The Technology Help Corner.

[Idsertian]

EDIT: Wierdly, the BIOS has temperature monitors for the CPU, but not the mobo itself. At least, not ones that I could find. So what is Speccy reporting on?

It can't be, you must be missing it. Go to advanced mode/monitor or something similar.
Anyways, if the system is stable and doesn't give you any trouble you shouldn't worry.

I did, couldn't see anything pertaining to the mobo itself, just the CPU. I'll have a browse through the manual at some point, if Speccy is picking something up, then there's obviously something there (unless the software is pitching a fit). Like you say, the system is stable, so I'm not overly concerned, just wondering what it might be.

Thanks for the help, AWAR.

 

[Dyan]

Hello. I'm having some wierd computer troubles. So pretty much whenever I'm playing anything even slightly graphically intensive my computer either freezes or shuts down entirely. I've heard that this might have something to do with my PSU, but my computer has been running the same hardware for half a year now with no problems until now. It's probably a coincidence, but this stuff started happening when I installed L.A. Noire.

Here's my computer specs:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X3 720 Processor 2.80 GHz
RAM: 8GB
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 250GT
Hard Drive: 2TB HDD

 

[AWAR]

-snip

It's either the PSU, the graphics card dying or high temperatures. Most likely the PSU.

Do you have any info about it? Open your case and try to make out its brand name and wattage.

 

[Dyan]

-snip

It's either the PSU, the graphics card dying or high temperatures. Most likely the PSU.

Do you have any info about it? Open your case and try to make out its brand name and wattage.

I checked, and it's manufacturer is Chieftec and the model is a GPS-550AB A. Maximum output is 550 watts.

UPDATE: I did a general look-over on my computer and quite a bit of dust had been piling up. One of the fans in particular was clogged with the stuff. Looks like I've been putting off proper maintenance for too long. Could be that the dust was the problem all along.

 

[AWAR]

-snip

Hmm.. Chieftec isn't great but it isn't terrible either.
Dust can increase temperatures so you should get a compressed air spray to get rid of it. Check your temperatures when playing a game with CPUID Hardware monitor.
If the computer keeps shutting down you should probably invest in a new power supply.

 

[Dyan]

-snip

Hmm.. Chieftec isn't great but it isn't terrible either.
Dust can increase temperatures so you should get a compressed air spray to get rid of it. Check your temperatures when playing a game with CPUID Hardware monitor.
If the computer keeps shutting down you should probably invest in a new power supply.

Yeah a thorough cleaning has seemed to fix the problem. Teach me not to put off proper maintenance, eh?

 

[Teo Farm]

Can I make the high quality videos default? It's annoying having to click it and reload the page every time I watch a video.

 

[AWAR]

Can I make the high quality videos default? It's annoying having to click it and reload the page every time I watch a video.

I use Youtube player size options script and it worked up until recently. You might have better luck with it though.
You must have the Scriptmonkey add-on installed first.

 

[Teo Farm]

Can I make the high quality videos default? It's annoying having to click it and reload the page every time I watch a video.

I use Youtube player size options script and it worked up until recently. You might have better luck with it though.
You must have the Scriptmonkey add-on installed first.

I use youtube center (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-center/) for all youtube related settings. I do have greasemonkey but I don't want to install "youtube player size options script" if you said it doesn't work especially when all my youtube is perfect.

 

[Felix the Human]

Something strange is going on with my computer. Every time I try shutting it down it tells me that there are programs still running in the background. usually if I wait it shuts down on it's own anyway. I've tried doing a clean boot by turning off all the the Non-Windows related services. but it keeps happening. I heard that force shutdowns harm your computer so i'm scarred to ever turn off my computer entirely. Is this harming my computer? I don't wanna lose my data because my computer got brain damage.

