Anyone into Android programming?

[emjay]

You can try the following:
1)  new drivers
2)  clean out any fans to get better airflow
3)  download and run "speed fan" and crank up the fan speed

But the problem is almost for sure that your graphics card is overheating (or just faulty), and if you have a warranty, you should RMA it ASAP.

I wouldn't even know how to get to the fans in a laptop, and I really don't want to be trying to take this thing apart I've built plenty of PCs from scratch, a long time ago, but never worked with laptops. I'll see if there's any diagnostics i.e. 'this device is working properly etc' and see if I can get to new drivers through the device manager.

Okay it says the device is working properly and when clicking update drivers, it said the most up-to-date driver was already installed.

According to SpeedFan, the GPU is hanging around about 50C, is that good or bad?

[bennyboy]

50C is very cool. You should be able to push close to 100C, so you aren't overheating in the slightest.

Almost for sure a defective GFX card, I'd say. It's gonna have to be sent back. But might want to take it into a comp repair shop and just ask for their verdict. Don't let them open it, though!

[emjay]

50C is very cool.  You should be able to push close to 100C, so you aren't overheating in the slightest.

Almost for sure a defective GFX card, I'd say.  It's gonna have to be sent back.  But might want to take it into a comp repair shop and just ask for their verdict.  Don't let them open it, though!

Oh bollocks! But thanks ever so much for your help in diagnosing the problem, Benny I just can't believe it - only had this thing about a week I don't think I'll be able to find another deal like this with Windows 7 and I'm not sure I'd want a replacement from them so I might end up being stuck with a Windows 8. I know that's not for long with Windows 10 coming soon but I'm not particularly looking forward to that either because as far as I know it's going to be mostly cloud-based like a Google Chromebook. Windows 7 was my compromise position, as close to XP as I could get it. I could also write to the sellers before returning it (I bought it from a marketplace seller on Amazon) and see if they have any advice? In fact they're based just up the road from me so I could visit them.

If it's not overheating though, could I just learn to live with it? Or will it get worse?

[bennyboy]

1) Why live with something unpleasant unless you have to? Try to get it replaced/fixed/refunded. Don't worry about your lost data-- installing Unity and Blender takes maybe 15 minutes anyway. But contacting the seller for advice is good as long as the advice isn't "Nyahh nyahhh you bought it it's your problem now!" Taking it to a computer shop for a quick look-over will give you more expert advice than I can give, as well.

2) Windows 8 isn't that bad, and in some ways is better than 7. It boots MUCH faster than 7, and on newer laptops, handles shutdown and hibernation better, which means in almost every scenario, you will be able to turn on and start using your computer faster. Don't believe the M$ haters-- they exaggerate. And, as you say, Windows 10 upgrade is just around the corner anyway.

[emjay]

1)   Why live with something unpleasant unless you have to?  Try to get it replaced/fixed/refunded. Don't worry about your lost data-- installing Unity and Blender takes maybe 15 minutes anyway.  But contacting the seller for advice is good as long as the advice isn't "Nyahh nyahhh you bought it it's your problem now!"  Taking it to a computer shop for a quick look-over will give you more expert advice than I can give, as well.

2)  Windows 8 isn't that bad, and in some ways is better than 7.  It boots MUCH faster than 7, and on newer laptops, handles shutdown and hibernation better, which means in almost every scenario, you will be able to turn on and start using  your computer faster.  Don't believe the M$ haters-- they exaggerate.  And, as you say, Windows 10 upgrade is just around the corner anyway.

Okay I'll write to the seller and let you know what they say and try to find a local computer repair shop to take a look at it.

I have to admit I don't like Microsoft, or indeed any company that gets too big for its boots and starts dictating what customers should want rather than what they do want, but at the same time I do trust and value your opinion so if you say Windows 8 is good, it's good

[bennyboy]

Okay I'll write to the seller and let you know what they say and try to find a local computer repair shop to take a look at it.

I have to admit I don't like Microsoft, or indeed any company that gets too big for its boots and starts dictating what customers should want rather than what they do want, but at the same time I do trust and value your opinion so if you say Windows 8 is good, it's good  

Good is subjective. Objectively, it is fast, and except for the annoying start menu which can be modified with a setting, there is little about it that's a big departure from Windows 7.

I'm pro-MS, because they've provided free tools that a hobby programmer can use: Visual Studio, .NET, DirectX, etc., which Apple has traditionally NOT been good at doing. And Windows provides a very consistent framework that you can depend on being the same from computer to computer, which in my limited experience is not the case with Linux, which is much more hacky and individual (again, in my limited experience).

[emjay]

Okay I'll write to the seller and let you know what they say and try to find a local computer repair shop to take a look at it.

I have to admit I don't like Microsoft, or indeed any company that gets too big for its boots and starts dictating what customers should want rather than what they do want, but at the same time I do trust and value your opinion so if you say Windows 8 is good, it's good  

Good is subjective.  Objectively, it is fast, and except for the annoying start menu which can be modified with a setting, there is little about it that's a big departure from Windows 7.

