980 Ti anyway). So I am thinking of buying an RTX 2080 Ti to put into an eGPU case to connect to my Laptop via Thunderbolt. If I'd daisy chain a Thunderbolt dongle, I could also just come home and only connect power and that single Thunderbolt cable and immediately have several monitors running and ethernet, mouse, keyboard, etc. connected. So my question is: Does it actually make sense to use an RTX 2080 Ti in an eGPU case with the Asus Zenbook Pro Duo (I have the version with the i9-9980HK). Because I heard that the performance drops because of the limited PCIe lanes and I was wondering if this is such a bottleneck that I might as well just get an RTX 2080 Super or RTX 2070 Super instead for the same performance. Though, if that's the case, I might consider just building a separate gaming PC instead. Would there be special considerations I'd have to make for my choice of eGPU? Also: I heard that laptops die earlier than desktop PCs because of the worse heat dissipation. Would an eGPU mitigate this? This would mean the RTX 2060 inside the laptop would do nothing, so only the CPU would generate heat, right? Thanks for any help!