What Have You Done Today - (Computer Version)

[TJ13]

Should be getting new laptop memory on Tuesday.
At the same time I got a BSOD of Memory Management.
May have disk errors but if it was it's not showing up.
If it was due to outdated drivers (I looked and I have 20 of them via Driver Easy)

If it was due to windows update, well that would be expected since windows cannot always go smoothly.

Have total 8GB ram going to 20 GB ram total.
Guess I will be updating on Monday.

 

[Rallywagon]

Just got a new 500GB SSD. That brings the total to 1.25TB spread across a 500GB SSD, 250GB SSD and a 500GB NvMe PCI SSD. At this point, I am totally SSD now. I do still have two HDDs in there, 500GB and 250GB. Think I may just wipe them both, JBOD them and use them for backup/long term storage.

Should be getting new laptop memory on Tuesday.
At the same time I got a BSOD of Memory Management.
May have disk errors but if it was it's not showing up.
If it was due to outdated drivers (I looked and I have 20 of them via Driver Easy)

If it was due to windows update, well that would be expected since windows cannot always go smoothly.

Have total 8GB ram going to 20 GB ram total.
Guess I will be updating on Monday.

Sorry to hear of your troubles. I just did the 2004 update on my PC and it worked well. Hopefully the memory takes care of it. Memory Management definitely suggests that's the issue.

 

[TJ13]

Sorry to hear of your troubles. I just did the 2004 update on my PC and it worked well. Hopefully the memory takes care of it. Memory Management definitely suggests that's the issue.

Given I had a few things running at the time too doesn't help with 8GB ram.
But they say 4GB is good enough but now days is it?
I just went all out and went with the one stick 16GB and call it good. I hope.
Then update all the other things too while I am at it.

I have been running Previews of Windows which also could be the reason.
But my BSOD isn't blue it's the GSOD.

 

[Rallywagon]

Given I had a few things running at the time too doesn't help with 8GB ram.
But they say 4GB is good enough but now days is it?
I just went all out and went with the one stick 16GB and call it good. I hope.
Then update all the other things too while I am at it.

I have been running Previews of Windows which also could be the reason.
But my BSOD isn't blue it's the GSOD.

Honestly, these days 16GB hardly cuts it. I'd say its almost the bare minimum for a windows 10 pc.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

8 GB of RAM is still the bare minimum, but for any usage that's more than just browsing a couple text web pages you'll want to have 16 GB. If you're gonna be multitasking like playing a game with a browser open, you'll definitely want 16 GB

 

[Nexus]

4GB is fine for basic users, 8GB should be plenty for most. 16GB is only really necessary if you do heavy stuff, or if you're gaming.

I've had a VM open, along with at least 15 browser tabs, Discord, Spotify, VSC, and other background programs on my laptop with 8GB RAM. Still had some memory left over.

 

[Darla Starch]

Clearly the only way to go is to MAX OUT ALL THE RAM YOUR MOTHERBOARD SUPPORTS.


...but yeah, I get along fine with 16 GB.

 

[Robin]

I had 8 GB RAM in my laptop 7 years ago and I'm surprised that 8 GB still seems to be considered an acceptable minimum, maybe software has just got more efficient.

 

[Dave A]

I've recently had to remove one of the HDD's out of my NAS as it completley failed, so I've just installed a new 4TB WD Red NAS drive.

 

[TJ13]

Updated everything on the laptop that had the Memory management GSOD.
Now I just wait for the new ram stick and put it in and shouldn't have any issue.

 

[Rallywagon]

I had 8 GB RAM in my laptop 7 years ago and I'm surprised that 8 GB still seems to be considered an acceptable minimum, maybe software has just got more efficient.

Looks like only Nexus thinks 8GB to be sufficient. I do moderate usage on my PC. Run a game, have Discord up, maybe a web browser and of course the obligatory control software for the GPU and Mobo/CPU. That consumes most of my 16GB of memory. My work computer also has 16GB of RAM. I do network admin stuff, configuring Cisco switches/routers. I often have Word, Excel and Visio running along with SecureCRT (if you are on SSH more than not, this is worth every penny) and even that tends to start bogging down the memory.
If you are doing heavy work loads, gaming and streaming for example, you really are better off with 32GB.

 

[Nexus]

Looks like only Nexus thinks 8GB to be sufficient. I do moderate usage on my PC. Run a game, have Discord up, maybe a web browser and of course the obligatory control software for the GPU and Mobo/CPU. That consumes most of my 16GB of memory. My work computer also has 16GB of RAM. I do network admin stuff, configuring Cisco switches/routers. I often have Word, Excel and Visio running along with SecureCRT (if you are on SSH more than not, this is worth every penny) and even that tends to start bogging down the memory.
If you are doing heavy work loads, gaming and streaming for example, you really are better off with 32GB.

I mean if you're running a game while running other programs, that's not really moderate usage.

