Posts by Susan Nguyen4

I don't want to clutter things up by starting a whole new thread, so I thought I'd just ask here: how much do you think I could get for this setup?

HP Pavilion DV6-6118sl 15.6
Intel I5 2 x 4
2x 4GB RAM
Kingston 240 GB SSD
Toshiba 640 GB HDD (swapped out the optical drive for this)
4x USB
1x HDMI
1x VGA
Battery life is roughly 30-60 minutes
The laptop has this little quirk where the screen occasionally goes black and everything freezes up—it’s totally random, too. It might happen once every few days, or sometimes even less frequently. I’m certainly no tech expert, but I figured someone who knows their stuff could probably figure out what's going on and fix it easily.

Thanks so much!

The RAM seems fine on its own, but the thing is, the motherboard died on both slots, regardless of which one I try...

I've already run some tests with Memtest86, and honestly, both sticks came back completely clean—no errors at all. So, I guess my next move is just to try running things with the newer one by itself.

Michael Jackson10 said:If that doesn't fix it, then the motherboard is likely toast. To be honest, if anything on there actually failed, trying to repair it usually costs more than it's worth... but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have a local repair shop take a look anyway...

Ah, yeah... everything seems to be pointing right toward that conclusion. 🙂

Michael Jackson10 said:Like I mentioned before, I didn't really have any experience with this, but I've been doing a little digging lately. There should be some kind of "Switchable Graphics" application included in the laptop's software suite, which basically looks at how heavy the workload is and automatically switches over to the Radeon for more demanding tasks... apparently, it also has something to do with the power settings in the BIOS. It seems like it prefers using the high-performance graphics when plugged into the wall rather than running on battery—from what I've read, picking certain Power options might enable or disable the ability to switch between the two GPUs.
I'm not entirely sure if there's actually an option to manually pick one or the other... I'll probably have to look into that myself...

Yeah, I stumbled onto that too. In the BIOS, you can toggle between Dynamic or Fixed, so I switched mine over to Fixed. Then, inside the Radeon software, I cranked everything up to max performance and set the Radeon as the active GPU. It lasted about five minutes, though... while I was sitting here typing my reply to this thread, it crashed again.
Then I tried the opposite—setting the Intel integrated chip as the active GPU. It crashed after a little while again. I'm using an external monitor during this whole process (a Philips via HDMI).

Code:

I actually tried installing Windows 10, but I ran into issues with the display drivers. During the boot sequence, I get a black screen that just hangs for about two minutes before finally loading into Windows. It seems like the drivers or the card itself just aren't compatible with Windows 10.

Code:

- It crashes as soon as it boots up and I start opening folders.
- It crashes while I'm just browsing the web in Chrome.
- It crashes while I'm watching a movie.
- It crashes even when everything is closed, like after 20-30 minutes of idle time.
- This happens regardless of whether I'm using the built-in screen or the external monitor.
- Honestly, I haven't noticed a pattern; it feels pretty much random.

Michael Jackson10 said:@Kyle Phillips70/">@@Kyle Phillips70
Does this happen during long sessions, when you're doing heavy graphics work (like gaming), or is it just totally random even when idling?
Have you tried running it using only the integrated graphics?
Did you try hooking the laptop up to an external monitor (using either video output)?

Either way, the fix is probably a trip to the repair shop...

First off, thanks so much for all the replies!

Following up on that, I have a question—is there a way to manually select which graphics card I want to use? (I'm at work right now, so I'll dig into it more once I get home)

The laptop was actually opened recently (a few months ago) and cleaned out for dust, but it doesn't look like they touched the thermal paste or the processor. And since it hasn't been used much, I'm not sure if it could have gotten that dirty... My first suspicion was overheating, but then again, this "glitch" can happen right after I turn the laptop on, maybe after just a minute or two. It also happens if I just leave it running without touching it (idling), where after, say, half an hour, the screen just goes black. If I'm playing a game, I can hear the fan ramping up, but that shouldn't be the issue; it should handle it fine. Sometimes it runs for two weeks straight without a hitch, and other times I have to hard reset it five times in half an hour...

I tried connecting a TV via the HDMI port—same thing, black screen. Tried a monitor via the VGA port, same result.

I actually took it to a local repair guy, but unfortunately, he couldn't figure out what was wrong. Not to mention, the damn thing didn't freeze even once while he had it for 15 days 😁

And yes, I definitely got the laptop model right, and on top of the original 4GB of RAM, I added another 4GB, so it's 8GB total.

