Quick [tech] Questions Thread

[Salamok]

Looks like it was the mobo. I dropped a new gigabyte board in and it now boots fine.  I think I'll keep the new psu as well since it is significantly quieter than my other one.  Now I suppose I'll reinstall w7 as it really didn't like what just happened.

[Engels]

Can you define 'really didn't like what just happened'? If you could even boot to the OS when you replaced the mobo, that's probably a good thing, since all  you should have to do is install the native mobo drivers.

[Salamok]

It boots to recover/repair tool.  Doesn't let me into safe mode & repair fails.  Pretty sure Microsoft recommends a reinstall when switching mobos, even if repair appears so work (which it didn't). It did flash up a system restore option which I cancelled out of.  I may try restoring to the earliest point and going from there. This might work since I am still using the same chipset.

[Engels]

I doubt the system restore will do much. Chances are the OS is seeing new hardware and balking. This may be a driver issue, or more likely, a licensing issue. Go with the full reinstall if its not too big a deal.

[Lantyssa]

When switching motherboards I always recommend a full reinstall for stability reasons.  (I haven't attempted many transfers like this, but none have worked since Win2k.)

[Salamok]

Yeah I ended up doing a full reinstall, good news is my PC is ultra quiet now and my new motherboard is always pushing power to the usb ports so I can go back to using my mamba wirelessly w/o worrying about charging while the pc is off.  Bad news is I dumped $240 on parts and forgot to import my pst files from windows.old before deleting it so I lost about 2 months worth of email.  The reinstall also let me ditch some registry gems left behind by the Nero Trial Version that I really really regret trying.

Also, found out FF 3.6 is crap and rolled back to 3.5.7, so other than virtual box and some steam games I am more or less back to normal.

[Engels]

How's the new FF crap? Just curious.

[Salamok]

How's the new FF crap? Just curious.

Mucho crashes.  Was consistently crashing on Reddit and a few other of my frequently visited sites.

Edit - most likely a FF + addons quirk, I had firebug, web dev toolbar, tab mix plus and noscript loaded.

[Yegolev]

It seems to have lost some stability recently, in my opinion.

[Viin]

Anyone run into a problem where their extra mouse buttons stop working after the monitor goes into sleep mode? When I wake the monitor back up my left/right buttons work fine by my scroll wheel and back button don't ... seems to take a reboot to get back, annoying!

[Yegolev]

I neither sleep my monitor nor press my extra mouse buttons.



Although I might suspect sleepy USB ports... but then why would the buttons work?  Could be the driver doesn't cooperate with sleepy USB?

[Trippy]

Anyone run into a problem where their extra mouse buttons stop working after the monitor goes into sleep mode? When I wake the monitor back up my left/right buttons work fine by my scroll wheel and back button don't ... seems to take a reboot to get back, annoying!

That's just way too little information to help diagnose your prolblem. Don't know your OS, what kind of mouse you have, where it's plugged into, etc.

[Viin]

Oops I meant to add a line that says:

Windows 7 running a Microsoft Bluetooth mouse (with Intellimouse) and connects via a USB dongle.

Oddly, the dongle *is* plugged into the monitor, but if that was causing the problem I would expect it to not work at all .. not just the back button and scroll wheel.

I'll move it to the computer proper and see if that helps.

[Trippy]

I've seen this problem with some KVM switches where the special mouse USB port doesn't pass through all the non-standard mouse functionality (extra buttons, special scroll functions, etc.). This happens because that port is sending special "mouse emulation" signals so the computers don't freak out and think a mouse is being unplugged and plugged everytime you switch between them but the emulation mode doesn't support all the non-standard mouse functions your mouse might have.

It's possible when the monitor goes to sleep the monitor USB ports go into a different state so the dongle gets confused and reverts back to some sort of "compatibility" mode akin to what the above KVM mouse USB port is doing.

[Yegolev]

Heh, that was some quality information-withholding.  I salute you.

[Viin]

Oops I meant to add a line that says:

Windows 7 running a Microsoft Bluetooth mouse (with Intellimouse) and connects via a USB dongle.

Oddly, the dongle *is* plugged into the monitor, but if that was causing the problem I would expect it to not work at all .. not just the back button and scroll wheel.

