Computer Woes! How Slow Can You Go?

Charlie’s Janice called me at 9am. I was cleaning up the kitchen after a big breakfast. Tracy hadn't been gone to work for just an hour.

“My computer is running as slow as ever,” she told me woefully over the phone. “It is aggravating to say the least.”

“I’ll be right over,” I told Janice.

She’s running Windows 8.1 with only 4 GB of ram and a cheap Intel Celeron processor. That is her problem. Well, I gathered up a plethora and mötley crüe of sticks of spare RAM and set about hoping one or two would work and fit.

“Surely, she’s still not running DDR2,” I said to myself with a hope and a prayer as I headed to my car.

Janice nervously watched as I took apart her computer on their living room floor.  

Two sticks of Corsair XMS DDR3 8 GB RAM worked much to my surprise! I was elated. That gave Janice 16 GB of RAM. I must've carried twelve sticks with me. It was like a whole different computer. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this first! I was thinking that Dell would have some proprietary RAM and nothing I had would work.

I didn’t leave without getting a big bag of regular and diet Coke which is Charlie’s payment for when I work on their electronic gadgetry. I was happy to get them.

Janice called me back after I had gotten home.

“I don’t know what you did, but you supercharged my computer,” she said with a relieved sounding laugh. “Bless you, Andrew!”

And the Laptop Ascended into the Light of Heaven and God Said in a Loud and Booming Voice, “This is good!”

Well, I copied over Tracy’s old drive to her new solid state drive. It took about an hour. I was just putting the finishing touches on Tracy’s laptop when she came home from work for lunch. I screwed back on the cover protecting the sodimms and turned the laptop back over.

“Here,” I said handing the laptop to Tracy. “Turn it on.”

I about couldn't suppress my elation any longer. Even a jaded computer guy like me was astounded at the difference.

“You didn’t lose any of my data, did you?” she asked worriedly.

“Just turn it on,” I replied insistently.

Tracy sat down on the couch and turned her laptop on. Normally, it would take her laptop several minutes to boot up. Now, it only takes a handful of seconds.

“Oh my god,” Tracy exclaimed. “That is incredible.”

“And to answer your question, no, none of your data was lost,” I replied.

Tracy gave me a big and long hug and dished out many kudos and attaboys.

A Sunday Good Morning and a Little Laptop Surgery…

I could’ve slept in this morning, but I was up at 8am. I feel like a million bucks. Going to bed early and waking early has made the biggest difference in my life lately. I feel so well and rested.

I never know when Charlie will be here with our Sunday breakfast. It is going on 9am now and he still hasn’t arrived. The earliest he usually arrives is around 8:20am. Tracy is lingering in the bed a little longer than I. (Time warp: Charlie arrived at 9:45am this Sunday)

Let’s Open it Up and Take a Look…

Tracy was complaining last night how slow her laptop has gotten. I don’t know how she stands it. It is slow as molasses, yet she still insists on using it. I ordered a kit from Newegg this morning to convert her laptop from a conventional hard drive to a 500 GB Samsung solid state drive (SSD). That will incredibly supercharge her laptop. The processor is only as fast as it can access data. It will be like a completely different computer. I also ordered enough Crucial sodimms (laptop RAM) to upgrade her memory from 8 GB to 16 GB. RAM is so cheap right now. Why not? That should help as well with no accessing the page file. I love this kind of stuff so it was right up my alley. I get all warm and fuzzy thinking about it.

My Next Goal and Computer Part Acquisition…

I want to get this and install it in Tracy’s den computer. That way she can play Roller Coaster Tycoon and the Sims 4 with smooth framerates. Oh hell, I just need another excuse to buy yet another video card for our computers.

And the Last of the Gifts Arrive…

My last gift of eight packages arrived today in the mail. It was a bittersweet moment. The anticipation and excitement has been almost palpable. It was a Sega Genesis USB game controller for my computer. I proudly showed it to my father and told him how I was going to use it. He had never heard of videogame emulation and I explained it to him.

“You got your money’s worth this year,” my father then told me chuckling as I sat next to him in the den this morning.

I thanked him profusely for letting me do that – letting me save up all those months of computer parts money and spend it all at one time. I wanted a whizzbang birthday and I got it.

