Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with pc

How to safely mod minecraft?

H. Roark — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:35:17 -0800

My kid wants me to install a bunch of mods to minecraft, I'm confused about the process. Installing mods seems much different then say on Steam games where its integrated into the application. I'm uncomfortable just following sketchy links on message boards to download and install jars/executables, but thats the process as I've seen it described. Is there a more obvious way to do this? Given a named mod like the "more animals mod" are you really supposed to go to a place like this and just trust the links? Is there some kind of registry where you know you are getting some non-malware code? Some examples that seem overly complicated: how to mod 1, example2. Thanks.

Searching for title of a 90's FPS game for PC

madcow20 — Thu, 09 May 2013 02:55:14 -0800

I used to play a FPS on my PC back in the 90's. I can't remember the title of it, however I remember one of the weapons. One of the weapons is: A right hand where the thumb, index finger and pinky are apart but the middle and ring finger are together. The player then shoots like a white ball and the hand has a white aura or something like that. It wasn't the only weapon in the game, but it was the weapon that didn't require any ammo (Like the knuckles and chainsaw in Doom).

I remember the beginning of the game, which had a brown floor. The graphics were like Doom, I believe.

Searching for an old car-game I played in the 90's

madcow20 — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:10:30 -0800

In the 90's I borrowed a demo-CD from a friend, who had a car combat-like game, where you drove around in a futuristic environment. The game was a demo, so it only had one level and only one car. The only mission that was available was where one had to collect two pieces of a device located in two different parts of the map. Most of the stuff was blue. The setting was like this: You drove around in a futuristic enviroment. There were no enemies, no stuff to do except find the two devices (I think it was because it was a demo). The car was hovering and it was blue. The roads were these highway-platforms you drove on. I remember that you started in a garage of sorts, where if you drove forward, you would have to drive left or right. If you drove left, you would still drive on the highway-platforms, however if you went right, you would end up in a city of some sorts. The car one drove looked like a blue taxi. And there was a radar in the car, that directed one to each of the devices in order. I remember that one of the devices was placed at the edge of a highway-platform road that stopped. You couldn't go any further. After you picked up both devices, the game would stop and it would tell you to buy it.

Best PC Support Utilities?

cjorgensen — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:13:59 -0800

What are your list of the most essential PC support utilities? Virus, cloning, optimization, etc.

I want to create a flash drive of the best applications to address the most common issues.

I have 22+ years Mac experience. 3+ Win7 muddling. I would like to be better at the Windows side.

Cost is not an issue if the cost is worth it.

Please hope me!

Would someone give me a Mac Pro, please? Thanks.

run"monty — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:48:54 -0800

Would the addition of a decent graphics card turn my workaday PC into a competent NLE workstation? I've managed to get by with running Adobe Premiere CS6 on my 2009 Mac Mini. It's useable but involves a lot of waiting. (Not so bad when cutting ProRes but rendering takes an age.)

Now, I may be able to secure a small amount of editing work. That is, not so much work that I could justify the purchase of a new computer.

I have two options. Work slowly with a workflow optimised for my Mac or upgrade my PC.

This is my PC (I'm running Windows 7 64-bit).

I'm not looking for the power of a souped up Mac Pro. I just want a machine that won't fall over during the most basic of picture edits, will encode to ProRes pretty fast or handle AVCHD well, let me grade footage at more than a snail's pace, and won't complain when applying the simplest of SFX.

This upgrade would be done on a tight budget. I'll likely be adding more memory and another single SATA HDD.

I understand the Adobe's Mercury Playback Engine makes use of CUDA graphics cards. I would like to know if there would be any significant improvement if I installed a low priced card (not more than £200) in my ageing PC. Would it be false economy? Should I just spend £200 on a new machine?

Help needed with tranlsating term referring to someone's skin colour.

miorita — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 05:02:45 -0800

I am translating a text which contains a sentence about someone who is "coloured". People in the US: what is an acceptable way to translate this? In the source language, this is a neutral/fairly PC term usually referring to someone who is dark-skinned, probably of African origin.

