Printer Support Blog

It’s been a while since we’ve seen premium Astro gear. Once known exclusively for its high-end headsets, Astro spent the past few years carving a niche at the budget-friendly end of the market. First there was the A10, delivering surprisingly great sound for only $60 (and earning our pick for best budget headset). Then Astro followed up with the A20, for entry-level wireless.

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But with those newcomers now firmly established it’s high time Astro returned to its signature headset, the A40.

Astro’s billing this latest A40 as a brand-new generation, but I don’t think the headset’s actually changed. This is, by all outward appearances, the same A40 Astro has been selling since at least 2016.

The magnetic covers over the earcups have been tweaked slightly, I think—but that’s essentially meaningless, given those covers are replaceable by the end-user, and come in a million different styles. In any case, the new “default” covers have a smaller-type logo and less extraneous decoration.

Astro could use a better wiring system though. The 3.5mm hookup is towards the back of the left earcup, and while the cable stays out of the way it also has a tendency to rub against my neck—especially in cross-body situations, as when plugging into a PC on my right.

I also wish Astro would put more effort into its built-in controls. Astro’s very own wireless A50 is a model I wish other companies would emulate, with Game/Chat mixing (or chat-mix), volume, EQ, mute, and Dolby all easily accessible and relatively intuitive. But on the A40? There’s a mute toggle on the cable and that’s it—not even a volume wheel.

Mix it up

Why? Because Astro wants you to purchase its MixAmp—and you should. Astro sells the A40 standalone for $150, but truth be told, it’s an embarrassingly stripped down headset: It’s limited to a 3.5mm input with no splitter, you lose access to all of Astro’s software-side improvements, and the built-in controls are minimal. You can get a much better and more capable wired headset for $150.

As I said, Astro sells the A40 without the MixAmp, but it’s hard to imagine why. This tiny box is borderline essential as far as I’m concerned. Even so, it’s less of a leg up than it used to be—Logitech (who of course owns Astro nowadays) and others have started building chat-mixing functionality into their $100 to $150 headsets as well, with built-in controls. The MixAmp feels less novel than it used to, and expensive to boot.

But if you’re buying an Astro A40, it’s a must. It makes a mediocre standalone headset into top-tier gear.

Ears on

You can hear it in the sound, as well. I tested the A40 with and without the MixAmp to get an idea of what the A40 actually sounds like, versus how it sounds with the MixAmp.

It’s worth noting that Astro’s got one of the better microphones on the market. That’s one area where Astro’s firmly ahead of most everyone else. The mic is flexible, easy to position, and voice reproduction is rich and crystal clear. Astro also scores points for providing more microphone options than usual. Not as many as Logitech’s new G Pro X, mind you, but it’s still better than the norm. As a mumbler, I’m particularly fond of the “Night” preset, which reduces the A40’s software noise gate and picks up even my quietest commands.

Bottom line So, the million (or $250) question: Does the A40 with the MixAmp sound good enough to justify its price? That answer is complicated. The A40 with MixAmp sounds great, definitely one of the better-sounding gaming headset packages. But $250 is steep nowadays, and personally I think you’d need the convenience of running multiple inputs to the same headset through the MixAmp to justify investing in a wired headset this pricey. If that’s you… if you’re a streamer or some other content producer type… great.

Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience.

Admittedly, RockPals isn’t a company I had heard of prior to receiving a sample of its 300W portable power station and the $199 100W solar panel accessory, but I have a feeling we’ll all be hearing the name a lot more.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been using and testing the company’s $299 300W portable power station, including on a camping trip and briefly using it to power the lights in our camper. Everything worked fine until someone turned on the microwave, pulling over 1,200W and shutting down the power station (precisely what it should do).

The 300-watt Portable Power Station has 280 watt-hours (Wh) of capacity, weighs 7.3-pounds, and has a total of 10 different ports. There are two LED flashlights on the front, and an LCD screen that details the current charge level as well as output to the various ports.

On the front of the power station is one 12V port, one 24V/3A DC port, three 12V/4A DC ports, two USB ports with QuickCharge 3.0 compatibility, and two more USB 1A/2.1A ports. There’s also a standard 120V AC outlet, similar to what’s in your home. Each section of ports can be turned on with a dedicated button, activating the LCD display to provide the current voltage and watts being used.

