Case Of The Shrinking Virtual Controller

[sjoens]

It works fine if I have CbB on the laptop screen, but I normally run CbB on the 2nd larger widescreen where the VC does this:

Once it shrinks it never goes back to full size.  It happens no matter the screen resolution or settings.

My normal settings:
17" Laptop: 1980x1020 @100% (3840x2160 4K)
29" Widescreen: 2560x1080 @100%

[Amberwolf]

20 hours ago, sjoens said:

It happens no matter the screen resolution or settings.

The above may already cover this, but just in case:

Assuming the widescreen is an external monitor plugged into the laptop--does the display settings in the laptop have the option to use that as the primary monitor (if it's not already doing so), or even as the *only* monitor (disabling the built-in screen)?

I ask because I have found lots of stuff over the years in all sorts of software that just doesn't work right in multimonitor setups; either has a problem being on a secondary/etc display, or has a problem if there *is* a secondary/etc display.   

Most things work fine regardless, but not everything does (and I have no idea what they're doing that would have anything to do with which monitor it's being used on, especially the ones that fail *if* there is more than one monitor even if it's on the primary).  

 

I can't actually see anything useful on the 17" laptop display at a resolution that's usable to fit things on, so I have to use an external 32" (minimum) monitor with it's max resolution of 1920x1080 (it's really a TV, but I could afford it from Goodwill, unlike an actual computer monitor in this size; I was using a 42" but the power supply blew up inside it so until I figure out what the parts used to be and replace them, or hack a different PSU in there, I'm stuck with the smaller harder-to-read one). 

I used to try to use the built in 17" for stuff like effects/synths I wanted to keep open but out of my way, but I have had so much wierdness with programs (some in music software, some in everyday stuff) that I gave up a while ago and just disabled it so the whole system uses only the external; no problems since then. 

[sjoens]

Good point.  I have the big one set as main screen so I may reset it and see what happens.  So far this is the only glitch I've had using the 2 monitors.  It may also be happening because the monitors use different video cards, but that's by design and can't be changed... I've tried.

Edited November 23 by sjoens

[Starship Krupa]

On 11/22/2024 at 7:21 PM, Amberwolf said:

I was using a 42" but the power supply blew up inside it so until I figure out what the parts used to be and replace them, or hack a different PSU in there, I'm stuck with the smaller harder-to-read one

www.badcaps.net

If it was built in the mid-to-late 00's it probably finally succumbed to what I call "cap cooties." Back then there was a manufacturing debacle that resulted in many millions of electrolytic capacitors being manufactured with a bad formula. Supposedly one company's formula for dielectric goop was stolen and widely distributed, but it was the wrong formula. Whether this one company deliberately put the bad formula out there knowing that their competitors would copy it remains unknown.

But the result was that a lot of devices were made with electrolytic caps that will fail within a few short years. I've lost count of the number of devices I've repaired just by replacing electrolytic caps from this era. Multiple large TV's and monitors bought for peanuts on CL because they would only power up intermittently, network switches, a PreSonus Firebox, even a few Fender Hot Rod Deluxes.

It's always in the power supply, because those are the caps that take the worst beating. But chances are you can either replace half a dozen electrolytics on the PS board with Mouser or eBay caps, or find a rebuilt board on eBay and get decades more use out of your 42" monitor.

[Amberwolf]

Yeah, I've dealt with bad caps problems since the 90s because companies kept making cheaper and cheaper stuff; it just got exponentially worse when they did the bad formula thing.

(been doing this stuff since the 80s ::creaking sounds:: 😆)

When I was in still in computer repair the first several years of this century (still wierd to say that) we had many many blown caps on all sorts of things (motherboards, psus, inside monitors, etc) and way too many devices were destroyed by the cap failures (unfiltered spikes taking out other parts after the caps stopped working, even when they didn't explode). 

 I lost count of the number of things I was given as junk that just replacing the caps would fix.   (today that includes things like ebike controllers, too, but that's because they often use parts not rated for the usage, like caps not made for high temps put inside motor controllers that are inside other things so all the heat stays right there and cooks the caps). 

The really sad thing is that a couple decades later, there are STILL companies using those bad parts to build things with, as they still keep getting re-injected into the supply chain.  Plus there are companies still making crappy caps, though those are easier to avoid by always using good brands like Rubycon, Panasonic, etc, and only buying them from reliable suppliers like Mouser, etc that actually check their supply chains.  Not to mention the bajillion counterfeit parts out there.   

 

 

Unfortunately on this it's not (just) a cap problem (that would have been too easy; the cap failed and then other stuff died downstream), it's the main switching transistor, plus the resistors that fed it's gate, some diodes (I think; hard to tell from the remnants), and some other bits.   There's not enough left of some of the parts to tell for sure what they were, much less which part number or value.    Some bad pics of some of the carnage are attached; I apparently don't have them all on the computer.  I poked around for a schematic or service manual, but this old Westinghouse (IIRC) didn't get one uploaded that I could find so far.   IIRC it was made in 2013 or 14, but I'd have to go look in the other room at it's case to be sure. 

Edited November 25 by Amberwolf

[sjoens]

I lost a lot of expensive gear bought in the 90s due to dried caps.  Didn't know it till after I sold everything for parts.  Very disappointing when stuff made in the 50s still works.

[Amberwolf]

part of that isn't just the caps; it's the other parts not being chosen or the circuit not being designed so that it may survive / "work" even when the caps no longer perform as well as designed (since all liquid electrolytic caps will eventually fail from electrolyte decomposition and/or fluid loss; they all have a time-rating for how many hours of operation they're guaranteed (or expected) to work for under a specific operating temperature or other conditions).  

 

but without well-made caps, anything that does require them will not work correclty or at all, and the worse they're made the faster that will happen.    

 

i used to have some test equipment (oscilloscopes, nixie-tube multimeters, etc) that were made before i was born, more than 5 decades ago (one of them would be more than 60 years old now if it was still around), and they all still worked without any part replacments.    before i lost them in the housefire a decade ago i had planned to go thru the ones i used most and test caps, etc., and replace anything that was out of spec, see if they got better readings afterward, but that didn't happen. 

but i've also had stuff of all types from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s that required cap replacements to be usable.   

 

my 1930s simpson multimeter doesnt' have any caps, just resistors, so it seems to be ok.  (though it requires a diy battery since they don't make the kind it uses anymore :lol: ).  

 

[sjoens]

Funny.  I just talked to a guy who has a 20 yr old battery powered Sunbeam LCD thermometer he uses outside where temps range from +80 to -60 seasonally.  The thing still works tho he's never changed the battery... so he clams.

[sjoens]

On 11/22/2024 at 9:49 PM, sjoens said:

I have the big one set as main screen so I may reset it and see what happens.

When I switch them back to default the laptop as main screen and run CbB on the 2nd monitor it still shrinks but not the same way.

Widescreen as main screen: Only the keyboard window and keys shrink. Buttons, etc. stay big making them overlap.
 

Laptop as main screen: Everything shrinks uniformly.