What Have You Done Today - (Computer Version)

  • Thread starter tlowr4
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So, from you people who are on W8 for a few weeks now. Is it worth the change for someone who is more of a keyboard user than a mouse user?

Any problems with games?
 
I don't have windows 8 but i got a full tour from a futureshop guy to see if hats its all about and it seems pretty difficult to use with a mouse. It's really made for a touch screen. Everything is dragging to close etc and it's definitely possible with a mouse but it just takes 10x longer. I assume you could enable the start menu again and force it to boot direct into the actual desktop mode than disable all the love notification things but than you're pretty much making it windows 7. The guy told me you can buy the computer with Windows 7 installed and get windows 8 for $14. Not a bad idea if eventually you get bored of normal windows 7 or want to use it as a media computer etc you can than install windows 8. Personally tho I feel a new touchscreen laptop is only way it can be used efficiently. HP males a desktop touchscreen but reading forward all the time will kill your shoulder and be so tiring.
 
What have I done today?

Tried installing a program but install crashed halfway through. (Due to me using net at same time :dunce:)

Restarted computer and uninstalled it now my computer says half of it is installed when it isnt and does not want to install anything.
Says that after trying a system restore as well.
ARGHHHHHHH.

It is connected to steam but got it on a disk if anyone has a suggestion?
 
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All the computer problems I have had recently I finally got one that should be easy as pie. Buy a ps/2 connector to plug in my old keyboard so it will convert to usb. Sounds easy enough. I go and get the converter from the store which was so expensive at $10 but still cheaper than a new good quality keyboard so whatever. Plug the keyboard into it and seems a little loose, plug the usb part into the computer which also seems loose. See all the lights on the keyboard go on and I'm thinking awesome finally can use it again. First step of using the computer is click the password box than type it in. I use the mouse to click and as soon as I go to type of course nothing happens. Plugged in the old keyboard to get in thinking maybe windows needs to recognize it first. Nope. Looked everywhere for a driver or others with this problem and absolutely nothing can be found. Plugging a keyboard in was the one thing I would have guessed was a sure thing. How wrong I was.
 
Well if it seemed loose then you can try to get a replacement adapter from the store. Though do be careful of the PS/2 connectors as pins can easily bend if you don't insert it right. It's no fun to fix the pins in a PS/2 keyboard connector.
 
nick09
Well if it seemed loose then you can try to get a replacement adapter from the store. Though do be careful of the PS/2 connectors as pins can easily bend if you don't insert it right. It's no fun to fix the pins in a PS/2 keyboard connector.
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I don't know why it's lose but it's good enough to still be in. Just has some wiggle. I can see the lights on it turn on so I know it's getting power too. Only thing I can think of is no driver for it but I searched everywhere and can not find one.
 
My power supply is going bad very quickly so I had to revert the turbo mode clocks back to original clock speeds.. :(
 
haitch40
What have I done today?

Tried installing a program but install crashed halfway through. (Due to me using net at same time :dunce:)

Restarted computer and uninstalled it now my computer says half of it is installed when it isnt and does not want to install anything.
Says that after trying a system restore as well.
ARGHHHHHHH.

It is connected to steam but got it on a disk if anyone has a suggestion?
Click to expand...

Pirate the game and install it to the folder steam is trying to install it to. Then update the game from steam.
 
haitch40
What have I done today?

Tried installing a program but install crashed halfway through. (Due to me using net at same time :dunce:)

Restarted computer and uninstalled it now my computer says half of it is installed when it isnt and does not want to install anything.
Says that after trying a system restore as well.
ARGHHHHHHH.

It is connected to steam but got it on a disk if anyone has a suggestion?
Click to expand...
Use the Steam backup, then delete local content and restore the backup.
 
Not really what I have done today but last week I got a HD 4850 x2 for a good price (£45) used. Replaced my GTS 250 with it and it ran fine.
Ran Guild Wars 2 to test it out but after 5 mins my pc shutdown and I heard an explosion from the PSU.
I had checked to see whether my psu would have enough power and was recommended 600w; I was pretty sure that although my psu was cheap, a 150w overhead would be sufficient, turns out I was wrong.
So I replaced it with a corsair cx750 and put everything back together.

Unfortunately now I'm getting artifacts like this (not my photo)
p1010832vh.jpg

However they appear in BIOS and when POSTing and when trying to boot into windows I get a blue screen and a reboot. I'm wondering if when the psu went it also damaged the graphics card, it doesn't seem to have damaged anything else as it is working just fine with the 250.
Any ideas?
 
Pretty sure you killed it.. Is there a warranty card with it? Or are they MSI cards? If they're MSI you might get lucky and run the serials to see if you can get them replaced...
 
It is a sapphire card and it didn't come with a warranty card. It's sad to think that it lasted less than a day.
I have done a bit of google searching and apparently there are some diagnostics lights on the board which I will check for more information. If that fails, another thing that seems to fix these sometimes is to bake them. :scared:
From what I know about baking, it only really helps if the problem is caused by solder coming apart due to stress from heat and I think that these artifacts are caused by problems with the ram, is this correct?

Anyways I will leave baking as a last resort.
 
