Proposal: Do you want a Tech Forum?

[Sabbath]

Couple more nominations to throw in among the other great choices listed earlier:
Gildar and Dermott

 

[Nok]

Gildar and Dermott

*ding-ding-ding* Ditto.

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

Usually, one of the disclaimers I put on when I give some rather technical advice (like editing the registry) is that if you are not comfortable doing so, find a friend or relative who is to help you follow these steps.

Another thing about tech advice is that you may get 3 different 'opinions' from various techs.... and they can all be right. Part of tech support is pretty cut and dry, most of it comes from personal experience.

But one piece of advice I can offer to everyone is back up your stuff. I just had a friend last month who I thought was pretty tech savy and knew what he was doing..... lost EVERYTHING. And didn't have a single backup.

Needless to say, his wife is less that pleased at the thought of losing their pictures (all digital, no backup). She was even more upset (and that's putting it LIGHTLY) when he said it was possible to attempt to get them back, but was going to have to spend $400 getting it done.

Umm.. what is " editing the registry?
.. how do you back up everything on your computer?
.. Yikes. I don't want to lose all my pictures, art work and if I do, can I get it all back again?

YES .. a technical support forum would help for people like myself - - even if only we ask about our immediate problems. A month ago I couldn't fix my screen ... I had hit the wrong keys and lost the tool bar. I asked everywhere. No solutions. Finally someone in the game told me to hit "Alt+Enter " again to replace the tool bar. hahaha It worked. I must have hit Alt+Enter to make the tool bar disappear.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

Umm.. what is " editing the registry?
.. how do you back up everything on your computer?

1 - Your registry is essentially a big file that Windows keeps as to where, when, and how, your programs were installed. It offers a ton of information to the programs and applications your run on your PC. It is sort of the "central nervous system" of your operating system. If you do not know what it is, or what it does, your best course of action is to leave it alone. Editing your registry can render your PC inoperable...it can also open a new world of ultra fast computing the likes of which you have never known. Upside vs. Downside.

2 - There are numerous ways to back "everything" up on your PC...but the definition of "everything" is sketchy. What some people call "everything" is the stored files (pics, music, videos, porn, docs, etc.) that you have stored on your PC. But if you are a gamer, your saved game files would NOT be covered under that. There is something out there called a drive SnapShot (or drive image) that you can use to backup everything on a specific drive on your PC...but I really do not recommend this method. When you take a snapshot of your drive, you do it with whatever was WRONG about your configuration in the first place!

A clean install of the OS is often preferable to drive image.

But we are venturing into the area of opinions.

 

[Heartseeker]

Im not opposed to the forum it just seems a bit overkill as there are so many unused forums as-is. I am however extremely opposed to Enigma Mcmumbles being a mod. I can see even the most simple question being turned into a bleeding eye black hole of the internet.

Newguy: Whats a good video card for UO

Enigma Mcmumbles: The video card you CHOOSE may be chosen solely from the falsehood of your OPINIONS.....Whil your opinion may be that this card displays well the facts may be LOST to you because you are not open to the truth and only want to prove your own preconceived NOTIONS. If I say that a card is GOOD. WHAT is GOOD? Are you GOOD? Or has the habit of letting opinion cloud your judgement and blind you from the truth made you BAD?

LOL, to funny.

I vote yes, sems like a great idea.

 

[NuSair]

Umm.. what is " editing the registry?
.. how do you back up everything on your computer?
.. Yikes. I don't want to lose all my pictures, art work and if I do, can I get it all back again?

YES .. a technical support forum would help for people like myself - - even if only we ask about our immediate problems. A month ago I couldn't fix my screen ... I had hit the wrong keys and lost the tool bar. I asked everywhere. No solutions. Finally someone in the game told me to hit "Alt+Enter " again to replace the tool bar. hahaha It worked. I must have hit Alt+Enter to make the tool bar disappear.

Agree with everything Morgana said, including the part about options. That's getting into options and opinions. For me, what I do is backup what I consider datafiles. Well, actually, I have several backups.

First of all, I start with a fresh install of the OS. Install what my core programs are, then make an image of that.

Then I will make backups of my data files (this includes pictures, movies, word docs, game files, ect). I do weekly incrimental backups (unless there is a huge change, then I do it immediately) and a monthly full backup.

I guess I am a little obsessive about it, as I take copies of my monthly backups and keep them in my bank safey storage box.

And F11 does the same thing (tool bar- it's called full screen mode), for future reference.

 

[Connor_Graham]

What strange timing... my audio stopped working on my computer, PM me if you know something about fixing audio. (this has nothing to do with UO specifically)


*****FIXED*****

What was the fix? I've had my audio go out a couple of times then come back myself, and have no clue why it went out or came back on either time.

 

[Black Sun]

What was the fix? I've had my audio go out a couple of times then come back myself, and have no clue why it went out or came back on either time.

He turned on his speakers.

 

[Connor_Graham]

He turned on his speakers.

Lol, well, that sure doesn't help me much. My speakers were turned on both times. First rule of thumb whenever something doesn't work is to check and make sure it's plugged in, although I think many would be surprised at how many people don't check this at all, much less as the first thing.

 

[Stupid Miner]

What was the fix? I've had my audio go out a couple of times then come back myself, and have no clue why it went out or came back on either time.

Oh well it wasn't a normal audio problem, i had just reformatted my computer and installed it from the boot disk, apparently the audio driver didnt get installed so i went to the computer manufacturer's website to download a new driver. The reason I didn't notice this was the problem earlier was because "Sound, Video, and game controllers" drivers are all packed into the same section, and since I didn't know what was what, I just checked all of them, and it said the drivers were fine. Checked the wrong drivers .

Though, "had the volume turned down" would have been more amusing

Oh and Harlequin helped me out, so thanks to him.

 

[Setnaffa]

I'd be willing to moderate the Tech Forum. I'm currently moderating the Warrior and Napa Valley Forum, but the Napa Valley forum currently has 3 moderators and we inadvertently step on each other sometimes in our desire to clean up the forum. Two might be enough there if you want to move me over to the Tech Forum..

28 years in the Tech industry. College degrees, Fortune 500 companies, custom built and preconfigured systems, yada, yada, yada.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Poll closed

Board opened.

One moderator currently, one more pending.

 

[Skylark SP]

Say what you will about Cyrix, AMD, Centaur, IBM, or anyone else making non-Intel X86 chips, but in the end it was the consumers who were the winners. Before Intel had this kind of competition, their CPUs were very expensive. I recall buying an AMD 486DX-40 for about $170, when the Intel 486DX/2-66, which wasn't actually that much faster due to the slower 33mhz bus, sold for about $500. All of this competition has forced Intel, and everyone else, to keep costs down, and performance up. I for one am thrilled that these smaller chip manufacturers were around, then, and now.

That is what prompted me to go with AMD486DX - major sticker shock when it came time to upgrade my Intel 386SX. I was apprehensive as a consumer but it performed very well. So funny that before the 486 was released, we had to make the decision "do I really need a math co-processor?"

And I am glad you volunteered, Rykus...I originally started to post after this poll was started to suggest you as a mod and then thought, naw that is putting him on the spot, so I canceled my post. However, the invisible mental nomination rays apparently worked.

-Skylark

 

[Beer_Cayse]

The first build I did was a Cyrix 486 - for the pricing vs Intel. Even now with AMD and Intel only as players, check CPU prices between them and you'll see why I have done AMD for years. That and mild o/c (overclocking for those needing to know) is better/easier on AMD.

I see the new forum is up and will be there shortly ... just before I tear down this pig and start putting together the new "beast". Woohoo! Parts came a day early!