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• OpenGL : sluggish performance in extracting texture from GPU

  - by Cyan

  I'm currently working on an algorithm which creates a texture within a render buffer. The operations are pretty complex, but for the GPU this is a simple task, done very quickly. The problem is that, after creating the texture, i would like to save it. This requires to extract it from GPU memory. For this operation, i'm using glGetTexImage(). It works, but the performance is sluggish. No, i mean even slower than that. For example, an 8MB texture (uncompressed) requires 3 seconds (yes, seconds) to be extracted. That's mind puzzling. I'm almost wondering if my graphic card is connected by a serial link... Well, anyway, i've looked around, and found some people complaining about the same, but no working solution so far. The most promising advise was to "extract data in the native format of the GPU". Which i've tried and tried, but failed so far. Edit : by moving the call to glGetTexImage() in a different place, the speed has been a bit improved for the most dramatic samples : looking again at the 8MB texture, it knows requires 500ms, instead of 3sec. It's better, but still much too slow. Smaller texture sizes were not affected by the change (typical timing remained into the 60-80ms range). Using glFinish() didn't help either. Note that, if i call glFinish() (without glGetTexImage), i'm getting a fixed 16ms result, whatever the texture size or complexity. It really looks like the timing for a frame at 60fps. The timing is measured for the full rendering + saving sequence. The call to glGetTexImage() alone does not really matter. That being said, it is this call which changes the performance. And yes, of course, as stated at the beginning, the texture is "created into the GPU", hence the need to save it.

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• How can I make my PHP development environment more efficient?

  - by pixel

  I want to start a home-brew pet project in PHP. I've spent some time in my life developing in PHP and I've always felt it was hard to organize the development environment efficiently. In my previous PHP work, I've used a windows desktop machine and a linux server for development. This configuration had it's advantages: it's easy to configure Apache (and it's modules)/PHP/MySql on a linux box, and, at the time, this configuration was the same like on production server. However, I never successfully set up a debug connection between my Eclipse install and X-debug on server. Transferring files from my local workspace to the server was also very annoying (either ftp or Bazaar script moving files from repository to web root). For my new setup, I'm considering installing everything on my local machine. I'm afraid that it will slow down workstation performance (LAMP + Eclipse), and that compatibility problems will kick-in. What would you recommend? Should I develop using two separate machines? On one? Do you have experience using one of above configurations in your work?

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• It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over

  - by Oracle OpenWorld Blog Team

  Oracle OpenWorld 2012 is behind us. Well, for San Francisco, anyhow. The team is already working on the Latin America event which takes place in December in Sao Paulo, and an OpenWorld in Asia for 2013 as well. And of course they're already working on the next San Francisco OpenWorld for 2013. So what happens after the conference is over? People pack up demo and network gear and ship it out to wherever it's going next; take down and recycle signage; strike the keynote set, the exhibition and demo halls, the street tents, and anything else that was constructed just for the conference. There's a lot of post-conference analyis going on too. Oracle and partner marketing teams are looking at and following up on the leads they got from booth, demo, and lounge traffic. The events team is evaluating the session and conference surveys you filled out if you attended -- looking to identify the best speakers, what worked and didn't work, how you liked the venues, the food, the entertainment, the presentations. From all of that information will come recommendations for next year on what to keep doing, what to do better, and what not to do at all. The goal for each year's conference is to be better than last year's. If you attended and haven't filled out the surveys yet, you have until October 19 for them to be counted, and for you to be entered into a daily sweepstakes. Click here for more information. Posts to this blog will slow down for a while, but we'll post news about Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco and around the world when we have it. Any suggestions about future blog topics are welcome. Oh - I forgot to mention that you can sign up to be notified when registration for Oracle OpenWorld 2013 goes live. If you register at that time you'll get the best discount available on attending next year. So sign up, and stay tuned.

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• Google Rolls Out Secured Search. It’s Slightly Different From Regular Search

  - by Gopinath

  Google rolled out secured version of it’s search engine at https://google.com (did you notice https instead of http?). This search engine lets everyone to use Google search in a secured way. How is it secured? When you use https://google.com, the data exchanged between your browser and Google servers is encrypted to make sure that no one can sniff it. Is my search history secured from Google? No. The search queries you submit to Google are stored in Google servers. There is no change Google’s search history recording. Any differences between Regular Search and Secured Search Results? Yes. Secured search is slightly different from regular search. When you are accessing Google Secured Search Image search options will not be available on the left side bar. Site may respond slow compared to regular search site as there is a overhead to establish between your browser and the server. Join us on Facebook to read all our stories right inside your Facebook news feed.

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• Isn't Java a quite good choice for desktop applications?

  - by tactoth

  At present most applications are still developed with C++, painfully. Lack of portability, in compatible libraries, memory leaks, slow compilation, and poor productivity. Even if you pick only a single from these shortages, it's still a big headache. However the surprising truth is that C++ remains the first choice for desktop applications. Compared to C++ Java has lots of advantages. The success in server side development shows that the language itself is good, Swing is also thought to be as programmer friendly as the highly recognized QT framework (No, never say even a single word about MFC!). All the disadvantages of C++ listed above has a solution in Java. "Performance!", Well that might still be the problem but to my experience it's a slight problem. I'd been using Java to decode some screen video and generate key frames. The video has a duration of more than 1 hour. The time spent on an average machine is just 1 minute. With C++ I don't expect even faster speed. In recent days there are many news on the JIT performance improvements, that make us feel Java is gradually becoming very suitable for desktop development, without people realizing it. Isn't it?

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• Should I be concerned that I can't program very fast without Google? [closed]

  - by seth

  Possible Duplicate: Google is good or bad for programmer? I'm currently in college to be a software engineer, and one of the main principles taught to us is how to learn for ourselves, and how to search the web when we have a doubt. This leads to a proactive attitude - when I need something, I go get it. Recently, I started wondering how much development would I be able to do without internet access and the answer bugged me quite a bit. I know the concept of the languages and how to use them, but I was amazed by how "slow" things were without having the Google to help in the development. Most of the problems I have are related to specific syntax. For example, reading and writing to a file in Java. I have done this about a dozen times in my life, yet every time I need to do it, I end up googling "read file java" and refreshing my memory. I completely understand the code and fully understand what it does, but I am sure that without Google it would take me a few tries to get the code correct. Is this normal? Should I be worried and try to change something in my programming behaviour?

