A silly noob asks silly computer questions.

[ilya]

Hey guys, as some of you might know, I purchased a laptop lately and I'm enjoying it quite a bit although I do have some general computer questions, that somebody might just be kind enough to answer :)

 

 

 

* Does anybody know of a program that will let you exit to desktop, no matter what other program I am running? - For some games (such as Oblivion) when I play full screen and I need to access something else on my computer other then the game, the "Exit to Desktop Button" (between ctrl, fn and alt) does not do anything, even if i go into the game menu it does nothing?

 

 

 

* My computer rigs are:

 

AMD Turion Duo Core 2.0 Ghz

 

3GB of DRAM

 

Nvidia GeForece 8200M G

 

 

 

Now I have a few question about that too:

 

- It says I have Duo Core 2.00GHZ, does that mean I have 2 processors? And does that also mean 2 processors at 2.00 GHZ, I have 4.00GHZ? Or what? Whats the difference between One and Duo Cores?

 

- For my graphic card it says I have 256MB Dedicated Video Memory and 1151MB Shared Video Memory. Whats the Difference between the two and how do I turn the 1151MB on (I don't think it is)

 

 

 

* How do I increase my Frame Rate in Games?

 

Look at my specs, and yet in Oblivion I only get around MAX 14 Frames Per Second, but I read other people with 2GB of Ram and like 7200 graphic cards, get 30 Frame Per Second. Thats with all the game setting at the low-mid, with shadows and distant view turned off. Any help here?

 

 

 

* Is it possible to install a game on a flash drive (or a blank disk), then plug it in and play without it being on the computer?

 

 

 

* Does anybody knows a good anti-virus like Norton but Free? My free trial will run out soon :).

 

 

 

* Does installing lots of games on my harddrive (i have 100 of 250 GB left) make my computer run any slower if I dont even start those games?

 

 

 

* I'm sure you guys are knowledgable, could you please reccomend me some usefull programs (anything from alarm clocks, to downloads mamanger or just whatever)

 

 

 

THANKS alot in advance and I'm sure I'll have alot more questions in the near future :)

[sloter]

I just hit the windows button in games to get to the desktop.

[ilya]

I just hit the windows button in games to get to the desktop.

 

If you bother to read the thread at all you'd notice that, that doesn't work for me.

[thrash-boy]

*The desktop thing: just press alt+tab and have something in the background. you could also press the windows button. Its best to have the game running at the same resolution to windows for quicker changing. it is not recommended though and can crash the game/computer, so save regularly.

 

 

 

- It says I have Duo Core 2.00GHZ, does that mean I have 2 processors? And does that also mean 2 processors at 2.00 GHZ, I have 4.00GHZ? Or what? Whats the difference between One and Duo Cores?

 

You have a single (1) duel core processor. It does not mean you you have 2 processors and it does NOT run at 4.00GHz, its alot faster at processing than a single core, but is still a bit slower than having 2 separate processors in you computer.

 

basically a duel core processor can do 2 things at once. it can work out the answer to 6+1 and 2+9 (for example) at the same time, where as a single core processor would work one out, and then work the other out.

 

heres a good link: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-dual- ... cessor.htm

 

 

 

- For my graphic card it says I have 256MB Dedicated Video Memory and 1151MB Shared Video Memory. Whats the Difference between the two and how do I turn the 1151MB on (I don't think it is)

 

You have 256mb of memory physically built into the graphics chip in your computer box. The 1151mb of memory is your system ram, which is attached to your motherboard inside your computer. Dont worry about turning it on.

 

 

 

* How do I increase my Frame Rate in Games?

 

reduce your screen resolution. If it doesnt work post exactly what settings of everything you are using and someone will help you.

 

 

 

* Is it possible to install a game on a flash drive (or a blank disk), then plug it in and play without it being on the computer?

 

Yes it is. Most modern games however will not work. not only because reading the data from a flash drive would create lag, but they use the windows registry. if you wanted it to work you would ahve to take a reg file with you and install it everywhere before playing. you would need admin privileges to do so, so doing it on school computers etc wouldn't happen.

 

There are cracked version of games available on the internet that will work, but they are pirated and cant be discussed on these forums (so dont ask how to get pirated copy's!), im not sure if we are allowed to discuss how to get cracks and crack your own legal version or not.

 

 

 

* Does anybody knows a good anti-virus like Norton but Free? My free trial will run out soon :).

 

AVG free. http://free.avg.com/

 

 

 

* Does installing lots of games on my harddrive (i have 100 of 250 GB left) make my computer run any slower if I dont even start those games?

