What Have You Done Today - (Computer Version)

[nick09]

Got my Mom's Thinkpad in the mail yesterday, upgraded the ram to 6GB, and from yesterday to today I removed some bloatware and installed necessary software. It's a really cool laptop that's well built and boot speeds are good once you remove most of the bloatware. Some of the software that comes with the laptop is good. such as software that detects sudden movement and decides if it needs to turn off the HDD from a sudden drop or keep the HDD on if you are in car or train. Also comes with DVD burning software and DVD playing software. A laptop for $458(Price after you add in the 4GB RAM upgrade) with 4 USB ports(3 of which are USB 3.0!). All great features.

 

[Joel]

Upgraded from 32bit Vista to 64bit Windows 8. Loving it so far, nice to actually be able to use my 8GB of RAM

inb4 "lolol 2 worst windows"

 

[LaBounti]

Uploading my Origin and Steam games to my new A10 laptop. Can now enjoy all games at 1366x768 smoooooooth.

 

[nick09]

Performed some updates for my parent's PC and I helped a friend troubleshoot his PS3 over facebook(Can't read games).

 

[nick09]

Changed my laptop and phone's background picture to a Corvette Stingray on the laptop and to a Corvette, 2 Vipers, and a Mustang driving by in one lane on the phone.

 

[Eks]

Upgraded from 32bit Vista to 64bit Windows 8. Loving it so far, nice to actually be able to use my 8GB of RAM

inb4 "lolol 2 worst windows"

Nah, I think Windows 8 is great, I downloaded Classic Start (so now I have an actual Start button at the buttom which opens up the window displaying Documents, All Programs, etc) and it's almost like Windows 7, and honestly I have no idea why people hate Windows Vista. All I was told was that it was buggy.

__

Today, I bought Minecraft. The game sure has changed as the last time I played the PC version, there wasn't any wolves or cats. I have to learn how to do everything again.

 

[shmogt]

Nah, I think Windows 8 is great, I downloaded Classic Start (so now I have an actual Start button at the buttom which opens up the window displaying Documents, All Programs, etc) and it's almost like Windows 7, and honestly I have no idea why people hate Windows Vista. All I was told was that it was buggy.

__

Today, I bought Minecraft. The game sure has changed as the last time I played the PC version, there wasn't any wolves or cats. I have to learn how to do everything again.

That's exactly why people hate vista. Connecting to a printer should be so simple, but know vista managed to complicate it. It also added the world's stupidest things. Like what I call the double check. You install a program for example and do the nessacary steps and get to the final stage asking if you want to install to which you click ok. Than it grays out the entire screen and has a random windows security pop up that ask again if you are are sure you wanna install it... Obviously you want to install it. It already takes like 4 steps to install a program how could you have mistakenly hit ok every time and on the very last step not want to. It was so dumb.

I stay away from windows 8 so far because it is clearly built for touchscreens and not really a mouse. I don't understand why they made that the main operating system and not just a secondary mode kind of like windows media center. Than classic people would like it and touchscreen people would like it.

My question to you guys who have it is how is it on ram? Windows 7 sucked so much using a crazy amount of ram and i want to know if i should upgrade my computer or downgrade it. Right now 4gb of ram laptop is quite slow on windows 7 while it should be pretty speedy since it's only used for chrome and occasionally word.

 

[Eks]

Well, I never tried Vista but it sounds awful.

And I agree, Windows 8 definitely had touch screens in mind but you forget about it if you never go on Start like I do.
As for your question - when I'm just idling at the desktop, I'm using 1.1GB out of 3.5GB of usable RAM. I don't think it's too bad, but then again, at least 1-200MB is from all the ASUS utilities that came with the laptop and Norton AntiVirus.

 

[shmogt]

Well, I never tried Vista but it sounds awful.

And I agree, Windows 8 definitely had touch screens in mind but you forget about it if you never go on Start like I do.
As for your question - when I'm just idling at the desktop, I'm using 1.1GB out of 3.5GB of usable RAM. I don't think it's too bad, but then again, at least 1-200MB is from all the ASUS utilities that came with the laptop and Norton AntiVirus.