Myself and all my friends all do similar multitasking, and 16GB is perfectly viable for our usage at least.
This is my RAM usage with Forza Horizon 4, 12 Firefox tabs, Discord, Deluge, and Android Studio running:

That's not including Sapphire Trixx, G.Skill software, and all the other background processes running in the background.
I don't run games in the background on my laptop, so 8GB is perfectly fine for that. More RAM would be nice, but it's definitely not needed for most people IMO.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Been tearing my hair out over sound settings recently. I was using a Razer dongle, which I got free. It provided some really neat cable routing, but I ABSOLUTELY HATE Razer software. So intrusive wanting you to sign in all the time, and demanding the PC reboot for no good reason.

Then there was an update to the Xbox app which really screwed everything up. I could hear the game audio, but not the party audio. My streams would get the party audio but not the game audio. Yada yada yada.

I ended up pulling everything out and connecting to the rear sound jacks on the motherboard. The cabling is too ugly to use the front panel, as my headphones also have a USB connector, and there is a second USB connector running along that wire (actually two wires cable-tied together) to provide power to the TrackIR antennae.

It still didn't work, and I eventually found a setting buried in the Xbox app which was routing party audio out through the monitor, which doesn't have any speakers. I could plug everything into the monitor, but then I need to run a Mic wire from the monitor back to the sound card, because although the monitor has a Mic in port, it doesn't seem to do anything.

Urgh.

Anyway, I got it working, and now I'm not sure that I'm not imagining some hiss in there somewhere.

So I'm looking at an external Soundblaster X3 unit, connected via USB (PCIe slots are... tricky, since I have a vertical mount GPU). When I listen to music, I'm using a Cambridge Audio DAC to feed a Quad amplifier. Maybe the Soundblaster X3 could replace the Cambridge Audio DAC, but that would need a new set of interconnects as it only has a 3.5mm stereo line out. Or I could use the Creative Soundblaster X-Fi, which seems to have all the ports I need, but is unfeasibly cheap, meaning that I worry that it's not very good.

In short, I'm tying myself up in knots, sonically-speaking

 

[Rallywagon]

Been tearing my hair out over sound settings recently. I was using a Razer dongle, which I got free. It provided some really neat cable routing, but I ABSOLUTELY HATE Razer software. So intrusive wanting you to sign in all the time, and demanding the PC reboot for no good reason.

Then there was an update to the Xbox app which really screwed everything up. I could hear the game audio, but not the party audio. My streams would get the party audio but not the game audio. Yada yada yada.

I ended up pulling everything out and connecting to the rear sound jacks on the motherboard. The cabling is too ugly to use the front panel, as my headphones also have a USB connector, and there is a second USB connector running along that wire (actually two wires cable-tied together) to provide power to the TrackIR antennae.

It still didn't work, and I eventually found a setting buried in the Xbox app which was routing party audio out through the monitor, which doesn't have any speakers. I could plug everything into the monitor, but then I need to run a Mic wire from the monitor back to the sound card, because although the monitor has a Mic in port, it doesn't seem to do anything.

Urgh.

Anyway, I got it working, and now I'm not sure that I'm not imagining some hiss in there somewhere.

So I'm looking at an external Soundblaster X3 unit, connected via USB (PCIe slots are... tricky, since I have a vertical mount GPU). When I listen to music, I'm using a Cambridge Audio DAC to feed a Quad amplifier. Maybe the Soundblaster X3 could replace the Cambridge Audio DAC, but that would need a new set of interconnects as it only has a 3.5mm stereo line out. Or I could use the Creative Soundblaster X-Fi, which seems to have all the ports I need, but is unfeasibly cheap, meaning that I worry that it's not very good.

In short, I'm tying myself up in knots, sonically-speaking

I have a SoundBlaster X G5. I Personally have found it to be quite good. I imagine the X3 would be better still. The software is also pretty good, and you even have the ability to select "what I hear" mode that should show up as an audio device that you can use with your streaming software. In this mode it will broadcast all of whats going through your headset, such as the game audio, your mic audio and the audio of say discord where you are talking with other people.
But yeah, as you see, its 3.5mm not USB. In fact, most DACs appear to be 3.5mm.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Thanks for that. I think I'm going to go for a Sount Blaster X G6 as that looks like it's the business for gaming & streaming. I'll pick up a 3.5mm - 2x phono interconnect and see how I get on. Will look for deals later in the year, as I've solved the immediate problem.

 

[kikie]

I have been trying to find out why one monitor of the triple always shuts down for a few seconds only to start working again. It is the oldest monitor of the three and one of the two HDMI ports is kaputt so I think this monitor is going to fail any time soon.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

After finding motivation during lockdown, I spent a few weeks developing an Android app.

