the guy in the shop i bought most of the components for my HTPC from seems to think so.
this is going to be a bit of a rant...
i have been having problems with my HTPC for the past month; mainly that windows for some unknown reason is letterboxed on my 1080p tv and it never seems to want to reboot - if i try to it just crashes.
so i took it to the shop on Thursday and tried to explain to the guy what the problems were but he didn't seem very interested and tried to brush me off with comments like, "Oh, you just need to change the resolution settings". like i hadn't tried that!!
but i left it with them and told him whatever needed done to fix it, to just go ahead and do it. i left him with my HTPC, the HDMI lead i use to connect it to the tv and my copy of W7. i told him to try reinstalling windows to see if it fixed it, but that i couldn't do it because every time i try to reboot, which windows likes to do during a reinstall, it would just crash.
i phoned today and was told it was fixed and that he had found the problem in the bios. it was seemingly not looking for the hdmi connection.
i went in to collect it and asked about the reinstall. "Oh, i never did it. it's working fine though"
when i got back home i connected it up and switched it on and right enough it booted fine. but... windows it still letterboxed. so i had a little scream and put in my windows disc, went into control panel and went to reinstall windows.
after a while windows wanted to reboot. i clicked ok and it switched off. it hasnt come back on since. that's an hour ago.
so i called him back up and told him.
"Ah well, yes. HDMI connections are software based so they won't work if you try to reinstall windows".
"So how do i get it back on? I don't have a monitor to connect it to, just my TV and if the HDMI won't work... The reason I went to reinstall is because it's still letterboxed. I'm trying to rule out the motherboard (i have a Biostar H55HD with built in HDMI, y'see)!"
"Well you could buy a separate graphics card and see if that works. You don't have a Samsung TV do you?"
"Yes..."
"We get a lot of people with problems like that. Samsungs aren't very compatible with HTPCs".
what the hell?!!? why would one make of TV be any less compatible than another when it's just a signal over HDMI? i'm sure he's just trying to get me to part with more and more money.
have any of you had any problems like this? if you have, how did you overcome them?
this is going to be a bit of a rant...
i have been having problems with my HTPC for the past month; mainly that windows for some unknown reason is letterboxed on my 1080p tv and it never seems to want to reboot - if i try to it just crashes.
so i took it to the shop on Thursday and tried to explain to the guy what the problems were but he didn't seem very interested and tried to brush me off with comments like, "Oh, you just need to change the resolution settings". like i hadn't tried that!!
but i left it with them and told him whatever needed done to fix it, to just go ahead and do it. i left him with my HTPC, the HDMI lead i use to connect it to the tv and my copy of W7. i told him to try reinstalling windows to see if it fixed it, but that i couldn't do it because every time i try to reboot, which windows likes to do during a reinstall, it would just crash.
i phoned today and was told it was fixed and that he had found the problem in the bios. it was seemingly not looking for the hdmi connection.
i went in to collect it and asked about the reinstall. "Oh, i never did it. it's working fine though"
when i got back home i connected it up and switched it on and right enough it booted fine. but... windows it still letterboxed. so i had a little scream and put in my windows disc, went into control panel and went to reinstall windows.
after a while windows wanted to reboot. i clicked ok and it switched off. it hasnt come back on since. that's an hour ago.
so i called him back up and told him.
"Ah well, yes. HDMI connections are software based so they won't work if you try to reinstall windows".
"So how do i get it back on? I don't have a monitor to connect it to, just my TV and if the HDMI won't work... The reason I went to reinstall is because it's still letterboxed. I'm trying to rule out the motherboard (i have a Biostar H55HD with built in HDMI, y'see)!"
"Well you could buy a separate graphics card and see if that works. You don't have a Samsung TV do you?"
"Yes..."
"We get a lot of people with problems like that. Samsungs aren't very compatible with HTPCs".
what the hell?!!? why would one make of TV be any less compatible than another when it's just a signal over HDMI? i'm sure he's just trying to get me to part with more and more money.
have any of you had any problems like this? if you have, how did you overcome them?