1gb of ram doing nothing is insane. That's how windows 7 ram is. Doing nothing it uses over 1gb and launching something like chrome than watching youtube will make it stutter. I can't even watch 1080p youtube or 720p sometimes. To me for something that has 4gb of ram sshould easily be able to do that, but this is crazy bad. My old imac had 2gb of ram and could do these things no problem at all. I only recently upgraded it to 3gb of ram so I could run major programs like adobe lightroom with no issues. Windows really needs to step up and fix all their little problems.

 

[Eks]

Your issue sounds like something regarding your processor or GPU, though. But yeah, 1GB is a bit much for nothing, but a lot of those background processes aren't Windows processes. Majority of them, for me at least, are either from ASUS or Norton.

 

[shmogt]

Your issue sounds like something regarding your processor or GPU, though. But yeah, 1GB is a bit much for nothing, but a lot of those background processes aren't Windows processes. Majority of them, for me at least, are either from ASUS or Norton.

lol mine's Asus as well. They have so much crap loaded on. The computer in general is super crap (1ghz processor lol) however 4gb of ram should be able to handel the smallest amount of multi tasking. What pissed me off most was the second I turned it on and it told me no back up windows 7 CD's are supplied and I have to make my own. I was really mad that they didn't even include a backup copy since windows always crashes eventually, but the ultimate worst was when I decided to make my own like they suggested and they told me I need like 7 dvds lol. Just overall bad experience.

 

[nick09]

Your issue sounds like something regarding your processor or GPU, though. But yeah, 1GB is a bit much for nothing, but a lot of those background processes aren't Windows processes. Majority of them, for me at least, are either from ASUS or Norton.

Some of the Asus stuff is really good software to have. Personally I don't like Norton and I use Avast myself. Though thankfully you can restrict what processes that can run and can't from "msconfig". Look it up. Say you have several programs and you don't want them to load up during logging in, you just disable the program in the services tab. So you can have all of those programs installed but yet won't bog down your system when you need the performance.

@shmogt: The processor would be the main reason why your machine is so slow. I've seen similar laptops such as an Acer laptop with the same performance and the guy hated it. I mean really, it could barely run two or more virtual machines. Your laptop is just meant for the regular user who does not do much with it. You get what you paid for.

 

[dice1998]

Increased my Vcore from 1.3 to 1.33 because I was having weird freezing/crash issues. Now i'm not.

Also updated EVGA Precision X to it's latest build, increased my GPU clock offset to +103MHz and +381MHz for memory offset.

 

[JohnBM01]

Yesterday, I attempted to update my sound card drivers for my Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE. After I did so, the PC said I had the SB24 Live sound card. So I rolled back the old drivers and got my sound back.

So that's what I did yesterday.

 

[Eks]

Just finishing installing the 31 new drivers available for my laptop.

Some of the Asus stuff is really good software to have. Personally I don't like Norton and I use Avast myself. Though thankfully you can restrict what processes that can run and can't from "msconfig". Look it up. Say you have several programs and you don't want them to load up during logging in, you just disable the program in the services tab. So you can have all of those programs installed but yet won't bog down your system when you need the performance.

How do I get to msconfig? Or do I just use the Services tab in Task Manager?

 

[DQuaN]

Start > Run > MsConfig

Or type it in to the search at the bottom of the start menu if you have Vista/7.

 

[Joel]

Not really my computer, but I factory reset my phone tonight, I had too many garbage apps chewing up system memory that I didn't feel like manually removing. Backed up my contacts, and then factory reset the phone. Only apps I reinstalled were GTP, my banking app, and a Windows Phone 8 skin I've been using (Launcher 8 in the Google play store).

 

[Tornado]

Laptop had been running kinda loud recently, so I opened it up and cleaned it out today. A lot quieter now.

 

[nick09]

I did the same thing yesterday with my laptop. Except I just had to open the memory panel and blast some air into the heatsink vent. At least my room is not hot from the laptop anymore(Very small bedroom). 4 months down the line I will replace the thermal paste and do some final touches cleaning the fan.

