The computer and electronics super geek superthread...

[kensei]

Just a minor issue that has been bothering me....everytime I click on a link in Outlook 2003 it brings up a save as window. How do you get it to open up the window directly in Firefox?

Also, has anyone's filters gone to hell? I'm thinking about redoing mine, they still go directly into the inbox rather than it's proper folder.

[Vince]

Freind of mine just bought a new system with Vista from Dell

he says that IE is slow or doesnt load at all . is this common?

it's likely some of the dll's use by explorer are corrupted, if reinstalling IE does not help, look into processes tab in task manager to find the processes that are holding up resources and try disabling them and see if it help. you can also check component services to make sure only the services you want are loaded. another possibility is your .net framework is corrupted or mismatched, if you have version 3, try doing a roll back to earlier version. windows auto update and most anti virus, anti spyware software check for update at load time, run registry cleaner will probably help also.

[Ishimaru]

I'm not looking for performance increases via drivers. That's what all the R600 fans are doing. And, again, I think they're kidding themselves.

I have no idea what's confusing you. Exactly what do you think drivers are? The hardware dictates speed. The drivers can only get in the way through inefficient or bad coding. If your drivers are already decent, then you're not going to see any real increases in speed no matter how much "better" they make them.

99% of driver updates are for bug releases, stability issues, or to add new functionality aside from raw performance. When they do list "performance increase" in the driver release notes, it's usually modest at best. . . and normally it's a "per game" fix. Meaning, it's not an overall or universal increase.

I don't know where you're confused. But it's seems pretty cut-and-dried to me. Drivers rarely increase performance (speed) substantially. The cries of "Wait for better drivers! They'll be faster!" are rarely borne out and are usually only heard at times when a disappointing hardware release has been made and people are unwilling to accept reality or concede that their prior fanboy rantings were in error.

H

How are we kidding ourselves I don't get it, I never mentioned anything about the R600 like that.

Your statement makes only half sense, they don't just release driver updates to fix "per game" issues, I would find it a waste of time on their hand.

Currently with my FX5700 I saw a dramatic improvement of encoding files and better Premiere speeds which is heavily graphics card dependent.

It was compared from the outdated drivers on the CD to the newly available ones.

Restating my statement driver updates are there to improve overall performance, it would be pointless to have a update if it only fixes those minor "gaming" issues; waste of time of your time and on the companies resources used in developing a driver.

It's seriously just common sense if you think about it, and it cut it out with the fanboyism bashing or whatever you were implying as I don't see a reason to add that in the argument.

Edited June 5, 2007 by Ishimaru

[Hurin]

How are we kidding ourselves I don't get it, I never mentioned anything about the R600 like that.

Huh? What about this?

Don't think it's a bad card, just wait for some driver releases for improvements and you'll see.

Moving on. . .

Currently with my FX5700 I saw a dramatic improvement of encoding files and better Premiere speeds which is heavily graphics card dependent.

Video encoding is CPU dependent. The FX5700 has no video encoding capabilities of which I'm aware. Go ahead and look it up.

So, unless you've got some super-duper FX5700 with a hardware MPEG encoder add-on chip, these "dramatic" improvements in video encoding performance that you are claiming to have seen from a video card driver update are almost certainly illusory.

But the fact that you were running the drivers off the CD until just recently (on a three year-old card) doesn't raise my estimation of your level of expertise in this area.

Your statement makes only half sense, they don't just release driver updates to fix "per game" issues, I would find it a waste of time on their hand. . . Restating my statement driver updates are there to improve overall performance, it would be pointless to have a update if it only fixes those minor "gaming" issues; waste of time of your time and on the companies resources used in developing a driver.

You can "restate" this all you want. But it doesn't make it true. Nvidia or ATi can't magically write a driver that suddenly makes their hardware actually faster. They can sometimes identify bugs and/or inefficient code that fixing provides a marginal (at best) peformance benefit. But, again, most of the time their driver updates are made up of bug fixes, feature additions, and possibly very minor performance increases (often on a per-application basis as they find work-arounds or optimizations for certain code).

