The Computer Thread

Partitioning should work the same regardless of version. That said, I don't usually partition drives.

Can't you just move the computer or install a cheapo PCI or USB wireless card?

Bit more information in this OP ED piece from the British online tech magazine, the Register, about Nokia's new Lumia Windows Phone 8 fondlephones.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/07/nokia_wp_analysis/

I have one. Problem is, I need the internet to install my drivers.

Couldn't you track down some drivers on another computer, put them on a flash drive (for some reason, I assume that I am not the only person who is swimming in flash drives) and install them from there? I got lucky and had a wireless unit that Mint came with drivers for.

I think I'll stick with Android. In large part, I just can't bear the thought of supporting Win8 for anything, though.

edited 8th Sep '12 1:25:11 PM by Balmung

I have the drivers, I just need Ndiswrapper to use them.

Also, the installation process recommends that you be connected to the internet during installation.

Hang on, any idea what kind of wireless card you have? You may not need NDISWrapper, since most companies either have drivers built-in to the kernel or available for later installation.

edited 8th Sep '12 6:47:44 PM by DemonSharkKisame

I have a "Belkin Dual-Band Wireless USB Adapter N750 DB".

And it doesn't work out-of-box with Linux? Hmm...

Nope.

Well, you could always go poking around through other distros or move the computer temporarily.

Finally upgrading to Windows 7, after hemming and hawing about it for the last two years. My buddy has the exact same hardware I have and says that it's totally the bomb on his machine, and he gave me a copy of 7, so I am without excuse now.

You chose the wrong time, Pvt.

What do you mean? He got Windows 7 before the upcoming shit sandwich kicks it off the shelves.

I'm saying that because who knows how long Microsoft is gonna keep supporting 7?

Microsoft's fact sheet on this. In brief, products are supported for the longer of 5 years from introduction or 2 years after replacement. Thus, Windows 7 is guaranteed to be supported for at least 2 years after the date when Windows 8 is released. Microsoft may, in fact, choose to support it for even longer.

7 will have general support through AT LEAST January 2015 and extended support until January 2020.

So I finished up the install just now, grabbed MSE and Chrome right off the bat, bakes a new cookie for here (priorities, man), and doing a disk cleanup at the moment.

Uses less RAM, which is a plus.

Considering that XP still has limited support, I'm not worried about 7 losing all support in the immediate future. (I have a dinosaur Dell Inspiron 4100 still kicking around, too.)

...oh.

I just lost all my installed games from Steam. Saved games, mods, everything. Even my old Minecraft singleplayer save from Beta 1.3 or something, from when my wife started playing. Her first world ever.

edited 10th Sep '12 7:29:48 PM by pvtnum11

I'd throw in my old XP x64 disk, but support for that was spotty when it was relatively new.

That's the kinda thing you gotta back up man.

edited 10th Sep '12 8:47:19 PM by Balmung

Doesn't Steam backup the saves for you? I tend to find my deleted saves "returning" after syncing.

I lost my relevant saves, but that might have been because of all the mods.

Eh, was time to start over anyway. At least I get to experience the joy of a new computer that I'm totally familiar with.

...not quite as cool as getting my hands on an actually-new computer, mind you.

Question: does anyone here have any experience with the Raspberry Pi? I'm thinking about buying a couple to play around with (I've always thought that embedded computing was way cool, but I have no experience whatsoever with it) and I was wondering if anybody here has tried it...

Do you guys have a moment? I just unpacked my PC after moving countries (Mauritius -> USA) and after booting it up, I got a clicking noise that happens at regular intervals and my BIOS setup gave me a CPU fan error at startup. I opened up the tower and it seems the fan is not moving; this has never happened before. What do?

Change the fan or clean the one you have already fitted. Make sure you earth yourself with one of those anti-static wristbands before monkeying around inside your case and that the power cable is nowhere near your case's power socket.

Fan is spinning again after cleaning. Thanks for the tip.