Fleur-De-Lis

Thanks for the answer! If i may ask though, do you know what generation and how long you have had it? How often it is played helps too. I am really skeptical about Xbox's because my brother in law had the first Xbox that worked fine one day, then red ringed for no reason the next. Similar issues for Xbox 360, though in that case it was the black one before the elite. Honestly, they have a really bad track record to me, more so since i have seen it happen.

Playstation 1 was my first console, so theres always a special place for it ♥ Playstation 4 just because that is my only other console aside from the good o'l ps1 On the topic of talking about consoles, do Xbox 360 (7th generation) aka the "Value pack" do those still have that hardware failure issues pretty much all Xbox seem to have? I ask the same question for the Xbox One, as i considered getting one a few years in the future. (these are questions no one seems to answer ....)

So I have a Dell Inspiron 15, 5000 series (the 5555). It was a present I got a while back (Super helpful for college! its mostly going to be a work computer.) However for certain reasons (such as how my favorite game series Hyperdimension Neptunia does not work properly on my desktop and locks up; but works perfectly fine on my laptop) I plan on doing light gaming on it, however over the span of half an hour to just over an hour the laptop starts getting pretty hot (not much though), at its hottest so far at almost an hour and a half it gets comparable to the heat a PS4 outputs! Which is pretty dang hot. There have been no overheating issues thus far, but I would still like to keep it a nice cozy and cool temperature. So with that I had decided that I should invest into a laptop cooling pad, one with a fan and such. However, here is where things start getting a bit complicated. The reason I specifically mentioned the model of my laptop is so people can familiarize themselves a bit with its hardware layout to best determine which laptop cooling pad would be best suited for the job. A majority of the heat is from the upper and middle left, and on the lower right.The best images of its underside I could find was here http://laptopmedia.com/highlights/dell-inspiron-5558-15-5000-first-impressions-mid-range-multimedia-laptop/ just use the pictures as reference. (as only the layout is in common, mine is an AMD version) Since this is my first laptop, and more specifically, the first time I am buying a cooling pad for a laptop, I want some opinions on what to get since there are apparently so many different kinds of laptop cooling pads. note: all links below are from amazon. Here are two prime examples Cooler Master notepal x-slim, I am not sure what the big difference is between that the X2 and the X3. Then there are things like the tecknet last notable one I can think of us these strange 4 fan ones such as EGOGO laptop cooler So with all that story and examples out there ... anyone care to offer suggestions and feedback on which would be best? please keep the price range $30 or less, however if you really believe its a particularly good and high quality cooling pad then I guess i'll up to to $35 I am hoping for a life span of at least a year. keep the searches limited to amazon or newegg, thanks. Lastly. I would like to say I am personally leaning towards the cooler master notepal x-slim.

My thoughts are either on Avast Antivirus, or Bitdefender free edition. Please cast your poll in the vote and do feel free to offer a comment or explanation on as to why you would prefer that one, as it will help me come to a decision. I would like to mention the laptop will primarily be used for work related purposes, however as gaming is my primary form of entertainment I will need an antivirus that will be video game friendly (which Avast and Bitdefender seem to boast.) I tried putting Bitdefender free edition on my dad's laptop, it didn't work out as well as I would have liked since the "Login" button never worked. It always ended up as an empty white window that never loaded or showed the fields to login. Though apparently my brother in law uses the free edition of Bitdefender just fine on 3+ different computers. But because of my experience with it I am now skeptical of it. I have been using Avast antivirus for a good many years, its like o'l reliable to me at this point, however it bothers me that they keep trying to upsell various products to you these days. It is very annoying. Due to budget constraints I am limiting to free edition (Though if anyone is feeling generous I wont say no to a gift hahaha! Question: As a serious question to people who have subscribed to the premium versions of Avast though. I would like to ask, just what are their real pricing anyways? As a long time user I have noticed long ago that they always say "on sale" or "special black Friday price" and such. However the price itself is always the same thing, a crossed out larger number with a smaller one being the real price. For example "Internet Security" version says $49.99 $29.99 So how does that really work? that is the first time buyer price and then its $49.99 a year? ... also the costs themselves are yearly? Why cant they just give it to use straight instead of these stupid and highly annoying obfisticated business practices.

Well you could probably simply purchase Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 somewhere on the internet like Amazon or possibly Newegg, then just install all the updates and ride out the rest of their lifetime (support for the OS, at the very least the security updates) Honestly instead of Mac OS, I wold sooner recommend Linux, the most popular OS of which being Ubuntu. But hey whatever floats your boat. (Also keep in mind PC gaming is very limited for anything that is not Windows ... or Steam OS.