Now my task is to review all these various products on Newegg and review the individual sellers as well. It will take me a few days as I ruminate over what to write. I also need to use the computer parts a few days to get a feel for them and their performance.

The Pod People Are Here…

I call the grandkids the “pod people” because they are always walking around like zombies or sitting with their faces buried in iPhones, iPads, and other internet enabled devices.  Well, Papa invited Tracy and I over for breakfast this morning. We had fried sausage patties and scrambled eggs. Oh, I am forgetting the Mary B’s biscuits.

“Thank god for wireless internet,” my father told me. “It keeps the kids preoccupied and entertained.”

“I should have brought my tablet and I would fit in just fine,” I quipped to my father playfully.

I explained to my father why I call them the pod people and he laughed and laughed. Dad then asked me if I am enjoying my birthday computer parts.

“I stayed up until past midnight last night installing my new soundcard and speakers,” I told him. “I was just so ecstatic. My computer has never sounded better.” 

Four parts have arrived and I still have four more computer parts on the way. They should arrive Monday. I am anxiously awaiting my pocket weather radio much to Tracy’s chagrin.

March's Computer Parts...

Just Checking In…

I don’t feel much like writing tonight. I don’t feel ill, but I am at a loss of words I think. This will probably turn out to be a long post as I get diarrhea of the keyboard when I get started. I always start out thinking I am not going to be able to write something and it turns into something big and wordy.

I was overjoyed that a new AM radio station opened in the Valley this week. I tuned in expecting Coast to Coast AM and other cool shows like that. It was Christian conservative radio. I was so disappointed you just don’t know. They have nothing to offer me entertainment wise except frustration. 

Tracy made a B on her listening test and I was so proud of her and so was she. She called me on the way home from class last night ecstatic.

I wanted to talk computer parts tonight as I have a cool order going in tomorrow (first of the month). I just sent Matt, at the pharmacy, an email with what I want. I won’t bore you with all of that, though. It is just some $200 THX-certified speakers for my gaming rig. I am moving the Infinity surround system back into the den so Tracy and I can watch TV and Blu-rays with surround sound. It was her request.

We had breakfast for supper tonight which was always a special treat when I was growing up. I just scrambled some eggs and fried some Clark Brother’s sausage. It was delicious. I also made a pot of buttery and creamy grits. I have cooking grits down to a fine science. It was rounded off by a pan of Mary B’s biscuits which are equally delicious.

I prank called my father tonight. I can mimic Trump’s voice to a T and I called my father in my best Trump voice warning him of Lopez Landscaping and undocumented workers. He burst out laughing when he realized it was me. “I’m not a crook!” I ended the call with. Dad wants me to call my brother and prank him next.

What’s a Prick or Two Between Friends?

“Andrew, you can come on back,” Rebecca said this morning as I sat anxiously in the lobby.

No sweeter words have ever graced these ears today. They are all so kind to me down at Kamath Medical. I was not very spritely this morning having woken up way before my usual time.

“You’ve still got a lot of congestion,” Rebecca said worriedly.

“And a nasty, hacking cough,” I added.

We talked for a long time about sleeping habits. Rebecca said she still hasn’t shaken the sleeping habits she has had since her children were babies.

“It seems I wake up every hour on the hour,” she told me. “I look at the clock and fall back asleep.”

“My usual habit is to watch Amanpour & Co. on public broadcasting at eleven and then put on classical music around midnight and I fall asleep around one after dozing off and on in my recliner for an hour,” I told her.

She gave me my injection and I was soon on my way back to the pharmacy. I felt exhausted just listening to Rebecca describe how she sleeps.

A Bountiful Monday…

My new video card arrived all the way from New Jersey yesterday. My UPS scenario played out just as foreseen. I plugged it in it’s slot last night, the PCIe x16 slot, and my main computer fired to life after connecting the two 8-pin power cables to the card. There is not a flicker to be found so that means the other card was indeed defective. Tracy also got that job at the small animal clinic. She reports to work for her first day next Wednesday. She was just giddy with glee over the phone last night.

He Shoots! He Scores!

Dad was to leave out some medications for me this morning for a cold I feel coming on. I drove over to his house and they were in between the screen door and his back door. I called him when I got home to thank him. He is at work today. It is a major feat for him to remember to put them out.

