The Spam Thread!

[cpd2009]

I may end up getting a PCI graphics card for Daffodil as well, possibly an ATI Radeon 9250 or something similar. 3DMark 99 wouldn't run at all. 3DMark 2000 did run with compatibility settings, and Daffodil earned 2133 3DMarks but that may not be accurate. The tests ran with the screen flipped sideways and the 3D tests didn't run correctly. The framerate kept stuttering, sort of like starting and stopping constantly. The cherry on top was the Intel driver crashing after tests were done, giving me a lovely 4-bit 640x480 desktop. I guess that means No One Lives Forever may not even run correctly on the Intel GMA.

As for the Dell Inspiron 5675, it's been running Heaven benchmark for the past three hours. No hiccups or crashes observed, and the GPU temp hasn't gone above 75C.

[huckleberrypie]

I may end up getting a PCI graphics card for Daffodil as well, possibly an ATI Radeon 9250 or something similar. 3DMark 99 wouldn't run at all. 3DMark 2000 did run with compatibility settings, and Daffodil earned 2133 3DMarks but that may not be accurate. The tests ran with the screen flipped sideways and the 3D tests didn't run correctly. The framerate kept stuttering, sort of like starting and stopping constantly. The cherry on top was the Intel driver crashing after tests were done, giving me a lovely 4-bit 640x480 desktop. I guess that means No One Lives Forever may not even run correctly on the Intel GMA.

As for the Dell Inspiron 5675, it's been running Heaven benchmark for the past three hours. No hiccups or crashes observed, and the GPU temp hasn't gone above 75C.

PCI graphics cards, especially those using newer architectures, are quite a novelty as they fulfill a certain niche. Granted, the PCI bus is severely constrained and all but if you're only going to spruce up or repair an older system it shouldn't hurt to try.

As far as your Dell gaming PC is concerned, I have a feeling it could be some other driver or application that's causing the rig to choke up on occasion.

[cpd2009]

I have some extra time on my hands as of late, and with Daffodil's new hard drive, I don't need to convert VHS rips right away. I bookmarked a troubleshooting guide and I will use that to look for a potential solution. I would like to keep Rusty for Windows software and games as when Windows doesn't freeze up, the PC runs very well. And I also can't get YTP+ to run on macOS either. So much for Java apps being multi-platform.

I recently found a channel on YouTube called Apple Explained. It's an Apple fan who uploads videos about the company's history and products, but can also be surprisingly critical of the company too. Below is a video on Apple's slow and steady price hikes, and why the guy believes it's happening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS05T1_2WCU

Then again, he does make a rather big mistake at 1:21 in this video about Android fragmentation. The guy doesn't seem to understand what open source actually means, and appears to confuse it with software licensing when it comes to Windows and Android. He does get the overall topic right though IMO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCjyslpd8ao

[huckleberrypie]

I have some extra time on my hands as of late, and with Daffodil's new hard drive, I don't need to convert VHS rips right away. I bookmarked a troubleshooting guide and I will use that to look for a potential solution. I would like to keep Rusty for Windows software and games as when Windows doesn't freeze up, the PC runs very well. And I also can't get YTP+ to run on macOS either. So much for Java apps being multi-platform.

I recently found a channel on YouTube called Apple Explained. It's an Apple fan who uploads videos about the company's history and products, but can also be surprisingly critical of the company too. Below is a video on Apple's slow and steady price hikes, and why the guy believes it's happening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS05T1_2WCU

Then again, he does make a rather big mistake at 1:21 in this video about Android fragmentation. The guy doesn't seem to understand what open source actually means, and appears to confuse it with software licensing when it comes to Windows and Android. He does get the overall topic right though IMO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCjyslpd8ao

Java is by principle "compile once, run on many" and that holds true with simpler stuff. The bigger ones like Limewire tend to come with platform-specific ports though from what I remember.

As for Rusty, I still have a feeling something on your Windows install is causing those issues as you were able to benchmark it all day with no problems.

[cpd2009]

I have some extra time on my hands as of late, and with Daffodil's new hard drive, I don't need to convert VHS rips right away. I bookmarked a troubleshooting guide and I will use that to look for a potential solution. I would like to keep Rusty for Windows software and games as when Windows doesn't freeze up, the PC runs very well. And I also can't get YTP+ to run on macOS either. So much for Java apps being multi-platform.

I recently found a channel on YouTube called Apple Explained. It's an Apple fan who uploads videos about the company's history and products, but can also be surprisingly critical of the company too. Below is a video on Apple's slow and steady price hikes, and why the guy believes it's happening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS05T1_2WCU

Then again, he does make a rather big mistake at 1:21 in this video about Android fragmentation. The guy doesn't seem to understand what open source actually means, and appears to confuse it with software licensing when it comes to Windows and Android. He does get the overall topic right though IMO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCjyslpd8ao

Java is by principle "compile once, run on many" and that holds true with simpler stuff. The bigger ones like Limewire tend to come with platform-specific ports though from what I remember.

As for Rusty, I still have a feeling something on your Windows install is causing those issues as you were able to benchmark it all day with no problems.

Possibly. I can pin it down to at least two programs, McAfee or Dell SupportAssist. I recall that older versions of SupportAssist did the same thing with the freezing, but only when I ran the app. It has been updated a few times since February, and while it is more stable, it still tends to freeze things for only about 30 seconds before going back to normal. SupportAssist runs in the background too. This SupportAssist thing is this all-in-one "maintenance" tool that fetches updated drivers, cleans temporary files, and does some scan of your PC hardware to see if you have issues with the PCs hardware components. It's also tied to your specific Dell PC too showing it's service tag and warranty status.

