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Computer upgrades, oh god..where do i look!

Submitted by bouncy roo on
Forum

Ok so the inside of the computer does scare me especially when most of the parts have been installed by family members, and the cd drive is stuck and the comp is humming some nasty tune.
Ah well.

Anyone know where i can bloat up my computer with memory. I'm not sure whether my comp. can take any more. MAX keeps crashing all the time, this is probably cos i configured it to increment on save, but still.. it should be able to take it.

Nuther question, if i save up for a new motherboard will that let me upgrade to monsterous proportions *drools* that would be sweet. probably unattainable but sweet nonetheless.

~//Have at You!! *throws sticky tissue*\~

"Dimples are nice, but not on your thighs" - Kath and Kim

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Sun, 04/08/02 - 10:16 PM Permalink

Wether or not you can upgrade your RAM at present all depends on your mother board and how many DIMMs you have on your board already.
MAX does have some stablility issues especailly under some operating systems like win98. Autosave on max can cause problems and personally i find it irritating. Of course it's more irritating losing 3 hours of work because you forgot to save.
And about upgrading you motherboard that would be a good idea but depending on what CPU you hve your choices will be limited. A good new motherboard is not terribly expensive (stay away from any board with onboard video or sound they are evil) But again upgrading your motherboard will prove troublesome as your RAM and CPU may not be compatible with it.
I could help you out more if you gave me an idea of the system your running now.
And what do you mean by the CDROM being stuck? And what is the nasty tune??
Anyway hope i have helped you out some.

Bloody hell its a giant harmonica!

Submitted by bouncy roo on Mon, 05/08/02 - 3:39 AM Permalink

well it doesn't close so i can't put any cds in it, I can pull it out much to it's dislike but it just doesn't go in, and it's started to make some grindy noises and sometimes a low pitch buzz recently. hard to explain.
I'm running xp on the computer. I've got 384 ram so you'd think that max wouldn't crash so often as it does.

I've also noticed sometimes when i place a light in my scene and then try to move it in the scene it goes pitch black and all the mapping i just adjusted reverses and jumps back a few steps and then it will crash. : It's a legal copy of 3dsmax student version so i would have thought it wouldn't stuff up as much as it does.

//Have at you!*throws another sticky tissue*\

Submitted by bouncy roo on Mon, 05/08/02 - 9:24 AM Permalink

I take it that this isn't a good sign, I was rendering this kids project i did for him and it came up with a low virtual memory crap in windows, i had it on draft render and only had max open. lol. time for an upgrade methinks.

//Have at you!*throws another sticky tissue*\

Submitted by souri on Mon, 05/08/02 - 2:55 PM Permalink

When things keep on crashing for no aparent reason like that, a *last* resort solution (which may or may not work) is to just reinstall windows. Although I don't know how you're going to do that when your cd drive doesn't work. .. It's definately a good time to upgrade.. For around $1000 - $1500 you can get yourself a pretty kick arse system.
btw, Bouncy, I read in your profile that you're interested in learning Maya but couldn't find a reseller ? Well, go and download Maya Personal Learning Edition !! http://www.aliaswavefront.com/freemaya .. It works the same as Maya, but I think it saves in it's own restricted format.. It's definately worth getting if you want to learn Maya.

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Tue, 06/08/02 - 2:11 AM Permalink

find out what kind of stuff you'd want for your dream computer and then price using something like cougar.com.au
no for me its about $15000 and obviously thats just out of the question. Then simply look at what you have and slowly dowgrade unessential items until the comp is about $500 withing you budget.
Then print out or write down all the items you want and go hunting at auctions and computer fairs. You may want to buy some things from a computer store like the motherboard and cpu.
Sounds like something was put in your cdrom that shouldn't of been :)
you can try to get it out, but you may need to take it out and or apart. (hehe that can be fun) you might as well as it will not be under warranty any more im guessing and if its not working now how can it get worse :)
Also when buying a new system you need top take into mind what you want to do with it. Buying a system that will run maya effectively will push the system cost up a fair bit. you need a fairly powerful comp and a compatible video card all you may get some serious problem. Recomended video card (ones that Alias|Wavefront recomend) are quite expensive. Check out there site for more details.
Y&eah to me it sounds like your in dire need of a reformat and you can do it without a cdrom even if you haven't transfered the cd contents on install but thats a nasty and complicated process. Anyway go get yourself a copy of (or demo) norton utilities and use windoctor and disk doctor to clean up any errors. I get no probs and i use 256MB of RAM in win2k Pro.
You should be able to upgrade unless you have 3 128MB DIMMs
Also I find max does not like winXP at all. Its not initailly compatible with it either. i would look into downgrading to win2k pro. the only real diff between the 2 is xp has all sorts of nasty things hidden in it and a colourful interface. Oh and spider solitare of course :D
Oh and the buzzing sound could be the tray or laser motor. maybe the belt thingy has come off (yes that is the technical term :D ) It depends can you tray get all the way in or can you only push it in so much.
S*** this is a long post, well i hope its helped
I need to do my h/w :(

