Added 1 new A* page:I migrated my A* workflow over to my faster laptop this weekend, and in doing so encountered a small host of fun technical issues—most boringly Windows-related, but one based in actual science: turns out that if the WiFi receiver is too close to the HDMI port, radiation from the active HDMI cable—if you're running video out to a monitor, for instance—can cut off your WiFi reception!
I was using a generic 3' HDMI cable when the WiFi went out (unplug HDMI, WiFi's back! Plug HDMI back in, WiFi signal is lost! : P); after that I tried a 3' Amazon Basics cable, just for the heck of it, which was even lighter than the generic and of course also resulted in signal loss. Then I dug up an old, white 6' Sony cable—and WiFi was okay with it!
Well until a few days later when it went out again. There was some heat in the area back behind the laptop (one of the laptop's vents is *right next to the HDMI port*, and shoots hot air back there...), and after that dispersed, WiFi was back again. Haven't had a problem since—and it's been a little cooler here—but I wanted to see if I could find a cable that wouldn't have any problems in whatever conditions.
I ordered a $7 3' "triple-shielded" cable off of Amazon—instant WiFi signal loss. : P So now I'm up to ordering a $90 5' unidirectional cable with silver-coated solid copper conductors, all of which supposedly cuts interference (for the purpose of preserving the HDMI signal from this audiophile cable, but I figure it should also block interference going outward from the cable...), so we'll see how that does. That same company makes increasingly heavily shielded cables that easily run up into the four-digit price range; I think this one is about the best I can afford.
Backing this all up: aluminum foil! Well, that's what some sites on the internet advise trying in a pinch for shielding, at least. I did try a little wrap of some old standard foil I found in a long-forgotten kitchen drawer (to be clear: I'd put it there years ago, then forgot about the drawer : P) on one of the lesser cables, and it did not stop the WiFi from being blocked. Now I've got some fresh "heavy duty" foil from the grocery store though, so... Well hopefully it won't come to that. : PPP
(I'd never noticed HDMI-out interfering with the WiFi signal on my slower laptop, which has 'em (I'm assuming here that the Ethernet port position corresponds roughly to the wireless receiver location...) on opposite sides of the machine. However, this whole saga got me thinking, and I remembered that on that machine, when I was running HDMI video out, sometimes right after I woke the laptop up and the screen came on, I would find the WiFi signal had been lost; I always thought this due to the WiFi receiver shutting down when the laptop went sleep or something, but now I'm thinking maybe it was more likely a burst of interference from the waking-up HDMI cable. On that machine, though, toggling the WiFi off and back on in Windows would almost always get the signal reconnected.)
~~~~~~~~~
The original 16" x 6.75" watercolor art for today's new A* page is up for auction on eBay. : )
|
