Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - Is flight sim bad for you're computer memory?

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support | Is flight sim bad for you're computer memory?

DVA6626
Captain, MD-11

Joined on November 07 2008
Six Century Club
Million Mile Club

""PROFILE CLIMB""
Las Vegas, NV

753 legs, 2,288.9 hours
28 legs, 55.2 hours online
747 legs, 2,255.7 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on February 14 2010 22:05 ET by Michael Pare

I asked the HP technical department about having the laptop running for 14 hour flights and extended periods in general and he said that games put a lot of strain on the memory and can cause it to fail in 2 years time, he said it also depended on how the game was coded, meaning the more demanding games shorten memory life as it has to work harder, what do you think of this?

Michael Pare (DVA6626)

DVA3196
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP, COMM

Joined on June 03 2006
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
Six Century Club

"pitchpowertrim.com"
Anderson, MO

619 legs, 1,093.4 hours
292 legs, 503.1 hours online
580 legs, 1,026.5 hours ACARS
89 legs, 191.0 hours event
236 legs dispatched, 110.1 hours

Posted onPost created on February 14 2010 22:09 ET by Michael Brown

It's garbage .... rolleyes

Did he try to sell you a warranty too? rofl

Most of the people who work first and second level desktop support are just a tad bit smarter than your average Radio Shack salesperson, IMO.

Michael Brown (DVA3196)

Posted onPost created on February 14 2010 22:37 ET by Michael Pare

I didn't think it made a lot of sense as I ran my old Dell laptop all of the time for periods up to 24 hours at a time and no problems, by way of comparison my new laptop runs cooler and is better made. He never tried to sell me a warranty,but I was just wondering as I seem to always have a flight going somewhere.

Michael Pare (DVA6626)

DVA7899
Captain, B737-800

Joined on October 29 2009
Online Double Century Club
Long Beach Century Club
Triple Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary

"PMDG or go home :)"
Springfield, MO USA

304 legs, 743.8 hours
283 legs, 682.2 hours online
303 legs, 740.0 hours ACARS
30 legs, 47.9 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 15 2010 00:58 ET by Skylar Macminn

Well sure, you will wear out the hardware faster than the average joe that turns on the computer for 30 minutes every saturday afternoon smile

--

Computers aren't nessisarily designed to run all of the time, but that doesn't mean it is bad.

Normal wear and tear will shorten the lifespan. The only way you can avoid shortening the life span of your hardware is to keep it all turned off smile

You buy a computer to turn it on and use it

Your only mistake was calling HP Support biggrin

-- I wouldn't worry about it.

Skylar Macminn (DVA7899)

DVA7484
Captain, B767-300

Joined on July 01 2009
50 State Club
Double Century Club
Online Double Century Club

"Chinook crews carry everything!"
Charter Township of Clinton, MI

262 legs, 1,116.0 hours
232 legs, 995.9 hours online
260 legs, 1,104.6 hours ACARS
2 legs, 5.2 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 16 2010 12:15 ET by David Smith

My HP loves FSX kiss

and we all know that a company like HP would never try to squeeze more money from us rimshot

(don't ya just hate when people are so sarcastic). Anyway I was under the impression that FSX was more CPU intensive as opposed to memory hog (lol).

David Smith (DVA7484)

Posted onPost created on February 16 2010 13:06 ET by Michael Pare

I just thought the whole conversation was weird, they never tried to up sell me anything.

Michael Pare (DVA6626)

DVA2724
Senior Captain, L-1011-100

Joined on December 04 2005
Million Mile Club
Seven Century Club

"Long Live the TRISTAR!!"
Concord, GA USA

714 legs, 3,467.6 hours
43 legs, 80.2 hours online
466 legs, 2,709.6 hours ACARS
5 legs dispatched, 26.7 hours

Posted onPost created on February 16 2010 13:55 ET by Ken Nesbitt

I always heard it was worse to start up and shut off your computer a lot than it was just to let it run idle. When I am home, I run my desktop 24hrs a day with plenty of long hauls. I have had my laptop since my second year in college (2004) and while it was there, it ran 24hrs a day 7 days a week. I ran flight sim on it for 5 years without so much as a hicup. I wouldn't worry about it. At best, you will shorten the computer life not because of flight sim but because when running big programs like FS, it makes your computer run hotter and the heat will kill it before the strain of running flight sim. Just my two cents.

