Show Computer Specs

[MattJ]

Hi Folks

I know there's a link somewhere that talks about show computer specs, but I can't find it. 

I saw a post from October where this HP system was recommended: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KSGKHVS?th=1

My show set up is:

• LOR 6.3.10 Pro
• MIIP 1.7.0.10 (Thanks Bob O! :))
• 19381 Channels split across 4 x USB-RS485-HS adapters 

Last year. No Problems - a great show year! This year I added a 16 strand Mega tree and, with the additional 4800 channels and the 4th USB-RS485-HS adapter. I'm starting to see issues: Audio glitching, audio playing but no lights, LOR CP "not responding" for 10-30 seconds at a time. 

I'm currently running a separate show computer which is an old MS surface (5th Gen):

• Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7300U CPU @ 2.60GHz (2 cores)
• Installed RAM 8.00 GB
• USB 3.0
• Windows 10

Its now capping out and showing 95 - 98% of that 8GB of RAM used at all times. I am also running the 4 x  USB-RS485-HS adapters though a relatively cheap USB3.0 hub, as the surface only has one USB Port. 

I'm self diagnosing those two things, RAM & USB Hub, (with no real idea what I am talking about) as my two key issues.

I have an old gaming laptop here that is an acer nitro 5 with the following specs:

• Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8300H CPU @ 2.30GHz (4 cores)
• Installed RAM 32.00 GB
• USB 3.0
• Windows 10

My plan is to make that my new show computer, it should, at least, solve the RAM issue! Then I think it's also time for me to upgrade to a pixie link and ditch USB.

Before I head off down that path.... I figured I'd post here and see if anyone had an wise words of advice! Thanks in advance & Happy Thanksgiving. 

 

 

[k6ccc]

The old gaming laptop should do far better.  About the only real recommendation on the USB hub is that it is a powered hub rather than one that takes power from the computer.  Of course if you migrate to a PixieLink, that eliminates that issue.

 

[dgrant]

Do yourself a favor and run the following command from an administrator level command prompt. Without the quotes, "sfc /scannow"

It should resolve issues with the OS. It will not resolve issues such as viral infections so be sure that you run a full AV scan of your computer and if it finds anything infected, delete the infected file(s), reboot, run the sfc command again and scan once again for viruses.

I think you might requite a bit more ram memory as a suggestion but as Jim said, it "should" be working better

[MattJ]

Thanks all - Gaming laptop working a whole load better (all cleaned up with sfc too). 

Pixielink on the way... I haven't told my wife what access to more processing power and an additional 6 LOR ports means for next year... Yikes! 😁

Thanks again for getting me stable this year!

[dgrant]

Excellent!!! May I suggest, now open the "Control Panel", go to "Internet Options", Select "Delete" then when you see the list of things pop up, delete all the cookies at a minimum. I personally would delete everything with the check marks but its your choice based on your needs. THEN, make sure you run a full AV (Anti-Virus) scans with your fully updated AV software. THEN, be sure you have run the "Windows Update" and installed everything, GO BACK and do it again, and again and again till all updates are completed with the possible reboots between.

[MattJ]

1 hour ago, dgrant said:

Excellent!!! May I suggest, now open the "Control Panel", go to "Internet Options", Select "Delete" then when you see the list of things pop up, delete all the cookies at a minimum. I personally would delete everything with the check marks but its your choice based on your needs. THEN, make sure you run a full AV (Anti-Virus) scans with your fully updated AV software. THEN, be sure you have run the "Windows Update" and installed everything, GO BACK and do it again, and again and again till all updates are completed with the possible reboots between.

Yep and Yep - As I set up the new machine I did all the updates for windows (except updating to windows 11) and cleaned my internet cache and ran a full norton 360 scan. Without tempting fate.... running pretty clean right now! :)

[TheDucks]

1 hour ago, MattJ said:

Yep and Yep - As I set up the new machine I did all the updates for windows (except updating to windows 11) and cleaned my internet cache and ran a full norton 360 scan. Without tempting fate.... running pretty clean right now! :)

UGH!  Friends do not let Friends do Norton.   They pedal FUD  (Norton was good when Peter was in control) .  Just look at the companies Symantec now owns. 

[MattJ]

7 minutes ago, TheDucks said:

UGH!  Friends do not let Friends do Norton.   They pedal FUD  (Norton was good when Peter was in control) .  Just look at the companies Symantec now owns. 

That is fair. I have ridden the norton train for laziness and legacy reasons for years. It seems to have kept me clean, but I will admit that the incessant pop-ups drive me nuts... I have just never put the leg work in to change.

So, what do friends recommend to friends in the Anti-virus space nowadays? What are the cool kids using?

[k6ccc]

1 minute ago, MattJ said:

So, what do friends recommend to friends in the Anti-virus space nowadays?

Windows Defender - built into Windows.

 

[TheDucks]

26 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

Windows Defender - built into Windows.

 

Seconded.  A couple of other 'used to be good' went over to the dark side (or at least got real sneaky on what else they were doing).

[PhilMassey]

Windows Defender all the way.

[dgrant]

I was a huge fan of Norton Utilities long ago when they were first created. Norton AV and their Personal Firewall. Since then, things went downhill. Windows Defender is pretty decent but even though I've used it for all of my machines for several years, I kept finding that it missed problems. Not a lot, but a few. So I've recently updated everything to Eset Premium. Formerly ESET NOD32 AV was really good, light-weight and worked beautifully. Yeah, you have to pay for Eset is the only downside but what don't we have to pay for these days other than obviously Defender is free.

I have one computer which contains proprietary data that doesn't belong too me but they trusted me to hang onto, at their request(My former employer). Its had Defender in it all this time. Now all of a sudden, I find that its messed up. The OS has possibly been hacked and I'm pretty good at insuring that doesn't happen. Whomever, however it was done, they are smarter than I am. Its currently shut off and disconnected from the outside world. Waiting on one adapter so I can copy off all the files I need to maintain, then I'll seriously wipe the drives within and start it over with a full rebuild. It too will get ESET