this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
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Note: this is not a request for troubleshooting help.

For the past few years my 10ish year old “smart” TV will maybe once a week or so completely lose the ability to play sound in the Youtube app, and only in the Youtube app. Sound works just fine everywhere else. Bizarrely this is always triggered by an ad and never a video. Restarting the app doesn’t fix it, and neither does clearing the cache. Fortunately doing a full restart of the TV fixes it, it’s just irritating to have to restart because an ad somehow broke the sound.

What technological gremlins haunt you?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

Back in the day, like 10 years ago, I used to have a Samsung tablet and a phone. Sometimes, when I took either of them out of the standby (and the devices would renegotiate their Wi-Fi), my router would just jam up horribly. No access to the admin interface. No logs. Nothing to do but reboot.

Now, the only Samsung device I have is my TV. Sometimes, thankfully very rarely, when I fire it up, it, um, my router just jams up horribly. No access to the admin interface. No logs. Nothing to do but reboot. And it's a different router from a completely different manufacturer. Also it's connected via ethernet.

Is Samsung just cursed?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

My digital tv reciever cannot receive a large range of channels when a mini pc, in off state, is plugged in on the same switch. It works fine when the UTP cable is not connected, it works fine when the mini pc is on, also fine when the pc had no power at all. Distance between pc and receiver does not matter, neither does the configuration of cables in the switch. I've given up on it, but sometimes the issue disappears for months, and then comes back for a while.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I don't know if this counts, but when hold my kindle and phone together and I click the unlock button on my phone the kindle turns on too. Doesn't happen the other way around, I have no clue how it happens

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This is very interesting , if anyone ever figures out why, I'd love to know

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

I'd love to know too, I tried googling it a few times, no results.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Unbound dns. It worked perfectly and all that jazz. But one day it didn’t. No one could answer why. Every solution in book was tried. Got support from high up but nope. Gave up for the day then two days later it just worked.

For three years then same problem and no way to fix it. And I gave up. Really liked it and one day I will try again but rebuilding my network every time really sucks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

My 3rd party Switch dock needs some strange ritual to actually work, but still not sure what the correct steps and orders.

It's a fairly early 3rd party dock, from the times when there were articles about 3rd party docks blowing the Nintendo Switch's charging IC or something like that.

Tho this dock works, but only if I plug in the charger, the HDMI cable and the Switch itself in the correct order. Otherwise no video, only just charging.

IIRC, the order is HDMI, charger and Switch, but I may be wrong, it was a while ago I used that dock.

Probably some funky device detection or bug in the dock's code, but it's amusing. Especially after others see me trying and trying and they are like that was the moment when I blew my Switch, but no.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I work in IT and right now it's a group of CCTV IP cameras that have a patterned flicker at certain times of the day but on random days. I'm pretty sure I've boiled it down to either a heavy power draw from other equipment or the shitty segregated network they're on. I'm in the middle of desegregation and network uplift and the pool is shrinking so I might have it figured out finally but it's been months still hella random.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

My old computer that was build about 6 years ago started not getting powered since about 2 years ago, when I unplug it and took it to computer shops, that computer gets powered instantly when plugged in, but I needed to wait at least 12 hours before I attempt to plug it in again in order to make it boot (if I am lucky).

I changed the PSU, didn't work, bought a UPS as stop gap fix, I saved money to buy a new PC instead.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I had something like this one. It was the ram. If I powered off, shut off the PSU and unplugged, then reseated the ram and tried again it would come on. Upgraded the ram and the issue went away.

Also, if you encounter this with a Dell laptop, same thing (just make sure to disconnect the battery before touching the ram).

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If my desktop is sleeping, turning off my bathroom light will 2 out of 5 times wake up the pc.