I'll move it to the computer proper and see if that helps.

Moved it to the computer, no joy - same issue. If I unplug the usb dongle and plug it into a new USB slot, it'll reinitialize the dongle and give me all my buttons back.

Must be a Win7 driver issue, didn't have this problem with Vista. Sooo I guess I'll wait for MS to give me a new driver. Sigh.

Heh, that was some quality information-withholding.  I salute you.

I've spent many years perfecting the art. Do not try this at home!

[NowhereMan]

So over the weekend my system screwed itself, startup got me an 'NTLDR is missing' message. Took a few starts but eventually a total restore from the last backup got it working (the replace or whichever one, just system restore didn't work). Annoying since it had been almost a week since my last weekly backup but not too destructive. However since then my backups haven't worked. I've got 3 hard drivess and 4 partitions (one OS and one for programs) and it was backing up to my 1TB drive. However the backup now fails every time it tries and if I go to select settings I only get the option of the program partition or my 500gb hard drive. The big one is still working and I can still save files to it and access them but it seems the OS has decided this no longer works for backups. I'm running W7 and aside from the NTLDR thing and system backups no changes to it.

The NTLDR error was slightly weird since it worked fine on Friday night and I didn't really do anything with aside from web browsing, went to boot it on and Saturday and got the error message.

[Engels]

Nowhereman, I have heard that the Windows 7 backup utility is very very buggy and doesn't like some of the south bridge (storage controllers) chipset drivers sometimes.

I spent most of yesterday fighting with Windows 7 too. The idea was to make a disk clone of my Win 7 RC so that I can try the 'upgrade' method of installing a retail copy without having to do a clean install without compromising my existing install of RC.

Oh boy.

First, Acronis 2009 was not happy with my new 1TB WD Caviar Black. No sure why. I think its actually not happy with the Window 7 partitioning and can't collect the data to write to the new drive. I suspect is that 'administrative' partition that Win 7 places before the OS has some level of encryption that a 1 year old Acronis can't handle.

Next I tried a straight up partition to partition with Norton Ghost. It could see both the OS and the admin partition, so I cloned those in order. I should have probably done a flat out disk-to-disk.

Tecnically speaking, it worked. However, when I booted the original OS with the new drive in there, it labled the new OS partition on the new drive D. Then when I booted to the new drive with the old drive entirely disconnected, Win 7 declared my copy of Windows 7 'non genuine' and wouldn't let me do jack in the system. The OS partition remained named Drive D:. Not sure if the symptoms are related.

Plan B is to use the aformentioned Window 7 backup utility and 'restore my image' to the new Caviar drive, then try the Win 7 retail upgrade on that, if I can boot to the danged thing without getting locked out.

[Ratman_tf]

Hay guise. I've noticed my ATI Saphire 3870 is kinda loud after our last spat of upgrades. I dunno if the new case just means I hear the fan better or what. Anyway, it starts out quiet and then the fans kick in. I'm wondering if throwing a case fan into the mix might help keep the whole thing cooler, or if I'm just going to be adding more noise.

The stock case has no fans at all. Just the stuff that comes with the PS, CPU and video card.

[Trippy]

Does the video card fan get louder only when playings games or does it do that as well just doing Windows desktop-type stuff?

What size is your rear exhaust fan mount? If it's larger > 80mm (e.g. 92mm or 120mm) and you get a low RPM fan it's unlikely you'll hear it and it can only help things. If it's only 80mm you'll need to be more choosy in terms of what fan to install there.

[Ratman_tf]

Does the video card fan get louder only when playings games or does it do that as well just doing Windows desktop-type stuff?

What size is your rear exhaust fan mount? If it's larger > 80mm (e.g. 92mm or 120mm) and you get a low RPM fan it's unlikely you'll hear it and it can only help things. If it's only 80mm you'll need to be more choosy in terms of what fan to install there.

Only when playing 3-D games. Otherwise it doesn't even kick in, that I can notice, when doing desktop stuff.

80mm on the back fan mount. I was thinking about getting a fan for the front mount, to draw cool air in.