It's a super simple weather app that currently only shows the weather at your current location. Once I add the feature to search any location, I'll try to put it on the Play Store

 

[Sonygamer455]

Was originally going to do some other things today, but I got distracted and decided to take a quick trip down memory lane today and revisit some old flash games I used to play in my late childhood and early teen years. Next thing I know, I was having the time of my life finding some of my old favorites I ain't touched in over a decade. Spent much of my day messing around with them and will probably continue to do so tomorrow.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

I bought the first component for my son's new PC. A WD Blue NVME drive. 1TB for £90 from Overclockers. It's been steady at around £105-£110 for months, so this feels like a nice little discount to start the process off.

 

[VFOURMAX1]

I bought the first component for my son's new PC. A WD Blue NVME drive. 1TB for £90 from Overclockers. It's been steady at around £105-£110 for months, so this feels like a nice little discount to start the process off.

Storage drives and ddr4 ram memory are both available for super low prices and generally in stock right now.

 

[Jump_Ace]

Backed up the OS and Game HDDs in my arcade cab. Next I'll sync the Game HDD to Mega, 8TB will take a while I'm sure.


Jerome

 

[kikie]

The clock in the lower right hand corner disappeared. Restarting the computer fixed it.

 

[eran0004]

Lenovo is funny. It asked me to perform a BIOS update and then threw a warning message at me saying that the update was just for a particular model and asked me if I was sure I wanted to continue. I’m 95% sure I have that model, but I was so scared by the warning message that I clicked “cancel”.

Surely that’s not the kind of question you should ask the end user about. Just make a program to check the model of the computer automatically and go ahead with the installation if it’s correct.

 

[Nexus]

Lenovo is funny. It asked me to perform a BIOS update and then threw a warning message at me saying that the update was just for a particular model and asked me if I was sure I wanted to continue. I’m 95% sure I have that model, but I was so scared by the warning message that I clicked “cancel”.

Surely that’s not the kind of question you should ask the end user about. Just make a program to check the model of the computer automatically and go ahead with the installation if it’s correct.

I don't know about you, but I don't want BIOS updates to be installed without my explicit permission...

 

[Sonygamer455]

Was originally going to do some other things today, but I got distracted and decided to take a quick trip down memory lane today and revisit some old flash games I used to play in my late childhood and early teen years. Next thing I know, I was having the time of my life finding some of my old favorites I ain't touched in over a decade. Spent much of my day messing around with them and will probably continue to do so tomorrow.

So I said this over a month ago, I actually ended up spending the next week or so replaying some old browser games from my youth with Flashpoint and was having a great time with it too! I was also storming Archive.org for some old games Flashpoint didn't already have and found quite a few of them, including some obscure ones I didn't know existed!

However, as of recent, I have learned a few things about ripping music from video games and have been pursuing that quite a bit the past few days. I already have a bunch from Midnight Club 3 Edition Remix ripped, but I haven't bothered to finish organizing them yet. I just finished getting the music from Need for Speed Undercover for the PS2 today (something I have wanted to do for ages now) via extracting it with a hex editor and I am probably going to do the same for every other NFS title on the PS2. NFS Carbon will certainly take a LONG time because the file containing the interactive music has at least 900+ entries in there and I don't really have the patience for that at the moment. If I can learn how to make a QuickBMS script to do this, I may try that so it will take far less time, but who knows. In the meantime, I'll focus on the less time consuming games first.

 

[eran0004]

I don't know about you, but I don't want BIOS updates to be installed without my explicit permission...

I did permit it, but then it threw a warning message saying “are you sure you want to do this, this update is only for a particular model”.

 

[Dave A]

I've just installed two new 4TB drives into my NAS, I had a couple of 3TB in there previousely but they're 7 years old and one finally went kaput. So bought a couple of IronWolf Pro NAS drives which are in there now.

 

[JohnBM01]

I uninstalled Adobe Flash on my PC. Flash will supposedly no longer be supported on December 31, 2020. I even recall some of the infant stages of HTML5. If we're talking online games, one of the first to utilize HTML5 was a game called "Biolab Disaster." Online games powered by Flash will probably need to try to go to HTML5. So the one thing I fear is that older games will probably be lost forever with Flash reaching its sunset.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

I've ordered a set of Lian Li Unifans for my rig. They'll tidy up the wiring nicely, and will also improve cooling, as they have a higher static pressure than the EK Vardar fans I have in at the minute. The different RGB approach should also light the case much more cleanly.

I've just got one triple-pack (which includes the controller module). The single-fan packs are out of stock everywhere, so I'll bang a back-order in at Overclockers once I've had a play with the triple pack.

I should be able to sell the EK fans to offset the cost.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

Currently into my 3rd year of college and in my intro graphics class, we implemented ray tracing in Python. Definitely one of the coolest things I've done so far, which is kinda disappointing I suppose

Only took 12.5 min (!) to render this 2650 by 1440, because we have to do it in a single thread