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Computer care, maintenance, and other geek-speak.

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I know that many of you are not geeks, nor profess to be absolute technical wizards. Having said this, I hope that this thread, and with subsequent follow-up messages, we can help each other out with our technical difficulties. I've been reading some of the tech questions, and realizing that some of the issues that many people have, not counting weird Sims actions, but more of the sluggishness and even crashes could very well be due to the computer its self. As someone who had worked in the computer industry for over 30 years, I hope we can use this as a way to ensure our computers run better and Sims doesn't crash as often.

Computers are mechanical devices that need periodic cleanup just like a car, or even a piano that needs a tuning and tune up more than often. A simple clean-up of old junk, and a blow out of the dust bunnies out of the case can work wonders. This periodic maintenance can save you, the computer user, many hours of frustration, and even money in the long run because in many cases there is no reason to replace the computer unless it's truly broken, or really, really old and obsolete. Before we get into any details on cleaning and maintenance, which will come later on, let's define the terms. This will also help you when you go to a store and ask questions. The store clerk, usually a 16 year-old pimply-faced geek, will throw all kinds of dribs, drabs, acronyms, and geeky words at you that can make your head spin. I've seen this, and have had it happen to myself, as eyes glaze over and head nod up and down as we fade off into "what's for dinner", or "what's that neat looking TV over there...".

So let's being without further ado.

Hard drive: This is not the big case that sits on the floor and makes a lot of noise. The hard drive is a small metal, usually silver-colored, with labels on it, and a big black square-ish case with a connector. They come in various sizes and shapes, some as small as 2-inches long and 1/8-inch deep. (50.8 mm x 3.175 mm) to something a lot bigger. In the olden days, they used to be much thicker, but had a lot less space on the inside.

Hard drives now come in two different flavors. The older ones, which are slowly going away, have metal plates inside called platters. They spin very rapidly, usually at 7200 RPM, and have a tiny read-write head that floats less than the thickness of a hair above the surface. This is why it's important not to jar the computer while it's operating. A sudden shock to the drive can cause the head to crash, literally, right on to the surface. Once this hits the surface, the drive may die or have bad spots. Think of this as a 747 flying 1 foot off the ground and hitting then suddenly stopping, or crashing into the earth!

The newer SSD drives, that so many devices come with and everyone is raging about, are made up of Solid-State parts, meaning memory chips. There are no moving parts in them, which is a good thing, but they have their own baggage to deal with. We will get into more detail later should the subject come up.

Disks are considered permanent storage so when you turn your computer off, the stuff is there again for later use.

Memory: This is RAM or Random Access Memory, is made up of small chips arranged on small circuit boards that plug into the motherboard. These are sold today on DIMMs, rather than the older SIMMS, and even older discrete chips. In the olden days, we had to put the individual chips into the boards to use them, and there was a risk of bending legs underneath the chips. Bent legs, are rare today, oh thank god for that!. With a DIMM, or smaller SIMM, a simple clip in board is all that's needed. With RAM it works only when the computer is on. Once you turn it off, the data is lost. RAM is also very fast, and is considered temporary storage.

This brings up another subject, which is commonly confusing for many people. They'll say I don't have enough memory on my computer to run a program, when in reality they're talking about disk space. Disk space, like RAM is counted in bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes. This shared terminology is the same, but the use is different. So you can have plenty of memory (RAM) to run the program, but not enough disk space to install the program.

The CPU. This is actually a big chip in a socket on the motherboard, and not the case that makes all the whirring noises and has the flashing lights. A CPU is the heart and brains of the computer. Without it, it won't power up, or know what to do. This is where the data is processed so everything else works.

The Video card and GPU. This is pretty obvious; where your video is created and displayed. A GPU is a graphics processing unit, rather than a Central Processing Unit in a CPU. They perform similar functions, and sometimes there can be problems with the GPU (to confuse things) that cause things to crash.

USB. Universal Serial Bus. These are standard connectors with standard cables that plug in only one way. A mouse and keyboard can be interchanged on the ports without worrying about things getting fried. Some computers have lots of them, while others give a paltry two or three, or even less!

SATA or Serial AT Adaptor. This is a newer kind of disk connector that is very easy to use, and very easy to disconnect too easily! Instead of big thick cables, the connectors are small flat cables which help the airflow in the computer, and the speed is much faster.

Motherboard. This is the main board inside the big computer case, or inside the laptop, that everything plugs into such as the RAM, CPU, and video card. There are lots of chips on them, sockets, clips, USB ports, SATA ports, LEDS, and other fancy-looking stuff. All computer systems have motherboards regardless of their size including laptops, and whether they are Apple Macintosh computer, or Windows PCs. Even our mobile phones have a motherboard inside. In some devices, such as laptops and phones, there are few sockets, if any, and everything is mounted on the board or soldered. This is called an integrated motherboard. They are also found in really, really cheap computers that can't be upgraded.

That's all for now. If anyone has questions, feel free to post them, and I'll post some cleaning tips in a couple of days.

John

Comments

  • cauliflowerscauliflowers Posts: 5,782 Member
    Sometimes if i stretch hard enough

    I can hit the power button with my toe
    TL8ZBmw.gif
  • John_CitronJohn_Citron Posts: 140 Member
    Sometimes if i stretch hard enough

    I can hit the power button with my toe

    Don't laugh, but this is true with a user I used to support. Her computer was on the floor and she'd hit the power switch with her foot accidently and wonder why her machine would suddenly go off. It took some convincing that it wasn't her machine...
  • John_CitronJohn_Citron Posts: 140 Member
    Here's an item I forgot to mention in the initial post, and the first tip on keeping the computer running well.

    Power Supply: This is the big box where the power goes in and all the wires come out. You'll here the store geek rave up how the computer has this that and other wattage ratings for the power supply. The bigger the wattage, generally means it will run your devices better. The newer video cards, for example require 650W or more. Never go to the minimum if you are building a machine. A higher wattage power supply will handle lower wattage parts and it will give you the leeway to grow if you ever upgrade your machine. There is one thing to keep in mind here. Not all power supplies will fit inside the computer, and some have custom shapes and connectors. This more true of those store-bought machines such as those from HP, Dell, Sony, and even E-Machines among others. Since they design everything, rather than use off-the-shelf parts, they can customize how they fit, and what is used. The problem then comes if you upgrade your video card or want to add an extra hard drive. There may, or may not be enough room inside the case to fit the new bigger power supply, nor there may not be enough power connectors either since the manufacturer went for the cheapest, usually, way out with the least amount of stuff they can get away with.

    This brings up another point. Cheap power supplies. Sure you can get one for $35-$50 USD, however, they are made pretty bad. They may have the right wattage ratings, but don't last very long. If a new power supply is needed, and you don't have one of those Dells, HPs, or machines like that, opt for a more expensive unit from Thermaltake, Crucial, and other manufacturers. You might be lucky though, and fit a new better unit into one of these machines, but I'm not so sure. The best bet is to ask questions always, and someone will help you. Also keep in mind that when upgrading a computer not everything has to be thrown away, and one of the points of this, probably boring thread, is to save money for more fun stuff. A power supply, if it's still good, just like the case, can be reused for a few computer builds.



    This brings up the other point and a start on the more important parts of the thread, which is to keep your computer running, and starts the real series of this pseudo blog.

    Dust, dirt, and muck...