I know that in South Africa "black" is a term which is used by many people for people of purely African descent, and "coloured" for people of mixed heritage, and that both terms are used neutrally (despite their charged history). I think "black" is OK in the UK as well (?). However, this is written with a US audience in mind, and I am not sure what terms are OK here. My instinct is to go with "black", but I don't know if that is not perceived as racist, particularly by people who might be exposed to violence, physical or otherwise, because of being identified as "black". It would be great if the term were purely descriptive and non-value laden, but could also be applied to an under-defined context (this is why "African-American", for instance, wouldn't work).

The text is a SciFi short-story set in a fictional town in an unspecified country/ continent at an unspecified time, but I think is written by someone who has mostly read American SciFi (in translation).

Buying a Windows 7 PC

LSK — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:15:54 -0800

I want to purchase a new computer before Windows 7 rotates out. I'm not sure what specs/etc I want from it, but I'd like it to cost $750 or less and to be able to run games at reasonable settings (maybe not current-gen ones, but definitely something like Oblivion from several years back without any problems.) I'll be using this PC for a lot of media, so I probably want a huge hard drive instead of a faster SSD. Other than that, I don't really know what I need, other than that if I end up picking something out on my own, it'll turn out to be exactly what I don't need.

What are my options? I'd definitely prefer something where I don't have install any components after it arrives.

My new Samsung SSD cloning software doesn't work

noonknight — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 02:37:15 -0800

I have a problem with my new Samsung SSD cloning software - it doesn't work. I keep getting the following error message: "external exception EO6D7363". The new drive is recognized by Win 8. I have my old HDD running Win 8 and wish to clone it to the new SSD.
I have read that I must change SATA in the BIOS to AHCI from IDE, but when I do this, my computer won't boot with the old HDD.
I have tried Norton Ghost, but it doesn't work with Win 8.
The Samsung software is supposed to be Win 8 compatible. Others that have posted reviews of the Samsung SSD on Amazon seem to have had no trouble, even with old computers.
My computer is a Gateway DX4710-UB002A from about 4.5 years ago. It has 6 gigs of memory and an Intel quad-core CPU.

This should work.

I would like to avoid a fresh installation of Win 8 to the SSD with the need to copy and reinstall all of my files, programs and settings.

Any ideas?

TIA

I want to install Windows XP on my Mac using Parallels, but I am Failing

jefficator — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 15:27:24 -0800

Dell says I can't use my OS disks to install Windows on my Mac. Is this true? I finally managed to dig out my operating system disks for the laptop I had in college. I would like to install Windows XP on my Mac using Parallels, but the installation keeps failing. I called Dell and they said that the disks that come with a Dell PC cannot be installed on other computers. Is this true? There is no way to work around it? I would greatly prefer not to buy the operating system when I have the disks sitting right here...but I don't have any idea how to solve this problem on my own!

Thank you

PC gaming veteran, returning to creating Rollercoasters & Civilizations

0bvious — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 05:38:03 -0800

I used to play a lot of PC games, but in the past 10 years moved towards console gaming. I realise I've missed a whole era of games that only really work with a mouse and keyboard. My absolute favourites were creative, engaging, long play games, such as Rollercoaster Tycoon and Civilization. I never really played to win. I played for creative ends. The best times I had playing Rollercoaster Tycoon was in sandbox mode the only limits being my imagination. Those were the days. What (PC) games offer the equivalent of this now? I know that if I was a 15 year old today I would be a Minecraft obsessive. It sings to me. But I don't have the patience to wander about dropping blocks into place, one by one. I want the old Rollercoaster Tycoon rush, the open-world creativity, and a dip-in-every-so-often sensibility.

What should I play?

(P.S. I already have Civilization V)

Help me find a laptop that will play the games I've been missing out on

el chupa nibre — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:37:22 -0800

I'm in the market for a new computer, and I'd like to find one that can handle some of the RTS and city building games I've missed out on in the past 5 or so years. I'm on a budget and I don't really understand computer hardware requirements. Can you help? -My budget is around $600

-The games I'd like to play are Tropico 3, Anno 1404, Crusader Kings 2, and possibly Minecraft

-Besides these games, the only things I'd be doing is word processing and internet browsing

-I'd prefer that it didn't run Windows 8.

Does such a laptop exist? I'm definitely open to purchasing used/refurbished. Thank you Metafilter!

Help me decide whether to get a year's subscription to online support.

