PC fettling and repairs thread

[Smokin Joe]

TBH, I'm not bothered enough to go delving further into the BIOS. I ordered the SSD just after replacing my 4Gb ram with 16 and the speed of the machine has improved so much (Boot up in 25 seconds and all apps opening more or less instantly) that I did begin to think I'd made an unnecessary expence for myself.

I don't doubt doubt it would probably work with the correct amount of tinkering, but I came to the conclusion that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So it's on it's way back for a refund. Now if I can only avoid the nagging urge to install Win 11.....

 

[Grant Fondo]

TBH, I'm not bothered enough to go delving further into the BIOS. I ordered the SSD just after replacing my 4Gb ram with 16 and the speed of the machine has improved so much (Boot up in 25 seconds and all apps opening more or less instantly) that I did begin to think I'd made an unnecessary expence for myself.

I don't doubt doubt it would probably work with the correct amount of tinkering, but I came to the conclusion that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So it's on it's way back for a refund. Now if I can only avoid the nagging urge to install Win 11.....

I didn't notice a great deal of difference in boot speeds between a 5 year old SSD to a new pcie one to be honest .... but, Win 11 is faster than Win 10 for sure IF you have a reasonably up to date pc. I think its great.

 

[Smokin Joe]

I didn't notice a great deal of difference in boot speeds between a 5 year old SSD to a new pcie one to be honest .... but, Win 11 is faster than Win 10 for sure IF you have a reasonably up to date pc. I think its great.

I might give it another go now I've upped the memory, as I have previously posted 4GB is hopeless for W11.

 

[Profpointy]

Anyone remember the fun trying to get the phone to stay in the acoustic coupler ?

That was in the bad old days where it was illegal to plug anything other than BT supplied kit into a phone line. BT would sell, or maybe only rent you an actual modem for many thousands of pounds so organisations like my school had to us an accoustic coupler

110 baud if I remember rightly. Just to be clear, that's 110 NOT 110k

 

[Cycleops]

I was thinking of buying an older Mac Book Pro , say from 2012 - 2015, probably a 13". The problem might be the updating of the OS I understand. I can buy quite cheaply here due to the devaluation of the currency. I can do a bit of screwdrivering if needs be.
I'd be using it for light stuff like browsing, email, YouTube etc. My preferences are good display and sound.
Anyone using one of these? Is it a practical proposition? I already have a iPad air which I love and think the MacBook could expand my maxed out storage.

 

[Grant Fondo]

I might give it another go now I've upped the memory, as I have previously posted 4GB is hopeless for W11.

Just wish MS would come clean and advise 8GB as the OS alone uses most of the 4GB up.
16GB is the sweet spot 99% of the time, although MS Flight Sim uses 22GB at 4K!

 

[Grant Fondo]

I was thinking of buying an older Mac Book Pro , say from 2012 - 2015

I'm still using an iPad 3 from 2012, been unsupported for years, so many websites are gobbledygook! I would check earliest model that still has access to latest iOS.

 

[DRM]

I was thinking of buying an older Mac Book Pro , say from 2012 - 2015, probably a 13". The problem might be the updating of the OS I understand. I can buy quite cheaply here due to the devaluation of the currency. I can do a bit of screwdrivering if needs be.
I'd be using it for light stuff like browsing, email, YouTube etc. My preferences are good display and sound.
Anyone using one of these? Is it a practical proposition? I already have a iPad air which I love and think the MacBook could expand my maxed out storage.

13” MacBook Pro is the best bet, the 15”, which I have, have faulty motherboards, something to do with bad soldering/faulty transistor in the graphics that switch between HD, not quite as HD, depending on what you’re doing, I had to get a patch that prevents switching over and stopping the thing from crashing, 13” MBP’s don’t do this graphics switching thing, I think the newest OS on those would be High Sierra, but using an up to date browser and avoiding the dodgy bits of the web you’d be fine

 

[Smokin Joe]

Win 11 is faster than Win 10 for sure IF you have a reasonably up to date pc. I think its great.

Well, I did it and I agree.

