The Spam Thread!

[huckleberrypie]

Well... while talking to my mom over Skype just now, I learned the backlight in her LG 42'' HDTV has gone dead, though it has been showing signs of problems ever since it was mounted on an integrated bracket in a TV stand. Before mounting, the backlight was fine. After mounting, it appeared some of the backlight elements were pressing on the LCD panel as there were these weird circles that can be seen in certain solid colored scenes. Then said circles started flickering shortly before I moved away.

And today, it appears the entire backlight array has failed, leaving a black picture while sound can still be heard. Occasionally, the backlight will come on for a short time before failing again.

For what it's worth, the set has an LED backlight array and it was purchased in 2015. I don't think it was a defect in the LED array. I believe it was mounted too tightly to the VESA bracket in the TV stand since said LED issues started happening after mounting occurred. Either way, it will likely be cheaper to buy a new set than to repair the old one since it's out of warranty at this point.

As for my Sansui 40'' TV I purchased the same year? It still works great, and when I got a TV stand, I refused to get one with an integrated VESA mount. I may be overreacting, but I really don't trust VESA mounts anymore after the issues observed with my mom's LG.

Which reminds me... The LG plasma TV we had since 2011 ended up with a similar issue. Audio is still on and yet the plasma panel refused to budge. Dad hasn't had the time to have it repaired and such, but I thought it would be moot since plasma panels consume way more power than let's say an OLED screen. We'd probably be better off spending $$ on a new display than something that makes a dent on our electricity bill.

[cpd2009]

Well, because I'm bored and because Windows 10 seems sluggish on Greta, I will roll her back to Windows 8.1. Pearl will remain on Windows 10, as well as any future PC that I build.

Not sure why Win10 is so slow with Greta. I did upgrade her while she had hardly any extra programs installed from the previous Win8.1 install.

[huckleberrypie]

Well, because I'm bored and because Windows 10 seems sluggish on Greta, I will roll her back to Windows 8.1. Pearl will remain on Windows 10, as well as any future PC that I build.

Not sure why Win10 is so slow with Greta. I did upgrade her while she had hardly any extra programs installed from the previous Win8.1 install.

What was her specs again?

[cpd2009]

Well, because I'm bored and because Windows 10 seems sluggish on Greta, I will roll her back to Windows 8.1. Pearl will remain on Windows 10, as well as any future PC that I build.

Not sure why Win10 is so slow with Greta. I did upgrade her while she had hardly any extra programs installed from the previous Win8.1 install.

What was her specs again?

Intel Pentium B960 CPU, Intel HD Graphics/Nvidia Geforce 710m via Optimus, 8gb RAM and 320GB hard drive.

The main issue with Win10 was startup. It takes ages for Win10 to finish starting up and there was constant hard disk activity for quite a while after a cold boot. Enabling Fast Startup didn't seem to help much. Also had some odd driver issues too like with the Elan Touchpad. It works, but the scroll pad on the right never worked on Win10. I normally use a wireless USB mouse, but there are times I have forgotten my mouse and was forced to use the touchpad. Not being able to scroll with the touchpad made web browsing bit cumbersome.

I just finished installing Win8.1, and her startup routine seems much faster now. Feels less bloated as well.

I also have the urge to at least make use of my unused copy of Win8.1 rather than have it sit in the closet. I can't resell it, and since Greta is only used for mainly road trips and the kitchen table PC, I don't really need Win10 on her.

[huckleberrypie]

Well, if Windows 8.1 serves her well, I'd say it shouldn't hurt to say the least. As for Windows 7, from what I can tell that OS is fast becoming the next XP. A lot of people still hold on to it either due to antiquated hardware or spying concerns.

[cpd2009]

Well, if Windows 8.1 serves her well, I'd say it shouldn't hurt to say the least. As for Windows 7, from what I can tell that OS is fast becoming the next XP. A lot of people still hold on to it either due to antiquated hardware or spying concerns.

Win8.1 isn't too far off from 7 in terms of keeping Greta at top speed, but I agree. Win7 only has about two years of life left before it get's support cut off. I can get nostalgic for Win7 myself due to my love for the old Aero Glass interface, but I don't see myself ever using it again due to said end of support.

Also, I lost one of Greta's original recovery discs anyway. But hey, at least a clean Win8.1 install doesn't contain the original bloatware.

[huckleberrypie]

Well, if Windows 8.1 serves her well, I'd say it shouldn't hurt to say the least. As for Windows 7, from what I can tell that OS is fast becoming the next XP. A lot of people still hold on to it either due to antiquated hardware or spying concerns.

Win8.1 isn't too far off from 7 in terms of keeping Greta at top speed, but I agree. Win7 only has about two years of life left before it get's support cut off. I can get nostalgic for Win7 myself due to my love for the old Aero Glass interface, but I don't see myself ever using it again due to said end of support.

Also, I lost one of Greta's original recovery discs anyway. But hey, at least a clean Win8.1 install doesn't contain the original bloatware.

'Sides, who cares about the bloatware anyway? Reminds me when my uncle Roman unwittingly wiped *all* of his laptop's partitions, recovery and all, and I was forced to clean-install Windows 10 in it. At least it did honour the existing licence embedded in the BIOS, so no KMS was needed whatsoever.

In other news, 'tis a shame the Hewlett-Packard printer my aunt and I bought can't do borderless, especially as some documents (e.g. certain PDF forms and stuff) call for borderless print. The huge border at the bottom sticks out like a sore thumb, and some felt it's a rather greedy cash-grab on HP's end to force users to fork over $$$ for a better model. I'll see if I could work around this though.

[cpd2009]

Probably the only real bloatware I cared for was the WildTangent Games app for some exclusive casual games (namely the ones WildTangent made themselves) that are only available through said app. You can also download it separately from their website. I don't think WildTangent distributes PUPs anymore. I remember when their old WebDriver plugin was piggybacked on free apps back in the day, some of them being music sharing programs.

It's also rather funny to install an OEM recovery image several years after it's release because you are bound to run into bloatware that can't do anything anymore as some of the services they required have shut down. I have a very old Acer laptop with Windows Vista Basic and the old Acer games app no longer works.

For more fun, I have decided to run PCMark basic on both Greta and Pearl and will post their scores here. Though Greta still runs most apps and websites without problems or slowdown, I'm still curious as to how much a difference in performance she has compared to Pearl. Being a laptop, I know that Greta's score will be far lower than Pearls, but perhaps PCMark can compare it to current low-end laptop models.

[cpd2009]

I finally got both Pearl and Greta's benchmark scores here, but I had to use Novabench. PCMark 10 only worked properly with Pearl. Greta started running PCMark 10, but the tests failed shortly after starting, and the program also stated she had incompatible hardware. Her GPU is a GeForce 610m (not a 710m as I mistakenly noted earlier) and I did try to run it with the Nvidia GPU. PCMark 10 didn't use the 610m and likely ran on the Intel HD Graphics.

First is Pearl:



Last is Greta:

[huckleberrypie]

Pearl definitely smoked Greta by a notch or two, eh?