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• Having trouble installing Bradcom STA driver

  - by user192881

  I just installed Ubuntu and love it so much, its so fast now. But I have a problem connecting to the internet. I checked and saw I have to install the driver Broadcom STA wireless driver but every time I do try to install it it says: Sorry, installation of this driver failed. Please have a look at the log files for details: /var/log/jockey.log I went to the terminal and copy and pasted the log file name. and when I did it, it said I have no permission to access this file. I checked on the forums that I have to be on a wired connection. So I plugged my laptop into my router and I got internet then tried to install the driver again. And it was loading then when it got to the end the same message popped up. Also I have one of those little USB router things you plug into the computer and it gives you internet I have been using that but its to slow. So I want to use the one in my computer but cant. Also I tried the command: sudo modprobe wl and when i type that command in it says: FATAL: Module wl not found Also I'm using Ubuntu 12.04

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• Rectangular Raycasting?

  - by igrad

  If you've ever played The Swapper, you'll have a good idea of what I'm asking about. I need to check for, and isolate, areas of a rectangle that may intersect with either a circle or another rectangle. These selected areas will receive special properties, and the areas will be non-static, since the intersecting shapes themselves will also be dynamic. My first thought was to use raycasting detection, though I've only seen that in use with circles, or even ellipses. I'm curious if there's a method of using raycasting with a more rectangular approach, or if there's a totally different method already in use to accomplish this task. I would like something more exact than checking in large chunks, and since I'm using SDL2 with a logical renderer size of 1920x1080, checking if each pixel is intersecting is out of the question, as it would slow things down past a playable speed. I already have a multi-shape collision function-template in place, and I could use that, though it only checks if sides or corners are intersecting; it does not compute the overlapping area, or even find the circle's secant line, though I can't imagine it would be overly complex to implement. TL;DR: I need to find and isolate areas of a rectangle that may intersect with a circle or another rectangle without checking every single pixel on-screen.

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• 2 year cis degree and in school for computer science what can I do?

  - by chame1eon

  Hi I am 29 and have a recent 2 cis year degree from a community college , an A+ certification , and meager experience with web stuff ( Java , Javascript , php ) while in my 1 year help desk internship. In all the programming classes I was able to blow through the homework easily even while other students were panicking and dropping. I think I have managed to avoid the most atrocious noob/self taught mistakes ( spaghetti code etc) by just doing research before starting something and trying to keep good design in mind. Even so I'd have to make heavy use of references to crawl through even simple projects that would result in fully finished useful applications. I need a job now and I am tired of the slow pace of the classes and would love to get any kind of practical experience I could. The problem is that I am not sure what I should be trying to do. I have a very strong preference for application programming or at least anything light on design and preferably pretty low level. If I can't do that then anything technology related , for example help desk would be better than nothing. I live near Raleigh NC. Am I qualified for anything that could contribute to coding (C++ or Java ) experience or even web development though I don't really like it. Would web development experience help. If not is there anything I could read or do that could help? Is the help desk my only choice? If it is, are there any relatively quick certifications or anything similar that would help while I am waiting? Sorry about the long multi-part question. Thanks for reading.

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• High-level description of how experimental C++ features are developed?

  - by Praxeolitic

  Herb Sutter in a video answers a question about the concepts proposal considered for C++11 and from his remarks it sounds like multiple groups offered prototype implementations but all of them left concerns about slow compile times. The comment surprised me because it suggests that, at least in some cases, the prototypes being developed are not just proofs of concept -- they're even expected to perform. All the work that must take has me curious. For mature languages, especially C++, how are experimental language features developed? Is it much different from developing a compiler that implements a standard? Does a developer have a sense of if it will work and perform or even if it ever could? What are the most time consuming parts and are any parts surprisingly easier than one might expect? The question is not what does the C++ standards committee do, but rather the part that comes before. When an experimental implementation for a proposal is being put together and there aren't any completely solidified rules, how is the sausage made? I'm not a professional compiler developer nor do I expect answers with step by step accounts. I'd like a high-level idea of how this would be done or if there are any general patterns at all. I don't know what to expect from the answers but even if there are no rules to the process and the small number of people who do this just cowboy it and then, for stuff that worked out, write up the "official version" as a proposal, that answer would still be informative.

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• After upgrade to 12.04 wireless keeps dropping on BCM4312

  - by Sheket

  I know there are plenty of questions very similar to these, but I've tried practically everything and it still isn't working. Some solutions get the wireless connection working, but it goes very slow and drops after a few minutes. Then it won't reconnect and keeps asking for password. Hope you can help me. Thanks in advance. This is the output for sudo lshw -C network *-network description: Network controller product: BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY vendor: Broadcom Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0 version: 01 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=0 resources: irq:18 memory:f0300000-f0303fff *-network description: Ethernet interface product: AR8132 Fast Ethernet vendor: Atheros Communications Inc. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0 logical name: eth1 version: c0 serial: 00:23:5a:9b:6e:b1 size: 100Mbit/s capacity: 100Mbit/s width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=atl1c driverversion=1.0.1.0-NAPI duplex=full firmware=N/A ip=192.168.0.106 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s resources: irq:42 memory:f0200000-f023ffff ioport:a000(size=128) *-network description: Wireless interface physical id: 1 logical name: wlan0 serial: 00:24:2c:83:f0:81 capabilities: ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=b43 driverversion=3.2.0-30-generic firmware=478.104 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg And for lsmod | grep b43 b43 342643 0 mac80211 436455 1 b43 cfg80211 178679 2 b43,mac80211 bcma 25651 1 b43 ssb 50691 1 b43 And for rfkill list 5: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no

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• colliding btRigidBody objects behave strangely when moving slowly