Ken Nesbitt

Senior Captain, L-1011-100

DVA5544
Captain, A320

Joined on February 07 2008

"I'm at a 15° chin-up attitude."
Spiez, Bern Schweiz

34 legs, 58.3 hours
24 legs, 34.9 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on February 16 2010 14:35 ET by Alexander Kolb

I did some social sciences research into stuff like this, and here's what I can tell you.

If he had tried to sell you a waranty, your brain would draw a connection between what he said and how he's trying to tell you something, and the information he gave you would be discredited.

Now what he (or the company that trained him) wants you to do is become worried. He wants you to have this thought in your head that you might be damaging your computer and have YOU, under your "own will" (or so you would think) buy the waranty. If this happens, you think it is helping AND you think it was your own decision.

However you were smarter than the consumer they target. You had a place to turn to for advice before you would go and buy anything. Obviously we detered you from following this subconcious advice and so now you probabally wont buy a waranty.

Also most consumers wouldn't have this trove of computer knowledge to turn to, and would go to the "logical" (for the average joe) choice, a tech support forum. These things of course have some real advice, but are also littered with people trying to sell.

Just my two cents.

Alexander Kolb

Captain, A320

DVA4295
Captain, B767-300

Joined on April 05 2007
Online Century Club
Double Century Club

Stratford, CT USA

212 legs, 397.9 hours
194 legs, 368.4 hours online
190 legs, 356.7 hours ACARS
3 legs, 6.7 hours event
19 legs dispatched, 10.0 hours

Posted onPost created on February 16 2010 16:38 ET by John Alusik

If you build a computer or buy new RAM, it usually has a lifetime warranty so unless you physically destroy the RAM I'm pretty sure a company would replace it.

John Alusik

Captain, B767-300

DVA6399
Captain, B777-200

Joined on December 19 2007
Century Club

Tel Aviv, Israel Israel

152 legs, 596.5 hours
73 legs, 346.6 hours online
141 legs, 549.6 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on February 17 2010 05:31 ET by Jeff Popoviz

Don't believe them at all. HPs are JUNK. I bought a two thousand dollar HP in June, and by October it failed...and guess what, HP didn't want to fix it. They should be ashamed of themselves! If you can still return it- i advise you to do so!

Jeff Popoviz (DVA6399)

DVA8269
Captain, B747-400

Joined on January 28 2010
Million Mile Club
Six Century Club
Globetrotter

Western Canada

651 legs, 2,930.0 hours
650 legs, 2,925.7 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on February 19 2010 21:47 ET by Kent Harpham

Hey Michael. If and when you get sick of your HP, I suggest you build your own PC from scratch - right down to picking out a nice tower enclosure. Also, get a decent video card and lots of RAM for thousands of fun, high quality flights. You can build a powerful Quad-Core Intel PC for under $1,200.00. Another benefit to this, is you can load your shiny new hard drive up from scratch with whatever you want on it - XP Pro/Windows 7. HP and other major PC manufactures have no guts whatsoever, otherwise they would offer a warranty with a COMPLETE, no questions money back guarantee! If you build your own PC, you just fix what's broke. Also, I'm a PC hardware technician, and my opinion is that you should keep your computer running 24/7. This business of turning your PC off and on creates a lot of unnecessary wear and tear - heating and cooling, spinning and not.

Kent Harpham (DVA8269)

Posted onPost created on February 20 2010 01:59 ET by Michael Pare

When I have the funds, I definitely want to do that. I have dreamed of a monster gaming rig for a long time, it will happen one day.

Michael Pare (DVA6626)

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