Bloody hell its a giant harmonica!

Edited by - Meatex_Salami on 05/08/2002 16:13:31

Submitted by bouncy roo on Tue, 06/08/02 - 8:53 AM Permalink

Awesome thanks! Yeah I'd love to learn it, it'll probably be really difficult but I want to familiarise myself with as much technology as possible hehe :)

//Have at you!*throws another sticky tissue*\

Submitted by bouncy roo on Tue, 06/08/02 - 9:06 AM Permalink

"Sounds like something was put in your cdrom that shouldn't of been :)" - hahahha that's kinda cute..but disturbing. :P~ I tried probing my cd drive but my finger got stuck in a gear so i quickly pulled it out before it tried to close. LOL that sounds weird.

Homework? Darn are you still at school? don't worry it gets worse if you take my course in uni. lol. suppose i shouldn't say that. :P~

I'm not sure opening my computer case to have a look is a wise idea ..we kirsty's usually get zapped by power boards in the house hehehehe. :) hence why my hair stands off my head. lol

//Have at you!*throws another sticky tissue*\

Submitted by bouncy roo on Tue, 06/08/02 - 9:09 AM Permalink

lol yeah my tray won't go in i can almost get it in but not quite.

...................wow ... if i was male that sentence would just sound..so..so..horribly wrong.

//Have at you!*throws another sticky tissue*\

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Tue, 06/08/02 - 9:21 PM Permalink

what are you studying??
Also you should not put body parts in your cdrom drive :)
Try taking it out of your box and taking the screws out and generally rip it apart. Just try to remeber what you did if you intend to put it back together :D
I just checked out your homepage and i saw that girl from blood, whats her name again, damn that was a cool movie. I'm a big fan of anime and it shows in any art i do.
Your site reminds me of the best anime i have seen "perfect blue" that is seriously scary and really good both as an anime and a movie.
Yeah i had to do cisco networking h/w
I'm in year 12 atm and don't have long left. yay :)
Anyway im in class right now and i should probably do something constructive :P

Bloody hell its a giant harmonica!

Edited by - Meatex_Salami on 06/08/2002 11:23:12

Edited by - Meatex_Salami on 06/08/2002 11:26:41

Submitted by AsNagrim on Wed, 07/08/02 - 10:57 AM Permalink

sometimes spyware can run hidden in the background on your computer..its often installed with shareware and sometimes with retail software. They can take up memory and slow down your computer.
This can help get rid of it http://www.lavasoft.nu/downloads.html

..................
http://asnagrim.tk
...................

Submitted by bouncy roo on Fri, 09/08/02 - 10:17 AM Permalink

heh I'm studying graphic design or "design studies" I'm bored with the course but I need the graduation paper in the end, so i'll stick to it and do some part-time work with some gaming place. I usually just fart around and do some models for fun , I'm working on something atm well a few things all at once really ;)
After i finish up on one of these models I'm going to bring to life an old character I drew up wayyy way back :) I'll probablly do him up and a few other characters for next years animation festival :) why not try i say! I've got nothing to lose, i can only gain experience from doing it. :)

//Have at you!*throws another sticky tissue*\

Submitted by bouncy roo on Fri, 09/08/02 - 10:20 AM Permalink

hehe I wouldn't know what i've got hidden on this puter. Of course the fact that the electricity cuts out more then three times a day could have something to do with my puter fucking up all the time :D

silly computer. *pets monitor*
~kirstens battlecry: "Meeow"~

//Have at you!*throws another sticky tissue*\

Forum

Ok so the inside of the computer does scare me especially when most of the parts have been installed by family members, and the cd drive is stuck and the comp is humming some nasty tune.
Ah well.

