The Joy of A Laptop

Why did my game slow to a crawl, and all the shaders fallback to legacy mode? Because the damn laptop decided it was no longer plugged in, and switched to the integrated GPU.

Switchable discrete/integrated GPUs in laptops are the bane of my existence.

Why did my game slow to a crawl, and all the shaders fallback to legacy mode? Because the damn laptop decided it was no longer plugged in, and switched to the integrated GPU.

Switchable discrete/integrated GPUs in laptops are the bane of my existence.

haha, I just remembered another one.

Opening Android emulator load up times:

Unplugged "power saver mode": ??I got fed up??

Unplugged "Performance mode": 20 mins

plugged "Powersaver": 7 mins

plugged "Performance mode": 2 mins

now if I want to program for android, I make sure I boot up the emulator THEN unplug lol

Switchable discrete/integrated GPUs in laptops are the bane of my existence.

I hope there's a way to disable that. I was considering getting a laptop next year but this is basically denying you hardware when you need it

I hope there's a way to disable that. I was considering getting a laptop next year but this is basically denying you hardware when you need it

Yeah, there is. On my Retina MacBook Pro it's just a toggle under the power management options in System Preferences.

The issue is remembering to toggle it - you really don't want to forget, and leave the discrete GPU force-powered when you head off to that 8-hour flight...

Not quite like that, but I did recently have a moment with my laptop that made me feel like quite the idiot.

The keyboard stopped working, it just wouldn't type what I wanted. I even removed the keyboard and attempted to clean it. Didn't work.

So I just shrugged it off and thought I'll get a new one some day. Left it lying around for months.

Last week I started it again to se if there was anything on there to salvage to another computer. It turns out that

[spoiler]

NUM LOCK was on.

[/spoiler]

I've actually never had a laptop, however i'm thinking of getting a galaxy.

I want the universe.

My laptop was charging. and thus automatically limiting the performance of my laptop.

That's weird. Your laptop limits your performance when it's plugged in and charging? I thought most laptops only limited things when they were unplugged running off of battery...

I want the universe.

I'll take one multi-verse please.

Your laptop limits your performance when it's plugged in and charging? I thought most laptops only limited things when they were unplugged running off of battery...

I've run into a couple of cheapo laptops that overheat if you spin the GPU up while they are actively charging the battery.

As far as I can tell, the OEM pushed drivers that workaround the problem by clocking the GPU down until the battery is fully charged...

Not laptop-related per-se, but I've coded a Minecraft Launcher so I can easily host a Minecraft server just when my siblings and I want to play. I installed the Launcher on their laptops and my desktop, and they can use the launcher to remotely boot up the server on my machine if they want to get on the shared server.

Because Minecraft is mining-heavy, and mining requires you to repeatedly jab the left mouse button for hours on end (bad designer, no twinkie). I integrated into the launcher an assignable keyboard key to hold down, that'll simulate the mouse clicks instead of wearing out our mouses. It doesn't give any competitive advantage, mining still takes just as long as normal.

This mouse-clicking behavior occurs whenever the assigned key is held down - I use the 'R' key.

The problem is, I frequently accidently launch the the launcher (and Microsoft Word, and Excel - those Win7 taskbar buttons are too close together) without realizing it. So while I'm programming, my text cursor would randomly jump to different lines of code... as if something clicked the mouse. This happens every time I type 'R' while coding, if the launcher happens to be running on my machine. Took me awhile to realize what was going on - I had a new mouse (for some unknown reason, the left mouse button was worn off my previous one ), so I was assuming the new mouse was defective.

Thankfully the Launcher has a window, and isn't just a service, or I'd still be confused.

Not laptop-related per-se, but I've coded a Minecraft Launcher so I can easily host a Minecraft server just when my siblings and I want to play. I installed the Launcher on their laptops and my desktop, and they can use the launcher to remotely boot up the server on my machine if they want to get on the shared server.

Because Minecraft is mining-heavy, and mining requires you to repeatedly jab the left mouse button for hours on end (bad designer, no twinkie). I integrated into the launcher an assignable keyboard key to hold down, that'll simulate the mouse clicks instead of wearing out our mouses. It doesn't give any competitive advantage, mining still takes just as long as normal.

