Posts by Amanda Hughes5

Yeah. That’s just extra video memory for the GPU—it doesn't touch your actual system RAM at all.

wiredotter14 said:Disk-based Systems service, I think they're over on Canadian Street, near the British place.
A buddy and I both had our ultrabooks cleaned twice and everything turned out fine. I think it was $40 or something like that

Are we talking the East Side? 🤦 😁

Thanks for getting back to me 👍—I was aiming for a ceiling of around $2,200, and honestly, I wasn't even that far off the mark 🙂

Seriously, is anybody even here? 🤔

Hey everyone 🙂

So, I've decided it's finally time to let go of my mini PC—honestly, it’s been sitting there gathering dust for almost a year now—so I'm trying to figure out what kind of cash I can actually get for it. Realistically speaking, how much could I grab for the whole setup?

Asus Vivo VC62B
MB: VC62B (BGA-1168)
HDD: 500GB Samsung HD502H Sata II
CPU: i3 4030U 1.9
RAM: 4GB ddr3 1600MHz
GPU: Intel HD 4400

MONITOR: Dell S2340L 23"

KEYBOARD & MOUSE: Logitech Wave K550

SPEAKERS: Logitech Z200 Black

I picked this up about a year and a half ago. I've still got the receipt and all the paperwork too.

Look, honestly, the smartest move you can make right now is just to walk away from it all 😉—I mean, what’s the point of lighting a fire just to fuel the paranoia and all that chaos? You’re already going into this knowing there’s a massive chance you’ll end up relapsing 😉, and let's be real, that’s a losing game.
When I finally kicked the smoking habit, I didn't sit there telling myself, "Well, I can't say I'll *never* touch one again"... No, I told myself it was dead and buried. Period. And guess what? It’s been 16 years since my last cigarette 🙂 and the thought hasn't even crossed my mind once.
If this is eating you alive enough to be posting all this stuff here, then just drop it and stop obsessing. Maybe try some mushrooms for a change of pace. If you absolutely have to take something...

quietbadger81 said:I’m living in a pretty damn healthy environment. Honestly, I’m good with how people treat me—got a job, a girlfriend, a solid social life... my confidence isn't an issue. I don't have some deep-seated trauma or random fears hanging over my head either. Most days, like 90% of the time, I'm a positive guy. I'm not looking for fights and I'm definitely not depressed. So, it’s just weird to me why all this is even happening.

If everything you just said is actually true, then yeah, this whole situation is super bizarre.
But at the same time, it’s pretty obvious that you’re still being dragged back down by it—I mean, you’re claiming you haven't even smoked in nine months, yet here you are posting this 🤔
It just seems logical to me that if you hadn't touched it for nine months and were actually feeling better, you wouldn't even be thinking about it anymore 🤷
The whole story just feels a little shaky to me.

I couldn't just let it go, you know? It was eating at me, so I ended up going down a total rabbit hole trying to fix it myself. Spent way too much time scouring the web for a fix—tried a few different things, but nothing actually worked... until I stumbled onto something. Bit by bit, I finally managed to get everything sorted out directly through the PSU 🙂
. Honestly, thank god I still had the thing sitting right here; if someone had already hauled it off to a repair shop in Chicago, I would've been out a ridiculous amount of cash 🙂

Yeah, there’s definitely something funky going on with the laptop itself.
The installation went totally smooth—Microsoft was activated without any hiccups or anything. But the updates? Total nightmare. Not a single graphics driver will actually work. I even took a quick peek at the BIOS earlier just to be sure, and everything looks fine on that end.
I'm gonna end up dropping it off at a repair shop to see if they can figure out what the deal is. 🤷

Windows updates aren't even touching my system🤔—I've seriously tried like ten different times now and nothing.

Hey 🙂

So, I’m working on the laptop from the title and I’ve hit a massive wall...
I’m trying to install Windows 7 Home (just so we're clear, any Windows mentioned here was grabbed straight from the Microsoft site and works fine on every other PC I've tested) and I grab the LAN driver online to get things moving. That ends up being the only single driver that actually installs successfully 🤔
I went to the Dell site and grabbed a few different WiFi drivers, but nope—not one of them will install. Same deal with the graphics drivers; I downloaded everything they offered, and absolutely nothing works.