Even to this date and late into the game? Sheesh what are those jackwagons at Microsoft doing. We should not be having to deal with inconceivable and seemingly unprovoked problems like this! You shouldn't have random spells of terrible internet speeds for no apparent reason, and I definitely shouldn't have to deal with my start menu randomly breaking for no readily apparent reason! These start menu problems scare me. After all, when that doesn't work, various important menus for windows 10, especially those for trying to fix it do not work, short of reformatting it from a disc or system restore (which somehow helps; and is thankfully available through the control panel). Because when the start menu (and various other functions related to it do not work) Using the start menu -> settings, and everything within that does not work, not even the personalize options (which give an error message saying files are missing; or something like that). *edit* After attempting to use the "Reset this PC" option and opt for "clean everything", time and time again, even after restarting, shutdowns and otherwise. It simply tells me "There was a problem resetting your PC No changes were made" So basically, this thing is useless, I am now going to attempt using an ISO I burned to a disc in hopes that it will be enough to FINALLY format this stupid thing and do a clean install of Windows 10. Maybe then, will the stupid thing finally work properly like it is supposed to. *Edit 2* I finished formatting things (or "resetting the PC" as Windows 10 calls it) wiping my 2Tb hard drive apparently took roughly 8 hours. It seems I did not need to install any drivers for Windows 10, even on a clean installation from ground zero. Windows 10 automatically installed the latest version (of the correct) audio driver, and it seems I did not need to install my LAN card drivers or AMD chipsets (I base this on the fact everything seems to work fine so far, and my Ethernet card works fine despite not installing the drivers for it; as after formatting and installing Windows 7 I had to install the drivers before the Ethernet card would even work.) So pretty much All I had to do after resetting the PC was install graphics card driver/s, antivirus, and personal programs (like steam, games, browsers, bookmarks, etc.) Oh and personal files like background collections and music. My old wired Xbox 360 controller works fine as a just plug in play (You used to have to install the "xbox 360 companion app" or something like that, just for it to work on Windows 7). I did have to install the Logitech Gaming Software again for my mouse and headset though, they work fine without it, but full functionality needs that app. On a similar note, I would like to mention that Windows 10 only saves (and uploads) your current wallpaper for use across all devices.

Once again, I am suffering from CRITICAL issues involving my start menu and windows settings menus. Except this time, it wouldn't say anything was wrong, nothing would start up (not even the clock) on the system tray. None of my quick launch icons would show, the search Windows (aka Cortana) would not work, 'nor the "Task view" button. and especially not the start menu. Yet all desktop icons and file browsing would work fine, as for most menus (windows settings from the "This computer" button would not work, you could click but nothing would happen, and right clicking to "personalize" the pc would just give an error saying files are missing. The last major update was on 12/18/2015 there were no updates from windows since then. yet suddenly today at 12/21/2015 the start menu would not work, even after shutting down the computer and leaving it off for 1 minute, I tried that 5 times. System restore somehow managed to fix my start menu and taskbar, as well as the rest of windows 10 system menus, though I got an error message saying that system restore could not restore avast antivirus. On a whim, I have decided to finally create and installation disc in case of emergencies in the event I lose complete functionality of the desktop (because something dangerously close to that keeps happening.) After ensuring games, game saves, background, music collections, and work related things are backed up and up to date (as well as all necessary important drivers; especially for my Ethernet card! which still does not have a windows 10 version, but luckily the windows 7 version still works fine). *small edit* Do not forget to backup your favorite browser's bookmarks people! Speaking of which, video card, Ethernet card, motherboard (chipset?) are the only particular drivers I should be concerned about right? Granted I also have one of those 12 in 1 card readers on my desktop, but I do not recall a particular driver being necessary for it. Anyone have thoughts on bitdefender? I was thinking of trying a different antivirus program, in the event that in some obscure and weird reason that it may be causing problems with the OS (though it happens rarely, the problems are often severe; I am not implying that the antivirus is the cause, simply that it is a nearly unwarranted concern) For now, after downloading the necessary installation related things. I am going to use the windows 10 settings -> Update & Security -> Recovery -> Reset this PC. from there I will use that to basically do the "clean install" option. and hopefully that will solve all my problems. I will probably write down my windows product ID while i am at it, I would hate to lose my free windows 10 pro edition. That defer updates button seems to be getting more and more enticing to use with how horribly it seems to get set back. I should be back within a few days of attempting to do a clean install of Windows 10. On a side note, although many of you do not see me much these days, I am still around, mostly just browsing my friend's status updates daily, though I do not always respond to them.