Posts by gentlecyclist16

Maybe give turning off hardware acceleration a shot.
For instance, if you're running Google Chrome, just hit up that main menu—you know, those three little dots in the top right corner—then head into Settings and find the System tab.
Just toggle off the option that says "Use hardware acceleration when available"

It’s a forest of tablets out there, but most of them are just rotting wood at this point 😁

I have a few things I need to clear up before I even bother making a suggestion—
- What kind of budget are we actually looking at here?
- Does this thing need its own cellular data plan, or is it just going to be piggybacking off some home WiFi network?
- And what’s the absolute minimum screen size we can settle for?

I hope this doesn't come off as too aggressive because I mean well here, truly 🙂 You probably need to start by looking at which programming domains actually interest you from a high-level perspective, like in this thread - https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-s...re-engineering. Each sub-domain mentioned in that link comes with its own specific architectures, paradigms, and the particular programming languages that actually make sense for that type of work.

Then there’s this—and I’m not trying to lecture you, but—mastering English is absolutely vital, and without it, you’re basically dead in the water in the American IT industry. The resources available in American are microscopic compared to the absolute wealth of information you find in English. Honestly, why even ask a question like this on an American forum when you could just type "programming languages with the greatest prospects and longevity in 2022" into Google?

Everyone is going to have their own version of the truth based on their own lived experience. If I were starting from scratch right now and had to pick just one single programming language, it would most likely be Java.
My arguments for it:
- It’s been around for 25 years already, and there’s no sign of it ever dying out.
- It serves as the primary language for native applications in Android, that operating system supported by Google that was running on about 130 million devices back in 2022.
- It’s utilized across 13 billion different devices as of 2022.
- Java is a textbook example of a well-designed language, boasting what is arguably the best implementation of OOP in the entire programming world.
- The syntax is so similar to C++ that anyone who gets a handle on Java won't struggle much when transitioning to C or C++ (or even Microsoft C#).
- You can often port a Java application to a different platform without changing a thing, like moving it from Windows to Linux.
- Web back-end programming. When people want to whip something up quickly on their own, they tend to lean toward PHP or Node.js, but when you have a massive team building a critical enterprise financial application, I suspect they’d opt for Java every single time.

Movies are easy enough, but getting FIFA to run smoothly is a different beast entirely.
At that price point, I don't think you have much choice other than hunting down an Intel Core chip with integrated VEGA graphics. Just whatever you do, stay away from the bottom-of-the-barrel Intel Core i3; they tend to be painfully sluggish when you actually try to get things done.
You should probably check out the processor speeds on https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php first. Personally, I'd aim for something sitting somewhere north of, say, 6000 Passmark points to keep things decent.
Make sure you grab something with at least 12GB of RAM, because that VEGA hardware is going to hog at least 2GB just for itself.

If you can manage to squeeze $333 more into your budget, you might want to look at this one—though just a heads-up, it doesn't come with macOS pre-installed:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/laptop-example-link

As for how FIFA actually performs on that onboard VEGA graphics, you can see it in action right here:

+1 to the USB method, assuming it actually behaves itself for you.

If that fails, you might want to give AirDroid a shot.
The whole idea is that the app basically acts like its own little web server, which lets your PC just hop onto it through a browser by hitting your phone's local IP address.

To ^^
Just a little something to throw in there—if you’re dealing with simpler documents, Microsoft Word can actually just pull the PDF right in itself.
You basically just hit open, then Browse, flip the file type setting to PDF, and you're good to go (assuming you're running the 2016 or 2019 versions).

Good luck 👍

https://www.goodoffer24.com/windows-...32-64-bit.html
The site looks a little sketchy if you ask me, but I guess it’ll probably work—I mean, if Best Buy is vouching for it, who am I to argue...
If you actually pull the trigger on this, you should probably just use PayPal to keep things safe; it’s less of a gamble that way.

That AMD Athlon 200 GE processor should be more than enough to handle Windows 10 and whatever office tasks you throw at it.
By the way, you might want to double-check if that RAM is actually on the compatibility list for that motherboard, because anyone who knows anything about the AM4 platform knows how much of a headache memory issues can be.

Cloud storage?

