Tech Advice for Windows Needed Please

[Sheep]

4 hours ago, Pabo said:

I still use Classic Shell on my work laptop. I'm staying with Win10 until it is absolutely necessary, and by then, I will probably have a new laptop then.

 

I still use a Dell E6520 Win7 at work, as it still has a software that a client uses and we no longer have the intallation disk. What OS is the client still using? Win XP!

Not that this is a competition... (), but I still have a desktop computer with Windows 98 on it!!! I still run an old program on it that won't work on anything new. And... uh... yeah... I also have an old laptop lying around with Windows 7.

 

(No Internet on either of them...)

Edited December 24, 2024 by Sheep

[Qapla]

Yes, I still have a computer that runs a photobooth that runs on Windows 7 - I won't let it update so the already installed photobooth software won't quit working.

[Pabo]

21 hours ago, Myew said:

I wouldn't recommend connecting any device before Windows 10 to the internet at this point. XP is extremely vulnerable to remote exploits. Old government/utility services get hacked all the time.

 

My old Win7 laptop is still connected to the internet. No issues with it. Also it have a very good security and vpn as well.

[Myew]

Aside from ransomware, the vast majority of modern exploits don't cause noticeable issues with using the device. It's the ones that you don't know about that you need to worry about. There are hundreds of patches to modern Windows every month - thousands more vulnerabilities and zero days on older systems that go unpatched. Even if you're using something comprehensive on your network like Bitdefender, no amount of antivirus or software suites can fix core issues with operating systems. In most cases, it's a major risk without benefits.

Edited December 24, 2024 by Myew

[jwhess]

I moved into town about 4 years ago.  Before I left the rurals, I had an old IBM XT (8086-type) with a 40 meg MFM hard drive that ran MS-DOS 5.0 and Win 3.1

I liked it and had several games on 5 1/4" floppy disks that I liked playing (Lemmings, Oil Well. etc)

It went in the dumpster when I moved...😞

 

I had added a CD-Drive and ran the early 1993 Watchtower Library (Dos). 

And the Watchtower Folios program for the NWT Bible. I still have more than one set of the Folios disks...😀

[Witness1970]

This may be off topic (or maybe not), but in my Kingdom Hall something has changed on Zoom.  The equipment at the Kingdom Hall will no longer show videos or images on Zoom.  The songs at the meeting play the sound, but no lyrics show up on Zoom.  We share the equipment with the Spanish congregation, and they are having the same issue.  No one can figure out the problem.

 

I have tried sharing my screen on Zoom to get around this problem.  This works OK for images but does not work well for videos or songs.  If I get the song synchronized on my device, it will not be synchronized on other devices on Zoom due to lag time through the internet.  I could mute the main device at the Hall and play everything through my device, but then it would be necessary for the main device to unmute after the song or video and video coordinators sometimes forget.

 

One brother just commented that the equipment is very old.  It recently occurred to me that there could be a difference in the computer due to an update gone wrong.  If anyone has any ideas, all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Pabo]

6 hours ago, Witness1970 said:

One brother just commented that the equipment is very old.  It recently occurred to me that there could be a difference in the computer due to an update gone wrong.  If anyone has any ideas, all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

I haven't had any issues with our setup in regards to Zoom and JWLib videos or images (even though the latest update in JWLib has removed the smaller thumb images on the lower part of the screen when showing an image that you had selected 😡 where you can scroll through to the next or previous image when showung an image).

 

Our KH computer is about 12 years old and running Win10 Pro on a i5 2nd Gen CPU and 16GB RAM.

[Myew]

7 hours ago, Witness1970 said:

This may be off topic (or maybe not), but in my Kingdom Hall something has changed on Zoom.

Perhaps the Zoom thread (linked below) would have more feedback. There have been recent updates to JW Library that make it work a bit differently than before. I've always shared the main monitor screens, not JW Library, so I don't know if that's part of your issue. I doubt it's an issue with Windows/OS updates though. Without being able to look through the PC and Zoom settings, I wouldn't know where to start on an issue like that.

 

Edited December 25, 2024 by Myew

[computerwiz]

10 hours ago, Witness1970 said:

One brother just commented that the equipment is very old.  It recently occurred to me that there could be a difference in the computer due to an update gone wrong.  If anyone has any ideas, all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

First thing to check is your Zoom settings.  Make sure this is set like mine:

 

 

If that's not it, I'd have to lay my hands on it to be sure, but I don't think it's an age problem.  It's possible you need to update your video drivers.  DriverEasy makes the whole process a breeze.  Worth the $30 to make it fully automated, in my opinion.

 

Next thing I'd check is to make sure the user is picking the right screen.  Sometimes Zoom likes to move the screens around...and you might be used to picking screen 1, but actually it's now screen 3 with the lyrics. I'd look at that during non-meeting times to see what's up, when there's no pressure on ya.

 

Last thing I'd check is to make sure Zoom is completely up to date.

