Author Topic: Hardware/OS Geek Thread  (Read 53068 times)

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Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #350: October 23, 2009, 07:21:51 PM »
Nope. just got this error message:

Quote
Windows Vista™ Enterprise cannot be upgraded to Windows 7 Professional. You can choose to install a new copy of Windows 7 Professional instead, but this is different from an upgrade, and does not keep your files, settings, and programs. You’ll need to reinstall any programs using the original installation discs or files. To save your files before installing Windows, back them up to an external location such as a CD, DVD, or external hard drive. To install a new copy of Windows 7 Professional, click the Back button in the upper left-hand corner, and select “Custom (advanced)”.

freak

Offline Nathan

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #351: October 23, 2009, 07:27:42 PM »
Did you buy the subscription you were talking about before?
Not yet, been busy with work, I finally have this weekend off and I'm going to do it tonight probably.

JMad, of the ones you posted I'd probably say the Compaq too depending on things like graphics etc.  If I get a chance later I'll take a look around and see if anything catches my eye.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #352: October 23, 2009, 07:44:31 PM »
Nope. just got this error message:

freak

Which apps are you really worried about re-installing?  You can save the app data from any that require a lot of post-install fiddling and that should save you a good bit of time.  Be happy to walk you through it if you like.

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #353: October 23, 2009, 08:26:01 PM »
Done. That didn't take long at all, even on this mediocre PC (1 GB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, AMD Turion64 Processor).

The resolution looks like crap though. Hopefully downloading the video driver fixes it. All of the other devices appear to be working fine.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #354: October 23, 2009, 08:27:56 PM »
Done. That didn't take long at all, even on this mediocre PC (1 GB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, AMD Turion64 Processor).

The resolution looks like crap though. Hopefully downloading the video driver fixes it. All of the other devices appear to be working fine.

I'm surprised there wasn't a generic driver to handle that built-in.  I've seen 7 provide drivers automatically for much newer video cards than what I'd assume you're running on that.

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #355: October 23, 2009, 08:31:16 PM »
it was initially set on a low resolution when it first booted up and i bumped it up to 1024x768. It looks a little better but still not like it should.

i also noticed that under the taskbar icons it doesn't show the full windows like it did on my other machine with 7 running on it. it just shows the tabs but not the windows and previews.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #356: October 23, 2009, 08:33:04 PM »
it was initially set on a low resolution when it first booted up and i bumped it up to 1024x768. It looks a little better but still not like it should.

i also noticed that under the taskbar icons it doesn't show the full windows like it did on my other machine with 7 running on it. it just shows the tabs but not the windows and previews.

Yeah you need a real video driver for that.  Try checking Windows update, if you don't get anything there, tell me what your video card is and I'll find the driver for you.

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #357: October 23, 2009, 08:44:36 PM »
I downloaded the driver off Gateway's website and it is now working. looks so money :az:

It stored the folder for VMWare Workstation in the Windows.Old folder. I guess I could try to re-install it from that.

Offline PANatsFan

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #358: October 23, 2009, 08:52:01 PM »
I would caution against 10" netbooks.  Maybe I'm just being picky, but I find them intolerable for anything but brief intermittent use.  Screen and keyboard are both too small for me.

Of course if you have a spare monitor and keyboard to attach to one, that takes care of that, but the single-core Atom CPU that powers most of those things is going to struggle with higher quality flash/video.

I just want it to play with. Build your own laptop. Also, I want a netbook for travel. I have a 13" right now and I'm dying for a smaller one.

The Sony uber-netbook that's as wide as a 13" but half as tall is very appealing.

I also want a an iPod touch, a Kindle, a PS3, and surround sound.

Unfortunately I know where all my money is going :lol:

Offline PANatsFan

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #359: October 23, 2009, 08:54:58 PM »
Ok after 11 hours I'm posting this from Windows 7. The main differences are the security alerts don't freeze everything and the toolbar is fatter. And everything seems faster. Honestly, I think they just wanted something not called Vista.

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #360: October 23, 2009, 08:55:50 PM »
I want to get a ps3 for christmas.

I'm not a big gamer but I like playing sports games (Madden, NHL, MLB The Show, etc) occasionally. Still playing on ps2 to this day.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #361: October 23, 2009, 08:56:42 PM »
Ok after 11 hours I'm posting this from Windows 7. The main differences are the security alerts don't freeze everything and the toolbar is fatter. And everything seems faster.

That's glossing over it if I've ever seen it.  Yep.  That's all that's different :?

Quote
Honestly, I think they just wanted something not called Vista.

This much is true, provided by "they" you mean the average consumer and pundit.  Ever seen the mojave videos?

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #362: October 23, 2009, 08:59:20 PM »
the task bar is a lot better. that is my favorite.

i don't know why the window preview doesn't show up under the icon tabs though like on my other machine. even with vista installed on this machine it showed the window preview when you hovered over a tab.

Offline PANatsFan

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #363: October 23, 2009, 08:59:52 PM »
I want to get a ps3 for christmas.

I'm not a big gamer but I like playing sports games (Madden, NHL, MLB The Show, etc) occasionally. Still playing on ps2 to this day.

I want it to rent movies, play Blu-rays, and to play games on the rare day I have time. It's one of I think two firmware upgradable blu-ray players

That's glossing over it if I've ever seen it.  Yep.  That's all that's different :?

This much is true, provided by "they" you mean the average consumer and pundit.  Ever seen the mojave videos?
The Mojave effect is exactly what I'm talking about.

That's my impression 5 minutes after the install finishes. Subtler changes will take time to register.

