What Have You Done Today - (Computer Version)

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I made sure to save backups of my drivers before doing anything. When I tried to uninstall the current drivers and put on the new ones, the program said I didn't have the PC requirements for the older drivers. I used an installer and not any archived file. I'll try something again in the future to try to get rF2 to play and get away from the constant "insufficient video Memory thing."


[OMISSION] Thanks for the advice, though, everyone.
 
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I made sure to save backups of my drivers before doing anything. When I tried to uninstall the current drivers and put on the new ones, the program said I didn't have the PC requirements for the older drivers. I used an installer and not any archived file. I'll try something again in the future to try to get rF2 to play and get away from the constant "insufficient video Memory thing."


[OMISSION] Thanks for the advice, though, everyone.
Just had a look at the requirements and newest Windows 10 build supported is 1809 so you might have to create a separate partition and install older Windows 10 version just to play rFactor 2 and set as a dual boot. If you have another drive either internally or externally, you could install to that too.

If you don't want to have another copy of Windows 10 installed, and you have older Windows license like Windows 8.1 or 7, you could install that instead and not have to worry about DCH drivers that way. I think they run also older titles better like TOCA Race Driver 3.
 
After a long while trying to learn how to actually get one of these set up, I finally begun my Github adventures! I finally learned how to launch and maintain a Github after watching a YouTube video. I plan on making a series of static pages to add extra content to my developing Github page. It also means I am possibly going to learn using Markdown. I think I can still use HTML, but I feel Github does a fine job with Markdown. For about a year, I had a Wordpress site hosted through Bluehost; but after I couldn't afford paying another full year to keep it up, I discontinued my old site. I am now hoping Github is what I can use for my own personal website and various content pieces.

In case you're interested, you are welcome to visit my Github page: https://johnbmarine.github.io/ . Remember- it's under a lot of construction, so do not expect too much here at the time of this post.


[UPDATE] I learned Github supports both HTML and the w3.css framework. Therefore, it won't be too long to update and set up my Github page. I did a lot of HTML pages under this CSS framework. Some of my past files date back to 2019. So for at least five years, I've struggled finally uploading a Github page. Now that I know I don't have to be stuck with learning Markdown, I can go ahead and make my personal Github site better than previously.
 
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Tried out the app version of ChatGPT on my Mac. Now I can talk to it. And probably other stuff too.
 
Groan. Got "Inaccessible boot device" this morning on my Windows 10 PC (not my sim rig thankfully). At the moment everything points to a motherboard issue. Man, why does this sort of thing happen when I'm at my busiest - I just won't have time to sort this for at least a couple of weeks.

Rant over. PC is powered off now and I just managed to stop myself from drop kicking it to the bottom of the garden. :lol: My son is going to be peeved when he gets home - he and his buddies have a Balders Gate 3 weekend planned - and we have all the game saves. Oops.

I'll wait until I have some time and look at it again.
 
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Well some stuff in my diary got cancelled so I did have time to sort out the knackered PC. After getting some new & used stuff online I have built a Windows 11 PC that looks like this:

Ryzen 5 3600
Thermaltake Peerless Assassin 120
ASRock A520M HVS
Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR4 3600
Zotac Gaming RTX 2060
512GB Western Digital M.2 NVMe
500GB Crucial SATA 3 SSD
1.5TB HDD
650W Corsair PSU
2x 27" 1080P displays.

So all in I spent:

£51.99 on motherboard (new from Scan.co.uk)
£62.99 on 2x16GB RAM (new from Scan.co.uk)
£100 on the RTX 2060 (used from Facebook Marketplace)

Everything else is re-used from the old dead PC or was sat on a shelf. My sim rig runs with a 5800X3D and RTX 3080 so at some point a few years down the line I'll no doubt upgrade that rig and so I'll chuck that CPU and GPU into this system to give it a nice boost.
 
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I've got a new chair arriving tomorrow and am planning to go ham on movies this upcoming week... using ClarisWorks 4.0, naturally:
movies.png
 
I've battled with my home printer that just wants to end it all (an Epson XP-422) and won.
Somehow the darn thing kept jamming and made me mad! At least the culprit was a dirty roller so it was an easy fix.
 
So something I learned yesterday was Steam had a feature that lets me set what buttons do what on a controller and since then, I've been going through and adding a lot of my non-Steam games to it and configuring the controls for them. This is great because I used Xpadder for years and while it's good, I really like how Steam has a feature that works like it, but better. Now I don't have to worry about pulling up Xpadder and changing my config anytime I change games, I can just set up controls for each game.

Already got a few games set up including Star Wars Battlefront II (2005) and I am going to setup Nerf Arena Blast tomorrow. For some reason Hot Wheel Crash wouldn't cooperate with my controller in the menus but was totally fine game. Not sure what that's about but hopefully other games won't be like this.
 