On the back of the station is a 110V AC input for charging the station (the required cable is included in the box) and a DC12-24V input for those who use the RockPals solar panel (sold separately) to charge the power station. Ideally, the solar panel will be used to keep a device charged or topped off while you’re camping and not as the primary means to recharge from empty.

The 300W Power Station has a rugged look to it, with a handle that slides out of the top when lifted. The bottom has four rubber feet to hold it off the ground.

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Charging the station via the 110V connection is the fastest method, taking 4 hours and 15 minutes. The amount of time it takes to charge the station using the 100W solar panel will vary, depending on the amount of sun the panel is exposed to. I tested it twice: once in bright sun the entire time, where it took 6 hours and 27 minutes; the second time, the panel was partially shaded for a few hours and it took over 12 hours to charge the power station.

Testing the efficiency of the power station, completely draining the battery from 100 percent to empty and monitoring the watt-hours used, this power station is now the most efficient out of the three I’ve tested thus far, using 92.10 percent out of a total of 280Wh capacity.

As with the Anker Powerhouse 200 and the Jackery Honda 290, I also connected a lamp to the RockPals 300W and monitored how long it was able to power the lamp. To my surprise, the lamp stayed on for 8 hours and 7 minutes—that’s two hours longer than the Jackery Honda 290, and three hours longer than the Anker Powerhouse 200.

Overall, the RockPals 300W Power Station has enough ports to power almost anything you’d need, and enough capacity to keep your devices going over a long weekend, or provide light through an extended power outage.

Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience.

Our favorite 1080p graphics card is available at a great price from Newegg today. The online retailer is selling the EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 XC Gaming for $195 after the promo code 72SEPSL26 and a $20 mail-in rebate. That makes the cost $215 upfront. This particular card usually sells for $230, and the price range for GeForce GTX 1660 cards in general is $230 to $250.

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With the GTX 1660 you can expect no-compromises 1080p gaming with graphics settings on Ultra in most modern games. That’s for 60Hz displays, however. Anyone with a higher refresh rate monitor should look at the more powerful GeForce GTX 1660 Ti.

EVGA’s custom GTX 1660 has 6GB of VRAM and a single fan design. For ports, it’s packing HDMI, DisplayPort, and DVI. The XC Gaming is a shorter, fatter variant of the XC Ultra, which we reviewed in March. We really liked that the XC Ultra ran quiet under load and EVGA says you can expect the same from this single-fan card. If there’s one downside, it’s that the port selection is so limited on these cards, with only a single of the three major types. Most people only use one or two monitors, though, so it shouldn’t be a dealbreaker.

With a guaranteed top level 1080p/60fps experience, it’s hard to go wrong with the EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 XC Gaming—especially at just $195 after $35 in discounts.

Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience. With a guaranteed top level 1080p/60fps experience, it’s hard to go wrong with the EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 XC Gaming—especially at just $195 after $35 in discounts.

Set Amazon’s one-day PC sale aside for a moment, and consider: If you’re looking to cash in on a current-generation Surface before the next-gen hardware is announced, now’s the time to buy.

Microsoft has scheduled a “Microsoft event” in New York City on October 2, the traditional time and place for new Surface hardware. It’s been a year since Microsoft launched the Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2, and a bit longer for the Surface Go. That’s always a good sign that retailers will be trying to clear their shelves of older hardware, and that’s the case today: All three are 20 to 30 percent off today on Amazon. Similar discounts are available on the two-year-old Surface Book 2, too.

Surface Go: $385 (20% off), today only

Here’s a refresher: the 10-inch Microsoft Surface Go is Microsoft’s smallest Surface, powered by an Intel Pentium Gold (Atom) processor. The Surface Go is the closest thing to what we’d call a true tablet, because the compact 10-inch form factor is comfortable to hold one-handed and use with the included keyboard. Performance suffers somewhat, but if you’re looking for a basic Office/web tablet, the Go suffices. 

The Microsoft Surface Go is on sale for $385.63 at Amazon, 20 percent or $96 off. Amazon lists this as a one-day sale, Thursday only.

