Computer Issues

ShakyJake_sl said:

Screen "stuck" (as in the mouse doesn't move, no response to keyboard input. Have to hard reset). Although I've occasionally gotten a blue screen.

System is running Windows 8. It's really random and is definitely a hardware issue. Just odd that two of the same boards is exhibiting the same issue. Whereas the old MSI board with the EXACT SAME EQUIPMENT was fine for YEARS.

I bought a new NIC and I'm currently testing with that. A shot in the dark but was only 10 bucks. Doubt it'll solve the issue. Only recourse is to try a different brand motherboard. Didn't think for one second I'd have trouble with an ASUS board.

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It's definitely a hardware issue, only other thing beside what I mentioned before, was to reset the jumper for your CMOS, a month or two ago I'd booted into a Live Disc with Kolibri OS, my USB peripherals weren't recognized so I rebooted into 7. Couldn't connect to network, tried a dozen things, called Verizon, determined there was no issue with their side. As a last resort I reset my CMOS, and viola.

Otherwise there's no harm in testing your hypothesis, with a discrete NIC.

Ao-_sl said:

Get a decent SSD.

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I already had a SSD in my gaming rig, this is just a backup PC that I'm not interested in throwing a lot of money at. Was just going to buy a WD Blue 1TB drive for like $50 for it. I game on it sometimes, but not enough to warrant a SSD.

So my mom went and ended up getting a bunch of malware installed on her PC, and she has asked me to remove it. So other then going in and manually removing all the crap, what is a good freeware antivirus software. I remember back in the day I used to use spybot. I have not had to do this sort of thing in years, which is why I am asking now.

Thanks

moseby_sl said:

So my mom went and ended up getting a bunch of malware installed on her PC, and she has asked me to remove it. So other then going in and manually removing all the crap, what is a good freeware antivirus software. I remember back in the day I used to use spybot. I have not had to do this sort of thing in years, which is why I am asking now.

Thanks

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I used MalwareBytes a few years ago. It was free and seemed to work. I don't know if it is still legit though.

These days I just back up my shit and reformat every so often. Nothing like a clean install.

Yeah, if you run Malwarebytes and Spybot (both still free and updated on the regular) along with keeping Microsoft Security Essentials up to date, you will basically dodge the vast majority of threats. Pop Adblock and NoScript into her browser of choice and tell her not to let it do stuff for the most part.

Really though, HD space is cheap and just making a backup and a quick reformat/reinstall is easy. Win7/8 install so quickly it is generally less of a hassle than going through malware/virus removal procedures.

Noodlemod_sl said:

Ran some HDD diagnostic on my PC and it's failing it. Also now it barely makes it into windows before becoming unresponsive. Sometimes it fails on the login screen.

Guess I'm buying a new HDD. Thing is like 10 years old.

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Spinrite ftw bro

So I recently moved and when I turn on my computer, it gives me the "insert boot disk" error. It's a 1tb Samsung Evo 840, been running fine, and it even shows up in the BIOS. I've swapped sata cables and I've swapped the sata ports it's plugged into on account of the Z77 Extreme4 mobo having multiple types, but regardless, it won't boot. Also tried resetting the CMOS, both with the Clear CMOS button on the board, and by moving the jumpers from 1-2 to 2-3 (and back again).

Is it possible that the hard drive was damaged such that the data can't be read, but still appears normal and functional in the bios?

You sure you dont have something else plugged in and its just trying to boot from that? Strip down to bare bones (non-wireless keyboard and mouse) if the drive is showing up in BIOS. Also make sure no media is in a drive.

Lanx I think you got it. I use a total of 3 drives: the Samsung SSD, a 1tb WD and a 4tb Seagate. I hadn't had them all plugged in, and when I did, it started to boot Windows but gave me an error message telling me some vital equipment was missing and I needed to reinstall. I just swapped some plugs around and got it fully working. I'm in Windows and I can access all 3 drives, BUT I've had it on/off three times now and each time it's given me the boot error, so I go into BIOS, see that the Samsung is selected as boot (it already was, I changed nothing, but saved/exited anyhow) and Windows loads. Woo.

Thanks guys!

ShakyJake_sl said:

Weird problem:

A a few weeks back I bought a replacement motherboard to use with my old AMD Phenom II 965 chip. The board is the ASUS M5A97 LE 2.0. The thing seemingly froze up randomly. I sent it back, got a replacement and this one is doing the exact same fucking thing.

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Pretty sure I figured out what was causing this problem.