I'm pro-MS, because they've provided free tools that a hobby programmer can use: Visual Studio, .NET, DirectX, etc., which Apple has traditionally NOT been good at doing.  And Windows provides a very consistent framework that you can depend on being the same from computer to computer, which in my limited experience is not the case with Linux, which is much more hacky and individual (again, in my limited experience).

I know good is subjective, I just meant that I'd take your word for it I think I'd be happy with Windows 8 as long as I've got a touch screen because that's ultimately what it was designed for. Would you think it would be worth getting a 'Surface' - "the tablet that can replace your laptop" as the adverts say - for use with Unity or are they only any good for casual use? I'm sorry, I don't know much about them; how powerful they are or whether they have enough storage since they use SSDs I think.

Basically I'm just anti any company that has a closed ecosystem that tries to make you dependent on them. As soon as I see that happening I want to break free from it. So I assure you I am also anti-Apple. I've got a Kindle but as soon as I started really thinking about all this I decided to start buying e-books from other sources as well: Google, Nook, Kobo etc. Then when Nook decided to go the way of Amazon and make it so that you couldn't back up your ePub books - you could only buy them through their app but no longer download them into Adobe Digital Editions - I thought that was too much and decided no more Nook; at least Amazon never claimed that their book format was 'open' but Nook took what was designed to be an open book format and made it closed. I love Amazon but I want it to be my choice to buy from them, not my obligation, so for that reason I'd never buy a Kindle Fire or whatever that forces you to use Amazon's crappy app-store.

But the opposite side of this coin is that the more open a company is the more I like it. So from that point of view I can see what you mean, to some extent, about Microsoft. They have provided a lot of free and student edition software over the years, but as soon as you want to use their software for business or to make money, you have to pay. Fair enough but it was still within the context of a monopoly. But times are changing and I think they're becoming less and less of a monopoly and more and more open as a result of this smartphone revolution so I think there is hope for them; they know that there are many different devices out there and that they can't expect everyone to have only Windows devices, so they have started branching out onto those other devices, and perhaps their supporting Unity is part of that process.

I'm no expert in Linux though I was very happy that I switched to it. It's a joy not to have to bother with anti-virus software and to have a very simple, uniform way of installing software through repositories. There's a lot less software available, particularly games, but I've found that I actually prefer most of their alternatives to Windows software. For instance Gambas is an alternative to Visual Basic and it seems to me to be way more powerful. And Clementine is a much better media player than Windows Media Player, but again, just in my opinion. And finally, to address your point about consistency, yes I think Windows is more consistent than Linux, but if you have a computer with a Windows partition and a Linux partition if you try to read the Linux one from Windows it calls it a raw disk, whereas if you read the Windows one from Linux it has no problem - in other words Linux supports many different file systems, including NTFS.

[bennyboy]

All true, and it depends what matters to you. I think everyone but Starbucks-dwelling douches can agree that Apple just sucks in every possible way. I don't like designing software that only 10% or whatever of the world will be able to use, because I want to interact with real people in the real world. For example, I like to teach programming to kids, and getting them to install Unity and double-click the launch icon is much easier than getting them to install a particular brand of Linux, configure it a certain way, download certain libraries etc. etc.

And that's the end-view for me: if I want to do the coolest things I personally can do, I'm guessing Linux will give me more versatility, and will guarantee I don't have to purchase anything but the hardware. But what happens if I want to put a program online and say, "Okay, everyone download this." In Korea at least, I'm stuck with Windows or Android.

[emjay]

All true, and it depends what matters to you.  I think everyone  but Starbucks-dwelling douches can agree that Apple just sucks in every possible way.  I don't like designing software that only 10% or whatever of the world will be able to use, because I want to interact with real people in the real world.  For example, I like to teach programming to kids, and getting them to install Unity and double-click the launch icon is much easier than getting them to install a particular brand of Linux, configure it a certain way, download certain libraries etc. etc.

And that's the end-view for me: if I want to do the coolest things I personally can do, I'm guessing Linux will give me more versatility, and will guarantee I don't have to purchase anything but the hardware.  But what happens if I want to put a program online and say, "Okay, everyone download this."  In Korea at least, I'm stuck with Windows or Android.

Fair enough Benny. I didn't mean to offend you. If you want to reach the biggest audience you can then Windows is the way and also the simplest way - anyone can find any program on the net, download it and install it and it's ready to go. With Linux it's comparatively a nightmare and a completely different process, more akin to using an app-store than true freedom. And if you want to run Windows software you have to use either an emulator or Wine, and in my experience Wine only runs a small proportion of Windows programs. So yes, Linux is very limiting software-wise.

[bennyboy]

Fair enough Benny. I didn't mean to offend you. If you want to reach the biggest audience you can then Windows is the way and also the simplest way - anyone can find any program on the net, download it and install it and it's ready to go. With Linux it's comparatively a nightmare and a completely different process, more akin to using an app-store than true freedom. And if you want to run Windows software you have to use either an emulator or Wine, and in my experience Wine only runs a small proportion of Windows programs. So yes, Linux is very limiting software-wise.

I'm not offended on any level, don't worry about that.