Then I figured, screw it, let's just try Windows 10 Home. The installation goes perfectly, no errors at all. But then, about 30 seconds after it finishes, the screen just goes black and... well, that's it. Dead.
So I try Windows 10 again, but this time I go with Pro. And it’s the exact same story. The screen just blacks out after maybe 30 seconds and I'm stuck.

I even circled back to Windows 7, but tried the Pro version this time. Everything installs just fine, but we're right back to the driver nightmare. Only the LAN driver works—period.
Even trying to update the drivers through Device Manager does absolutely nothing.
And when I head over to Dell support and click on "Detect my Dell system" 🤔 and accept the license agreement, it should take me to "Download and install," but nothing happens. There isn't even a button to click to move forward—no download button, no next, nothing... just dead air.

I’ve already cycled through both the 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Windows. This thing originally had 64-bit Windows on it, but I switched to the latest 32-bit version since it only has 3GB of RAM...

If anyone happens to have a clue how to fix this, I would be seriously grateful 🙂 or maybe if you could point me toward a link for some actual drivers 🙂

Look, if we’re being totally honest here, the guy finally woke up. He’s seeing everything for what it actually is. That’s really the only truth in this whole mess.

When I read the full post, the reality is that he’s definitely overreacting in certain spots—like, way too much. And hey, I’m not even going to touch the whole socialization thing. Though, based on what he’s saying, it does sound like he might have drifted a little too far off the deep end.
The thing is, you lose weight incredibly FAST once you decide to stop shoving all the junk people force down our throats (which is basically everything these days) and actually start paying attention to what goes into your body.
But here’s the kicker—you’re flushing out years of garbage accumulated from a lifetime of bad eating, so you need a massive variety of fruits, veggies, and specific herbs just to give your body what it actually needs to function.
I know this from my own life. Every time I get super strict about EVERYTHING, the weight drops off like crazy. And then, literally everyone starts asking if I’m sick or whatever... they look at me like I’m dying or completely lost my mind. Meanwhile, during those periods, I feel absolutely phenomenal, haha.
It’s honestly depressing how much this world has gone to hell, along with basic human awareness. Everything that used to be considered "normal" isn't anymore. Now, anyone who tries to help themselves or improve their life gets labeled as "sick," "stupid," or "crazy"... and I say that strictly from personal experience.
Honestly, there are so many times I’ll be sitting in a coffee shop and have zero clue what to order because EVERYTHING on the menu is trash. So I’ll just grab a sparkling water or a beer.

Speaking of distilled water... if someone is buying the bottled stuff for their iron just because, they need to stop immediately. That isn't the kind of distilled water that's healthy or good for your system. You have to distill it yourself using a distiller, and that’s not some quick twenty-minute process.
And yeah, he’s not wrong about needing distilled water. But again—we aren't talking about the store-bought distilled kind. Store-bought stuff doesn't come anywhere close to having the properties of "real" distilled water.

Look... this isn't the first time I've heard of someone going this far... and I really hope he settles down regarding this paranoia. Because the next stop on this train is depression and a total breakdown. Once he realizes there’s simply no way to live exactly how he wants without being forced to consume a mountain of crap 😉 one of my buddies has been stuck in some version of depression for years... he cracks a smile maybe once a month... he's constantly complaining and just miserable.
Instead of BEING happy because of his realizations and the fact that he now has the tools to help himself as much as possible 🙂 nope... he’s depressed because absolutely everything around us has gone to shit. And that’s how he’s going to drive himself totally insane.
And that could very well happen to your brother.