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2 did little more than bump up their respective processors to either an 8th-gen Kaby Lake R Core i5 or Core i7, as well as add an attractive black color. (Here’s PCWorld’s Surface Pro 6 review as well as our Surface Laptop 2 review, for reference.) Microsoft’s Surface upgrades might not have been so tempting a year ago, but it’s great news if you’re looking for either a Windows tablet or an all-purpose notebook. 

Surface Laptop, Surface Pro 6: Up to 29% off

The best deal in Amazons’ Surface steals is the $920 Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 (Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) , which is a whopping 29 percent ($379) off. The 256GB storage option is a superior choice, but if you want to save some money the $798.80 Surface Laptop 2 (Core i5, 8GB, 128GB) is an option, too. A $1,269 Core i7 Surface Laptop 2 (Core i7, 8GB, 128) is also an option, though you probably won’t need the power of a Core i7. (Microsoft isn’t offering quite the same discounts: Its Core i5/8GB/256GB option is $999.)

It’s worth noting that these are all being sold by a third party, through Amazon—though they’re likely facing the same pressures to unload their inventory as every other vendor is. You also may not have your choice of color, either.

Amazon lists just one Surface Pro 6 model available: the Surface Pro 6 Core i5/8GB/128GB model for $862.59, 19 percent off the usual list price. At this point, there aren’t too many Windows tablets out there, and the Surface Pro 6 is an excellent choice. It comes bundled with a Type Cover, too!

Microsoft’s Surface Book 2: 20% off, top to bottom

Third-party sellers are also trying to unload Microsoft’s flagship Surface Book 2, which hasn’t been upgraded since 2017. Because the Surface Book 2 is so expensive, the discounts are eye-popping; we’d recommend taking a look at the $2,039 13.5-inch Surface Book 2 (Core i7/16GB/512GB) for $460 or 18 percent off, or the $2,274 15-inch Surface Book 2 (Core i7/16GB/512GB) at $674 off, a 22-percent discount. Again, this isn’t listed as a time-sensitive deal.

What can we expect in any new Surfaces? It’s a bit more confusing this year than most: Laptop makers can choose from Intel’s Comet Lake and Ice Lake chips, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx, AMD’s Ryzen Mobile, and more. If the Surface Book 2 includes a discrete GPU, Microsoft might select a mobile Nvidia RTX chip—or go with its older hardware. That may mean waiting around to explore your options…but there’s no guarantee that these discounts will live forever, either. 

Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience.

With more and more demand for affordable home DNA testing, the field of available tests keeps growing. Some offer more specialized results or the ability to purchase only the testing categories you desire, while others might undercut the bigger-name kits on price.

TellMeGen claims to offer the complete package, with both health/medical testing and ancestry results at a single purchase price. However, in practice, the service is clearly focused much more on the former than the latter, providing a long list of health traits and medical conditions with ample detail… and then barely scratching the surface with its simplistic ancestry results.

DNA collection

You’ll need to mail in a saliva sample for TellMeGen to analyze your DNA. Here’s what is in the kit:

• Saliva collection tube with DNA stabilizing solution
• Funnel top
• Plastic clamshell casing
• Prepaid return label
• Instructions

Collecting a sizable-enough sample for TellMeGen means spitting into the included plastic tube over and over again until you fill it to the line (not including bubbles). It took me a few solid minutes of conjuring up fluids to meet the quota, but at least it’s a straightforward request.

Having to unscrew the cap, screw on the funnel cap, and then unscrew the funnel and replace the original cap before mailing adds extra potential for fumbling the tube and potentially losing the free-floating stabilizing solution—so be careful with it. It’s not as clever as 23andMe’s tube, which has its solution sealed in the funnel cap and releases it into your saliva sample when you securely close it.

Speed

TellMeGen estimates that results will be available within four to six weeks of receiving the sample. I registered an account and my kit when preparing the sample, but did not receive any kind of email alert that my results were available. Five weeks after sending the sample, I logged into my account and found that the kit actually was not tied to the account, despite completing that step during initial registration.

Luckily, when I registered the kit again, the results were already available. Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly how long it took due to the kit registration mishap, but the turnaround still fell within the estimated window. Comparatively, I sent 23andMe and AncestryDNA samples back at the same time, and received results from both services in just over two weeks.

Results

TellMeGen is an autosomal DNA test, much like 23andMe, AncestryDNA, and other popular tests, which analyzes the 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes besides the X and Y sex chromosomes. According to the company, it can analyze more than 655,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)—or DNA sequence variations—used to track biological differences as well as shared connections to relatives.

