Well I installed windows with no problems the other day on my new SSD after I got it all set up, but then some other minor problem occurred. For some reason, even after I formatted both my secondary hard drives, the windows boot manager still thought I had two instances of Windows 7 installed. I first found this problem when I restarted my computer the first time after the install of windows, and after the POST screen boot manager prompts me to pick a windows instance to boot from. The options are identical on my screen, both say the same "Windows 7" but only the first one option works.
Even if I pick option 2 it would tell me there is no OS to boot from on that drive, so that makes me wonder what's the point in asking me which one to boot when it knows the other one doesn't exist. I guess for whatever reason, even though I formatted both my drives and still got that dual OS error, there must have been some kind of cache left over in the reserve part of the drive. No matter what I did I could not set up the system to just boot from my main SSD without getting that errror.
So to get rid of the first error, I went into computer management in windows and formatted both my secondary hard drives in a way where it's impossible for the drives to even register as a boot-able medium, and then after that was done I went and re installed windows yet again.
Fortunately this time no problem, when doing a clean install the other drives in my system show up as unable to use for a OS which is what I intended, and after the install was done I restarted my computer and thank god there were no more dual operating system errors. It would just boot up straight into windows now after the motherboard screen.
While that little dual OS error might have been trivial to some people, as you can just select the correct OS or just choose for windows to boot normally, that got annoying really fast because it would happen every single time I restarted or booted up my PC no matter how many times I tweaked the hard drive boot priority in the BIOS. Also having to deal with that stupid screen before starting up windows, in my opinion, kinda defeats the purpose of having an SSD installed. It's supposed to be much faster, when as a result of that first install, having to deal with an extra screen doesn't make the total boot time any faster at all compared to my previous setup.
To sum it all up, right now everything is working as it should the way I originally planned it to. Also I can still use my secondary drives for installing programs and games like usual, they just can't be reused for boot drives unless I format them again in a specific way. Still fine with me as long as I can use all my programs and games like usual.
The only drawback though? As a result of re installing windows on such short notice, I did not bother to back up all my games again as it would have taken too long and I don't have a third hard drive to transfer them over in a reasonable amount of time. So basically I just backed up my music, pictures, and other important documents and none of the games. Now I have to spend most of my time downloading every single game I play on a regular basis over a crappy internet network, while still trying to find time to upload a video or two.
Fun times
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Best thing I've ever seen
Quite possibly one of the sexiest things I've ever seen. Recently upgraded my system with a SSD for a boot drive, and now I get 7's all across the board on the WEI. Pretty cool stuff I think, I remember back when I still had an IDE drive setup on my first computer and while comparing the different setups over the years, this machine definitely flies now.
The only downside is that the drive I purchased is pretty small, only a 60 GB, and after the windows install there really isn't much room for anything else but a few programs. However before I installed any other programs I had to test out the speed with BF3. I managed to squeeze that game onto the SSD and launched it from origin, and the loading times were amazingly fast. Apart from intro and title screens, that game only takes about 10 seconds or less to load up any map on multiplayer or singleplayer.
If only I had gotten a larger drive, but they are very expensive as it is, I got lucky and found one of the OCZ Vertex 3 series on sale for 80 dollars so I had to take it. So it was fun while it lasted, I played a few BF3 matches with zero lag and wickedly fast loading times but in the end it's very impractical to keep it installed that way because of the lack of space. There was only like 4 GB of empty space and it would be a pain in the ass to have to manually set every single application I own to download/render stuff onto one of the back up drives.
So now the total amount of hard drives I have in my system is 3. The boot drive is the 60 GB SSD connected through SATA II, and the first secondary drive is my 800 GB Green edition Western Digital drive at 5400 RPM which is just used for storing music and some games, and lastly I have a 500 GB Samsung drive at 7200 RPM which was previously my OS drive. Now that 500 GB will be mostly for storing a couple of non steam games, as well as the drive for recording videos.
Pretty soon I'm going to have to upgrade the power supply to keep up with all these drives, as well as support for a second video card. That's something I really want to get in the near future. As far as PC enthusiasts go, my goal is to have either a SLI or crossfire rig although right now it's looking more along the lines of SLI as my GTX 560 is the best video card I have right now. I know I've said it before but the edition I have is basically a 570 card in it's capabilities. If I overclocked it then it could be as powerful as a 580.