It's a fluorescent lamp, so it is likely that it makes considerable noise on the electrical circuit when being toggled (and it's a small apartment so all lights and outlets are on the same circuit)

I believe I read a forum post from someone else experiencing the same thing, and they also had a Gigabyte motherboard. So it might be related to their bios/firmware implementation of wake-on-lan in some way.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Do you, by any chance, have network extenders that send ethernet via an electrical socket? They send the ethernet signals through your electrical wiring, and if for some reason your bathroom light is on the same circuit as your sockets, then you might be getting some kind of wake on lan packet. Or what it thinks is a wake on lan packet.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I bought a brand new Lenovo Yoga laptop, and when connecting to my TV via HDMI, the TV occasionally goes black for a second or 2 then comes back. It doesn't happen at all when streaming video full screen, only when doing something simple like browsing the Internet. Happens with Windows and Linux, although it's more frequent on Linux.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

My Denon soundbar has the same thing, HDMI related disconnecting periodically.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

When turning off my Samsung TV, every once in a while it decides to turn itself back on about 5 minutes later. This has been going on for several years now.

It doesn't happen every time, and seems to happen randomly as I can't replicate the conditions in which it happens. It didn't happen when I bought the TV, so I suspect it started after Samsung pushed a firmware update. It's a bug others are experiencing with the same model TV and I've tried every fix people suggested online, factory reset the TV, and updated the firmware. My conclusion is that it's a bug that Samsung needs to fix, but I'm confident they won't given the TV is about 5 years old now.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I will never buy another Samsung anything ever again. Their hardware is fine, but they're so bad at software. I had a Samsung TV until recently that was just unbelievably slow to turn on, switch inputs, and move through settings on.

Samsung is crap overall.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Ok this one is actually resolved kind of but it super freaks me out. I was working on something and had white noise in my bluetooth headphones coming from Spotify on my browser. At like 2 in the morning, over the white noise, and without making a noise like it connected to anything else, the headphones started playing this like chatter (like people chit chatting) and eventually the started singing what sounded like hymns, at the same time the headset kept cutting in and out and this went on for like 10 minutes. I turned off the Spotify, closed the browsers, confirmed my headset wasn't connected to anything else and nothing else was playing sound that I could see.

A few days later I go back to my computer, open up some separate work I had been doing (transcribing interviews) and lo and behold at the end of the roll there's the creepy fucking chatter and singing.

What it must've been was somehow my foot pedal getting triggered (though I maintain my foot was not on the pedal) and somehow, though I'm certain my app was closed, playing the end of that recording. But damn if I wasn't sure I was haunted those few days.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

That sounds almost exactly like youre picking up radio signals. This exact thing has happened to me before, I even picked up a local religious station like I'm assuming you did. Some of the churches in my area have their own little radio broadcast antennas and thats why I think their signal was the one to cut through. Speakers and headphones have been been able to pick this stuff up for like as long as both technologies have existed. You're not crazy and tons of people have been through this

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Are you positive it was the exact same chatter and singing?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5567924/

ETA: white noise auditory hallucinations are common even in those without psychiatric disorders, even though that's what the paper is based on, I just couldn't find quick paper link about non-disordered hallucinations.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Switched to Windows from Linux for a bit because I was having a few problems with Linux, but the main one is that seemingly, spotty 5Ghz connections cause iwlwifi to panic, which means no wifi. Windows does not have this problem. (relevant chip is the Intel AX210)

It's annoying because the UX on KDE is objectively better than Windows and I don't want to have to deal with slower connections because the wifi driver has a dumb bug, and reporting the bug to the LKML is something I do not have the knowledge to do.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

My computer turns itself on when I walk through a certain spot nearby it.

"Ah, you must have your mouse or some other peripheral set to activate it and the vibrations from walking-" Nope, I know how to disable wakeup from peripherals. "Well, then the vibrations from walking must be disturbing a loose component inside-" Nope, problem existed through a near-complete teardown and OS reinstall. Also, putting the PC on vibration isolating foam did not help.

