10Dec
A few days ago the fan on one of the XFX nVidia GeForce 8800GS Alpha Dog cards in my gaming rig died. There are a pair of them in a SLI configuration and when the fan died on one, it overheated and shut down the system. As a safe gaurd, the system would not turn on with the bad card installed.
At first I thought it was the power supply. I got a RMA on the Ultra 650W power supply and got a 750W upgrade. After replacing the PS, the system would still not even post. So as part of troubleshooting, I stripped the system down to minimum components (No hard drive, single memory stick, one video card). The system booted with one video card installed, and started beeping at me with the other card installed.
I contacted XFX to get my 1 year old video card replaced/fixed. I an RMA for the card and XFX determined it was a faulty card. No sooner that I got the email from XFX about the faultly card, the other card went bad. I actually heard the fan come to a screeching halt. XFX informed me that they no longer make the 8800GS card and offered me a free upgrade to the GeForce 9800GT! Before they even knew the second card went south, XFX offered a free RMA upgrade to a 9800GT for the second card since they were in an SLI configuration. So kudos to XFX for standing behind their products and offering great service.
Tags: Gaming, GeForce, nVidia, SLi, XFX
22Nov
According to a survey commissioned by the CNET UK, 60% of Xbox 360s have had hardware failures. According to the survey 47% of Xbox 360s have failed within the first year of purchase. I have personally become part of this statistic. I have gone through 3 Xbox’s within 2 years. I was able to return the faulty Xbox to Best Buy under their warranty plan. At some point I discovered that you could mod the Xbox to read game backups. After the third Xbox, the BestBuy warranty expired and I thought Microsoft may have fixed the issue so I modded the Xbox. Well a few months after that, I got the RRoD again. Now I was stuck. No store warranty and no Microsoft warranty since I modded it. After looking online for a fix, I found this long term solution. This worked for a while but I got RROD again. I am considering getting an Xbox 360 Arcade
since it is $199 now and has HDMI output. I’m going to give it one more try and then might get a PS3.
Tags: rrod, xbox 360
20Nov
My wife updated her World of Warcraft Add On Healbot to version 3.2.2.7 and her main character icon on the top left disappeared. She needed to revert back to Healbot version 3.2.2.5 to get it to work without the character icon disappearing.
Tags: World of Warcraft, WoW
24Jun
If you have purchased a graphic intensive PC game recently, such as Cryisis, you realize that your computer runs the game like a choppy YouTube video. In order to get a better gaming experience you need to get the latest hardware, so a $60 game may end up costing you hundreds in hardware upgrades.
Years ago when computing power was extraordinarily expensive, you had a server like a mainframe do all the number crunching serve out results to “dumb” terminals. What if the graphics and physics calculations of today’s games were subcontracted to servers that did the heavy lifting. As computer power reaches pennies per Ghz and unlimited internet bandwidth increases steadily, the next evolution in gaming is in game streaming and subscription.
Imagine subscribing to the latest graphically intensive game that just came out over the internet. With the streaming model, video is streamed to your desktop while the game is running on a remote server at high resolution and with high game details on. That means your PC doesn’t have to run the latest hardware to play the game the way it was meant to be played. A recent article has revealed the OnLive will attempt do just that.
Of course this would only work if you have the bandwidth to support it. The internet backbones are currently being upgraded, but higher internet speeds will likely cost you more as well. Another road block would be the ISP’s proposed cap on your monthly bandwitdh. If the unlimited internet bandwitdh model changes, entire business built on internet communcations will suffer, including the upcoming game streaming.
Tags: Gaming
28May
I likes exercising with the Wii Fit but it’s not really a work out. We went out looking for the EA Active, but we found the Everlast 3″ Aerobic Step
on the shelf in the Wii section instead. This Wii Fit board accessory turns the Fit board into … well a 3 inch aerobic step. With the attachment, the regular Wii Fit step exercises is intensified. It’s a great way to have a fun workout and actually feel like you actually worked your muscles. I highly recommend this accessory if you are using the Wii Fit to try to get in shape. Note: Do not do the body test with the step accessory attached. The Wii Fit will miscalculate your weight by 50 to 70 pounds!
If you’re wondering about the design on the board, it is a cover or skin for the board made out of neoprene. It feels very nice under your feet and softens your steps. The one we got was the React Board sleeve found at BestBuy.
We like the Everlast 3″ Aerobic Step so much that we were thinking about getting the Everlast 2lb dumbbell Wii remote attachment for the next level.
Tags: accessories, wii fit