Last but not least, before I decide to keep rambling on about more computer parts much longer, I will give you guys a sneak peak of the power supply I have in mind. I've used all kinds of power consumption calculators on the web and it seems like I'm going to need something pretty beefy if I plan on going SLI, so that's what I'm going to get. I do have plans on getting one that's 1000 watts, as from what I've researched a setup like mine would consume somewhere between 800 and 850 watts on full load, and that way I'd have some room to spare in case I add any more drives or upgrade to more powerful video cards.
It's going to be either this one or this power supply
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Real desk finally
It sure is nice sometimes when you get new things, but I never really thought I'd be buying a whole lot of furniture until I moved out. However It came to my attention that it's been almost 3 years since I've had a really good sturdy desk for my computer, that and the fact I was tired of moving my computer around everywhere because I had nowhere to really place it for long.
For a while I had a cheap desk, it wasn't anything special but it was wide enough to work on, but it had gotten so worn down I left it back at my old apartment when I had to move back to Dallas about a year ago, because I had no room at the time to bring it back with me. Kinda unfortunate, but that desk was pretty crappy from the beginning and I didn't mind getting rid of it. The only downside once I was back home is that there wasn't really a desk I could use for my computer.
There is a corner office built into the house down in the kitchen that's actually big enough for me to work, but the problem with that place is that it's too far away from the router and it's a very inconvenient place of the house that makes it impossible to get a good wifi signal. That and there was no way to get an ethernet cable down there without having my parents complaining about seeing wires everywhere. So that was a no-go and I ended up borrowing this little hallway table that was just large enough to sit my screen, keyboard, and mouse.
I never really liked it though, the table was so narrow once it sat against the wall and I couldn't really play games with a mouse and keyboard because I'd be sitting with my face practically a foot away from the screen. It's very hard to play that way, believe me I've tried.
Anyways, I recently got tired of that setup and went out and finally bought myself a good desk. It took a while to get it set up when I got home, about 2 hours to be exact, but it's been well worth the effort so far. It came in a color that matches my bed frame, also it has plenty of room for everything including my PS3, games and movies, and I bought it for a pretty damn good price. It only cost me about $100 even though it was retailed at over $350, I think because it was a clearance floor item or something.
So there it is, feels a lot bigger in person when you're sitting right in front of it. It's actually a fairly tall desk, just doesn't look that way because the ceiling in my room is pretty darn high up.
At least now you guys can see my gaming setup, as this will be where I play and record all my games. I've got the PS3 up on the left side of the desk, and it's wired into both my screen and speakers so I can switch over easily, maybe sometime in the future I'll buy a capture card again so I can record console games.
My room is still a bit messy from everything that's been going on too, on top of the desk I've been cleaning out my closet which was full of boxes. I've had tons of stuff stored away in my closet because I never had room for it until now.
For a while I had a cheap desk, it wasn't anything special but it was wide enough to work on, but it had gotten so worn down I left it back at my old apartment when I had to move back to Dallas about a year ago, because I had no room at the time to bring it back with me. Kinda unfortunate, but that desk was pretty crappy from the beginning and I didn't mind getting rid of it. The only downside once I was back home is that there wasn't really a desk I could use for my computer.
There is a corner office built into the house down in the kitchen that's actually big enough for me to work, but the problem with that place is that it's too far away from the router and it's a very inconvenient place of the house that makes it impossible to get a good wifi signal. That and there was no way to get an ethernet cable down there without having my parents complaining about seeing wires everywhere. So that was a no-go and I ended up borrowing this little hallway table that was just large enough to sit my screen, keyboard, and mouse.
I never really liked it though, the table was so narrow once it sat against the wall and I couldn't really play games with a mouse and keyboard because I'd be sitting with my face practically a foot away from the screen. It's very hard to play that way, believe me I've tried.
Anyways, I recently got tired of that setup and went out and finally bought myself a good desk. It took a while to get it set up when I got home, about 2 hours to be exact, but it's been well worth the effort so far. It came in a color that matches my bed frame, also it has plenty of room for everything including my PS3, games and movies, and I bought it for a pretty damn good price. It only cost me about $100 even though it was retailed at over $350, I think because it was a clearance floor item or something.
