Wow do I feel stupid--Windows 8.1 and hardware issue

[Laura Knotek]

I sure feel stupid.

Ever since I upgraded to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8, I was getting a horrible screen flicker on my laptop. Since it's 5 years old, my first thought was hardware on its way out.

I connected an external monitor and got no screen flicker, which concluded the GPU was fine.

Then I thought it was either the inverter or LCD cable (either is cheap to order from Amazon.com). Luckily I didn't bother ordering the hardware and taking everything apart.

I decided to check Nvidia's site for drivers, and sure enough there were updated drivers for Windows 8.1. Duh! That's what I should have checked first, before checking hardware.

 

[HeyCori]

hehe well done

 

[stmav]

I think we all are guilty of a few "duh" moments when working on computers. I know I am.

 

[palandri]

There's a lot of nonsense in the Battlefield 4 PC forum. Battlefield 4 beta runs fine on ATI video cards with Win8, but it runs terrible on ATI video cards with Win7, so all these kids think they have to upgrade to Win8 to play Battlefield 4, when all they have to do is wait for an ATI Driver update. It happens with almost every new FPS. It's either optimized for Nvidia or ATI and you just have to wait for a driver update.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I pulled the trigger anyway and am getting a new laptop from amazon.com. Amazon.com: ASUS Vivobook V551LB-DB71T 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop: Computers & Accessories

 

[palandri]

I pulled the trigger anyway and am getting a new laptop from amazon.com. Amazon.com: ASUS Vivobook V551LB-DB71T 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop: Computers & Accessories

Nice

 

[Laura Knotek]

Nice

Thanks! I thought it was a good price for the hardware.

 

[palandri]

Thanks! I thought it was a good price for the hardware.

It's $999 at NewEgg: Newegg.com - ASUS V551LB-DB71T Intel Core i7 4500U(1.80GHz) 8GB Memory 1TB HDD 15.6" Touchscreen Notebook Windows 8 64-Bit

The i7 CPU is a very powerful CPU. I have one in my gaming PC.

 

[rockstarzzz]

Since we are all getting technical, what do you folks think about solid state hard drives vs ordinary ones? Work gave me a solid state Windows 7 - that thing is faster than light, literally!

 

[palandri]

Since we are all getting technical, what do you folks think about solid state hard drives vs ordinary ones? Work gave me a solid state Windows 7 - that thing is faster than light, literally!

I tried one in an old laptop I had and I was amazed at the speed. I haven't had one since, but I am sure they're the future.

This was the one I tried: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171645

 

[Laura Knotek]

Since we are all getting technical, what do you folks think about solid state hard drives vs ordinary ones? Work gave me a solid state Windows 7 - that thing is faster than light, literally!

I might eventually swap out the HDD for a SSD. Right now they're still pricey for the amount of storage capacity they offer.

 

[Laura Knotek]

It's $999 at NewEgg: Newegg.com - ASUS V551LB-DB71T Intel Core i7 4500U(1.80GHz) 8GB Memory 1TB HDD 15.6" Touchscreen Notebook Windows 8 64-Bit

The i7 CPU is a very powerful CPU. I have one in my gaming PC.

I checked Newegg and TigerDirect, which were both more expensive than Amazon.

 

[HeyCori]

I have a regular HDD and my RPM is turtle-slow. Sometimes it feels like the bane of my existence. However, SSDs still cost too much for the tiny amount of space you get. I'd rather be big-and-slow on my desktop and small-and-fast on my tablet.