So after recently learning more about Big Picture mode on Steam, how to connect my PS4 controller wirelessly, and how Steam allows you to set up your own controller configs, I have been spending a lot of time setting up my PC games as I mentioned earlier. I downloaded whatever Steam games I intended to play and I also pulled out many of physical games and installed them on my computer and added them to my Steam library as well. Spent A LOT of time going through and configuring my graphics and controls for these games so they’d be ready whenever I decided to play them.

Some interesting things I noticed along the way were:
Need for Speed (2015). While this game supports controllers, it’s not very well done. Upon testing my PS4 controller with it, all sorts of weird things were happening to me and it was a struggle to even go in a straight line. So I looked it up and it turns out I wasn’t the only one, other people had this issue too, and apparently, it was the result of double-input with the keyboard and the controller. Seen a lot of mentions of DS4Windows, so I downloaded it and tried it with this game and it worked like a charm! While I am glad I was able to find a workaround, it’s unfortunate I even need one just to play it, but hey, at least I have the program whenever I need it.

Call of Duty Black Ops. While this game supports controllers and you can turn gamepad on, something I didn’t like was, it had the R2 button as the firing button and R1 to throw grenades and such. I didn’t like this because I was used to the PS3 version, which was vice versa of that. Tried reversing the buttons and surprisingly it didn’t work. So I tried to get around it by mapping my controls to what my keyboard was and almost had it a setup I was satisfied with.

…Then I remembered Dead Ops Arcade existed, which has controls that differ from the rest of the game, and my configurations were awful for that game mode. So I eventually decided to just deal with the differing firing controls with the gamepad turned on since it was clear to me that doing it any other way would just introduce even more problems than that. All I really had to after that was map the ESC key and the arrow keys to my controller so I could pause and navigate the menus and I was finally done. I spent more time with this game than I care to admit and while I am not 100% satisfied, it’s at the very least acceptable.

Nerf Arena Blast. Had no issues configuring the controls for this game at first, but I had other problems come up later on for some reason. The game had worked well for me over the years, but somehow, it got to where it would crash upon booting every single time. I couldn’t figure it out for a bit, but eventually, I found I had to disable DEP for this game and once I did, it worked.

While I got that sorted, I don’t know if it’s been like this and I didn’t know it, but something I later noticed is the transparency was broken on some parts of the game. Fortunately, this game has a dedicated community patch that can address many of the game's issues, including this one. While it fixed the problem I had, it also made some undesirable changes to the game and I couldn’t figure out how to revert them without uninstalling the patch. So I decided to just play the game as is since the broken transparency wasn’t a huge deal anyway. I tend to admire mods and patches more after I have already played the original version of the game, so I’ll most likely reinstall it after I have played through the game.

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season. Oh boy. It started off with me configuring my controls for this game. I was able to configure some of them in-game, but things like the pause key and various others needed to be mapped outside of the game. So that’s where Steam Input came in and if I remember right, it worked at first, but then it eventually got to where it wouldn’t anymore for some reason. Not too sure why, but it seemed after I fiddled with DS4Windows some in this game, it never wanted to work right again. I had times when the game wouldn’t even recognize my controller and when it did, it only recognized the left analog stick and nothing else. Eventually, I decided to disable Steam Input for this game and use DS4Windows. A bit impractical to use a 3rd party app for this game, but it works well and I can do exactly what I want to do with it, so I have settled with that.

My problems didn’t stop there though. I wonder if Windows upped its security because like Nerf Arena Blast, it would crash when it didn’t do that previously and I had to disable DEP for it just for the game to work again, even though I should not have to. Something else I later noticed is the game wasn’t even using my GPU despite setting to that in graphics settings and was running slower than it should at 50-60fps. To put it bluntly, I spent a lot of time looking for answers, and eventually, I found some DLL files to make it run in DirectX 9 and it ran a lot better at roughly 75-90 fps, but it still seemed a bit slow for what my GPU was capable of. Yet another issue I had was my game would crash when exiting Single Race or Championship and I don’t even know if it did this before. Spent several days looking for answers and couldn’t find anything about my issue, I even created a Reddit account and posted about it since I felt I was out of luck. Then I found the answer to both of my problems and it was something completely left field that I NEVER expected…

When I connected my controller, either by USB or Bluetooth, somehow my game ran at 144 fps like it was supposed to while barely dropping any at all, and my game no longer crashed. Not just NR2003, but a few others as well. And I know this was it because I experimented multiple times to confirm it and believe it or not, it was true. Now how and why connecting a controller of all things would boost my FPS and stop it from crashing is beyond me, but I had someone tell me it might be related to my power settings. I ain’t even mad though because I intended to to play with a controller anyway, so this is totally acceptable.