So there it is, feels a lot bigger in person when you're sitting right in front of it. It's actually a fairly tall desk, just doesn't look that way because the ceiling in my room is pretty darn high up.
At least now you guys can see my gaming setup, as this will be where I play and record all my games. I've got the PS3 up on the left side of the desk, and it's wired into both my screen and speakers so I can switch over easily, maybe sometime in the future I'll buy a capture card again so I can record console games.
My room is still a bit messy from everything that's been going on too, on top of the desk I've been cleaning out my closet which was full of boxes. I've had tons of stuff stored away in my closet because I never had room for it until now.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Old cars are not fun
Here's what's been happening the couple of days, for the most part everything has been going smoothly with work schedule and then coming home to eat, excercise, sleep, all that good stuff. It's been a little hectic but manageable for the most part as I'm starting to get into a bit of a routine.
Yesterday my dad tells me that the IT department up at his work firm is looking for some new help. Since I have built 3 computers for my dad to go with him to work, the guys over there that also build computers and do the network stuff were really impressed with the computers I built for him and specifically asked for me to come visit them. So while I'm at work yesterday I'm texting my dad so they can set up a very informal interview that's scheduled for today around 10 in the morning. Not too big of a deal for me, since I was working a late shift I had plenty of time to get up and be on my way, and then have time for an interview before heading back for work.
Now for the fun part, after I wake up I take my time getting ready and I'm about to head out early since it takes an hour to get downtown where my dad works, I get in my car and the darn thing isn't working. I thought the problem might be a loose battery cable, as that frequently happens with this older car so I get out, pop the hood, fix the wires, and then go back into the car to try starting it up again. This time when I turn the ignition on, I hear a small electric pop with the speakers in the car, and then the whole thing goes dead completely. Before I messed with the wires the car still had power to the radio and over head lights, which is usually the first clue that it's the batter cable when that occurs.
And now for the even better part, my car is dead and I figure I need a jump but the only other person home right now is my brother and he's asleep. Just a FYI he's asleep in the daytime now because he's working a night shift at his current job. So I have to wake him up to ask him to use his car to give mine a jump, and like the usual asshole he is he tells me to just go move the car myself and leave him alone.
So I take his car keys and then bring his car around the from the back to where my car is parked and move them face to face so I can reach the 'batteries' of each car. Now like I said in a previous post, he drives a BMW that's like 10 years newer than my car. I get back in his car and start looking for the hood latch and then realize I have no clue how to open the hood on a car like this. The layout of the car is so different to what I'm used to it takes me like 10 minutes to figure out which button opens the hood, which incidentally happened to be somewhat hidden under the steering wheel.
Finally the hood is open and I go hook up the cables to my car battery, and then look over at my brother's engine block and find out something new and wonderful. This car has no visible battery under the hood, but it does have two wires routed from wherever the battery is sitting that act as nodes from the battery in case you have to jump the car. I think to myself that's a little weird but okay, now the only problem left is that those battery nodes are positioned almost directly above the engine block and all the way to the back, and no matter how many different ways I position the car the jumper cables I have are not long enough to reach both cars.
After about 20 minutes of messing with the two cars, I'm very stressed out at that point and just basically have to give up as there's nothing left I can do. I undid the cables, closed all the vehicles properly and then moved my brothers car back to where it was parked before in our garage. I had to call my dad and have his friend reschedule the interview, and now I still don't have a working car so I can go to work today, so now I need to call my boss and either ask them to give me another employee's number so I can schedule a ride, or just tell them I can't make it plain and simple.
It's not looking too good right now as nobody is answering the phone at work, and because the store is so big cell phones don't work properly in the building so I can't contact my boss by that way either.
Gonna be a fun day today, hopefully it can't get any worse than this.
Yesterday my dad tells me that the IT department up at his work firm is looking for some new help. Since I have built 3 computers for my dad to go with him to work, the guys over there that also build computers and do the network stuff were really impressed with the computers I built for him and specifically asked for me to come visit them. So while I'm at work yesterday I'm texting my dad so they can set up a very informal interview that's scheduled for today around 10 in the morning. Not too big of a deal for me, since I was working a late shift I had plenty of time to get up and be on my way, and then have time for an interview before heading back for work.