 

[DCBassman]

Sounds weird, but Intel made an 8 core 64 bit Atom, bet that sold well

In fact, they made several different versions! Nuts.
Anyhoo, having ordered the PSU for the Mini 110, I started to research operating systems a little more closely. I know it will run 32-bit win 10, because I've done it one of these before. Boring. Antix Linux looks promising, but it's not my favourite looking OS. It looked like I was going to have to learn to install Debian 32-bit from the ground up, and Debian has never been known for being particularly simple to install, but very good once you've done it. Then I came across a version of Debian that uses the Raspberry Pi desktop. It was put together by Raspberry Pi themselves, so seems a good bet. All the hardware is prepared, so as long as there are no other gotchas I don't yet know about (perfectly possible for a 'parts or not working' deal from eBay), then it should run reasonably well. The Pi desktop is very light on resources. So, we'll see!

 

[Cycleops]

@DRM . In the end I bought a 15" Pro, late 2013, retina. I thought it was the 13" doh. Bit big and heavy. Its a upgraded from new model with the quad core i7, 16 gb RAM and 256 SSD. It's quite fast, runs on Catalina upgradable to Big Sur. The screen is fantastic. Cost me about £200.
It's a long time since I used a laptop so take a bit of getting used to.
Battery has about 1700 cycles so that will need replacing soon although condition is 'good'.
Log in is four taps of the space bar. Do you know if I have to set up my admin password?
I am running out of storage on my 64gb iPad air so thought this could solve that problem.
I have signed in with my Apple iD but nothing has downloaded yet.
Any tips?

 

[StuAff]

@DRM . In the end I bought a 15" Pro, late 2013, retina. I thought it was the 13" doh. Bit big and heavy. Its a upgraded from new model with the quad core i7, 16 gb RAM and 256 SSD. It's quite fast, runs on Catalina upgradable to Big Sur. The screen is fantastic. Cost me about £200.
It's a long time since I used a laptop so take a bit of getting used to.
Battery has about 1700 cycles so that will need replacing soon although condition is 'good'.
Log in is four taps of the space bar. Do you know if I have to set up my admin password?
I am running out of storage on my 64gb iPad air so thought this could solve that problem.
I have signed in with my Apple iD but nothing has downloaded yet.
Any tips?

Yes, you need an admin password. Four taps of the space bar isn't exactly secure...Would suggest setting up a new user account from scratch and deleting that one, that will be the easiest way to get everything the way you want it & keep things stable. Best way to go about that is to boot into recovery mode.

 

[DRM]

Hopefully the previous owner wiped their details, so you start the set up as if it was brand new from Apple

 

[ColinJ]

I have been checking out Raspberry Pi info today after a friend reminded me that I'd said the Pi concept was interesting a while back. At some point I think I will treat myself to one with an added DSP/DAC board and start playing around with it.

My first project will be to improve the sound of my stereo system. The combination of my big speakers and a fairly small room produces too much upper bass and the lower bass response rolls off slightly quicker than I want it to. I use that system for my TV sound and I find that deep male voices are a little boomy. I'd also like to tweak the higher frequencies to offset some of the losses in my ageing/damaged ears.

I will wait until I have finished writing my first puzzle game though. I have a trail of unfinished projects behind me and I don't need to add more to the list just yet! (Which reminds me - I have 2 bikes to sort out too... )

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I have been checking out Raspberry Pi info today after a friend reminded me that I'd said the Pi concept was interesting a while back. At some point I think I will treat myself to one with an added DSP/DAC board and start playing around with it.

My first project will be to improve the sound of my stereo system. The combination of my big speakers and a fairly small room produces too much upper bass and the lower bass response rolls off slightly quicker than I want it to. I use that system for my TV sound and I find that deep male voices are a little boomy. I'd also like to tweak the higher frequencies to offset some of the losses in my ageing/damaged ears.

I will wait until I have finished writing my first puzzle game though. I have a trail of unfinished projects behind me and I don't need to add more to the list just yet! (Which reminds me - I have 2 bikes to sort out too... )

You sound like a busy boy.