Won’t lie, I think I spent more time getting this game sorted than just about all the other games combined and it was a journey in of itself to get there. However, I care a lot about this game, so it was worth it and now my installation is even better than it was before! :)

Other related stuff. Something I noticed along the way is the reason Nerf Arena Blast, NR2003, and Hot Wheels Crash! refused to work with Steam Input was because having them running as administrator and/or compatibility settings below Windows Vista. Not sure why, but the moment I disabled them, they worked like they should, apart from NR2003 where only the left analog stick did. Anything Vista and above however is fine.
After everything I have learned lately, I’ve been entertaining the idea of plugging my laptop into my TV again and playing my PC games on it. So I wanted to have them set up for whenever I decide to give it a go and while it was a lot of work, I more or less finished configuring all the games I cared about on Thursday. Something I realized though is my monitor is 1200-1920 while my TV is 1920-1080, so I’ll have to make that tweak when I decide to play them. I need to configure Assetto Corsa, Lego Star Wars The Force Awakens, and Need for Speed World, but I don’t know their controls well enough yet to do anything.

Along the way, I decided to move my lossless music collection to my external HDD since they took up a ton of space and I didn’t use them nearly enough to justify it. Lately, my attention has been on gaming above all else and I needed the space, so it was worth doing. Fortunately, thanks to this, I now have enough room for any small games I get in the future! :) With that out of the way, I am currently doing a data recovery on our old desktop HDD so I can wipe it and use it for something later on. Might be a while before I can do that because it’s taking longer than I expected.
 
I began looking at options for my next laptop. I mentioned before that a Chromebook is not really a good solution for me long-term, mostly because I am so indulged in the Windows ecosystem. So I am looking at some laptops priced at no more than $210 USD (before taxes). If I deposit about $100 USD any time soon, that budget may increase to $310 USD, and I may look for a few more snazzy laptops in that price range. Absolutely nothing is wrong with my current Chromebook; I am simply saving up to get a laptop, because I feel a laptop is a better long-term computing solution for me than my Chromebook.
 
I began looking at options for my next laptop. I mentioned before that a Chromebook is not really a good solution for me long-term, mostly because I am so indulged in the Windows ecosystem. So I am looking at some laptops priced at no more than $210 USD (before taxes). If I deposit about $100 USD any time soon, that budget may increase to $310 USD, and I may look for a few more snazzy laptops in that price range. Absolutely nothing is wrong with my current Chromebook; I am simply saving up to get a laptop, because I feel a laptop is a better long-term computing solution for me than my Chromebook.
Have you considered getting a second hand Lenovo ThinkPad T480? They can be found for cheap, much better specced than anything new in your price range and have a massive fan-base/community. Also, being a business grade laptop, the build quality is so much better than a cheap laptop.

Here's a buying guide which explains the options and what to get and what to avoid.
 
Have you considered getting a second hand Lenovo ThinkPad T480? They can be found for cheap, much better specced than anything new in your price range and have a massive fan-base/community. Also, being a business grade laptop, the build quality is so much better than a cheap laptop.

Here's a buying guide which explains the options and what to get and what to avoid.
I think something like a T14s Gen 1 AMD upwards would be a much better buy as it will be also a big improvement in performance over his desktop PC too while being more lightweight than most Chromebooks. Just did a quick search to see on eBay how much they go for and one went recently for $201.50 with 4750u 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD. Should be possible to get something like a used laptop with Ryzen 6000 series with an increased budget if you can find a decent bargain which would be better for long-term use due to having DirectX 12 Ultimate capability. Unfortunately, a lot of these laptops might only have 8GB RAM so best to aim for at least 16GB if it is soldered on. New laptops at that price point are not great but have got a lot better in recent years.
 
Well, I am not wanting a laptop more powerful than my mini office PC. I am looking in this price range for a fairly decent laptop. Let me give you a little perspective.

My previous computer was a budget Acer PC. It had about 4GB of RAM and a quad-core 1.99 GHz processor. My current computer is a refurbished HP mini office PC with about 16GB RAM and about a 2.4 GHz processor that can be tuned up to 3.4 GHz. The reason why I wanted a newer PC then was because a lot of games required about 8GB RAM. Now if you look on Steam, for example, a number of games requiring 4GB RAM recommend having 8GB RAM. So a laptop with at least 8GB RAM would be more than enough. Likewise, I wouldn't want to have a laptop with nearly the same specifications as my previous computer; and I also don't want to feel like having a laptop that will put my refurbished mini office PC to shame, basically making it my new main "PC."

