I don't see why that wouldn't work for you. It’s just a graphics card... they pretty much fit into any setup, right? As long as the motherboard has a PCIe x16 slot—which it does, so everything should be 👍
Honestly, it’d just be throwing money down the drain if you picked up a card in the $200-$100 range—especially since that specific GPU is actually weaker than the integrated graphics built right into your processor. If you really want to make a move, maybe look into bumping it up to 4GB? That way you’ve got 8GB total—though you have to remember the processor is going to claim a chunk of that for itself to stay functional...
Rufus is honestly one of the best—and definitely one of the simplest—little tools out there for turning an ISO file into a bootable USB drive. I’m not entirely sure if your current setup will play nice with it, but it might be worth a shot—you don't exactly have anything to lose, right?
Yeah, honestly... next time you're shopping for a laptop, just make sure to double-check which operating systems are actually supported on the manufacturer's website first...
Maybe try running a memory test using MemTest86+...
Basically, you just grab the software from their site and burn it onto a blank CD—or, better yet, make a bootable USB drive. Then, just head into your BIOS settings and set it to boot from that drive to start the scan. Pretty straightforward, right?
If that doesn't turn up any errors, you might want to download CrystalDiskInfo. It’ll give you a clear look at your hard drive's health and let you know if everything is running smoothly or if there are some underlying issues you should worry about...
I honestly have no clue what you did there—Linux isn't really my thing... But once you set the CD/DVD drive as the primary boot device in the BIOS and saved those settings, you should have seen a prompt asking you to "press any key to start installation." After that, the Windows setup process should kick in automatically. Have you tried popping that Windows disc into another computer just to see if it boots? It’s possible the disc itself isn't bootable.
Maybe try unplugging the Hulu box from the wall and running a Speedtest, or just head over to Vimeo and try playing back a video in 1080p or 720p—see if it starts lagging then... If it doesn't, then the issue is likely the Hulu hardware itself, so you might want to tell them to swap it out for a new one...
Is that last Flash player still installed? Maybe try running CCleaner to clear out all that junk, and then run a scan with Norton just to make sure there isn't any malware lurking around. Could some background processes be hogging your bandwidth while you're watching stuff on Vimeo—like a torrent client or maybe a macOS update downloading in the background?
You really need to go with the x64 Windows installation—the 32-bit version just can't handle more than 4GB of RAM, so if you've got 8GB sitting there, it'll just go to waste.
Honestly, there isn't really such a thing as "pirated" versus "legit" Windows—it all comes down to whether you have a valid product key, which is what actually matters.
That Intel graphics chip is fine for basic stuff, but it’s definitely not built for gaming... Personally, I tried running GRID 2 at a lower resolution than my monitor's native setting—with the settings turned down, too—and it was still stuttering quite a bit. Can you imagine how it would handle newer, more demanding titles?
An SSD would be a massive upgrade for you, but you'll need to stretch your budget by about $167 if you want to pick up something like a 120GB Intel or Samsung drive.
It sounds like your hard drive might have kicked the bucket. Maybe try checking the BIOS first to see if it even detects the drive—if not, you could always try swapping out the SATA cables to see if that does the trick..
EDIT: Have you tried running a clean installation of some other version of Windows just to see if the computer will actually boot up at all?
I haven't actually sat down to watch the video yet... But you really have to consider what resolution they're playing at—specifically, what the native resolution of their monitor is.
There's a 160GB version that's cheaper for $32, but honestly, if I were you, I'd just bite the bullet and grab the 500GB one. I mean, there isn't much of a price gap compared to $33, and you get three times the storage space—it feels like a waste not to go for it, right?
If you could just list out a full PC build from top to bottom—I mean specific manufacturers and models for every single part—then maybe we can actually sit down and figure out if it's worth the money $433 🙂
What can you actually get for this? And what’s the price tag looking like? It just mentions an Intel quad-core processor, but doesn't specify the actual model... Still, it looks like a pretty solid setup for gaming. Just keep in mind—you probably won't be running high resolutions without some serious stuttering. You'll likely need to dive into the settings to dial back the details and resolution, especially when playing Grand Theft Auto IV or Crysis 3—mostly because GTA IV is notoriously unoptimized, and we all know how much of a resource hog Crysis 3 can be...