“When are you going to order your parts for January?” he asked me after all the pleasantries and thank yous. “We are halfway through the month.”

“I thought January and February are paying for Tracy’s Christmas watch,” I replied.

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” he replied. “I paid for Tracy’s watch. Email Matt what you want to get and I will see you in the morning at our usual time to take Maggie to the Vet.”

We got off the phone and I did a little air guitar and hollered a hearty YES! It startled Maggie. Sometimes my father’s generosity can catch me off guard and surprise me. I emailed Matt a full tower computer case I have been wanting for ages at $89.99. It comes Tom’s Hardware recommended just like my video card which got glowing reviews. It is the Rosewill Nighthawk 117 (link opens in a new window).

Throwing Down My Gauntlets…

I keep every box my computer parts ever came in. Luckily, I still had the box to my Christmas video card. I drove down to the pharmacy this morning and Matt printed me out an invoice of that sale. It was in my good fortune that the card had a 3 year parts and labor warranty.

Next was corresponding with Newegg to get this video card sent back. I just can’t live without FreeSync functionality (it makes my games smooth as butter) and we paid $500 for this video card. It should work as advertised. The RMA was set up and I went about getting my card in packaging to mail back to Newegg. The process was much easier than I initially thought with much relief on my part. So, hopefully my next card won’t have the issues this one did. I am also going to be without my main computer for at least a week, though. I will mail my package off Monday with insurance applied and hope for the best. 

Tales of Computer Woes…

First, my new Christmas video card has started to flicker while I am browsing the web or playing music. Flick, flick, flicker. It doesn’t do it when I am in a game, thankfully, but it is aggravating to say the least. It just does it in a 2D setting. I’ve tried everything including reseating the card, changing display port cables, and trying it in my den computer. I get the same results. The only thing I haven’t tried is a HDMI connection, but I would lose FreeSync functionality. I guess I am going to have to get a return merchandise authorization from Newegg which will be no easy task as the card was ordered under my father’s account. I will just have to get the invoice and explain to Newegg it was a Christmas gift. Oh, I hate to go through all of that including shipping the card back. Whine. Whine. Whine.

Secondly, the kitchen computer is on a wireless internet connection. I normally get about 400 Mbps down and 50 Mbps up. This morning, it would only hover around 70 Mbps down with lots and lots of jitter. I’ve tried everything to fix it including different and older drivers, moving around the antenna, etc. I get the same results. I guess I will have to order another wireless adapter card to fix it – one in which I will get even much faster speeds hopefully (think AC1900 speeds).

This is all on top of two Logitech 2.1 speaker sets failing. I am having a serious bit of bad luck here at Andrew’s Casa computer wise after smooth sailing for years. I guess if these are my only problems then I am lucky. All of this can be rectified and the den computer is working like a champ so I have a surefire way to blog, knock on wood.

The Never Ending Day…

Have you ever had one of those days that you thought would never end? I had one today. It seems like I have been up for days. 11:30pm is about to arrive so my day is winding down. I got up too early for starters. I am listening to light classical music on music choice while Maggie grooms herself on the couch before going to bed. It is chilly in here, but I don’t want to turn up the heat before going to bed, So here I sit with a heavy jacket on in front of the den computer.

Charlie showed up with breakfast at ten this morning. McDonald’s completely screwed up our order. Maggie and I got egg McMuffins and I got a gigantic sweet tea to drink. I dearly missed my usual diet Coke. Beggars can’t be choosers, though.

I’ve had two sets of Logitech Z523 speakers to fail. I had another set fail this morning and I was so deflated and disappointed computer parts wise. I am having to use my monitor’s built in speakers on those two computers. Lackluster sound at best with no bass whatsoever. I don’t think I will be buying any Logitech speakers from now on. They make great mice and keyboards, but their speakers suck. I might try a set of Cyber Acoustic’s speakers next.

I just wanted a simple chicken sandwich tonight without Charlie making a special trip to McDonald’s to get it.

“Now, I don’t mind making an extra trip,” Charlie told me over the phone calling to see what I wanted.

“Just get me the KFC crunchy chicken sandwich $5 fillup meal,” I told him which was a mouthful of words.

I also got a chocolate chip cookie and some of those well done potato wedges KFC sells. They weren’t half bad. 

