Quick [tech] Questions Thread

[Engels]

Smells like failing PSU, but I like Trippy's idea of a poorly mounted board. Make sure all the risers are in place and that you're not accidentally shorting out the mobo on the backplate. Also, if that doesn't do it, and you've tested it with a different PSU, see if it behaves the same at a different location with different power. It could be that your home's power is 'unclean'. This can be solved with a UPS.

[Yegolev]

I resolved the frying problem, it was a very tired power strip behind the AV center.  This was in a different location anyway.

It could be power but my PSU should be more than adequate, a high-watt OCZ jobber.  So it didn't cross my mind, frankly.  Might be lacking voltage on some particular line, but I have plenty of cables to fit into all the sockets.  So what I'll try next is taking it out of the case.  My previous main/CPU works just fine in this new case but maybe something is shorted.

It's a ASUS P7P55D Pro with a i5 processor and four Crucial sticks.

I've removed and installed this Zalman HSF unit enough times that I have it down to a science.

I'll come back later.

[NowhereMan]

So having mostly ignored it I discovered the reason my 1TB drive hasn't been showing as a location for backups it has been flagged as a system drive by Windows (and is marked as a boot drive by MiniTool Partition, W7 doesn't seem to think it is). Checking the volume descriptions of the drives in Device Manager it seems like both are marked as Master Boot Records. Any idea how I can get W7 to stop treating that drive as a boot drive and go back to just using C:? I can't help but feel booting off a separate drive to my W7 installation might be slowing things down a touch. More importantly I'd like to be able to actually make back ups as I don't seem to have enough space on any of the other drives.

Edit: Just checking, W7 sees F: as the System drive and C: is marked as Boot, Page File and Crash Dump. Like I said C: is the W7 installation partition and certainly used to be system disk. The physical disk is marked as disk 3 though, I don't know if that's going to have an effect.

Although when I try to make run Windows backup it tells me I should have a drive with 859.99GB of free space, which seems like a lot for a backup. Is something more screwed with this than just the boot thing? If I'm going to get an SSD to use as a new OS drive I'd like to be able to just copy the present installation over and I'm really not sure if I can at the moment.

[Engels]

Dude, to be honest,what you're describing sounds like a mess. I don't know how a spare drive got marked as a system drive. Can you post a screenshot of the disk manager layout? Also, if it weren't for the scary part where your computer seems to think its a system drive, I'd just format it.

[NowhereMan]

Well I decided to be an idiot and it looks like it was a relatively simple fix that involved pulling the other drives and running a W7 disk startup repair on my C: drive. I suspect I had the boot priority in BIOS checking the F: drive first and, either when this happened or just eventually, W7 made it the boot drive This may have involved something I did at some point but I remember when F: suddenly stopped being available for running backups and the reason it confused me so much was because I hadn't been messing about or even installing anything prior to it. The labelling as a system drive I just don't get at all (like I said MiniTool was registering it as a boot drive rather than a system one, it had the system on my C:). So no screenshot (I probably should have made one for posterity).

So that much is sorted out, I'm now seeing whether this has done anything to me needing 859GB of free space to run a backup. I strongly suspect that Windows keeps trying to make a full copy of everything on all my hard drives but that just seems like such a option that I'm assuming it isn't.

[Engels]

Actually, it probably is just that. Windows imaging backup software isn't the smartest design I've encountered. I'd see about getting Acronis or something else. If you end up getting an Intel SSD, that comes with an intel licensed acronis download that burns to an CD or USB flash drive that will then let you clone your HD to an SSD without having to futz with a whole backup program. I cloned my 200GB OS to my new 250GB Intel 550 SSD without issue.

[NowhereMan]

Yeah, I think that's what I'll end up doing. Since sorting out the weird partition assignments I've been able to back up and it apparently doesn't require a TB of space to do so. Hopefully this will speed up the system bootup a bit or something. I will keep in mind the Intel SSD thing, I think that would really be the best upgrade I could give my system in the near future.

[Sheepherder]

It could be power but my PSU should be more than adequate, a high-watt OCZ jobber.  So it didn't cross my mind, frankly.

Last time I checked OCZ was selling some pretty dodgy shit.

[Yegolev]

It could be power but my PSU should be more than adequate, a high-watt OCZ jobber.  So it didn't cross my mind, frankly.

Last time I checked OCZ was selling some pretty dodgy shit.

I'm not ruling out the idea that the PSU isn't suited to the new mobo/cpu.  In fact, I am inclined to think it's not up to the latest standard.  I will need to check the age of the thing, probably more time has passed than I think.  It works great with the old unit but that only makes me think there isn't a short behind the board.

I can report some success, having stolen Sky's research and gotten that MSI P67A-GD65 + i5-2400 to replace my wife's machine's innards.  I also noted some slight differences in the PSU connections on her 750W Corsair.  Specifically, her EATX connector is a single eight-pin block where I seem to have two four-pin blocks.  Plus my main power has a supplemental four-pin block while hers is a single block.

Today I will see about wrapping up the ASUS RMA cross-ship and order a new PSU.  In between gassing up the car, taking clothes to the dry cleaner, attending a parent-teacher meeting, maybe some work, and posting on F13.