P.S. here are my computer specs

Windows 7 Home Premium
Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard Company
Model: p6210y
rating: 4.3 Windows Experience Index
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm)II X4 620 Processor 2.60 GHz
Installed Memory (RAM): 6.00 GB (5.75 GB usable)
System Type: 64-Bit Operating
Pen and Touch: Pen Input Available

Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 9100

 

[Felix the Human]

Something Bizarre is happening to My Computer Monitor as well. every once In a while it starts making these weird Static Noises. at first i thought it was my wall falling apart (cause I've got termites), but the sound doesn't happen when my monitor is unplugged. I've talked to some guys at best buy, and they think it might be the built in speakers but It sounds more like it's coming from the screen. I feel like My monitor's gonna self destruct at some point. please help.

P.S. I use a View Sonic VX900. hope that helps.

 

[zerobudgetgamer]

Hello there. I recently purchased a new computer ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103899 ) to replace my woefully out-of-date desktop, and while I'm greatly enjoying it, I'm already looking into upgrading it. The primary issue I have is two-fold, yet stems from the same main issue: This is a SFF case and there is very little free space. I'd like to get a graphics card and power supply for it, but while I believe the PCI-E x16 port on the top of the motherboard would fit a modest-sized card, the available space for a power supply is very limited; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3AN1181766 this is what it currently uses, and although it doesn't list the size range, I did some quick measurements and believe it falls within the 3.4" x 2.5" x 7" category. I've done a bit of searching, but couldn't come across a PSU with that size that went above 300w...

The specs for the PC are on the first link, but for the sake of the lazy:
CPU: AMD A6-5200 (2.0 MHz)
RAM: 6GB DDR3
Motherboard: Acer Aspire XC-105
Graphics: 512MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 8400
Hard Drive: 1TB

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[AWAR]

-snip

This is a toughie. You'll certainly need a new case as well, the CPU however is quite low end and I don't think you could get any substantial performance boosts by getting a discrete graphics card. It's obvious that this system wasn't build with upgrade-ability in mind, so I advice you to maybe save your money and get a new system all together.

 

[LightningBanks]

Hi all, I'm a first year student studying games design, and my computer has begun to die on me. Combine this with having to go back home frequently (unforeseen when I started uni) I have been struggling to finish projects on time, so I was looking into getting a laptop with a bursary I'm receiving.

I know gaming on a laptop is a horrible option compared to a almighty desktop, but thanks to my situation a laptop would make the work aspect so much easier (and work comes before play)

I found this laptop on pc specialist http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers-for-next-day-delivery/137/ (note this is a pre built one, I can change pretty much every part bar the graphics card, and there is a 15 inch version available also)

I also found this regarding the graphics card http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-765M.92907.0.html

Now I know this isn't going to run everything super awesomely, but I've noticed that all I have played this year is blizzard games, league and valve games, as well as a few Indies. (I do want to play both witchers, skyrim and titanfall but according to that link it should run it ok)so it should be ok regarding my current predicament.

What I wanted to know is just a few technical things, while at home I was going to hook it up to my 17 inch monitor and use my gaming keyboard and mouse for more comfortable play, would this strain the gpu?(the recommended resolution is 1440 x 900 on my monitor and its fairly old now)

I would also like advice on how to cool the laptop? (I kept some money from the budget just for this)

Also anyone knowing any deals better than this going on (just by chance) or know that pc specialist are a horrible company (I have seen good things in my research) that would be awesome too.

Sorry for the huge wall of text and sorry if this isn't in the right post, Ill move it if it is. Just nervous and don't want to mess this purchase up.

Thank you =)

 

[AWAR]

snip

If you're playing blizzard games and indie titles, it shouldn't give you much trouble. Witcher and TF should run fine if you use medium settings as well.
Your 17" actually supports a lower resolution than the laptop itself so I wouldn't worry about it.

As for cooling, there are cooling pads for laptops, though I don't know how effective they really are. I guess they are better than nothing.

 

[Metalrocks]

removed

 

[Qvar]

Hello escapists. I hope you can help me, because I have an issue that is driving me mad.
As of this night, my monitor has decided to start spamming me with it's settings screen. You know, the one where you set the brightness, contrast and such. It behaves as if somebody were mashing the menu button, and most of the time it doesnt answer to actual button pressing. Then it just stops and closes the menu, and starts again a couple of seconds later.

