Violin / Star Trek: Beta ~

Hi all.
Just a lil corner of the galaxy in which you can read and be updated on progress with my stories.

Star Trek Beta: Episode 1 'Distortion' Part 1 can be found here.
http://www.thesimsresource.com/stories/details/title/star-trek-beta-e1-distorted-part-1/category/sims3-scififantasy/id/18654/

Star Trek Beta: Episode 2 'Distortion continued' Part 2 progress: 90% release date: 16th August approx.

Violin! Chapter One progress 90% release date: 17th August approx.

Sorry, it does take a while. I have to pre-write, organise screenshots, create graphics, and then put 'em all together. Hopefully, it should be worth the wait!

oh this is exciting.... I can't wait to read them....

Thankyou!

Update: Star Trek Beta will be taking a while in the way of Screenshots. I have written quite a few episodes so far, but I have uninstalled TS3 due to it overheating my laptop. Again. Even with the cooling pad. I think it's due to low disk space :/ anyway, Violin will be submitted in 1-2 days and TS2 will be used. I am planning to reconstruct ST Beta in detail on TS2.

Rosaleena, do you delete all downloads after you installed them and do you empty your DC Back up folder?

When I first uninstalled it ages ago, I kept CC, screenshots.etc. This time round, I deleted the lot due to it taking up quite a large amount of disk space. I have quite a small harddisk, and I have Vista, which takes up alot too, so I have to compromise, unfortunately.

how bout adding some extra sim.... (I mean the memory... not Our beloved simmies...)

I wish I could. I have shrank the C: drive into two other drives, one for media, and one for Sims. Sims 2 runs well.

I cannot add RAM as I have a laptop. I could get an expert to add another GB onto my 2GB, but I think the prices would be incomprehensable.

Rosaleena wrote:

I have uninstalled TS3 due to it overheating my laptop. Again. Even with the cooling pad. I think it's due to low disk space

I doubt the disk space is the reason for heat. A laptop needs ventilation mainly because of the CPU (that's why the more expensive low-voltage ones are preferred for laptop use) and even more so if they've got a dedicated graphics card (those create a lot of heat and are not as evolved as CPUs heat-wise speaking). If your laptop gets very hot, most of the time it's due to the following 3 reasons:
(1) the ventilation has gone bad (dust/objects obstructing the air flow, malfunctioning/aging fans)
(2) the CPU has much to do instead of idling around (chess programs are a good way to send the CPU working hard)
(3) the GPU (graphics chip) has much to do (programs with lot of 3D calculations like Sims 3)

Heavy usage of the hard disk can play a role, too (after all, there's mechanical stuff rotating in it and generating heat), but it's fairly minor compared to the other 3 reasons. Age can play a role, too (electronic components failing to work properly). Dell laptops at example have a reputation to become very noise with age to compensate for "wearing down"-related heat (and at least for my old Inspiron laptop it certainly holds true).

If your heat problem is only related to playing Sims 3, the GPU card should be played. Maybe you can configure your graphics card setting in your laptop to be less demanding on heat, or reduce the graphical settings for Sims 3.

More RAM would probably speed up your system, but won't do any magic to excessive heat.

Wow Flatter! It's great to have you here. You really know about computers. I think you're going to be our expert!

Ah. That may explain why it makes a funny noise when I'm playing big games. It never made that noise when I first bought it :/

I've tried getting rid of the dust in the fan, but no results. I've also tried downloading SpeedFan, but my motherboard or whatever isn't compatible. And you are right, heat increases ALOT when playing Sims 3. Maybe it's time to get a new computer... but, I think this laptop still has alot of life in it yet. It'll have to explode before I invest in a new one haha.

Have you any other suggestions on how I could increase performance?

Rosaleena wrote:

Have you any other suggestions on how I could increase performance?

Not really (so much for Margo's promoting me to expert ). A laptop sacrifices modularity for being small. While exchanging an internal hard disk or RAM chips is usually quite easy, the meaty parts like CPU and GPU are usually hard-wired and not exchangeable. A processor (CPU or GPU alike) gets as hot as a switched-on electric kitchen stove. While working you could easily boil water with it - that's why it needs proper cooling (silent heat pipes, noisy fans,...) to prevent its self-destruction. Cooling pads are usually not very effective in battling the heat - it's kind of like holding a ice cube 2 cm above a heated stove in the hope to cool it down. The pads are too far away from the heat-producing source.

All you said points to the graphics card as the source of your heat problems, which then starts to infect the whole system with its heat (the cooling pads can slow down the spreading, ok). As you normally can't exchange the internal card, you can only try to reduce the strain on the card by changing graphics settings. But keep your expectations very low. I do not know if a computer dealer in your vicinity exists that will clean your computer internally and check for any broken elements on the cooling system (which may be fixable), but this may cost you more money than it's worth and the success is not guaranteed. Some laptops are deeply integrated pieces of hardware and not easy to disassemble - at least if you plan to re-assemble them again

Did this answer your question or was it aimed at improving the overall performance of your laptop (like in "faster program execution speed")?

Wow, Margos' really thrilled to be hearing this techie conversation of ours, Flatter!

Yes, my expectations are very low. To be honest, I care more about fast gaming then I do high quality textures. I'd like my computer to run fast and efficently, I don't really care about high-res graphics.
I have tried updating my graphic card drivers, but I can't really find an update for my laptop - HP G6000. When I did find one, ish, it installed, but it didn't really confirm anything? I didn't see any differences.

Since my laptop screen is damaged (it works, but milk got spilt onto the screen, leaving marks), I invested in a nice LCD monitor.

I hope Margo won't write a story about it

Updating graphic card drivers on laptops is still not very common, a few years ago you even had to do all kind of strange things to accomplish it (like starting your laptop not before midnight, wearing two pair of socks etc. ). If your laptop is older, you won't get much from updating the driver anyway. In the old days both nVidia and Ati didn't support their laptop cards very well.

On the HP site I found some instructions how to clean your laptop. It had photos, too. Maybe there is even more info to be found there (test your luck!): HP instructions on cleaning a laptop.

If you want to speed up your system more RAM will be helpful, because it reduces swapping memory to the hard disk. The same effect has running less programs in the background while you play. Check if you start some services or processes you don't need. A new hard disk can speed up things, too, if the difference in access times between the old and the new model are high enough (because of the swapping thingie and any loading during gameplay). But I doubt it will account for more than 10% in the best of cases. Graphic card and CPU are more important speed factors by far. Both can't be changed by you. You can only change the workload of the graphics card by disabling any post-processing (like Anti-Aliasing), disabling shadow showing, lowering game resolution etc. Such things can make a huge difference.

Since I will leave tomorrow for holiday I doubt I can help you further. But my last advice is: Don't sink money in old laptops. Better to sell it to someone who needs one for internet browsing and the odd word processing and then buy yourself a newer model (used or new).

Thankyou. Enjoy your holiday!!

Update: Violin! Chapter One - All the young Girls
is going to be submitted for approval later on tonight. Have a great weekend!!

Star Trek: Beta is on it's way - it will be including a character reference page so you know which character is which due to me switching to sims 2.

Waiting impatiently to read your new story!

Good news!

Star Trek Beta 'Distorted' Part Two is now available! Sadly, still without screenshots, but hopefully, you should get a brief idea of what I mean

http://radhab.co.uk/wordpress/?page_id=47