In my case, the results showed that I am 89 percent British; nearly 9 percent Russian: Adyghe people; and about 2 percent French: Basque. Both 23andMe and AncestryDNA likewise pointed to nearly 100 percent Northwestern European totals, but neither estimated that the vast majority of that was British. In fact, both of those tests demonstrated a lot more nuance in their estimations of my ancestors’ origins.

The percentage estimates are shown in a chart atop a map, but you can’t really do anything on the map except click on the highlighted countries. Flip over to the Details tab and you’ll find a little more information on each region—emphasis on “little.” Each explanation for my highlighted regions had just two to three sentences of information.

Thankfully, TellMeGen provides a fair bit more information in its health-related results, which are split into three categories: Complex Diseases, Inherited Conditions, and Traits. Under Complex Diseases, TellMeGen shows a list of conditions split between high-risk, low-risk, and typical-risk categories, with your risk percentage shown compared to the average.

Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience.

The process of installing a smart switch is no different than replacing any other type of electrical switch in your home. You’ll want to take the proper precautions (we’ll help you with that, too), but you don’t need to hire an electrician, and you won’t need any special tools. You can do the job with a screwdriver and a pair of pliers or wirecutters. A non-contact voltage tester is handy if you want to be extra safe, but you can buy one of those for less than $15 on Amazon.

There are many types of smart switches, and while this story isn’t intended to help you decide which smart switch is best for your needs, it will guide you through the process of installing any one of them. That’s because they’re all essentially the same in terms of their wiring.

There are a few important distinctions you’ll want to keep in mind. First and foremost, an on/off switch will do just that: In one position, it will send electricity to the socket your light bulb is screwed into, turning it on. In the other position, it will stop electricity from flowing to that socket, turning the bulb off. A dimmer switch can also vary the amount of electricity flowing to the socket, so that you can brighten or dim the light bulb as well as turn it on or off.

If you want to change the color of your lighting, you’ll need a smart bulb, not a smart switch. Unfortunately, smart dimmer switches and smart bulbs typically don’t work together. That’s because smart bulbs are equipped with radios that depend on a steady supply of electricity to operate, and a dimmer varies the amount of electricity flowing to the bulb.

The next step is to remove the cover plate so you can access the switch itself. Waving a non-contact voltage tester inside the junction box is the best way to confirm that electricity is not flowing to the switch. The battery-powered tool should beep and light up if it detects current. If there’s more than one switch in the box, make sure they also don’t have electricity flowing to them.

Once you’ve confirmed that the power is off, remove the screws holding the switch to the junction box and pull it out so you can access the electrical wires. Most smart switches require four wires to operate, including a “neutral” wire which should be colored white or gray. The neutral wire carries power back to the circuit breaker panel to complete the circuit, so despite its innocuous-sounding name, an electrified neutral can shock you if current is flowing through it. If your wiring doesn’t include a neutral wire, your choice of smart switch will be limited (more on that in a bit).

The “line” wire that carries power from the breaker panel to the switch will customarily be colored black, red, or blue.The “load” wire carries electricity to the socket (and by extension, to the bulb) and will typically be colored white or gray, like the line wire. The final wire, protective ground, will be either a bare wire or a wire in a green jacket. The ground wire will prevent you from getting shocked if there’s a short circuit.

If your home lacks a ground wire, you might not be able to install a smart switch, although there are various workarounds that we won’t get into here. If your home lacks a neutral wire, you might consider installing a Lutron Caséta smart dimmer, as it does not require a neutral wire to operate.

Installing a smart switch

Now that you’ve determined your home’s wiring situation and purchased a smart switch or dimmer, you’re ready to install it. Once again, make sure you’ve turned off the power to the switch. It’s always a good idea to double-check that the power to the switch is still off using the voltage tester.

Disconnect your old switch from your home’s wiring. You might need to snip and strip off about a half inch of the wire sheath to expose he copper wire underneath. You can use the wire snippers or a dedicated tool for this step.

Smart switch manufacturers use different wiring techniques. Some have screw terminals that you bend the wire emerging from your wall around, others have pigtail wires that you bind to your home’s wiring using wire nuts, and still others have backstabs that you push your home’s (solid) wires into.

