..::THE COMMUNITY TECH THREAD No. 126::., All Tech Stuff Her : Othor Games

» Mon May 06, 2013 5:22 am

Cool, thanks .

One more question. I'm passing the new card through to a VM, and although I seem to have succeeded -it's showing up in the VM and I'm able to get the guest to output via the card's DVI port- Windows XP chokes up if I run anything requiring 3D performance. The Catalyst drivers installed without complaint and dxdiag found no problems (and I do have DX installed). I've tried Linux guests as well, but concluded the drivers are just (they're well known to be recalcitrant at times)

So my conclusion is that AMD hasn't bothered making a full set of drivers for a dead OS (instead providing only basic functionality), and I will need Windows 7 if I want to get any further. Which bring me to my actual question: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Windows-7-Home-Premium-Family-Pack-Upgrade-3-PCs-Brand-New-Sealed-/111028989589 is the cheapest upgrade edition I can find, and I'm wondering if it being a family pack makes any negative difference.

I know I could go OEM, but it would be at risk of lots of hassle because -given that I'm installing in a VM- I'm likely to be messing around a bit, and OEM is more finicky about changes.

EDIT: And I'm in Australia, BTW.

» Sun May 05, 2013 5:45 pm

No negative to a family pack, but my suggestion first would be to download a Windows 7 ISO from Microsoft and load it up in a Xen VM first just to make sure you get it all working before paying for Windows 7. You'll be able to go for 120 days on a Windows 7 trial, so plenty of time to test that everything is working satisfactorily.

» Sun May 05, 2013 11:21 pm

Awesome! Forgot about that option... I'll drop by and boast if works or probably whinge for help if I hit any problems with it .

EDIT: Well, W7 isn't having any problems with D3D... it's crashing on boot if I have the Catalyst drivers installed and the 7770 enabled (disabling it in the device manager gets the OS functional again). *Sigh* I 'spose I'll hack away at it some more after some sleep.

» Sun May 05, 2013 9:52 pm

So... my PC is old and i think it's time for upgrade, but i'm not good at this stuff and don't know what i should buy
to play Skyrim and other actual games on Medium. at least... i can't even run o low.

Here are my specs:

CPU: Pentium? Dual-Core CPU E5400 @ 2.70 GHz
RAM: 3.1 GB
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 64-bit
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD4300/HD4500 series

What should i buy to play better?

I really wanted to play Skyrim, and after the news about Fallout 4, i just need to upgrade my pc
I made a topic about this, but looks like this is the correct place to post.

» Mon May 06, 2013 5:30 am

You will want some more RAM, and a Video Card.

Good news, is RAM is cheap and a video card that will run todays games with decent performance can be had for less than $200, even less than $150 in some cases.

A 7850 or a 650 (a 660 would be much better for $30 more) will run any game today with most of the eye candy turned on

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%204017&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Order=PRICED&PageSize=100

» Mon May 06, 2013 6:14 am

I have a 7770 1GB, and my games perform fine @ 1080p. Lowest FPS I have seen it dip to so far was 45 but that was in a very busy area in GW2.

» Sun May 05, 2013 8:50 pm

I just put in my new GPU, and AMD 6970, My friend also threw in 2 Ballistix Sport 4gb sticks of ram when I bought the card from him. When we plugged those 2 sticks in the computer would freeze at the boot screen. We ruled that the RAM was to powerful for my Mobo. So we put my old configuration back in, 2 4GB RipJaws and 1 2GB Ripjaws to equal out to 10 GBs of installed RAM. I was just looking and my computer says only 4 GBs is usable. What is going on here? Could it just be that the RAM is seated wrong? Also I was wondering if we where right in our assumption that the mobo could not handle it, My mobo is a Gigabyte P55A-UD3P and supports DDR3.

» Mon May 06, 2013 9:04 am

What is your operating system? Particularly, is it 32bit or 64bit?

» Mon May 06, 2013 8:23 am

64 bit Windows 7. I am pretty sure it used all 10 gb before we took them out and put them back in.

Ok I just put in the Balistix in slots 1 & 2 and the Ripjaws in slots 3 & 4. 16 GB total Memory.

» Mon May 06, 2013 9:52 am

Ok, I take that back, After about a half an hour I started watching a Youtube video. I got like 3 mins in, then it started laging and the video was way behind the audio. Then it just shut off. I don't understand why it would work for a while then just suddenly stop. After trying and trying to reconfigure where I put my ram, Staggered them, Moved the Ballistix the end slots, etc. The computer just didn't want to start. So right now I have them taken out, I just have 2 4 gb ripjaws in. Earlier I tried the Ballistix b themselves and my PC ran fine. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

CPUID report if that helps

Spoiler

Edit: I am starting to wonder if it is not my RAM, I just crashed trying to play from dust, I got extreme lag then my PC just shut off. It wouldn't come back on right away. Keep in mind I was playing the WItcher 2 and Skyrim on ultra last night with no problems. The same thing happens on youtube videos after a while.

