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EnglishMohican

Member

Registered: 2022-09-15

Posts: 20  

Looking for advice on VMs.

Firstly - my starting point. I have a "good" laptop bought in 2020 with a powerful cpu and gpu but by now a faulty screen and keyboard. The screen should run at 144Hz and 60Hz but nowadays only displays the top quarter of the screen when in 144Hz mode. I have three OSs on the laptop, Windows because I play Fortnite, and two versions of Excalibur, one supposedly stable and the other to experiment with. I select which OS using GRUB - but the start-up reset sets up 144Hz and GRUB does not change that. So I am using terminal format GRUB to select an OS, then lightdm stays in 144Hz and I cannot see what I am doing to enter my username and password. This equals chaos. I have plugged in an external monitor (limited by its age) and keyboard - so once working it's usable. But, now, I very nearly have a Desktop rather than a laptop.

I could replace the screen and I could buy a new laptop but I am irritated by those options.

Another solution is to boot straight into an OS - avoiding the need for a GRUB screen but making it hard to choose which OS to run. Does a VM help here?

I could fairly readily have a stable Excalibur as the host system and run  a VM running another Excalibur for experimentation. Ideally, I would like to use the existing experimental Excalibur partition as a source but understand that may not be easy or wise.

I could run Windows within the VM - but is that a good way to play speedy games? Does the double layer of OSs work and I fear that Fortnite does not like VMs.
Again, I would prefer to use the existing Windows partition as the source for the VM rather than have to setup something fresh - but that does not appear to be the standard thing to do.

I could run Windows as the host and run however many Excaliburs in VMs. But I think that is a retrograde step.

I am looking for advice from anybody who has experience of running Fortnite (or games) in VM, or who has VM experinece and can comment on speeds, and setup problems before I launch into this.

Any takers?

fanderal

Member

Registered: 2017-01-14

Posts: 117  

Re: Looking for advice on VMs.

but the start-up reset sets up 144Hz

Does the BIOS have an option to default to 60Hz? If not and not needed, is there an option to disable 144Hz?

EnglishMohican

Member

Registered: 2022-09-15

Posts: 20  

Re: Looking for advice on VMs.

I have looked before but I went back to check and just for once the 144Hz screen worked and I could see all the BIOS settings. No, it reports the resolution but nothing about refresh rate and the resolution is not configurable.

EnglishMohican

Member

Registered: 2022-09-15

Posts: 20  

Re: Looking for advice on VMs.

Just a couple of extra comments -

If i go ahead with a VM, then I would buy a better monitor that would allow faster refresh than the present external monitor does. I believe/hope that the hdmi output is totally independent of the laptops screen and will provide a better performance for games. It will also be bigger than the laptop screen so that would be an incidental improvement.

The laptop screen seems to start working if it has been been on for long enough - presumably warmth helps - but it is likely to go bad again at any point.

pcalvert

Member

Registered: 2017-05-15

Posts: 286  

Re: Looking for advice on VMs.

I could replace the screen and I could buy a new laptop but I am irritated by those options.

I did some quick research on this, and apparently this problem could be caused by a faulty cable. Or maybe even just a loose cable. The fact that warmth seems to help is a clue that the cable may simply be loose.

I could run Windows as the host and run however many Excaliburs in VMs. But I think that is a retrograde step.

Since gaming is important to you, I see nothing wrong with doing that.

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