Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 28, 2024, 01:01:43 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Search:     Advanced search
we're back, baby
*
Home Help Search Login Register
f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  Gaming  |  Topic: Quick [tech] Questions Thread 0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.
Pages: 1 ... 28 29 [30] 31 32 ... 123 Go Down Print
Author Topic: Quick [tech] Questions Thread  (Read 1186340 times)
Strazos
Greetings from the Slave Coast
Posts: 15542

The World's Worst Game: Curry or Covid


Reply #1015 on: July 11, 2009, 12:47:31 PM

Say "NO" to retail prebuilt systems. You can build a pretty awesome system for that amount of money if you did it yourself.

Fear the Backstab!
"Plato said the virtuous man is at all times ready for a grammar snake attack." - we are lesion
"Hell is other people." -Sartre
rattran
Moderator
Posts: 4257

Unreasonable


Reply #1016 on: July 11, 2009, 03:39:54 PM

I've been having to do far too much troubleshooting on my boss's new HP, I'd avoid them at this time. His is a couple steps down from that one, with tons of driver issues.
NowhereMan
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7353


Reply #1017 on: July 11, 2009, 06:13:24 PM

The hanging at BIOS suggests that the motherboard is struggling with hardware.

NTLDR reported as missing suggests somethings' amiss with the new hard drive, but it may also be something wrong with RAM. The inability for a system to load stuff into RAM can sometimes manifest itself as 'missing' or 'corrupt' files, when in fact the files are just fine on the hard drive, its their transport to bad RAM that  makes them look missing or corrupt. The system just doesn't know how to tell you that.

Lastly, burn a copy of Ultimate Boot CD and do mem tests and HD tests if any of the above is inconclusive.

Ok the problem of BIOS hanging seems to have magically stopped. Windows loading screen is still freezing every now and again but not as often as it was. I actually remember having a similar problem last time I reinstalled XP on the old Hard drive and it died down after a while as well. I suspect you might be right about the RAM being the iffy bit I'll have to run some mem tests. Also the old HDD now has Ubuntu installed and isn't connected at the moment so conflicts from that weren't the problem. Thanks for the help Engels and Lant, magically self-repairing problems are the most worrying kind though.

"Look at my car. Do you think that was bought with the earnest love of geeks?" - HaemishM
Der Helm
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4025


Reply #1018 on: July 12, 2009, 06:56:44 PM

Hm. I upped the voltage settings for both north and south bridge to "highest", now I was able to run a whole game of Blood Bowl withough crashing.

Temperature did not rise in any significant way, except for the GPU with rose 5 °C to 55 °C, but that is nothing unusual. I think.

"I've been done enough around here..."- Signe
Der Helm
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4025


Reply #1019 on: July 14, 2009, 01:50:52 PM

Hm. I upped the voltage settings for both north and south bridge to "highest", now I was able to run a whole game of Blood Bowl withough crashing.

Temperature did not rise in any significant way, except for the GPU with rose 5 °C to 55 °C, but that is nothing unusual. I think.
That worked only for a day.

My new PSU arrived today and in a fit of madness I decided to rip my old case apart and to put everything in a new case.

First time I did something like that, so far it worked.

Now I need to find an SATA cable so I can connect my shiny new 1TB HD.

*crosses fingers*

Let's hope my resetting problems are a thing of the past.

"I've been done enough around here..."- Signe
Rasix
Moderator
Posts: 15024

I am the harbinger of your doom!


Reply #1020 on: July 15, 2009, 10:30:56 PM

So, if all of the sudden a hard drive is running slow as dirt, popping up with a ton of bad sectors (around 200+ errors in a SeaTools test) and file problems all over the place, is it worth doing a low level format, reinstalling windows, and just praying it doesn't happen again?

Is there any way to tell if it's a physical drive failure or just mass file corruption due to something else?

Assume I've done many virus and malware checks with nothing resulting.

-Rasix
Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23611


Reply #1021 on: July 15, 2009, 10:36:07 PM

If you get a utility that can read the SMART data on the drive you can get a sense that way if it's the drive that's failing. Another thing to try, though this is somewhat of a longshot, is to switch the cables (power and SATA/IDE) if you can. I recently had an external drive that was acting up (corrupted directory table and stuff) and it was actually the USB cable or the port on the USB hub that was bad.
Rasix
Moderator
Posts: 15024

I am the harbinger of your doom!


Reply #1022 on: July 17, 2009, 07:52:49 AM

Switched cables.  Did a "low level format" (what passes for one with the Seagate tools).  However, the drive fails any long test.

