The PC thread

[MetalJunkie]

So I guess I'm going to start saving for a new mobo/CPU so I can play Fallout 4 on high settings.

[Calvin6s]

I haven't set up a server for small office use like Email but have setup FreeNAS for home as a file share and media box and it's fairly easy and I'm assuming secure as well. My desktop I use as a Plex server with some 14 TB of stuff on there, all media related.

I've been thinking about scaling back (from full blown server to NAS).  Does it lock files from writes when another user has the file open (mostly for documents)?

Concerning NAS, I haven't decided if I want to go FreeNAS or a self-contained NAS hardware solution.  I did see FreeNAS has apps, which sounds interesting.  Feel like I could get away with a relatively inexpensive computer build for FreeNAS.

[faizoff]

I've been thinking about scaling back (from full blown server to NAS).  Does it lock files from writes when another user has the file open (mostly for documents)?

Not sure as I was the only one who would tinker with documents and that was usually very rarely. Everyone else in the house used it for media playback.

[faizoff]

Anyone take the plunge to windows 10 yet? I'm going to leave my main desktop PC on win 7 for now. But I have an Unbranded Tablet running 8.1 that I bought for $50 which I'll upgrade to 10 later in the weekend. The insider builds have been excellent so I'm not expecting any issues.
Also have another 2 laptops with 7 that I might try 10 on.

Bloomberg has a nice little video on the history of windows.

[cramx3]

I may have to pull out my laptop and give this a try, haven't even powered my Windows 8 laptop in a few months and really nothing to lose if it sucks (which I don't even think will be the case), but I am in no rush to update my PC.  I also need to learn about how the xbox1 streaming works since I have one of those.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

I just seconds ago used the little logo on my desktop. I'm not sure i'm gonna install it any time soon but atleast I got a version for free which is nice.

[kaos2900]

I'll probably install it tomorrow. I'll be to busy rocking out the BTBAM show tonight. 

[El Barto]

Anyone take the plunge to windows 10 yet?

I've actually reached the point where I'm beginning to consider upgrading from XP to 7. Maybe within the next year. 

[BlobVanDam]

Anyone take the plunge to windows 10 yet?

I've actually reached the point where I'm beginning to consider upgrading from XP to 7. Maybe within the next year. 

7 is great once you get used to the minor differences (and I don't know how you could even get by with only XP in 2015), but like every new version of Windows, it does take more work to unbastardize it, like disabling the ugly Aero interface, background defrag, some of the services etc.

I'd consider upgrading to Windows 10 on my Win 8 laptop, although I worry my laptop would mess it up somehow.

[faizoff]

I upgraded last night on my tablet and messed with a little this morning and have to say the transition to upgrade as opposed to a clean install seemed flawless. I mean all my settings and data were just like before but with a new OS, pretty impressive if you ask me. I remember when I first did an upgrade from Win 98 SE to Win XP the upgrade process took several hours and in the end wasn't worth it as almost every single application wouldn't work without any errors. Those days truly seem to be in the past.

All my devices were recognized right off the bat and working just fine. Now for the important part and load steam on it and play some Age of Empires II.

[jasc15]

I tried updating to Windows 10 last night, but when I woke up this morning the computer was off, and when I booted up it was "reverting to previous version of Windows".  There may have been a power failure last night, so that could be why.  I tried again a few hours ago, and it was stuck at 25% for about 30 minutes before I had to leave for work.  Hopefully it will have completed when I get home later.

[Scorpion]

It probably will. It stuck at 83% for me for ages but when I came back to it a couple of hours later, it was done.

I have to say, I like Windows 10 so far. I wouldn't have taken the plunge quite as early if I had Windows 7, but I got Windows 8 with my laptop when I bought it and it is a huge piece of shit, so I figured that it couldn't be worse. And aside from VLC and foobar needing a reinstall and my wallpaper disappearing, the update has been super smooth and it's already better than Windows 8. I like the look, and it runs a lot smoother.