Take Google, for instance—they’ll toss you 15GB just for showing up. When it comes down to actual security, I’d bet my life on a thumb drive or some old DVD failing long before Google suddenly goes bankrupt and disappears overnight.
If you look at the other big players—ranking them roughly by how much you can actually trust them—you’ve got Microsoft giving you 5GB, Dropbox sitting at 2GB, Box offering 50GB, MediaFire with 18GB, and Mega at 50GB, and so on and so forth.

Now, if you're dealing with documents that absolutely nobody else is allowed to lay eyes on, you don't just upload them blindly; you encrypt them first using something like AxCrypt, or you just toss them straight into a TrueCrypt or VeraCrypt container to be safe.

I don't know... look, I’ve got this R5 setup running on a B350 board with Windows 10, so I figured I'd pull some numbers for you to compare against.

My CPU usage sits at about 7% in Task Manager, but then it jumps straight up to 89.4% during the benchmark, and memory hits 88.2% (using some cheap Kingston sticks I picked up)

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11939979

It looks like it’s actually showing the real memory clock—which is basically half of that number we usually quote—so by that logic, yours might actually be sitting at 4266 MHz.

Maybe if you try underclocking it back down to its rated speed, like 3000, things would actually behave a bit better?
Also, take a peek inside the case and make sure the RAM sticks are in matching colored slots; sometimes those big-box retailers get sloppy when they're rushing through orders.

Stupid question, but do you have an antivirus running, or did you accidentally pick up some crypto-miner?

First thing I’d do is double-check if you're actually running the latest BIOS update.
If you aren't, I’d just grab the SDI tool from https://sdi-tool.org/ and let it run through all those driver installs it recommends for you.

It’s also entirely possible some background software is just choking your system performance—maybe try swapping out your antivirus and see if that clears the bottleneck.

If I were in your shoes, the very first thing I’d do is clone the drive, just as a safety net so you can roll back to how things are right now if everything goes sideways—you can use Acronis, Paragon, or Macrium, and they all have free versions available.

The quickest route is probably just hitting the factory reset option directly within Windows 10, which ought to wipe out any viruses you're dealing with--
1. head over to "Settings" (you'll find that icon in the bottom right corner)
2. pick "Update & Security"
3. look for "Recovery" in the menu
4. click "Get Started" under the "Reset this PC" section
5. then go ahead and select "Reset this PC"

Another way to handle it—if you want to get a bit more technical—is to mash the F9 key while the machine is booting up, before Windows actually loads.
1. Once it stops loading, choose "Troubleshoot"
2. Select "Reset Your PC"
3. When it asks, just hit "Yes"
4. You'll have to decide whether you want to just wipe the C drive or clear every single drive the system detects
5. Then there's the choice between just deleting your files or doing a full drive scrub; the latter takes a hell of a lot longer and is usually what people do when they're selling a laptop so the next guy can't dig through old data
6. Confirm it by clicking "Yes" or "OK"

I'm fairly certain both methods will keep your license intact.
But honestly, it's better to be safe than sorry and write down your activation key beforehand.
On most laptops, you can find it on a sticker underneath near the serial number.
If it isn't there, you can try pulling it with Keyfinder (https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/) or maybe ProduKey.

Just a heads up. Either of these paths is going to wipe your laptop completely clean, so make sure you move your documents, photos, and whatever else matters onto a thumb drive before you pull the trigger.

Look, I’m not disagreeing with anything my colleague just laid out—if anything, I’d just take the whole concept of this project and slap a massive question mark over whether it’s even worth the effort.

Every single one of those components is going to cost you money—even if we're just talking about a few bucks here and there—and honestly, tracking down parts that actually work will be a headache in itself.
We're talking about a hard drive that's been sitting around for fifteen years, where you have absolutely no clue if it's even breathing or if it's already dead... so even if you somehow manage to get it spinning, who in their right mind would trust it with anything remotely important?
And don't even get me started on how clunky the whole setup is going to be—you've got this oversized enclosure, then an external power brick, then a USB cable snaking everywhere...

I just don't see the point in grinding away at this when you can go pick up a 64GB flash drive for maybe fifteen bucks—it's infinitely more reliable, there aren't any cables to trip over, and you can just slide the thing right into your pocket.

dustyjackal62 said:Hey there,

Does anyone have experience using different computer repair shops in New York City that offer Windows 10 installs for about $67?
How reliable are they really? I'm thinking about buying a PC without them already set up, since buying one pre-installed just isn't in the budget right now.🕺

Maybe I should just try grabbing a Windows 10 license off Google—I've seen people listing them there for as low as $33?

