Anyone still running Windows 7?

Keith Bennett38 said:Check your Control Panel - System - Device Manager to see if there are any yellow exclamation marks or other error indicators present.
If everything looks fine under the Sound, video and Game controllers section, then you should verify that the speakers are plugged into the correct jack on the computer.
On certain PCs, I have noticed that if no speakers are detected, the computer will display a red "X" over the volume icon in the taskbar near the clock.

It might sound like I am just trolling, but everything appears to be functioning perfectly on my end—no issues at all. The High Definition Audio Device shows no warning signs whatsoever... and the speakers are definitely plugged in correctly. To make matters worse, I am actually installing Windows for a friend rather than myself, which makes me look completely incompetent...😁

I guess I was wondering if there’s some kind of program on Windows that could actually give me a voice notification to let me know what time it is whenever the hour rolls around? Just at the top of every hour, I suppose. Thanks 🙂

dustyfox60 said:Is there some kind of app on Windows that would give me a voice notification every hour to tell me what time it is? thanks 🙂

There are some, but they aren't free—at least I couldn't find anything for nothing when I did a quick search just now.

talk time say The time evo

talk time say The time evo

Here's one for free.
TikToker

Whenever I attempt to run the native disk defragmenter on Windows, I’m met with this message:


I tried digging into Task Scheduler to see if I could force it—you know how it goes—but it just keeps insisting "remote computer not found." It's the same old story every single time.

It’s been months since I last defragmented... honestly, it’s probably long overdue, isn't it?

Are you absolutely sure you actually fired up the Task Scheduler? That "remote computer not found" error is basically the system's way of throwing a tantrum because the Task Scheduler service isn't running—it’s pretty much a given at this point. You should probably dive into the registry and hunt down the key HKLM -> system -> CurrentcontrolSet -> Services -> Schedule—once you're there, check the right-hand panel; the Start value really ought to be set to 3.

Hi, I have a question here. I'm hoping someone might actually know the answer. 🙂

Basically, I haven't been able to run Windows Update for about a month now... or rather, it downloads the updates, installs them, asks for a restart, and then when I go to restart, it just tries to install them all over again. Then it fails, rolls back the updates, and just repeats the whole cycle. Every attempt I've made to fix this hasn't yielded any results at all. 😢It's incredibly frustrating. 🙂🙂

Maybe give the Windows Update reset a shot: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058

I found a fix shortly after posting. I really should have asked sooner so I wouldn't have wasted all this time. 😁 I think I even ended up downloading the tool you suggested (it's just too much of a pain to click links on my phone)... Thank God I'm not getting hit with those constant restart prompts anymore, or whatever it was that kept triggering them...

Thanks anyway.🙂

Just finished installing Windows 7 Ultimate and now my little clock app is acting up. It says it can't connect to the server, even though my internet seems totally fine... Any ideas on how to fix this?

Honestly, just disable those automatic Windows updates the second you finish installing the OS.

I haven't touched an update since back in the Windows XP SP2 days, because let’s be real, there’s almost never anything actually useful in them.
Plus, I’ve noticed that people who constantly update tend to run into all sorts of weird glitches, errors, and general system instability.
If you actually know what you're doing with it, Windows 7 runs smooth as silk—just totally flawless.

Oh, and by the way, is there any way to bypass that DirectX 11 lock in game settings? Is there some kind of tweak to trick Windows into thinking I'm running a DirectX 11 card?

It’s driving me crazy because I’ll be getting maybe 50 FPS on certain games, but I can't even crank up the settings because that DirectX 11 restriction from Windows won't even let me launch the game properly.

Stop lecturing people about system updates if you aren't even bothering to update your own machine.

Whether an update actually offers anything useful or not isn't your concern, especially since you clearly can't be bothered to hit that install button yourself.

That's all I have to say. 🙂

Michael Harris93 said:It’s honestly easiest just to disable those automatic Windows updates right after you finish installing the OS.

I’ve actually been doing things my own way since back in 2005; ever since I was running Windows XP SP2, I haven't bothered with those updates because, if I'm being totally honest, there's rarely anything actually useful included in them.

🤦

Michael Harris93 said:It’s driving me crazy—I’m getting maybe 50 fps on some games, but I can't even touch the max settings because this stupid DirectX 11 block from Windows won't even let me launch the game in the first place.