  - by Piku

  I'm trying to use Bullet Physics in my iOS game. The engine appears to be correctly compiled in that the demos work fine. In my game I have the player's ship and some enemy ships. They're defined as btRigidBody objects and btCollisionObjects and I'm using btSphereShapes for collision. At 'fast' speeds, collisions appear to happen sensibly - things collide and nothing goes 'weird'. If the speeds are very slow though and the player's ship touches a non-moving object the collision happens, but then the player's ship moves at incredible speed over the next few frames and appears a long distance from where it collided - completely out of proportion to the speed it was moving before impact. To move the things around I'm using setLinearVelocity() each frame, ticking the physics engine, then using getMotionState() to update the rendering code I have. Part of the issue might be I don't quite understand how to set the correct mass or what the best speeds are to use for anything. I'm mostly sticking numbers in and seeing what happens. Should I be using Bullet in this way, and are there any guidelines for deciding on the mass of objects? (am I right in assuming that in collisions heavier objects will force lighter objects to move more)

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• Provide A Scrolling "Camera" View Over A 2D Game Map

  - by BitCrash

  I'm in the process of attempting to create a 2D MMO type game with Kryonet and some basic sprites, mostly for my own learning. I have the back end set up great (By my standards) and I'm moving on to actually getting some things drawn onto the map. I cannot for the life of me figure out a solid way to have a "Camera" follow a player around a large area. The view pane for the game is 640 x 480 pixels, and each tile is 32x32 pixels (Thats 20 tiles wide and 15 high for the viewpane) I have tried a couple things to do this, but they did not seem to work out so well. I had a JScrollPane with 9 "Viewpane"-sized canvases in it, and tried to have the JScrollPane move in accordance with the player. The issue came when I reached the end of the JScrollPane. I tried to "Flip" canvases, sending the canvas currrently drawing the player to the middle of the 9 and load the corresponding maps onto the other ones. It was slow and worked poorly. I'm looking for any advice or previous experience with this; any ideas? Thank you! Edit and Clarification: I did not mean to mention Kryonet, I was merely providing peripheral information in case there was something that would help which I could not foresee. Instead of having an array of 9 canvases, why not just have one large canvas loading a large map every once in a while? I'm willing to have "load times" where as with the canvas array I would have none (in theory) to give the user a smooth experience. I could just change the size and location of the map with a modified setBounds() call on the canvas in a layered pane (layered because I have hidden swing items, like inventories and stuff) I'll try it out and post here how it goes for people asking the same question.

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• Black Screen after installing recommended Nvidia drivers. What to do?

  - by former_Windows_user

  New to Ubuntu. Problem description: Until recently I had Windows on my computer. My hard disk is divided into two partitions. On the first one (app. 10 GB) I had my Windows XP On the second one (app. 30 GB) I have some data I tried to install Ubuntu 12.04 on the first partition (the smaller one). Since I wanted to keep the data on my second partition, I chose the third install option. During the installation process I deleted the data on partition one, created a new partition with the same size, formatted it as ext4 and mounted / on it. The installation continued fine and at the end I restarted and took the CD out when it ejected automatically (it could have been also before the restart). Ubuntu started but I noticed that my computer was slow. Then a prompt appeared telling me that I did not have the optimal NVidia drivers and recommended to install a specific one. I clicked on the recommended driver, installation went apparently just fine and at the end I had to restart the system again. I did it, Ubuntu started, asked for my password, I typed it, pressed Enter, the screen turned black and remained like that (only the cursor was there and I could move it). I restarted and the same thing happened again. Has anyone had such a problem before and was able to solve it? With Windows I always installed drivers from CDs after installing Windows. Are the same CDs going to work for Ubuntu too or I should find special drivers? P.S. During the installation I was connected to the internet and I agreed on installing updates and the third party software. In the time before I installed that problematic but recommended NVidia driver I checked that there was between 6 and 7 GB free space on the first partition where I installed Ubuntu.

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• Creating my own PHP framework

  - by onlineapplab.com

  Disclaimer: I don't want to start any flame war so there will not be no name of any framework mentioned. I've been using quite many from the existing PHP frameworks and my experience in each case was similar: everything is nice a the beginning but in the moment you require something non standard you get into lot of problems to fix otherwise simple issues. In case of frameworks following the MVC design pattern there are some issues with the implementation of each layer for example there is a lot of codding used for model and data access with using ORM and presentation is not much more than pure phtml. Some frameworks use their own wrappers for existing PHP functionality and in some cases severely limiting original functionality. Depending on framework you can have additional problems like lack of documentation, slow or non existent development cycle and last but not least speed. While ago I made my own framework which while doing it's job and being used for few different applications after couple of years more of experience with PHP doesn't seem to be perfect piece of codding. I could write my own framework and use additional experience I've gathered during these years to make it better on the other hand I'm aware that there is quite many better programmers working on creating/upgrading existing frameworks. So does it make at all nay sense to write my own PHP framework if there is so many possibilities to choose from?

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• Poor performance after reinstalling to a USB drive

  - by anonymous

  I am currently running Ubuntu 11.10 off of a SanDisk 16GB USB. I installed it using a Live USB with the following partition configuration: 6GB Primary /dos FAT32 5GB Logical / ext4 5GB Logical /home ext4 I don't have a hard disk, and don't see myself getting one anytime soon. I rely solely on this 16GB, and two other 4GB USBs, one of which I used as the LiveUSB. I bring the USBs around, and even use the install at work. I previously used an install that used a swap file. It functioned fine for the most part, save for a few slow moments, but I came across this post, and it got me thinking about my USB's life, so I reinstalled with the current config. My problem now is that it is slower. Applications like Firefox would hang more often. In my previous setup (the automatically partitioned setup), Firefox would start hanging if I was running an unzip or install task on the same partition as /. Now however, it would hang if I had another window open i.e. the system settings window. My guess is that it may have something to do with the swap file or the install being on a Logical partition rather than a Primary partition, but I don't know. Any insight as to why it has slowed down?

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• Can i add friction in air?