    The biggest worst enemy for a computer is heat. Heat will cause the components to work harder, thus, putting out more heat, and eventually this will degrade their performance sometimes permanently. Keeping a computer cool can be an expensive proposition for big companies, and this is why there are those big computer rooms with air-conditioned raised floors. If these machines get too warm, they will crash, and parts will fail.

    Our computers aren't that bad, however, they do get quite hot inside on their own, and don't need the cases plugged with dirt. Graphics programs, videos, and games make computers work harder, and produce more heat. You've probably noticed your fans spinning faster when playing the Sims or watching videos, but barely doing anything when playing cards, or using a word processor. This is the computer's motherboard sensing the heat and trying to cool things down for the parts. Video cards and the processor may automatically kick into high gear, and their fans will push more heat out. With clogged fans this can be an issue since there is nowhere for the heat to go.

    The CPU chip alone runs sometimes at a minimum of 50 degrees Centigrade, or 122 Fahrenheit! That's hot enough to cause 1st degree burns if touched. Some components, such as the video card, can run even hotter at up to 90C, or 194F, which is almost the boiling point of water. Ouch! Now clog the fans, and the heat builds up. When parts get hotter than they're supposed to, they start to slow down, shutdown, or even fail totally if they can't cope.

    Clearing the crud from the fans...

    The process should be completed once every few months, using some simple tools, such as a glue-brush, canned air, and a stirrer or pencil, a computer can be cleaned inside and out.. The process outlined below is for desktop computers. Sadly, laptops can't be opened easily, and should be taken to a professional due to their tiny parts and easily broken latches. Even for desktop users, If you're unsure about anything, ask or bring your computer to a computer professional who can assist you.

    A) Start by unplugging the computer from the wall and pressing the on-off button to discharge any residual power still in the circuits.

    B) Unplug all the cords.

    If you are not sure where they go, label them with little bits of tape. USB devices can be plugged in anywhere, but I recommend plugging things back in where they were because it's easier to remember that way.

    C) Open up the case.

    GASP!!! I can hear some saying they've never done this before. No worries, it's not as difficult as you think. There are screws on the side, usually Phillips type (the ones with the + on the end), or even thumb-screws you can turn with your fingers. Once unscrewed, and this is where it gets difficult to explain because there are so many variations, slide, pull, unclip, the lid. Some lids have a push button that unlatches the lid or side, and once you've figured out the key, you can get inside easily. Unfortunately, not everything is the same, so this is a bit difficult to describe, and you may have to fiddle and or look at the service manual, or even ask for help.

    Once opened you'll see all the connections going to the drives, motherboard, CPU, video card, etc. Do not touch anything with your hands unless instructed to do so. A simple quick ZAP of static, and everything is gone.

    Let's blow the dust out...

    A) Put a drinking straw, coffee stirrer, or even a pencil into the fan or fans to prevent them from spinning, and give the case a blow out with the canned air. Never, ever, ever, use a vacuum cleaner! These can cause static, and static is the second worse enemy to a computer. ZAP! and everything dies. In case you are wondering, the purpose of the stick or straw is to keep the fans from spinning too fast when the air is blown over them. If they spin to fast, it can break their inside causing them not to work properly.

    Blow around the case briskly, like you are spraying for bugs or spraying room freshener, while ensuring no ice appears on the boards anywhere (Keep in mind that the air is really cold and can cause frostbite too!). If the dust is really, stuck inside the cooling fins, and on the wires, take a glue brush and rub the bristles in the blades to loosen up the clumps, you may have to move the stick out of the way to do this if you are doing this to the fans as well. You'll see the dust clump out and you can then blow it out with the air. Repeat this with all the fans until everything is nice and clean. Now if the computer is really, really, dusty you might want to bring the machine outside so not to blow the dust through out your room. A friend of mine brought his machine to me for a clean out. The dust was so bad, it took two cleanings, and there was enough dust and lint in there to stuff a couch! Once the machine was cleaned, however, the performance was like night and day. He almost had a new-old machine again. Once this is done, put the case back together, and power up your machine. It may actually sound better and run without sounding like it's gasping for air.

    As always, feel free to ask questions.

    To be followed up, hopefully with more tips and tricks.

    John
  • SpidersWebSpidersWeb Posts: 1,027 Member
    Just wanted to add one small thing to the power supply advice. You covered this with reference to lower wattage parts but just to make sure people pick it up (I've seen a lot of beginners asking this question in the past)

    The wattage rating is the maximum amount of power the supply can deliver.

    So if you want to upgrade your power supply from say 300W to 650W - do not worry about if your "computer can handle it" or "increased power usage" - your computer will still use/receive the same amount of electricity it did before, but now you've got more headroom to add new components and in some situations a more stable computer.




    p.s. nice to see somebody else who has been around a while, probably the first person I've met here who likely has a fair idea of what my avatar is.
    Performance, Price, Portability - pick two.
  • MikiMiki Posts: 1,692 Member
    edited November 2014
    > @SpidersWeb said:
    >
    >
    > p.s. nice to see somebody else who has been around a while, probably the first person I've met here who likely has a fair idea of what my avatar is.


    Ha! Fair to poor / Poor + (only because the only time I see those things is in old pictures. Well Before my time. But it doesn't mean I don't want to lay hands on a venerable Commodore 64 with the amber on black instead of dull old IBM green

    BUT I have been around the block a few times with more modern machinery. I Used to do those upgrades and such for myself and others in between calls at work (Helpless Desk), but alas, nowadays they just toss the machine out and get a new one.

    But I'm not totally out of the ballpark. When I was a kid we had an Atari ST 520 desktop hanging around and it was my first chance to get my feet wet with what they called "GEM" (for those to whom Ataris were only arcade machines, it was the interface on those things. Graphics Environment Manager. Anyway that machine with its blow-your-doors-off 8 MHz processor and (souped up to) 1024 kB RAM still played Sid Maier
    s (spelling!) Pirates! from 1987 and for a machine that simple, it played well.

    So anyway on a more up-to-date front, TS4's ideal system has 4 gB RAM, and that means a 64-bit processor and OS. However I'm running a 32-bit with the max for that, 3 gB. It runs slightly better than with the standard 2 gB this machine came out of the box with, the best bet to enhance performance is an upper-level graphics card. (not cheap!) rather than RAM, although boosting that to the 32-bit max can onlymake things better.

    But.. it does just fine at or near minimum requirements. Since I have a gray-haired video card, I just run the graphics for SIMS on low/laptop setting. Everything still looks lifelike and beautiful.

    So whoever doesn't have a top flight gamer's machine, take heart. It runs fine!!.
  • John_CitronJohn_Citron Posts: 140 Member
    SpidersWeb wrote: »
    Just wanted to add one small thing to the power supply advice. You covered this with reference to lower wattage parts but just to make sure people pick it up (I've seen a lot of beginners asking this question in the past)

    The wattage rating is the maximum amount of power the supply can deliver.

    So if you want to upgrade your power supply from say 300W to 650W - do not worry about if your "computer can handle it" or "increased power usage" - your computer will still use/receive the same amount of electricity it did before, but now you've got more headroom to add new components and in some situations a more stable computer.




    p.s. nice to see somebody else who has been around a while, probably the first person I've met here who likely has a fair idea of what my avatar is.