What kind of "block" are you even talking about?!? Look, if you're running a DirectX 9 card, then obviously you aren't going to be able to play games that require DirectX 10 or 11. Especially not if you're still stuck using Windows XP.

Benjamin King2 said:What kind of "blockage" are you even talking about? If you're running a DirectX 9 card, obviously you aren't going to be able to play games that require DirectX 10 or 11. Especially if you're still stuck on Windows XP.

So, I'm running Windows 7 64-bit with a Phenom X4 945, and I recently picked up a cheap, used NVIDIA GTX 285 (DirectX 10) from a buddy of mine just four months ago for $250. Honestly, the card is an absolute beast; it handles Battlefield 3 at around 38-55 fps on max settings with 4x AA, which isn't bad at all.

But now, whenever I try to fire up Crysis 2 with that DirectX 11 patch, or play Metro 2033 or Batman: Arkham City, I keep getting hit with this error—it’s a Windows error, not something coming from the game itself—telling me that my hardware doesn't have the necessary DirectX support.

I actually ran into this exact same headache with my old card, a 7900 GT (DirectX 9), when I was playing the original Crysis back on Windows XP SP2. But I managed to find this little tweak, sort of like a virtual workaround that tricks the DirectX commands and the game into thinking I actually have a DirectX 10 card, and I finally managed to unlock those Very High settings. It works for Battlefield 3 and anything else using the Frostbite engine too, which is great since this is just my old machine that my little cousin uses to play games whenever she comes over to visit.

Benjamin King2 said:What kind of "blockage" are you even talking about? If you're running a DirectX 9 card, obviously you aren't going to play games that require DirectX 10 or 11. Especially not if you're still stuck on Windows XP.

If they're using Windows XP, they can't run DirectX 10 or 11 games, regardless of whether their graphics card supports them or not.
There is no such thing as DirectX 10 or 11 for Windows XP.
At least, that's my understanding.

Look, the guy explicitly stated he's running Windows 7 now...

I guess, I don't know, DirectX Runtime from Microsoft's own site should handle it if it isn't already installed.

But honestly? I wouldn't want him dealing with some broken mess after any random updates roll in. Other than that, I think that's pretty much all there is to it. 😉

Taylor Morales31 said:The guy explicitly stated he's running Windows 7 now...
...

I haven't actually read the post following the one I just quoted.

Michael Harris93 said:I'm running Windows 7 64-bit on a Phenom X4 945, and I just picked up a cheap, used NVIDIA GTX 285 (DirectX 10) from a buddy for about $250. Honestly, the card is a beast—it handles Battlefield 3 at roughly 38-55 FPS on max settings with 4x AA
.

But here’s the thing—whenever I try to run Crysis 2 with the DirectX 11 patch, or Metro 2033, or Batman: Arkham City, I keep getting this constant error message (from Windows itself, not the game) saying my hardware doesn't support DirectX)

I actually ran into this exact same headache with my old card (a 7900 GT running DirectX 9) while playing Crysis on Windows XP SP2. But back then, I found this little tweak—sort of a virtual trickery where you feed the DirectX commands and the game fake info to make it think I had a DirectX 10 card—and I finally managed to unlock the Very High settings. It works fine for Battlefield 3 and anything else using the Frostbite engine, too. This setup is basically my old rig that my little cousin uses to play games whenever she comes over to visit.

The difference is that Crysis itself supports both DirectX 9 and DirectX 10; all you had to do was add something like "-dx9" to the shortcut's command line and the game would force itself to run in DirectX 9 mode. Newer games just don't work like that anymore. It has nothing to do with the version of Windows you're using.

So, I’ve got a question for you guys, and sorry if this is totally off-topic for the week... haha... basically, I picked up a BenQ G2225HD 22 monitor a few months back and right now I'm running it through a VGA cable. But then I noticed there's a DVI-D port on the monitor itself. What does that actually do for me? Like, am I gonna get a better picture or what?... I'm just curious. Thanks... I mean, I know Windows XP couldn't really handle high-def stuff properly, but I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate x64. The image looks fine on the screen as it is, but I can't help wondering if switching over to a DVI-D cable would actually level up my picture quality...

Nah, you aren't going to get a better picture. What do you mean when you say "Windows XP can't handle an HD image"?!? 😕