Computer Mayhem!

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yusaku
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Computer Mayhem!

Post by yusaku »

My computer has been not working for a month, and I am not in the mood to fix it. I think it needs to reinstall Windows 10. My wifi is not working for some reason. The computer is five years old. Should I pay to fix it or just get a new one?

By the way, I have been using my iPhone for all my internet activities and I have been getting by okay. It is the reason I have not fixed my laptop.
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DKop
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Re: Computer Mayhem!

Post by DKop »

My questions are:

Is it a laptop or tower?
Have you replaced any RAM, graphic cards, hard drives, motherboard, power units since you had it?

If you are going to look into getting a new one, what would be your price range?
Are you wanting to build one from scrap or buy one from a store?
What do you want to use your computer for specifically?
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yusaku
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Re: Computer Mayhem!

Post by yusaku »

I am using a laptop. I have not made any upgrades whatsoever since I bought it. My primary use will be for using Cubase, music recording software, for my cello pieces. I would not mind putting four to seven hundred on the project, but I need to wait about four to five months to catch up on some bills, first. At least, I want to wait that as long as my PS3 and iPhone are still working properly. I want to do things right, and I do think about seven hundred should be just enough for the laptop, a copy of Cubase, and an Steinberg audio interface. The specs of the laptop are really what I have questions about. The Cubase software and the external interface I got picked out already. Those two will be about three hundred, however I am thinking of getting a tower instead because I will not be moving the computer around. What are some good laptop specs for music recording?
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DKop
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Re: Computer Mayhem!

Post by DKop »

I have a built PC that I had a friend buy the parts for me off Newegg.com and I told him to keep it under 500. At about $496 I got me a sweet rig that plays current gen games off Steam. I'd image if you get something about 500 your doing pretty decent without spending way to much. And if you are within that budget then stick to getting a newer laptop from a retail place like Best Buy or even Newegg.com. I'm not gonna say a Mac because there 1200 on up for something you can't really modify.

I have had good standings with Toshiba laptops in the past few years, and I hear Windows 10 is a good operating software to use. I'm using Win 7 till I have to upgrade, but im not really pushed for it at the time. I use audacity for recording my podcasts with, and I understand its not the best software to use, but it works fine for me over the years. I think whatever software you use should work with Windows 10 computers. I hope that helps you out, but I would look on Newegg to see what deals they have or other online retailers.
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yusaku
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Re: Computer Mayhem!

Post by yusaku »

Thanks for the info. I am going to try to ge my computer working again tomorrow. I will replace it sometime this year regardless of whether I can fix it or not. I am thinking of getting into doing my own comics. So, I will need photo editing capacity.
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Re: Computer Mayhem!

Post by Drew_Sutton »

^ Graphic software is typically more intensive for system resources than music recording software.

Since your original use was for music, do you have a particular place that you get the best sound already for your cello? Is that place a different setting than you would be doing your graphics work? If you have a particular place and you can still do your graphics work there, I would opt for a desktop for a couple of reasons:

* Building a desktop will get you a better value per component (kind of like buying a house and looking at the price-per-square-foot).
* A desktop can be designed to last longer from the outset.
* Component failures are less catastrophic from a cost-to-replace perspective for quite a long period of time.

Unless you have a reason to have a fully-functioning system to be mobile and your budget is a very hard number, I would opt for a desktop.

And since we all know that anecdote is the singular of data*, I built my last desktop in 2007. Since then, I have spent maybe $300 over 8 years - I added some RAM in 2012 and replaced a monitor. Still kicking, still working. I use it for very basic video editing, audio recording/editing for my old podcast days as well as all my technical/work stuff. For comic and audio work, something in the 8GB range would probably suffice, though I am sure there are people that would try and push inflated specs on you.