I am still examining my options. I guess what I'd most want is decent microSD support, possibly being able to use up to 128GB microSD or microSDHD, and maybe also an HDMI port (though I could get an HDMI cable with a USB Type-C connector or if I can find my old USB Type-C to HDMI adapter). Productivity is the name of the game here. I think about when I want to be able to compute when when power goes out or WiFi goes down. I prefer not having to rely on cloud storage for my basic files or in using programs from a web browser. It is why I haven't fully embraced Chromebooks since buying mine almost three years ago.

Prior to your suggestions, I was looking at one from CHUWI that interested me. I never owned anything of CHUWI. Then I look at the Lenovo laptop some of you suggested (by the way, my Chromebook is a Lenovo), and now I'm interested in that. I am still in the research stage and not yet ready to pick out a new laptop yet. Thanks for the suggestions, though!
 
Well, I am not wanting a laptop more powerful than my mini office PC. I am looking in this price range for a fairly decent laptop. Let me give you a little perspective.

My previous computer was a budget Acer PC. It had about 4GB of RAM and a quad-core 1.99 GHz processor. My current computer is a refurbished HP mini office PC with about 16GB RAM and about a 2.4 GHz processor that can be tuned up to 3.4 GHz. The reason why I wanted a newer PC then was because a lot of games required about 8GB RAM. Now if you look on Steam, for example, a number of games requiring 4GB RAM recommend having 8GB RAM. So a laptop with at least 8GB RAM would be more than enough. Likewise, I wouldn't want to have a laptop with nearly the same specifications as my previous computer; and I also don't want to feel like having a laptop that will put my refurbished mini office PC to shame, basically making it my new main "PC."

I am still examining my options. I guess what I'd most want is decent microSD support, possibly being able to use up to 128GB microSD or microSDHD, and maybe also an HDMI port (though I could get an HDMI cable with a USB Type-C connector or if I can find my old USB Type-C to HDMI adapter). Productivity is the name of the game here. I think about when I want to be able to compute when when power goes out or WiFi goes down. I prefer not having to rely on cloud storage for my basic files or in using programs from a web browser. It is why I haven't fully embraced Chromebooks since buying mine almost three years ago.

Prior to your suggestions, I was looking at one from CHUWI that interested me. I never owned anything of CHUWI. Then I look at the Lenovo laptop some of you suggested (by the way, my Chromebook is a Lenovo), and now I'm interested in that. I am still in the research stage and not yet ready to pick out a new laptop yet. Thanks for the suggestions, though!
I have to agree with them, a T480 is a great second-hand laptop for it's price and it's also really well built, incredibly well-engineered with solid plastic and magnesium construction; also it's mil-spec graded! (I should know- I have a good amount of Thinkpads that I still use today and they don't miss a beat even if they suffer a beating!)
Also, it has a really good laptop keyboard, what's not to love? :D
That model also has a swappable battery (a true rarity nowadays), lots of ports, a decent MicroSD slot and you can also upgrade its RAM and SSD should the need arise.



Also, speaking of Thinkpads, in the last few days I had to work on a beat-to-hell L540 that still had its original mechanical HDD from 2014... suffice to say that it was in dire need of replacement.
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Ten thousand power on counts?
And it's been on for a total of nine thousand hours? And with some concerning writing errors? That's concerning.
It also doesn't help that it's a Seagate, I don't trust them.:grumpy:
 
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Well, I am not wanting a laptop more powerful than my mini office PC. I am looking in this price range for a fairly decent laptop. Let me give you a little perspective.

My previous computer was a budget Acer PC. It had about 4GB of RAM and a quad-core 1.99 GHz processor. My current computer is a refurbished HP mini office PC with about 16GB RAM and about a 2.4 GHz processor that can be tuned up to 3.4 GHz. The reason why I wanted a newer PC then was because a lot of games required about 8GB RAM. Now if you look on Steam, for example, a number of games requiring 4GB RAM recommend having 8GB RAM. So a laptop with at least 8GB RAM would be more than enough. Likewise, I wouldn't want to have a laptop with nearly the same specifications as my previous computer; and I also don't want to feel like having a laptop that will put my refurbished mini office PC to shame, basically making it my new main "PC."

I am still examining my options. I guess what I'd most want is decent microSD support, possibly being able to use up to 128GB microSD or microSDHD, and maybe also an HDMI port (though I could get an HDMI cable with a USB Type-C connector or if I can find my old USB Type-C to HDMI adapter). Productivity is the name of the game here. I think about when I want to be able to compute when when power goes out or WiFi goes down. I prefer not having to rely on cloud storage for my basic files or in using programs from a web browser. It is why I haven't fully embraced Chromebooks since buying mine almost three years ago.