  - by Diken

  I have issue regarding speed in air. When i jump and move simultaneously that time speed of player increase.For jump i am using impuls and for movement i am using force.I want to slow speed when player is in air. Thanks in advance Following is my update method ih HUDLayer -(void)update:(ccTime)dt :(b2Body *)ballBody :(CCSprite *)player1 :(b2World *)world { if (moveRight.active==YES) { ballBody->SetActive(true); b2Vec2 locationworld=b2Vec2(maxSpeed,0); double mass=ballBody->GetMass(); ballBody->ApplyForce(mass*locationworld, ballBody->GetWorldCenter()); // ballBody->SetLinearDamping(1.2f); } else if(moveLeft.active==YES) { ballBody->SetActive(true); b2Vec2 locationworld=b2Vec2(-10,0); double mass=ballBody->GetMass(); ballBody->ApplyForce(mass*locationworld, ballBody->GetWorldCenter()); // ballBody->SetLinearDamping(1.2f); } } Following is jump -(void)jump:(b2Body*)ballBody:(ccTime)dt:(BOOL)touch { if (touch) { if (jumpSprte.active==YES) { ballBody->SetActive(true); b2Vec2 locationWorld; //locationWorld=b2Vec2(0.0f,98.0f); locationWorld=b2Vec2(0,32); // double mass=ballBody->GetMass(); ballBody->ApplyLinearImpulse(locationWorld, ballBody->GetWorldCenter()); // ballBody->ApplyForce(mass*locationWorld, ballBody->GetWorldCenter()); ballBody->SetLinearDamping(1.2f); } } } So where i apply logic??

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• How to learn to program [on hold]

  - by user94914

  I went to a community college and got a degree in computer science, but I found out I only learn very little about programming. As a result I landed byself a office assistant work (for a year now), I want to study on my own and apply for some internship / very entry level development job. I am wondering how should a person learn to program now? I feel that I might not doing it correctly, I understand everyone has a different approach, but I am really clueless on what to do, as it seems I am 5-10 years away. 1) Read the old college programming textbook cover to cover, learn every single concepts, do all the practice problems and master them (1-2 times until error free). Currently reading this java book 2) Work on any project, keep on googling and reading tutorials (including the books on that specific language). I have been doing 1, but the progress is really slow, about 2-5 pages / hour, over a 1000+ page book, I felt really discouraged. I have a few of them to go through (data struction, analyis algorthim, computer theory, operating system.) I wonder is this the right method to do? I know it is going to take time, but I am hoping to get some advice from current programmers.

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• Precise exposition of an image for set number of frames (Vsync?)

  - by Istrebitel

  I need to make a simple enough program in C#, but it seems to be impossible via usual WinForms means. I need to show something (a string of text, an image) on the screen for very small time interval. Since typical monitors are 60Hz, this interval would be 1 or 2 frames (16,6 or 33,3 ms). I tried doing this with usual WinForms, and it is not possible because, apparently, there is no way to know how many frames were output to the monitor since some point in time. I can only draw on the controls, and monitor output is totally independant. So even if I run the timer, say, for 17 ms, between showing and hiding the image, it still sometimes manages not to draw a single frame of my image on the screen (even though theoretically it should, because 17ms 16,6ms). Moreover, even 20ms seems to slow (even though i should be more than enough). I did some game development as a hobby in the past (Delphi X, XNA) and I know that you usually draw the whole screen by yourself, each frame. Also, I know that there is an option called Vsync in most modern games, that allows you to synchronize your framerate to your monitor's frame rate. So, is it possible? I mean, to actually know how many frames were sent to the monitor with w/e I want to show?

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• My computer freezes irregurarly

  - by Manhim

  My computer started to freeze at irregular times for 3 weeks now. What happens My computer freezes, the video stops. (No graphic glitches, it just stops) Sound keeps playing up to some time (Usually 10-30 seconds) then stops playing. Sometimes, randomly, the screen on my G-15 keyboard flickers and I see caracters not at the right places. Usually happens for about 1-2 seconds and a bit before my computer freezes. I have to keep the power button pressed for 4 seconds to shut my computer down. I still hear my hard drives and fans working. Sometimes it works with no problems for a full day, some other times it just keeps freezing each time I restart my computer and I have to leave it for the rest of the day. Sometimes my mouse freezes for a fraction of a second (Like 0.01 to 0.2 seconds) quite randomly, usually before it freezes. No errors spotted by the "Action center" unlike when I had problems with my last video card on this system (Driver errors). My G-15 LCD screen also freezes. What I did so far I have had similar problems in the past and I had changed my hard drive (It was faulty), so I tested my software RAID-0 array and it was faulty so I changed it. (I reinstalled Windows 7 with this part). I also tested with unplugging my secondary hard drive. My CPU was running at about 100 degree Celsius, I removed the dust between the fans and the heatsink and it's now between 50-60. I ran a CPU stress-test and it didn't freeze during the tests (using Prime95 on all cores) Ran a memory test (using memtest86+) for a single pass and there were no errors. Ran a GPU stress test with ati-tools and furmark and it didn't freeze during the tests. (No artefacts either) I had troubles with my graphic card when I got it, but I think that it got fixed with a driver update. I checked the voltages in my BIOS setup and they all seemed ok (±0.2 I think). I have ran on the computer without problems with Fedora 15 on an external hard drive (Appart that it couldn't load Gnome 3 and was reverting to Gnome 2, didn't want to install drivers since I use it on multiple computers) I used it to backup my files from the raid array to my 1TB hard drive for the reinstallation of Windows. (So the crashes only happenned on Windows) [The external hard drive is plugged directly on a SATA port] I contacted EVGA (My graphic card vendor) and pointed them on this question, I'm looking for an answer. Ran sensors on Fedora 15 and got this output: http://pastebin.com/0BHJnAvu When it happens When I play video games (Mostly) When I play flash games (Second most) When I'm looking at my desktop background (It rarely happens when I have a window open, but it does, sometimes) Specs Windows Seven x64 Home Premium Motherboard: M2N-SLI Deluxe CPU: AMD Phenom 9950 x2 @ 2.6GHz Memory: Kingston 4x2GB Dual Channel (Pretty basic memory sticks) Hard drives: Was 2x250GB (Western digital caviar) in raid-0 + 1TB (WD caviar black), I replaced the raid array with a 750GB (WD caviar black) [Yes I removed the array from the raid configurations] 750W Power supply No overcloking. Ever. There have been some power-downs like 4-5 weeks ago, but the problem didn't start immediately after. (I wasn't home, so my computer got shut-down) My current to-try list Change the thermal paste on my CPU. Change my graphic card with a temporary one and stress the computer. Change my power supply. In this situation, how can I successfully pin-point the current hardware problem? (If it's a hardware problem) Because I don't really have the budget to just forget and replace everything. I also don't really have hardware to test-replace current hardware.