Dolley — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 11:05:51 -0800

My computer is in a real mess. The registry has tons of errors, and I can't open Outlook. I got on the phone with GuruAid through an attempt to contact McAfee support. The tech seemed to be more than competent, and discovered a lot of issues, detailed inside. These are the issues he found and the support plans they have (stuff in italics are the notes the tech made):

Primary Issue:
Microsoft Office Outlook Errorr of Opration failed.
PC Running Slow.

Secondary Issues:
Remove all Unwanted files.
Remove all Junk files.
Remove all Registry Errors. More than 1800 found! (me talking)
Repair Registry files.
Clean Up.
Tune Up.
Enhance and Optimize the PC Performance.
Configure Firewall to work.

We have the following Annual Maintenance Plan (AMP) Plans

3-years Plan for $ 399.99
2-years Plan for $ 299.99
1-year Plan for $ 169.99

The subscription gets you unlimited PC support,
instant help from certified technicians,
unlimited tune ups and security checks for your PC.
Your current problem will be resolved for FREE as a part of the subscription.
Our maintenance plan takes care of all your PC issues.

Major benefits of our annual service plan are:
1. Unlimited PC Support
2. Instant help from Certified technicians
3. Unlimited PC tune-up
4. Unlimited Security Checks
5. PC protection from viruses, malwares, spywares.

So, first question is, is this a reputable company? Is any of these plans worth the money? Is there a better option for support?

Help me wipe out the Alien menace.

TheWhiteSkull — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 11:56:28 -0800

XCOM: Enemy Unknown- PC or Console? I'm not really a turn-based strategy kind of guy, but I played the demo for XCOM: Enemy Unknown on my Xbox enjoyed it enough to consider purchasing. Here's the question: will my experience be significantly improved if I play on PC vs. continuing on a console? For the record, I would be using an Xbox controller either way, and my current PC is running a 3.4 GHz i7 3770, 16GB RAM, with a 2GB Geforce GT 620 card (is this even sufficient to play XCOM at med/high settings?).

Or should I just buy Anno 2070 on sale this weekend?

Is more memory the answer to my problems?

MrMerlot — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 03:24:13 -0800

I've got a four-year old PC running vista. It's got 4gb Ram and a 1tb storage. It's never been a high performer, but lately its been running really slow, especially on start up and getting really clunky when I have, say, four of five applications running. I've been considering buying more RAM to speed things up a little. Is more memory the answer to my problems?

What games would I love?

wwartorff — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 15:30:59 -0800

PC game suggestions only, please. I'm a stay at home mom, and my laptop is pretty much glued to my side. Civ IV is my all-time favorite game. I usually play the Rise of Mankind/A New Dawn mods. I'm not great at it, as I find it hard to beat on Noble level, but I can consistently beat it on Warlord level. So what else would I love? I like turn-based games because I have little kids. I need to be able to drop my game whenever and come back to it as I left it. I've always enjoyed the exploration aspect of Civ, and I've liked playing Sim City in the past. Fire away!

What's the word...

aniola — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:41:35 -0800

What's the word for words that have more-or-less stopped being pollitcally correct? Examples: Words like Eskimo/Oriental and baby/chick.

Bonus: What's a better word for "politically correct?" None of these words quite cut it.

Help me find some games to love

Wysawyg — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:40:48 -0800

Having been away from the PC gaming world for a while due to dodgy then broken laptop, I'm now looking with bemusement to find some great games. Most of the amazon/etc best-seller lists seem dominated by World of Warcraft and toys for Skylander. I'm mainly interested in RPGs and Action Adventure games. Strong plots a must. If they have fiddly controls then a nice learning curve is a must! Examples of games I have enjoyed in the past include Diablo II, World of Warcraft, Monkey Island, Simon the Sorceror. I've also loved some of the Sim/Strategy games like Settlers, Creatures, Theme Hospital (ancient, I know).

I don't mind FPS but I prefer the focus of the game isn't on dodging and shooting, more on solving the plot and working out how to advance.

New laptop is powerful enough that there shouldn't be any modern games out of range due to spec.

So, to summarise, what are the best, most fun, most interesting games out there at the moment for the PC?

Old PC as an HTPC and File + Game Server... Help Me Make It Happen!

