alexandraerin

I was starting to wonder if you'd gotten my last e-mail to you. I figured you were just busy and I'd catch you here every so often.

Computer problems suck, no doubt about it. Misty and I just had to take out desktop back to Fry's to get a new CPU, new Motherboard, new Harddrive, and new RAM chips. (The only thing that's still original on this this is the tower case and the power supply for cryin' out loud!)Fortunetly the who thing was still under warranty so they replaced everything free of charge. (yay!) It still a pain in the butt having to reconstruct all my Internet Explorer bookmarks from memory though.

Anyway, it's good you've clear out the techno-gremlins.....for the time being anyway. Those little buggers always seem to sneak back in after awhile.

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If you want to make a good backup versus loss on bookmarks, my suggestion is to use the Google toolbar. The Bookmarks dropdown has an option for importing your existing bookmarks, and so long as you're logged in to Google when you do it, you should be able to access all of them from wherever.

I use it at work due to a repetitive issue with Vista- it keeps refusing to write data, or erases it- such as periodically eliminating all bookmarks & home page tabs in Firefox. I set up a subdirectory in the Google toolbar, and it's all stored in the cloud. So one click and I'm back in business again.

Now if Vista and HP could just resolve the printer & network card driver compatibility issues they have, I'd be able to keep from rebooting this damn thing twice a day...

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Thanks for the idea, I'll pass it along to Misty since technically it's her computer. Just about everytime we've used Google Toolbar on this thing it's caused more problems than it solves though. Some kind of memory issue. The Shop's computer tech, Tonia, told us that Vista is a memory hog and we should've gotten another 5 Gig's of RAM just for it (which would put us at 15 total). I really just want to get a new power supply and CD/DVD drive for our old computer and get it back up and running. Maybe put in LAN at the house so Misty and I can both be online at the same time. But it's a money issue, and dragging Tonia with me to the computer shop to help me find the right parts once I have the money. It's always something. :D

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Another 5 Gigs of ram? That's... Admittedly by the time I was done with my undergrad work Vista was still a month out from release, so I didn't play around with it as part of my classwork- I'm not as familiar with its quirks as I am with the earlier Windows versions. But the computer I'm on at the moment clocks in at just under 3 Gigs, and I've yet to experience slowdown that isn't traceable to the aforementioned network card problems. Ten gigs should be enough for just about anything short of incredibly intensive tasks, like rendering high resolution 3D animation- and those would require one hell of a vidcard/mobo/CPU combo in addition to the memory.

For what it's worth, I'd be willing to give my (educated but not terribly experienced) opinion on parts, as well as recommend hitting newegg. I put my current computer together from their inventory and it clocked in at about $600; I've got XP Pro running (they offer it on CD still) and it's a very solid machine. I picked up a 22" widescreen LCD for another $100, upgraded the video card for another $30, and have the potential to upgrade everything to at least twice as powerful as what's currently in it.

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I admit that I'm really computer stupid, especially when it comes to hardware. I can get my games loaded and running, check my e-mail and message forums, play music and DVD's but that's about where my techical expertise ends. Anything goes wrong, I pester Misty to fix "her" computer :D

Most of my talents lay in more primitive skills to tell the truth. Misty's the one that really wants to put in a wireless network here at the house. I'd be happy if I had a wood/metal shop in the garage and foundry furnace on the back porch (ok, maybe a masonry pizza oven too....and a wood grill.....oh and gotta have the charcoal forge while I'm dreaming)

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Well, I'm happy to try and help should you two want me to offer free advice, or butt out if that's preferred as well.

As for the rest, I can sympathize. Don't have a place of my own just yet, but I've been thinking about how to fill it. I have a feeling that between my ideas for homemade furniture and my miniatures projects I'll end up with a wood shop of my own.

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I'm always glad for advice. When I get around to resurrecting the old desktop I'll pester you plenty :D

One of my friends has a custome knife business in Alaska. Scott's shop is just 2 shipping containers, set side by side with the inner walls cut out to make one big room. I dunno how he's got it lit and powered but he says for a metal/wood shop it works pretty well. When we moved into our rental I'd hoped to convert the garage into a shop of sorts. But it's an OLD garage. dirt floor, no windows. Eventually I've got to get the vines that are growing THROUGH the walls cleared away.