Now for the fun part, after I wake up I take my time getting ready and I'm about to head out early since it takes an hour to get downtown where my dad works, I get in my car and the darn thing isn't working. I thought the problem might be a loose battery cable, as that frequently happens with this older car so I get out, pop the hood, fix the wires, and then go back into the car to try starting it up again. This time when I turn the ignition on, I hear a small electric pop with the speakers in the car, and then the whole thing goes dead completely. Before I messed with the wires the car still had power to the radio and over head lights, which is usually the first clue that it's the batter cable when that occurs.
And now for the even better part, my car is dead and I figure I need a jump but the only other person home right now is my brother and he's asleep. Just a FYI he's asleep in the daytime now because he's working a night shift at his current job. So I have to wake him up to ask him to use his car to give mine a jump, and like the usual asshole he is he tells me to just go move the car myself and leave him alone.
So I take his car keys and then bring his car around the from the back to where my car is parked and move them face to face so I can reach the 'batteries' of each car. Now like I said in a previous post, he drives a BMW that's like 10 years newer than my car. I get back in his car and start looking for the hood latch and then realize I have no clue how to open the hood on a car like this. The layout of the car is so different to what I'm used to it takes me like 10 minutes to figure out which button opens the hood, which incidentally happened to be somewhat hidden under the steering wheel.
Finally the hood is open and I go hook up the cables to my car battery, and then look over at my brother's engine block and find out something new and wonderful. This car has no visible battery under the hood, but it does have two wires routed from wherever the battery is sitting that act as nodes from the battery in case you have to jump the car. I think to myself that's a little weird but okay, now the only problem left is that those battery nodes are positioned almost directly above the engine block and all the way to the back, and no matter how many different ways I position the car the jumper cables I have are not long enough to reach both cars.
After about 20 minutes of messing with the two cars, I'm very stressed out at that point and just basically have to give up as there's nothing left I can do. I undid the cables, closed all the vehicles properly and then moved my brothers car back to where it was parked before in our garage. I had to call my dad and have his friend reschedule the interview, and now I still don't have a working car so I can go to work today, so now I need to call my boss and either ask them to give me another employee's number so I can schedule a ride, or just tell them I can't make it plain and simple.
It's not looking too good right now as nobody is answering the phone at work, and because the store is so big cell phones don't work properly in the building so I can't contact my boss by that way either.
Gonna be a fun day today, hopefully it can't get any worse than this.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
BRB, uninstalling...
I am the only person in the world, who is not a IT person, that has had to re install windows so many god damn times. Just the other day I had learned of the new consumer preview for windows 8 so I downloaded that to try it out. Of course for this particular event I knew I was gonna have to re install windows 7 once I was done checking out new windows 8 features. I was okay with this and prepared myself for that ahead of time. So no surprises there at all, I knew what I was doing ahead of time and that there really is no other way to just 'undo' a complete OS installation.
So we fast forward about 3 days later, after that windows 7 installation to get rid of windows 8, and I'm finally getting around to having the majority of my old games downloaded again and all my old programs back where I wanted them. But for some unexplainable ready my very nice studio microphone decides to stop working with windows. I think this problem is more of a windows issue, as when it glitches it tries to install drivers from windows update when it doesn't actually need to, and when that doesn't work the microphone is just left in a unusable state when plugged into windows.
This has happened before a couple of times, and before anyone starts writing me tips on how to fix an issue like this...trust me, I literally went through every exhaustible effort possible in order to fix a driver problem. There was nothing that would fix this issue and make my good microphone work. So sadly the only thing left to do is back up all my documents and games again, and proceed with another installation process of windows 7.
Before any of you think, well that might be a bit extreme, think of things this way. The first time this glitch happened and my microphone stopped working I spent over 2 hours trying to come up with a solution with no luck, and when you think about it time-wise that's more than twice as long as it takes to just back up your programs and then install a fresh copy of windows. The only fortunate thing is that since I just had to do this 3 days ago, the majority of my important documents and games are already backed up on my secondary hard drive.
It sucks though, just when things were finally looking all nice and finished, windows pulls a fast one on me and i get screwed over again.
Also on another sucky note, I broke my good keyboard yesterday too. It was the middle of the night and I accidentally knocked over a glass of water all over the keyboard while stumbling over to the bathroom in the dark.
