I think I am done with windows

[ajdroidx]

Yup. I am sick of my desktop and think I may just replace the stupid thing with a 15" MBP.

Recent problems:
- My mouse curser now has a spinning circle near it 90% of the time while idle.

-Clicking don't work sometimes or its slow where it "dings" when doing something like if another dialog box is open. I changed the battery in the mouse

- Playing videos with windows media often crashes my driver and tells me I am out of memory. I have 4gigs of system ram and a geforce 8800 GTS card. I don't think this is the problem. i7 CPU

- The driver issues with like my Nexus, iPod (when I had it) Xoom and other things.

- Using internet explorer, on google, I type a search phrase in and a little window pops up asking me if I want to save the search. Every. Single. Time. I suspect this is a Active X scripting conflict as I do have antivir and spybot. Spybot came up clean on the scan and antivir has not hinted at anything other then gingerbreak. This is by far the most annoying aspect right now. I got to turn off my active scripting to keep IE from asking me if I want to save the stupid search.

- Several times IE will ask me to speed up my browser by choosing add-ons. Almost every time I boot and load IE

- I know the answer many of you will give and that is either chrome or firefox. I got chrome. Its kind of stupid I have to work around windows to make it work!?

- Safari has spoiled me with the on-the-fly spelling correction



- The thing is bulky. Seriously its in the way.

- My 13" MBP base model gets more use, though I wish it had more power for video editing. It should be able to run like photoshop or something.

The only issues I have with just dumping my PC into a lake is my Raw photo files and video clips. I should just be able to drag and drop the files unto a new external drive. As far as software, well, Adobe photoshop and GRlevel 3 are about the only two major pieces of software I have and photoshop I mean to upgrade and buy fresh anyway, so might as well buy the mac version.

As far as the 13" MBP I have right now, well, its a great computer, but I think I am going to back up the few things I got saved to it, restore lion and since its mothers day coming up and my mom is getting into photography and she has an ancient toshiba laptop that (also drives me crazy due to windows xp) I think I will give her this very MBP I am typing this out on

My PC will become a legacy device and probably stored into another room and see very little use after I get my photos off of it.

----------------------

Now to decide if I want the base 15" model or spend the extra cash on that massive video card. I am not really gaming so...

- I think the quad core i7 in that thing will work more for video editing then the video card. And I can use the money I saved and beef up the ram in the thing and maybe an SSD scratch disc

 

[9to5cynic]

Sorry you're having troubles, but I'd try popping in a linux live disk (maybe linux mint) and see how that goes for you... You won't have any issues with IE () and you should be able to play video without issues. I play video constantly on my netbook in linux.

Hope that helps at least a bit. Also, if you are interested, you could install a linux distro on it and set it up as a file server so you can share files and back them up from the MBP.

 

[ajdroidx]

Sorry you're having troubles, but I'd try popping in a linux live disk (maybe linux mint) and see how that goes for you... You won't have any issues with IE () and you should be able to play video without issues. I play video constantly on my netbook in linux.

Hope that helps at least a bit. Also, if you are interested, you could install a linux distro on it and set it up as a file server so you can share files and back them up from the MBP.

I was thinking that

The hardware on my desktop is still good (I think!?) and I got mint linux on a CD around here someplace. Fresh HDDs are cheap so that would be fun to mess with

I think I am just tired of windows and want something new

 

[as439726]

Chrome is a cleaner browser as well. VLC for media

 

[9to5cynic]

I was thinking that

The hardware on my desktop is still good (I think!?) and I got mint linux on a CD around here someplace. Fresh HDDs are cheap so that would be fun to mess with

I think I am just tired of windows and want something new

That way you'll really be able to see if the problem is the hardware of maybe just software issues. I'd guess that it's the software (windows) but you never know. Good luck!

Chrome is a cleaner browser as well. VLC for media

True, or firefox. I use both. VLC is king of media. All other players bow before the mighty traffic cone icon.

 

[DaSchmarotzer]

You should start by doing a clean install of Windows 7. It's really simple and it doesn't take long to set-up afterwards if you're not a power-user (which you are clearly not since you are using IE ). After that, get chrome. The job is done.

The problem with VLC is that it's ugly. Seriously, give me something that's as good-looking as WMP with the same features and I'll be an happy man. Until then, I'll stick to WMP.

 

[mikedt]

The problem with VLC is that it's ugly.

IMO it's not ugly, it's functional, it does exactly what I need, no nonsense, no fuss. All of my students are very familiar with VLC, because I use it for classroom projector video presentations.

Seriously, give me something that's as good-looking as WMP with the same features and I'll be an happy man. Until then, I'll stick to WMP.

Problem I found with WMP, it doesn't play most of the downloaded video formats like MKV, FLV, DivX, Xvid, etc. It does looks nice and shiny though.

 

[karandpr]

Problem I found with WMP, it doesn't play most of the downloaded video formats like MKV, FLV, DivX, Xvid, etc. It does looks nice and shiny though.

WMP works fine after installing Codec packs like K-Lite .

 

[linuxrich]

VLC works fine. Period.

 

[as439726]

You should start by doing a clean install of Windows 7. It's really simple and it doesn't take long to set-up afterwards if you're not a power-user (which you are clearly not since you are using IE ). After that, get chrome. The job is done.

The problem with VLC is that it's ugly. Seriously, give me something that's as good-looking as WMP with the same features and I'll be an happy man. Until then, I'll stick to WMP.

Except VLC plays almost anything and the new update resolved some glitches

 

[SUroot]

I like VLC. Yes it plays everything. I like WMP as its prettier. On windows I used WMP HC (Home Cinema) which works much better than WMP, but looks like VLC.