It's seriously just common sense if you think about it

I feel exactly the same way. Yet you seem to think that it's "common sense" that video card companies wouldn't try to fix individual bugs with applications but would instead primarily concentrate on magically making their hardware faster via software (drivers). I think it's common sense that the hardware is the main arbiter of performance and once the base-line drivers are written, all they can do is optimize them for specific circumstances and fix bugs and inefficiencies as they are reported.

Of course, my view of things is based on reading pages and pages of video card driver release notes over the years. So what do I know?

[Duke Togo]

I can't believe this argument is still going on... over a video card.

[emajnthis]

Just a minor issue that has been bothering me....everytime I click on a link in Outlook 2003 it brings up a save as window. How do you get it to open up the window directly in Firefox?

Also, has anyone's filters gone to hell? I'm thinking about redoing mine, they still go directly into the inbox rather than it's proper folder.

For clicking links in outlook, go to the add/remove programs, click the program access/defaults button on the left tool bar and under 'custom' settings, choose firefox as your default web browser. If that doesn't work, then it may be a goofy setting in outlook.

As for the filter, do you mean rules? I have rules setup in my outlook (tools->rules&alerts) that have never gone wrong, but it might not be a bad idea to remove and remake them.

[Hurin]

I can't believe this argument is still going on... over a video card.

It's clearly not over a video card anymore.

But, of course, you've never taken part in any internet arguments. Ever. You're the model of decorum.

Edited June 7, 2007 by Hurin

[Knight26]

Here's a fun one, while we are waiting for the cable company to get off their collective rumps and finish laying the cable to our house we have no internet, dialup only. I was talking with my neighbor and he has internet at his house across the street, lucky bastard, and a wireless LAN. I commented that I can barely see his LAN but did not want to use it without his permission, and he understood saying that I could if I could get a good connection until the cable comes in. But then only my computer even picks it up, unless I walk out front with the laptop. So here is my question, is there anyway for me to boost my ability to pick up his signal into the various computers? Also, I have a wireless router at the house (linksys) and am wondering if it can be used to pick up his signal and then transmit it into the house, kind of like a relay?

[Akilae]

Here's a fun one, while we are waiting for the cable company to get off their collective rumps and finish laying the cable to our house we have no internet, dialup only. I was talking with my neighbor and he has internet at his house across the street, lucky bastard, and a wireless LAN. I commented that I can barely see his LAN but did not want to use it without his permission, and he understood saying that I could if I could get a good connection until the cable comes in. But then only my computer even picks it up, unless I walk out front with the laptop. So here is my question, is there anyway for me to boost my ability to pick up his signal into the various computers? Also, I have a wireless router at the house (linksys) and am wondering if it can be used to pick up his signal and then transmit it into the house, kind of like a relay?

From your side? Not really... unless you rigged some sort of cat5 from his house to your router...

[Knight26]

Was afradi you would say that

[emajnthis]

there is a way to make (or buy) a wireless relay, i think they're specifically referred to as a wireless bridge; i had someone ask me about this several months ago and found a link at a hack website on how to cook one up at home. An easier solution would be to go purchase a draft-N wireless card since they have increased wireless range of a typical B/G band wireless adapter.

Edit: Oh! Depending on your wireless Router options, you should in some capacity be able to set it up as a bridge to his network. Unfortunately, you would need access to his wireless router to mess with some of the settings (and setting up the channels) so that this could work successfully. Again, might be easier just to buy a draft-N wireless adapter.

Edited August 2, 2007 by emajnthis

[kensei]

just wondering if anyone here has an LCD with a 2ms response time. If you do, has there ever been a situation where you experienced blurring due to the refresh rate being in adequate for the situation?

[HoveringCheesecake]

Which should I go for: Asus V2s/V1s (one or the other) OR the Sager 2090/Compal IFL90 (same laptop)? Both have their pros and cons. The specs would be almost identical - the V2s would have an 8600GS as opposed to a GT. The GS would be DDR3 and the GT would be DDR2, so the difference would be negligible.

