my ratio is more like 99% uptime. I'm not the most clever person about computers and when I started I was pretty retarded about it. Over the years I learned. I got careful with certain things.
I don't bother with firewire cards, I followed tried and true setups; RME seems to not have complaints on the drivers by people that know what they're doing... I don't chase after a lot of free plugs. I don't have cameras, printers or game shit installed, things that cause driver conflicts-> USB, note well...
I'm a bit shy about chasing upgrades/updates as well. I use Cubase but only once was I subjected to the early point-version, which is known to me as an issue.
actually the flying a jet analogy isn't bad, you have to really grok your system; I use the term pilot error in fact, rather than user error. I like the phrase 'learn to cut your losses' as well...
Honest question about productivity vs technical nonsense
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- KVRAF
- 4329 posts since 26 Jun, 2004
Its interesting to read a thread like this post-Win7, but maybe its just my perspective.
The OPs rant sounds like the average first three years experience of a non-computer person who picks up XP and to use the shit out of. XP is not quite as friendly under the hood, and you have to learn a bit to be able to really get into the guts.
(IRQs!!?? Gahh!! I jump just reading that. Once, only once, did I tread there...)
I think there was at least a year when I would have echoed the OP, but that is a necessary thing. Computers are complex, and DAW work is probably going to push it fairly hard. If you dont have the technical bs behind you then you are just waiting til the next minor hiccup to fall to pieces over a full-stop. You have to have some knowledge of your gear.
The thing that makes this fairly easy to do with XP is that it is so incredibly ubiquitous that there is always a very good chance that someone else has already dealt with what you have in front of you. Its rarely 'problem solving', its usually just following technical directions, and then maybe learning from them.
I got very very comfortable tweaking XP into the ground. I had a text file for new installs that was many pages long of registry tweaks, etc. Some people disagree on the necessity of them, but on a shitty Dell running XP they at least made a difference. I wasnt 'fixing', but often 'tweaking'.
Now I am on an i7 on Win7 x64. Ive done very few tweaks, and almost none of them are for performance/compatibility.
And I feel like... The fat humans on the Axiom in Wall-E. Know what I mean? Just happy, stupid, lazy, pandered to piles of duhhh. In Win7 I dont have to know anything! I actually literally feel dumbed down. I know nothing about the guts of my OS now. Compared to the knowledge of file structure and registry and settings that was necessary for XP, Win7 is just silly.
Luckily, I am not using it to learn computer science, but to make music. Its pretty great for that, right out of the box.
And, 7 is brand new and niche, relatively! The tweaking has barely begun compared to XP, and imo, 7 is already fantastic. It is rare that the OS borks on anything, even 32bit software from pre-2000. And you know how on XP it becomes normal to completely ignore any and all MS 'Help' tabs due to their 100% uselessness? Well, (this shit blew me away), in Win7 some of those will actually tell you shit, and a couple of them will actually fix things! It fixed its own network settings! Amazing!
Vista...? What?
Vista is and always has been and will always be a shit show. That should be the first lesson learned. Fixing Vista is as easy as installing a standard OEM Win7.
You can even skip SP1.
The OPs rant sounds like the average first three years experience of a non-computer person who picks up XP and to use the shit out of. XP is not quite as friendly under the hood, and you have to learn a bit to be able to really get into the guts.
(IRQs!!?? Gahh!! I jump just reading that. Once, only once, did I tread there...)
I think there was at least a year when I would have echoed the OP, but that is a necessary thing. Computers are complex, and DAW work is probably going to push it fairly hard. If you dont have the technical bs behind you then you are just waiting til the next minor hiccup to fall to pieces over a full-stop. You have to have some knowledge of your gear.
The thing that makes this fairly easy to do with XP is that it is so incredibly ubiquitous that there is always a very good chance that someone else has already dealt with what you have in front of you. Its rarely 'problem solving', its usually just following technical directions, and then maybe learning from them.
I got very very comfortable tweaking XP into the ground. I had a text file for new installs that was many pages long of registry tweaks, etc. Some people disagree on the necessity of them, but on a shitty Dell running XP they at least made a difference. I wasnt 'fixing', but often 'tweaking'.
Now I am on an i7 on Win7 x64. Ive done very few tweaks, and almost none of them are for performance/compatibility.
And I feel like... The fat humans on the Axiom in Wall-E. Know what I mean? Just happy, stupid, lazy, pandered to piles of duhhh. In Win7 I dont have to know anything! I actually literally feel dumbed down. I know nothing about the guts of my OS now. Compared to the knowledge of file structure and registry and settings that was necessary for XP, Win7 is just silly.
Luckily, I am not using it to learn computer science, but to make music. Its pretty great for that, right out of the box.
And, 7 is brand new and niche, relatively! The tweaking has barely begun compared to XP, and imo, 7 is already fantastic. It is rare that the OS borks on anything, even 32bit software from pre-2000. And you know how on XP it becomes normal to completely ignore any and all MS 'Help' tabs due to their 100% uselessness? Well, (this shit blew me away), in Win7 some of those will actually tell you shit, and a couple of them will actually fix things! It fixed its own network settings! Amazing!
Vista...? What?
Vista is and always has been and will always be a shit show. That should be the first lesson learned. Fixing Vista is as easy as installing a standard OEM Win7.
You can even skip SP1.
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- KVRAF
- 1959 posts since 4 Nov, 2004 from Manchester
Donno where to start answering that one!Jace-BeOS wrote:Any specifics on what's wrong with the nForce stuff for audio systems? Something other than the firewire chipsets, i assume?Kaine wrote:Nforce was never usable for audio systems in my experiance. I note you had a Striker board... you've no idea how many unwanted hours of overtime that caused me to work. Biggest pile of junk I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with.Jace-BeOS wrote:the nforce chipset stuff not only left my system more unstable, back in the day
The was something just inherently poor with the nforce controller chip that gave poor DPC and under performed for audio. NF2 was alright but NF3 and NF4 suffered from audio drop outs and all kind of randomness during it's release cycle. Our theory was that they were pushing the PCI-E buss harder than anyone else so the PCI/FW/USB was suffering due to bandwidth problems and not having high enough priority to keep it usable.
Excellent gaming boards through... which kinda backs up our theory above. We put all this forward to Nvidia at one point, but couldn't get any of the tech's to admit it one way or another. The day they pulled out of the chipset market me and a few of the other techs here went out and got drunk as hell to celebrate the news!!!
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- KVRAF
- 1959 posts since 4 Nov, 2004 from Manchester
Cheerscodec_spurt wrote: Oh and thanks Kaine and Scan Computers for providing the parts and advice.
Still going strong! Couldn't have done it without you!
You'll be pleased to know that harddrive prices are continuing to creep down. Hold off another few months and you may not have to remortgage!