Anyone know where i can bloat up my computer with memory. I'm not sure whether my comp. can take any more. MAX keeps crashing all the time, this is probably cos i configured it to increment on save, but still.. it should be able to take it.

Nuther question, if i save up for a new motherboard will that let me upgrade to monsterous proportions *drools* that would be sweet. probably unattainable but sweet nonetheless.

~//Have at You!! *throws sticky tissue*\~

"Dimples are nice, but not on your thighs" - Kath and Kim


Submitted by Meatex Salami on Sun, 04/08/02 - 10:16 PM Permalink

Wether or not you can upgrade your RAM at present all depends on your mother board and how many DIMMs you have on your board already.
MAX does have some stablility issues especailly under some operating systems like win98. Autosave on max can cause problems and personally i find it irritating. Of course it's more irritating losing 3 hours of work because you forgot to save.
And about upgrading you motherboard that would be a good idea but depending on what CPU you hve your choices will be limited. A good new motherboard is not terribly expensive (stay away from any board with onboard video or sound they are evil) But again upgrading your motherboard will prove troublesome as your RAM and CPU may not be compatible with it.
I could help you out more if you gave me an idea of the system your running now.
And what do you mean by the CDROM being stuck? And what is the nasty tune??
Anyway hope i have helped you out some.

Bloody hell its a giant harmonica!

Submitted by bouncy roo on Mon, 05/08/02 - 3:39 AM Permalink

well it doesn't close so i can't put any cds in it, I can pull it out much to it's dislike but it just doesn't go in, and it's started to make some grindy noises and sometimes a low pitch buzz recently. hard to explain.
I'm running xp on the computer. I've got 384 ram so you'd think that max wouldn't crash so often as it does.

I've also noticed sometimes when i place a light in my scene and then try to move it in the scene it goes pitch black and all the mapping i just adjusted reverses and jumps back a few steps and then it will crash. : It's a legal copy of 3dsmax student version so i would have thought it wouldn't stuff up as much as it does.

//Have at you!*throws another sticky tissue*\

Submitted by bouncy roo on Mon, 05/08/02 - 9:24 AM Permalink

I take it that this isn't a good sign, I was rendering this kids project i did for him and it came up with a low virtual memory crap in windows, i had it on draft render and only had max open. lol. time for an upgrade methinks.

//Have at you!*throws another sticky tissue*\

Submitted by souri on Mon, 05/08/02 - 2:55 PM Permalink

When things keep on crashing for no aparent reason like that, a *last* resort solution (which may or may not work) is to just reinstall windows. Although I don't know how you're going to do that when your cd drive doesn't work. .. It's definately a good time to upgrade.. For around $1000 - $1500 you can get yourself a pretty kick arse system.
btw, Bouncy, I read in your profile that you're interested in learning Maya but couldn't find a reseller ? Well, go and download Maya Personal Learning Edition !! http://www.aliaswavefront.com/freemaya .. It works the same as Maya, but I think it saves in it's own restricted format.. It's definately worth getting if you want to learn Maya.

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Tue, 06/08/02 - 2:11 AM Permalink

find out what kind of stuff you'd want for your dream computer and then price using something like cougar.com.au
no for me its about $15000 and obviously thats just out of the question. Then simply look at what you have and slowly dowgrade unessential items until the comp is about $500 withing you budget.
Then print out or write down all the items you want and go hunting at auctions and computer fairs. You may want to buy some things from a computer store like the motherboard and cpu.
Sounds like something was put in your cdrom that shouldn't of been :)
you can try to get it out, but you may need to take it out and or apart. (hehe that can be fun) you might as well as it will not be under warranty any more im guessing and if its not working now how can it get worse :)
Also when buying a new system you need top take into mind what you want to do with it. Buying a system that will run maya effectively will push the system cost up a fair bit. you need a fairly powerful comp and a compatible video card all you may get some serious problem. Recomended video card (ones that Alias|Wavefront recomend) are quite expensive. Check out there site for more details.
Y&eah to me it sounds like your in dire need of a reformat and you can do it without a cdrom even if you haven't transfered the cd contents on install but thats a nasty and complicated process. Anyway go get yourself a copy of (or demo) norton utilities and use windoctor and disk doctor to clean up any errors. I get no probs and i use 256MB of RAM in win2k Pro.
You should be able to upgrade unless you have 3 128MB DIMMs
Also I find max does not like winXP at all. Its not initailly compatible with it either. i would look into downgrading to win2k pro. the only real diff between the 2 is xp has all sorts of nasty things hidden in it and a colourful interface. Oh and spider solitare of course :D
Oh and the buzzing sound could be the tray or laser motor. maybe the belt thingy has come off (yes that is the technical term :D ) It depends can you tray get all the way in or can you only push it in so much.
S*** this is a long post, well i hope its helped
I need to do my h/w :(

