(02-22-2017, 03:45 PM)huckleberrypie Wrote: Whew, finally got the Epic my friend donated to work properly rather than as a mere demo unit.
That's good to hear.
In other news, my nice JVC mini-stereo I bought last year has a failing cooling fan. When the fan turns on, it barely spins for a bit before spinning proper, with a very loud whirring noise. The noise eventually goes away, but it's seemingly getting worse over time. I normally don't repair my own electronics, but I cracked the unit open. The fan is a fairly standard 12v brushless DC fan, similar to a very small PC fan. I would have ordered a new one, but it's soldered directly to a PCB on the top half of the shell. It uses no molex connector! That makes replacement impossible if you don't know how to solder wires.
Thus, I decided to buy one of those mini-amps for the retro gaming TV. Tinny TV speakers no longer do for my game sound. The majority of soundbars and speaker sets won't work since they don't use magnetic shielding, and end up distorting the CRT picture. I saved the JVC speakers, which are 8ohm, and made sure they are compatible with the mini-amp I ordered. As for music, I plan on using Pearl for that. I play most of my music with my computer now, making a dedicated stereo system redundant. However, I still need a radio, and that is where I'm having trouble at the moment. I don't want a boombox. I would like something high-end like a Tivoli model one, but those cost a pretty penny. There are smaller radios around, but most use batteries and are designed to be portable. The radio would have to be something like the aforementioned Tivoli. I'm currently looking on eBay and Amazon for one, but it may be a while before I can get one to my liking.
Speaking of Pearl, I'm on the fence whether or not I should downgrade to Windows 8.1. I have talked about this before and understand the benefits of using an updated OS. I still don't like the idea of forced driver updates and how MS really pushes you into using the built in default apps and Cortana, which I hardly use as is. Win8.1. support lasts until 2023, a full six years. By then, I will likely have upgraded Pearl to new components by then which would require a jump to a newer Windows release.
At least with Windows 8.1, you still had full control over all system updates and it never begged you to use built in apps like Groove Music or Photos. It doesn't have Microsoft Edge, but Firefox is ten times better. It may also yield a slight performance gain since older OSes don't use as much resources as newer versions... at least that was the case with earlier Windows versions.
I love foxes, especially the one in my avatar.