I'm a Vista fan. It's the first Windows operating system I could do work on. It's stable on the order of days, which I need, unless updates come in, and then it forces you to reboot. Hopefully that's changed. Also, it ate my GRUB, so I have to install a bootloader all over again.

Offline PANatsFan

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #364: October 23, 2009, 09:00:33 PM »
the task bar is a lot better. that is my favorite.

i don't know why the window preview doesn't show up under the icon tabs though like on my other machine. even with vista installed on this machine it showed the window preview when you hovered over a tab.

You have to run Aero to get it - you need at least Premium and reasonable graphics hardware. That's the best feature they stole from Mac :stir:

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #365: October 23, 2009, 09:02:22 PM »
You have to run Aero to get it - you need at least Premium and reasonable graphics hardware. That's the best feature they stole from Mac :stir:
I have Win Pro on my other machine and it worked fine. It must be the difference in graphics hardware I guess. but the vista preview feature worked on this machine though. It's similar but the Win7 preview takes up the whole screen.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #366: October 23, 2009, 09:11:03 PM »
It's the first Windows operating system I could do work on. It's stable on the order of days, which I need

While I'll give you much better stability than XP, as JMad would say...  c'mon son!  What precisely do you do that XP wasn't stable enough for?  And did you try to trace the cause of your instabilities?  Because honestly, while XP isn't as stable as Vista or 7, it's not like it just randomly BSODs for no reason like 9x used to.

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Unless updates come in, and then it forces you to reboot. Hopefully that's changed.

There are policies in the gpedit.msc in XP that you could set to prevent that: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000294.html

Specifically option 2.  I'm not trying to be a dick but I find it hard to believe that you couldn't have found that yourself in 15 seconds on Google.

Quote
Also, it ate my GRUB, so I have to install a bootloader all over again.

Funny, I always nag about Linux eating my Windows bootloader ;)

Offline PANatsFan

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #367: October 23, 2009, 09:11:06 PM »
I have Win Pro on my other machine and it worked fine. It must be the difference in graphics hardware I guess. but the vista preview feature worked on this machine though. It's similar but the Win7 preview takes up the whole screen.

Oh I only have a small preview window. How do you do the full screen?

Offline PANatsFan

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #368: October 23, 2009, 09:12:45 PM »

There are policies in the gpedit.msc in XP that you could set to prevent that: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000294.html

Specifically option 2.  I'm not trying to be a dick but I find it hard to believe that you couldn't have found that yourself in 15 seconds on Google.

Funny, I always nag about Linux eating my Windows bootloader ;)

I complained about the reboot problem IN VISTA. Not XP.

And why in the world would you want the Windows bootloader?

Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #369: October 23, 2009, 09:12:53 PM »
You have to run Aero to get it - you need at least Premium and reasonable graphics hardware. That's the best feature they stole from Mac :stir:

Except they did it one better ;)

I have Win Pro on my other machine and it worked fine. It must be the difference in graphics hardware I guess. but the vista preview feature worked on this machine though. It's similar but the Win7 preview takes up the whole screen.

Right click on desktop > personalize > click one of the "Aero" themes.  You'll need to have an appropriate display driver installed first, but from what you said before, it sounds like you've taken care of that.


Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #370: October 23, 2009, 09:15:13 PM »
I complained about the reboot problem IN VISTA. Not XP.

And why in the world would you want the Windows bootloader?

Same policy still applies in Vista, and 7 too for that matter.  Got any more excuses? :P

And why in the world would I want GRUB when I can install Linux to a totally separate disk and select whichever disk I want to boot from at the BIOS boot device menu? :|

Not everybody is into cluttering up their system drives with multiple different OSes you know ;)

But honestly...  a bootloader is a bootloader, who cares?

Here's a nice little GUI app for the Vista/7 bootloader - http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

Might come in handy if you ever need sully your hands working with it ;)

Offline PANatsFan

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #371: October 23, 2009, 09:17:25 PM »
Same policy still applies in Vista, and 7 too for that matter.  Got any more excuses? :P

And why in the world would I want GRUB when I can install Linux to a totally separate disk and select whichever disk I want to boot from at the BIOS boot device menu? :|

Not everybody is into cluttering up their system drives with multiple different OSes you know ;)

But honestly...  a bootloader is a bootloader, who cares?

Thanks I'll get to that later tonight.

Ok so I should carry 3 or 4 HD's with my laptop?

I don't care - can I make Windows bootloader boot 64 bit Linux? I just want it to work with minimal effort.

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #372: October 23, 2009, 09:20:08 PM »
Except they did it one better ;)

Right click on desktop > personalize > click one of the "Aero" themes.  You'll need to have an appropriate display driver installed first, but from what you said before, it sounds like you've taken care of that.

(Image removed from quote.)
that did it. thank you chief :clap:

Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #373: October 23, 2009, 09:20:16 PM »
I don't care - can I make Windows bootloader boot 64 bit Linux? I just want it to work with minimal effort.

Exactly my point.  One bootloader, the other, who cares.  I don't multi-boot my portables and when I do, the Linux install is usually only temporary.  It's either 'nix or Windows.  On my desktop I just install to diff drives to simplify matters.  Also helps when I'm screwing with the partitions on one drive - just boot to the other one and do it from there so I can keep using the computer.

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #374: October 23, 2009, 09:25:33 PM »
windows 7 doesn't like my battery :lmao:

under the power icon it says "99% available, consider replacing your battery. there is a problem with your battery, so your computer might shut down suddenly"

it is a crap battery though. will probably only last for 20-25 mins unplugged before it is dead.