    I sure do recognize that screen! I too started back in the "olden" days of computers with my first computer being an Atari 800. After that I worked for a company that made video terminals and became a technician who got to work on their early computers such as their Visual V-1050, Commuter Computer, and later the old Ontel Computers. These ran CP/M 3.0, CP/M 2.0, MS-DOS 2.0, and Ontel OS. Those were the great days and then later on moved on to MIS and computer operations where I dealt with VAXs, and Sun Workstations. I ended my working life at Oracle, where I supported nearly 700 users with one other person. I sure miss the old days. I think they were more fun, or perhaps I felt better and had more patience with the patients! :smile:

    RE: The power supply. Yes, that's an excellent point that's definitely overlooked. I get asked that question all the time. It's one of those things that's very often missed.

    Let's keep the conversation going here as it will hopefully answer a lot of questions people were afraid to ask about their computers.

    John
  • SpidersWebSpidersWeb Posts: 1,027 Member
    Miki wrote: »
    Ha! Fair to poor / Poor + (only because the only time I see those things is in old pictures. Well Before my time. But it doesn't mean I don't want to lay hands on a venerable Commodore 64 with the amber on black instead of dull old IBM green<br />
    That's pretty 🐸🐸🐸🐸 close. It's a generic brand mono monitor, BUT Commodore did sell the same model (with a different badge) with their Commodore PC clones - I actually had to use a Commodore circuit diagram to repair it :) For my Commodore 64's, I usually let those have a colour display - although it's been 6+ months since I've played on those.
    I sure do recognize that screen! I too started back in the "olden" days of computers with my first computer being an Atari 800. After that I worked for a company that made video terminals and became a technician who got to work on their early computers such as their Visual V-1050, Commuter Computer, and later the old Ontel Computers. These ran CP/M 3.0, CP/M 2.0, MS-DOS 2.0, and Ontel OS. Those were the great days and then later on moved on to MIS and computer operations where I dealt with VAXs, and Sun Workstations. I ended my working life at Oracle, where I supported nearly 700 users with one other person. I sure miss the old days. I think they were more fun, or perhaps I felt better and had more patience with the patients! :smile:
    Nice! I haven't had much to do with CP/M based gear (Z80 etc) but I do have a 1977 Visual 100 terminal in the garage awaiting repair. It has "Victoria University" burnt in to the display but wont power up - appears to have had a serious voltage surge at some point.

    I collect the old gear, mostly PCs (which isn't too popular). My project for this weekend is installing a new 300MB ESDI drive in to an IBM RT 6150 - which honestly could take all day - takes 2 minutes to start the thing.

    I haven't had much to do with Atari (although I did get DJ Qualls (from the movie Road Trip) to sign an Atari T-shirt) but I did give away a working 800XL to another collector not too long ago. Just not my speciality, so felt it should go to a better home.

    As for modern tips:
    - when buying an SSD, try and aim for at least a 180 or 256GB model, a 128GB will fill faster than you expect.
    - be wary of clock speeds, only use them to compare processors of the same type, these can't be relied on as a speed rating
    - avoid leaving your computer directly on the ground, otherwise dust which rests on your floor will be more likely to end up in the machine

    Performance, Price, Portability - pick two.
  • MikiMiki Posts: 1,692 Member
    edited November 2014
    > @SpidersWeb said:
    > >
    > I haven't had much to do with Atari (although I did get DJ Qualls (from the movie Road Trip) to sign an Atari T-shirt) but I did give away a working 800XL to another collector not too long ago. Just not my speciality, so felt it should go to a better home.
    >
    > As for modern tips:
    > - when buying an SSD, try and aim for at least a 180 or 256GB model, a 128GB will fill faster than you expect.
    > - be wary of clock speeds, only use them to compare processors of the same type, these can't be relied on as a speed rating
    > - avoid leaving your computer directly on the ground, otherwise dust which rests on your floor will be more likely to end up in the machine

    The venerable Atari ST. Lots of late 40 somethings I know cut their electronic teeth on one of those. Last came the Mega STE in '91, I believe, (with a whopping 2 or 4 mB hard drive and a 16 MHz processor) came along, but according to the dealer who used to sell these, they really didn't catch on in the States and the company pretty much left them swinging in the breeze as far as support was concerned.

    As I said, I have a working 520 ST with a "Megafile 30" external hard disk which won't turn any more. (fortunately it's primarily floppy disk-operated.) I'll pop the case open one day and see what's up. It tries to start spinning but doesn't get beyond a machine version of a "grunt".
    Nostalgia time! You probably remember more fondly than I of the days of "park the heads" on an HDD before shutting down lest they get all screwed up if the unit were moved or bumped while off! May one's Inner Freddy Flintstone rejoice!

    Tell me about dust. I just opened my tower to bump the RAM to 32-bit OS max (for these greedy SIMS) and had to blow out dust I didn't think possible. Well, thanks to my handy-dandy shop compressor it's no chore.. Only unplugging all the wires (snake nest) to separate the machine from its perch gives me the "Tense" moodlet.

    (Unbelievable, at my age I start imagining myself in SIM terms from time to time-- and I don't weld myself to the computer for long sessions. Max 2 hours. (Have to have time to take care of my nails, you know, else the "uncomfortable" frame around me.

    Sheesh, there I go again.

    Thanks!

    PS if anyone enjoys my motor mouth I linked this site to my FaceBook account. Just for kicks. So far no other SIMS people in there I can find.
  • John_CitronJohn_Citron Posts: 140 Member
    SpidersWeb wrote: »
    Miki wrote: »
    Ha! Fair to poor / Poor + (only because the only time I see those things is in old pictures. Well Before my time. But it doesn't mean I don't want to lay hands on a venerable Commodore 64 with the amber on black instead of dull old IBM green<br />
    That's pretty 🐸🐸🐸🐸 close. It's a generic brand mono monitor, BUT Commodore did sell the same model (with a different badge) with their Commodore PC clones - I actually had to use a Commodore circuit diagram to repair it :) For my Commodore 64's, I usually let those have a colour display - although it's been 6+ months since I've played on those.

    Nice! I haven't had much to do with CP/M based gear (Z80 etc) but I do have a 1977 Visual 100 terminal in the garage awaiting repair. It has "Victoria University" burnt in to the display but wont power up - appears to have had a serious voltage surge at some point.

    I collect the old gear, mostly PCs (which isn't too popular). My project for this weekend is installing a new 300MB ESDI drive in to an IBM RT 6150 - which honestly could take all day - takes 2 minutes to start the thing.

    I haven't had much to do with Atari (although I did get DJ Qualls (from the movie Road Trip) to sign an Atari T-shirt) but I did give away a working 800XL to another collector not too long ago. Just not my speciality, so felt it should go to a better home.

    As for modern tips:
    - when buying an SSD, try and aim for at least a 180 or 256GB model, a 128GB will fill faster than you expect.
    - be wary of clock speeds, only use them to compare processors of the same type, these can't be relied on as a speed rating
    - avoid leaving your computer directly on the ground, otherwise dust which rests on your floor will be more likely to end up in the machine

    [/quote]

    The Commodore Computer Corp. Monochrome monitors were made by Hyundai, Magnavox, and others. I believe they used those ever so common Clinton Corp. CRTs. These had a simple circuit driver board that goes with them, making them quite easy to fix. One of the main problems though with the Clintons was the wires would burn out at the Molex connector on the board. I had Varityper Typesetting system that caught fire one day. I was able to repair it easily by removing the connector and feeding the wires through the holes in the board. It wasn't elegant, but it saved us about $1,000 the company wanted for a new one.