[cramx3]

I pulled out my laptop over the weekend for the first time in awhile.  Had to do lots of updates before I finally got the icon for the Windows 10 upgrade.  I plan on going through with it at some point when I have free time to play around and then I may sell my laptop if I don't see any use for it.  Its a great device, just that I have a macbook pro and ipad that work gave me and I have my custom PC so my awesome Sony ultrabook/tablet as cool as it is, just sits there collecting dust.

[faizoff]

Like I mentioned before the upgrade process was very smooth. I don't think I was expecting that. Apart from the bluetooth drivers that aren't a 100% I've noticed hardly any issues. 8 ran fantastic on my unbranded tablet and 10 is even better.

[MetalJunkie]

I had some issues with audio drivers, but it was a fairly easy fix.

[jasc15]

So after getting hung up in the same spot 3 times, I spent a few minutes browsing some forums and saw a recommendation to disconnect all SATA drives except the boot drive and to uninstall any anti-virus software.  That did the trick.

[Calvin6s]

With Windows 10, I worry about what I worry about with every new OS.  Hardware (driver) and software compatibility.  And if you have music related hardware, it seems to hit harder than printers, scanners and other more universally popular hardware.

[cramx3]

So after getting hung up in the same spot 3 times, I spent a few minutes browsing some forums and saw a recommendation to disconnect all SATA drives except the boot drive and to uninstall any anti-virus software.  That did the trick.

My brother had to do the same thing, apparently there was some remnants of linux on his storage hard drives (not the OS drives) and he could not install windows 10, until he did the same thing.  Both of those drives were wiped before hand too so I found it very odd.

[jasc15]

The drive I had to disconnect was a SATA DVD drive.  Go figure.  I had my storage HDD disconnected before I began to avoid any possibility of losing data.

[jasc15]

Ever since I had 8.1, I would randomly hear the USB disconnect tone here and there.  Then, suddenly my mouse and keyboard would stop working simultaneously.  I'm not sure if the USB disconnect tone is related, since it doesn't happen immediately prior to mouse/keyboard failure.  It is continuing with the Windows 10 upgrade.  I've played with the USB settings in the BIOS, but that has no effect.

[BlobVanDam]

Ever since I had 8.1, I would randomly hear the USB disconnect tone here and there.  Then, suddenly my mouse and keyboard would stop working simultaneously.  I'm not sure if the USB disconnect tone is related, since it doesn't happen immediately prior to mouse/keyboard failure.  It is continuing with the Windows 10 upgrade.  I've played with the USB settings in the BIOS, but that has no effect.

Hm, is it something to do with the USB settings in the power options?

[Cyclopssss]

Well, my pc runs windows 8 and I've tried 4 times to install Windows 10 and it just stalls. Tried disconnecting my external harddrive, didn't do it. No desire to go hunting through my entire pc for a fix. 

[cramx3]

I actually had the same problem, but I did some research and found that it was a manufacturer defect with my motherboard that causes the USB to go on and off on one of the controllers.  I found a way to disable it so it wouldn't bother me anymore and effectively does not cause any issues.  I started looking at my mobo because like you, I had installed different operating systems, used differerent hard drives and USB devices for years and always had that issue.  HOWEVER, on my latest build on that PC, that issue had not come up at all and it is really surprising. 

[ariich]

I've heard a lot of positivity about upgrading from 8.1 to 10, which seems to go smoothly and seeing as most people hate 8 is seen as a big improvement.

But has anyone else tried upgrading from 7 to 10? I tried it at the weekend, and it was an unmitigated disaster. Almost nothing worked. The taskbar didn't work, the Start would never open, and even right-clicking almost never worked. And the task manager kept crashing. Every fix I found online either didn't work or, usually, I couldn't even attempt because the other things I needed to use wouldn't work.

Anyway I gave up after a few hours of trying and decided to rollback to 7. Even that was an arse because the online instructions on how to do it required you to open the Settings app, which surprise surprise I couldn't open. In the end I found some online article that gave an alternative that you can use from the login screen, which worked.

So yeah, my own personal experience is that Windows 10 after upgrading from 7 is a total pile of wank.

