Blog Purpose

I just made a post a few minutes ago about a laptop issue I am facing. I then realized, the last time I posted on my blog before today was 2 years ago! So, I wanted to make this post to introduce myself and talk about the current purpose of the blog.

Hey, my name is Andrew. I have an Associate in Applied Science in Network Engineering. I have quite a few years experience with computers and networks, including 3 years professionally. I currently work as an IT Tech for a retail business.

This blog was originally created as a required school project for my Web Multimedia class. I posted periodically for class but that was about it. That is changing! I will now use this blog for tech related things. As you probably saw, I kicked it off with the laptop issue. I will post about other issues I come across with computers and how I fixed them. I will post tips and tricks, and perhaps some tutorials on computer building and the like. I also have been known to dabble in computer programming so you may see some posts on that as well. Stay tuned!

HP DV6 laptop heat issues

My Dad has an HP DV6-1238nr laptop. It gets really hot and if playing a flash game for 30 minutes or so, the display will go blank and you have to reboot. I did some research on the internet and it turns out other people are having this issue too with various HP DV model laptops. Some people experience it without even running a game.

The issue can be traced to poor design of the cooling system and more specifically, the GPU is over heating. Based on my research, I will attempt to remedy the problem by replacing the thermal compound with fresh, good quality thermal compound as well as put a copper shim on top of the GPU between the heat sink and thermal compound. I have ordered the copper shim and will try this out as soon as it arrives.

I'll post back with the results!

Updated: The copper shim did not help. See my updated post here

Star Wars Galaxies, pre-CU, play now!

That's right, for those of you who are like me and have played Star Wars Galaxies before the dreaded Combat Upgrade and New Game Enhancements and absolutely loved it, have faith, because pre-CU is BACK! Wow, you say, Sony actually listened to us customers? Nope! No such luck, BUT you can still play it because a dedicated group of SWG lovers, along with an even bigger group of dedicated fans, have teamed up to recreate SWG pre-CU and release it FREE to everyone.
It is currently in testing and still has a lot to be done, but even still, many features are already in place. See the note below about reading the FAQ. If you see a bug, there is a place on the website to report it. It is a given that there are bugs because the development is not done.

Here's how to play:
1. Head over to www.swgemu.com and sign up on the forums. This will be your universal account to not only post messages but login to the game server as well.
1a. Please do the community a favor and read the FAQs and support documents and search the forum if you have any questions or problems. Most likely your issue is already resolved or is being fixed. Also, never ask when the game will be done or when a particular feature will be done. There is no set time as these are all volunteers working on this in their spare time. We are lucky this project is even here!
2. If not done already, install SWG from your original discs. Trial version does NOT count. After all, if you really loved it you would have purchased it.
3. Download this and extract it into your SWG install dir
4. Go to the EmuClient subfolder it creates and run the swgemu_setup file. Make sure to choose a suitable resolution on the Graphics tab.
5. Download Launchpad Enhanced and install, then run it. Give it a minute or so to load up. When it opens it will have a few checks that say "PASS". If it looks good, just click OK and let it finish loading. Now select the dropdown box and click the Test Center. The updater will now run and download everything you need. Plan to give this a good hour or so.
6. When this update is finally complete, click PLAY! The game will now load and you can login using your swgemu.com forum account, create a character, and start playing!
Everyone is usually socializing at Theed, Naboo so head over there and say hi. There is also a couple Gungan Trader NPCs over there that will give you professions and items to test with.
My characters are 'craftmaster' and 'Jalahar'.
HAVE FUN!