As for milk... the stuff we buy at the grocery store ISN'T milk. It’s garbage. Just like 99% of everything in the aisles. Literally. Maybe I exaggerated the 99% a bit, haha...
And coincidentally, I know a decent amount about bone health (in the context of "aging bones"). Older folks deal with bone issues for reasons that have nothing to do with just being "old."
But there’s no point in writing more about it... because almost everyone reading this will probably just say, "Oh man... what a nutcase." I haven't experienced 🙂
once. And this topic is endless; we could go on like this for days and days.🙂

My advice: let him eat whatever he wants. If he maintains some kind of balance, it's fine. But I get the feeling he's taking a ton of supplements all at once, and that is definitely not good. He should try replacing at least half of that stuff with plants and veggies to get what he needs naturally.
Just be careful not to push him too hard, or you're going to have a major blowout on your hands.
You already mentioned he’s withdrawing from everyone. Ask yourself why 🙂 maybe it's because he has nobody left to talk to about any of this or anyone to share it with.😉Honestly, it’s mostly because everyone treats him like he’s lost his mind.
Though, if you ask me, he’s actually way less unhinged than 99% of the people hanging around him. Whatever anyone wants to believe about it... 🙂

Good luck 👍

driftingheron97 said:Severe OCD mixed with some pretty obvious paranoid tendencies.

Yeah... he definitely hit a breaking point there.

driftingheron97 said:Maybe it was all that conspiracy theory rabbit hole stuff—trying to find the "truth" until it just turned into pure anxiety?

Exactly. He started waking up to things and it hit him way too fast. When people dive headfirst into those deep topics without any prep, it totally blows their minds—in a bad way.
He seriously needs someone who knows what they're talking about to sit down with him, talk him through it, and help steer him back toward some "calmer waters." But one thing's for sure: the more you guys judge him, the more he's gonna pull away from everyone.

All sorted. Klaić's.

Hey everyone

Does anyone know where I can get an ultrasound done for a kid's heel here in LA? It’s for my 9-year-old. Ideally, I’d love to find somewhere that takes Medicare if possible.
If that’s not an option, does anyone happen to know what the typical out-of-pocket cost is these days?

thanks

Passive. I didn't spot a single fan on the thing... just a completely sealed box.

I’m mostly just downloading torrents, browsing the web, checking emails, and letting my kid play some simple online games... nothing remotely demanding. It stays running for, what, maybe 15 hours a day? Just because I need to keep those seeds going.
I haven't actually pushed it hard at all. But honestly, it’s kind of wild how it stays almost perfectly warm from both the top and bottom—it doesn't even get hot, really. 👍

Just a heads up, don't expect an HD or any RAM to be included in the bucket you get 😉. I ended up grabbing my own 4GB 1600 stick of RAM, and I just swapped the hard drive over from my old desktop tower. It runs flawlessly, but like I said, I’m definitely not a power user 🙂

Just wanted to drop a quick note and say I finally got everything dialed in... grabbed some new RAM, tossed the drive from my old rig into the mix... and honestly? This Dell OptiPlex is running like a dream. 👍

At the end of the day, once you factor in everything here in the States, the price tag ends up being a bit steeper at $315 plus free shipping 👍 just a hair over $733 🙂 to finally deal with my old computer situation and call it a day.
btw... I posted my old setup on "Estimate" so you can take a look if you want 🙂

Thx

It says right here that you can go with either a single 3.5" drive or a 2.5" drive plus an SSD 🙂.
I've actually got this one sitting in my current rig: a Samsung Galaxy S24, SATA2, 16MB cache, F3—and I’m thinking it should slide into the little guy without any drama... or am I totally off base? 🙂

I checked out Best Buy first, obviously😉, but honestly, nothing even comes close in this price bracket... the first decent option I found was an Apple iPad, but it's rocking an older i3 and feels pretty dated overall... then there's the ASUS with the 4400 graphics card. And that Apple thing is almost $133 more expensive than this one 😉.

The thing is, I really need this to function as a main PC, not just some glorified media center. I'm not exactly asking for much, though—not a power user by any means.

Hey there

I just stumbled upon this Mac Mini and I’m thinking it might actually be a solid move...
My plan would be to just pop the hard drive from my current rig straight into it and call it a day...
Honestly, it feels like a pretty sweet deal to me since I wouldn't have to shell out cash for a new drive...
Do you guys think this price is fair, or am I overpaying here?

Or does anyone know of a better alternative with HP gear in this same ballpark?

Thanks!