This mouse-clicking behavior occurs whenever the assigned key is held down - I use the 'R' key.

The problem is, I frequently accidently launch the the launcher (and Microsoft Word, and Excel - those Win7 taskbar buttons are too close together) without realizing it. So while I'm programming, my text cursor would randomly jump to different lines of code... as if something clicked the mouse. This happens every time I type 'R' while coding, if the launcher happens to be running on my machine. Took me awhile to realize what was going on - I had a new mouse (for some unknown reason, the left mouse button was worn off my previous one ), so I was assuming the new mouse was defective.

Thankfully the Launcher has a window, and isn't just a service, or I'd still be confused.

Hmm. Sounds similar to an issue I had with X11 where clicking the middle mouse button would paste whatever text you highlighted last, wrecking havoc in source code (especially when scrolling). Except I couldn't find a satisfactory way to disable this - unwanted - legacy behaviour on a global basis. You get used to it, but it's rather irritating the first few weeks (*compile error* *compile error* *compile error* "raah" *throws mouse out of window*)

Holding down the left mouse button in minecraft works for me? It auto-repeats?

Sounds similar to an issue I had with X11 where clicking the middle mouse button would paste whatever text you highlighted last, wrecking havoc in source code (especially when scrolling).

I don't think I've ever accidentally clicked the middle mouse button...

That aside, middle-mouse copy/paste is one of those features that I have a hard time living without, whenever I land on a Windows machine, or get stuck with a two-button mouse.

Holding down the left mouse button in minecraft works for me? It auto-repeats?

I don't know if they changed it, I haven't played since a few versions before the official release.

[Edit:] Now that I think about it, it wasn't mining, it was farming monsters that caused my siblings to rapid-click repeatedly. IIRC, at least while still in beta, you couldn't hold the mouse button down for swinging the sword. So I guess the designers can have half their twinkie back.

Long ago starting DIrectX programming I was aplalled out all the wrapper/skeleton code stuff you needed just to get an Application to run (use the examples from the SDK and its very obvious).

Unfortunatrely with the spectrum of targeted hardware it was necessary to have to be able to determine if the hardware the Application/drivers was to run on supported various operations (or had to be emulated softwarewise) -- even just to have an advanced enuf DirectX driver version. A good chunk of the App code was to do that.

Maybe those days are back now with Apps on these handheld things becoming popular (ack -- some of the processors dont even have native Floating point ops !!!) and certainly with their power awareness and sleep/wake strategies etc...

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Oh and you are lucky you dont have the monster laptop I had years ago that if you tried to hold it in your lap you would literally burn your legs (full power CPU and GPU in the thing and retard designers (a well known company) puting the air blower vents on the bottom instead of the sides )

Oh and you are lucky you dont have the monster laptop I had years ago that if you tried to hold it in your lap you would literally burn your legs (full power CPU and GPU in the thing and retard designers (a well known company) puting the air blower vents on the bottom instead of the sides )

Let me guess.. Acer? I had one of theirs and it had the vents on the bottom as well. The damn thing kept overheating.

Oh and you are lucky you dont have the monster laptop I had years ago that if you tried to hold it in your lap you would literally burn your legs (full power CPU and GPU in the thing and retard designers (a well known company) puting the air blower vents on the bottom instead of the sides )

Let me guess.. Acer? I had one of theirs and it had the vents on the bottom as well. The damn thing kept overheating.

Actually was a Toshiba but was quite a while ago (10+ years) . Another brainfart on their design was having the CD button such that if you picked the monster up holding on either side at least half the time the button was triggered and the CD shelf would want to open. Odd thing was that when its sitting in your lap (or on a large book on your lap) it was almost impossible to find the button to make it open when you WANTED to open it (it was flush with the side - not recessed which might have prevented both problems)

NUM LOCK was on.

Had the same problem: plugged a desktop keyboard to laptop once and it enabled num lock, from then on my laptop keyboard had numlock enabled.

I figured it out after 2 months