    Regarding the Visual V-100. They aren't quite that old from 1977, but more like 1981 or 1982. They use a simple analog power supply, which has off-the-shelf (if you can find them) components. Get a DVM and check that the PS is putting out the usual +/- 5V, and +/- 12V. If not, check the bridge diodes, they're the big black ones on the board and get their AC from the big transformer mounted in the bottom of the unit.

    If you are getting a green screen and a high pitched whistle, then it's a failed self test which will take more work. This could be a bad CPU, which is also a Z80, or something else like RAM. The best way to troubleshoot this of course is with a scope because you can trace the signals. It could even be a bad chip somewhere on the board. It's hard to believe I still remember this from all these years! :smiley: The last time I looked at these things was back in 1986 or '87 when I worked for Visual.

    Anyhow, I too cleaned my PC yesterday and dug up a bit of dust, to put it mildly. As @Miki pointed out, a compressor works wonders. I dragged, my ever so it seems heavier system down stairs to the work room, and blew out the dust and kitty fur. It's running much, cooler and happier now.

    An IBM ESDI drive. Wow! I haven't seen one of those in years. Did your lights dim when you power it up!? :smile: When I worked for Visual, I handled their old Ontel systems which were a bit "old" when I worked on them in the mid to late 1980s. I used to work on their Hawk and Phoenix platter stacks and the controllers. I'd calibrate the heads and replace them on the stacks, which can take all day to get them right. They were a whopping 1.6GB and were quite big. The controller box was about the size of a fridge that the stack sat on top of. I also replaced belts on the old 8-inch Shugart floppy drives too, which was quite fun actually. They also had some smaller 5-1/4" hard drives, which took about an hour to format. They were big too - at 5 and 10MB!

    ###

    Speaking of drives....

    Yup an new topic, and a good one at that. We know that drives now come in two different flavors. The original, now quite old-fashioned, but still very reliable platter-based drives, and the new SSDs or solid-state drives, which are nothing more than EEROM chips (more on this later) on a drive interface.

    Drives are our life with computers. We take them for granted, but when we lose our data, everything is gone. Seriously folks, back up your stuff. I learned the hard way due to both stupidity and outright hardware failure. These days we have it made, really, for backing up and keeping our data safe. No longer do we have to deal with piles and stacks of floppies, or even tapes. We can simply copy to another external drive, or even a DVD.

    As we all noticed, hard drive do lose performance over time. This is due to how the data is organized on the drive. With the old-fashioned hard drives, a good defrag after cleaning up junk can speed things up tremendously. Don't do this with SSDs because it will degrade them. More on this a bit later...

    The other thing too with hard drives, is don't fill them up completely. The operating system (Windows, Mac OSx) its self needs room to move stuff around, and if they are too full the performance will drop off tremendously. You see, the OS uses part of the drive too to hold temporary files, or parts of programs it's running but don't all fit into memory meaning the RAM chips, so it shoves the parts on the drive and retrieves them later. If the drive is too full, then the system is constantly shuffling stuff around. Since the hard drive is the slowest component in the systems, even with an SSD, this makes the computer even slower. So, don't over stuff the drives! :smile:

    Another thing that helps is to defragment the drive. Some people, some so-called experts, say you don't need to do this because drives are so big now. Well, they're wrong. What the defrag is doing is arranging the data blocks, called sectors, into consecutive order so they can be read quickly. As the data is written to the drive, the little heads are putting the data wherever it can fit and to the first open space it finds. So if the drive is fragmented, the head has to move more and this makes things slower. A defragment of the data, which can be done with Window's own utilities, can help keep the data in order. This makes reading the data faster, and also helps with data recovery too because the data is in sequence, and if the head or platters have problems in other places, there's less of chance of losing the data. Keep in mind you never, ever do this with an SSD, more on this later. How often is a good defrag? It depends on how much you use your computer. For some of us, a once a week defrag is on order, while others once a month is good enough.

    SSDs. These are a new-old kind of storage. Notice I said new-old. They're new for us to use as they've gotten better, but the technology has been around for some time. In the old days they were referred to as EEROMs, or Electrically, Erasable, Read-Only Memory. They were once used to save system information, like boot up parameters, and were pretty small. As time moves on, they have gotten faster and became those thumb drives we all use today that have replaced floppy disks. Now with even faster technology, they're now used as bigger and faster storage and can actually replace an old platter drive. Since they have no moving parts, they can actually work better in portable devices.

    So how do they work? Very simple, really. They work by using a differential voltage, To wright the data to the chips, the circuit uses a higher voltage, which in the old days was +12 or +24 volts. This literally burns the data into the special chips. The data is then read back using the regular voltage, which at the time was +5V and today is more like +1.5V. This is really cool how it works, and for some of us, it's amazing the parts have come this far.

    Now, keep in mind that nothing is perfect in this imperfect world. The writing process is actually causing a chemical reaction on the chip, which eventually degrades the surface. This is why there are just so many read-writes you can do to an SSD. They're getting better, but the very process of writing is degrading the surface. This is why it isn't good to defrag an SSD. The very process of defragging an SSD degrades the surface and lowers the life of the drive. Instead use the built-in utilities to handle this, and besides, Windows won't allow you to do this on one anyway because it "knows" better.

    So, so much for hard drives. There's probably a lot more I can say, but I've babbled enough here. The biggest things to remember is defrag old drives, keep them clean, and backup the data.

    Questions of course are welcome.

    John
  • MikiMiki Posts: 1,692 Member
    edited November 2014
    Thanks John_Citron. Jeez I felt like I was back in school again, except I'm relatively new to this stuff. It was "background" courses in school I took alongside my I. T. courses. The family elders did the same with me learning to drive, by the way. No license test until I knew what was going on, even at a high level, under the hood. They were of the opinion that some mechanics are still snakes.
    Anyway, thanks for the refresher. The "thumb" drives all came with advice to not defragment them, even a dinosaur of a thumb I have that has 128 mB space. Hey, it is handy for file portability and it survived unscathed a trip through the washer and dryer!. But they have limited I/O cycles so defragging chews up a lot of that even when one has a system that will allow you to do that.
    I'm "all-in" on the hard drive care and maintenance for without that data, the machine is useless. I keep important stuff (including AVI files) on an external. Those aren't fool proof, either but they see nowhere near the usage of an internal, main hard disk in a computer.

    Of course "all the rage" is "The Cloud". I work with it for our clients, but I'm not a big time fan of it. Handy, yeah but somehow I think someone is going to find a way to get in ther and hack, and unlike having stuff in my computer, which I shut down when not in use (rendering it inaccessible to any online hacking) the cloud is "always on".

    Anyway I see where they're planning to do away with in-hand software, favoring the "pay and get from the Cloud" -- (from which they can "control obsolescence" and in so doing get themselves a neat tidy little revenue stream. "Your Windows is obsolete. Renew Now for $49.95."

    probably a hair of the paranoid but I like to have my data stored where I am.

    Ohh one more on the thumb drives. Right before (it seems) those came out, or at least got my attention, were the Iomega Zip Drives. Fake floppy disks I called them. (One could also call them miniature hard drives. Your choice.. because they're little platters in a 3.5" case) I have the drive and a few disks as well, some containing some zany writing I did as a schoolgirl,

    Well, less babbling from me today, but my post count is creeping upwards. But rather than posting "frivolously" it'll still take me a while because I prefer to post meaningful stuff.. or meaningful to me.