Prior to your suggestions, I was looking at one from CHUWI that interested me. I never owned anything of CHUWI. Then I look at the Lenovo laptop some of you suggested (by the way, my Chromebook is a Lenovo), and now I'm interested in that. I am still in the research stage and not yet ready to pick out a new laptop yet. Thanks for the suggestions, though!
Most new laptops in that increased budget range will put your refurbished mini office PC to shame, surely that is a positive if productivity is the name of the game? You are getting a significant performance uplift at a lower power consumption. My laptop is much more stronger than my desktop PC, nothing wrong with that.

If you are looking to get a brand new laptop, I think this is a reasonable deal but ends today from Best Buy which is in stock locally to you for $279.99. Positives are that it has SD Card reader, touchscreen and Thunderbolt 4, so allows potential for improvements over an AMD laptop as you will need to spend quite a bit more to get a USB 4 one. Lenovo - Flex 5i 14" FHD Touchscreen 2-in-1 Laptop - Intel Core i3-1215U with 8GB Memory - Intel UHD Graphics - 256GB SSD

What kind of screen size do you want? Are you willing to get a refurbished laptop / open box as that might open up further options. If you can increase your budget further, that would open more opportunities to get a much stronger laptop. For example you can get the following for $443.99 Open Box Good condition nearby to you which will be a bigger step up if you could stretch to it. Around that price point, I think you are getting much more value for your money as it is more of a premium range laptop and efficient processor at a larger discounted price. Lenovo - Yoga 7 2-in-1 14" 2K Touchscreen Laptop - AMD Ryzen 5 8640HS with 8GB Memory - 512GB SSD - Artic Grey
I have to agree with them, a T480 is a great second-hand laptop for it's price and it's also really well built, incredibly well-engineered with solid plastic and magnesium construction; also it's mil-spec graded! (I should know- I have a good amount of Thinkpads that I still use today and they don't miss a beat even if they suffer a beating!)
Also, it has a really good laptop keyboard, what's not to love? :D
That model also has a swappable battery (a true rarity nowadays), lots of ports, a decent MicroSD slot and you can also upgrade its RAM and SSD should the need arise.



Also, speaking of Thinkpads, in the last few days I had to work on a beat-to-hell L540 that still had its original mechanical HDD from 2014... suffice to say that it was in dire need of replacement.
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Ten thousand power on counts?
And it's been on for a total of nine thousand hours? And with some concerning writing errors? That's concerning.
It also doesn't help that it's a Seagate, I don't trust them.:grumpy:
Used to get T series back in the day (My first laptop was a T22) but what put me off them are the poor speakers in newer models (They put better speakers in their E series than their T series, I wonder if T22 had better speakers than all succeeding T models...), made me switch to Dell Latitudes and Precisions over the years as at least they had more passable speakers in general. Have switched back though to ThinkPads due to competition removing pointing sticks (TrackPoints are the best), recently got the P1 Gen 7 as my main laptop to upgrade from P1 Gen 5 (Didn't get a Gen 6 as they got rid of S3 sleep and wasn't enough of a step up to justify losing that). They got rid of the carbon fibre weave for the 4K display in the latest generation which I preferred but finally they switched the Ctrl and Fn keys at least.

Something like that T480 is quite heavy too, much better IMO to get something like a X1 Carbon Gen 7 upwards for that generation of processor as they offer even better value used. Still have a X1 Carbon Gen 9 which I added a 5G WWAN card to, makes a great lightweight laptop on the go plus it has a matte touchscreen. Gen 10 I did have for a short while but battery life with OLED screen wasn't great and I think them Alder Lake processors work slower than Tiger Lake at lower power modes. I might get a Gen 13 for Lunar Lake and it being below 1KG finally and they are meant to have improved the speakers which put me off Gen 12, will wait for reviews before deciding. I might change to that over Yoga Slim 7 Gen 8 I got to replace my X1 Yoga as it has probably the best sounding speakers on a Windows laptop and the 7840S processor being much better too.

Power count on the 990 Pro 4TB SSD I got towards the end of last year for that laptop is already on 442,509 (Yes, you read that right), modern standby fails often even with all the latest drivers and on a factory install. Hopefully 24H2 improves things, I either hibernate laptop or shut it down to avoid that issue. The reason why I have two main laptops is because they are in different houses, saves hassle of having to carry a laptop most of the time plus it is good to have a have a more compact lightweight laptop with decent performance than just one big one.
 
