Random thoughts.... [Tech Edition]

Also, HPs business models aren't bad. I'm not just saying that because I work for HP. However, I would avoid the 8000 Elitebook series right now. I think there was a bad batch. I've had to replace A LOT of motherboards on those lately.
 
Just following up on my computer issues. This is the BSOD I was talking about:

https://pic.armedcats.net/s/sh/shawn/2011/04/09/BSOD.jpg

Basically every time I reboot I get that BSOD right after the Windows logo which causes it to restart, and it always works fine the second time around.

It obviously looks like it's being caused by some part of the ATI drivers, but since it's a new card I'm guessing this confirms it as the motherboard being the faulty component. What do you all think of this conclusion?
 
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All this talk about brands
- I have a Packard Bell, works well apart from atrocious support.
-Gran has a 7 year old Acer.
- Main home PC was a Dell, that had so many issues it was unreal.
- a friend of mine had a Toshiba that crapped out on him big time (motherboard fried)

The way I see it, you either buy a really cheap computer or you buy an expensive one. Never go middle of the road. Both the Dell and the Tosh were middle of the road (?500) whereas the Packard Bell was ?200 and my friend has just bought a ?269 Lenovo and it's a great machine. With middle of the road you don't get the support you do with more expensive machines, and they aren't that much better than bargain bucket machines spec wise.
 
Just following up on my computer issues. This is the BSOD I was talking about:

https://pic.armedcats.net/s/sh/shawn/2011/04/09/BSOD.jpg

Basically every time I reboot I get that BSOD right after the Windows logo which causes it to restart, and it always works fine the second time around.

It obviously looks like it's being caused by some part of the ATI drivers, but since it's a new card I'm guessing this confirms it as the motherboard being the faulty component. What do you all think of this conclusion?

I wouldn't say that it means it the mother board. Being that you're experiencing a different kind of failure with the new card means that it could simply be a defective card. I would return it for another one or RMA it. If you get the exact same failure after that, then you could probably say it's the MOBO barring any software issues. It does concern me that you installed the old card on the new Windows 7 install. Did yo remove the driver before removing the card?

That could potentially cause a problem.

All this talk about brands
- I have a Packard Bell, works well apart from atrocious support.
-Gran has a 7 year old Acer.
- Main home PC was a Dell, that had so many issues it was unreal.
- a friend of mine had a Toshiba that crapped out on him big time (motherboard fried)

The way I see it, you either buy a really cheap computer or you buy an expensive one. Never go middle of the road. Both the Dell and the Tosh were middle of the road (?500) whereas the Packard Bell was ?200 and my friend has just bought a ?269 Lenovo and it's a great machine. With middle of the road you don't get the support you do with more expensive machines, and they aren't that much better than bargain bucket machines spec wise.

WTF?

Packard Bell is still making computers?
 
They've become a European company under Acer.
 
All this talk about brands
- I have a Packard Bell, works well apart from atrocious support.
-Gran has a 7 year old Acer.
- Main home PC was a Dell, that had so many issues it was unreal.
- a friend of mine had a Toshiba that crapped out on him big time (motherboard fried)

The way I see it, you either buy a really cheap computer or you buy an expensive one. Never go middle of the road. Both the Dell and the Tosh were middle of the road (?500) whereas the Packard Bell was ?200 and my friend has just bought a ?269 Lenovo and it's a great machine. With middle of the road you don't get the support you do with more expensive machines, and they aren't that much better than bargain bucket machines spec wise.

It's all about the abuse you put your machines through really. My perfect laptop would be something like a Toughbook but with power of an Alienware :)
 
a 75MHz Pentium 1
Oooh... I have fond memories of that CPU. Having switched to it from a 386 (33 MHz IIRC), that thing was like a supersonic fighter jet.
 
Made the mistake of installing IE9 with one of 7's updates and wanted to try it out but all it did was crash :lol: No one should go back to IE, ever!
 
Made the mistake of installing IE9 with one of 7's updates and wanted to try it out but all it did was crash :lol: No one should go back to IE, ever!

IE's not bad..i miight go back to it if firefox 4 doesnt work out
 
I used IE9 briefly on a slow computer(Celeron, 1GB ram), and it seemed ok, but even slower than it should have been on that hardware.
 
I wouldn't say that it means it the mother board. Being that you're experiencing a different kind of failure with the new card means that it could simply be a defective card. I would return it for another one or RMA it. If you get the exact same failure after that, then you could probably say it's the MOBO barring any software issues. It does concern me that you installed the old card on the new Windows 7 install. Did yo remove the driver before removing the card?

Thanks for the input. I might go try out another card or I might just cut my losses and get a new build together as per the other thread.

There weren't like a lot of the Radeon 5700s that were faulty, right?
 
I didn't I mentioned all the good hardware :D

Like I said above older Latitudes were great, my dad has a new one from work, not impressed so far. Also problem with business lines is they rarely get good GPUs. That's actually one of the main things that pushed me over to Macs, shitload of power (GPU and CPU) and massive battery life.

Yeah, the GPU situation is a downer, but since I don't game business laptops work. :D Sucks about your dad's latitude, probably a E6400/E6410..i'll agree those are kinda crap lol.
 
Oooh... I have fond memories of that CPU. Having switched to it from a 386 (33 MHz IIRC), that thing was like a supersonic fighter jet.

I actually replaced mine eventually with a 133MHz P1 as it as the fastest the MOBO would take. :D

When I did have the 75 in though I loved that my buddy had a 100MHz 486 and we did some test and the 75 beat the crap out of it. He was so mad. :lol:

Thanks for the input. I might go try out another card or I might just cut my losses and get a new build together as per the other thread.

There weren't like a lot of the Radeon 5700s that were faulty, right?

Nope, there was never a huge problem with the 5000 series. Could just be a bum card.
 
Ghetto-rigging tech setups because you lack the proper equipment is kind of fun, in a way.

I wanted to be able to watch tonight's Grand Prix via my computer's media center, so I went to connect my cable receiver like I had done in the past. I didn't want to disconnect the coaxial line to the actual television, and I didn't have a second coaxial splitter (I already use one to split the wall output for the television receiver and my cable modem), so I had to improvise.

I ended up finding an adapter device that had inputs for composite audio/video, S-Video, and coax, with a coaxial output. I also found an RCA audio cable and an S-Video cable, so used them to connect the TV receiver to the adapter device. Then, I discovered I didn't have a coaxial cable long enough to reach from the adapter to my computer, so I strung three short ones together with two male-male couplers I found.

The entire process could have been avoided if I had a second coaxial splitter (and, the secondary problem of stringing together three short coaxial cables could have been solved by having one long enough). The picture and audio look and sound fine though, despite how awful the setup is.
 
W00t made my first cat5e cable today. Success from the start, now my wiring project can get underway!
 
tried to redo a cable, being a nub i managed to stay at 100mbit without getting it upto gbit :/
 
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