Fixed my brother's problem with the connection to the router. Ends up it was a outside DNS server that his laptop was set to and he never knew of it. Could of been one of those viruses which can change the DNS without prior permission and use your computer with a bunch of other computers to DDOS websites. Just had to set it to automatically get the router's DNS and he was good to go.
 
I got to work at 7:30 and received a phone call at 7:45 that someones computer would turn on. The fan was running to beat hell but wouldn't do anything else. I vacuumed and blew out all the dust jackalopes (they were larger than bunnies) and reconnected everything back up. Still nothing. As last week I'd been updating the database of computers for my department, I knew that this particular machine was quickly closing in on 9 years of active, full time service so I scrounged a temporary replacement until we can acquire a new machine for him (his laser printer is 3 months short of 10 years old).

By the time I got back to my desk, I had two voicemails; one about a Java issue with one computer and a printer problem on another. The Java bit only took a few minutes to remedy. The printer will likely be handled tomorrow...

Also, one of my co-workers welded up an 1/8" plate steel bracket* last week to mount my tower under my desk to get it off of the floor so I grabbed a couple of drills from the cabinet shop and mounted that late this morning. All of the cables still reached save one - my second monitor. Not a big deal, thinks I. I've lived with only one monitor for years and been fine, thinks I.

I was wrong. After about 10 minutes I was back under the desk re-routing the DVI cable through a different grommet. All is right in the world again. :lol:

* The bracket weighs more than the tower :lol:
 
Started lighting this ****er up. (Not complete cause power went out last night, so I just put it in position, will mount it all and install rest of run later tonight)

p5Qvjh.jpg

IvmZrh.jpg

nyFOrh.jpg


Can make it strobe colours and **** which is always a favorite of mine.
 
I changed the orientation of my CPU cooler (arctic cooling freezer 7 pro rev 2) so that it no longer draws in hot air from my graphics card. I also had to change the thermal paste. Temps have gone down nicely.

Don't you hate changing thermal paste?
When I do it I'm always afraid that It's going to somehow get down the side of the CPU and short something out in there.
 
Gdog96
Don't you hate changing thermal paste?
When I do it I'm always afraid that It's going to somehow get down the side of the CPU and short something out in there.
Click to expand...

If you did a neat job pasting it last time and used the correct amount it shouldn't be too hard to clean up. If you slather it on there the way the manufacturers (like Dell) do then it might be a problem when you go to clean it.
 
Both times I have had to clean it off, it was from when it was pre-applied to the heatsink (the intel one leaves LOADS on the CPU). This time I put on a bit the size of an uncooked grain of rice and let the heat spread it out. Seems to be ok.

Safe to say, working anywhere near the CPU is my least favourite part of PC building.
 
Yeah the pre-applied stuff is always crap. Its even worse on a prebuilt computer. I always build my own desktops but I've seen terrible paste on laptops. The stuff is basically cement and the whole CPU/surrounding area are covered by it.
 
I placed my new DVD burner into it's new home. Testing it as we speak.

Aaaaaand something seems to be wrong. It started with 7 minutes to end, and after 7 minutes it was just at the half point of burning.. Hmm.
 
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dchPSUone
Yeah the pre-applied stuff is always crap. Its even worse on a prebuilt computer. I always build my own desktops but I've seen terrible paste on laptops. The stuff is basically cement and the whole CPU/surrounding area are covered by it.
Click to expand...

I was thinking of re-applying the paste on my laptop as I have seen it get to 98 Celsius once, but I haven't got round to it yet.

The stuff I used this time is non conductive so hopefully won't cause problems.
 
Gdog96
I was just looking back through this thread and it reminded me of something I wanna know.....why does everyone seem to hate vista?
Click to expand...

Because before the service packs were released it was a horrible OS, unstable, used way too much resources, strange errors etc. etc.

But after the packs, and with the computers nowadays, it isn't much worse than 7.
 
I was about to pack up and go to sleep, when I noticed the screws on the bottom of my old HP I got out to finish transferring some stuff. I'm tired, and often get my best ideas when I am, so I decided to open her up and take a look.

I ended up taking the 4GB RAM card out of this:
HP-Pavilion-dv7-4280us-Laptop-Intel-Core-i5-Processor.jpg


And putting it in the expansion slot in this:
DSC_0146.PNG

Resulting in a grand total of 12GB of RAM.
/)^3^(\

I wanted to move the HDD over and put it in the empty slot on the right, too, but HP has their own proprietary crap for that.

I'd have had 1.75TB of storage. ;_;


(NOTE: The image of my current laptop is pre-upgrade. It's 5AM and I don't feel like uploading more pictures. Just imagine a green RAM card over the blue one just below the left HDD.)



Aside from hardware stuff I messed with Rainmeter a little(Did a few photoshops to get that circuit board background under the torn paper), changed my Windows lock screen, changed my cursor and sounds in Windows, and installed Far Cry 2, Halo: CE. I also got the sub working on her again. Though this thing without the sub sounded better than my HP did with it.
 
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Nice. Remember though, all the ram in your laptop will run at the speed of the slowest dimm (which I'm assuming came out of your old hp). I doubt you will notice though.
 
Minty, can you post a pic of the HDD from the HP please. I have a couple HP laptops myself and want to see if they are the same.
 

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