Used to get T series back in the day (My first laptop was a T22) but what put me off them are the poor speakers in newer models (They put better speakers in their E series than their T series, I wonder if T22 had better speakers than all succeeding T models...), made me switch to Dell Latitudes and Precisions over the years as at least they had more passable speakers in general. Have switched back though to ThinkPads due to competition removing pointing sticks (TrackPoints are the best), recently got the P1 Gen 7 as my main laptop to upgrade from P1 Gen 5 (Didn't get a Gen 6 as they got rid of S3 sleep and wasn't enough of a step up to justify losing that). They got rid of the carbon fibre weave for the 4K display in the latest generation which I preferred but finally they switched the Ctrl and Fn keys at least.
The T series is still seriously good without compromising too much; they're also very common and can be bought at a very cheap price... but yeah, I must admit they haven't had some good speakers in a long time, you're right about that.:indiff:
Something like that T480 is quite heavy too, much better IMO to get something like a X1 Carbon Gen 7 upwards for that generation of processor as they offer even better value used. Still have a X1 Carbon Gen 9 which I added a 5G WWAN card to, makes a great lightweight laptop on the go plus it has a matte touchscreen. Gen 10 I did have for a short while but battery life with OLED screen wasn't great and I think them Alder Lake processors work slower than Tiger Lake at lower power modes. I might get a Gen 13 for Lunar Lake and it being below 1KG finally and they are meant to have improved the speakers which put me off Gen 12, will wait for reviews before deciding. I might change to that over Yoga Slim 7 Gen 8 I got to replace my X1 Yoga as it has probably the best sounding speakers on a Windows laptop and the 7840S processor being much better too.
To be honest, I didn't have much experiences with X1s, I only used one of the early ones (Gen 4) but glad that they served you well tho! I can see that can be very practical to someone that needs a laptop on the go.

Power count on the 990 Pro 4TB SSD I got towards the end of last year for that laptop is already on 442,509 (Yes, you read that right), modern standby fails often even with all the latest drivers and on a factory install. Hopefully 24H2 improves things, I either hibernate laptop or shut it down to avoid that issue. The reason why I have two main laptops is because they are in different houses, saves hassle of having to carry a laptop most of the time plus it is good to have a have a more compact lightweight laptop with decent performance than just one big one.
And I must imagine that that 990 pro doesn't miss a bit, yeah? That just goes to show that that old clunker of an HDD was already dying by that much, I guess! :lol:
Also interesting to know that you have multiple laptops in your house, that's quite handy I must imagine.
 
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My personal laptop is an E480, and my work laptop is a T490S - both have awful speakers :lol:

I do agree about it not being a bad thing about having a laptop more powerful than a desktop - technology moves fast, even my phone has the same amount of RAM as my laptop now :crazy:
 
So lately, my interest in PC gaming has soared since I finally have a decent laptop that can run my games, but my laptop only has 512GB and I don't like having to rely on my external HDD since it's slower and running games on it will shorten it's lifespan. (neither of which I want) So naturally, I wanted to upgrade the storage on my laptop and I had read one like mine has an extra SSD slot. So I took it apart yesterday just to confirm mine had that extra slot. Sure enough, it does! :D
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Upon confirming this, I carefully put it back together and then had the biggest "I'm an idiot" moment I've had all year. :ouch: I pressed the power button and it did nothing, so I tried plugging it up and nothing happened. I panicked for a bit thinking I had compromised my new laptop, but what really happened was the battery was just dead and I had forgotten I had drained it the day before. :P The reason my charger yielded nothing was because I had unplugged the surge protector it was connected to since we had a storm earlier and I totally forgot to plug it back in. :lol:

I didn't sleep well, so that might explain the silly little brain fart I had. Once I realized all that, I plugged it up again and tested a few things and it's been working fine. At least now I know I have that extra slot, so hopefully I can get an extra SSD on Black Friday this year. I mean, I have a PC I really like now and I have an extra slot for another SSD, might as well use it, especially since I want to keep my games in one place.
 
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So a while back, I found out my PS3's HDD was dying, which didn't surprise me too much since it was an old HDD I salvaged from my 2nd laptop years ago, and this obviously didn't sit well with me since I had a lot of stuff I didn't want to lose. So yesterday, I finally plugged the HDD into my PC via an adapter and copied everything of importance on it to my 8TB external HDD. Normally, this sort of thing isn't doable because the drive is encrypted by the PS3, but without saying too much, since my console is jailbroken, I was able to get what I needed to do this.

I am about 90% sure I have everything I need from it. Now I just need to replace the drive, I have considered getting a compatible 1TB SSD for it because I have seen videos showing the benefits of using them and it's something I have needed for a while now. However, I think I'll wait and get that after I upgrade my laptop's SSD first because I feel like I have a bigger need for that and I don't play my PS3 like I used to anyways.
 
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I have a question for anyone more computer orientated than me. I have a Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite motherboard and I'm upgrading from a Ryzen 5 5600X to a Ryzen 7 5700X3D. Will I need to update the Bios?

According to the Gigabyte CPU Support Key for this motherboard, Both the 5600X and the 5700X3D were both listed as working from the same F10 Bios version. Given I'm running a 5600X right now does that mean it should be ok?