At this point, I'm down to two conclusions:

  • The wire for the wall outlet runs under the floor, and vibrations are causing adequate power fluctuations to wake the machine up. Not sure how to test for this, though it does concern me about the state of the wiring.
  • The PC is haunted.
[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Do you have wake-on-lan enabled? Any setting that would wake on network activity? Could be you're interrupting or amplifying a signal - Ethernet or WiFi - that is causing the OS to think it's getting traffic.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

No Wifi, as it simply doesn't have a wifi adaptor.

Ethernet is a possibility. I tested it right now and removing the Ethernet cable doesn't cause a wake-up, but I suppose it's possible that slight interference if the cable were just slightly moved might cause it to register traffic plus a continued connection, enough to cause a wakeup. I'll try tinkering with that, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

It's only a theory; if you don't have wake-on-lan enabled, it'd probably not be even a consideration.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Interesting. Wake-On-Lan is not only traffic, you need to send the MAC in the packages.

Maybe some shielding problem?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

You know it’s 2! Everything you do. It’s haunted for you!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

My monitor currently loses signal every now and then in some (not particularly demanding) fullscreen games in Linux (e.g. Axiom Verge did it several times the other day). It uses the same refresh rate and resolution as my regular desktop. Switching to a console (which uses a different refresh rate, and I assume re-establishes the connection) and then back to Wayland resolves it.

No kernel log errors.

I first noticed it shortly after moving an external antenna with a cable that had been sitting next to the DisplayPort cable; I don't know whether it's just used by my motherboard for WiFi (which I don't use) or for Bluetooth (which I do) as well. Could maybe try repositioning that.

I don't believe that it used to do it, so it's a new issue, but I haven't cared enough to really dig into it. If I did, I suppose I'd probably go back and try to find a reasonably-reliable repro case, then go back and try installing older versions of drivers. On the hardware end, maybe try putting a bigger PSU in the system, on the off chance that it has anything to do with power limitations (but I'd guess that it's software).

Hmm. Now that I think about it, I really only use Bluetooth for game controllers, and I think that in all the games that I've seen this in, I'm using my controller. If the antenna is used for Bluetooth transmission, in games, that might actually be a good explanation.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Once a week or so, my right hearing aid stops giving me audio and starts blasting data into my ear. Like the old dial up modem sounds combined with R2D2. But only at home and only in a few rooms. I figure it’s picking up wifi or Bluetooth and trying to convert them to audio, and failing.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I kind of wish that I had a handheld gizmo -- maybe an ADC that could attach to a cell phone -- that could take into account location and direction and help me locate sources of radio interference.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Arlec smart socket with Bluetooth hub. Sometimes turns on again just after the turn off request from the door sensor automation.

Also when wireguard is on, all http requests for external sites on any client machines redirect back to my own Web server. All other traffic (https etc) is unaffected.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

My partner streams my Plex to their whole house by way of some sort of coax input device. I’m not really sure how it works but it uses the house’s cable lines to stream whatever from an hdmi device (in this case an rpi) to a unique channel.

Works great everywhere and for every device plugged into it, except a 9-ish year old Samsung tv. On that, the audio cuts out for a half second every 30 seconds or so. Without fail. No change to the picture, and an older Samsung tv handles it fine. We’ve tried everything we could find - including heavily tweaking Plex, and rebuilding the rpi entirely - short of replacing the tv, no dice.

Interestingly, no other stuff through that rpi on that same configuration has problems on that tv, so like we can load the retropi and play games and the sound works fine. It’s really just that one app, through that one method, on that one tv. So weirdly specific.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

My 15 year old Sony TV with a PC attached to it wil quickly lose and regain signal as soon as I start some streaming sites for the first time. It only happens once every boot. Pc has been replaced a few times. Prolly a DRM thing.

My Pixel 4a thinks I double press the power button every time I press it. So instead of locking the phone I shove it in my pocket with the camera on and the phone unlocked.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

It might be the pc polling or switching GPUs? My Toshiba laptop does it once per boot.

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