I'd say when you do get a place of your own, see if it has a large garage with adequate lighting ventilation, and power outlets. Skylights are useful for letting light in without electricty. A solid concrete slab floor is a must. Last time I went back to my grandparents in Illinois, we saw a 3-story house on 8 acres of land with a guest house AND a 2 car garage/coachhouse in the historic distric of Nauvoo for only about $300,000. Out here, tiny little 1/4 acre lot tract homes are going for about 250,000. Maybe someday when the economy straightens out I'll be able to get the place I want.

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Well I've got a thing for a wonderful redhead in Michigan, and as best I can tell I shouldn't have any troubles getting a decent place there- once I find work. Then it'll just be a matter of prioritizing expenses.

Let me know when you want some help with the computer stuff- honestly it's not much more difficult than building furniture when you get right down to it. There's a few basic concepts that just keep getting repeated, and then just specific techniques beyond that.

And incidentally, nice icon. Yellow was a favorite character in Mospeada, just because of how well the gender switch was handled as compared to American work. Not bad, or freakish, or done as embarrassment comedy- just a part of the character and one that the others took in stride for most of the series.

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Got the icon from the Robotech.com site gallery. (Sergeant Knightsrune, Robotech Defense Forces, at your service :D) I still have to get the original Macross, Southern Cross, Mospeada anime for my collection. Again, not enough money to do everything I want to do. But Lancer/Yellow Dancer was my favorite character from the 3rd season. (Max Sterling from first season) I'm not sure I had a favorite in the 2nd season.

Ok, I'll stop anime-geeking now, I've probably said to much already ^_^

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Anime geeking's not a problem for me. My only regret is that Netflix doesn't have a larger selection. I haven't seen Southern Cross, but I'd definitely recommend Mospeada just on its merits. And Max was definitely a fun character in Macross, though I don't know how any of it translated to Robotech.

Actually that reminds me- I have checked to see if Zero or the newest Gundam series have hit Netflix yet....

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Aside from some minor tweeks for the american audience, from what I've seen of Macross and Robotech's first season there wasn't that much difference. Max Jenius became Max Sterling. Hikaru became Rick Hunter. Lynn Minmei is still Lyn Minmei. Some scenes were cut, like the shower scene when Hikaru and Lynn are trapped in the ship's hold for 2 weeks. But overall there wasn't a huge difference that I could tell. Just some minor revisions to allow Macross, Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada to be woven together into one story involving transforming vehicles, aliens and protoculture.

So now I'm gonna have to do the seen it/haven't seen it list:

The Guyver
Battle Angel Alita
Original Dirty Pair
Vampire Hunter D
Bubblegum Crisis
Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040
Arcadia Of My Youth
Dominion:Tank Police
Golden Boy
Dirty Pair Flash
Sorcerer Hunters
Cutey Honey
Maps
Devil Hunter Yohko
Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar
5ystem
Hayao Miyazaki Films
Nausicca In The Valley Of The Wind
Warriors of the Wind (unauthorized dub and
edit of Nausicca)
Spirited Away
Whisper of the Heart
The Cat Returns
Princess Monoke
Howl's Moving Castle
Otaku No Video
Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise
Darkside Blues
Dead Leaves
Ushio&Tora
Spriggan
Blood: The Last Vampire
Gravion
Gravion Zwei
Burn-Up
Burn-Up: Warrior
Burn-Up: Scamble
All Purpose Cultrual Cat Girl Nuku Nuku
DragonHalf
GunSmith Cats
Metal Skin Panic: Madox-01
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Go Nagai's The Devil Lady
Iria: Zeiram The Animation

Ok, that's about it for my DVD collection, the VHS tapes are currently buried, but I know I've got Record of the Lodoss War in there.

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I think it would take me days to try and put together what I've seen- but I don't own anything myself. But of your list:

The Guyver
~~Battle Angel Alita~~
Original Dirty Pair
Vampire Hunter D (both movies)
Bubblegum Crisis (and Crash)
Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040
~~Arcadia Of My Youth~~
Dominion:Tank Police
Golden Boy (1 episode)
Dirty Pair Flash (1 tape/volume)
Sorcerer Hunters ?
Cutey Honey (dubbed, subbed, and live action)
~~Maps~~
Devil Hunter Yohko (1 volume)
Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar
5ystem
~~Hayao Miyazaki Films~~
Nausicca In The Valley Of The Wind
Warriors of the Wind (unauthorized dub and
edit of Nausicca)
Spirited Away
Whisper of the Heart
The Cat Returns
Princess Monoke
Howl's Moving Castle
Otaku No Video
Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise
Darkside Blues
Dead Leaves
~~Ushio&Tora~~
Spriggan (can't remember if I have)
Blood: The Last Vampire
Gravion
Gravion Zwei
Burn-Up
Burn-Up: Warrior
Burn-Up: Scamble
All Purpose Cultrual Cat Girl Nuku Nuku
DragonHalf (1 volume)
GunSmith Cats (can't recall)
~~Metal Skin Panic: Madox-01~~
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Go Nagai's The Devil Lady
Iria: Zeiram The Animation

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That's ok, at least now I've got some idea of the anime we've both seen. So if I make a referrence to one of them you should get it. :D Eventually I'll dig out my VHS tapes and see what else I can throw at you to see if you know it or not.

