[cpd2009]

Other issues with Win 8.1:

I can't install MagicDisc -.- Well, I can install it, but it can't install the virtual DVD drive. Something about unsigned drivers.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-can-i-install-hardware-with-unsigned-drivers-in-windows-8/">http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-can-i- ... windows-8/</a><!-- m --> You can install unsigned drivers on Windows 8 (not sure about 8.1), but it involves advanced startup options. You could perhaps try installing MagicDisc this way.

[huckleberrypie]

Other issues with Win 8.1:

I can't install MagicDisc -.- Well, I can install it, but it can't install the virtual DVD drive. Something about unsigned drivers.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-can-i-install-hardware-with-unsigned-drivers-in-windows-8/">http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-can-i- ... windows-8/</a><!-- m --> You can install unsigned drivers on Windows 8 (not sure about 8.1), but it involves advanced startup options. You could perhaps try installing MagicDisc this way.

It's the primary reason why I didn't want to install Windows 8.1 on my rig. I can deal with the start screen and all the crap thrown in, but I'm a bit sketchy with having to disable diver signature enforcement in W8.

[cpd2009]

It's the primary reason why I didn't want to install Windows 8.1 on my rig. I can deal with the start screen and all the crap thrown in, but I'm a bit sketchy with having to disable diver signature enforcement in W8.

I believe disabling driver signatures with this method only does so once. After you install the unsigned driver and reboot, it mentions that driver signing will be enforced again despite having an unsigned driver installed.

Disabling driver signing shouldn't cause problems if the driver you are attempting to install is truly legit and not malicious.

The various issues with Win8 was one reason why I rambled about retiring Audrey the other day. I don't have a copy of Win7, but of Vista Business 32bit. Problem is, security updates only go until 2017, about two years from now.

[RAMChYLD]

It's the primary reason why I didn't want to install Windows 8.1 on my rig. I can deal with the start screen and all the crap thrown in, but I'm a bit sketchy with having to disable diver signature enforcement in W8.

+1. Blocking installation outright is stupid. Windows 7 got it right by just warning you. Outright blocking is overkill.

And no, judging from the comments it's not just once. For some people, the driver stops working the moment they reboot, and thus starts getting an annoying popup every time they reboot the system.

And oh, I'm seeing a second problem with Win8.1: The Wi-Fi stack is crap. I just recently switched mobile Internet providers. Unfortunately my new 4G-LTE Mobile-WiFi pebble has a bad habit of rebooting at random (yes, I should go back to the store, and change models, but this one is the only one that supports 850MHz, which is used by a particular ISP in the country, as well as 1900MHz, meaning it's the only model which can roam in the US. To wit, most pebbles and modems sold here are 800/900/1800/2600 only. This one supports 800 (for roaming in Europe), 850 (Telecom Malaysia's TM Go! Mobile broadband), 900 (for roaming in Indonesia), 1800 (Maxis and Celcom's extra bandwidth frequency), 1900 (for roaming in the US), 2100 (for roaming in The Philippines and Thailand) and 2600 (most telcos in Malaysia except Telecom Malaysia). Whenever that happens, Win8.1 loses internet access, and when the internet comes back up, Win 8.1 does not reconnect, and I must reconnect manually. Sometimes the pebble doesn't even show up and I have to toggle airplane mode for it to show again. It's really frustrating.

And don't get me started on the Bluetooth stack- pairing is done in one screen that uses metro, but connecting to the tethering service is done using the classic Devices and Printers screen, which now needs about 3-4 clicks to reach. On windows 7 it was a one click affair from the Bluetooth icon on the taskbar. I have to put a shortcut to the control panel item on my desktop to speed things up to bring it up to par.

As for why I dumped YES, well, YES was blocking VPN, which is bad enough because I need to use that to connect to my work network when on business trips, but they crossed the line when they blocked Memopark Italy, a kiddie ride manufacturer's website, for no reason. Aside from that, I also have intermittent problems connecting to the forums from them- for stupid reasons, the forum's antispam keeps accusing me of being a spammer and won't let me log in.

[RAMChYLD]

"Science isn't about why, it's about why not" - Cave Johnson.

[cpd2009]

You know? Hearing about the various issues Win8.1 has makes me want to pursue my plan to make the Acer Veriton M410 useful, despite having stated that I wanted to stick with Audrey. One more thing that seems to be happening more... Audrey refusing to wake up from sleep. I prefer to put my PCs to sleep rather than shut them down, but Audrey never fully wakes up, requiring a full power cycle to restore her. She has had this issue since I bought her.

Hmm... maybe I will try the M410 for at least one month. If it doesn't work out, I could just re-assemble Audrey and use the recovery drive.

I hope it does work out as I'm currently limited to Vista Business 32bit, but at least Vista has a real taskbar and Start menu.