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• Creating an ASP.NET report using Visual Studio 2010 - Part 1

  - by rajbk

  This tutorial walks you through creating an report based on the Northwind sample database. You will add a client report definition file (RDLC), create a dataset for the RDLC, define queries using LINQ to Entities, design the report and add a ReportViewer web control to render the report in a ASP.NET web page. The report will have a chart control. Different results will be generated by changing filter criteria. At the end of the walkthrough, you should have a UI like the following.  From the UI below, a user is able to view the product list and can see a chart with the sum of Unit price for a given category. They can filter by Category and Supplier. The drop downs will auto post back when the selection is changed.  This demo uses Visual Studio 2010 RTM. This post is split into three parts. The last part has the sample code attached. Creating an ASP.NET report using Visual Studio 2010 - Part 2 Creating an ASP.NET report using Visual Studio 2010 - Part 3   Lets start by creating a new ASP.NET empty web application called “NorthwindReports” Creating the Data Access Layer (DAL) Add a web form called index.aspx to the root directory. You do this by right clicking on the NorthwindReports web project and selecting “Add item..” . Create a folder called “DAL”. We will store all our data access methods and any data transfer objects in here.   Right click on the DAL folder and add a ADO.NET Entity data model called Northwind. Select “Generate from database” and click Next. Create a connection to your database containing the Northwind sample database and click Next.   From the table list, select Categories, Products and Suppliers and click next. Our Entity data model gets created and looks like this:    Adding data transfer objects Right click on the DAL folder and add a ProductViewModel. Add the following code. This class contains properties we need to render our report. public class ProductViewModel { public int? ProductID { get; set; } public string ProductName { get; set; } public System.Nullable<decimal> UnitPrice { get; set; } public string CategoryName { get; set; } public int? CategoryID { get; set; } public int? SupplierID { get; set; } public bool Discontinued { get; set; } } Add a SupplierViewModel class. This will be used to render the supplier DropDownlist. public class SupplierViewModel { public string CompanyName { get; set; } public int SupplierID { get; set; } } Add a CategoryViewModel class. public class CategoryViewModel { public string CategoryName { get; set; } public int CategoryID { get; set; } } Create an IProductRepository interface. This will contain the signatures of all the methods we need when accessing the entity model.  This step is not needed but follows the repository pattern. interface IProductRepository { IQueryable<Product> GetProducts(); IQueryable<ProductViewModel> GetProductsProjected(int? supplierID, int? categoryID); IQueryable<SupplierViewModel> GetSuppliers(); IQueryable<CategoryViewModel> GetCategories(); } Create a ProductRepository class that implements the IProductReposity above. The methods available in this class are as follows: GetProducts – returns an IQueryable of all products. GetProductsProjected – returns an IQueryable of ProductViewModel. The method filters all the products based on SupplierId and CategoryId if any. It then projects the result into the ProductViewModel. GetSuppliers() – returns an IQueryable of all suppliers projected into a SupplierViewModel GetCategories() – returns an IQueryable of all categories projected into a CategoryViewModel  public class ProductRepository : IProductRepository { /// <summary> /// IQueryable of all Products /// </summary> /// <returns></returns> public IQueryable<Product> GetProducts() { var dataContext = new NorthwindEntities(); var products = from p in dataContext.Products select p; return products; }   /// <summary> /// IQueryable of Projects projected /// into the ProductViewModel class /// </summary> /// <returns></returns> public IQueryable<ProductViewModel> GetProductsProjected(int? supplierID, int? categoryID) { var projectedProducts = from p in GetProducts() select new ProductViewModel { ProductID = p.ProductID, ProductName = p.ProductName, UnitPrice = p.UnitPrice, CategoryName = p.Category.CategoryName, CategoryID = p.CategoryID, SupplierID = p.SupplierID, Discontinued = p.Discontinued }; // Filter on SupplierID if (supplierID.HasValue) { projectedProducts = projectedProducts.Where(a => a.SupplierID == supplierID); }   // Filter on CategoryID if (categoryID.HasValue) { projectedProducts = projectedProducts.Where(a => a.CategoryID == categoryID); }   return projectedProducts; }     public IQueryable<SupplierViewModel> GetSuppliers() { var dataContext = new NorthwindEntities(); var suppliers = from s in dataContext.Suppliers select new SupplierViewModel { SupplierID = s.SupplierID, CompanyName = s.CompanyName }; return suppliers; }   public IQueryable<CategoryViewModel> GetCategories() { var dataContext = new NorthwindEntities(); var categories = from c in dataContext.Categories select new CategoryViewModel { CategoryID = c.CategoryID, CategoryName = c.CategoryName }; return categories; } } Your solution explorer should look like the following. Build your project and make sure you don’t get any errors. In the next part, we will see how to create the client report definition file using the Report Wizard.   Creating an ASP.NET report using Visual Studio 2010 - Part 2

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• SharePoint – The Most Important Feature

