LETTERS
6 MARCH2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE
Letters
Fewthingsinlifeareassatisfying asbreathingnewlife intoanoldmachine witha
couple of cheapand simple upgrades,asthismonth’s starletterwritercanattest
[email protected]
Star letter
Waybackin2010, Idecided to replace
my previous home-built PC witha
new completesystem. Based on agood
Shopperreview,IboughtanAcer Aspire
M7810 Desktop PC. With its 3.2GHz Intel
i5-650 processor, two 640GB SATA drives,
4GB of RAM, 64-bit Windows 7and an
Nvidia GTS 250 graphicscard, it was a
muchhigher specthanIneeded,but I
wantedafuture-proof system.
After awhile Iadded an old(2003!) Dell
17inVGA monitor as asecond displayusing
aVGA-to-DVI adaptor andthisworked well
alongside theDVI-connected Acer original.
Ialso took advantage of the cheap upgrade
to Windows10when it was offered.
The system wasinitiallyexcellent, but in
recent years the machinebecamemuch
noisier.More annoyingly,the screens
momentarily blankedout when changing
focus to videos or photos.Finally,and
reallyirritatingly,the whole system began
to freeze, especially butnot onlywhen I
had several windows open. Itriedall the
usual suggestions to address reliability
problems,but to no avail.
Looking through the event logs, Inoticed
there were numerouswarnings relating to
the Nvidia software stopping andresetting,
which seemedtoroughly correlatewith the
screen blackouts, although it wasless easy
to identify anyclear pattern concerning the
completesystemfreezes. Icontacted
Nvidia, whose only suggestionwas to try a
singledisplay, whichIdid but to no avail.
Although Isuspected that the problems
weredown to defectiveNvidia hardware or
software,Icouldn’tbesureand didn’t have
any oldgraphics cards
available to useasa
temporary test
replacement. Somewhat
disconsolately,while
browsing throughShopper 38
contemplatingreplacing the e
system, Inoticedthe glowing Best
Buy review forthe RadeonRX
graphics card at avery attractive priceof
£130. At that price–andsinceitdidn’t
involve Nvidia software or hardware –I
thought it was worth apunt.
Accordingly, Iordered aRadeonRX
RS XXX Edition 8GBGDDR5PCI-Express
Graphics Card fromAWD-ITatthe even
better price of £125. When thecard arrived I
realisedthat,unlikethe modelreviewed in
Shopper,itonly had one DVIport, so I
couldn’t easily connect my second oldVGA
monitor.AWD-ITsupport suggestedbuying
an adaptor cable,whichIinvestigatedbriefly,
but Ialmost immediatelyrealised that buying
anew but old-spec cable to attach an ancient
monitor to ahighlycapablegraphics card
would be the height of madness. Idecided
insteadtobuy anew
wide screen and,
turningagaintoShopper
recommendations for
guidance,Ibought an
oliteXUB2792UHSU for
rom Amazon.
Last week,Iinstalled thenew
card andattached thenew monitor
using the DisplayPort connector supplied
withthe card. The transformation is
outstanding. The displayiscrystalclear,the
system is whisper-quiet, andthe past
blackoutsand freezes but abad memory.
Iamleft rather red-faced that Itook so
long to identify andrectify the problem.
Having been involved withITsince
when Iwas using Z80machine code to
programaSinclair ZX81 andsubsequently
working as aprogrammer,systems analyst,
systems managerand IT strategist, Ireally
shouldhavefixed my ownstuttering
home systemyears ago. Theonly thingI
did rightwas to keep myShopper
subscription going after retirement.
SimonBattley
❱❱Write in and win
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Amazing Grace
Great articleonCobolfrom
KayEwbank (Shopper383).
Iread that Grace Marie Hopper
helped develop thelanguageinher
beliefthat programming should not
be limited to whitecoats. Another
of herbeliefs wasthatwomen are
better programmers because they
tend to finish the job.This,however,does
not seem to be reflected in the
industry today–orisit?
Despiteall the good that the likes
of Grace(and AdaLovelace) did, I
don’t seealot of women like Kay
involved; IhopeI’m wrong!
James
Weheartily agree with those
sentiments, James. As well as Kay, we’ve got a
female editor,and here atComputer Shopperwe
keep aclose eyeonthe trends around women
in technology.
Unfortunately,you’recorrect in your view
that there aren’t many women around in tech
–current numbers are around 20% of the total
workforce.However,there are lots of schemes
up and running now to encourage more women
to join the industry,sohopefully the number
will start to rise at some point.
8 3and
entire
Ilyama Pro
£494fr