I waited until 7:30pm before telling Maggie Charlie and Papa were coming. She only had to hold vigil for an hour in the window. Here they came pulling up near my house about 8:30pm. Charlie parked way down almost in front of my neighbor’s house. I walked out to greet them while Maggie barked behind the screen door.

“Hell, why did you park way down here?” dad asked Charlie.

“Cause I can’t drive worth a shit, John!” Charlie exclaimed.

I couldn’t help but chuckle and welcomed them inside.

My Review of My New Vega Card Published On Newegg…

A Vegan Christmas...

Pros: The install went flawlessly. I uninstalled my old drivers for my Radeon RX 480 card, closed out of windows, and then it was time to open my case. Out came the RX 480 and in went my new GIGABYTE RX Vega 64. I closed the case and booted into windows. It was then time to install the new Adrenalin 2019 drivers. This, too, went without a hitch.
Now, it was time to play some games. I had some concern as the wattage this card would draw as I only had a Corsair HX750 750 watt power supply. I loaded up a heavily modded version of Skyrim: Special Edition. The wattage draw was around 200 watts to 250 watts. The temperature of the card hovered around 75° degrees. Kind of on the warm side. Skyrim looked beautiful, though, at 4K on my Asus MG28UQ 4K monitor. My frame rates varied between 30 and 40 fps. Freesync was enabled and kept things smooth as butter.
I give this card a thumbs up for giving me playable framerates at 4K resolutions. The install was easy as pie as well. It is also hundreds of dollars less than a GTX 1080 and competes with this card frame rate wise at most resolutions. You get a lot of bang for your buck at $499.

Cons: My only issue with this card is heat. At 75° degrees normal operating temperature, you can fry an egg on the back plate. If you touch it, you can burn your fingers. I do not know if this is normal or not.

Other Thoughts: There is something magical about being a gamer and getting a new piece of hardware like this. It was truly a Merry Christmas and I will be steadily gaming till New Years and onwards.

4K Ultra High Definition Gaming Brilliance…

Well, I got to open my main present last night. I was excited and giddy with glee. I’d been waiting for this moment since September. Dad was asking me what it was and what it does. In layman terms, I said it is a separate CPU or processor that computes and processes the graphics in my computer. I needed an especially powerful card to game in ultra high definition thus the extreme cost.

I uninstalled the old drivers for my trusty old Radeon RX480 video card and then installed the Radeon Vega 64 card and my computer wouldn’t boot. The BIOS reported that an operating system wasn’t found. I panicked at first, but I expected there to be some troubleshooting. I then went into the BIOS and did a boot override on my Windows 10 partition and then everything booted up fine after that. I installed the new adrenalin drivers and we were up and running. My main concern and worry was that my power supply wouldn’t have enough current to support this card, but things are working okay. This card draws over 400 watts of power under load and I only have a 750 watt Corsair power supply. It also puts out a LOT of heat as well. I’ve got all my computer case fans running full tilt, but they aren’t too obtrusive sound wise.

It was time to test some games and I was just overjoyed at the results. I could play all my games in ultra high definition on an ultra high definition monitor with decent frame rates. Skyrim: Special Edition looked amazing and especially beautiful. It is like a whole new level of immersion.

The Critique of Christmas…

Horsefly has been really sick lately. He kept coughing sitting next to me and I would cover my mouth last night on our quest for pretty Christmas lights. I didn’t won’t the crud he had been fighting all week. He was fixated on a Disney Little Princess bowling set he carried with him.

Charlie was in fine form last night as well. We were really critiquing every one’s Christmas decorations. I love to hear my father and Charlie interact. They are just like close knit brothers. 

As Slow As Molasses…

Well, my father and Sir Matt finally got my Christmas ordered today. It was the last day for free shipping and they just squeaked by. I sighed a big sigh of relief. Why we can’t just order it on my father’s computer I do not know. It confounds and aggravates me the rigmarole it takes to get computer parts ordered around here. Dad also ordered a watch for himself from Amazon and got Sir Matt to handle that as well so it is not just me. He actually had the acumen to email Matt the watch he wanted which surprised me. Welcome to 2018 father!