Got the blue screen after reinstalling windows that started this whole thing.  Some iastor.sys issue that exists apparently with Dell PCs  awesome, for real, for which the Dell provided solution doesn't work (the driver update refuses to install).  Drive scan is already finding errors, although not many (2 errors at 9%).  The drive seems to be operating fine otherwise, but I'm a bit worried it's just a matter of time before the errors really start creeping in.

 Fun. undecided

-Rasix
Yegolev
Moderator
Posts: 24440

2/10 WOULD NOT INGEST


WWW
Reply #1023 on: July 17, 2009, 08:37:25 AM

I always say: hard drives don't get better.

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117

I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.


Reply #1024 on: July 17, 2009, 08:58:36 AM

I always say: hard drives don't get better.
No, I've heard you say other things.
NiX
Wiki Admin
Posts: 7770

Locomotive Pandamonium


Reply #1025 on: July 17, 2009, 11:32:02 PM

I always say: hard drives don't get better.
No, I've heard you say other things.

I N Y O U R M O U T H ?
Cyrrex
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10603


Reply #1026 on: July 20, 2009, 07:25:58 AM

I did the weirdest thing yesterday.  I got a hair up my ass and went out and bought a new case, PSU and graphics card.  I then proceeded to tear out all the contents of my not-so-old Dell (bought it a year ago) and move it all over into the new case.  Never done anything like that before...I mean, I've managed to swap out the odd vid card and piece of RAM in the past, but this was essentially building a machine from scratch (minus operating system installation, but I've done that several times).  Considering I only had a basic clue as to what I was doing, it went pretty well.  Problems encountered included not plugging in what must have been the power to the processor itself, not knowing that I had to go into the BIOS to reset the order of the SATA devices for bootup and not being able to figure out exactly which pins to plug in the stupid Power and Reset buttons and the LED lights for each of those buttons.  I still haven't figure this last part out, because it seems to be all trial and error.  I have it working, but the reset button is now the power button.  The power button does nothing.  The LED lights may be reversed.  Not sure how much I care....I can still turn it on an off.

Oh, and the card I bought was the BFG GTX 285 OC - supposedly the fastest single gpu on the planet, and the reason I had to buy the new case and PSU in the first place.  Haven't had time yet to do anything but boot up a quick Age of Conan session, but it looks like it'll run it at maxed out settings at 30-40 fps in Tortage.  Weeee!

"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029

inflicts shingles.


Reply #1027 on: July 20, 2009, 08:19:40 AM

sweet. what was the case, and what are your other system specs; cpu, memory, motherboard?

I should get back to nature, too.  You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer.  Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached.  Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe

I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa

Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
Yegolev
Moderator
Posts: 24440

2/10 WOULD NOT INGEST


WWW
Reply #1028 on: July 20, 2009, 08:47:48 AM

The bit about not knowing what the pins do is why you would want to buy a mainboard separately, since it would come with a manual.  The ASUS boards, in fact, have this little dongle that you plug all the wires into and then you slip the dongle over the set of pins; hard to screw that up.

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Cyrrex
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10603


Reply #1029 on: July 20, 2009, 08:50:53 AM

sweet. what was the case, and what are your other system specs; cpu, memory, motherboard?

The case is a "CoolerMaster CM690 nVIDIA Edition ATX Mid-Tower Case"...other than being big enough to house the monster vid card and having the pre-requisite case fans, the only reason I can say I picked it was because there were things about the other cases I didn't like.

The parts I salvaged were from an Inspiron 530

CPU: Core2 Quad 6600
RAM: 4 Gb DDR2 of the 533hz variety, I believe
MB:  Dell Inspiron 530 SMT RY007 (Dual Core 775 socket)...their proprietary shit, I guess.

Motherboard and RAM could use an upgrade in theory, but I doubt I'll notice it for a while.  I'm guessing the vid card is going to make me not care for at least a year.

The bit about not knowing what the pins do is why you would want to buy a mainboard separately, since it would come with a manual.  The ASUS boards, in fact, have this little dongle that you plug all the wires into and then you slip the dongle over the set of pins; hard to screw that up.

Aye, but it isn't serious enough to warrant buying a new board.  Like I said, I did get it to work, even if it is the wrong way around.  Hopefully I won't catch fire.

« Last Edit: July 20, 2009, 08:53:37 AM by Cyrrex »

"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029

inflicts shingles.


Reply #1030 on: July 20, 2009, 10:55:52 AM

That CoolerMaster case does look rather good. I bet it keeps things pretty cool, but I have to wonder about noise reduction. It looks like its mostly alluminium.

Glad to hear your systemspecs. I had an alterior motive; my specs are very similar, but I run a 8800GT and my AoC framerate isn't the best. I was wondering how a vid upgrade might help, and it looks like it would.