[emajnthis]

Which should I go for: Asus V2s/V1s (one or the other) OR the Sager 2090/Compal IFL90 (same laptop)? Both have their pros and cons. The specs would be almost identical - the V2s would have an 8600GS as opposed to a GT. The GS would be DDR3 and the GT would be DDR2, so the difference would be negligible.

The laptops all look pretty identical from a specifications perspective; you could always skip OEM's and go with an ODM and build the laptop the way you want it, sometimes you can save a few hundred doing it this way.

[DARKWIND]

Hey guys, I have a couple of serious Q's.

First my wife's laptop screen went out due to a power loss to the screen.

about how much would it cost to fix it?

And who knows a good nationwide store that can fix it?

Second, brands: Acer, HP, Compac, Sony, Dell, which one is better and who do you guys recommend?

Any help is appreciated. . .

[Dat Pinche Haro!]

I honestly like the black finish on the inside of both the Sager 2090 and the V2S...if I was on the road a lot and wanted to get a couple more extra hours of batter life, I would go with the V1S simply becuase of the modular bay and it weighs almost a full pound lighter than the Sager 2090...If you need a system that's light weight and more compact, the V2S is also a good choice, especially since it comes with 2 batteries from the get-go...I myself am saving up for an F8SV...the only thing i don't like about it is the batter placement...it's about a quarter of the bottom of the laptop

[emajnthis]

Hey guys, I have a couple of serious Q's.

First my wife's laptop screen went out due to a power loss to the screen.

about how much would it cost to fix it?

And who knows a good nationwide store that can fix it?

Second, brands: Acer, HP, Compac, Sony, Dell, which one is better and who do you guys recommend?

Any help is appreciated. . .

like i said to Meh, if you build it yourself using a barebones laptop from an ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) like Asus, Compal, BenQ, MSi, etc. then you'll get all of the desired performance without any of the extra crap. The thing with laptops as far as going with OEM's (HP, Dell, Sony, etc.) is it's not much to do with the manufacturer as the model that you pick from the manufacturer. Plus it has a lot to do with what you're using the laptop for, business laptops and gaming laptops are night and day as far as who to go with, especially if budget is a factor.

In regards to the busted monitor, if you search ebay, sometimes you can find a replacement monitor for your specific model laptop. I've had to do that with a friends dell before, and taking it a part and getting the new monitor in wasn't nearly as difficult as it appeared to be.

[HoveringCheesecake]

The laptops all look pretty identical from a specifications perspective; you could always skip OEM's and go with an ODM and build the laptop the way you want it, sometimes you can save a few hundred doing it this way.

Compal and Asus are ODMs. Sager just slaps their name on the Compal, and Asus makes their own laptops period. (edit: Whoops you already knew that.)

Dell, HP, Toshiba, Alienware, Falcon Northwest, etc etc are all wastes of money.

Edit again: Does Asus have a page for the new F8s yet? I've seen the V1s and V2s pages.

Edited August 2, 2007 by meh_cd

[emajnthis]

Compal and Asus are ODMs. Sager just slaps their name on the Compal, and Asus makes their own laptops period. (edit: Whoops you already knew that.)

Dell, HP, Toshiba, Alienware, Falcon Northwest, etc etc are all wastes of money.

Edit again: Does Asus have a page for the new F8s yet? I've seen the V1s and V2s pages.

Yeh i've built a couple barebones; one for my brother and one for my younger sister (she's going off to college this year), i have yet to build one for my wife simply due to the fact that i haven't found a case that fits her particular needs. I'm fortunate enough to have a friend at Intel who gets me the T7600 (2.33 Core 2) chip for a little over 200 bucks so it saves me a lot on the builds.

[Dat Pinche Haro!]

as far as i know, asus still doesn't have an F8S page...

i guess the good thing about the F8S is you can get the gpu in nvidia or ati flavors

i keep reading at notebookreview that it's gonna be released in mid august...