 

[Tornado]

Well, I outright field-stripped mine. Even pulled the graphics card to clean the dust off the mobo below it. I figured if it was going to start annoying me enough to open it up, I might as well do the full monty.

 

[nick09]

I did the same a year ago when my laptop was 2 years old and I'll be doing the next check up at the 4th year mark(Yes I actually checked that it was manufactured in October 2009).

 

[Korza]

Laptop had been running kinda loud recently, so I opened it up and cleaned it out today. A lot quieter now.

Did the same with my desktop. Cleared out the dust filters and fans (the intake fans were the worst ).

 

[Joel]

Yeah I have some computer maintenance to do on the weekend. Want to clean out the dust filters as they're getting a bit dirty after 3 weeks, and I've been having some issues with my front headphone port. Whenever I use my headphones in the front port, I get a high pitched buzzing noise. Seems like a faulty ground, but it could just be a crappy audio wire from the mobo to the case's front panel.

 

[djinline]

Yeah I have some computer maintenance to do on the weekend. Want to clean out the dust filters as they're getting a bit dirty after 3 weeks, and I've been having some issues with my front headphone port. Whenever I use my headphones in the front port, I get a high pitched buzzing noise. Seems like a faulty ground, but it could just be a crappy audio wire from the mobo to the case's front panel.

I get that front audio port noise too. You could try to muffle the noise by wrapping aluminium foil around the audio cable and put some sticky tape as a non-conductive protection. I haven't tried if that'll work as I'm using the I/O panel audio port but it shouldn't hurt to give it a try.

 

[sesselpupser]

On my Mac Pro, if I plug my headphones in I get that noise because the jack has a metal screw thread for an adaptor to convert it to the larger size jack (can't remember what it's called, 5mm maybe?) and that touches the aluminium case, which effectively means it's chassis grounded and not properly grounded, as a result you can hear a permanent whistling and the occasional popping when a drive wakes up. Is it possible the same is happening to you?

 

[Joel]

Seems like something similar. I've read the issue is the PCB for the USB ports and the mic/headphones. Apparently Fractal Design's tech support said that the fix is to actually cut the PCB in half so the USB ports don't interfere.

 

[Eks]

I ran CCleaner today, turns out I had 2639MB of junk to remove. That's alot for one month.

 

[Gabkicks]

I slapped a samsung 840 pro in and did a fresh OS install on it and dusted out the case.

The upper left Drive is my original OS drive: wd blue 640gb. and right is WD black 1.5tb storage drive. SSD speeds are cut in half since i am on SATA II, but this is not noticeable in real world performance.

 

[sesselpupser]

Not quite a computer, but I fixed my last remaining Dualshock 3 today. As fun as it was to watch my brother attempt to play BF:BC2 with it in it's totally busted state - it would press all of the buttons at random at random intervals, leading to things like him throwing grenades or swapping from his pistol to assault rifle and then emptying the magazine, all while 'sneaking' up on an enemy to knife them - I figured it wasn't completely fair. I figured the reason the sticks still worked but nothing else did was because the membrane with all the other buttons on it, which is held in place with nothing more than pressure, had gotten loose with age (presumably because the piece of sponge that held it there had flattened over time). I stuck some card behind that sponge to increase the pressure there, then put two piece of felt on the back of the battery so the main PCB was pressed against the membrane as well, and it worked perfectly. As an added bonus, the controller feels a lot firmer than before because the two halves of the case are being forced apart (gently, mind) against the screws, whereas before the screws were at their tightest but the case felt loose.

Next up: Replacing the springs in the analogue sticks. They've gotten extremely flimsy with age.

 

[Joel]

Got my PS3 controller working through Motioninjoy. Got Steam big picture mode and played some Borderlands 2/Metro Last Light, games look absolutely fantastic on my TV (42" 1080p). Only issue with the DS3 is that to get it to work you have to use Motioninjoy to emulate a 360 controller, and on some games that means you have to use R2 as your trigger rather than the usual R1.