  - by Bil Simser

  Watching twitter and doing a search for SharePoint and you see a lot (almost one every few minutes) of tweets about the top 10 new features in SharePoint. What answer do you get when you ask the question, “What’s the most important feature in SharePoint?”. Chances are the answer will vary. Some will say it’s the collaboration aspect, others might say it’s the new ribbon interface, multi-item editing, external content types, faceted search, large list support, document versioning, Silverlight, etc. The list goes on. However I think most people might be missing the most important feature that’s sitting right under their noses all this time. The most important feature of SharePoint? It’s called User Empowerment. Huh? What? Is that something I find in the Site Actions menu? Nope. It’s something that’s always been there in SharePoint, you just need to get the word out and support it. How many times have you had a team ask you for a team site (assuming you had SharePoint up and running). Or to create them a contact list. Or how long have you employed that guy in the corner who’s been copying and pasting content from Corporate Communications into the web from a Word document. Let’s stop the insanity. It doesn’t have to be this way. SharePoint’s strongest feature isn’t anything you can find in the Site Settings screen or Central Admin. It’s all about empowering your users and letting them take control of their content. After all, SharePoint really is a bunch of tools to allow users to collaborate on content isn’t it? So why are you stepping in as IT and helping the user every moment along the way. It’s like having to ask users to fill out a help desk ticket or call up the Windows team to create a folder on their desktop or rearrange their Start menu. This isn’t something IT should be spending their time doing nor is it something the users should be burdened with having to wait until their friendly neighborhood tech-guy (or gal) shows up to help them sort the icons on their desktop. SharePoint IS all about empowerment. Site owners can create whatever lists and libraries they need for their team, and if the template isn’t there they can always turn to my friend and yours, the Custom List. From that can spew forth approval tracking systems, new hire checklists, and server inventory. You’re only limited by your imagination and needs. Users should be able to create new sites as they need. Want a blog to let everyone know what your team is up to? Go create one, here’s how. What’s a blog you ask? Here’s what it is and why you would use one. SharePoint is the shift in the balance of power and you need, and an IT group, let go of certain responsibilities and let your users run with the tools. A power user who knows how to create sites and what features are available to them can help a team go from the forming stage to the storming stage overnight. Again, this all hinges on you as an IT organization and what you can and empower your users with as far as features go. Running with tools is great if you know how to use them, running with scissors not recommended unless you enjoy trips to the hospital. With Great Power comes Great Responsibility so don’t go out on Monday and send out a memo to the organization saying “This Bil guy says you peeps can do anything so here it is, knock yourself out” (for one, they’ll have *no* idea who this Bil guy is). This advice comes with the task of getting your users ready for empowerment. Whether it’s through some kind of internal training sessions, in-house documentation; videos; blog posts; on how to accomplish things in SharePoint, or full blown one-on-one sit downs with teams or individuals to help them through their problems. The work is up to you. Helping them along also should be part of your governance (you do have one don’t you?). Just because you have InfoPath client deployed with your Office suite, doesn’t mean users should just start publishing forms all over your SharePoint farm. There should be some governance behind that in what you’ll support and what is possible. The other caveat to all this is that SharePoint is not everything for everyone. It can’t cook you breakfast and impregnate your cat or solve world hunger. It also isn’t suited for every IT solution out there. It’s a horrible source control system (even though some people try to use it as such) and really can’t do financials worth a darn. Again, governance is key here and part of that governance and your responsibility in setting up and unleashing SharePoint into your organization is to provide users guidance on what should be in SharePoint and (more importantly) what should not be in SharePoint. There are boundaries you have to set where you don’t want your end users going as they might be treading into trouble. Again, this is up to you to set these constraints and help users understand why these pylons are there. If someone understands why they can’t do something they might have a better understanding and respect for those that put them there in the first place. Of course you’ll always have the power-users who want to go skiing down dead mans curve so this doesn’t work for everyone, but you can catch the majority of the newbs who don’t wander aimlessly off the beaten path. At the end of the day when all things are going swimmingly your end users should be empowered to solve the needs they have on a day to day basis and not having to keep bugging the IT department to help them create a view to show only approved documents. I wouldn’t go as far as business users building out full blown solutions and handing the keys to SharePoint Designer or (worse) Visual Studio to power-users might not be a path you want to go down but you also don’t have to lock up the SharePoint system in a tight box where users can’t use what’s there. So stop focusing on the shiny things in SharePoint and maybe consider making a shift to what’s really important. Making your day job easier and letting users get the most our of your technology investment.

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• Windows 8.1 Will Start Encrypting Hard Drives By Default: Everything You Need to Know

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Windows 8.1 will automatically encrypt the storage on modern Windows PCs. This will help protect your files in case someone steals your laptop and tries to get at them, but it has important ramifications for data recovery. Previously, “BitLocker” was available on Professional and Enterprise editions of Windows, while “Device Encryption” was available on Windows RT and Windows Phone. Device encryption is included with all editions of Windows 8.1 — and it’s on by default. When Your Hard Drive Will Be Encrypted Windows 8.1 includes “Pervasive Device Encryption.” This works a bit differently from the standard BitLocker feature that has been included in Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Windows for the past few versions. Before Windows 8.1 automatically enables Device Encryption, the following must be true: The Windows device “must support connected standby and meet the Windows Hardware Certification Kit (HCK) requirements for TPM and SecureBoot on ConnectedStandby systems.”  (Source) Older Windows PCs won’t support this feature, while new Windows 8.1 devices you pick up will have this feature enabled by default. When Windows 8.1 installs cleanly and the computer is prepared, device encryption is “initialized” on the system drive and other internal drives. Windows uses a clear key at this point, which is removed later when the recovery key is successfully backed up. The PC’s user must log in with a Microsoft account with administrator privileges or join the PC to a domain. If a Microsoft account is used, a recovery key will be backed up to Microsoft’s servers and encryption will be enabled. If a domain account is used, a recovery key will be backed up to Active Directory Domain Services and encryption will be enabled. If you have an older Windows computer that you’ve upgraded to Windows 8.1, it may not support Device Encryption. If you log in with a local user account, Device Encryption won’t be enabled. If you upgrade your Windows 8 device to Windows 8.1, you’ll need to enable device encryption, as it’s off by default when upgrading. Recovering An Encrypted Hard Drive Device encryption means that a thief can’t just pick up your laptop, insert a Linux live CD or Windows installer disc, and boot the alternate operating system to view your files without knowing your Windows password. It means that no one can just pull the hard drive from your device, connect the hard drive to another computer, and view the files. We’ve previously explained that your Windows password doesn’t actually secure your files. With Windows 8.1, average Windows users will finally be protected with encryption by default. However, there’s a problem — if you forget your password and are unable to log in, you’d also be unable to recover your files. This is likely why encryption is only enabled when a user logs in with a Microsoft account (or connects to a domain). Microsoft holds a recovery key, so you can gain access to your files by going through a recovery process. As long as you’re able to authenticate using your Microsoft account credentials — for example, by receiving an SMS message on the cell phone number connected to your Microsoft account — you’ll be able to recover your encrypted data. With Windows 8.1, it’s more important than ever to configure your Microsoft account’s security settings and recovery methods so you’ll be able to recover your files if you ever get locked out of your Microsoft account. Microsoft does hold the recovery key and would be capable of providing it to law enforcement if it was requested, which is certainly a legitimate concern in the age of PRISM. However, this encryption still provides protection from thieves picking up your hard drive and digging through your personal or business files. If you’re worried about a government or a determined thief who’s capable of gaining access to your Microsoft account, you’ll want to encrypt your hard drive with software that doesn’t upload a copy of your recovery key to the Internet, such as TrueCrypt. How to Disable Device Encryption There should be no real reason to disable device encryption. If nothing else, it’s a useful feature that will hopefully protect sensitive data in the real world where people — and even businesses — don’t enable encryption on their own. As encryption is only enabled on devices with the appropriate hardware and will be enabled by default, Microsoft has hopefully ensured that users won’t see noticeable slow-downs in performance. Encryption adds some overhead, but the overhead can hopefully be handled by dedicated hardware. If you’d like to enable a different encryption solution or just disable encryption entirely, you can control this yourself. To do so, open the PC settings app — swipe in from the right edge of the screen or press Windows Key + C, click the Settings icon, and select Change PC settings. Navigate to PC and devices -> PC info. At the bottom of the PC info pane, you’ll see a Device Encryption section. Select Turn Off if you want to disable device encryption, or select Turn On if you want to enable it — users upgrading from Windows 8 will have to enable it manually in this way. Note that Device Encryption can’t be disabled on Windows RT devices, such as Microsoft’s Surface RT and Surface 2. If you don’t see the Device Encryption section in this window, you’re likely using an older device that doesn’t meet the requirements and thus doesn’t support Device Encryption. For example, our Windows 8.1 virtual machine doesn’t offer Device Encryption configuration options. This is the new normal for Windows PCs, tablets, and devices in general. Where files on typical PCs were once ripe for easy access by thieves, Windows PCs are now encrypted by default and recovery keys are sent to Microsoft’s servers for safe keeping. This last part may be a bit creepy, but it’s easy to imagine average users forgetting their passwords — they’d be very upset if they lost all their files because they had to reset their passwords. It’s also an improvement over Windows PCs being completely unprotected by default.     