Kevin Patel2 said:Alright then, fine, just give me some motherboard recommendations for this setup:

Sapphire Radeon 470 RX 4GB Nitro
Crucial 8GB 2133 MHz RAM
AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.8ghz
Fortron Hyper 700W power supply

It's just a gaming rig.

I ended up grabbing an MSI B350M Pro-VD plus from Future for $167

From what I can tell looking at mine, it's got two fewer RAM slots and doesn't even have an M.2 slot.
Right now I've got an R5 2600 running on it, and I've tested it with an old HD 6850 and a slightly newer GTX 1060—both require a 6-pin PCIe connector—and everything works just fine...

But honestly, if I were you, I'd double-check that the power supply hasn't kicked the bucket... it's a real shame the R5 1600 lacks integrated graphics, otherwise you could actually see how things behave once you pull the GPU out.

Windows generally doesn't play nice with those old Intel graphics cards, and honestly, I’ve had my fair share of headaches with my own HD 6850, though mine were a slightly different breed of disaster.

If I were in your shoes—assuming you haven't already tried this little ritual—I’d boot up into Safe Mode, strip out the current GPU driver using DDU (http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/...-download.html), give the system a quick reboot, and then just install an older version, maybe some Catalyst driver from back around 2014.

(By the way, I jumped ship to Windows 10 ages ago and there is absolutely no way I'm going back; I just don't see any compelling reason to keep putting myself through the misery of dealing with Windows 7 anymore.)

http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/dsyn...nchronize.html
https://www.backup-utility.com/featu...file-sync.html
https://freefilesync.org/

👍

If you're asking me, my money is on -

AMD Ryzen 5 2600 (1500)
AM4 B350 mobo (550)
2x 8GB DDR4 (650 + 650)
Miditower (300)
Power supply >= 600W (450)
2TB HDD (550)
NVIDIA GT 710 (350)
= $1667

But look, if you can scrape together another thousand or so, I’d suggest adding a 250GB SSD (450) just to run the OS and swapping that GT 710 out for an RX 550 (850). Honestly though, if you're strictly sticking to 2D work, you probably don't even need a dedicated GPU at all.

Now, if the whole DIY thing sounds like too much of a headache or a gamble, just give futur IT a call; their guys will tell you exactly which parts play nice together and they'll handle the assembly so everything actually works when it hits your desk.

EDIT - one more thing, if that monitor you're using is basically a relic from a decade ago, check if it has a DVI port (that white rectangular one), because most modern graphics cards aren't going to have a VGA port (the little blue one) anymore.

Michael Jackson10 said:If I were you, I’d look right at that specific setup: stop plugging an external HDD into any kind of extension cable, if possible don't even use the front panel USB ports on the case, and heaven forbid you plug it into one of those cheap hubs—like that 4-port thing you're using.

+1

I was just reading through this myself—a string of extension cables followed by a little hub, when USB cables are already notoriously flimsy by design... and I'm supposed to just trust my entire day's worth of work to that unstable mess? 🤔

For anything actually important, I’d always rather just plug a larger drive directly into the machine, because SATA is SATA... it's faster, sure, but more importantly, the interface is just way more reliable than USB.

fadedorca66 said:Honestly, they should just grab a whole new setup, whether it's brand new or some decent used rig, because trying to patch this up is just a fool's errand. It’s a waste of both time and cash. Any decent webpage today is going to absolutely murder that processor, and don't even get me started on trying to run YouTube or anything similar. Plus, there aren't even any official drivers out there for that graphics card that work with Windows 7 or 10.

+1

That’s exactly my point—in my book, trying to upgrade or fix a fifteen-year-old computer is just an agonizing waste of resources, like trying to whip a dead horse back to life.

I hope I’m not offending anyone here, but people usually end up putting together a much better configuration than what's being discussed when they actually decide to upgrade. I'm certain someone out there has a perfectly functional LGA 775 Core 2 duo sitting in their garage right now that they'd trade for a six-pack of beer, and compared to a Pentium 4, that thing is basically a starship. You might want to try asking over on the PCMag forums.