[Dion]

I'm just curious what you guys think of the i3 530, I'm considering it for my next gaming PC as I'm on a budget.

[Trippy]

I'm just curious what you guys think of the i3 530, I'm considering it for my next gaming PC as I'm on a budget.

If you don't need quad-core (HT doesn't count) it's a good budget CPU.

[Engels]

Has anyone here purchased a software download from NewEgg? I just did, and for the life of me I can't find where to download it. I got a credit card charge confirmation email, the order shows up on my account, but nothing about how to -get- the danged thing downloaded.

[Viin]

Has anyone here purchased a software download from NewEgg? I just did, and for the life of me I can't find where to download it. I got a credit card charge confirmation email, the order shows up on my account, but nothing about how to -get- the danged thing downloaded.

You have to wait for the CD which has the download app and the key on it.

Just kidding.

How do I download software that I have purchased?

Begin the download by clicking on the link provided in your Order Confirmation email. Once you have selected the link, choose to 'Save Target As' or 'Save Link As.' Once the download starts, you will see a box pop up with a status bar, and a percentage that will climb to 100%.

After the download has completed, you will need to go to the folder or point in which you saved the file, and double click on the new icon to start the installation. Please contact Customer Support if you require any assistance.

You may download the file anywhere you like, just make sure to remember where you saved it, along with the name of the file. If you download the software to your Desktop, it will be easier to locate and to install the product once you have finished the download.

[Engels]

Thanks Viin. It just took them over an hour to send me the email confirmation. All's good.

[Ratman_tf]

Well, I got off my butt and ordered some ties to tame the cables and a set of 28db case fans for each computer. Couldn't hurt!

[Sheepherder]

So, my Radeon X1900 GT idles at 78* C and looks fairly clean, games black screen and stop responding, and occasionally a reset nets a STOP PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA error.  This is a sign I need to buy a new card, right Trippy?

EDIT: Maybe not, even at 110* C it doesn't artifact according to ATi Tray Tools.

[Engels]

A page faults is normally associated with bad memory. Could be video memory, could be regular. Burn an ISO of Memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/download.html) and boot to that, let that run for a while, see if you get errors. Memory problems can go undetected till you load a memory intensive program that takes all your memory's address spaces up.

[rattran]

78/110 seems awfully hot for that card.

[Trippy]

So, my Radeon X1900 GT idles at 78* C and looks fairly clean, games black screen and stop responding, and occasionally a reset nets a STOP PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA error.  This is a sign I need to buy a new card, right Trippy?

EDIT: Maybe not, even at 110* C it doesn't artifact according to ATi Tray Tools.

Those temps look to be at least 10C too high. That idle temp looks especially odd.

What are your CPU temps like?

[Sky]

My 8800GTX pushed mid-90C under load and kept faulting, turned out it was a production fault with the memory heat spreaders on evga's initial run of 8800s. Third card had a decent heat sink, but it was also the regular superclock version, not the one with the massive full-body armor sheath.

Anyway, if you have heat sinks on the vram, might want to check that. If not, might need it?

[Sheepherder]

What are your CPU temps like?

52* C idle, it's a P4 so it will run hot.  I did say my computer was ancient, right?

[Trippy]

What are your CPU temps like?

52* C idle, it's a P4 so it will run hot.  I did say my computer was ancient, right?

Can you reliably get a black screen in a game? If so what happens if you open up the side of your case and then try to reproduce the black screen?

[Sheepherder]

I think I tracked the black screen to Blizzard's recent ATi DirectX fix, it appears to have cut it out with that disabled, I already had opened my case when the problem first started cropping up, though I've put some airflow through the case with a fan and it seems to drop the card temperature down a fair bit, that's probably just my room being hot as the devil's asscrack and poorly ventilated.  Still no fucking clue what caused the BSoD on hard reset.

When you get a STOP error, the first hex value is the error identifier and the ones in brackets show where the bad shit occurred, right?  Because if so the bracketed addresses direct me to the PCI Bus, but there is no corresponding device also with those memory locations.

Really, don't kill yourself over this, it may be the last straw in me deciding to move to an i3/i5 processor.  I just like to tinker far too much for my own good to let a chance to experiment slide.