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I'm rather troubled that you don't have
Full Metal Panic
or
Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex
or
Mahoromatic

... also, I'm noticing an extreme lack of shojo.

Recommended shojo:
Kodomo no Omocha (Child's Toy)
and
Elfen Lied (disturbing! and Violent!)
and
Last Exile

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^_^ Actually, I've seen both Full Metal Panic and Ghost In The Shell:SAC on Anime Network. Hang on a second and I'll dig out my VHS tapes and put your mind at ease........

The Guyver: Out Of Standardized (1987 Dark
Horse Comics release, sub-titled. This one is
the pride of my collection)
Neon Genesis Evangelion
GundamWing
Angel Cop
Black Lion
Wrath Of The Ninja: The Yotoden Movie
Appleseed (the original, not the remake)
Ghost In The Shell (again, the original)
Battle Angel
Sukeban Deka
Ninja Scroll
Ninja Resurrection
Gatchaman (1994 Urban Vision remake)
Cutey Honey
Variable Geo
Record of the Lodoss War
Wicken City
Giant Robo (one of my old friends looks EXACTLY
like Ginrei)
SolBianca
Goku: Midnight Eye Boxed Set
The Adventures of Kotetsu
Dark Warrior: First Strike
Metal Angel Marie
Sin: The Movie
Akira
Akira 2000
Tattoon Master
Jungle De Ikou!
Plastic Little
Dangaioh: Hyper Combat Unit
Big Wars
New Kimagure Orange Road
Kimera
Black Magic: M-66
Tekken
Fire Emblam
Ruin Explorers
Oh My Goddess!

I am slowly converting all my old VHS tapes over to DVD where I can. I'm also working on getting some of the newer series that I've been watching on Anime Network. But money is tight and things like rent and paying the gas/electric bill take precedence.

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every once in a while I contemplate a business producing at cost fansubs, and mailing dvds around. I have two terabytes of anime at home, and around 500 mb of videogames (that's a lot when you talk the old infocom games, and the old sierras, etc.)

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silverai.livejournal.com

I feel like I've just dropped into the Twilight Zone. 5Gb of Ram extra, taking you to 15Gb total? If you're talking RAM, that stupid amounts over normal, and if you're talking hard drive, that's stupid amounts of small and you can't just added 5Gb like that anyhow.

Since I sell computers and parts for a living in Australia, this confuses me no end.

People normally talk 1-4Gb in terms of RAM, and hard drive nowadays (especially in a Vista machine) wouldn't be smaller than 80Gb. I dearly hope that either you're talking some completely new fangled machine that I do't know about, or elsewhere in the world does things really weirdly (which I was sure elsewhere didn't), or that both of you are severely confused, possibly due to the tech person not communicating well.

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alexandraerin.livejournal.com

That's pretty much my reaction, too... I was left wondering if I'd missed a huge technological revolution.

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Actually, the computer I'm working on right now has 931 GB on the C: drive and 189 GB on the E: drive, with 8 GB of RAM memory. It's running Windows Vista. It's an Hewlett/Packard desktop with a LightScribe DVD/CD-writer drive, and has a Pocket Media drive bay (320 GB portable drive) and a Media Drive Bay (500 GB portable drive).

I don't really know anything about the Vista memory requirements, but the tech at the store said we should have at least 5 GB of RAM just for it.

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silverai.livejournal.com

Now THOSE are realistic Gb size for the hard drive.

But that RAM is still silly. Do you know if you have a 32 bit or 64 bit version of Windows? If you have 32 bit (which the greater majority of people still do) then you aren't using those 8Gb anyway because the 32 bit system doesn't see more than 3.2-3.5Gb in total. If you have 64bit, then 8Gb is as much as most people put in - the greater majority of my customers are 2-4Gb. Vista Home Premium 32 bit can run well on 2Gb, or make do on 1Gb. Vista Ultimate 32 bit is fine on 4Gb.

