Decided my old trusty i7 920 pc has had it's day, so, time for something new. Very new. Very... radical. A totally silent PC! That's right. Silent. 0db. No moving parts at all (save my 5Tb removable back-up drive). Here's the bits: Nofan CS-80 Fanless Computer Case Nofan P-500A Silent 500W Fanless 80+ GOLD PSU ASUS PRIME H370-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard Intel 8th Gen Core i7 8700 3.2GHz 65W UHD 630 12MB 6 Cores 12 Threads CPU Nofan CR-95C Black Pearl IcePipe 95W Fanless CPU Cooler Co...
Another ransomware attack is underway. Batten down the hatches! BBC - Global Ransomware Attack
A new version of the WannaCry ransomware is hitting organisations worldwide. It's already affecting some major organisations, such as the UK's NHS. Lock down your PCs now and update any anti-ransomeware programs you have. Better safe than sorry as they say.
Well, maybe not - but it felt like it. Friday morning I started my PC as usual, except I got an error message from SDtray.exe - that's the background scanner for Spybot. Having rebooted, it did it again. I searched the online forums which suggested solutions. After numerous attempts at clearing some files, then numerous attempts at clean installs - it wouldn't even install - I decided to give up. The log file was telling me the program was unable to access its own .tmp files. I tho...
The fan in my Coolermaster V8 recently turned its toes up. It had been noisy for a while. It was still keeping my overclocked i7 920 cool at idle, but I daren't play games with it failing. Yesterday I did something insane - I put a Jetflo in. The CPU is now, at idle, running 12°C cooler... It's not what you would call silent though...
So what's the fuss about. Windows 10 installed earlier today and, that's it... I can still do everything I need to with the minimum of effort. I still have my taskbar toolbar 'Programs', so I don't need that ugly start menu. Everything seems easy to find and nothing's broken. The only thing I need to fix is the fugly look but, isn't that what we skinners do best (WB10 - where are you?)
Currently I'm on W7 but will be going W10 shortly. For system backups I've used Acronis for years. The 2015 version is so seriously dumbed down it's unusable. You can't even select which backup versions to delete; you either use their automatic cleanup, or, delete the files manually and suffer the program not finding the versions you've deleted. I've gone back to 2012. At least there I can see the backup's timeline and delete which ever versions I want. Time ...
Saturday morning my pc suddenly shutdown. It went off like the power cord had been pulled. In a fraction of a second, as it was going, I though I saw a pop-up bottom right of the screen. It took me four attempts to get the pc started. A few minutes later it went again. The shutdown was so dramatic I started thinking of hardware issues such as the graphics card failing - especially as a few reboots suggested Windows was running but with a blank screen. This happened a number of times the sa...
I'm looking for some recommendations for a new monitor. As a photographer, it's important for me to have plenty of height for portrait. With that in mind I've had my hands on a couple of 24" 1920x1200 monitors. 1920x1080 isn't big enough. The first one was a Samsung, a 450 I think. After a few months it developed a large bright spot and had to go back. I got a refund as they said that particular monitor had been discontinued. Shame - up to it failing it was quite good. The ...
Somehow, don't know how, my PSP x2 disc managed to get seperated from its sleeve. You know, that flimsy little thing with the serial key on... However, It's now installed and working thanks to assistance from Corel support. After sending them proof of my purchase, and a photo of the box and disc, the sent me a new serial So, all's well that ends well. But it would be nice if serial keys were put on something more substantial. Some do, but far too many go somewhere I can lose ...
A few years ago when I updated from XP to Vista, I learned to my dismay that my Nikon software wouldn't work on Vista with no plans for it to be updated. So, I spent £90 on Nikon's CaptureNX. A brilliant piece of software for editing NEF files. Guess what... Nikon has no plans to update CaptureNX for use on Windows7 This means I have to either buy new software, or use one of my old PCs. Dual boot isn't an option uless I want to reinstall everything. At the moment I can't access...
Here's hoping my Windows 7 disc arrives soon, because I've had enough of Vista. Explorer window: Suddenly, for no reason, this will forget what size it was. It will open up about 640x480 and I will have to resize it. Start Menu: I've all sorts of problems with this, mainly due to permissions. It wouldn't allow programs to create shortcuts on installation, I couldn't move items to where I wanted etc. Worst, a few moments ago, the Games folder vanished. Poof! Just gone. After half an hour...
As everyone seems to be flexing their 3p33n, I thought I'd give you a sneak preview of a build which will start next week sometime. Case: Antec 900 with all the fans PSU: Coolermaster 1000W (modular) Mobo: Asus P6T Deluxe X58 CPU: i7 920 @ 2.66, but eventually getting OC'd to 3.4 Fan: Coolermaster V8 Memory: 6Gb DDR3 1333 HD (System + games): Crucial 128Gb SSD HD (Data): 500Gb HD (Backups): 2 x 1.5Tb Video: 2 x ATI Radeon 1Gb DDR5 in Crossfire OS: Vista...
I've just had a brush with numerous viruses, the first I've had in years. I was browsing some free software sites (can't remember which, I was just following links), when I got a warning about a dodgy web page. Next thing I know AVG is popping up with all sorts of messages about trojans and viruses. At this point my pc is locked solid, so, rather than repair the damage, I decide to restore from backup... Shutdown Windows: seconds - I pressed the off button! Search for Drive Image 7 disc: 2...
Current system: Asus A8nSLi Athlon 4400+ dual core 2Gb PC2100 8800GT 1.5Tb S3 drives Coolermaster case with 750W PSU XP and Vista Ultimate 64 dual boot I need more memory! I play a lot of Sins of a Solar Empire and modded the game file to have larger fleet sizes. The problem with that is when I have hundreds of ships roaming around, along with who knows how many trade ships, the whole thing starts to stutter. So, about 12Gb of memory would sort it... Forget XP, t...