Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2017 November 29

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November 29

To repair a cracked smartphone/tablet touchscreen

What are my options? Youtube videos are not being of help here. The suggestions of repairing with a stun gun, hair drier and so on look wacky. But if a touchscreen if cracked and not responsive to touches (the image is OK), couldn't exist liquid/glue that reconnected the cracked pieces again? --Hofhof (talk) 17:51, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

If it is not responsive to touches, you can only replace it. Ruslik_Zero 18:00, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

• The repair process depends on the model, and the quality you want afterwards (cheap glass vs. original glass). Some are easy, some are easy for practised experts, some are near impossible. Generally the glass is a cheap component, the digitiser is expensive. However it's easier to change both glass and digitiser than it is to remove a working digitiser from a broken glass, without damaging it.

If the glass has minor cracks, a simple sticky plastic protector can be enough to keep it working. If it's not responsive to touch though, you'll be needing a new digitiser.

Often a local, non-chain, phone shop is the best place to have it repaired. They're cheaper, they're competent, it's not rocket surgery. Andy Dingley (talk) 18:08, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

You can always get professional help from the producer or his contractors. However technically they will use the same approach! Ofcourse they dont use a hair drier since they have the professional tools elsewhere used to weld plastic parts. Naturally the projected bill for that will likely upset you so much that you either go for "wacky" or simply buy a new one. --Kharon (talk) 08:15, 3 December 2017 (UTC)

Search YouTube for touch screen repair and add the model number of Your device. You might get an idea how it is being done. The spare parts are often online avail. Usually parts are labeled with a part number. There are services to get it repaired and there are howtos for do it yourself. Some manufacturers make repairs more difficult than necessary. When possible, backup the data first. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 00:59, 5 December 2017 (UTC)

File transfer between two computers directly via USB?

I now have two working computers, one running Fedora 26 Linux, the other running Windows 10. I want to transfer files between them. Is it somehow possible to attach the computers' USB ports directly to each other and use file transfer through a USB cable? That would save me the trouble of swapping hard disks or using a USB drive as a medium. JIP | Talk 22:11, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

I have only done this with two Windows machines, but a cat 5 networking cable works well. I have read that this may be possible on Linux as well. I am familiar with opensuse which does have a variety of networking settings and options. https://www.howtogeek.com/176471/how-to-share-files-between-windows-and-linux/ https://techwiser.com/how-to-connect-pc-to-pc-lan-cable/

--Trick on (talk) 23:26, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

• Electrically, it has taken 20 years to get a USB version where two equivalent devices can be plugged together. You're unlikely to have a pair of these yet, unless they're some recent mobile phones.

For connecting two computers, why not WiFi? Or failing that, the a wired Ethernet cable. It _all_ you have is USB, then a couple of cheap USB to Ethernet NICs, and a wired Ethernet cable. You can use SMB / Samba to offer file sharing services. It might be slightly easier to start a shared file folder on the Windows box, then connect to it from the Linux one. Andy Dingley (talk) 23:33, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

Some years ago, when I bought a laptop from Dell, I was given the option (which I didn't take) of buying a kit to easily transfer files from an old computer to the new one. I'm pretty sure it included a USB to USB connector. Unfortunately, I've had a quick look on their website and I can't see anything like that for sale now. However, a quick Google search for "usb to usb file transfer" yields what may be some useful answers: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/connecting-two-pcs-using-a-usb-usb-cable/ Iapetus (talk) 10:08, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

I didn't look at the links, but when I've read of these 15 or so years ago, it seems like they were generally some sort of device to present USB ethernet adapters to both computers. (I suspect just 2 USB ethernet adapters wired to each other.) Note I said 15 or so years ago. There's a reason for this. As others have said, what sort of computer is this without either wifi or ethernet? Or if it does have wifi or ethernet, why aren't you using that? Nil Einne (talk) 16:13, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

The computer most probably has wifi support, but I don't think there's any wifi available in my apartment. I get my Internet connection via a normal, common-or-garden ethernet cable. Both computers have only one ethernet port, so connecting them via ethernet would prevent either getting on the Internet. The Linux computer is a desktop with several free PCI slots however, so I could always buy another network card and plug it in, so I could use that to connect them via ethernet. JIP | Talk 22:02, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

Well first, if both computers have wifi then it doesn't matter if you have wifi in your apartment, you could just set up an adhoc network on run an AP on one of the computers. I presume (as later) that both computers are in decent range of each other if you plan to connect a USB cable between them.

As for your ethernet problems, I don't really understand why you can simply establish a LAN between the two computers. The vast majority by far of the world's computers including in offices etc only have a single ethernet port and they get by fine with both a LAN and internet connection (via the LAN) using that setup. In some particular cases you may want dual ethernet ports generally for security reasons but that's very rare.

Let's get to the basics: Are the computers both connected to the same router (or a switch which is connected to the router)? If so, why do you need to connect them directly to establish a LAN between them? Have you firewalled the LAN on the router or managed switch? Why?

Or if you don't have a router or whatever and are only connecting one computer at a time to the internet, why can't you just connect between the to copy content and screw the internet for that time? The fact that you're only connecting one to the internet at a time would indicate this shouldn't generally be an issue.

r if they are both connected to the internet at the same time but not connected to the same router, well why not? If these computers are in very different locations so they cannot connect to the same router, then how do you plan to connect a USB cable between them?

If you have some weird setup where both computers connect to separate ethernet ports connected to a network run by somewhere else and the LAN is firewalled so they cannot connect other then by going through the internet I guess you may have an issue. But are you not able or allowed to simply buy a switch and connect both computers to that and also connect it to the the ethernet which you use for your internet? I guess if the router or whatever is run by someone else you might be slightly more worried about security but cano you not just choose a suitable protocol and software that you are comfortable with for transferring files over sucha set-up?

Nil Einne (talk) 13:18, 2 December 2017 (UTC)