FML
So we fast forward about 3 days later, after that windows 7 installation to get rid of windows 8, and I'm finally getting around to having the majority of my old games downloaded again and all my old programs back where I wanted them. But for some unexplainable ready my very nice studio microphone decides to stop working with windows. I think this problem is more of a windows issue, as when it glitches it tries to install drivers from windows update when it doesn't actually need to, and when that doesn't work the microphone is just left in a unusable state when plugged into windows.
This has happened before a couple of times, and before anyone starts writing me tips on how to fix an issue like this...trust me, I literally went through every exhaustible effort possible in order to fix a driver problem. There was nothing that would fix this issue and make my good microphone work. So sadly the only thing left to do is back up all my documents and games again, and proceed with another installation process of windows 7.
Before any of you think, well that might be a bit extreme, think of things this way. The first time this glitch happened and my microphone stopped working I spent over 2 hours trying to come up with a solution with no luck, and when you think about it time-wise that's more than twice as long as it takes to just back up your programs and then install a fresh copy of windows. The only fortunate thing is that since I just had to do this 3 days ago, the majority of my important documents and games are already backed up on my secondary hard drive.
It sucks though, just when things were finally looking all nice and finished, windows pulls a fast one on me and i get screwed over again.
Also on another sucky note, I broke my good keyboard yesterday too. It was the middle of the night and I accidentally knocked over a glass of water all over the keyboard while stumbling over to the bathroom in the dark.
FML
New cars are fun
About a couple weeks ago my dad finally bought a new car after talking about it several years and I gotta say it's about time. In our family we've been driving SUV's for the longest time and never really had a gas efficient vehicle, even though all of us travel pretty far on a daily basis. So when he bought this new car, he traded in one of our older pickups and got a fuel efficient hyundai.
The reason we couldn't really buy a new car in the past is because my parents credit score has gotten pretty bad, mostly because of my dad not having a steady income in the past and constantly wrote checks for his business that would always bounce. The funny thing is that I think he was finally motivated to get a new car after my brother managed to buy himself a new car first. It's really funny I think, because my brother doesn't make that much money at all but has somehow managed to have a very good credit score so he is able to get anything he wants to when it comes to getting a new car or even an apartment. I don't know how he does it but the car he managed to buy was a BMW, not one of the really new models but it's still a very nice car.
So out of all the SUV's we used to have, we have now traded in two of them out of four. That leaves just me and my mother with our giant gas consuming monsters. I think within the next year or two my mom will plan on getting a new car too, but I think she's holding out for a luxury car of some sorts. Meanwhile I'm still stuck with the oldest car in our family, but the good news is that if my mom gets a new car she will be selling my vehicle to get some small trade in value for her new car, and I'll get her old car.
I'm okay with this and i'll certainly look forward to her making the change. I am not a huge fan of small cars and if I had the choice I'll always stick with a SUV or truck, but it works for me because her old car is basically just a much newer version of my suburban, only a little smaller but more gas efficient. I think it's a mid 2000's model tahoe, but it's still in very good condition and way better than the car I currently drive. I'm just hoping my car will hold out until then without any major complications due to it's age.
The reason we couldn't really buy a new car in the past is because my parents credit score has gotten pretty bad, mostly because of my dad not having a steady income in the past and constantly wrote checks for his business that would always bounce. The funny thing is that I think he was finally motivated to get a new car after my brother managed to buy himself a new car first. It's really funny I think, because my brother doesn't make that much money at all but has somehow managed to have a very good credit score so he is able to get anything he wants to when it comes to getting a new car or even an apartment. I don't know how he does it but the car he managed to buy was a BMW, not one of the really new models but it's still a very nice car.
So out of all the SUV's we used to have, we have now traded in two of them out of four. That leaves just me and my mother with our giant gas consuming monsters. I think within the next year or two my mom will plan on getting a new car too, but I think she's holding out for a luxury car of some sorts. Meanwhile I'm still stuck with the oldest car in our family, but the good news is that if my mom gets a new car she will be selling my vehicle to get some small trade in value for her new car, and I'll get her old car.
I'm okay with this and i'll certainly look forward to her making the change. I am not a huge fan of small cars and if I had the choice I'll always stick with a SUV or truck, but it works for me because her old car is basically just a much newer version of my suburban, only a little smaller but more gas efficient. I think it's a mid 2000's model tahoe, but it's still in very good condition and way better than the car I currently drive. I'm just hoping my car will hold out until then without any major complications due to it's age.
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