I went into my BIOS on startup and my BIOS details are as follows -
BIOS Version - FC
BIOS Date - 06/08/23
BIOS ID - 8ARNR307


biosryz.png



I'm a bit confused as the required BIOS version is the same as the CPU I'm using now but the 5700X3D only released in JAN '24 how can it work on the same BIOS of my 5600X that is on a version with a date of mid last year...

Then again it is AM4 so the Architecture is a few years old now so perhaps its fine on the older BIOS.
 
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I have a question for anyone more computer orientated than me. I have a Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite motherboard and I'm upgrading from a Ryzen 5 5600X to a Ryzen 7 5700X3D. Will I need to update the Bios?

According to the Gigabyte CPU Support Key for this motherboard, Both the 5600X and the 5700X3D were both listed as working from the same F10 Bios version. Given I'm running a 5600X right now does that mean it should be ok?

I went into my BIOS on startup and my BIOS details are as follows -
BIOS Version - FC
BIOS Date - 06/08/23
BIOS ID - 8ARNR307


View attachment 1391864


I'm a bit confused as the required BIOS version is the same as the CPU I'm using now but the 5700X3D only released in JAN '24 how can it work on the same BIOS of my 5600X that is on a version with a date of mid last year...

Then again it is AM4 so the Architecture is a few years old now so perhaps its fine on the older BIOS.
You should be good because both the 5600X and 5700X3D are Vermeer chips.
 
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I installed my new CPU last night and all seems good so far. (Touch Wood) hardest bit was putting my Be Quiet! Cooler back on as its so large and I didn't want to take everything out of the case. First time I've touched the CPU/Cooler myself. So it was a good step in gaining confidence for when I do my first full build alone. I've installed RAM, M2 SSD's and installed Graphics Cards before so this was my last step that I hadn't done myself.
 
The T series is still seriously good without compromising too much; they're also very common and can be bought at a very cheap price... but yeah, I must admit they haven't had some good speakers in a long time, you're right about that.:indiff:

To be honest, I didn't have much experiences with X1s, I only used one of the early ones (Gen 4) but glad that they served you well tho! I can see that can be very practical to someone that needs a laptop on the go.


And I must imagine that that 990 pro doesn't miss a bit, yeah? That just goes to show that that old clunker of an HDD was already dying by that much, I guess! :lol:
Also interesting to know that you have multiple laptops in your house, that's quite handy I must imagine.
X1 Carbon Gen 7 to Gen 11 had two woofers and two tweeters so made the sound reasonable than other ThinkPads. The reduced weight makes a difference, even compared to something like my Yoga Slim 7 Gen 8 which weighs about 1.3KG, the Carbon feels a lot lighter that it makes the Yoga feel heavy. It is like having to carry an extra flagship large smartphone in weight on top.

I normally get Western Digital SSDs, had couple 4TB SN850X already but that is double-sided. Needed something single-sided and didn't want to get a Lexar NM790 as didn't know how reliable YMTC flash would be. Luckily, the 990 Pro 4TB just came out then. 990 Pro actually have a lot of issues with drive health dropping on original firmware but the 4TB model being a newer generation of flash, I thought it would be safe and will come with new firmware as standard and so far has been 100% reliable, still showing 100% health and is very rapid booting up Windows. HDD being mechanical, if knocked about could get damaged. If you replace that with an SSD, would make for a sizeable speed-up.

Yeah, it is quite handy. Also in the family, there are number of different laptops so I could borrow say a MacBook Pro if I needed to.
My personal laptop is an E480, and my work laptop is a T490S - both have awful speakers :lol:

I do agree about it not being a bad thing about having a laptop more powerful than a desktop - technology moves fast, even my phone has the same amount of RAM as my laptop now :crazy:
I think T14S had a reasonable improvement, you could even install them speakers on the older T495S but don't think it is compatible with the T490S. The newer E series laptops have audio by Harman which in general sound better than the T series laptops. You can see here a review of an E16 Gen 2: Link

My phone is a lot faster than my desktop too, even my car is more powerful. Might see if I can install CPU-Z on that and see how much RAM it has. :lol:

