Korg NTS-1 Input Volume Fix

I bought a Korg NTS-1 kit about a year ago and have really liked it as a small and powerful stereo multi-effects unit. The only problem I've run into is that the input jack's volume is set really low out-of-the-box, so you have to really crank its output, and if you then trigger any of its own internal synth sounds, they're super-loud vs the stuff you're running through it.

To fix it, you just have to boot into the "Global Parameters" menu by holding the 'Reverb' button while you power it on, then go to the second item--input trim (which shows as 'trn' on the 7-segment display; very helpful)--using the 'type' knob, and change its value from the default -6 dB to 0 dB (as high as it goes).

To the best of my knowledge, this is never explained directly anywhere in the manual, though to be fair, the manual doesn't really explain much of anything. The section on the Global Parameters menu lists the available values for this setting, FWIW. Seems like a weird value to have as a default, even setting aside how obscure the setting is, but whatever. I'm not calling the shots at Korg.

Anyway, I just got another NTS-1 and spent a half hour trying to find this setting again (which is indicative of how well-hidden this info seems to be, since I already knew what I was looking for this time), so I figured I'd better put it on the ol' blog in case I need it again in the future.

Fix for "Failed to start game (app already running)" error - Steam

I got a fancy new 144 hz monitor the other day and was messing with some settings on Borderlands 2 to push it up past 60 fps but after poking around a bit, I couldn't load the game and instead got this error:

Failed to start game (app already running)...

I looked online and found a number of potential fixes, none of which worked for me, including the ill-advised "run Steam as an administrator." -_-

Thankfully, someone mentioned that they had also been using the graphics enhancement program SweetFX before getting the error. Removing all of the SweetFX files cleared it up for me, as well.

Here is a list of all of the files used by SweetFX (found in the Borderlands 2 Binaries\Win32 directory, in my case):

d3d9.dll
d3d9.fx
dxgi.dll
dxgi.fx
injector.ini
SweetFX readme.txt
SweetFX_preset.txt
SweetFX_settings.txt
and the SweetFX folder

Move/delete these files/folders from your executable's folder and you should be set.

Fix for Youtube error: 'This video is currently unavailable' - Ubuntu Chromium

Thankfully, this one's an easy fix and will presumably apply to other browsers and operating systems, as well.

I've been using Chromium as my browser for a while and everything has been great until recently, when some youtube videos wouldn't play reliably and instead would show the error:

This video is currently unavailable.

Learn more

This is apparently caused by being enrolled in Youtube's HTML5 video trial. You can enroll/unenroll from the program by visiting this link.

I had forgotten I was even using HTML5 video, so I never even considered this could be the problem. Once I unenrolled, everything works fine again. Of course, YMMV.

Fix for Win8 Unhandled Error -1 (SSF4)

Ugh, this problem was infuriating. I got a cheap copy of Windows 8 through my job and decided to go ahead and install it, just to be up-to-date. Then, I went to play SSF4AE via Steam and instead of launching, I got an ugly little window that said "An unhandled error has occurred -1."

After digging around online, it appears that the fault lies in Windows 8's default implementation of Games For Windows Live. |:-[

To get around this problem, we need to uninstall the default GFWL and download the latest installer from Microsoft.

You DO NOT have to uninstall/reinstall Steam as is suggested elsewhere online. If you try that, be aware that it will may uninstall all of your games at the same time (thanks to MasterPhW for the correction). It's supposed to ask before doing so, but it didn't ask me, so YMMV.

Aspire One's Synaptics Trackpad Suspend Issue in Intrepid

I just corrected a really strange and infuriating issue with the trackpad on my Acer Aspire One running Ubuntu Intrepid. I'm going to write the whole story in case someone finds it useful, but here is the short version: trackpad quit working and didn't come back with a reboot. The solution was to hit Fn+F7 a couple of times (didn't work on first press, but did after a few presses...).

Now for the long version:

My fancy new Aspire One went to sleep (suspend) on accident--I know there are some unresolved issues with devices after suspending, so I've tried to avoid it--and I couldn't make it wake up, so I did a hard reset by holding the power button down for ~5 seconds. However, upon reboot, I was horrified to find that my trackpad no longer worked. It still showed up in the hardware profiler and in the kernel boot log, but it was totally unresponsive. No cursor movement, no clicks, no nothing. I rebooted. Still nothing!

I scoured the intarwebs looking for a software solution, including purging/reinstalling the xorg drivers, reloading modules, etc. to no avail. However, I did find a forum post where another Acer user had reported a nonfunctional trackpad that followed him across several Live CDs, suggesting a hardware issue. I was horrified by this prospect, as I love my little machine and I've finally gotten it configured to my satisfaction. Luckily, this user was kind enough to post his deceivingly simple solution: re-enable the trackpad using a key combination of Fn+F7.

I don't remember ever pressing this key combo to disable it in the first place, so I'm forced to assume that it happened on its own. Now I know how to fix it, should it happen again.