Share in my geek euphoria!

[UniTyler]

I'm pretty stoked right now, so I decided to make a thread.

So, my little brother has a pretty darn old Gateway 2000 PC. It was my family's first computer, that we bought in 1997. It was top of the line in it's time - I believe it was purchased with 64 MB of RAM, an 8.5 GB Hard Disk, and a sub 500 mhz processor.

We've since upgraded the RAM to 128 MB, and upgraded from Windows 95 to Windows 98. Still pretty slow, but somewhat more reasonable for the day-to-day tasks of a technologically uninterested nine-year-old boy.

About a year ago, after having a wireless network installed in the house, we decided to have the serviceman configure a wireless adapter for my brother's PC (which he used maybe once a month before this, to play Reader Rabbit, or a similar thrilling game from our "just bought a new PC" 1997 software shopping spree :)). So, a nice little USB wireless adapter was installed and configured in Windows 98, and worked for the duration of that day.

The next morning, upon booting up, there was no detection of the wireless adapter, and hence there was no way to bring up the internet. I checked the drivers, and they were there. None the less, the WWW was out of reach for that old box. We gave the serviceman a call, and he claimed that "the computer is too old," and we "should consider upgrading." So, we just left it. We didn't feel like getting my brother a new computer all together, because he isn't the enthusiastic computer geek that I am, and didn't really complain about not having internet access. He just surfed some on my parents' computer.

Just a few weekends ago, during a lazy Saturday morning, I decided to try Xubuntu on this computer that was only collection dust in my little bro's bedroom. In case you're not familiar, Xubuntu is a version of Ubuntu Linux that is optimized for low-spec machines. It features a smaller DE, and the simplest apps available. It seemed perfect. However, it once again did not work with the wireless adapter. Darn.

This morning, I had an inkling that maybe, just maybe, that wireless adapter would work with regular old Ubuntu, not Xubuntu. I looked up the adapter on a Linux hardware compatibility page, and sure enough, it is supported. Super!

I downloaded the Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon LiveCD, and booted to it. Bingo! The wireless applet popped right up, and our home network was immediately recognized! I've got Gutsy installing now...

Moral of the story? The newest version of Ubuntu worked flawlessly on a PC from a pre-Windows 98 era. Try that with Vista, or even XP! :p What's more, it worked instantly with the wireless adapter, with not a single tweak or driver download. Whine all you want about fanboy-isms, but here's a real-life example that Linux is just better sometimes.

[James_Potter]

Isn't going from Windows 98 to Windows 95 a downgrade?

Anyway, I haven't ever used Linux.

[UniTyler]

Isn't going from Windows 98 to Windows 95 a downgrade?

It said "...upgraded to Windows 98 from Windows 95," but I reworded it for clarity.

[James_Potter]

OHHHH I thought it said upgraded from Windows 98 to Windows 95...oh well whatever, if you're still using either, then you need to upgrade even more anyway (:

[UniTyler]

OHHHH I thought it said upgraded from Windows 98 to Windows 95...oh well whatever, if you're still using either, then you need to upgrade even more anyway (:

I did ... to Linux!

[James_Potter]

Nice choice.
One of my computers now uses Vista, and lemme tell you, it is AWFUL!
I want to try Linux but I don't have my own computer and my family won't let me install it on either of ours.

[john_childs]

One of my computers now uses Vista, and lemme tell you, it is AWFUL!
I like Vista. :)

[john_childs]

I've got an old Windows 98 era desktop that was upgraded to a whopping 192 MB of RAM. I put Linux on it just for kicks a year ago. Tried Ubuntu and Xubuntu. It all worked but was slow. Too much OS for the poor little computer.

I'm thinking of putting FreeDOS on it just for kicks before sending it off to the electronics recycler. I'm curious about how well the networking and internet tools will work in FreeDOS.

[cathwood]

I like Vista. :)

Me too.

[UniDudeDX]

i have the same problem with my laptop. it never recognizes the inter net wifi. sucks. we have a bunch of computers i can use so my parents dont want to get it checked out. bummer.

[harper]

I am sharing in your geek euphoria. I am giddy for you. I am over it. Thanks for the brief, vicarious thrill.

[gkmac]

"Old computers never die. They just run Linux".

My first Linux server was on a 1996 PC that originally ran Windows 95. It had a Pentium 75MHz CPU and a whopping... 24Mb RAM, upgraded from 8Mb! Being a server it didn't run a GUI, but then again mail and web servers don't need too.

No GUI, much more breathing space to actually do jobs without the bloat of a pretty face. Thanks to SSH logins, no need for a keyboard and monitor tethered to it either. Try that with Windows!

As for desktop usage, I once had the KDE desktop running comfortably on a Pentium II 300MHz laptop with only 224Mb RAM. It could play 320x240 XviDs comfortably, whereas the previous Windows installation could only keep up about two frames a second on the same hardware. Go figure.

[manon1wheel]

i still have a 1997 computer...

i know nothing about computers but by reading the label... its a Compaq
and it has windows XP.


its real slow... i think we are going to get a mac for christmas though.
-Riley

[hansc]

Linux is only for fags. And obviously unicycles too (http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65744). Since I consider "fag" as pretty negative, I wonder doing both makes it a plus?

;)

Back on topic; congratulations on your choice! Linux is a little bit like unicycling, you don't really feel uncomfortable on the first try and you may come across many problems, but once you're into it, you'll hopefully enjoy it a lot.

Oh yes. And then you automatically get the fag/nerd/geek/whatever label if you use either of them. Personally I don't mind.

Those who are interested in Linux, but don't want to/can't install it, I recommend you to try out a live dist. It's a Linux distro that you run directly from the CD - nothing to install, nothing on you hard drive will be affected.

Ubuntu is quite popular nowadays, it seems. If you want to try the "live" version, just download the CD from Ubuntu's homepage (http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download) - you'll be able to try the operative system with some applications without actually installing anything. Sure, it's pretty expensive - you actually have to pay for a new, unused CD! - but what can you lose? If you know some nice Linux guys like the one writing this post, you can even be given free CDs - or order them yourself, if you have the patience.

Have fun.

[unisteve]

My motherboard started flaking out last week, so I had to lower my CPU clock from 3.5GHz to 3.2. Now I'm whining about how slow it is.

Someone, please slap me.

[john_childs]

I made a VistaPE live CD yesterday. It's not just you Linux geeks that get to have fun.

[Brian O.]

My motherboard started flaking out last week, so I had to lower my CPU clock from 3.5GHz to 3.2. Now I'm whining about how slow it is.

Someone, please slap me.
*slap*

You can't reasonably tell me you can notice the 300mhz difference!

[harper]

Those who are interested in Linux, but don't want to/can't install it, I recommend you to try out a live dist. It's a Linux distro that you run directly from the CD - nothing to install, nothing on you hard drive will be affected.

Ubuntu is quite popular nowadays, it seems. If you want to try the "live" version, just download the CD from Ubuntu's homepage (http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download) - you'll be able to try the operative system with some applications without actually installing anything. Sure, it's pretty expensive - you actually have to pay for a new, unused CD! - but what can you lose?

Cool. Thanks. I'd like to try that. I'll get that geek Tyler to come over and help me with it. I can get him to make my VCR stop blinking 12:00 when he's here.

[unisteve]

*slap*

You can't reasonably tell me you can notice the 300mhz difference!
Let me tell you, it's there. I've spent a lot of time fiddling with this computer, and I can tell when something is amiss.

It only seems ridiculous because most people aren't as obsessive as I am about their personal computers.

Think of gearheads who can tell what's wrong with their car just by listening to it. Oh, yes. That's the kind of man to hardware relationship I'm talking about.

Technophilia? Perhaps.

[gkmac]

I can get him to make my VCR stop blinking 12:00 when he's here.Where I come from, VCRs automatically set the correct time themselves when plugged into the mains.

[unisteve]

Where I come from, VCRs automatically set the correct time themselves when plugged into the mains.
You're from the future?

[gkmac]

You're from the future?No, just not from America (or Canada).

[john_childs]

Technophilia? Perhaps.
I'm more interested in underclocking my CPU than overclocking it. I'd rather get it configured so it dynamically lowers the clock speed and power needs when it can.

[harper]

This is so cool. I didn't know that you could test LINUX with a live CD. Actually, I didn't know you could make a live CD. My VCR does, however, go find out what time it is when plugged in. It also irons and does my neighbor's homework.

So, I'm an Ubuntu testing guy. I didn't know the day would come so soon.

[Borgschulze]

Ubuntu 7.10 is by far a superior OS to ANYTHING out there right now.

One thing they don't have working on my Laptop right off of Live CD bootup is sound, but I can get it to work, so that isn't a problem.

Vista has gone backwards in the sound department, not using hardware acceleration anymore, completely software. That's how I have read it at least.

If Vista is so great, it should work equally as good as XP.

But instead, I get horrible sound corruption in a few games.

So before John Childs comes boasting about how it's a problem with a game, well it works on XP, that's an OS problem to me.

Vista is good for people who don't play games, much like Linux.

Or people who can't live with equally as good DX9 graphics, Vs. DX10.

You can't reasonably tell me you can notice the 300mhz difference!
I can.

I run a 2.8ghz Opteron 146.

I can't watch 1080p video without it lagging or being choppy on anything under 2.6ghz.

I can also tell the difference between 30, 40, 60, 90, and 120 fps.

[uni57]

Wow, my 1987 IBM XT clone is starting to seem really out-of-date. It's a 4.77 MHz (four point seventy seven megahertz) with a 10 megabyte MFM hard drive. I don't know... should I upgrade? It runs DOS 6.22, Turbo Pascal 3.3, and Wordstar just fine.

[john_childs]

Wow, my 1987 IBM XT clone is starting to seem really out-of-date. It's a 4.77 MHz (four point seventy seven megahertz)
Wow! That's too old to even have a Turbo button.

Turbo was a bit of a misnomer. It's purpose was to slow things down so games didn't go to fast on newer hardware. How does a feature that slows things down get named "Turbo"?

A better name would have been "Impulse". Push the button and go to impulse speed. Push it again and you go to warp speed. Geeks would have certainly understood that.

[john_childs]

Vista has gone backwards in the sound department, not using hardware acceleration anymore, completely software. That's how I have read it at least.

If Vista is so great, it should work equally as good as XP.

But instead, I get horrible sound corruption in a few games.

So before John Childs comes boasting about how it's a problem with a game, well it works on XP, that's an OS problem to me.
Vista has improved audio processing and playback (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_features_new_to_Windows_Vista#Audio). There are new features like per application volume control and improved audio quality and processing. For media playback purposes the audio system in Vista is much better.

The big change is that the audio drivers are now in user level (http://compreviews.about.com/od/multimedia/a/VistaAudio.htm) rather than kernel level. That means the audio drivers don't get direct access to the hardware like they used to. Creative Labs chose to implement their EAX in a way that required direct access to the hardware. That also meant that bugs in the audio driver could blue screen and crash the OS. Moving the audio drivers to user level makes the OS more stable. So now Creative's bloated drivers won't blue screen the OS when they misbehave. I consider that an improvement.

The future for gaming is OpenAL (http://openal.org/openal_vista.html) rather than EAX. Creative Labs just has to figure out how to make Alchemy (http://connect.creativelabs.com/alchemy/default.aspx) work so they can make some use of their proprietary hardware assisted audio processing.

[UniDudeDX]

by the way unisteve, your sig is getting huge.

[Riles]

Just curious,

Has anyone gotten their Airport exreme card to work in Ubuntu?
I've looked up, found, and tried tutorials that supposedly fix this problem but they haven't worked.

[forrestunifreak]

Whine all you want about fanboy-isms, but here's a real-life example that Linux is just better sometimes.
Did you just say fanboy-isms?


Does all this make you a Linux Fanboy?




A better name would have been "Impulse". Push the button and go to impulse speed. Push it again and you go to warp speed. Geeks would have certainly understood that.
Our very first computer (probably an HP with W95 or something) had a turbo button. We didn't understand it so we just left it on all the time.

[UniTyler]

Did you just say fanboy-isms?
Does all this make you a Linux Fanboy?

I guess you could say that. I've got Linux on both of my computers now, and I only boot to Windows to play certain games, like Flatout 2 and Call of Duty 2. I'm not the preaching type, but I do tell my friends about it. :)

[oldfatboy]

UniTyler, I remember what it was like the first time I did something to my computer (C-64). It was fun and felt good.
Glad to read that you upgraded from Win* to Linux! he-he.

I have been playing with "going smaller", so I have a pc right beside me that has OS/2 Warp4 and FreeBSD (no X) on it.
The box is 200mhz, 32 megs of ram and the hd is 365 megs :)
Yes, I have other computers with less (C-64 and Amiga's), but they don't dual boot with fully functional os's. :)

[Borgschulze]

Vista has improved audio processing and playback (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_features_new_to_Windows_Vista#Audio). There are new features like per application volume control and improved audio quality and processing. For media playback purposes the audio system in Vista is much better.

The big change is that the audio drivers are now in user level (http://compreviews.about.com/od/multimedia/a/VistaAudio.htm) rather than kernel level. That means the audio drivers don't get direct access to the hardware like they used to. Creative Labs chose to implement their EAX in a way that required direct access to the hardware. That also meant that bugs in the audio driver could blue screen and crash the OS. Moving the audio drivers to user level makes the OS more stable. So now Creative's bloated drivers won't blue screen the OS when they misbehave. I consider that an improvement.

The future for gaming is OpenAL (http://openal.org/openal_vista.html) rather than EAX. Creative Labs just has to figure out how to make Alchemy (http://connect.creativelabs.com/alchemy/default.aspx) work so they can make some use of their proprietary hardware assisted audio processing.
Well, you have to look at it differently.

Per application volume control.

Every application that has sound that I use, has it's own volume control built in?

Besides that, Microsoft seems to have made my perfectly up to date (by most peoples idea, not an enthusiasts idea) audio, an EOL product.

I believe what Microsoft has done since day one, is bundle as many features into their OS as they possibly can and call it next gen. What happens here is bulk.

Culprits such as:
http://i19.tinypic.com/733ea1l.png

The new explorer interface in Vista, is EXTREMELY uncustomizable, unlike in XP where I can unlock the toolbars/buttons and move them wherever I like.

I had people argue with me saying how useful that search bar is, and that I should try it, it will get me not using the mouse as much.

Well, I right click my desktop, slide my mouse over a couple menus, and I get a list of my games... why would I want to type in the name of the game to run it? Then I would have an extra window open behind the game... using more precious memory that Vista seems to have eaten up with it's myriad of features I dislike.

"The big change is that the audio drivers are now in user level rather than kernel level."

I like stability, and my computer is very stable. I have never had a BSOD in XP except for... overclocking too far (suicide screenshots), which I pretty much shouldn't be worried about, Vista is going to handle it the same way, do nothing and let the motherboard handle it.

It is kind of a sideways step for them to move the Audio out of the kernel level, lots of pros and lots of cons.

I'll just stop here before I get too carried away. Vista should have a feature to use Kernel level audio, for "legacy" support.

[johnfoss]

(CAUTION -- THREADJACK)

Congrats to Tyler & all, it sounds like lots of fun. But it reminded me of some scanner issues I've been having. For us Mac users, things are not always rosy. I have two scanners. The oldest is an Epson Perfection 2450, that probably cost something north of $400 when new. Worked great, can scan negatives with a backlight, and there's nothing wrong with it. The other scanner is on top of my HP multifunction laser device. This whole piece of hardware probably cost the same as the Epson did, a year or two later. The scanner is not as full-featured, but it works.

However neither of them works on my current iMac. It's very frustrating to have two scanners, neither of which works. After installing and uninstalling the HP software over and over, from their own web site, and reading all the tech forum stuff I could find on the topic, I finally contacted them for help. Emails were ignored. Finally I called them up and was determined to wait on hold for a long time to get satisfaction. After being put on hold many times and passed to at least one different tech support person, I got my answer:
"Your device is no longer supported."
"Oh. Really? Uh, that's nice to know. Now. It would have been even nicer to know when I first started looking on your web site. Instead you don't mention it at all. Thanks a lot for leaving us users in the cold. BTW, they do offer Mac drivers, of course, that's what I was downloading. I need to talk to one of their live tech support people to find out that only the printing and copying functions are "supposed" to work this way. No more HP products for me in the near future.

Meanwhile, how about the higher-end Epson scanner? First email to their support department: ignored. Second email (weeks later) returned a nice, detailed set of instructions for removing preferences files (something that might be nice for them to add to their tech support pages). It didn't work. Same results. Third email: ignored. Finally I plugged the scanner into my aging PowerPC laptop (circa 2003) and got the HP scanner to work acceptably. Acceptably means I got a file. I'd much rather scan directly into Photoshop with either of those pieces of hardware, but so far no dice. Grrr.

No, the solution to non-working drivers *should not* be to buy a whole new device. The old one doesn't have anything wrong with it! It's very low-miles!

Next time I work on it I'll try running both devices from Windows under Parallels. That might work, but what a hassle!

[GILD]

by the way unisteve, your sig is getting huge.
I knew there'd be a comment somewhere on this thread that I could understand.
And agree with.

The [size=1] tags are your friend.
And lose the [quote] block, will you?

[Borgschulze]

No, the solution to non-working drivers *should not* be to buy a whole new device. The old one doesn't have anything wrong with it!
Thank you for posting that.

I couldn't agree more with this.

[Jerrick]

Thank you for posting that.

I couldn't agree more with this.


Same. Thats why Im not going to get Vista for another few months. Maybe not for a couple of years lol. I can make my xp look just like Vista, with the widgets and stuff. Actually, if I wanted to, I could have windows xp look like a mac, and even change the boot screen to a mac boot screen and people would think im on a mac. lol

Anyways, here my geek story.

For the last few years, ive been running a regular ASUS A7V board, with a AMD 700mhz processor which is usually over clocked to 933mhz, and for the last few months, has been moved down to just be around 820 something. It got the job done, photoshop, premiere, games, internet, cubase, and all the stuff I did. I always wanted more. More processor power, more ram, bigger hardrive.

A few days ago, I get another computer. AMD Duron. A small one around 750mhz. Same ASUS board as the other computer, but this one is a tad faster. It also had a 30gig drive in there, so doubled the size from my other hardrive, which I have my OS and some programs on it. I clone the 15gig to the 30gig.

This computer was awful though, at least at first. Took a lot of BIOS settings and shorting out the cmos so I could get it to boot. Had lots of fun with the Duron chip. Its very OC-able. I think I got it up to 50% more than the regular 750. 133mhz FBS, clock multiplier goes down, frequencies go up. Works very well.

But, before I finish moving and building this one up, I hear my dad say he is bringing in another computer. Compaq board, intel 1.7ghz processor. I like it, but the board is giving me issues. Which didnt surprise me. All compaq boards have gave me troubles with being able to just plug stuff in and have it detected.

First, it reads my OS drive fine the first time. It restarts, then gives me the NTLDR is missing. So basically the compaq board couldnt detect the boot sector and wouldnt load my drive, therefore, not loading the computer.

I try about 5 ways of fixing the drive so compaq could read it correctly, but none of it worked. So, luckily, I cloned/backuped my programs to another drive. (I currently have 7 hardrives laying in my room. So many gigs! Argh! lol)

I go to put in my windows boot disk, start the comp with cd-rom support, run D:\setup, and ta-da, windows starts to load, reformats, and then installs on the drive. Too bad the floppy disk dies on me. It served me well for the last 5 years.

Well, time to use a cd boot disk, and surprisingly, window xp, me, and 98se do not boot from their disks. Sucketh. The only bootable disks I have are Nortons (no help there) and original windows 98, with no serial number. Eish. I was able to get my hands onto another 98 cd with serial number from my neighbors though. No hacks or keygen, but everything original.

So now I finally can run from the disk, format it, and install 98. Now the compaq can read the boot sector. Install to xp. Plugged in my other two hard drives, and got my programs running, and now im happily on the new intel computer. Im gonna OC the processor to 2ghz soon.

With the AMD duron comp that is just sitting here, I am hooking in a 120gig drive into it. Putting xp on it, and Cubase, oh, and a nice sound card, and taking it to the band room, and we will use that for recording.

The other computer, will be built up again and donated to a school for underprivileged/orphans. They will like it.

[phlegm]

Wordstar

Everyone knows Word Perfect is better. :p

[UniTyler]

Glad to read that you upgraded from Win* to Linux! he-he.

Oh yeah, it's fun. I've been a full-time Linux user for a few months now, so I've gotten pretty comfortable with it. My only beef is that video editing just isn't quite there... :(

[unisteve]

I knew there'd be a comment somewhere on this thread that I could understand.
And agree with.

The [size=1] tags are your friend.
And lose the [quote] block, will you?
A large sig is a sign of virility.

[James_Potter]

A large sig is a sign of virility.

http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35929

[john_childs]

Well, you have to look at it differently.

Per application volume control.

Every application that has sound that I use, has it's own volume control built in?

In XP the volume control in individual applications controls the global volume. It changes the volume for everything.

Here's an example of using per application volume control in Vista.
Open up YouTube in a browser and start playing a video.
Now open the windows volume mixer (right-click on the speaker icon and select volume mixer)
You'll see the open applications that are using sound listed in the volume mixer
From there you can easily mute the Windows System Sounds so you don't get Windows beeps and sounds while playing the YouTube video. So no more "bings" caused by an arriving email while watching YouTube or a DVD.

That's neat stuff and makes Vista more media player friendly than XP.

Besides that, Microsoft seems to have made my perfectly up to date (by most peoples idea, not an enthusiasts idea) audio, an EOL product.
Your gamer sound card is not an EOL product. Creative has drivers now that use their Alchemy solution to make use of the EAX hardware on the sound card.

The problem now comes from games that explicitly check for hardware audio processing (acceleration) to do their audio effects processing rather than allowing software to do it. The Alchemy solution means that those games don't see the EAX hardware like they are expecting which causes them to fall back to lesser sound options with lesser effects. That's poor programming on the part of the games. They made assumptions they shouldn't have. There is nothing Creative can do about that. See if those games offer a patch for Vista support and complain to the game makers who have broken games.

[Borgschulze]

Here's an example of using per application volume control in Vista.
Open up YouTube in a browser and start playing a video.
Now open the windows volume mixer (right-click on the speaker icon and select volume mixer)
You'll see the open applications that are using sound listed in the volume mixer
From there you can easily mute the Windows System Sounds so you don't get Windows beeps and sounds while playing the YouTube video. So no more "bings" caused by an arriving email while watching YouTube or a DVD.

That's neat stuff and makes Vista more media player friendly than XP.


Your gamer sound card is not an EOL product. Creative has drivers now that use their Alchemy solution to make use of the EAX hardware on the sound card.

The problem now comes from games that explicitly check for hardware audio processing (acceleration) to do their audio effects processing rather than allowing software to do it. The Alchemy solution means that those games don't see the EAX hardware like they are expecting which causes them to fall back to lesser sound options with lesser effects. That's poor programming on the part of the games. They made assumptions they shouldn't have. There is nothing Creative can do about that. See if those games offer a patch for Vista support and complain to the game makers who have broken games.

In XP when I turn Youtube's volume down, my music stays just as loud. When I turn down volume in VLC, my music still stays the same volume.

I do not use a "Gamer" sound card, I don't buy into marketing like that. I use the "onboard" Realtek ALC850 that is bundled with my DFI NF4 Ultra-D motherboard (It's actually named "Krajan Audio module"). I thought I typed out somewhere, maybe not in this thread, or maybe on another forum, but I remember saying I never have and never will own a Creative sound card.

As for the noises when I'm watching a DVD... Which I rarely do, I have all Windows sounds, as well as MSN sounds disabled, as well as visual notifications. My computer doesn't do anything unless I tell it to. I even have "Optimize Hard Disk While Idle" disabled, I don't want my computer making extra noise because it feels the need to defragment. One exception is GMail notifier, which pops up, but makes no noise.

What do you mean by "Media Player Friendly"?

Here is my situation.

Music - D:/Music/Artist_Album-Year-RLSGRP -> Double click playlist file imports playlist to Foorbar2000 and plays instantly.

Movies - Put DVD in drive, double click drive in My Computer, opens in VLC.

Video Files - D:/Videos -> Double click file opens in VLC.

Games - Right click Desktop - Start -> Programs -> Games -> Click once to open selected game.

Internet - "My Home" hotkey on keyboard.

E-Mail - Double click GMail Notifier.

Volume controls - All on keyboard.

Login to PC if I reboot (rarely) - Press Ctrl+Alt+Del -> Type password hit enter, computer gets locked (Winkey + L) every time I leave the house, and only my Mom lives here, just incase ninjas fly through my window and try to send dumb messages on MSN.

In XP the volume control in individual applications controls the global volume. It changes the volume for everything.

I don't even know what to say to that. That just isn't how XP works.

[john_childs]

I do not use a "Gamer" sound card, I don't buy into marketing like that. I use the "onboard" Realtek ALC850 that is bundled with my DFI NF4 Ultra-D motherboard (It's actually named "Krajan Audio module"). I thought I typed out somewhere, maybe not in this thread, or maybe on another forum, but I remember saying I never have and never will own a Creative sound card.
Then why are you even worrying about the hardware audio processing for game effects? Creative is the only company that is doing that with their EAX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_audio_extensions) support. No other general consumer cards are doing that. Creative is the only consumer card affected by Vista's change.

You said "Vista has gone backwards in the sound department, not using hardware acceleration anymore, completely software. That's how I have read it at least." That is only relevant if you have a Creative card with EAX. A complete non-issue for people with other brands of sound cards. EAX is proprietary. Based on your complaint about software processing I assumed you had a Creative card cause only someone with a creative card would care about that.



I don't even know what to say to that. That just isn't how XP works.
It is how XP and all previous versions of Windows works.

Open up Windows Media Player in XP along with the Windows Audio Mixer.
Play some music and move the volume control in WMP. The global volume control in the Windows Audio Mixer will change.

Applications that don't change the global volume control are doing their own digital mixing and digital volume control. Doing a digital volume control affects the quality of the sound. Digitally decreasing the volume means that you are decreasing the effective bit depth of the sound. Digital volume controls are a great way to turn that 16-bit MP3 into what sounds like a 10-bit CD.

Foobar defaults to using the global volume control. I believe that you can change it to use a DSP digital volume control but no audio purist will do that cause it just degrades the sound.

[dan de man]

I Down-graded ... to Linux!
fixed

[rob.northcott]

Our very first computer (probably an HP with W95 or something) had a turbo button. We didn't understand it so we just left it on all the time.
The turbo button switched the clock frequency of the processor. It was common on PCs with 386 and 486 processors. For example, with a 66MHz 486 it would switch the clock between 66MHz ("turbo on") and 33MHz (turbo off). The main purpose of it was to slow the machine down when running old software that ran too fast - people tended to use the processor clock for timing, or just write software to run as fast as possible, so when PC speeds started increasing at a steep rate it meant that old stuff ran far too fast, which could be a pain (especially for games).