Someone mentioned a power issue and I think it was precisely that. The new motherboard only had a 4 pin power connector vs the newer 6-pin style. My original MSI board had 6 pins so that's what I was using. The new ASUS board had only 4 pins so, in the past given this scenario, I thought I had simply plugged in connector and let the 2 "extra" ones hang off to the side. I bought a new motherboard to replace this ASUS and, same deal, only had 4 pins but this time the board had shit in the way so I couldn't be stupid and half ass it. I discovered that my power supply did in fact have a 4 pin power connector -- I had tightly wrapped it up and tucked it behind some other cables. New board is functioning fine. But I suspect the original ASUS board would have fine if had of used the proper cable.

Moral of the story: use the correct power cable.

Well I decided it was time to upgrade my computer as it has been running the same i7 950, X58 ftw3, and two GTX 460's powering three 1080 monitors since like 2010, and I felt like it was time to get into 4K. So I bough two GTX 970's to power the main 4k in SLi, while using a single GTX 460 to run the side 1080 monitors, since that's what I've always done and it has always worked flawlessly, no point in upgrading that until I go all 4K, which isn't for awhile. I've done my research and this setup works with SLi powering the main and my third card powering the sides on its own, so I know that wasn't going to cause a problem. I never put my cards in SLi previously, just had card one powering the main while card two powering the sides.

So I get everything in and setup, but my new RAM(Corsair Vengeance 16gb) won't fit under the Noctua big ass cooler, so I went to the store and bought an H105i, since I know that doesn't have a huge block, but still does a good job. I get everything in, new cards, RAM, and cooler, and fire it up. It posts but it doesn't load windows, so I immediately thought it was the RAM, since I was a bit worried with it to begin with, because RAM can be a pain in the ass sometimes with getting your computer to boot when swapping new ones in. I started swapping it around DIMM slots to see if I can get it to boot, nothing changes. Then I swapped the old RAM back in, still nothing. Then I start going into the graphics cards, swapping out the new cards with the olds, changing slots, just about every possible setup that I could use with 4 separate graphics cards and 5 sticks of RAM, still nothing. I am also resetting CMOS regularly throughout. I revert it back to exactly how it was before I bought everything, still nothing, and in fact, now it won't even post, just black on power up.

So I've come to the conclusion it HAS to be the motherboard or CPU, and my guess is when I removed the Noctua it could have bent something since it's so heavy, or when I installed the H105i it bent something. I've Googled all of the error codes it throws and they're pretty much all telling me one of the RAM/CPU/Mobo is the problem, but I am leaning towards the worst.

Any other opinions or suggestions?

So my graphics card is dying I think? Keep getting random crashes where my screen turns into a bluish color with lines in it, only happens when I'm playing games, and it's quite random. My GPU is not over heating, and is not stressed. It crashed last time playing Hearthstone which does not stress the GPU much at all i'd have to assume. Anyway when it happens the only thing I can do is force reset my computer.

Here is the GPU I have:

GIGABYTE GV-R928WF3OC-3GD Radeon R9 280 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready Video Card - Newegg.com

Although when I bought it it was called a 7950 I think, but they had some name changes since then at AMD.

My question is how much of an upgrade will a GTX 960 be over this card? Or should I fork over another $100 for a 970?

Will a GTX 960 be able to run most of the new games coming out in the future?

MossyBank_sl said:

My question is how much of an upgrade will a GTX 960 be over this card? Or should I fork over another $100 for a 970?

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I agree that it sounds like your GPU is dying. The 960 will be a decent upgrade from what you have. As far as its ability to play new games, that depends on what settings/resolution you like to play at. Can you provide more information?

I like to play at 1080p 60 fps preferably. I don't have a 1440p monitor.

If you really like 60fps and decently high settings, and you're not overly concerned about an extra $100 then the 970 is probably worth it. The 960 should be adequate if you're not that picky though, especially if you're the kind of person who upgrades every 2-3 years.

Alright so pretty random question/problem here; I have 3 monitors hooked up to my video card(well, 1 TV through HDMI and 2 monitors via DVI). When my "main" monitor and secondary monitor are active together, my video card runs about 12 degrees C warmer then when my main monitor/TV are active. TV/main monitor are 1920x1080 and my secondary monitor is 1680x1050 iirc. Any particular reason why this is? my PC has been cleaned out recently so no dust.

Does anyone here have any history with Crucial MX100 SSDs? I ask because I got one mid January as part of a new system build and its my first SSD and in that time 4-5 times I have had the SSD just disconnect from my system. Once it does that neither windows nor my UEFI can see it. I have to physically disconnect and reconnect it then it will be fine. Crucial had a firmware update a few weeks ago I did that and I thought it had fixed the problem but it just occurred again.

So far it is infrequent enough that my computer is stable enough but I hate having any issues like this. When it drops programs on it stop responding then my PC just reboots (the ssd is my windows drive so i assume that is the only reason the system crashes). It doesn't leave a crash dump of any sort. Google makes it sound like a problem with that model but I cant see to find info on if firmware stuff can fix it or if its a "bad" drive i have.