    Thanks!
  • John_CitronJohn_Citron Posts: 140 Member
    @Miki,

    Thank you for reading my babbling! :smile: I'm actually having some fun doing this bit of a refresher.

    I hear you on the cloud stuff. I too am a bit paranoid too about it and I'm also waiting for that day when something important gets stolen. I have one of those OneDrives from Microsoft and another bit of Google Storage, I can't remember what that's called, but I only use the OneDrive only for stuff I want to share and I have backups of elsewhere. It's stuff like pictures from my storm chasing trips, trips to PA, and some music I played and recorded awhile back. If the stuff gets lost, I'm not going to miss it because it's stuff I made public and not important private data.

    SAAS is the way things are going and the big companies, such as Oracle and Microsoft, have been doing this for some time, mostly with their corporate customers. More recently, however, they and other companies have discovered the lucrative nature of this as it guarantees a constant revenue stream they never got from the once-off installs that people did. So now Adobe does it with their Creative Suite. You can no longer purchase a new copy of locally installed, and owned, Photoshop or In-Design. You need to be online all the time and then the application runs, albeit, locally. My brother uses Illustrator for some stuff and he's paying about $20 per month for the use. It's somewhat inconvenient having to be always connected too especially for those that travel.

    Iomega Zip drives... I still have a couple of them in my closet here along with some old disks. They were like floppies, but much faster and of course much bigger. They were a great idea and many people had them. They of course develop that Click of Death, meaning the head is out of alignment and it eats the data. This wasn't the fault of the unit, but the end-user who mishandled the disks, which then ate the heads inside the unit. The old Iomega Jazz drive, however, was more like a hard drive in a cartridge. While at a former Polaroid spin-off, I supported the Mac people that used them. To be honest, I'd rather have a regular hard disk because these things were really, really, slow - even slower than the Zip drives.

    One of the worst things to come out were the infamous SyQuest drives. These used removable aluminum platter cartridges which had thermal expansion issues. The drive could read a disk one day, but the same disk was dead the next day, or even a few hours later. This was due to the metal expanding or contracting due to heat. The heads would write the data in one place, and then couldn't read it back because they were now out of alignment. I got more than one call with users crying and pleading with me to help them recover their data. They'd wait a few hours, or a day, and the drive would work fine and the cycle would start over again.

    John
  • SpidersWebSpidersWeb Posts: 1,027 Member
    The Commodore Computer Corp. Monochrome monitors were made by Hyundai, Magnavox, and others. I believe they used those ever so common Clinton Corp. CRTs. These had a simple circuit driver board that goes with them, making them quite easy to fix. One of the main problems though with the Clintons was the wires would burn out at the Molex connector on the board. I had Varityper Typesetting system that caught fire one day. I was able to repair it easily by removing the connector and feeding the wires through the holes in the board. It wasn't elegant, but it saved us about $1,000 the company wanted for a new one.
    Yes it's a Hyundai HMM-12 if memory serves. The horizontal deflection cap had failed :) 10uF NP down to 1.4uF - result was a screen width of less than an inch. Poor thing had spent it's last two decades of service running a welding machine for an engineering firm, was very happy when it started back up.
    Regarding the Visual V-100. They aren't quite that old from 1977, but more like 1981 or 1982. They use a simple analog power supply, which has off-the-shelf (if you can find them) components. Get a DVM and check that the PS is putting out the usual +/- 5V, and +/- 12V. If not, check the bridge diodes, they're the big black ones on the board and get their AC from the big transformer mounted in the bottom of the unit.

    If you are getting a green screen and a high pitched whistle, then it's a failed self test which will take more work. This could be a bad CPU, which is also a Z80, or something else like RAM. The best way to troubleshoot this of course is with a scope because you can trace the signals. It could even be a bad chip somewhere on the board. It's hard to believe I still remember this from all these years! :smiley: The last time I looked at these things was back in 1986 or '87 when I worked for Visual.

    Once again - bang on! I got the date wrong. I think I spotted an advert/refrence in a magazine from 1979, but the manual I have just received in PDF format clearly says 1982. Thank you very much for that tidbit about voltage, I'm pretty confident I know what's wrong now - because let's just say I spotted a few more volts than 12 on the main rail! At some stage I'll need to pull it back out and do some testing at some stage. Thankfully they layout is very nice to work with, and nice big solder joins, so it should be a good project when I get to it.
    Anyhow, I too cleaned my PC yesterday and dug up a bit of dust, to put it mildly. As @Miki pointed out, a compressor works wonders. I dragged, my ever so it seems heavier system down stairs to the work room, and blew out the dust and kitty fur. It's running much, cooler and happier now.

    An IBM ESDI drive. Wow! I haven't seen one of those in years. Did your lights dim when you power it up!? :smile: When I worked for Visual, I handled their old Ontel systems which were a bit "old" when I worked on them in the mid to late 1980s. I used to work on their Hawk and Phoenix platter stacks and the controllers. I'd calibrate the heads and replace them on the stacks, which can take all day to get them right. They were a whopping 1.6GB and were quite big. The controller box was about the size of a fridge that the stack sat on top of. I also replaced belts on the old 8-inch Shugart floppy drives too, which was quite fun actually. They also had some smaller 5-1/4" hard drives, which took about an hour to format. They were big too - at 5 and 10MB!
    hehe I have a few. The IBM spins them up one at a time to reduce CPU load, but they're 3600rpm 5.25" units - so no worse than my other machines in there. Does make one heck of a noise however.

    I'd have loved to been around those platter stacks back then, my career didn't start until a fair bit later though so I did miss out on that.

    No 8" gear with me right now, but I do have two working ST-412's from 1983 and 1984 - 10MB formatted, full height 5.25". Needed fresh formats, needed some WD40 in the motor bearings, but not a single new bad sector from new :) I think Mr Shugart took over-engineering quite seriously back then.

    Good work on the clean!

    My modern tip of the day: If you're stuck with a mechanical hard drive - partition it so you have a C drive of around 200GB - this forces Windows and all your program files to stay on the same area of the drive - the 'head' will only need to seek outside this little zone when you want to access your files (like videos, music, etc).

    (Often referred to as short-stroking)
    Performance, Price, Portability - pick two.
  • JuanaJuana Posts: 840 Member
    Is there a way to do screen-shots in fullscreen games without a 3rd party installation?
    PrntScrn doesn't seem to work for me omce I'm fullscreen.
    Just curious if anyone knows, it'd be good to keep in the back of my head.
  • MikiMiki Posts: 1,692 Member
    edited November 2014
    @ Juana..
    I just made and saved a screen shot in fullscreen with PrtScrn. I run Win 7 Ultimate. Hopefully it doesn't matter but I can only speak for that particular OS.
    No third party stuff needed. It's a bit of a pain but it works.
    I switched from "Windowed" to "Fullscreen", hit "PrtScrn", went back to Windowed mode (to minimize Sims 4, and run "Paint".) Someone will chime in if there is a quicker way, I'm sure.
    When Paint opened I clicked "Paste" and voila, my screenshot. Then "Save As and I selected JPEG as the file type (easier for me than the other options like PNG, etc.
    It's not a big deal unless you want to save a lot of screen shots outside the game. But pause your actions and do it as soon as practical because holding the image in the buffer chews up some of your RAM and either the game might bog down or for some reason the image in the buffer might get kicked out.