Its very tempting, but I'm also hearing that the Nvidia 300 series will be released this fall. That, combined with Core i7 and SSD drives, and also USB 3.0 makes me want to hold on a bit longer and then do a full rebuild, then take my current machine into work.

I should get back to nature, too.  You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer.  Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached.  Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe

I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa

Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
Cyrrex
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10603


Reply #1031 on: July 20, 2009, 11:11:19 AM

I'll post back here with more info on AoC framerates once I get a chance to put it through it's paces.  First impression, though brief, was very promising.

Noise rarely bothers me - a combination of having good after-market speakers cranked up, as well as a decade of marriage teaching me to tune out unnecessary background noises.  That said, it seems only a few decibels louder than my former case.  That may change under stress, where it will probably go higher.

Also keep in mind that BFG has that upgrade policy.  Never used it before myself, but I guess you have 100 days, within which you can trade in your current card at the current market value (value as of the day you trade it).  Last but not least, there are probably better bang-for-the-buck cards out there if you don't want to spend as much.

"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
rattran
Moderator
Posts: 4257

Unreasonable


Reply #1032 on: July 20, 2009, 11:14:33 AM

I think winter/Q1-2010 is more likely for both Ati and Nvidia's next parts. TSMC's 40nm issues have set everything back quite a bit.

And coolermaster does some nice cases. I loves my HAF from them.

Yeah, bang for the buck is not great on the 285, but it is about as good as it gets for a single card. Can't beat the bang/buck of the Sapphire Atomic 4890 I won a few weeks ago though!
Rasix
Moderator
Posts: 15024

I am the harbinger of your doom!


Reply #1033 on: July 20, 2009, 11:22:12 AM

The bit about not knowing what the pins do is why you would want to buy a mainboard separately, since it would come with a manual.  The ASUS boards, in fact, have this little dongle that you plug all the wires into and then you slip the dongle over the set of pins; hard to screw that up.

Yah, this is why my next upgrade will be a case/MB/CPU (and likely RAM). It was bad enough putting in a new power supply into my older XPS.  The cable management was a nightmare and things unplugged I had to guess where they went again. I bent the shit out of some dodad on the MB, which scares me.  I really need a new case as keeping this one cool in the location it's in means leaving it open as the air flow in it is crap (plus there's not any room to add more fans in the case).

Despite this, the next time I go for a whole new computer, it'll still likely to be a Dell. I'm so bad at building my own.


To tie up what I posted earlier: I ended up replacing the drive.  It was failing most self tests and small amounts of errors would be discovered continually. Got a 1TB WD.  It only took about 2 hours before Windows was installed and the comp was ready for basic use.  Not a quiet drive, but the transfer speeds and access times are rather nice.

-Rasix
SnakeCharmer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3807


Reply #1034 on: July 22, 2009, 09:06:06 AM

PSU in my main rig died.  Looking at going to 1000W.  Recommend one.  GO!

Also, thinking about ordering a Q9650 to replace a Q6600 (oc'd to 3.2Ghz).  Yay?  Nay?  Keep in mind, I will overclock it, and will probably be replacing the 8800GTS G92's in about 6 months.  Unsure if I'll be going with one card, or going SLI with whatever is current at that time (also the reason I'm looking at a 1000W PSU). 

Looking to avoid bottlenecks and run any game I want at max settings across the board at 1920x1200 reso.
Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029

inflicts shingles.


Reply #1035 on: July 22, 2009, 09:34:28 AM

What's your budget? Cuz of course, we're all about the PSU, but they scale a lot. Also, 1000 is A LOT of power. Normally reserved for tripple crossfire configs. Hope you don't mind a steep electric bill!

I should get back to nature, too.  You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer.  Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached.  Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe

I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa

Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
SnakeCharmer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3807


Reply #1036 on: July 22, 2009, 09:45:50 AM

Budget?  $500 max, which is well above what the most expensive 900-1000W I could find on newegg.  Seems once you get above 1000W is when it really starts getting expensive.

I've often wondered what the home appliance equivalent was to a high end / high wattage PSU.  A fridge?  Dryer?
Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117

I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.


Reply #1037 on: July 22, 2009, 09:47:51 AM

As has been said, look at the amperage on the 12V rails. High wattage is nice, but the 12V rail amperage is critical.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_rail

Like memory and, well, everything, I stick to quality name brands for PSUs. I'd rather cry while buying it than cry every time it shits the bed on me or suffer through sub-par performance.

Without taking the time to go through all the currently available supplies, I'll pull out two supplies as an example. PPC&C 750W vs Topower 1100W. The PPC&C delivers 60A on the 12V rail, while the Topower delivers 20A.
fuser
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1572


Reply #1038 on: July 22, 2009, 11:58:23 AM

Also, thinking about ordering a Q9650 to replace a Q6600 (oc'd to 3.2Ghz).  Yay?  Nay? 