 

If none of that helps you, I'm not sure.  I'm off of work the next 2 days if you want to set up a remote support session and I can try to help you out over the phone or something...

[Myew]

Video drivers aren't hard to get directly from Intel, AMD or Nvidia themselves with auto updates.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download-center/home.html
https://www.amd.com/en/support/download/drivers.html
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/

In the rare instance I've needed a third party driver software for some obscure hardware driver, I've used Snappy Driver Installer Origin. It's free and open source.
Just don't use the sdi-tool (not origin) version. The devs sold it to some other devs and malware was added to it. These links are to the correct version.
https://www.glenn.delahoy.com/snappy-driver-installer-origin/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/snappy-driver-installer-origin/

Edited December 26, 2024 by Myew

[computerwiz]

56 minutes ago, Myew said:

Video drivers aren't hard to get directly from Intel, AMD or Nvidia themselves with auto updates.

 

Yes, but also takes time. Might be easy but a 2GB download can take time depending on your connection. Then there's the install & answering question. Oh and don't forget a system restore point just in case! 

 

DriverEasy takes care of it all in 1 click (if you buy it). Saves so much time...worth $30/year, in my opinion. 😉

[Witness1970]

15 hours ago, Pabo said:

 

I haven't had any issues with our setup in regards to Zoom and JWLib videos or images (even though the latest update in JWLib has removed the smaller thumb images on the lower part of the screen when showing an image that you had selected 😡 where you can scroll through to the next or previous image when showung an image).

 

Our KH computer is about 12 years old and running Win10 Pro on a i5 2nd Gen CPU and 16GB RAM.

Our KH was built in 1999 I believe. The sound system is about that old.  The KH computer in the office is running Windows 7, but the laptop used for Zoom is newer and most likely has Windows 10, at least.

[Witness1970]

15 hours ago, Myew said:

Perhaps the Zoom thread (linked below) would have more feedback. There have been recent updates to JW Library that make it work a bit differently than before. I've always shared the main monitor screens, not JW Library, so I don't know if that's part of your issue. I doubt it's an issue with Windows/OS updates though. Without being able to look through the PC and Zoom settings, I wouldn't know where to start on an issue like that.

 

The video coordinator has always connected to the sound booth when playing songs.  I guess that is the way it is still done, I haven't done the video coordinator job in quite a while.  It was easy to select SB instead of the cameras during the song.  (For some reason the brother who installed our system put in 2 cameras.)

[Witness1970]

9 hours ago, Myew said:

Video drivers aren't hard to get directly from Intel, AMD or Nvidia themselves with auto updates.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download-center/home.html
https://www.amd.com/en/support/download/drivers.html
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/

In the rare instance I've needed a third party driver software for some obscure hardware driver, I've used Snappy Driver Installer Origin. It's free and open source.
Just don't use the sdi-tool (not origin) version. The devs sold it to some other devs and malware was added to it. These links are to the correct version.
https://www.glenn.delahoy.com/snappy-driver-installer-origin/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/snappy-driver-installer-origin/

I never considered the video drivers.  It's an interesting thought.

[Witness1970]

12 hours ago, computerwiz said:

 

First thing to check is your Zoom settings.  Make sure this is set like mine:

 

 

If that's not it, I'd have to lay my hands on it to be sure, but I don't think it's an age problem.  It's possible you need to update your video drivers.  DriverEasy makes the whole process a breeze.  Worth the $30 to make it fully automated, in my opinion.

 

Next thing I'd check is to make sure the user is picking the right screen.  Sometimes Zoom likes to move the screens around...and you might be used to picking screen 1, but actually it's now screen 3 with the lyrics. I'd look at that during non-meeting times to see what's up, when there's no pressure on ya.

 

Last thing I'd check is to make sure Zoom is completely up to date.

 

If none of that helps you, I'm not sure.  I'm off of work the next 2 days if you want to set up a remote support session and I can try to help you out over the phone or something...

I'd have to go to the Kingdom Hall to check into that.  Due to my physical condition, I don't get out much nowadays.  If the equipment at the Hall was working correctly, I wouldn't have to be sharing my screen at all.

[Myew]

If I am understanding you correctly now, the KH is unable to share images/video over Zoom, so they are playing the media at the hall, but you are sharing that same media over Zoom as a co-host from home?

It's highly unlikely to be an operating system issue, but possibly a driver issue. Some graphic hardware or software competing for the same screen as Zoom (even JWLibrary) could be interfering with the capture somehow. Or it's just not set up correctly in Zoom as shown above. The fact that it just started happening recently? however makes me more inclined to think it's related to a JW Library or Zoom update.

https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/category?id=kb_category&kb_category=d459769a8720391089a37408dabb3538

https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0058730

https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0060527


The KH might try changing the video rendering method.
https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0063023

Edited December 26, 2024 by Myew

[Witness1970]

Suddenly, tonight, the songs and videos are working again.  I haven't had a chance to talk to anyone to see what they found.  But I am glad it's finally fixed.