I don't know what that tech is on about with her "5Gb of RAM just for it". Doesn't fit with what I know.

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The system information says it's a 64-bit operating system. It does still see to work a bit choppy and slow at times though

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silverai.livejournal.com

You're just doing this? "I can get my games loaded and running, check my e-mail and message forums, play music and DVD's"

Shouldn't be having any trouble with that stuff. Is it running slow at particular times or just randomly? If it's just in a particular program or two, it could be a 32 bit program trying to talk to 64 bit Windows. If it's in some decent games with all the details turned up, it could be your video card.

The other thing that hasn't been mentioned is what model your CPU is? (The Ghz size by itself means nothing, as the architecture has changed for CPUs and they started recycling Ghz sizes while still having more powerful chips, so the model is what matters now)

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Lemme see here

system info says: AMD Phenom(tm) 9750 Quad-Core Processor 2.40 GHz.

ATI Radeon HD 3650 listed under Display Adaptors

ATI HDMI Audio listed under Sound, Video, and Game Controllers.

Mostly it gets choppy when Misty is running Second Life, or when I'm playing StarWars Battle Front. It won't even run MechWarrior 3. Siberia seems to play alright.

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Aha- I think we're starting to see the violence inherent in the system. Your video card should be fine- given what you're attempting to play that should suffice. But

silverai hit it on the head talking about 32 bit programs and 64bit operating systems- Battlefront was designed with 32bit OSes in mind, not 64. The LucasArts page for it doesn't even make mention of Vista. Mechwarrior 3 is even older, and can at times have issues with XP. I think Vista is not backwards compatible enough to run it.

Second Life... well let's just say there's a fairly solid chance it isn't your computer that's at fault when that gets slow. Based on my limited experience with it, things can get pretty bad pretty quickly just due to their servers being strained.

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That's what I was worried about. And why I really want to get our old computer up and running again, since it was running on XP.

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Any idea what the old power supply wattage was?

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Incidentally, this is what I picked up for mine. It's excessive- I basically used their wattage calculator and assumed two of everything I could. Just to give you a general rule of thumb for pricing and so on.

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dunno, the sticker on the side just says AC Input: 115V-230V under Voltage, and 6A-4A under current. Says "The Best Power, Model No.:MT-400P" and a bunch of stuff listed in Amps about DC Output

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Then I'd say you're probably looking at a 400 watt PSU as a rule of thumb; a 400 to 450 is probably a safe bet. Here's matching PSUs at newegg- there's more details that need to be taken into consideration, like how many 12v connectors and whether you have a 20 or 24 pin main connector, but it's a decent reference for price ranges and narrowing things down a bit.

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Ok, now we're definetly out of my area of understanding. :D I know nothing of pins and connectors.

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It's very simple once you look at it- there's a few standard shapes and sizes of connectors in a computer. The most common is the 12 volt, 4 pin type- they're generally found connected to hard drives and CD drives and the like. It looks like a rectangle with two corners shaved off, so it only fits in one way.

The motherboard itself typically has one big connector, which is either 20 or 24 pins. It's impossible to miss, and again, they've designed the plug so it'll only fit one way. Many power supplies are set up as 20+4s, meaning you've got two separate connectors that can snap together to fit into a 24 pin, or you can just use the 20 pin. In addition there's some smaller ones used for other things, such as video cards, and possibly a CPU fan- as well as a separate CPU power plug-in on the motherboard. Not everything has all the connectors- some old video cards don't need extra juice, for instance.

Newegg (which isn't paying me anything, I swear) has a good writeup, with pictures, here.

Generally speaking, you shouldn't need to worry too much so long as you look at the number of things currently hooked up in the box, figure out how many pins are involved, and make sure you've got at least that on anything new. Worst case, you can always resort to either taking pictures of the PSU and inside of the case, or lugging it over to the shop and getting Tonia to tell you which PSU you need.

Honestly the whole thing's easier than you think. Connecting things up is akin to those blocks and holes when you were a toddler, figuring out which will fit in which.

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My friend Tony was the one that built our sytem for us. He use to come over whenever we needed him. And he'd bring his girlfriend Kim with him. We'd all sit around and watch anime and eat, it was kind of like a little party whenever we had computer trouble. But Tony's moved to New Mexico looking for work. Kim doesn't drive herself. I miss my friends.

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I can sympathize. Most of my friends are about four hundred miles North of me- the rest are further away. It's been years since I've had a chance to really sit down and have fun with good friends. But, I hope to find more when I move, and I can use the Internet to keep contact with the old ones. And make new ones.

