Recent content by PhilHibbs

With all the Intel kerfuffle, I don't think I'll be buying another Intel laptop. I'm not in the market right now, and won't be for a year or two, but looking around, nobody is making AMD gaming laptops (and yes, I know, we can't talk about other manufacturers here). The only ones from...

Updated to latest models

Have you tried contacting PCS support? They provided me the information on how to open up my Defiance IX. I haven't had a go yet!

Running the Sound Blaster Atlas app and selecting a Gaming profile does seem to boost the sound quite a bit. Still a bit lightweight but I can't compare it directly to the Vortex as it's broken still!

Thanks, I had no idea that downloads section existed! I assumed everything was installed...

I can't find any such app installed, and it doesn't have SoundBlaster hardware. It says "Tuned by Sound Blaster X Pro-Gaming" on the case, but the sound hardware seems to be NVIDIA High Definition Audio.

The worst I had to deal with was diesel fumes combined with cardboard dust in a delivery depot. I once peeled an inch thick mat of the stuff off a motherboard, and you could see an inverse of the shape of the chips and riser cards on the underside of it. I'm currently looking into the process...

Any tips on how to dismantle and clean a 17.3" Defiance IX laptop? I'm not sure how to take the bottom off it. I had no problems with the Vortex IV so I know the basics, it's a question of which screws to remove and what direction to push or pull the cover!

The Vortex IV was super easy to open. The Defiance IX has a lot more screws, and it isn't as obvious what part of the underside to remove in what order, there's a strip across the back that looks like it should come off first. I loosened the screws yesterday and had a go at loosening the cover...

I'd just like to re-state how happy I am with how quiet the machine is. There is some fan noise when doing intense graphics or other processing, but it's not the hovercraft that the old Vortex IV was!

The speakers are significantly worse than the Vortex IV. Maybe it's because the Vortex was a heavier machine, the mass gave the sound a bit more weight and resonance.

Now the USB SATA drive is running super fast. No idea why it was taking so long earlier, it was copying at like 200K per second, now it's 50M per second.

This is hilarious! I plugged the drive back into the old machine, but the screen won't work now! It boots up so I can see it on the network, I can open the share, but now I can't access the Pictures directory because the old machine user doesn't own it any more! And I can't change the owner...

That worked, once I figured out how to set the user. It's super slow though! Says it's going to take 15 hours, as compared to 3:45 when the drive was in the old machine. I think I'll put it back in and do it over the wifi!

Ooh, it's Fn-F1! Thanks a lot!