[Talpidae]

Anyone got Desktop Scanner reccomendations ?

[RUiN 427]

Is there such a thing as easy to use vent hosting/renting? If so, which of the multitude of sites should I look into? I don't have an extra computer to host myself. I'm just looking to host about 5-10 people.

Thanks in advance

[Chimpy]

Typefrag is pretty much the gold standard in vent hosting services. I have heard their web panel works well.

[RUiN 427]

Typefrag is pretty much the gold standard in vent hosting services. I have heard their web panel works well.

Indeed it does. I couldn't resist the ridiculously cheap part either.

[NiX]

Need some ideas troubleshooting an issue with my computer. Occasionally it hard locks in a very weird way where any program running can still be used, but explorer freezes so no other programs can be run. I have to hold down the power button because pushing the reset button just gets it to hang at posting. I originally thought it was my SSD (Corsair Force 3 60GB) since the HDD activity light goes solid, but even after flashing the firmware the issue still happens. My next thought was my Wireless N usb adapter being plugged into the USB 3.0 port, so I switched it to 2.0, but that didn't work either. All drivers are updated as they were installed from the website and the computer is only 2 months old.

I'm at a loss, so any ideas would be great.

[Sky]

Isolate the RAM?

[NiX]

I can try that. Problem I'm having is recreating the issue, it doesn't happen with any consistency though the Dead Island helper program seemed to trigger it. I'll pull a stick of RAM out tonight and see if I can get it to happen again.

[Trippy]

Keep Task Manager up.

[NiX]

I feel stupid for not thinking to do that. Will do and see what's going on.

[luckton]

Quick question: I changed my forum avatar here, but it's supposed to be animated.  It shows up animated when I uploaded it to Imgur, and on my computer, but here, still frame.  How am I failing?

Edit: Nevermind, fixed it.   

[Sky]

Edit: Nevermind, fixed it.   

You could go ahead and unfix that at any time.





 

[apocrypha]

If you use Firefox then Adblock lets you block specific images.

[Vision]

Just started using Windows again after years, and I downloaded  MSE + EMET, and set UAC to max. Do I need an additional firewall? Someone suggested Zonealarm.

[Lantyssa]

Oh gods, no.  Just don't be an idiot about opening ports and there's no need for anything more than Windows Firewall.

Zone Alarm is just a friggin' hassle that causes more problems than it prevents.

[Vision]

Oh gods, no.  Just don't be an idiot about opening ports and there's no need for anything more than Windows Firewall.

Zone Alarm is just a friggin' hassle that causes more problems than it prevents.

Great thanks. I think it was casuing BSOD's so I uninstalled it anyway.

Any tips on how to properly navigate Windows 7? I feel like I get to everything the long way.

[Engels]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Keyboard-shortcuts

[Hawkbit]

Can anyone on Comcast recommend a solid, compatible cable modem I can buy instead of being billed out the ass by them for renting one?

[rattran]

I used a Motorola SB6120, not only was it easy to set up on my end, it was easy on theirs as they had a script. Only not using it now as I dropped Comcast.

[Chimpy]

Can anyone on Comcast recommend a solid, compatible cable modem I can buy instead of being billed out the ass by them for renting one?

Last time I had Comcast, the difference in price between owning and leasing the modem was $3 a month.

[Hawkbit]

It is now $7 per month.  With the modem costing $80 through Amazon, it should pay for itself in a year.  If it doesn't break, that is.

The more absurd thing is the $16/month HDDVR rental for the TV.  That finally made my mind up to dump TV.  We'll hit a bar for sports, otherwise I'll have to look into Roku or something else.  Frankly, I won't miss TV at all.

[Chimpy]

The modem rental was always $7 a month, but they changed their pricing a few years ago to where the base rate for people with a rented modem was $4 or $5 less than the base rate they charge people who use their own modem. A buddy of mine was pissed because they made the change about a month after he had bought a replacement modem because his died (which cable modems do relatively often).

[Hawkbit]

Fuck if I know.  Their setup is so goddamn complicated, I think for internet only they had nine different 'bundles'.  I got something like $20/mo for 12mo, then $35/mo for 12mo for a 2yr contract.  15mb down, 3up. 

There were so many different offers and bullshit... I'm not sure what is wrong with just being upfront about your business.  I mean, they're the only cable company in town.  When you have a monopoly, does it matter how convoluted you can make it?  Fuck no, just charge the shit out of everyone.  Boardwalk, motherfuckers. 

I was able to get a surfboard and wireless router shipped from Amazon for $120.  Hopefully they last. 

I'm leaving Uverse, which has been absolutely awesome.  It is one of the only things I'll miss about Ohio.

[Lantyssa]

Just got a Surfboard last night due to electrically fried equipment.  Cost $60 at Frys, and after calling them to get the MAC put into their system, works fine.

[Engels]

What's a surfboard again? Don't tell me to google Surfboard :P

[Lantyssa]

Motorola Surfboard.  Think my model is a SB5101 or something like that.

[Vision]

I've been using my TV as a monitor, but its a 720p 32 inch and I can\t read shit on it, although the BF3 beta looks good. Windows sayings its outputting 1920X1080, but my native resolution is only 720p, I'm just curious what this means and if it is worth spending the dollars for an actual monitor.