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• Learning content for MCSDs: Web Applications and Windows Store Apps using HTML5

  Recently, I started again to learn for various Microsoft certifications. First candidate on my way to MSCD: Web Applications is the Exam 70-480: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3. Motivation to go for a Microsoft exam I guess, this is quite personal but let me briefly describe my intentions to go that exam. First, I'm doing web development since the 1990's. Working with HTML, CSS and Javascript is happening almost daily in my workspace. And honestly, I do not only do 'pure' web development but already integrated several HTML/CSS/Javascript frontend UIs into an existing desktop application (written in Visual FoxPro) inclusive two-way communication and data exchange. Hm, might be an interesting topic for another blog article here... Second, this exam has a very interesting aspect which is listed at the bottom of the exam's details: Credit Toward Certification When you pass Exam 70-480: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3, you complete the requirements for the following certification(s): Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3 Specialist Exam 70-480: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3: counts as credit toward the following certification(s): MCSD: Web Applications MCSD: Windows Store Apps using HTML5 So, passing one single exam will earn you specialist certification straight-forward, and opens the path to higher levels of certifications. Preparations and learning path Well, due to a newsletter from Microsoft Learning (MSL) I caught interest in picking up the circumstances and learning materials for this particular exam. As of writing this article there is a promotional / voucher code available which enables you to register for this exam for free! Simply register yourself with or log into your existing account at Prometric, choose the exam for a testing facility near to you and enter the voucher code HTMLJMP (available through 31.03.2013 or while supplies last). Hurry up, there are restrictions... As stated above, I'm already very familiar with web development and the programming flavours involved into this. But of course, it is always good to freshen up your knowledge and reflect on yourself. Microsoft is putting a lot of effort to attract any kind of developers into the 'App Development'. Whether it is for the Windows 8 Store or the Windows Phone 8 Store, doesn't really matter. They simply need more apps. This demand for skilled developers also comes with a nice side-effect: Lots and lots of material to study. During the first couple of hours, I could easily gather high quality preparation material - again for free! Following is just a small list of starting points. If you have more resources, please drop me a message in the comment section, and I'll be glad to update this article accordingly. Developing HTML5 Apps Jump Start This is an accelerated jump start video course on development of HTML5 Apps for Windows 8. There are six modules that are split into two video sessions per module. Very informative and intense course material. This is packed stuff taken from an official preparation course for exam 70-480. Developing Windows Store Apps with HTML5 Jump Start Again, an accelerated preparation video course on Windows 8 Apps. There are six modules with two video sessions each which will catapult you to your exam. This is also related to preps for exam 70-481. Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Kraig Brockschmidt delves into the ups and downs of Windows 8 App development over 800+ pages. Great eBook to read, study, and to practice the samples - best of all, it's for free. codeSHOW() This is a Windows 8 HTML/JS project with the express goal of demonstrating simple development concepts for the Windows 8 platform. Code, code and more code... absolutely great stuff to study and practice. Microsoft Virtual Academy I already wrote about the MVA in a previous article. Well, if you haven't registered yourself yet, now is the time. The list is not complete for sure, but this might keep you busy for at least one or even two weeks to go through the material. Please don't hesitate to add more resources in the comment section. Right now, I'm already through all videos once, and digging my way through chapter 4 of Kraig's book. Additional material - Pluralsight Apart from those free online resources, I also following some courses from the excellent library of Pluralsight. They already have their own section for Windows 8 development, but of course, you get companion material about HTML5, CSS and Javascript in other sections, too. Introduction to Building Windows 8 Applications Building Windows 8 Applications with JavaScript and HTML Selling Windows 8 Apps HTML5 Fundamentals Using HTML5 and CSS3 HTML5 Advanced Topics CSS3 etc... Interesting to see that Michael Palermo provides his course material on multiple platforms. Fantastic! You might also pay a visit to his personal blog. Hm, it just came to my mind that Aaron Skonnard of Pluralsight publishes so-called '24 hours Learning Paths' based on courses available in the course library. Would be interested to see a combination for Windows 8 App development using HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript in the future. Recommended workspace environment Well, you might have guessed it but this requires Windows 8, Visual Studio 2012 Express or another flavour, and a valid Developers License. Due to an MSDN subscription I working on VS 2012 Premium with some additional tools by Telerik. Honestly, the fastest way to get you up and running for Windows 8 App development is the source code archive of codeSHOW(). It does not only give you all source code in general but contains a couple of SDKs like Bing Maps, Microsoft Advertising, Live ID, and Telerik Windows 8 controls... for free! Hint: Get the Windows Phone 8 SDK as well. Don't worry, while you are studying the material for Windows 8 you will be able to leverage from this knowledge to development for the phone platform, too. It takes roughly one to two hours to get your workspace and learning environment, at least this was my time frame due to slow internet connection and an aged spare machine. ;-) Oh, before I forget to mention it, as soon as you're done, go quickly to the Windows Store and search for ClassBrowserPlus. You might not need it ad hoc for your development using HTML5, CSS and Javascript but I think that it is a great developer's utility that enables you to view the properties, methods and events (along with help text) for all Windows 8 classes. It's always good to look behind the scenes and to explore how it is made. Idea: Start/join a learning group The way you learn new things or intensify your knowledge in a certain technology is completely up to your personal preference. Back in my days at the university, we used to meet once or twice a week in a small quiet room to exchange our progress, questions and problems we ran into. In general, I recommend to any software craftsman to lift your butt and get out to exchange with other developers. Personally, I like this approach, as it gives you new points of view and an insight into others' own experience with certain techniques and how they managed to solve tricky issues. Just keep it relaxed and not too formal after all, and you might a have a good time away from your dull office desk. Give your machine a break, too.