In the end I made my media centre XBMC and it runs everything I throw at it.

For windows I like to keep it simple but pretty and usually end up with WMP11 + K-Lite FULL codec pack. For Audio, WinAMP as WMP's sound quality is lacking.

In short, I have found no perfect solution in windows. I use Linux mainly myself anyway. Although I am yet to move away from Banshee for movies.

 

[argedion]

I prefere VLC for Windows, and Linux. Wmp is nice but its always been a resource hog.

 

[as439726]

I prefere VLC for Windows, and Linux. Wmp is nice but its always been a resource hog.

Yup Yup

 

[SamuraiBigEd]

I prefere VLC for Windows, and Linux. Wmp is nice but its always been a resource hog.

Which is why you needs more resources!:hahaha:

 

[argedion]

Which is why you needs more resources!:hahaha:

There is no such monster with Windows.

 

[ajdroidx]

I wonder if something is wrong with my video card? Its a geforce 8800 GTS with 640gb of ddr 3 ram. Got it pretty much when they first came out. Cost 400 bucks or something. I had the card in a previous build and I kept getting shutdowns and BSODs.

Too bad new cards use new standards and I may have to replace my motherboard and ram along with it. Seems like a huge hassle.

I wonder if there is a video card checker. I often get a "out of memory error" after my system freezes for a few seconds, blacks out and windows recovers and says it was a driver error.

 

[SamuraiBigEd]

I wonder if something is wrong with my video card? Its a geforce 8800 GTS with 640gb of ddr 3 ram. Got it pretty much when they first came out. Cost 400 bucks or something. I had the card in a previous build and I kept getting shutdowns and BSODs.

Too bad new cards use new standards and I may have to replace my motherboard and ram along with it. Seems like a huge hassle.

I wonder if there is a video card checker. I often get a "out of memory error" after my system freezes for a few seconds, blacks out and windows recovers and says it was a driver error.

There are programs which will scan your system and tell you exactly what is wrong hardware wise. Check with a local PC shop, a buddy of mine charges $85.00 to run the scan, it takes 24-48 hours to complete. It is a stress test and will list any errors but can overtax weak components in the process so be aware that components "on the way out" can be killed by the test.

Last time I had an "Out of Memory Error" that wasn't related to Photoshop it was bad ram, it would bsod on a regular basis, changed the ram and all was fine.

I second the fresh install suggestion, after the test is run and bad components replaced. How old is the desktop?

Also, if running Photoshop it is best to have the maximum amount of ram the system can handle installed.

 

[ajdroidx]

Bad ram is also a possibility

When I tried to upgrade my ram to 8gig and install a SSD and windows 7 64 on it, I had all kinds of problems. The PC did not even post. Finally I removed the new ram and it booted

 

[SamuraiBigEd]

Was it a match for what you had installed or a complete replacement? You can encounter compatibility issues between different ram modules or between ram and motherboard as well as defective ram right out of the package (had this happen a few times).

 

[argedion]

With RAM its important to remember you can run a lower bus speed ram but never a higher bus speed ram. Some systems though will not support the lower on exact. so if you have 833mhz frontside bus then you must replace / add with 833mhz frontside bus. Some systems still require pairs as well so thats another issue you have to look at.

 

[SUroot]

With RAM its important to remember you can run a lower bus speed ram but never a higher bus speed ram. Some systems though will not support the lower on exact. so if you have 833mhz frontside bus then you must replace / add with 833mhz frontside bus. Some systems still require pairs as well so thats another issue you have to look at.

..and sometimes those pairs are slot 1+2 and 3+4 and other times they're 1+3 and 2+4...

 

[argedion]

..and sometimes those pairs are slot 1+2 and 3+4 and other times they're 1+3 and 2+4...

yes sir your correct and what an excellent point.

 

[ajdroidx]

Yeah, I made sure they where slotted right. Oh well. The New ram could have just been bad. It happens. At 40 bucks, I just tossed the stuff in the corner. Did not think it was worth the hassle to get an RMA from new egg and ship it back and wait for another pair of sticks. The latency and everything was the same as what I had installed anyway, same brand and so on.

 

[Covart]

Now to decide if I want the base 15" model or spend the extra cash on that massive video card. I am not really gaming so...

- I think the quad core i7 in that thing will work more for video editing then the video card. And I can use the money I saved and beef up the ram in the thing and maybe an SSD scratch disc

Wait for the refresh of the MBP to see what they look like and have in them before you decide. Here is a link to the buyers guide and refresh history. Althogh rumor is, these new MBP's will resemble Air's and have no optical drive. Mac Buyer's Guide: Know When to Buy Your Mac, iPod or iPhone

And I can say this much, I have the MBP from 2010 and I took the Optical drive out, use it as an external USB optical drive (when I occassionally need to use it, which is rare sinse everything is downloaded from the Mac App Store now, including new OS's like Mountain Lion), and then installed a 128gb ssd for the OS and essential programs and a 500gb 7200rpm hdd for video's, photo's and games (this slots into where the optical dive was with a SATA caddy. Andof course, upgraded to 8gbof RAM.
Boot time from cold start is 16 seconds. When I had Windows 7 loaded via a partition, it loaded in 25 seconds from the point I selected the partition. And all this was in 2010. The new MBP's are even better, and prices for ssd's have gone down.
For your needs, and sinse you won't be gaming, the current or new line of MBP's should do you nicely.

 

[ajdroidx]

Too late. I now have a 15" base MBP right now. Its the one I probably should have bought in the first place.

From what I have heard the Ivy Bridge Intel chips are not going to be a huge performance increase, what 10%? Even so, this is apple, so I expect an incremental upgrade anyway