[RAMChYLD]

Well, my recommendations:
- Audrey and the M410 as the main systems. I reckon The M410's bottleneck is the DDR2 RAM. But is otherwise still respectable. If fitted with the 5450, would probably perform well enough for moderate gaming (Sally is still using a Athlon64 x2 5000 with 4GB of DDR2 RAM as well, and plays most games fine, even Team Fortress II, although she is endowed with a pair of GeForce GTS 250s, which does most of the heavy lifting, and has sound offset to a E-Mu-based X-Fi, which has an ARM7TDMI co-processor to offload sound processing). Audrey would probably continue to work well as a production machine, especially since modern video editors can use The GPU to accelerate compression. If fitted with a secondary video card, you can dedicate the PCIe card to GPGPU work and use the onboard for output, or run it in Enduro mode, although on a desktop the idea is kinda pointless.
- As for Lily, take the exotic route and completely nuke Mac OS X from her and run her fully with Linux Mint. I understand that Linus Torvalds runs Linux exclusively on a MacBook Pro, and that such a setup is quite usable. Or go dual booting, or keep her on Mac OS X- I also understand that Mac OS X also make good virtualization hosts according to several folks at VMWare, why I host the Ubuntu APT proxy server on Kiki along with a VM I intend to use for Linux From Scratch experiments.

[cpd2009]

Those are good suggestions, but I plan on fitting the M410 with parts from Audrey. The largest free HDD I have is a Western Digital 80gb SATA drive which I am formatting right now. 80GB is far too small for a media production PC, so I may as well use Audrey's 500gb disk.

I install my games on Greta since she has Nvidia Optimus and a GeForce 610m. I ran 3DMark a few days ago, and I got excellent scores with Ice Storm and moderate scores with Cloud Gate. And since Greta goes with me on trips, it's nice to have games on her drive in case I get bored with the retro games I bring along as well.

As for Lilly, I could go the Linux route, probably with Kubuntu since I prefer KDE over any other Linux desktop system. But, she wouldn't get much use I'm afraid. Most of my gaming is done with Greta, but even that is set aside since I'm on a retro game craze at the moment. Greta is also my main PC, with Timothy and Audrey/M410 being the secondary systems. That is as far as I can go without feeling that I have too many PCs. Unless if I can set up Lilly as a file server once I get an apartment and more electrical outlets.... hmm....

I would like to use Linux, but given my experience with buggy Optimus support, I'm not ready to replace Windows. And with my current 3 PC limit, I can't make a Linux box as I neither have the time nor interest to keep it updated and running. That may change in the future, but as of now, 3 PCs is as far as I am willing to go.

On a final note, it appears my copy of Premiere Pro 2.0 is so old, it doesn't support GPU encoding. I could grab a newer version, but I can't afford further upgrades at this moment. I might be able to squeeze in Vista or Win7 x64, but I have to wait and see.

[RAMChYLD]

Noted.

I'm quickly warming up to Andrew. The 280X may not be as powerful as the 290X, but it has proven itself worthy.I have also changed my view on it: instead of thinking of it as slightly more powerful than a 650Ti Boost, I think of it as Dongwa having a 4-way SLI. Sure, the onboard GPU adds more power to the system, but there's no way to rope it into working in games as well, especially since NVidia disables PhysX calculations on non-NVidia hardware. And well, ATi's plan to work with Havok to allow it's GPU to accelerate the Havok Physics engine fell through.

[cpd2009]

Here is my first mini review for the GameCom... focusing on Williams Arcade Classics, a game Ashens ripped to shreds in his reviews. Originally posted to my Facebook, but I updated it a bit...

This is a collection of five ports of Defender, Defender II, Joust, Sinistar, and Robotron 2084. While the game is playable, it has a few things preventing it from being truly good...

First off, the blurry LCD. It's not really an issue with Sinistar, Joust, or Robotron, but it makes playing the Defender games tough. When you move at full speed, you can hardly see the enemy projectiles and smaller aliens.

Secondly, speed. The Defender games have okay speed, but Joust is a bit slow but playable. Robotron and Sinistar.... well, Robotron plays decently enough the first few levels in. After level five, the amount of enemies starts slowing the game to a crawl and causes your control to lag a bit. Sinistar runs at a slow framerate and it ends up ruining the experience.

One last note about Robotron... it's far too easy. If you leave bonuses set at 10,000 points, you can really rack up the extra lives. The only way to get some difficulty out of it is to set bonuses at 20,000 and play on Hard, Robotron is meant to be hard... I can't even get past the fourth wave in the Genesis port, which is faithful to the arcade board. With the Game.com, I can last above Wave 30 and still have extra lives left.

Overall, this is just 'meh'. Playable, but nothing exciting. I can see why Ashens ripped this game as he appears to be an arcade game collector. Robotron is also far too easy in this particular port.