Edited August 2, 2007 by Dat Pinche Haro!

[DARKWIND]

OK,

I'm looking at a basic Gateway from a store.

I was just wondering about pre made units standings.

I mean I know if I were get one built it could be cheaper, I'm just trying toi a better idea on the prebuilt company products.

Like if you HAD (ie. no other choice) to buy a brand from a store and this store had them all which brand would you guys go with overall?. . .

Edited August 2, 2007 by DARKWIND

[HoveringCheesecake]

as far as i know, asus still doesn't have an F8S page...

i guess the good thing about the F8S is you can get the gpu in nvidia or ati flavors

i keep reading at notebookreview that it's gonna be released in mid august...

Hrrmph. The deciding factors between the V2s/V1s/F8s will be the screen (I'm going for matte), and the video card.

[Dat Pinche Haro!]

apparently, the V1S and the F8SV have the same gpu....

only the V1S and the V2S have matte screens since they're both business models...

the V1S is available now, I believe... the F8 and V2 will be available in early-mid August

kinda wish the V2 has a modular bay like the V1, but that's wishful thinking

[azrael]

Was afradi you would say that

As opposed to messing with your neighbor's settings to bridge the connection, I would just tough it out.

[emajnthis]

OK,

I'm looking at a basic Gateway from a store.

I was just wondering about pre made units standings.

I mean I know if I were get one built it could be cheaper, I'm just trying toi a better idea on the prebuilt company products.

Like if you HAD (ie. no other choice) to buy a brand from a store and this store had them all which brand would you guys go with overall?. . .

I had purchased an HP dv2000t for a coworker, built it online with a finishing price of just under $900. It was 2.16Ghz core 2 duo, 512MB RAM (purchased 2GB Ram on newegg for 80 bucks), 120GB 5400rpm harddrive, a/b/g Intel Pro wireless, DVD+RW combo drive, 12 cell batt, Nvidia 7600 (doesn't need anything special since it's not a gaming machine). So all in all, the price was good, i had used a coupon available at the time which gave me 250 off which is how i got it below $1000 and first thing we did when we bought it is upgrade the OS from Vista home basic to Vista Ultimate ($170 through the EPP program at my office), so total price of the laptop with upgrades was about $1100. Tried searching for something similar from Sony (good luck, Vaio's are ridiculously overpriced), IBM, and Gateway and they were all overpriced. Dell was the only one that gave us a good price for performance but the price still came out to about 1300 with the same specs (a little better video card) before RAM and OS upgrades.

[DARKWIND]

Thanks Bro,

That's more of a do-able option for me.

She just needs something to surf the net and manage pics and such, nothing high end. . .

But if you have any other ideas shoot. . .

emajnthis you rock!!!

Edited August 2, 2007 by DARKWIND

[HoveringCheesecake]

apparently, the V1S and the F8SV have the same gpu....

only the V1S and the V2S have matte screens since they're both business models...

the V1S is available now, I believe... the F8 and V2 will be available in early-mid August

kinda wish the V2 has a modular bay like the V1, but that's wishful thinking

Well, that eliminates the F8s.

I'm not so sure about the F8s' gpu... Asus said GS on their site, and only one reseller and an unpublished ad has said GT. Meh that doesn't matter to me anyway.

What I really need is some GOOD benchmarks comparing the GS and the GT in the same machine. I've seen 8600GS vs 8600GT in separate machines, but those results just didn't add up.

Oh, and you're looking at notebookreview? Me too. I signed up a few days ago. Awesome site.

Edited August 2, 2007 by meh_cd

[emajnthis]

it would be difficult to get a feel for what your wife needs the laptop for, but my coworker just needed a business laptop, so i helped him pick the specs out and then scoured the internet for coupons for each manufacturer. I normally like AMD stuff but Intel makes the best mobile chips hands down, so go with something that's at least 1.83 (idealy 2.16 is great and 2.33 if you can afford it), and a decent video card (the integrated vid cards blow like the GMA 950), other than that try to read reviews online of what's out there and at what price.