Effigy2000 — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:01:26 -0800

I have an old computer I'm thinking of turning into a home theatre PC, as well as a dedicated FTP and multiplayer game server. Can it be done, and what do I need? Tech specs and more detailed questions inside. I have an old computer just laying around taking up space. I had considered selling it on eBay but it quickly became apparent I wouldn't get much for it. I figured out how to hook it up to my living room TV and started getting grand ideas about turning it into a HTPC and a dedicated server. But I'm new to most of this and the research I have done so far offers more questions I can't seem to find answers to. I would appreciate some advice.

Before we begin, the PC's tech specs are as follows;

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1.6GHz
RAM: 1GB
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9600 X1050
Sound Card: NVIDIA nForce 2 MCP-T (onboard the motherboard, an ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe)
Hard Drive: 320GB 7200RPM

My questions are as follows.

SOUND: Because this PC doesn't have an HDMI port, I've hooked it up to my TV via the RGB port. Looks great in widescreen, but I'm not getting any sound. According to my research, the sound card is capable of real time Dolby Digital 5.1 encoding with hardware accelerated 3D audio.

This page of the motherboard manual shows us we have an S/PDIF out jack to play with. This seems my best bet of getting the best 5.1 sound. I've always understood S/PDIF to be a TOSLINK cable. But the jack doesn't seem to fit a TOSLINK cable. So my questions here are;

1) What kind of cable would I need to hook this up to the back of my 5.1 surround sound AV receiver?
2) Would I be better off using the various line out ports to connect it to the back of my TV? What kind of cables do i need for this?

Here's an actual pic of the back of the computer, if it helps.

HOME THEATRE: I know and love Plex. I know and like XBMC. My research suggests neither of these two clients will work with windows XP, which is the best OS this system can run. I know of some other alternatives, but some recommendations would be appreciated.

FILE SERVER: So my research to date suggests the best thing to do to operate my own file server is to sign up a free dynamic DNS service, modify some settings in my modem configuration, and then get a free program like FireFTP. Sounds easy enough. Too easy. Am I missing something, or is this setup going to be harder than it sounds?

GAME SERVER: This I know less about, and what research I've done confuses me.

I'd like to install a Minecraft server at the very least (which I know how to do) and probably some other games like DayZ and a FPS (haven't decided which yet). The games themselves would be played on the other computers in my network and possibly remotely by my friends.

Problem is, those two computers are Macs (an iMac and a Mac Mini). So my questions are;

1. Can Macs play on a game server hosted on a Windows XP machine?
2. Is the Windows XP machine even up to the task?
3. How do I let friends (or even strangers) remotely join my server?
4. I'm guessing there's no grand, unifying software that lets you run multiple servers for different games?

Thanks in advance for all your help!

Stream music from my pc to my android phone over local wireless.

cthuljew — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:30:43 -0800

I want an app that I install on my Droid 3 phone that'll find my computer on my home wireless network and which I can point to my music folder and stream. I've found a couple services that involve setting up local servers, web apps, and what have you. But ES File Explorer can find my Windows PC on my wireless network and transfer files without any hassle, and I want a music player that can do the same basic thing, but present my music as a tagged library, like the default Android music player. The idea here is that I can have my phone in my pocket, and walk around my apartment doing chores or whatever, but still have my entire music library available through my headphones.

I realize this is an absurdly specific request, but I vaguely suspect something like this exists, but is gonna be basically impossible to find via Google. Even a suggestion for a slightly more involved app (as in, one that requires a desktop application or something) is fine if it's elegant and fairly trivial to set up. Thanks, hivemind!

Starting up Windows 7 from scratch (twice)

jroybal — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 07:54:57 -0800

I'm reformatting the hard drive of my parent's Windows 7 PC to give to somebody. That's all well and good--software is reinstalled, drivers are updated, Windows Update looks happy. When I started the machine for the first time after Windows 7 installation was complete, it did it's standard thing where it asked what the user name was, what the PC name was, basic settings, etc. Is there any way to redo that setup for the new owner when they turn it on for the first time? In effect, what I'm almost looking for is a way to automate the deletion of the user account I created and the initiation of the creation of a new user account? Is this a thing? Is there anything I can do to replicate the "fresh out of the box" part of turning on a new PC while still being able to maintain all the up-to-date software and drivers? I'm not finding any leads on Google. Thank you!