[jasc15]

Hm, is it something to do with the USB settings in the power options?

Not sure.  I don't know if that is something different from what I did already.  Where might I access power options?  Thats not in the Control Panel, is it?

I actually had the same problem, but I did some research and found that it was a manufacturer defect with my motherboard that causes the USB to go on and off on one of the controllers.

I hope its not a mobo issue (or at least not a hardware issue).  I have an ASRock Z77 Extreme 4.

[BlobVanDam]

Hm, is it something to do with the USB settings in the power options?

Not sure.  I don't know if that is something different from what I did already.  Where might I access power options?  Thats not in the Control Panel, is it?

Yeah, it's in Control Panel. Click Change Plan Settings, and then change the advanced power settings, and then there's a USB setting in there.
You may have already looked, and it may not help with your problem, but that was just my first thought.

And I believe we have the same motherboard.

[cramx3]

Thats not the same mobo as me, so you may be clear of at least my issue.

[faizoff]

I haven't tried upgrading from 7 to 10. But if there are issues, I'll do a clean install of 10 after the first upgrade. Been using 10 on my tablet and loving it so far.

[ariich]

I haven't tried upgrading from 7 to 10. But if there are issues, I'll do a clean install of 10 after the first upgrade.

I'm interested in this but don't really know what it involves. Is it literally a start-from-scratch thing where you then need to install all your software and reimport all your backed up files? Or is it simply a clean install of the OS while files and programs stay as they are?

[Lucien]

I'll just stick to 8.1 thank you

[faizoff]

I haven't tried upgrading from 7 to 10. But if there are issues, I'll do a clean install of 10 after the first upgrade.

I'm interested in this but don't really know what it involves. Is it literally a start-from-scratch thing where you then need to install all your software and reimport all your backed up files? Or is it simply a clean install of the OS while files and programs stay as they are?

It's a clean install. LIke wipe your drive and put a fresh new copy of windows and then load the drivers windows itself doesnt find. And the remaining software yourself.You'll have to make backups of course. With the free upgrade from previous version of windows to 10 a clean install on first try without an upgrade wont work. But this step involves more work and is generally a lot better for the OS. I'm going to do this on a new 480 GB SSD I just ordered.

[cramx3]

I will likely go that route too, but I just am too lazy to redo my computer when it's been running so smoothly since my last build of it.  Kind of the dont fix what's not broken mentality, but I know I will want to upgrade at some point.

[faizoff]

I will likely go that route too, but I just am too lazy to redo my computer when it's been running so smoothly since my last build of it.  Kind of the dont fix what's not broken mentality, but I know I will want to upgrade at some point.

That's pretty much why I haven't upgraded my main desktop. It's been running without a reformat since 2012 and I've made so many setting changes, installed tons of programs and tweaks that would take me quite a while to do if I did a clean install on it. Which is why I'm trying the upgrade on a new SSD and will see if it requires major attention. Have to make sure all devices/drivers work and make sure my steam games work lol.

[BlobVanDam]

I will likely go that route too, but I just am too lazy to redo my computer when it's been running so smoothly since my last build of it.  Kind of the dont fix what's not broken mentality, but I know I will want to upgrade at some point.

That's pretty much why I haven't upgraded my main desktop. It's been running without a reformat since 2012 and I've made so many setting changes, installed tons of programs and tweaks that would take me quite a while to do if I did a clean install on it.

Ditto, even down to the year I installed it. Still running flawlessly, and I have so many bits of vital hardware and software that I need to ensure work correctly, so I'd rather leave it until this version of Windows has sorted out any little teething problems.
Next time I have to reinstall, I'll definitely give it a go.

[ariich]

I'm trying to remember when I bought my current PC, but yeah probably 2012 sounds about right, and no full reboots since then. Similarly, I have loads of settings and software that I definitely can't be bothered to sort out all over again from scratch unless it's absolutely necessary (e.g. buying a new computer).

And yeah, still running mostly well, just a bit slow to load up and shut down, which is one of the main reasons I was tempted by Windows 10 but clearly that was a failure.