[Beltane70]

just wondering if anyone here has an LCD with a 2ms response time. If you do, has there ever been a situation where you experienced blurring due to the refresh rate being in adequate for the situation?

I have an LG LCD monitor with a 2ms response time and have never noticed any blurring.

[azrael]

it would be difficult to get a feel for what your wife needs the laptop for, but my coworker just needed a business laptop, so i helped him pick the specs out and then scoured the internet for coupons for each manufacturer. I normally like AMD stuff but Intel makes the best mobile chips hands down, so go with something that's at least 1.83 (idealy 2.16 is great and 2.33 if you can afford it), and a decent video card (the integrated vid cards blow like the GMA 950), other than that try to read reviews online of what's out there and at what price.

As much as I don't like integrated video cards, if the wife only needs a system for 'net/e-mail, some word processing, occasional DVD, or otherwise non-gaming or non-heavy picture or media editing, the GMA 950 (and/or perhaps the GMA X3100) is just fine. My Macbook has a GMA 950 and it has worked out for me. If I want power, I'll use my desktop which has a 8800GTS.

[danth]

Do cell phones fall under the category of electronics? If so, I have a question.

I want an awesome internet cell phone. One that gets 3G internet, as well as wi-fi, has a fairly big screen, and (if it exists) has a Flash-enabled browser. The iPhone has neither Flash nor 3G capability. Does the phone of my dreams exist? I've found some that come close, but I can't figure out if they have Flash.

[azrael]

Do cell phones fall under the category of electronics? If so, I have a question.

I want an awesome internet cell phone. One that gets 3G internet, as well as wi-fi, has a fairly big screen, and (if it exists) has a Flash-enabled browser. The iPhone has neither Flash nor 3G capability. Does the phone of my dreams exist? I've found some that come close, but I can't figure out if they have Flash.

The closest I can recommend is the Nokia N95. It does support 3G and Wi-Fi. I'm not sure about the browser. Unfortunately, this phone is not available through any carrier so you will have to buy it unlocked (not bad thing) which means you will be paying about $800 US.

[kensei]

The closest I can recommend is the Nokia N95. It does support 3G and Wi-Fi. I'm not sure about the browser. Unfortunately, this phone is not available through any carrier so you will have to buy it unlocked (not bad thing) which means you will be paying about $800 US.

Not to mention a 5 MP camera.

[emajnthis]

I'm not 100% sure about flash support, but the AT&T/Cingular 8525 (it's actually made by HTC) has both 3G and Wi-Fi. Also has Bluetooth 2.0 w/A2DP (stereo bluetooth) and a whole slew of other features. The only complaint(s) most people have since it's so feature packed is if you surf the internet often the battery life is nearly cut in half, and that since it incorporates a sliding qwerty keyboard it can be a bit bulky. If you go to an AT&T store you can check one out, i've goofed with one and found them to be quite nice, just a little bulky for my taste. The only reason i don't recommend the N series are for the same reason Azrael stated: has to be unlocked and it's unbelievable expensive.

Edit: Here's a Review

Edited August 3, 2007 by emajnthis

[Alpha OTS]

I was going to make a new thread for this, but I guess I should try here first.

I have a 1.8Ghz Dell w 1 gig ram and lots of disk space.

Right now it's hooked up to a 20" lcd monitor via vga, but it also has DVI and S-Video inputs. I recently picked up a 42" HD Westinghouse LCD tv that has every input imaginable and then some.

I don't want to move my computer mouse & keyboard and computer monitor from where I'm currently using it. Nor do I want to move my big screen tv. But I want to be able to use my computer on my bigscreen from time to time. I already have a cordless mouse and keyboard, so that's part of the problem solved.

What I think will solve my problem is a video card with dual outputs that work either simultaneously(preferably) or alternately. The setup I want will also require that one of the monitors be a distance from the cpu unit, so I need a video alternative that allows for long cabling. I also don't want to upgrade my computer.

So is such a thing possible? I've been out of the computer loop for quite a long time(purposefully so).