McAfee LiveSafe could be the other culprit, but I have never encountered any freezing problems while interacting with it either doing updates or running manual scans. (as this suggests, I did decide to give McAfee LiveSafe a one year try out since the original evaluation period expired a month ago. )

It could very well be SupportAssist. I think what I'll do is uninstall that and see if the freezing issue happens again. It's worth a shot given my previous experiences with SupportAssist.

---

If there is one thing I like about macOS over Windows, it's the lack of constant "suggestions" and "tips." Lately, MS has really been pushing pinning apps to the taskbar. I'd get a pop-up every now and then suggesting to use the new MS Edge browser to pin websites to the taskbar, even though I have already done so. Now, the MS News app is displaying ad boxes telling you to do the same.

Isn't pinning apps to the Start menu good enough anymore? I don't want my taskbar to be populated with too many of these web apps, and I'd rather keep them filed away in Start. With macOS ElCap, it doesn't keep advertising iCloud in Finder or pinning web apps to the dock. It just gives you notifications that are either system updates or ones you set up yourself in Safari or Chrome.

I don't know how it is with Catalina though.

[cpd2009]

Just for a bit of fun, I installed Windows Vista Home Basic on Daffodil for a short moment.





Vista actually runs quite well. It doesn't take too long to boot, and programs are responsive. It's safe to say the 2GB of RAM does help with that. I was also able to install the TV capture drivers and PowerDirector, though I have to run it in XP compatibility mode. Recording and saving files is just about as quick as it is on XP.

There are caveats. Daffodil's Intel IGP has no Vista drivers. It defaults to a generic Intel XPDM driver after setup, so you're stuck with the last released Windows XP drivers from 2007. This means no Aero, but Vista Basic doesn't include that anyway. Windows Movie Maker 6.0 however doesn't work as it needs a compatible WDDM driver. Looking on Dell's website for my particular model, they didn't intend to ever support Vista on the Dimension E310 series PCs. Only XP drivers are available.

Will I keep this though? Probably not. Vista does run well, but there's ultimately no reason for it. It can do everything my Windows XP installation can do, and I can't even use Windows Movie Maker 6.0 thanks to the old Intel IGP. If I did get that PCI GPU, perhaps I could use a WDDM driver.

[huckleberrypie]

Just for a bit of fun, I installed Windows Vista Home Basic on Daffodil for a short moment.





Vista actually runs quite well. It doesn't take too long to boot, and programs are responsive. It's safe to say the 2GB of RAM does help with that. I was also able to install the TV capture drivers and PowerDirector, though I have to run it in XP compatibility mode. Recording and saving files is just about as quick as it is on XP.

There are caveats. Daffodil's Intel IGP has no Vista drivers. It defaults to a generic Intel XPDM driver after setup, so you're stuck with the last released Windows XP drivers from 2007. This means no Aero, but Vista Basic doesn't include that anyway. Windows Movie Maker 6.0 however doesn't work as it needs a compatible WDDM driver. Looking on Dell's website for my particular model, they didn't intend to ever support Vista on the Dimension E310 series PCs. Only XP drivers are available.

Will I keep this though? Probably not. Vista does run well, but there's ultimately no reason for it. It can do everything my Windows XP installation can do, and I can't even use Windows Movie Maker 6.0 thanks to the old Intel IGP. If I did get that PCI GPU, perhaps I could use a WDDM driver.

PixelPipes did a video on one of the very few contemporary PCI graphics cards released by Zotac. Naturally, the only ones they made were based on the bottom-of-the-barrel GT4xx and 6xx GPUs; any higher would be pointless given the limited bandwidth provided by the PCI bus.

[cpd2009]

For even a bit more fun, I downloaded the latest copy of ReactOS and booted it on Daffodil. It booted, but the installer doesn't recognize my USB keyboard or mouse. Kind of limiting for a desktop PC that has no PS/2 inputs.

I since reformatted the 500GB drive and turned the XP drive back on.

One thing about Daffodil's Dell BIOS is you can turn off individual SATA or IDE drives. When you set a drive to Off, it's invisible to any OS. This is how I was able to get Vista installed without changing the XP MBR. I don't seem to recall other BIOS or UEFI menus allowing this on previous PCs I have owned, though I could have simply missed those options.

[huckleberrypie]

For even a bit more fun, I downloaded the latest copy of ReactOS and booted it on Daffodil. It booted, but the installer doesn't recognize my USB keyboard or mouse. Kind of limiting for a desktop PC that has no PS/2 inputs.

I since reformatted the 500GB drive and turned the XP drive back on.

One thing about Daffodil's Dell BIOS is you can turn off individual SATA or IDE drives. When you set a drive to Off, it's invisible to any OS. This is how I was able to get Vista installed without changing the XP MBR. I don't seem to recall other BIOS or UEFI menus allowing this on previous PCs I have owned, though I could have simply missed those options.

ReactOS is still under very early development for eons, so it isn't surprising. Though they did make a lot of progress over the years with duplicating the Windows Server 2003 API and kernel-space.

[cpd2009]

Not much happening this week so far. The most exciting thing is using a CD/DVD recovery tool on Daffodil. Attempting to recover video off a scratched up DVD-R disc. The software i'm using is "Recovery Toolbox for CD Free". It reads the disc at a very low speed (1x likely) to attempt to recover the data. Because it's 1x, it takes a very long time, and I imagine if the disc can be saved, I may have to run it non-stop for another day or two. It may be hard on the DVD-ROM drive as well, but I have spare drives laying around anyway.