» Sun May 05, 2013 9:06 pm

Please someone?

» Sun May 05, 2013 8:08 pm

Well I am going to try uninstalling and reinstalling all drivers as well as a registry clean.

edit: I am stuck at a brick wall here. It did not work. I still can't play games or watch videos for much longer than a few minutes to a half hour at most then the computer shuts off. Please if anyone can help me, help me.

» Sun May 05, 2013 10:08 pm

Really tired, so I can't/won't walk you through it, but try http://www.memtest.org/ on each stick of RAM in turn (one at a time, to help identify any offending stick and because good RAM can occasionally prevent the discovery of problems with bad RAM if they're tested together).

» Mon May 06, 2013 6:00 am

So take out the others and just do one at a time?

Is this the one where I need to put it on a flash drive and boot from the flash drive?

» Mon May 06, 2013 1:06 am

Or burn it to a disc.

But yep, it's a utility you have to boot into rather than running it within your OS.

» Mon May 06, 2013 8:48 am

Yes, take all but one out then, once you've finished testing it, pull that one out and put another in, test it, and repeat.

As Crypto said, you'll need to write it to a disc or make a bootable flash drive (the former being the simpler option). Make sure you do not burn the iso as just a file; an iso tells your software (such as Nero, or whatever is hip in Windows these day ) precisely how everything should be on the disc, so when it has been written it should show up as having a bunch of files/folders on it .

» Mon May 06, 2013 8:41 am

Unfortunately when I built the comp I had no need for a burner, I don't use CDs or DVDs so I just bought a regular dvd drive.

» Sun May 05, 2013 9:13 pm

You're in luck! I just checked, and they http://www.memtest.org/#downiso have an automagical USB installer (http://www.memtest.org/download/4.20/memtest86+-4.20.usb.installer.zip to zip file).

EDIT: In unrelated news... I've finally managed to get the ATI card fully functional in Windows! It would seem I had failed to blacklist a kernel module or two. Still need to figure out a way to give it more than 2GB of RAM (I have a 64bit kernel [and therefore KVM], but QEMU is 32bit), but this is still a big step forward .

» Mon May 06, 2013 1:51 am

Need some help on getting new mobo/cpu.

willing to spend about 300USD or more if i cant use my current ram?(2x2GBPC3-12800 DDR3-1600)

the mobo/cpu in my current pc have failed..

dont know much about cpus and mobos..

it needs atleast 2xpci-e slots(big enough for my 560Ti)

» Sun May 05, 2013 10:00 pm

You'll need to tell us the size mobo your case supports. If it's a store-bought stock PC, link us to the PC's info on the manufacturer's website (which I'm going to guess is the case since you don't know much about mobos or CPUs).

» Mon May 06, 2013 12:26 am

case was built by cyberpower ...its not on there site. this three years old.

i can tell you that the mobo is a GA-770T-USB3: newegg_com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128431

fits in case perfectly

and its not completly dead but it wont stay on. shuts off randomly, already replaced psu..so thats not it. the water cooler was leaking and got on the mobo, replaced water cooler but the damage has been done i guess.

i cant post link yets.

» Mon May 06, 2013 3:18 am

I have wireless internet at home. The signal won't quite reach my laptop in my garage workshop. My first choise would be to boost the reception of the laptop vs boosting the output of the router. Any options out there?

» Mon May 06, 2013 1:18 am

Better options:

1. http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/ (1,6, or 11 in the US -- channels overlap the next 3 channels)

2. Getting a Wireless Access Point to place nearer to the garage (or setting an old router to act as a WAP)

3, Set up a http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Bridged

Signal boosting generally greatly increases noise, so overall wireless performance suffers and fringe distance improvements aren't all that great. It's generally only useful if you have trouble getting a signal in a specific area, not because of range, but because of stuff in the way. It gives it the extra "punch" to puch through them.

» Sun May 05, 2013 9:08 pm

Thanks for the reply, it's two building about 50' apart. The signal has to go through two exterior walls, just residential, no block. I was thinking of direct bury cat5 but my patio is in the way and my wife has silly ideas about not digging it up.

» Mon May 06, 2013 12:01 am

You've got plenty of cable to play with (before you hit the effective limits of cat5/6), so have you considered running conduit to the edge of the patio and working from there? Bit more effort to be going around it, but you would end up with a far superior connection and could more or less set-and-forget .