Hey everyone, I’m hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction regarding a headache I've been dealing with lately.
My Dell Inspiron running Windows 7 keeps throwing these random black screens at me. There's this weird, flickering line of colorful pixels hugging the left edge, and my only real option is to just force a hard shutdown on the laptop.

The strangest part? It happens when I have an external monitor plugged in too. And while it's acting up, I can't even get in via TeamViewer—it just tells me the machine is offline.

I actually tried a clean reinstall of the OS, but no luck, the exact same thing happens. I have Windows 7 installed on an SSD, and I've also got an extra HDD tucked away in a drive bay where the optical drive used to be.

Does anyone have any clue what might be causing this?

cosmicsailor63 said:See, this is the absolute dealbreaker right here, but everyone just jumped straight to obsessing over the download speeds...

But what good does that specific point do me if my option is just grayed out and I can't change anything on my end? It’s stuck...
Speed matters to me too, though—I am seriously considering switching over to a 4G plan, which would probably make limiting the speed feel more worthwhile. Still, I’m a bit lost on what technical specs this router should even have... what do you call those things again?

Can this Ubiquiti gear handle splitting things into two separate networks while also capping the speeds?

https://mikrotik.com/product/RB951G-2HnD

The real issue here is that the service plan is tied specifically to the second line, so there’s honestly no point in me upgrading just for that reason—though, who knows, maybe one day I will. Anyway, what I actually need is a device that lets me segment my private network, and this AT&T unit just isn't capable of doing that...

Yeah, I definitely see where you're coming from. So, which device should I actually be looking at then? I’d certainly love to bump up my speeds down the road, but for right now, that's just not on the table.

Yeah, unfortunately, the speeds are just what they are, and there isn't much I can do about it on my end... Luckily, most of the guests are retirees, but I do have some folks living here who are constantly gaming online, so I might go ahead and ask them about using that other network instead.
That two-device setup you've got going on works perfectly for me, but which specific model should I be hunting for? Or better yet, what technical specs should I look for to make sure I can actually throttle the speed? I wouldn't mind picking something up used on Craigslist—it shouldn't break the bank too much. 🙂

Does anybody have a clue?

The AT&T router I'm using is a Cisco Router, and honestly, the speeds are hovering right around 3-5Mbps... which is a bit sluggish, isn't it? My guests are actually located just one floor down from me 🙂

Hey there, I couldn't find an existing thread about this so I figured I'd start my own...
I'm on the hunt for a new router—something that lets me run two distinct Wi-Fi networks. I need one for my private home use and a separate one specifically for guests staying at my rental property. Ideally, I want total isolation; nothing on the guest network should be able to "see" or access any of my personal devices. My current AT&T router actually has an option for two networks, but I haven't quite wrapped my head around what it actually does. From what I can tell, the only difference is a different SSID.
On top of that, I really need the ability to cap the bandwidth on the guest network, since my internet speed is honestly pretty abysmal as it is. Or, if capping isn't an option, at least something that allows me to set traffic priorities...
So, I’m wondering what kind of gear I should actually be looking to buy? I'm open to any and all suggestions. To recap, these two features are my non-negotiables: complete network separation and bandwidth limiting.🙂

Hey there, I'm running into a bit of a snag with a PDF file that just won't budge. Every time I try to launch it, I get this error message:
"Adobe Reader could not open mojfile.pdf because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged (for example, it was sent as an email attachment and wasn’t correctly decoded)."

If anyone happens to have a fix for this, I would truly appreciate it. I've spent quite a while scouring the web and trying every trick in the book, but I keep hitting this same wall.
I've tried various versions of Acrobat Reader on Windows 7, Windows 10, and even my Android phone... nothing works. Honestly, I'm starting to suspect the file itself is the culprit, especially since the file size is showing up as a tiny 1KB. It was downloaded from a web app—it's supposed to be a ticket I ordered about four months ago—so I wanted to see if there was any way to salvage it before I go through the hassle of chasing down the vendor.

Thanks! 🙂

Awesome, thanks so much! It’s really important to me that this actually works 👍

I’m looking for some insight from anyone who has already made the jump. Before I pull the trigger on upgrading to Windows 10, I wanted to check in... does VMware still run smoothly on Windows 10, or should I be bracing myself for some technical headaches?
Thanks! 🙂