Personally I'm saving for better video card or for a switch to i5/i7 (have a Q6600 + p35 chipset + 8800gt).

775 socket is getting to the end of its life and the P55 is launching this fall bringing the new platform down to a reasonable price so you will start to see more and more of the 775 phased out. I doubt you will cause the q6600 @3.2Ghz to bottleneck performance until you hit the very high end cards and then it's probably more of a benchmark loss then real world.
Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029

inflicts shingles.


Reply #1039 on: July 22, 2009, 01:26:02 PM


I should get back to nature, too.  You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer.  Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached.  Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe

I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa

Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
SnakeCharmer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3807


Reply #1040 on: July 22, 2009, 01:56:59 PM

I was looking at that Corsair, actually.  Good deal.  Thanks for the input!
Hoax
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8110

l33t kiddie


Reply #1041 on: July 22, 2009, 06:48:51 PM

I have a Corsair and no complaints so far, they were heavily recommended on [h]ardocp and also they make modular PSU's which is pretty cool.  However I sometimes wake up in the night wishing it was a Seasonic, you can't beat Seasonic for quality PSU's.  My only other brand experiences have been bad and I one bought a Zalman branded PSU but I had looked up who the manufacturer of the actual unit was and it was rated well by those in the know.  Its still running 6 years later.

Seasonic though is the best of the best with honors and since you have a stupid large budget I would find one of their units that gives you the 12V power you need.  Buying based on the wattage is stupid.

A nation consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation.
-William Gibson
Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23611


Reply #1042 on: July 22, 2009, 07:44:04 PM

Some of the Corsairs are made by Seasonic.
Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029

inflicts shingles.


Reply #1043 on: July 22, 2009, 08:18:26 PM

Is there a way to tell?

I should get back to nature, too.  You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer.  Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached.  Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe

I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa

Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23611


Reply #1044 on: July 22, 2009, 08:26:46 PM

Not easily. You can Google on:

Corsair Seasonic CWT

but there's conflicting info out there. I.e. some of the Corsair PSes people say are made by Seasonic may actually be made by CWT and vice versa.
Mrbloodworth
Terracotta Army
Posts: 15148


Reply #1045 on: July 23, 2009, 10:51:44 AM

So, I ordered the new PC. I have everything hooked up, except for the case fans. the one in the back, and the one in the side.

They each have two plugs, on directly off the fan with two wires, the other is off the connector with the two wires, but it has 4 wires going to it. I assume I connect this to the PSU?

Am I correct in assuming that if I connect the one with just the two wires, it will just be on and off, but if i connect it to the one with 4, that the PSU will control speed?

The only place on the motherboard to connect a fan was for the CPU fan. The case fans have vastly different connectors.

Advice?

Today's How-To: Scrambling a Thread to the Point of Incoherence in Only One Post with MrBloodworth . - schild
www.mrbloodworthproductions.com  www.amuletsbymerlin.com
Venkman
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11536


Reply #1046 on: July 23, 2009, 12:27:12 PM

If I understand you right:

  • The four-prong wire from the fan goes to the PSU. That's the only way to power the fan.
  • The two-prong wire goes to the mobo. There's a number of different places to plug it into your mobo. This will allow the BIOS (and apps) to display the fan speed and may allow the mobo to control the fan speed (depending on model).

Mrbloodworth
Terracotta Army
Posts: 15148


Reply #1047 on: July 23, 2009, 01:29:45 PM

I guess i didn't explain it right. The connectors look like this:




With the two small wires attached to the fan. But, I think I have answered my own question, as I didn't notice at the time, but one is male, and the other female, so only one will work attaching it to the PSU. As far as I can tell, the mother board does not accept any connection like that one above. The CPU fan, however, had a spot and a different connector.

Today's How-To: Scrambling a Thread to the Point of Incoherence in Only One Post with MrBloodworth . - schild
www.mrbloodworthproductions.com  www.amuletsbymerlin.com
Murgos
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7474


Reply #1048 on: July 23, 2009, 02:16:05 PM

The other end is so you can daisy chain device power lines together.

"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029

inflicts shingles.


Reply #1049 on: July 23, 2009, 02:26:54 PM

 Most modern motherboards have at least 3, if not 4 or 5 connectors. They should be 3 pronged males that look the end of the connector you just posted a picture of.

I should get back to nature, too.  You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer.  Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached.  Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe

I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa

Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
Pages: 1 ... 28 29 [30] 31 32 ... 123 Go Up Print 
f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  Gaming  |  Topic: Quick [tech] Questions Thread  
Jump to:  

Powered by SMF 1.1.10 | SMF © 2006-2009, Simple Machines LLC