I watched a little of Dr. Phil at Old Fuss and Feather’s house this morning. Just your usual and typical dysfunctional family type stuff – families torn apart by an abhorrent family member or broken families, divorces, etc. Dad cooked breakfast for him and I as well. We had fried eggs and bacon and some frozen biscuits warmed and toasted in the oven. I didn’t stay too long. It was getting close to time for me to take my medications and I didn’t bring them with me

“For god’s sake go take your medications,” my father told me with a laugh when I told him I had to go and the reason why. .

I came home and took off my glasses and my ballcap and was just going to lay down for an hour and rest. It was about 1 pm. I fell asleep and awoke tonight at 6:30 pm and the house was pitch black dark – very disorienting and disconcerting. I guess I needed the rest. It was amazing my phones didn’t ring in all that time nor did Maggie bark. It left me with little to write about today.

We should’ve went and got my Christmas tree, but dad and I both put it off until after the weekend. We're both supreme procrastinators. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow type of stuff.

I Am So Excited! I Can’t Wait for Christmas!

GIGABYTE Radeon RX Vega 64

I am actually going to own a top of the line Vega video card!

8GB 2048-Bit High Bandwidth Memory 2

Core Clock 1276 MHz

Boost Clock 1560 MHz

3 x HDMI 2.0b 3 x DisplayPort 1.4

4096 Stream Processors

PCI Express 3.0 x16

Just Your Usual Sunday…

I got up at the ungodly hour of 8 am this morning for no apparent reason other than to wait on Charlie I guess. Within a hour he was here with Maggie’s and my breakfasts.

“I just love your Christmas lights!” Charlie exclaimed.

“Dad said they looked tacky,” I told Charlie with a chuckle.

“Don’t you pay no attention to Mr. Perfect!” Charlie replied smiling.

Charlie thought they were tacky, too. I just know it. He was just being nice.

Charlie was soon gone leaving us heathens to fend for ourselves. Maggie ate her sausage and went and buried her biscuit halves in the backyard as usual. Her nose was all muddy when she came back inside after both trips. I called dad and asked if I could come over after breakfast. He welcomed me over the phone. He was eating his sausage biscuit and drinking his senior coffee when I arrived. We got to talking about how I used to lead the local Methodist church choir when our music director went out of town.

“That’s amazing you could do that back then with all your social phobias,” dad said.

“I used could kill Mrs. Adcock for doing that to me!” I replied with a laugh. “I’d be a nervous wreck. Rachel (ex-wife) got me in all that mess.”

“We need to order your Newegg Christmas tomorrow,” dad then said. “What are you getting?”

“A Gigabyte Radeon Vega 64 video card, some blue lighted fans for my computer case, and a big pack of recordable DVDs,” I replied. “Oh, and a 4K ultra high definition compatible HDMI cable.”

Old Fuss and Feathers had no clue what I was talking about and told me so.

“Be sure to email Matt (pharmacy computer guru) when you get home,” he told me. “We’ll try to get it ordered tomorrow. Call me at the pharmacy and remind me.”

He better bet I will. This will be the first time I will own and install a tier one and also a company flagship video card. I just pray it will work in my computer. They recommend at least a 750 watt power supply and that’s exactly what I’ve got in my main gaming rig. I am going to be just squeaking by on that requirement.

$100 Dollars a Month Computer Parts Roadmap…

Click to enlarge…

The Review of My Monitor I Posted On Newegg…

Pros:

I wanted a high-resolution monitor and boy, did I get it. It also doesn't hurt it has a 1 ms response time so no ghosting or tearing. I am still astounded they could pack in so many features in the monitor for such a low price.

I have a lowly Radeon RX480 8GB video card and I am still able to play Fallout 3 and Skyrim: Special Edition at 2K resolutions. I attribute this to adaptive-sync as the games are smooth as butter. I can't wait to get my Radeon RX Vega 64 for Christmas and try some true 4K gaming. I've read some reviews and it goes head to head with the Geforce GTX 1080 Ti for hundreds of dollars less.

Desktop wise the text is really small and I have to squint when I am blogging and reading blogs. I realize I could easily change this via the scaling, but I am stubborn and want the intended high-resolution.

Cons:

I can't for the life of me to get the gameplus frame rate (FPS) counter to work so that is why I gave it four eggs. I've tried different display port cables and different sockets on my video card. I guess I will have to get Fraps.

Other Thoughts:

Best money I've spent gaming wise this year!