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The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

Discussion in 'Building a new PC' started by ddp, Sep 13, 2010.

  1. omegaman7

    omegaman7 Senior member

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    Dropping a hard drive doesn't bother me so much, but the design of laptops are certainly flawed. I realized that when I gripped the thin plastic encasement, and caused the platter to grind. NOT good. Thankfully, mechanical drives in laptops are becoming more and more rare. If they wish to continue employing them, they should definitely make those areas more robust. But if they keep making laptops and notebooks more thin, I don't see how they could do it. Lest they use materials that are tougher, while also thin. Or at least flip the hard drive upside down from its current position!!! That would probably help at least.
     
  2. Mr-Movies

    Mr-Movies Active member

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    I've never seen a notebook that was that fragile were handling it caused the HDD to grind. In fact I can squeeze a 2.5" HDD external and it won't grind. But that is my experience. I would also like to get away from mechanical devices too but not for less life and more fragile overall, which is a fact with SSD's
     
  3. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    i think it was the optical drive that did the grinding not the hd as to much space between top\bottom of hd & top\bottom of laptop.
     
  4. omegaman7

    omegaman7 Senior member

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    No disc in the optical drive. And I gripped the hard drive area :p
     
  5. Mr-Movies

    Mr-Movies Active member

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    That would be a normal usage situation? LOL Never done that one, Yet! :D
     
  6. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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  7. Mr-Movies

    Mr-Movies Active member

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    Now that looks very cool, I'll have to play with it. I'm wondering if it gives you control of the security detail as well? Most that play with structural rights and NTFS+ know what a pain it can be sometimes to manage user rights. It would be nice to have a graphical tool like this for that.

    I get a kick out of the summary of his tool, he invented? More correct would be created as there have been plenty of tools similar that go way back to a DOS environment. But tit for tat, looks like a nice tool.
     
  8. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Yeah, I used to use SequoiaView for that, but at work we've been using TreeSize lately.
    That seems to be the quickest way to identify a large number of separate spacehogs.
     
  9. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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    He just says that the concept of Treemap was invented by another person, and gives them credit as the tool utilises it. Not quite such a grand claim!

    This is where I came across the tool:
    http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds

    Some of the info is basic and n/a to most in this thread no doubt, but I picked up a few bits I hadn't heard of before (mainly a couple of the regedits for "speed" related tweaks).
     
  10. Estuansis

    Estuansis Active member

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    I believe Treemaps have been around for a while. Not the first time I've seen a drive tool like that. Very interesting insight into how drives are structured. Makes it a snap to see what's what :p
     
  11. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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    Wanted to run something by anyone that sees it.

    Laptop battery was on the way out (failed a diagnostic after I noticed charge was lacking), so I bought a cheapo replacement against my better judgement.

    More recently, but not immediately after I started using it, I've experienced a few CPU lockups with no reasonable cause process wise. Since the change in battery, I've also finally got round to switching out my HDD for an SSD, so I know it is not the Windows install or the HDD.

    I've been running on AC power for ~6 hours solidly now with no lockups, which is longer than it would usually go with the battery hooked up. I am assuming the battery is dodgy and bad power supply through it is causing the lockups, which I had assumed even before I had reason to change out the HDD. Obviously not using it until I get an OEM replacement in.

    Agree?
     
    Last edited: Apr 3, 2013
  12. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    A fairly sound diagnosis I think, especially if you've changed the drive to no avail.
     
  13. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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    Old drive is fine (now in an enclosure), I changed it out just for the SSD, so I'm thinking so.

    HP laptop batteries are hilariously expensive, if I can find one that is!
     
  14. Mr-Movies

    Mr-Movies Active member

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    If it runs on wall power that only leaves the regulators used for charging or the battery, so I think you've covered all bases. You can get your old battery rebuild with new cells or you could even rebuild it yourself if you feel so inclined.
     
  15. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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    Old HP battery runs laptop fine, just obviously doesn't hold much of a charge (hence replacing it), so must be the battery not the regulators/connecting pins.

    Hadn't considered rebuilding it but I'm not sure I have the tools nor the inclination.
     
  16. sytyguy

    sytyguy Regular member

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    Batteries are relatively cheap. Do a Google on your battery, and I think that is true.
     
  17. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    i get them off ebay brand new as laptop companies don't make them so they markup the hell out of the batteries. got 1 off ebay for hp laptop for about $50 when hp wanted $175-$193 for the same battery.
     
  18. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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    Numbers sound about right for mine too. I'm going to RMA the replacement and see how I get on.
     
  19. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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    No problems since RMA. Good news.
     
  20. ZoSoIV

    ZoSoIV Active member

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    hi guys finally update my PC per my sig haven't OC(ed) it yet and at this point don't see any need to do so..I was able to encode DJango with DVD Rebuilder Pro in 12 mins so pretty good times like the setup so far..not really gaming much so I didn't go with a brand new Videocard...thanks for all the help guys and your PMs Russ even though it ended up being something different than we talked about...if you guys want to rip it apart feel free lol...OS is Windows 7 64 bit
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2013

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