    Also when done clear the buffer. (The easiest way for me is to open some text file and "copy" a single word or letter. This boots the DSIMS pic out and replaces it with another, much smaller, memory.

    Again these are things I don't do often and never as part of my I T work, so if there is a better or easier way to clear the buffer, someone will speak up. The reason for this is, as above, the screenshot stays in memory until replaced or cleared and that occupies memory which could be used by the game.

    Hope I helped.
    Post edited by Miki on
  • MikiMiki Posts: 1,692 Member
    Hey anyone in here know anything about excessive mourning for even long-deceased relatives inthis game? I don't have any dead SIMS laying around but I saw a series of questions/complaints.. with no solutions about SIMS stopping from cooking (self-cancelling) and going out to their "legacy" boneyard and mourning someone 3 generations before them-- on another topic.

    The posters said they asked on the Tech forum to no avail so I thought I'd pipe it over here (even though the current topic I'm kinda involved in on this thread is computer hardware old and new.)

    I was thinking some trait they "rolled" onto succeeding generations causes their SIMS to mourn beyond the pale. (This behavior starts when a SIM ages into Young Adult stage.

    If anyone knows, I'll post to that thread directing them here, or copying a solution, giving appropriate credit of course.

    Just trying to be a positive part of this scene, you know! (Once I hit the requirements and can pos a real avatar I'll go silent! Tee-Hee)
  • JuanaJuana Posts: 840 Member
    Miki wrote: »
    @ Juana..<br />
    I just made and saved a screen shot in fullscreen with PrtScrn. I run Win 7 Ultimate. Hopefully it doesn't matter but I can only speak for that particular OS.<br />
    No third party stuff needed. It's a bit of a pain but it works. <br />
    I switched from "Windowed" to "Fullscreen", hit "PrtScrn", went back to Windowed mode (to minimize Sims 4, and run "Paint".) Someone will chime in if there is a quicker way, I'm sure. <br />
    When Paint opened I clicked "Paste" and voila, my screenshot. Then "Save As and I selected JPEG as the file type (easier for me than the other options like PNG, etc.<br />
    It's not a big deal unless you want to save a lot of screen shots outside the game. But pause your actions and do it as soon as practical because holding the image in the buffer chews up some of your RAM and either the game might bog down or for some reason the image in the buffer might get kicked out.<br />
    <br />
    Also when done clear the buffer. (The easiest way for me is to open some text file and "copy" a single word or letter. This boots the DSIMS pic out and replaces it with another, much smaller, memory.<br />
    <br />
    Again these are things I don't do often and never as part of my I T work, so if there is a better or easier way to clear the buffer, someone will speak up. The reason for this is, as above, the screenshot stays in memory until replaced or cleared and that occupies memory which could be used by the game.<br />
    <br />
    Hope I helped.
    Thanks Miki. I thought I tried this before, but I'm going to try one more time next time I play and see if it works.
  • Clarkie100Clarkie100 Posts: 1,708 Member
    Miki wrote: »
    > @SpidersWeb said:<br />
    > <br />
    > <br />
    > p.s. nice to see somebody else who has been around a while, probably the first person I've met here who likely has a fair idea of what my avatar is.<br />
    <br />
    <br />
    Ha! Fair to poor / Poor + (only because the only time I see those things is in old pictures. Well Before my time. But it doesn't mean I don't want to lay hands on a venerable Commodore 64 with the amber on black instead of dull old IBM green<br />
    <br />
    BUT I have been around the block a few times with more modern machinery. I Used to do those upgrades and such for myself and others in between calls at work (Helpless Desk), but alas, nowadays they just toss the machine out and get a new one.<br />
    <br />
    But I'm not totally out of the ballpark. When I was a kid we had an Atari ST 520 desktop hanging around and it was my first chance to get my feet wet with what they called "GEM" (for those to whom Ataris were only arcade machines, it was the interface on those things. Graphics Environment Manager. Anyway that machine with its blow-your-doors-off 8 MHz processor and (souped up to) 1024 kB RAM still played Sid Maier<br />
    s (spelling!) Pirates! from 1987 and for a machine that simple, it played well.<br />
    <br />
    So anyway on a more up-to-date front, TS4's ideal system has 4 gB RAM, and that means a 64-bit processor and OS. However I'm running a 32-bit with the max for that, 3 gB. It runs slightly better than with the standard 2 gB this machine came out of the box with, the best bet to enhance performance is an upper-level graphics card. (not cheap!) rather than RAM, although boosting that to the 32-bit max can onlymake things better.<br />
    <br />
    But.. it does just fine at or near minimum requirements. Since I have a gray-haired video card, I just run the graphics for SIMS on low/laptop setting. Everything still looks lifelike and beautiful.<br />
    <br />
    So whoever doesn't have a top flight gamer's machine, take heart. It runs fine!!.

    I'm in that category, and it runs ok apart from its a bit slow and low graphics with blurred edges. Is there anything I can do to both help it run smoother and avoid over stressing the laptop? I've set the graphics to the lowest setting.

    I will at some point invest in a desktop and I wouldn't mind advice on which specs to go for, especially in terms of the best OS and graphics card. I aim to play it smoothly on either the medium setting or at least the low setting with no edges blurred.
  • MikiMiki Posts: 1,692 Member
    > @Clarkie100 said:
    > Miki wrote: »
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > I'm in that category, and it runs ok apart from its a bit slow and low graphics with blurred edges. Is there anything I can do to both help it run smoother and avoid over stressing the laptop? I've set the graphics to the lowest setting.
    >
    > I will at some point invest in a desktop and I wouldn't mind advice on which specs to go for, especially in terms of the best OS and graphics card. I aim to play it smoothly on either the medium setting or at least the low setting with no edges blurred.


    Hi Clarkie 100!

    I'm running an older desktop, with Win 7 32-bit and an "unsupported" graphics card (SIMS really is the only gaming I do so getting a more advanced graphics card isn't on my front burner)-- the "better" cards are said to be quite pricey. So I play on laptop mode and haven't noticed the blurred edges, probably because I haven't run the game on its higher settings, so I don't know any better.

    Here is what I pulled from an independent site that gathers system requirements for games.

    Processor: Intel Core i5-750 or AMD Athlon X4
    (Note: I have a 7-year old laptop with a processor that satisfies that requirement so that part is easy-peasy!)
    it gives CPU speed as "info" but that doesn't matter. Processors like above will have the required speed

    RAM: 4 gB Again you shouldn't have a problem

    OS: 64-Bit Windows 7,8, or 8.1 (Note: Only because 64 bit can have 4 gB RAM. 32-bit maxes out at 3. But I'm using 32-bit with 3 gB RAM and no performance issues, again in Laptop mode. They don't have Mac compatible TS 4 yet, but they're working on it.

    Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 or better (This is the fun part. But you won't need a hard-charging gaming-configured beast to run this game!)

    Free Disk Space: 10 GB (If you read before my posts, you will note from what those dudes said, that you really should have a heck of a lot more free space than 10 gB. That'll load and launch the game but when you start saving stuff or adding expansions, it won't do. But again, anything you get out there, even recently used-- will have what you need. it's just a matter of what other data you would want on your system.

    One last note! I also have crummy eyes, so if I went whole-hog.. I still might not notice blurred edges!!