Where can I buy a cheap PC with a PCI slot?

Awkward Philip — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 07:49:25 -0800

I'd like to buy a cheap desktop PC that has at least one PCI slot (not PCI Express) so that I can install this sound card. The computer will be used to run one specific piece of software with low performance requirements, so all I need are the minimum specs for the card - Pentium III, 500MHz, 128MB RAM. It's been a while since I've bought a new PC and the stuff I'm seeing from Dell, HP, etc. doesn't seem to have PCI slots.

Hoping to make my hdd time travel forward

peacay — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 06:55:33 -0800

I moved an SSD to a new system. Now I can't access files on the old hdd that were created during the time the SSD was a part of that old system. Can they be brought back to life? I got a new pc a couple of days ago. I took the SSD off the old system and put it on the new one. Win7 and all the progs were reinstalled on that SSD.

I had used the SSD with the old hdd for about a year. The old hdd works fine but it also had win7 installed (since I first bought that pc) and when I boot this old system up on that hdd, I'm finding everything the way the pc was a year ago, prior to installing the SSD : in other words, I've lost a LOT of stuff in this transition these last couple of days.

Nothing really happened to that old hdd during this change, so I'm wondering if I - being possessed of only modest tech knowledge - can make the old hdd spit out recent files created in the last year and if so, how would I go about doing that?? Thanks.

Thunderbolt for windows?

empath — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:53:13 -0800

How do I get my windows box to work with my Thunderbolt display? I'm trying to get rid of an extra monitor. I'm willing to invest in a new motherboard and/or video card. Has anyone done it?

Network sync of computers

token-ring — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 11:43:42 -0800

It’s 2013 Mefi; how do you keep your computers in sync? I have three computers running Windows 7, all living together on the same network. I am about to wipe them all clean and reinstall windows. While I am at it I would like to setup a way to keep the home folders on all three in sync. I have done some searching, and turned up plenty of ideas, but I want a recommendation before I try a program from a person/company that I don’t know. I read a few old mefi questions, but I would like to know what has changed in the last few years. Here is my ideal list of requirements:

-A Dropbox type solution, where the files are stored on each computer, and when a change is made it is propagated to the others (the only reason I don’t just use dropbox is lack of storage for free, and I don’t want to pay $20 a month if I only want local network sync).
- If I take a computer with me it needs to have all my up to date files without needing to connect back to my home network, so keeping one central home folder on a network drive won’t fit my needs.
-Simple enough that I can mostly set it and forget it. I don’t want to be constantly having to manually prodding it to work, or installing updates on a daily basis.
-Free, or a onetime fee for the software, I don’t want to pay a subscription fee.

More info:
-I have a Netgear router (WNDR3700), it has a USB port were I could attach a hard drive and have every computer sync with the hard drive on a schedule. But I was hoping for a more elegant or intelligent solution.
-Computers are: 2 laptops that move around a bunch and are asleep pretty often, and a desktop that is generally always on, living as a media center and Minecraft server.

Keeping files if switching to a Mac

Hartster — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 03:18:26 -0800

Thinking of switching from PC to Mac: how best to handle old files/drives etc? It's coming up to time to replace my old XP-based PC and laptop.

I might take the opportunity to switch to a Mac setup; not yet decided.

One thing which is a minor factor is: I have a second internal 1 TB hard drive on my PC which I use for files (music, video, photos, comics etc). This is pretty full. What are my options on using this with a Mac?

Do I buy an external hard drive, copy data over to there, and just plug that into my Mac? (Additional question: what's the best way to transfer 900GB+ of data to an external hard drive? Just drag and drop?)

Alternatively Is there an easy set up that will allow me to remove my hard drive and plug it into a "box" to just carry on using it (it's NTFS formatted)?

If I run iTunes on a Mac, will that work happily with the music being on an external hard drive? (I had a bad experience using external hard drives and iTunes but that was 8 years ago to be fair)

Different question: rather than go the separate desktop/laptop route, if I just got a souped-up Macbook Pro and added external monitors/keyboard etc for the 99% of time when I'm using it at home, is that a daft idea or not? My main concern is reliability and lifespan which I am always a bit dubious about with laptops. Having a single point of failure makes me a tad nervous.