*No, it's not but I hope it helps anyway.
DKop wrote:I have had good standings with Toshiba laptops in the past few years, and I hear Windows 10 is a good operating software to use.
I bought my first Toshiba Satellite back in '08 or '09 and it lasted a while and was quite a workhorse. My fiancee and I each bought new ones in 2013 and they failed in a little more than a year. One was a dead screen... I can't remember what the other one was. Never going back. We opted for some Lenovos because they were good specs at a good price on Amazon only to find out about Superfish and other stuff. I'm not sure if we'll buy them again after these things die.

Her laptop was upgraded to Windows 10 from 8.1 during the free/forced update window and on most things it works just as it did. However, we did run across weird broken stuff, like how Hangouts accessed the mic, so she couldn't VC with friends of ours in California. I think we fixed it by using a headset mic.

Yusaku - if you know your recording software and tablets you're looking at will work with Win10 or already using Win10, I wouldn't worry too much about it.
DKop wrote: I'm using Win 7 till I have to upgrade, but im not really pushed for it at the time. I use audacity for recording my podcasts with, and I understand its not the best software to use, but it works fine for me over the years. I think whatever software you use should work with Windows 10 computers.
Audacity is a actually really good software. A lot of it's negative reputation is because it is free software and not "what the pros use", whatever that's supposed to mean. Yes, it does have bugs and some problems, but of free software, it's the best of the best. It's also cross platform on all of the major platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux) which was the most attractive feature for me when my crew and I started podcasting.
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Re: Computer Mayhem!

Post by davemerrill »

I know 10 has been giving some people some problems. My wife upgraded her PC to 10 and it worked great for about a month - and then suddenly it started running really slowly and crashing. After trying different fixes, she uninstalled and re-installed Chrome, and that seemed to do the trick - no problems since then.

From what I can tell from researching the problems with 10, it seems that the older the hardware/software, the more issues people are having with drivers.
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Re: Computer Mayhem!

Post by yusaku »

Thanks everyone! I really appreciated the input. As it stands I will try to keep that laptop going again. The laptop may be going on seven years old now. I think I may have bought it in 2009 at a cheap price because the store just discontinued it. It is a dinosaur like my 1999 Buick I am getting fixed next week. Money has gotten tight with the purchase of my new Ford Taurus. I am using my iPhone and a Bluetooth keyboard to make my posts. When I do replace my laptop I will go with a desktop or that MacPro tablet that got 128GB of memory and it is wifi capable. Once I get working again or resign--in the case my eye surgery is not successful-- I will use the income or retirement settlement and get me a couple of nice computers. I think a good desktop with ample me memory, 8GB, like Dave suggested will be fine. The Mac Pro tablet with 128GB and wifi for about $900 at Costco I will get that also. Apple has a expert drawing program and pens stylus that comes with the tablet free of charge. I think I will have a lot of fun drawing on it!
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Re: Computer Mayhem!

Post by DKop »

Does anyone know a really good anti-virus program to remove some adware from my computer.

I use Avira Anti-Virus program, and for the past week depending on certain sits I click on, certain pages will pull up with a ton of adware at the same time, and I get a popup saying to call some number to remove the spyware on my computer (which my gut tells me its bull***t because im sure they are the ones that put it on my computer). I have gone through 2 full system scans to remove it, and it is still there. I have reinstalled google chrome and it's still there. At this point im asking if you guys have had this issue already and figured out how you got rid of it, or if you know of something better to use that I don't have to pay for. Any bit of help will be appreciated. I also tired to do system recovery, but the date it suggested didn't go back far enough to when the virus was on there, so that wouldn't help me.
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Re: Computer Mayhem!

Post by davemerrill »

oh jeez, that "call this number to remove the virus" thing, that's nasty.

For the past few years I've been using the Windows Defender that's standard with 7, along with Adblocker, and that seems to be working pretty well for me. In the past I have had good results with Avast and Malwarebytes. I would scan your PC with everything you can possibly scan it with. Just take the time and clean that sucker out.

That malware might have written itself into one of your programs that starts automatically at startup, so check everything that's running on your PC and make sure everything running is supposed to be running.

Viruses and malware sucks. Good luck.
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