Anyway, finally got round to unboxing my P1 Gen 7 over the weekend so now nearly approaching a week of use. First impressions, build quality feels great (Less of a fingerprint magnet too) and speakers are probably the best 2.0 speakers I have ever heard on a laptop. Last year, I sent a message to Lenovo Product manager saying for them to put the same speakers from Yoga Slim 7 Gen 8 into future P1 Gen 7 so I am going to take all the credit for them improving it even though it probably had zero impact. :D Doesn't sound as good as the Yoga Slim 7 Gen 8 due to not having the four back-to-back subwoofers but sounds a lot better than the Zephyrus G15 which had a six speaker system too. This is already my favourite laptop so far. It will be interesting to see how NotebookCheck reviews it. Saw RTINGS rated the speakers 9.2 which is higher than the 9.1 they rated for the 16" MacBook Pro 2023 and the 8.9 for the 14" MacBook Pro 2023. It is quite loud, I remember once having a ThinkPad at full volume, you couldn't make out what people were saying due to how quiet it was on videos with low sound, this on 2 out of 100 you can make out voice better. I am glad they got rid of top-firing speakers and went to the T14S speaker design on the sides, makes the design look a lot cleaner and it looks like it is mainly for show on most devices anyway like fake exhausts given how shocking some speakers sound and how small the actual speakers are. Shame most of these speaker / technology brand names have very little in standards so even if it sounds like trash, they still let their brand name be on it.

T440 actually was the model that put me off ThinkPads due to poor audio and the "ClunkPad". This haptic touchpad on this is so much better and does a good enough job recreating the button sound and feeling while adding to the clean minimalist look. They did a great job reducing idle power consumption too, even though it has a 4K 16" OLED, it consumes less than the 14" Yoga Slim 7 Gen 8 so very impressive. Hopefully next year's model can bring that further down with Arrow Lake and GPU using GDDR7, it will be like an all-day battery life system for basic usage. It is pretty cool that a ThinkPad which looks kind of old-school is the first device on the market utilising the new JEDEC CAMM2 memory standard, finally got a successor to SODIMM after over a couple of decades so it is quite a rare change in computing and should be also used in desktops soon too.

Anyway, it is good to see others on here have ThinkPads too.
I have a question for anyone more computer orientated than me. I have a Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite motherboard and I'm upgrading from a Ryzen 5 5600X to a Ryzen 7 5700X3D. Will I need to update the Bios?

According to the Gigabyte CPU Support Key for this motherboard, Both the 5600X and the 5700X3D were both listed as working from the same F10 Bios version. Given I'm running a 5600X right now does that mean it should be ok?

I went into my BIOS on startup and my BIOS details are as follows -
BIOS Version - FC
BIOS Date - 06/08/23
BIOS ID - 8ARNR307


View attachment 1391864


I'm a bit confused as the required BIOS version is the same as the CPU I'm using now but the 5700X3D only released in JAN '24 how can it work on the same BIOS of my 5600X that is on a version with a date of mid last year...

Then again it is AM4 so the Architecture is a few years old now so perhaps its fine on the older BIOS.
You are looking at wrong revision of your motherboard going by your BIOS version, yours looks like it is 1.3 if it is an mATX motherboard. It is better to update to latest version for any improvements even though it will boot up fine as it is.
 
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My new laptop arrived today! Sorry to disappoint some of you, but as you suggested a Lenovo Thinkpad T480, I instead got myself an HP Elitebook X360 G2. Its specifications are kind of midway between my previous PC and my current PC. It has 8GB of RAM a (I think...) 2.7 GHz processor with an Intel i5-7200U Dual Core processor, and 256GB of PCIe SSD storage. I wasn't fully intrigued or convinced to get the Lenovo you all been suggesting. So I went with a brand I like and a laptop that has as much capability as I want. Funny thing is... my main PC is a refurbished HP Elitedesk, and now I own a refurbished HP Elitebook. I'm Elite! HP Elite! :D

I'll try to get settled in with this new laptop and hope to increase my productivity that I felt was missing with almost three years owning my Chromebook. I may hold onto my Chromebook, or I may decide to sell it. I want to keep it for now.
 
My new laptop arrived today! Sorry to disappoint some of you, but as you suggested a Lenovo Thinkpad T480, I instead got myself an HP Elitebook X360 G2. Its specifications are kind of midway between my previous PC and my current PC. It has 8GB of RAM a (I think...) 2.7 GHz processor with an Intel i5-7200U Dual Core processor, and 256GB of PCIe SSD storage. I wasn't fully intrigued or convinced to get the Lenovo you all been suggesting. So I went with a brand I like and a laptop that has as much capability as I want. Funny thing is... my main PC is a refurbished HP Elitedesk, and now I own a refurbished HP Elitebook. I'm Elite! HP Elite! :D

I'll try to get settled in with this new laptop and hope to increase my productivity that I felt was missing with almost three years owning my Chromebook. I may hold onto my Chromebook, or I may decide to sell it. I want to keep it for now.
It's still a solid choice! :embarrassed: Elitebooks are basically one of the better HP product lines and they feel very well made; my father has one (not the x360 but a more standard one with a 8th gen I7 and it's serving him well.
And it's still a great upgrade compared to a Chromebook (but I suggest you hold on to it, you never know when you need some kind of a computer for emergencies or whatever problems you might have in the future).
 
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