And hey- this gives you an excuse to talk to Tony.

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I would if I had a way to contact him.

So where are you planning to move to?

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You could ask Kim, see if she has any information on how to reach him.

As for where I'm off to, I was hoping for somewhere near Lansing, just because being near Michigan State would guarantee gaming. But right now it looks like I'll end up closer to Detroit. Which still isn't bad. There's a renfaire within reasonable driving distance and apparently other events going on.

Still up in the air though- mostly dependent upon where I can find work. I just know I want it to be in Michigan, due to the aforementioned redhead. So that's where I'm looking.

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I wouldn't bank on there being much work in Detroit these days. I was reading an article last month about how vast sections of the suburbs are empty. The population has dropped from 2 million to 900,000. In particular, the article was about one old guy who's making a living as a trapper. Seems the animals have moved back in to the abandoned suburbs. Raccoons are getting into empty houses and cougars are lounging around backyard swimming pools. Here is the article, To Urban Hunter Next Meal Is Scampering By (http://www.detnews.com/article/20090402/METRO08/904020395/To+urban+hunter++next+meal+is+scampering+by)

I've read other articles about how many construction companies are being called in to demolish houses because the realty companies that own them just can't sell them. That's even happening out here in California. I suppose if they get rid of the tract homes, and plant some trees, they could turn it into a big park though. Might be a nice place to camp.

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computers are much easier than metal and wood. You have tabs, and you have slots. Try opening the case to your computer, dusting it off (yes it'll be dusty. hope you don't have spiders), and getting used to unplugging and plugging things back in. Most of the crazy wires will trace back to the power supply, and the others will trace back to the motherboard.

You seriously can NOT break anything while pushing these on and off. There is more delicate work to putting a computer together (most notably adding a cpu. takes xylene among other things to do it right. and a delicate hand so you don't bend the fine pins). But you really ought to get used to the easy stuff.

I hotwire my computer whenever I turn it on, ever since the power switch broke.

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do not do any of the above without either a static strip (recommended) or some good grounding (hand on metal near power supply generally works, so long as puter is still plugged in to a good ground.)

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Oh I've plugged and unplugged a few things in before. Had to get the tower case open just to clean the dust out to get the fans spinning again. I'm just more mechanical minded than electronic (much to my dad's disappointment, I'm sure. He's an electronics engineer). But mostly I just make a note of where things were plugged in that I had to clean, and make sure they get back in that spot.

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then switching out a power supply should be no different. (get one that's a little larger, and recommended by arstechnica -- saggy power sucks (ask yer pap if you don't know what that means, teehee)). Just remember which went where (write 'em down if you have to), and plug them back in.

It really is simple.

And if you order from newegg, it's fairly easy to send back if you get the wrong one (I too heart newegg).

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If you've got 8 GB in it and you're running into problems, there's a few potential causes. One is not having enough room on the hard drive for temporary files- but given you've got nearly a full terabyte on your C drive, I'm going to guess there's plenty of free space.

The next possibility is that you've got a lot of programs running simultaneously- either things on the taskbar or in the background. If you're running Aero, you might want to try disabling it for a while and using the less fancy appearance settings, see if that helps at all. If it is, that's your issue.

The last possibility is something gumming up the works, software-wise. Either an install that didn't go quite right, or malware, or something else causing things not to work quite the way they should. This could also be caused by multiple programs that are overlapping, including security programs. For instance, let's say you have three different programs that scan any other program that starts running, to make sure it isn't infected. They're all trying to get at the same files, and also possibly going to be checking out each other. The old too many cooks thing.

It's difficult to say offhand, but I think lack of RAM is probably not the problem here. It might be necessary to try something else- preferably something that's free.

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Um....What's Aero and how do I know if it's on the computer?

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Aero is part of Vista- it's basically Microsoft saying, "You know, all these people have these really fancy computers and really powerful video cards. Why don't we have the operating system use more of that power." Thus, they created Aero- basically a Windows desktop where the frame around an application looks like it's made of glass, so you can see what's behind it.

This is Aero. Or at least what it looks like. There's more to it, but that's the most easily identified aspect.

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It's worth noting that this use of extra processing power is also one of the biggest complaints about Vista- people bought those powerful video cards and CPUs and RAM for games and applications, not because they wanted their OS to be more of a resource hog. Newer OSes using more resources is not unusual, but attempting to sell it as a feature was... less than genius.

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Oh THAT thing. Doesn't seem to be running, I've just got regular frames.

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Well, that eliminates an easy test.

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