Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread II
- Thread starter Methos
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PlutonianEmpire
King of the Plutonian Empire
This is why I'm asking: http://en.spaceengine.org/forum/10-389-6#46544
Because I have no idea how any of it works or what it means. I'm just trying to use SE's internal video recorder to make videos. (In previous versions, the game created millions of image files for the user to compile themselves, the current version ditched that and supposedly records actual videos, IIRC.)
I had asked here about VLC because I went to the site but got confused by how the VLC site says it supposedly works, and couldn't remember if it did what I'm trying to do. (I tried googling encoder packs and VLC was one of the results.)
Because I have no idea how any of it works or what it means. I'm just trying to use SE's internal video recorder to make videos. (In previous versions, the game created millions of image files for the user to compile themselves, the current version ditched that and supposedly records actual videos, IIRC.)
I had asked here about VLC because I went to the site but got confused by how the VLC site says it supposedly works, and couldn't remember if it did what I'm trying to do. (I tried googling encoder packs and VLC was one of the results.)
Loppan Torkel
Deity
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2004
- Messages
- 4,756
Resetting NVRAM
Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘
, Option, P, and R. Turn on your Mac.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys immediately after you hear the startup sound.
Hold these keys until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for a second time.
Release the keys.
After resetting NVRAM, you may need to reconfigure settings for speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and time zone information.
I will try to do something about it during the holidays, open it up if nothing else, but I ended up buying a new one. It was long overdue anyway.
SeekTruthFromFacts
King
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2009
- Messages
- 667
Tapatalk has updated and now I can't see how to browse CFC forums. I can see the icons for subscribed, unread, trending, etc. But how do I browse CFC? Thankfully I'd already participated in this thread, otherwise I'd have no way to access it!
PlutonianEmpire
King of the Plutonian Empire
Okay, one thing that has always driven me utterly insane and absolutely infuriates me to no end, literally way beyond the point of punching holes in the wall and physically tossing computers out of 20th floor balconies, with every single computer and 3d software I have ever had my entire life is chronic frame-skipping:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3610210/Other/20141224_151020.mp4 (3 megabytes)
How do I fix this issue once and for all?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3610210/Other/20141224_151020.mp4 (3 megabytes)
How do I fix this issue once and for all?
Resetting NVRAM
Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘
Turn on your Mac.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys immediately after you hear the startup sound.
Hold these keys until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for a second time.
Release the keys.
After resetting NVRAM, you may need to reconfigure settings for speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and time zone information.
I will try to do something about it during the holidays, open it up if nothing else, but I ended up buying a new one. It was long overdue anyway.
Got me beat. I've never heard of NVRAM, let alone the whole procedure - maybe it's a Mac-only thing?
PlutonianEmpire
King of the Plutonian Empire
Also, how do I tell game booster (the one from iobit.com) to suppress windows update? Hitting enter while playing a game (such as Civ) just as the "restart now" dialog pops up therefore forcing a system restart and forcing me to lose all my progress is highly infuriating.
That's why I have Windows update set to either "Download but do not install" or "Notify me but do not automatically download" instead of the Microsoft-recommended "Automatically install updates". You won't get updates quite as quickly, but you won't have annoying accidental restarts, either.
Merry Christmas!
PlutonianEmpire
King of the Plutonian Empire
Actually, I did some investigating while waiting for an answer, and I figured out I can also eliminate it completely (at least in Win 7, dunno about the others yet), by going to Control Panel>All Control Panel Items (if applicable)>Notification Area Icons, and looking for and setting "Windows Update" to "hide icon and notifications".That's why I have Windows update set to either "Download but do not install" or "Notify me but do not automatically download" instead of the Microsoft-recommended "Automatically install updates". You won't get updates quite as quickly, but you won't have annoying accidental restarts, either.
Merry Christmas!
Mise
isle of lucy
Above all of that, above the icon etc, it has a little dropdown that says "Civfanatics", with a small arrow in the bottom right. If you click that you can access all the forums.
This is on Android though, not sure about iPhone. HTH.
SeekTruthFromFacts
King
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2009
- Messages
- 667
Thank you so much Mise. That little arrow isn't obvious for such a key feature. And yes, I'm on Android.
Mise
isle of lucy
Yeah, that was like the 4th or 5th thing I tried... Not very intuitive at all...
Radio Noer
The Devourer
So, my hard drive seems to be making some soft, almost chirping noises so I think it may be time to get something new before it goes kaput. Is there some way to transfer all of the data on my current hard drive (including OS and whatnot) to another?
Yes, you can get disk imaging software that transfers your hard drive to a new one.
Highly recommend a Solid State drive. The Samsungs come with the software you need to transfer your operating system and files. Like this one. Some of the others do as well, but please check as they all do not include the software.
Highly recommend a Solid State drive. The Samsungs come with the software you need to transfer your operating system and files. Like this one. Some of the others do as well, but please check as they all do not include the software.