Bloody hell its a giant harmonica!

Edited by - Meatex_Salami on 05/08/2002 16:13:31

Submitted by bouncy roo on Tue, 06/08/02 - 8:53 AM Permalink

Awesome thanks! Yeah I'd love to learn it, it'll probably be really difficult but I want to familiarise myself with as much technology as possible hehe :)

//Have at you!*throws another sticky tissue*\

Submitted by bouncy roo on Tue, 06/08/02 - 9:06 AM Permalink

"Sounds like something was put in your cdrom that shouldn't of been :)" - hahahha that's kinda cute..but disturbing. :P~ I tried probing my cd drive but my finger got stuck in a gear so i quickly pulled it out before it tried to close. LOL that sounds weird.

Homework? Darn are you still at school? don't worry it gets worse if you take my course in uni. lol. suppose i shouldn't say that. :P~

I'm not sure opening my computer case to have a look is a wise idea ..we kirsty's usually get zapped by power boards in the house hehehehe. :) hence why my hair stands off my head. lol

//Have at you!*throws another sticky tissue*\

Submitted by bouncy roo on Tue, 06/08/02 - 9:09 AM Permalink

lol yeah my tray won't go in i can almost get it in but not quite.

...................wow ... if i was male that sentence would just sound..so..so..horribly wrong.

//Have at you!*throws another sticky tissue*\

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Tue, 06/08/02 - 9:21 PM Permalink

what are you studying??
Also you should not put body parts in your cdrom drive :)
Try taking it out of your box and taking the screws out and generally rip it apart. Just try to remeber what you did if you intend to put it back together :D
I just checked out your homepage and i saw that girl from blood, whats her name again, damn that was a cool movie. I'm a big fan of anime and it shows in any art i do.
Your site reminds me of the best anime i have seen "perfect blue" that is seriously scary and really good both as an anime and a movie.
Yeah i had to do cisco networking h/w
I'm in year 12 atm and don't have long left. yay :)
Anyway im in class right now and i should probably do something constructive :P

Bloody hell its a giant harmonica!

Edited by - Meatex_Salami on 06/08/2002 11:23:12

Edited by - Meatex_Salami on 06/08/2002 11:26:41

Submitted by AsNagrim on Wed, 07/08/02 - 10:57 AM Permalink

sometimes spyware can run hidden in the background on your computer..its often installed with shareware and sometimes with retail software. They can take up memory and slow down your computer.
This can help get rid of it http://www.lavasoft.nu/downloads.html

..................
http://asnagrim.tk
...................

Submitted by bouncy roo on Fri, 09/08/02 - 10:17 AM Permalink

heh I'm studying graphic design or "design studies" I'm bored with the course but I need the graduation paper in the end, so i'll stick to it and do some part-time work with some gaming place. I usually just fart around and do some models for fun , I'm working on something atm well a few things all at once really ;)
After i finish up on one of these models I'm going to bring to life an old character I drew up wayyy way back :) I'll probablly do him up and a few other characters for next years animation festival :) why not try i say! I've got nothing to lose, i can only gain experience from doing it. :)

//Have at you!*throws another sticky tissue*\

Submitted by bouncy roo on Fri, 09/08/02 - 10:20 AM Permalink

hehe I wouldn't know what i've got hidden on this puter. Of course the fact that the electricity cuts out more then three times a day could have something to do with my puter fucking up all the time :D

silly computer. *pets monitor*
~kirstens battlecry: "Meeow"~

//Have at you!*throws another sticky tissue*\