The C by GE switch we’re installing in this example uses pigtails, so twist each of the line, load, neutral, and ground wires to the matching wires emerging from the junction box, using a wire nut to hold them together. If you’ve installed a switch that doesn’t require a neutral wire (such as the Lutron Caséta mentioned earlier), put a wire nut on the end of that neutral wire coming out of the wall, making sure that none of the bare copper wire remains exposed (you can snip off the excess, or wrap the wire and the wire nut in electrical tape).

Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience.

AMD said Tuesday that it is preparing a BIOS update to address reports that its 3rd-generation Ryzen processors aren’t able to hit advertised boost speeds under all conditions.

“While processor boost frequency is dependent on many variables including workload system design, and cooling solution, we have closely reviewed the feedback from our customers and have identified an issue in our firmware that reduces boost frequency in some situations,” AMD said, The statement, released in a tweet, says that the BIOS update will be released on September 10 via AMD’s motherboard partners.

AMD acknowledged that some 3rd-gen Ryzen customers were reporting boost speeds below the rated frequency, which had raised the ire of customers on social media, including Reddit, over the past few weeks. Simply put, while a 3rd-gen processor like the Ryzen 5 3600X should be able to reach a maximum boost speed of 4.4GHz, some customers who had purchased one reported that they were only able to reach a slower boost level. That was complicated by a Tom’s Hardware report that showed that while its Ryzen 5 3600X sample could hit the rated 4.4GHz boost speed, it could do so on just one of its six cores.

However, a survey by the der8auer YouTube channel added substantial weight to the allegations that something was wrong. The der8auer channel asked readers to self-report what boost speeds their own 3rd-gen Ryzen chips achieved, and compiled the findings. In the case of the 3600X, for example, a substantial number—much more than 50 percent—achieved clock speeds of less than the rated 4.4GHz. That was also the case for the 3700X and the 3800X. (For the record, PCWorld’s review of the 3900X didn’t identify any issues with boost speeds.)

The good news is that the processors themselves don’t appear to be defective. Although you’ll have to wait until your motherboard maker validates and releases the BIOS update, it won’t be too long to wait. AMD’s statement also says the BIOS update will provide “additional boost performance optimizations,” in addition to addressing the boost issue. This statement implies that AMD may rectify its boost bug, and then some. We’ll have to test it out for ourselves.

Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience.

AMD said Tuesday that it is preparing a BIOS update to address reports that its 3rd-generation Ryzen processors aren’t able to hit advertised boost speeds under all conditions.

“While processor boost frequency is dependent on many variables including workload system design, and cooling solution, we have closely reviewed the feedback from our customers and have identified an issue in our firmware that reduces boost frequency in some situations,” AMD said, The statement, released in a tweet, says that the BIOS update will be released on September 10 via AMD’s motherboard partners.

AMD acknowledged that some 3rd-gen Ryzen customers were reporting boost speeds below the rated frequency, which had raised the ire of customers on social media, including Reddit, over the past few weeks. Simply put, while a 3rd-gen processor like the Ryzen 5 3600X should be able to reach a maximum boost speed of 4.4GHz, some customers who had purchased one reported that they were only able to reach a slower boost level. That was complicated by a Tom’s Hardware report that showed that while its Ryzen 5 3600X sample could hit the rated 4.4GHz boost speed, it could do so on just one of its six cores.

However, a survey by the der8auer YouTube channel added substantial weight to the allegations that something was wrong. The der8auer channel asked readers to self-report what boost speeds their own 3rd-gen Ryzen chips achieved, and compiled the findings. In the case of the 3600X, for example, a substantial number—much more than 50 percent—achieved clock speeds of less than the rated 4.4GHz. That was also the case for the 3700X and the 3800X. (For the record, PCWorld’s review of the 3900X didn’t identify any issues with boost speeds.)

The good news is that the processors themselves don’t appear to be defective. Although you’ll have to wait until your motherboard maker validates and releases the BIOS update, it won’t be too long to wait. AMD’s statement also says the BIOS update will provide “additional boost performance optimizations,” in addition to addressing the boost issue. This statement implies that AMD may rectify its boost bug, and then some. We’ll have to test it out for ourselves.

Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience.