Personal computing discussed

Search found 178 matches

by captaintrav
Thu Oct 13, 2022 8:47 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Habs rule
Replies: 0
Views: 30895

Habs rule

Ned told me that
by captaintrav
Fri Aug 23, 2019 8:43 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: DYMT: Imi's Legacy
Replies: 4962
Views: 473039

Re: DYMT: Imi's Legacy

I finally dumped the half speed dial-up and I now have what looks to be real internet, wow! When the tethered phone has three bars, google speed test says it's four+Mbps! I'm now faster than my cousin's in town DSL, saaaaweeet. I can now retire my sneakers and just go visit (and squash his foolishl...
by captaintrav
Mon Jul 29, 2019 4:43 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Bad Pool Caller
Replies: 6
Views: 3263

Re: Bad Pool Caller

WhoCrashed distributed some PUP with it a while back, they may have rectified it.

I recommend BlueScreenView from https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html.

BAD POOL CALLER is almost always a buggy driver IIRC.
by captaintrav
Mon May 27, 2019 9:46 am
Forum: Storage
Topic: What is wrong with Seagate's HDDs?
Replies: 15
Views: 6170

Re: What is wrong with Seagate's HDDs?

Where practical, I just refuse to run without RAID nowadays. Some of my Seagates were bad enough I had to give up on them as RMA replacements aren't free (shipping) and they were failing more than once a year, but that was a long time ago. I'm happy with my Toshiba drives, but they are the first Tos...
by captaintrav
Mon May 27, 2019 8:43 am
Forum: Windows
Topic: CPU power management on Windows 10
Replies: 6
Views: 3586

Re: CPU power management on Windows 10

That or something like it definitely still applies to my R7 1700. If Windows is configured to ever let it drop to its minimum state, it gets intermittently slower even when it should be maxed out (full load and anything reading frequency directly shows max). Captaintrav, what's your CPU? My observa...
by captaintrav
Thu May 23, 2019 12:08 pm
Forum: Windows
Topic: Windows 10 Build 1903
Replies: 20
Views: 7184

Re: Windows 10 Build 1903

My biggest gripe with DPI scaling on Windows is that Microsoft usually guesses the scaling value wrong, and then sets that wrong value as the default for every single user that ever logs on. The display reports its physical size and resolution, and that would be enough to ensure that printed 10pt f...
by captaintrav
Wed May 22, 2019 8:58 am
Forum: Windows
Topic: CPU power management on Windows 10
Replies: 6
Views: 3586

CPU power management on Windows 10

Stumbled across this lately that there are at least some cases where the power plan settings on Windows 10 is making BIG differences in performance. I'm not sure how turbo boost and everything plays with these settings but I'm talking about the "Processor power management" settings. The de...
by captaintrav
Wed May 22, 2019 8:48 am
Forum: Windows
Topic: Windows 10 Build 1903
Replies: 20
Views: 7184

Re: Windows 10 Build 1903

I like the (minor) visual tweaks, and the brightness slider on the notification panel is a good idea. It feels like DPI scaling behaviour got worse somehow, though That sucks, I've been welcoming the enhancements for this as they come. Maybe they'll have it sorted out by fall (we're only doing the ...
by captaintrav
Wed May 22, 2019 8:47 am
Forum: Windows
Topic: Windows 10 Build 1903
Replies: 20
Views: 7184

Re: Windows 10 Build 1903

My sample size is pretty small outside of work where we manage the updates ourselves, but I have yet to see *any* machine in the wild that got 1809 offered through Windows Update. I wonder how MS is going to approach rolling out 1903. I have received 1809 through WU on two of my personal laptops an...
by captaintrav
Wed May 22, 2019 8:33 am
Forum: Windows
Topic: Windows 10 Build 1903
Replies: 20
Views: 7184

Re: Windows 10 Build 1903

My sample size is pretty small outside of work where we manage the updates ourselves, but I have yet to see *any* machine in the wild that got 1809 offered through Windows Update. I wonder how MS is going to approach rolling out 1903.
by captaintrav
Fri May 10, 2019 9:44 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: 2 TR articles on FB, nothing on webpage
Replies: 11
Views: 2258

Re: 2 TR articles on FB, nothing on webpage

I noticed this too on FB, and what's worse when I clicked on the links it just took me to the front page. After a bit of testing, it seems only about 1/3 of the time did clicking the FB link take me to the story.
by captaintrav
Mon Feb 25, 2019 2:05 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Winter weather
Replies: 1521
Views: 201248

Re: Winter weather

-36C here this morning. The weather dudes are saying the coldest February since the 30s.. this is getting really old.
by captaintrav
Fri Feb 22, 2019 3:04 pm
Forum: General Software
Topic: How bad is Windows 10 Really?
Replies: 381
Views: 80357

Re: How bad is Windows 10 Really?

Y'all must be using some seriously crappy hardware. Which is understandable. Not like each of us can afford to upgrade every PC we touch. I have just never seen these kind of issues on any of the W10 machines I interact with on the regular. Even my dad's old Thinkpad, which is a dual core i5 from y...
by captaintrav
Wed Feb 20, 2019 3:31 pm
Forum: General Software
Topic: How bad is Windows 10 Really?
Replies: 381
Views: 80357

Re: How bad is Windows 10 Really?

The fact we still have facilities on 1.5MB copper connections makes deploying the updates ever harder too. Thankfully some sites are finally getting fiber, but at the cost of several hundred thousand dollars per site. Not everyone can get 100mbit connections easily even nowadays. I'm not sure how y...
by captaintrav
Wed Feb 20, 2019 1:56 pm
Forum: General Software
Topic: How bad is Windows 10 Really?
Replies: 381
Views: 80357

Re: How bad is Windows 10 Really?

The cumulative updates are seeming to get bigger and bigger, this month's CU KB4486996 for 1709 was about 900 mb and takes some time to install. We even ran into a new issue where our AV (unfortunately mandated by security "experts") was causing an issue because it was taking too long to s...
by captaintrav
Tue Feb 05, 2019 11:52 am
Forum: General Software
Topic: How bad is Windows 10 Really?
Replies: 381
Views: 80357

Re: How bad is Windows 10 Really?

I believe you can get to the recovery options without booting into the OS if you, get this:. Repeatedly power it off as soon as you see the Windows logo, then Windows will give you options to repair since the PC won't start. Why they removed F8 is beyond me. A nice new feature they added to this mon...
by captaintrav
Thu Jul 19, 2018 1:21 pm
Forum: Storage
Topic: Fun with Linux software RAID
Replies: 19
Views: 2779

Re: Fun with Linux software RAID

The new installer in 18.04 is garbage. I had no success getting a system to boot after creating a simple 2 disk RAID 1 mdraid array and booting from it. Reverted back to server 16.04 and it's fine.
by captaintrav
Fri Feb 02, 2018 11:35 am
Forum: Windows
Topic: Fresh install Windows 10 Pro - Windows Updates will not run - SOLVED
Replies: 19
Views: 4179

Re: Fresh install Windows 10 Pro - Windows Updates will not run - SOLVED

I wonder if one of the Windows updates was for the wireless driver, if he was on wireless. I had enormous problems with Windows Updates failing on a Windows 7 laptop, then at some point it dawned on me to try Ethernet, and it started working again. The Windows Updates service seems to be really fini...
by captaintrav
Wed Jan 31, 2018 3:43 pm
Forum: Windows
Topic: Fresh install Windows 10 Pro - Windows Updates will not run - SOLVED
Replies: 19
Views: 4179

Re: Fresh install Windows 10 Pro - Windows Updates will not run

Do you have an SSD in that laptop? I'd try another disk especially if it's an SSD. I've seen some pretty weird issues arising from defective SSDs, and there doesn't seem to be things like disk errors in the event log, but after testing RAM and exhausting other ideas, tried a different drive and magi...
by captaintrav
Thu Jan 25, 2018 3:06 pm
Forum: Windows
Topic: Installing XP these days.
Replies: 21
Views: 3675

Re: Installing XP these days.

I've had great success using VirtualBox for an XP emulator. This is all games of DX6 an earlier or possibly OpenGL prior to 2 (certainly 3). Anything newer than that and I would expect it to work in modern windows. Probably, but I'd rather run anything of the DirectX9 era on XP for the nostalgia fa...
by captaintrav
Thu Jan 25, 2018 12:11 pm
Forum: Windows
Topic: Installing XP these days.
Replies: 21
Views: 3675

Re: Installing XP these days.

Any issues running too much hardware on XP, like games that don't like a fast CPU?

I have a Core i5-750 and 8GB of ram, I'm aware that I can't use that in XP unless I run the bastard child XP x64.
by captaintrav
Thu Jan 25, 2018 11:52 am
Forum: Windows
Topic: Installing XP these days.
Replies: 21
Views: 3675

Re: Installing XP these days.

Any recommendations on what is best for gaming in a VM? I've used Virtual Box and VMWare, I'm not sure if one would be better than the other?
by captaintrav
Thu Jan 25, 2018 11:41 am
Forum: Windows
Topic: Installing XP these days.
Replies: 21
Views: 3675

Installing XP these days.

I'm well aware of the security risks, but thinking of building a system just for old games -> I don't have any hardware worth trying new games on so no need for newer OS. My question is if Windows Update is still working for XP? If I install it and temporarily connect it to the internet is it going ...
by captaintrav
Wed Jan 24, 2018 10:59 am
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: **** wants to run every boot
Replies: 4
Views: 6442

**** wants to run every boot

edit: this post is about the Linux file system check, apparently it's a bad word so therefore the asterisks :lol: Ubuntu 16.04 -> when I log in I keep getting /dev/md0 will be checked for errors at next boot. Okay. Check the status of the filesystem: Last checked: Thu Jul 20 16:53:52 2017 Check inte...
by captaintrav
Thu Jan 18, 2018 3:18 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Average fuel consumption
Replies: 64
Views: 12507

Re: Average fuel consumption

I know on some Dodge products, so I imagine Chrysler/Jeep as well, tunes from Superchips did vastly alter the throttle response. At least for my friend that had one on his Durango, unfortunately it gets locked to the VIN so I can't reprogram mine as well. :lol:
by captaintrav
Thu Jan 18, 2018 12:32 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Average fuel consumption
Replies: 64
Views: 12507

Re: Average fuel consumption

I never thought of but the TBW system probably is why my Durango seems pretty nonchalant when you mash the gas from a dead stop, cause the power once you hit about 30mph seems a lot more so. I always chalked it up to the revs needing to get up, but I bet it has more to do with the programming TBW th...
by captaintrav
Wed Jan 17, 2018 1:08 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Average fuel consumption
Replies: 64
Views: 12507

Re: Average fuel consumption

End User wrote:
Shobai wrote:
Yikes!

What are you paying for fuel? Our 98 octane is $1.61 per litre.

91 is $1.41 CDN


Ouch 91 octane can be had here for just over $1, I'm guessing 91 would be $1.10-1.15. I think we have some of the cheapest gas prices in Canada though.
by captaintrav
Wed Jan 17, 2018 1:07 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Average fuel consumption
Replies: 64
Views: 12507

Re: Average fuel consumption

I was down to 10.5 mpg but a 2 hour drive to MD upped it immensely to 14.0. 95% of my driving is in the city, so having a heavy 3 row SUV and a thirst 5.7 Hemi is a bad equation for getting good fuel economy. Luckily, I only have a 7 mile round trip daily drive to work every day, so even at those v...
by captaintrav
Tue Jan 16, 2018 5:08 pm
Forum: Processors
Topic: Modded legacy BIOS for Meltdown/Spectre
Replies: 24
Views: 5038

Re: Modded legacy BIOS for Meltdown/Spectre

Just as a note, there is microcode updates for all kinds of processors in the package, but Intel hasn't released any *new* microcode updates for anything older than Haswell. Well, sure, but if it isn't available, it simply isn't available whether you are hacking it into the firmware or using your d...
by captaintrav
Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:55 pm
Forum: Processors
Topic: Modded legacy BIOS for Meltdown/Spectre
Replies: 24
Views: 5038

Re: Modded legacy BIOS for Meltdown/Spectre

Just as a note, there is microcode updates for all kinds of processors in the package, but Intel hasn't released any *new* microcode updates for anything older than Haswell. I suppose they had to draw a line somewhere, but especially in the data center 5 years seems fairly short. Not necessarily. I...
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