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• How to Identify Which Hardware Component is Failing in Your Computer

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Concluding that your computer has a hardware problem is just the first step. If you’re dealing with a hardware issue and not a software issue, the next step is determining what hardware problem you’re actually dealing with. If you purchased a laptop or pre-built desktop PC and it’s still under warranty, you don’t need to care about this. Have the manufacturer fix the PC for you — figuring it out is their problem. If you’ve built your own PC or you want to fix a computer that’s out of warranty, this is something you’ll need to do on your own. Blue Screen 101: Search for the Error Message This may seem like obvious advice, but searching for information about a blue screen’s error message can help immensely. Most blue screens of death you’ll encounter on modern versions of Windows will likely be caused by hardware failures. The blue screen of death often displays information about the driver that crashed or the type of error it encountered. For example, let’s say you encounter a blue screen that identified “NV4_disp.dll” as the driver that caused the blue screen. A quick Google search will reveal that this is the driver for NVIDIA graphics cards, so you now have somewhere to start. It’s possible that your graphics card is failing if you encounter such an error message. Check Hard Drive SMART Status Hard drives have a built in S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) feature. The idea is that the hard drive monitors itself and will notice if it starts to fail, providing you with some advance notice before the drive fails completely. This isn’t perfect, so your hard drive may fail even if SMART says everything is okay. If you see any sort of “SMART error” message, your hard drive is failing. You can use SMART analysis tools to view the SMART health status information your hard drives are reporting. Test Your RAM RAM failure can result in a variety of problems. If the computer writes data to RAM and the RAM returns different data because it’s malfunctioning, you may see application crashes, blue screens, and file system corruption. To test your memory and see if it’s working properly, use Windows’ built-in Memory Diagnostic tool. The Memory Diagnostic tool will write data to every sector of your RAM and read it back afterwards, ensuring that all your RAM is working properly. Check Heat Levels How hot is is inside your computer? Overheating can rsult in blue screens, crashes, and abrupt shut downs. Your computer may be overheating because you’re in a very hot location, it’s ventilated poorly, a fan has stopped inside your computer, or it’s full of dust. Your computer monitors its own internal temperatures and you can access this information. It’s generally available in your computer’s BIOS, but you can also view it with system information utilities such as SpeedFan or Speccy. Check your computer’s recommended temperature level and ensure it’s within the appropriate range. If your computer is overheating, you may see problems only when you’re doing something demanding, such as playing a game that stresses your CPU and graphics card. Be sure to keep an eye on how hot your computer gets when it performs these demanding tasks, not only when it’s idle. Stress Test Your CPU You can use a utility like Prime95 to stress test your CPU. Such a utility will fore your computer’s CPU to perform calculations without allowing it to rest, working it hard and generating heat. If your CPU is becoming too hot, you’ll start to see errors or system crashes. Overclockers use Prime95 to stress test their overclock settings — if Prime95 experiences errors, they throttle back on their overclocks to ensure the CPU runs cooler and more stable. It’s a good way to check if your CPU is stable under load. Stress Test Your Graphics Card Your graphics card can also be stress tested. For example, if your graphics driver crashes while playing games, the games themselves crash, or you see odd graphical corruption, you can run a graphics benchmark utility like 3DMark. The benchmark will stress your graphics card and, if it’s overheating or failing under load, you’ll see graphical problems, crashes, or blue screens while running the benchmark. If the benchmark seems to work fine but you have issues playing a certain game, it may just be a problem with that game. Swap it Out Not every hardware problem is easy to diagnose. If you have a bad motherboard or power supply, their problems may only manifest through occasional odd issues with other components. It’s hard to tell if these components are causing problems unless you replace them completely. Ultimately, the best way to determine whether a component is faulty is to swap it out. For example, if you think your graphics card may be causing your computer to blue screen, pull the graphics card out of your computer and swap in a new graphics card. If everything is working well, it’s likely that your previous graphics card was bad. This isn’t easy for people who don’t have boxes of components sitting around, but it’s the ideal way to troubleshoot. Troubleshooting is all about trial and error, and swapping components out allows you to pin down which component is actually causing the problem through a process of elimination. This isn’t a complete guide to everything that could likely go wrong and how to identify it — someone could write a full textbook on identifying failing components and still not cover everything. But the tips above should give you some places to start dealing with the more common problems. Image Credit: Justin Marty on Flickr     

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