    M i k i

    PS That's a pretty avatar. The one I will use as mine isn't anywhere as nice but I like it. She's my original SIM and looks a little like me.. but not to much! When I get to be "Member" I can use it.

    I'd post the link to the site where I got this info but I "have to be around longer".

    All this nonsense because of trolls. Sheesh!
  • Clarkie100Clarkie100 Posts: 1,708 Member
    Miki wrote: »
    > @Clarkie100 said:<br />
    > Miki wrote: »<br />
    > <br />
    > <br />
    > <br />
    > <br />
    > I'm in that category, and it runs ok apart from its a bit slow and low graphics with blurred edges. Is there anything I can do to both help it run smoother and avoid over stressing the laptop? I've set the graphics to the lowest setting.<br />
    > <br />
    > I will at some point invest in a desktop and I wouldn't mind advice on which specs to go for, especially in terms of the best OS and graphics card. I aim to play it smoothly on either the medium setting or at least the low setting with no edges blurred.<br />
    <br />
    <br />
    Hi Clarkie 100!<br />
    <br />
    I'm running an older desktop, with Win 7 32-bit and an "unsupported" graphics card (SIMS really is the only gaming I do so getting a more advanced graphics card isn't on my front burner)-- the "better" cards are said to be quite pricey. So I play on laptop mode and haven't noticed the blurred edges, probably because I haven't run the game on its higher settings, so I don't know any better.<br />
    <br />
    Here is what I pulled from an independent site that gathers system requirements for games.<br />
    <br />
    Processor: Intel Core i5-750 or AMD Athlon X4 <br />
    (Note: I have a 7-year old laptop with a processor that satisfies that requirement so that part is easy-peasy!)<br />
    it gives CPU speed as "info" but that doesn't matter. Processors like above will have the required speed<br />
    <br />
    RAM: 4 gB Again you shouldn't have a problem<br />
    <br />
    OS: 64-Bit Windows 7,8, or 8.1 (Note: Only because 64 bit can have 4 gB RAM. 32-bit maxes out at 3. But I'm using 32-bit with 3 gB RAM and no performance issues, again in Laptop mode. They don't have Mac compatible TS 4 yet, but they're working on it.<br />
    <br />
    Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 or better (This is the fun part. But you won't need a hard-charging gaming-configured beast to run this game!)<br />
    <br />
    Free Disk Space: 10 GB (If you read before my posts, you will note from what those dudes said, that you really should have a heck of a lot more free space than 10 gB. That'll load and launch the game but when you start saving stuff or adding expansions, it won't do. But again, anything you get out there, even recently used-- will have what you need. it's just a matter of what other data you would want on your system.<br />
    <br />
    One last note! I also have crummy eyes, so if I went whole-hog.. I still might not notice blurred edges!!<br />
    <br />
    M i k i<br />
    <br />
    PS That's a pretty avatar. The one I will use as mine isn't anywhere as nice but I like it. She's my original SIM and looks a little like me.. but not to much! When I get to be "Member" I can use it.<br />
    <br />
    I'd post the link to the site where I got this info but I "have to be around longer".<br />
    <br />
    All this nonsense because of trolls. Sheesh!

    Hi Miki

    Thank you for your help.

    I will double check the settings and see if that helps. I'm not sure what laptop mode does because checked or unchecked it doesn't seem to improve performance, but I will turn it back on just in case.

    Thank you for the nice comment on my profile picture, I have no idea how to upload they way most other users have, so I used a different method.
  • MikiMiki Posts: 1,692 Member
    > @Clarkie100 said:
    > Miki wrote: »
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > Hi Miki
    >
    > Thank you for your help.
    >
    > I will double check the settings and see if that helps. I'm not sure what laptop mode does because checked or unchecked it doesn't seem to improve performance, but I will turn it back on just in case.
    >
    > Thank you for the nice comment on my profile picture, I have no idea how to upload they way most other users have, so I used a different method.



    That one I'll figure out when the time comes.. which won't be for a while. Many posts, badges, etc. to go... Anyway it'll be a piece of a screenshot .. the "portrait".

    Anyway I checked and un-checked "laptop" mode, too and saw no differences. I think it might be an automatic way to set everything to their lowest range.

    For laughs I checked "low-medium" to "test" the higher memory I put in, but no, the lower-than-wanted graphics card wouldn't bite. They looked a bit nicer but the performance went way down. Instead of walking around their home, the SIMs "jump"-- kind of like a frame-by-frame or "time lapse" sort of thing, so back to low mode I went. (before it could crash!!)

    One thing about blurred edges. In the "game settings" mode there is a tick-box for "smooth edges" Perhaps if it's ticked on your selections, items and SIMs on your screen may seem blurred. Try to uncheck (if not already tried) that box. Mine is un-ticked and the edges on my screens appear crisp, even on low mode.

    Overall "laptop" mode looks great to me, hence a video card being on the back-burner.

    Oh, I mentioned "pricey" Those are the high-end ones for the big-time gaming rigs they have out there for those heavily-detailed, fast moving MMP games.. Completely not needed for TS4. But that's not saying that this game doesn't have intricate detail. I'm amazed at what they put in. The goofy part being when one of my characters plays "SIMS Forever" on her computer. (Imagine.. Poor things doesn't even know she's just a lowly SIM!) On her screen I can see what obviously is a SIMs game.

    Probably not a big thing for most, but I'm one of those "attention to detail" people and that nice touch didn't go un-noticed.

    M i k i
  • Clarkie100Clarkie100 Posts: 1,708 Member
    Miki wrote: »
    > @Clarkie100 said:<br />
    > Miki wrote: »<br />
    > <br />
    > <br />
    > <br />
    > <br />
    > Hi Miki<br />
    > <br />
    > Thank you for your help.<br />
    > <br />
    > I will double check the settings and see if that helps. I'm not sure what laptop mode does because checked or unchecked it doesn't seem to improve performance, but I will turn it back on just in case.<br />
    > <br />
    > Thank you for the nice comment on my profile picture, I have no idea how to upload they way most other users have, so I used a different method.<br />
    <br />
    <br />
    <br />
    That one I'll figure out when the time comes.. which won't be for a while. Many posts, badges, etc. to go... Anyway it'll be a piece of a screenshot .. the "portrait".<br />
    <br />
    Anyway I checked and un-checked "laptop" mode, too and saw no differences. I think it might be an automatic way to set everything to their lowest range.<br />
    <br />
    For laughs I checked "low-medium" to "test" the higher memory I put in, but no, the lower-than-wanted graphics card wouldn't bite. They looked a bit nicer but the performance went way down. Instead of walking around their home, the SIMs "jump"-- kind of like a frame-by-frame or "time lapse" sort of thing, so back to low mode I went. (before it could crash!!)<br />
    <br />
    One thing about blurred edges. In the "game settings" mode there is a tick-box for "smooth edges" Perhaps if it's ticked on your selections, items and SIMs on your screen may seem blurred. Try to uncheck (if not already tried) that box. Mine is un-ticked and the edges on my screens appear crisp, even on low mode. <br />
    <br />
    Overall "laptop" mode looks great to me, hence a video card being on the back-burner.<br />
    <br />
    Oh, I mentioned "pricey" Those are the high-end ones for the big-time gaming rigs they have out there for those heavily-detailed, fast moving MMP games.. Completely not needed for TS4. But that's not saying that this game doesn't have intricate detail. I'm amazed at what they put in. The goofy part being when one of my characters plays "SIMS Forever" on her computer. (Imagine.. Poor things doesn't even know she's just a lowly SIM!) On her screen I can see what obviously is a SIMs game. <br />
    <br />
    Probably not a big thing for most, but I'm one of those "attention to detail" people and that nice touch didn't go un-noticed.<br />
    <br />
    M i k i

    I agree about laptop mode, it does appear to be a quicker way to set the settings to low. And I will check and see if the smooth edges box is ticked.

