31 replies to this topic

[Tobodestroyer2020]

BANG!




My PC has died. Nothing to do with GPL, Linux or Windows. It won't get past the RAM check on start up, something has fried either the motherboard or the RAM. i've tried all ram sticks in each slot and no change. It's time to bite the bullet and splash out some cash on a new machine. I can't complain as I reckon that this is at least 14 years old.

Positive observations - Linux Mint Mate ran GPL. Good frame rates etc. Fanatec pedals and steering worked straight out of the box. The only thing I didn't get to work was the H-Shifter (G27). If I can work out how to get this sorted, I reckon that I'll be using Linux in the future.

So, what should I buy for a GPL ONLY machine? I don't want overkill; no need to use a sledge-hammer to crack a walnut. My budget is super-small so sensible ideas only please. I'm happy with 2nd hand or refurbished.

In the meantime, all I can do is watch GPL on Youtube. No more driving for me for a while... The laptop I'm writing this on is ancient so please don't suggest that I use my laptop instead.

Thanks in advance.

Pete

UPDATE: My pc lives. I tried the HDD in a different SATA socket and it now works. How weird is that? I guess the mobo is on the way out. It just needs to hang on until Black Friday.

Edited by Tobodestroyer2020, Jul 18 2020 - 06:32 AM.

[Cookie]

Can you check all capacitors of your Mobo for "swollen heads" your board has lots of the vulnerable sort...

https://en.wikipedia...apacitor_plague

If you find some, then it's better to buy a replacement kit...

Edited by Cookie, Jul 18 2020 - 07:11 AM.

[jgf]

If Win10 is my only option I'll never ditch Win7.  

I would gladly go to Linux if  there were an emulator allowing me to run all my windows games without requiring the knowledge of a master programmer (I often have trouble tweaking DOSBox).

[Tobodestroyer2020]

Thanks, Cookie. All looks fine upon closer inspection.

I have now removed my original HDD and replaced it with a 320GB one I had lying around. I'm just installing a fresh copy of Win10Pro onto it. I'll install drivers for Fanatec pedals and Logitech G27 followed by a fresh installation of GPL using GPLPS installer.

As expected, it's taking FOREVER.

Linux was up and running within 15 minutes and I didn't have to download any drivers for my hardware either. Unfortunately, my PC is a tad too old to run it as smoothly as Windows. I'll definitely return to Linux when I'm in a position to buy better hardware.

I'll update you again when I've got my complete GPL installation back in place on Windows 10.

UPDATE: 6 HOURS LATER and Windows has only just finished installing everything. GPL now runs and the first signs look good; Gem is opening and rebuilding the exe files faster than on Win7. Also, no more issues with the mouse and keyboard not being detected. I'm happy so far but too tired and too screened-out to do any actual racing.

More fine tuning in the morning...

UPDATE: It's now the morning. Just for fun I've installed Linux Mint Xfce onto my aged laptop. Woohoo it's quick! Yippee. I can even get it to run GPL2020 Demo. Ok - only 20FPS but on Win10 on the same machine it took 20 minutes (yes, you read that correctly), 20 minutes to progress through the menus before I even got to the track. On Mint I went from desktop to driving seat in under a minute. I will definitley try this Xfce version on my GPL machine when I get a chance.  My goal this week is to set up my GPL machine with a clean Win10 and a clean Mint Xfce so that I can do a direct comparison with the same aged hardware.

UPDATE: 2 days later and I've done this to my PC so far. 1 x 320GB HDD has been split down the middle and now dual boots into clean installations of Win10 and Linux MInt 20 Xfce. The only programme on each is GPL (along with everyting to make it work). This is so that I can make a direct comparison between the two. At the moment I'm using Win10 as I can't work out how to get the H-Shifter working with Fairshift on Linux. As soon as I've got that cracked, I'll get back to you. I really hope that Linux comes out on top in my experiment but it's too early to make a decision yet. Watch this space...

Edited by Tobodestroyer2020, Jul 20 2020 - 10:51 AM.

[ginetto]

I would use xfce instead of MATE with an older, not so powerful computer; talking about Linux Mint.

[twinpotter]

Apologies Tobodestroyer for hijacking and using your thread as a sounding board.

I have an HP laptop which I have just changed and upgraded from Windows 8(8.1) to Windows 10.

Unfortunately I'm having a problem with my onboard mouse sticking and moving intermittently on the screen. When it was working soundly on my Windows 8. My battery wasn't charging so my local friend and technician as told me that the battery could be at fault. He's advised me to buy a new battery to see if that cures the issue? If that doesn't work he as advised me to update my bios, and I have no idea how to do that.

What do you all think I should do? Thanks and apologies again for jumping in to this thread with my issue!

TP:

Edited by twinpotter, Jul 19 2020 - 03:08 AM.

[Tobodestroyer2020]

Hi TP,

If you have the disk-space, then I would recomend dual-booting Linux Mint. Give it a go and see how you get on. Even if you can't get GPL to run, you will fall in love with Linux if you've not used it before. It makes everyday computing so much more pleasurable.

Your mouse may well work with a new OS. Mine was very unreliable on Win 7 but all is good on Mint and Win10. I find that everything works straight out of the box on Linux. Give it a go.

[twinpotter]

Hi Tobodestroyer

Cookie as mentioned Linux Mint to me on other threads in the past and I've been tempted but still not 100% certain I would go to that system 🤔 I will have a think about it though as it sounds like it's getting some good recommendations 👈👉

My mouse issue as occured due to changing over to Win 10 from 8. All was okay on the 8 system so there may be some conflict, for some reason, with Win 10 and the HP configuration?

I'm going to try the battery route first then look at the bios if the battery method doesn't work. Or if anybody can think of and advise me on what could be the possible cause of this issue.

Thanks once more 👍

Technology hey 😂😁

TP:

Edited by twinpotter, Jul 19 2020 - 05:50 AM.

[Cookie]

if you have an 4GB USB-Stick, then DL a mint iso, burn it to the stick and run it as "live system"
this will show you if your mouse is functioning or the driver is corrupted in windoze

Edited by Cookie, Jul 19 2020 - 09:02 AM.

[jgf]

Have you tried different mouse drivers?

[twinpotter]

Thanks Cookie. Info taken on board with perusal 🤔🤔

Jgf it was my friend who as his own PC technician shop that moved the laptop over to Windows 10. He's pretty good so I'm sure he'd have updated all the drivers with the conversion?
It was him that told me to try the battery route first, then if that doesn't work he as offered to try the bios update. I'm hoping that the battery solves it. I just thought and hoped that members here might have a few more ideas. Thank you all 😁👍

TP:

Edited by twinpotter, Jul 19 2020 - 03:05 PM.

[paul_v]

Cookie, on Jul 19 2020 - 07:46 AM, said:

if you have an 4GB USB-Stick, then DL a mint iso, burn it to the stick and run it as "live system"
this will show you if your mouse is functioning or the driver is corrupted in windoze

Nice one Axel...

I think my first experiments with Mint should be done this way.

Paul.