 

Yes. it will take longer for your hard drive to access information if its clattered in between all sorts of other data. defragging helps, but nothing beats removing it and then defragging.

 

 

 

* I'm sure you guys are knowledgable, could you please reccomend me some usefull programs (anything from alarm clocks, to downloads mamanger or just whatever)

 

If your on IE, toss it and get firefox. There are alot of free addons that can do all sorts of things for it (download managers and more)

 

Install a spyware remover such as ad aware and delete all the junk from your pc that could be slowing it down.

 

 

 

 

 

Feel free to ask any questions you wish! :thumbsup:

[ClareJonsson]

Thrash you beat me too it lol, but here's my post anyway:

 

 

 

* Does anybody know of a program that will let you exit to desktop, no matter what other program I am running? - For some games (such as Oblivion) when I play full screen and I need to access something else on my computer other then the game, the "Exit to Desktop Button" (between ctrl, fn and alt) does not do anything, even if i go into the game menu it does nothing?

 

 

It depends on the game and the method they use to write to the screen. Some games will take total control of your PC and there's no way to get back to the desktop unless you exit the game or press CTRL+ALT+DEL and kill the game using task manager. So unfortunately you cannot pause the game and get back to the desktop. The main reason is that games need as much of the PCs resources as possible and sharing CPU, Video RAM etc with other programs will mean a degradation in the games performance.

 

 

 

 

* My computer rigs are:

 

AMD Turion Duo Core 2.0 Ghz

 

3GB of DRAM

 

Nvidia GeForece 8200M G

 

 

 

Now I have a few question about that too:

 

- It says I have Duo Core 2.00GHZ, does that mean I have 2 processors? And does that also mean 2 processors at 2.00 GHZ, I have 4.00GHZ? Or what? Whats the difference between One and Duo Cores?

 

 

You have one processor that has two cores built into it. Each core can work indipendantly and is almost like having two separate processors except they share much of the bandwidth on the bus. You don't have a 4GHz CPU but you have a CPU that can do two different things at the same time.

 

 

 

 

- For my graphic card it says I have 256MB Dedicated Video Memory and 1151MB Shared Video Memory. Whats the Difference between the two and how do I turn the 1151MB on (I don't think it is)

 

 

Your graphics card has 256MB of memory specifically set aside for it, this means that the GPU can access this memory very quickly. The shared memory is allocated for system or graphics and the PC manages this depending on what is required. i.e. if your game suddenly requires more address space for textures, then it will be allowed to grab some of the system RAM, but this space is slower than the 256MB.

 

 

 

 

* How do I increase my Frame Rate in Games?

 

Look at my specs, and yet in Oblivion I only get around MAX 14 Frames Per Second, but I read other people with 2GB of Ram and like 7200 graphic cards, get 30 Frame Per Second. Thats with all the game setting at the low-mid, with shadows and distant view turned off. Any help here?

 

 

That depends on the game, some games are written badly and you need a really powerful system to play it properly. While other games that have better graphics run more smoothly, and these games would be written with more skilled coders. I have two games that demonstrate this, 1. Halflife 2: This runs amazingly fast and has awesome graphics. 2. Gotcha: Graphics aren't that good but it feels sluggish and has slower frame rates. I have always found games by them Valve folk to be excellent quality and always runs fantastic, even on lower spec systems, and that's down to skilled and tight coding regardless of the system specification the game requires. As thrash-boy said, you may increase performance by lowering the resolution or turning off various aspects such as anti-aliasing.

 

 

 

 

* Is it possible to install a game on a flash drive (or a blank disk), then plug it in and play without it being on the computer?

 

 

No, it would be too slow. Playing games off external media would be painfull.

 

 

 

 

* Does anybody knows a good anti-virus like Norton but Free? My free trial will run out soon :).

 

 

I use Avast, and found it to be excellent. My boyfriend used to use AVG but he's gone over to Avast now too.

 

 

 

 

* Does installing lots of games on my harddrive (i have 100 of 250 GB left) make my computer run any slower if I dont even start those games?

 

 

In theory no, but it may make boot times a little slower due to prefetching (Superfetch in Vista).

 

 

 

 

* I'm sure you guys are knowledgable, could you please reccomend me some usefull programs (anything from alarm clocks, to downloads mamanger or just whatever)

 

 

I wrote a screen saver a few years ago that displays the time as a digital clock and has a choice of me saying the time every 15 mins, a chiming clock or silence. It also has a funny quote system that randomly displays quotes. It also allows you to add your own quotes. I can dig it up if you wish?

