SteelSkin.net – The Ramblings of Chris Nutt

Spent a good few hours at the weekend with my mate trying to fix his problems with Uncharted 3.

I have a PS3 40gb (upgraded to 250GB).

He recently replaced his launch 60GB with a new PS3 Slim 160GB. He reused his 250GB Western Digital drive from his 60GB. I noticed from day 1 it was laggier and would stutter playing back video when downloading.

I he recently had major problems with Uncharted 3. They ranged from music stuttering, audio not syncing and then breaking with cut scenes. Then game breaking levels of stutter.

I mentioned that I never thought his new system was good (his 60GB was fine, he just wanted a warranty, urgh).

So we tried my copy in case it was the disc, no luck.

I suggested it might be the hard disk combined with the more budget internals of the slim.

So we first backed up and deactivated the system. Then removed the 250GB HDD, reinstalled the 160GB (patching from the 3.73 firmware on Playstation.com). We tested video whilst downloading, no problems. We the tried Uncharted 3 it had the odd hickup, but was now an unbroken game. We then restored from his backup, reactivated the system. Tried the Video test and Uncharted 3 and it worked fine with only the very occasional stutter.

I have to my knowledge noticed no stuttering at all on my 40GB.

I am guessing that either the 250GB drive he had was badly set up or clashed with the cheaper components of the PS3 Slim.

I hope this helps anyone with their Uncharted 3 stuttering. I can guarantee you I won’t be ‘upgrading’ to a PS3 Slim any time soon. Although this is purely anecdotal evidence.

I went out and had a look at cars at the weekend.

Mazda RX8

I’ve always liked RX8s ever since I saw one in X Men 1. I think I still have photo’s of them from various angles in my wallpaper folder. This example is generally very nice, but as with all Mazdas I have seen the alloys are corroded. Lovely colour though and if it wasn’t for the drinking of fuel I’d get one in a heart beat. I just love the design of these, but I am not sure I could live with one.

Hyundai Coupe 2.0

This is a generally nice example, I have a thing for blue cars and this understated dark blue looks nice. Has some scratches around the door lock and some mold on the window sills. However it doesn’t have the rust around the petrol cap I have seen on other examples. Really quite nice.

BMW 316ti ES

I know BMW owners don’t have the best rep, certainly not 3 series owners. However my Dad’s mate Sandy has 3 and looks after them himself. He’s a really nice chap. Even this base model seems quite nicely appointed. Same size as the HC, shouldn’t be to bad for fuel being a 1.6.

Mazda MX5

I like Mazdas if I was to get a soft top like the MX5 I would buy an after market hard top so it can be driven in winter and that the soft top doesn’t get ripped by snow.

Ford Focus ST170

Looks 95% like a normal Focus, not ned-ed up at all. Nice on the interior, not amazing, really just a high spec Focus, rather than something super special. I was really tempted, but I realised how big the Focus felt.

Aftermath

A lot of nice cars. I still have an urge for something small and nimble, but it’s very hard to have a luxury-ish car and small at the same time. I prefer the seating height and position in the 323F to being up to high. The Focus felt a little odd because of this. If you are wondering where all the warm hatches are here is a round up. Lupo/Arosa Sport there aren’t any around, YarisT Sport don’t like the Yaris dash layout at all, Sport Ka I just don’t know. Also there is not Aygo T Sport and the Twingo GT is out of my price range.

Fixed Gravatars, my ancient WP 2.2 theme has been botched to work with Gravatars.