    TS4 definitely runs better than any other previous version for me, the one "problem" that really catches my attention is when my sims just stand there for half a game minute when I've selected an action for them, it's like they're thinking about it.
  • MikiMiki Posts: 1,692 Member
    Follow-up

    Brief front burner for the graphics card because I was able to get one which satisfied the minimum requirements. I'll follow up when I get it as to if there's much difference between this card and one they require.
  • John_CitronJohn_Citron Posts: 140 Member
    The better graphics of course means having a bigger, more expensive video card. What you might want to check for is antialiasing settings on your video card control panel. What this big word means is it puts some grey coloring in on the edges to smooth out the bumps. The program its self does this with the smooth graphics, but sometimes having the video card do this its self helps with performance.

    Now replacing a video card isn't always a matter of just replacing the card. Remember the posts I made on power supplies and computer cases? On a desktop machine, in theory a video card can be replaced, however, this is not always the case with machines by HP, Dell, Lenovo, and other prebuilt machines. The problem is the computer case maybe too tight so the card won't fit, and the power supply too small or not have enough connectors. If you are using a laptop, then you're truly SOL because there is no upgrade option at all.

    I have to admit that I am one of the lucky ones with a high-end video card. I went for the top when an older card died a month or two ago. I would have kept using my older card, except it wouldn't power up one day. When I inquired about warranty replacement, the hardware was out by a month. I swear there's a warranty chip in there with a timer that ensures the devices are always just a bit out of warranty when they die!

    It broke my substantially curtailed budget, but having the CPU and rig behind it really helps. I also use other graphics-intensive programs which require all the FPS and horsepower they can get, otherwise there's nothing but a slideshow. Since I made this investment, I won't be upgrading to any other computer equipment anytime soon. I hope to get another 3 or 4 years out of this computer.

    The problem I have found with buying high end computer equipment is it goes obsolete awfully fast. My system is now about 3 years old, except for the video card. In many cases, there's no reason to junk perfectly good working hardware unless there is a real reason to do so. This is what gets me with these over-clockers. These kids modify their computer parts, cook them, then spend another few $1,000 on more stuff. I wish I had that kind of budget. I got into a snit when a 5 year-old hard drive croaked a few months ago then followed by the video card.

    What we do in my house is trickle down older equipment for other uses. My old P4s and older machines became controllers for CNC and engraving equipment. I gave the equipment to one of my brother's customers who does embroidery and plaque engraving. These machines don't work with newer computers so having older equipment around is a good thing. The other good thing for me is cleaned out my basement since I got rid of the old PCs and other stuff with them. :smile: We have a basement full of old hard drives, keyboards, mice, and displays. You wouldn't believe how many times the old equipment comes into use. When a keyboard gets a beer or soft drink bath, it's great being able to dig through the parts and come up with a replacement.

    John
  • MikiMiki Posts: 1,692 Member
    > @John_Citron said:
    > The better graphics of course means having a bigger, more expensive video card. What you might want to check for is antialiasing settings on your video card control panel. What this big word means is it puts some grey coloring in on the edges to smooth out the bumps. The program its self does this with the smooth graphics, but sometimes having the video card do this its self helps with performance.
    >
    > Now replacing a video card isn't always a matter of just replacing the card. Remember the posts I made on power supplies and computer cases? On a desktop machine, in theory a video card can be replaced, however, this is not always the case with machines by HP, Dell, Lenovo, and other prebuilt machines. The problem is the computer case maybe too tight so the card won't fit, and the power supply too small or not have enough connectors. If you are using a laptop, then you're truly SOL because there is no upgrade option at all.. . .
    >
    > I
    >
    > John
    (quote truncated)

    Sound advice, John,

    In my case, however, I've done this sort of thing, less these days now that it's cheaper to just toss them in the recycling pile, but I opened the case and made note of space under the hood before buying the video card, and it fit easily. The power requirements called for a 350 w power supply but I am getting fine results with less.
    As I might have written earlier, my existing "card" was "not supported" although it ran acceptably (no slide-show effect or crashing) once I set the game to dead lowest options. And I have to admit the visuals looked very nice even at "low" everything -except "lighting". (I put "card" in quotes because my OEM is not a card at all but "integrated graphics". This unit is a 2007 model but still runs this particular game just fine, even with 32-bit OS and 3 gB RAM.
    The new card, which is the "minimum" they call "supported" allowed me to bump up a selection or two and the SIMs and their surroundings look nicer. But more importantly, the graphics card has its own CPU while the integrated graphics robbed main processor capacity to do its thing.

    All this probably works in my case because SIMs is not as demanding a program as, say, the high-movement "battlefield" types of games where they need a zillion characters to look good and run all over the place and hack each other to bits (I guess) without melting down the computer's graphics system or CPU.

    Curiously I didn't see a difference between having "laptop mode" ticked and un-ticked, and the characters no longer lurch about the screen as they would when the system is being taxed to its limits.

    Aside from this little game, I'm not into the scene in general, so I guess I'll get by fine with this '07 unit until it dies. It's not like I play SIMs for hours on end. Dribs and drabs, time allowing, for the most part.

    Side note: I never played TS3 or 2 for that matter and the complaints about TS3 being buggy or bogging down may actually have come from those with lower-end machines. the "open world" must demand a bit more system resources than this version.
  • John_CitronJohn_Citron Posts: 140 Member
    @Miki,

    Yup. Those integrated graphics chips are not really meant for playing games because as you said they will rob from the system by using some of the system RAM and of course cycles from the CPU.

    For a power supply, you might want to go more than the minimum if you can. This allows for wiggle room should you want to add in an additional hard drive or more RAM.

    For the most part, your computer should be fine if it does what you want it to do. I agree TS4 is not that demanding compared to Trainz TS12, for example, which will literally melt a computer due to the gazillion polygons that need to be pushed around. Trainz TS12, or I should say, the Trainz series, is very open ended. You can place a whole forest, or build a complete city if you wish. The problem is you can end up creating a slideshow instead of having a decent train ride. Part of the problem is the content is made by many hundreds of users, and all these users have different skill levels with content creation. Some will know how to squeeze the most optimized model out of 3ds Max or Blender, while others will build a similar asset with overly complex and over tessellated surfaces. The end user doesn't know this until the place the objects only to find that some areas shudder and stutter like crazy.

    TS3 had other issues which caused the crashes. I had them more than once as the world got bigger and more complex. Eventually, the program would crash and in my case it actually ate my files so I lost everything that I worked so hard to build up. I attribute some of this to a memory leak where code doesn't get released from memory properly and leaves holes in the memory space. Eventually, there's not enough memory for the program to run efficiently and then it crashes.

    The smaller world we have today with TS4 is much better for performance. I just wish the segue screens were more interesting, perhaps a graphic of the house or business we've sent our Sims to visit.

    John

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