So the point of the turbo button was to slow things down, not speed them up. It just sounded a better name than "brake". Usually the turbo switch was left on.

Rob

[Joe2005]

^^^^
Thats good.

My firend had a turbo button on his POS computer, it was funny.

[Jerrick]

Ahh, found it.

Im building up a new comp, and for fun, ordered a new keyboard.

CPU: Intel 2.6ghz quad core. Very easily OCed to 3.6ghz+. I went with Intel cause they are better for multitasking, so photoshop, premiere, and all those programs are going to run so fast.
Mobo: Gigabyte, fsb 1600/1333, lots of PCI/e, Pata, Sata, USb, Firewire, good amount of room for ram, more stuff.
Ram, 4gig, 2x2 corsair
PSU: Corsai 520w, may go higher.
Vid card: I dont play games much at all, so im going for a ATI Sapphire 512mb.

Thats about it, all inside a Coolermaster Centurion 534 case.

[dudewithasock]

Vid card: I dont play games much at all, so im going for a ATI Sapphire 512mb.

Lol, that's plenty to play most modern games very easily, so I don't see your logic here. You probably could've gotten a 256mb one.

[Jerrick]

Lol, that's plenty to play most modern games very easily, so I don't see your logic here. You probably could've gotten a 256mb one.


If I was a gamer I would of gone for 1gig. :p

EDIT: Or dual 1gigs. Thats a pretty popular option right now.

[dudewithasock]

If I was a gamer I would of gone for 1gig. :p

EDIT: Or dual 1gigs. Thats a pretty popular option right now.

You and your stupid money.

[john_childs]

CPU: Intel 2.6ghz quad core.
Quad core is a bit of a toss up. For most uses it is better to get a dual core with more GHz that the equivalent priced quad core with less GHz. Most current software doesn't take full advantage of the extra cores. The exception being some rendering programs that are well threaded and designed to split rendering tasks on multiple cores. Most everything else does better on a dual core with more MHz.

[Jerrick]

Quad core is a bit of a toss up. For most uses it is better to get a dual core with more GHz that the equivalent priced quad core with less GHz. Most current software doesn't take full advantage of the extra cores. The exception being some rendering programs that are well threaded and designed to split rendering tasks on multiple cores. Most everything else does better on a dual core with more MHz.

No thanks (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017).

[Loosemoose]

However neither of them works on my current iMac. It's very frustrating to have two scanners, neither of which works...
Hey John, you running Leopard? HP's support for Macs is woeful, my GF's HP All-in-one refused to work even with the official mac drivers installed from the original CD, and the 'leopard fix' applied (also official, from the website). I was on the verge of using the open source Mac alternative (can't remember the name off the top of my head), when suddenly HP released a new driver that was installed with a regular update, and suddenly it all started working.

HP suck for support. That's why I buy Canon. Its better, works nicely and they have good software & drivers.

Loose.

[Jerrick]

Ahh... no one else is having fun upgrading comps or anything like that.

Do not fear, I shall resurrect you once again my beloved thread, and I will stuff you with pictures.

[gkmac]

Ahh... no one else is having fun upgrading comps or anything like that.I have, since demands like slick video editing and replay of high-definition video have finally convinced me that my four year old Athlon XP 2000+ computer was getting a bit long in the tooth.

A couple of weeks ago I obtained... Asus M2N-SLI motherboard Athlon 64 X2 5200+ CPU 2Gb RAM MSI GeForce 8600 video card CoolerMaster Elite 330 caseUpgrading my computer is indeed fun, mainly due to the fact that Gentoo Linux operating systems don't need reinstalling if the hard drives they are on are moved from one computer to another.

But in this case if I did that I'd be stuck with 32-bit code, so I began a fresh installation with 64-bit code. Since I preserved the /home directory (the equivalent of "Documents and Settings") on it's own partition I didn't have to reconfigure my desktop to the pixel.