Sometimes it lasts like that for only a few seconds, others for a full minute. I barely can do anything like this, it occupies the whole center of the screen. Unfortunately I don't know the model of the monitor since it was a gift, but it's from Acer.

If I press the Menu or the Auto buttons for several seconds, it disappears... Until right after I stop pressing.

Any idea? Please!?

 

[AWAR]

Hello escapists. I hope you can help me, because I have an issue that is driving me mad.
As of this night, my monitor has decided to start spamming me with it's settings screen. You know, the one where you set the brightness, contrast and such. It behaves as if somebody were mashing the menu button, and most of the time it doesnt answer to actual button pressing. Then it just stops and closes the menu, and starts again a couple of seconds later.

Sometimes it lasts like that for only a few seconds, others for a full minute. I barely can do anything like this, it occupies the whole center of the screen. Unfortunately I don't know the model of the monitor since it was a gift, but it's from Acer.

If I press the Menu or the Auto buttons for several seconds, it disappears... Until right after I stop pressing.

Any idea? Please!?

That's weird... The same thing started to happen to me a few days ago... I have an LG monitor though, and it happened in Linux mint only (not sure if its related).
It stopped after a while maybe because I pressed the menu button repeatedly. Maybe it's the dust that's messing up the contacts.. I really don't a have a clue..

 

[Qvar]

After trying to open it up and cleanning it (without success), I ultimately took at a pair of tweezers and ripped the menu button's circuit apart... And it worked. No more menu spam

Now another question, this time not a real problem but more like a configuration one:
I have my desktop PC and the router at the upper floor of my house, but we also have a TV and a laptop that do not recive wi-fi very well and we would like to connect via ethernet anyway. The reason... Well, my mother is one of those anti-wifi crazies and there would be no amount of reasoning on Earth that would make her change her mind.

I've been considering a PLC, but it worries me that I may get power shortages, since there's only one AC connector (or whatveer you call the holes in the wall where you plug things) around here. Should I worry about connecting my pc, screen, lamplight, modem etc to the back of a PLC? Would there be a way to connect a secondary router at the lower floor?

 

[Idsertian]

Once again, Escapists, I find myself in need of your technical assistance. I am at my wits end with this problem, as I can't figure out any fix or workaround for it.

The problem is that my monitor (which I've had for around a month or so) keeps blanking out for random amounts of time, usually around 1 or 2 seconds, as if it's trying to switch inputs or refresh rates. Connections are firm with no play in the plugs at either end, so it's not a connection issue. The monitor also came with its own driver, which I installed at the same time I connected it and is up to date (I've checked).

PC and graphics specs:

Spoiler

Now, I'm reasonably certain it's not a hardware issue and that it's a software fault somewhere. At first, I thought it might be Silverlight, which is where the problem manifests itself at the worst. When trying to use Amazon Prime Instant Video (which uses Silverlight, naturally), the screen will constantly blank out, return, blank out, return. Obviously, this renders watching anything impossible. So I followed Amazon's tips for resolving problems with it:

Tried Silverlight in another browser (switched to Firefox from Chrome): No luck.
Reinstalled Silverlight manually: No luck.
"Fixed" and reinstalled Silverlight with the "fixer" on Microsoft's tech site: No luck.
Cleared Silverlight's storage cache: No luck.
Tried resetting the DRM management: No luck.

At this point, I would simply switch to using the Flash player, but it seems that option is not available to .co.uk customers for reasons. I even tried lowering the refresh rate from 144hz to 60hz, to no avail.

It's not just Amazon the problem is limited to, however. Whenever Kaspersky pops its equivalent of a UAC message (which is rare), the screen will blank for a second. Whenever GeForce Experience checks for updates, the screen blanks (I have disabled auto-updating as a result). It's even taken to doing it while I'm gaming and generally using the PC, though I have reason to suspect that that may be GeForce Experience again.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to get this to stop happening, I will be enormously grateful.