PlutonianEmpire
King of the Plutonian Empire
I went to get a graphics driver update for my laptop, but mistakenly got the ones provided by M$ Windows Update, so I did a system restore to undo it and got the ones from Intel (since I have no real graphics card, so it's done by my processor, and the graphics drivers provided by Dell were out of date). How do I make sure I have the right drivers installed and not the bad graphics drivers from Windows Update?
Radio Noer
The Devourer
What kind of disk imaging software would you recommend?
As far as I know, Acronis is supposed to be good.
To be honest, I have never used them. When I installed my SSD, I used my Windows disk to do a clean install. Read that it was better to do that.
To be honest, I have never used them. When I installed my SSD, I used my Windows disk to do a clean install. Read that it was better to do that.
I'm looking at getting a new desktop via a company that lets you select the parts, but then assembles and tests it for you before shipping. 'Build your own computer without having to build your own computer'. Customising a base model, there's a lot of bewildering choices, though. Not being all that technologically literate, I'm interested in some more informed opinions on a few things.
Firstly, I'm ideally wanting something that allow me to play games on very high/ultra settings over the next few years on a single 24 inch monitor. But I don't actually play games nearly enough to justify the top price range, so I need to hit the right trade-off between high end graphics and expense. From what I can tell, this probably means something like the R9 290X or GTX 780, which are around the $450 mark. The choices don't seem to be that simple, though, because there are a number of options at that price range, and I don't know the difference between them. For instance, a GTX 970 is only about $30 more, and the R9 290 cards seem to be offered a very different ways, all within $60 of each other:
Secondly, there's the CPU, which on the build I'm looking at is an i7 4790 3.60GHz 8MB Cache LGA 1150 CPU ($413). One option that caught my eye was one that appears to be the same except for being 4GHz and $459. I'm not sure if there's any actual practical difference between the two, at least enough of one to justify an extra $46.
Thirdly, there's the memory, which comes in all sorts of different configurations, it seems, with the major difference within the same brand again appearing to be in MHz, going from 1600MHz to 1866MHz on 16GB DDR3 adding about $30. Then there's also the option of going up to DDR4 if I'm willing to double the price. Is the difference so significant as to warrant about $400 instead of $200?
All the other options have various choices which I can't really distinguish in any meaningful sense too (e.g. why is one SSD 50% dearer when it's only got 8GB more space?), but I think the above three are the main ones. I guess another problem which I want to avoid is bottlenecks - getting the best graphics card and memory might be pretty useless if the CPU is a bottleneck, for instance. So any advice on where I might be hitting such a bottleneck, or how I can avoid one?
Firstly, I'm ideally wanting something that allow me to play games on very high/ultra settings over the next few years on a single 24 inch monitor. But I don't actually play games nearly enough to justify the top price range, so I need to hit the right trade-off between high end graphics and expense. From what I can tell, this probably means something like the R9 290X or GTX 780, which are around the $450 mark. The choices don't seem to be that simple, though, because there are a number of options at that price range, and I don't know the difference between them. For instance, a GTX 970 is only about $30 more, and the R9 290 cards seem to be offered a very different ways, all within $60 of each other:
- MSI R9290-GAMING-4G R9 290 Gaming 4GB DDR5 384-bit, 2xDVI, HDMI, DisplayPort = $415
- Gigabyte R9290C-4GD R9 290OC 4GB GDDR5 512-bit, 2xDVI, HDMI, DisplayPort = $439
- Gigabyte R929XOC-4GD R9 290X DDR5 512-bit, 2xDVI, HDMI, DisplayPort = $479
Secondly, there's the CPU, which on the build I'm looking at is an i7 4790 3.60GHz 8MB Cache LGA 1150 CPU ($413). One option that caught my eye was one that appears to be the same except for being 4GHz and $459. I'm not sure if there's any actual practical difference between the two, at least enough of one to justify an extra $46.
Thirdly, there's the memory, which comes in all sorts of different configurations, it seems, with the major difference within the same brand again appearing to be in MHz, going from 1600MHz to 1866MHz on 16GB DDR3 adding about $30. Then there's also the option of going up to DDR4 if I'm willing to double the price. Is the difference so significant as to warrant about $400 instead of $200?
All the other options have various choices which I can't really distinguish in any meaningful sense too (e.g. why is one SSD 50% dearer when it's only got 8GB more space?), but I think the above three are the main ones. I guess another problem which I want to avoid is bottlenecks - getting the best graphics card and memory might be pretty useless if the CPU is a bottleneck, for instance. So any advice on where I might be hitting such a bottleneck, or how I can avoid one?
Zelig has posted this before, it is a nice reference.
Tom's Hardware has this excellent reference for Graphics Cards. It was updated on 1 January.
Tom's also has a chart for cpu performance for gaming. Check out the page on performance per dollar, very interesting.
Don't think you need an i7 for gaming, unless you need it for video editing or some other heavy duty task? Getting an i5 will give you some money to put into other things.
Tom's Hardware has this excellent reference for Graphics Cards. It was updated on 1 January.
Tom's also has a chart for cpu performance for gaming. Check out the page on performance per dollar, very interesting.
Don't think you need an i7 for gaming, unless you need it for video editing or some other heavy duty task? Getting an i5 will give you some money to put into other things.
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