 

 

 

One of the most useful things you could have is a backup method, now there are many free programs out there that do this for you, i.e. backing up to external media such as USB hard drive, but you don't really need these programs as you can do it all from within Windows using XCOPY in a batch file and Scheduled Tasks. The command line for XCOPY would be something like this:

 

XCOPY  "SOURCE\*.*"  "DESTINATION\*.*"  /D /E /C /I /F /H /R /Y

 

SOURCE would be where the files are coming from, such as "C:\Users\Fred\My Documents\*.*" and the Destination would be where you want to back up the files to, such as "F:\Backup\My Documents\*.*". This backup method is incrimental so it will only backup files that are new or have changed and should be backed up to an external drive or network resource. If you want to know more about this I can give you hand.

 

 

 

Bye for now,

 

Clare.

[Makoto_the_Phoenix]

There's a lot of answers already on this thread, but I think I can contribute a little more to this discussion, too.

 

 

 

1) Games are fickle in the sense that they will demand 98% of the resources. The best way to go back to Desktop would be with the CTRL+ALT+DEL command.

 

 

 

2) It's two cores, but not two processors. It's like Clare said, your machine can just do more things at once. It's easier to think about it like a 2.0GHz x 2 processor; it's not 4GHz, but it's not the same as exactly 2GHz, either.

 

 

 

3) The difference was already explained -- the 256MB dedicated memory is simply faster for your graphics card to access than system memory. It can take up to 1151MB of extra memory if the application demands it, but this means typically slower performance.

 

 

 

4) For you, I don't think it's going to happen. The 8200M is a mobile graphics card, meaning that it suffers limitations right off the bat. [i'm surprised no one noticed this.] It's never a good idea to play games on a laptop, notwithstanding the limits of upgrading, but because of the sheer heat alone that can be generated from the laptop. Trust me, I know this -- I'm telling this to you on a machine with an nVidia 7000M, and it peaks at 71C (w/o cooling pad) when playing RSHD.

 

 

 

Crysis is a demanding game, and if you can't keep your rig cool while playing it, it's going to suffer some major performance degradation.

 

 

 

5) Short answer - No with an unless, long answer - yes, with a warning.

 

 

 

You can't play a game on a thumb drive if it requires either a LOT of space, but you CAN run programs that are less demanding on the drive. The reason being that thumb drives have only a limited number of rewrite sequences before they're permanently fried. So in other words, I wouldn't go installing some game like C&C3 on a thumb drive. Your hard disk is far more capable of handling it than some flimsy thumb drive.

 

 

 

6) I can't field this one - I haven't used AV since '05. Someone else should've answered this one.

 

 

 

7) No, probably not.

 

 

 

8) The most useful thing that a computer can have is space. This means that you don't truly need things like registry cleaners or third-party defragmenters (although those have far better results than Windows does). In short, keep your machine free from programs that serve no purpose beyond a trial, and programs that don't serve a true purpose.

 

 

 

However, I'd definitely look into an Incinerator program for Windows, especially if you have files you don't necessarily want to come back.

[Nadril]

Everyone seems to have answered him, I thought I'd point out this one though:

 

 

 

* How do I increase my Frame Rate in Games?

 

Look at my specs, and yet in Oblivion I only get around MAX 14 Frames Per Second, but I read other people with 2GB of Ram and like 7200 graphic cards, get 30 Frame Per Second. Thats with all the game setting at the low-mid, with shadows and distant view turned off. Any help here?

 

 

 

Oblivion is (still) a very demanding game. Now, as far as your card goes the 8200 series is intended for serious budget play, and really aren't meant to play the newest or best games. Likewise you then have the "M" series which is mobile, and they are usually a little less powerful than their PC brother.

 

 

 

 

 

The people getting 30fps on Oblivion might be running 7900's or something like that. You have to know that the first number in the series doesn't mean that much. A 7900GS is more powerful than an 8200M by a long shot, and a 7900GT even comes "close" to a 8600GT.

 

 

 

 

 

For graphic cards which are good for gaming you want to pay attention to the last 3 digits. If they are "600" than it is considered a budget gaming card. Still good, mind you, but budget. If they are "800" then it is their gaming series card. Any other series (200,300, ect.) are very low budget cards intended for basic processes.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways I would turn down the graphics for oblivion. There also are mods online for oblivion that help tweak the game to make it run smoother, you may want to check out some of them.