Computer Help Thread

[PSZeTa]

Lol, that's no good.

http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/156 ... guide.html

[Stereo]

I didn't really get any farther with that... I still want to know what I did wrong. It doesn't state exactly how to overclock it safely. (Unless I misread something)

[PSZeTa]

What you're doing is increasing the FSB only; that means your whole PC is running on a higher frequency. You'll need to increase voltages to stabilize the CPU and possibly put dividers on your memory if it's running out of spec. Simply increasing FSB doesn't work.

Look for overclocking guides. That should help out.

[Carcrazy]

Did you increase the voltage to the N/B (North Bridge)? I was able to get a little bit more out of my Q6600 by doing that, seems to help quite a bit when using a Quad-Core. Unfortunately, my chipset is just to old to break the 2.9ghz barrier.

[prince1142003]

I need some help diagnosing a problem I've been having. Recently, after extended periods of use (6-7 hours), my display gets a bunch of random pink dots and then locks up. I'm not sure if it's a graphics card problem or something else. The card doesn't seem to be overheating as the core temp never goes above 80F. It's a ATI Radeon X1600 and it's about a year and a half old. I've run benchmarks on the card using overclocking software to scan for artifacts, and it's found some pretty stable pretty high clock speeds and has never crashed. It seems that only extended use (regardless of whether it's playing games or simply browsing the internet) crashes the card.

So any ideas?

[vellu]

The dot effect is indeed usually an indication of overheating (or too much overclocking). Does your cfx card heatsink also cover the cfx card ram modules? If not it could be the gfx ram overheating (not the cfx core). Perhaps try increasing your case airflow.

[prince1142003]

The card's heatsink indeed covers the ram modules as well, and I have the fan set to run at 100% speed if the core temp goes above 70F. I've never overclocked the card. There is also a case fan blowing air directly onto the card and another case fan blowing air out of the case right above the other fan.

My family had to evacuate during a recent hurricane, and the computer was rather hurriedly stowed away in the back of a car. Could physical damage have occured? I've checked the card and not noticed anything; I've also made sure it's seated correctly.

I just don't want to get another card if this one's fine and the problem lies with something else.

[vellu]

It's possible, though if physical damage occurs the cards tend to die completely. Maybe some oxidation in the pcie bus connector (easily checked & cleaned).

However the "failure over time & stress" doesn't really suggest anything other (software & driver errors wouldn't occur only under stress).

[prince1142003]

How would I check for oxidation and clean it?

[Carcrazy]

I presume just get a flashlight and see if it looks discolored, (would probably be white-ish.)

Anyway, that 8600GT I got often artifacted (green dots, instead...) and crashed, despite the fact it didn't overheat.
...needless to say, it got sent back for a refund.

[vellu]

How would I check for oxidation and clean it?

Remove the card and look at the pcie connector. If you see any white-ish "dirt" on it clean carefully with some antistatic cloth. Don't use any liquids unless they are specifically made for cleaning electronics. The pcie slot itself is much harder (and actually quite impossible) to clean. All you can do is use some dry compressed air to try and blow out any accumulated dust. Again, only use compressed air designed for use on electronic components (regular compressed air might have lubricant particles in it, which is a big no no for electronics).

[prince1142003]

So... I figured out what the problem was. For some reason, the fan is set to only operate at 50% when the GPU temperature goes above 40C. I totally forgot that before the reinstall, I had configured ATI Tray Tools to set better temperature dependent fan speeds. So instead of hitting 40C and then cooling down a bit, the temperature would keep rising until I had those signs of overheating. I installed ATT and configured the fan speeds, and everything works fine now. Computer's been on for more than 72 hours straight with no hiccups.

Wierd, huh?

[Dragster]

Is it possible to directly connect my laptop which has VGA output to an old crt TV through SCART input? I realized there aren't any adapters to buy, which actually work, but I've encountered schemes like these:

http://www.idiots.org.uk/vga_rgb_scart/
http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/vga2tv/circuit.html
http://www.nexusuk.org/projects/vga2scart/

And I'm wondering if it's all worth the trouble... Anyone already tried this?

[vellu]

I suppose one could with a suitable adapter, but the resolution offered via scart to a crt-tv being extremely low (720x576 PAL, or 720x480 NTSC) desktop use is pretty much out. I guess it might be ok for some games where there aren't any small details that you need to make out.

[Skyline_man]

I have a small problem, my Windows got hit by a Trojan, and then it restarted, but instead of loading the normal desktop, it loaded "My Documents" window and a black screen only. I have to click ctrl+alt+del and open a new task (explorer.exe) via the task manager everytime to get it to load properly.

I believe some system32 files may've been deleted, i tried system restore and it worked when it was restarting for the first time, but i had the same black screen while restarting later.

Any suggestions, i have Vista Ultimate 32 btw.

[Carcrazy]

Chances are your trojan infected your System Restore files. There are a few options that *I* would suggest. (Emphasis on the I because there are some people that may have better answers.)

1st, you could try going to as far back of a restore point as you have, and then running a virus scan directly after. This may or may not work, depending on the tojan.

Secondly, you could try running some repairs by booting into your Vista DVD.

Thirdly, put your CD burner to work, backup your files, and re-install.

Oddly enough, my laptop must have been hit recently while it's been broken (monitor hinges.) I've been using it time-to-time when I had papers to due and must have gotten it then. Luckily I can't see any major damage done.

...actually, if you're balls-y enough, you could try to actually copy system32 files over from either your disk or another computer. I wouldn't expect it to work, although it would be interesting...

[prince1142003]

I have a small problem, my Windows got hit by a Trojan, and then it restarted, but instead of loading the normal desktop, it loaded "My Documents" window and a black screen only. I have to click ctrl+alt+del and open a new task (explorer.exe) via the task manager everytime to get it to load properly.

I believe some system32 files may've been deleted, i tried system restore and it worked when it was restarting for the first time, but i had the same black screen while restarting later.

Any suggestions, i have Vista Ultimate 32 btw.

It's possible that the Trojan has injected itself into some file that isn't affected by system restore. First thing I would do is boot into Safe Mode, log in, and take a look at startup programs and services. You can use MSCONFIG for startup programs, and Services.msc for startup services. Look for anything suspicious, or pointing to a seemingly nonexistent location. Since you have Vista, you don't have to worry about this, but taking a look at the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon registry key, if it exists.

More than likely, the Trojan's infected the system restore files. In this case, try to use your Vista installation CD and boot into recovery mode. There should be an option to restore the operating system to installation defaults (meaning wiping out all Service Packs and Updates and registry settings, but keeping files).

If that doesn't work, your only option is a full disk wipe and reinstallation. I would be very wary of backing up files because the Trojan may have infected them too.

[Skyline_man]

okay thanks for the advice, i tried system restore again but with a 5-day old date, restarted couple of times, everything loaded fine.

Time to do a full system scan, thanks again for the advice.

[Carcrazy]

I know I probably wasn't much help, but you're welcome.

Now feel free to return the favor.

I've had a SERIOUS problem for about the past two weeks, and now it's going from meh to bad to worse. My computer will randomly restart... and keep restarting. When I say keep restarting, I mean the GFX card doesn't even have time to load it's BIOS. I doubt it's even a second between restarts.

Now, I'm scared of it causing internal damage, so if it happens while I'm around, I often JUMP on the floor and unplug it from the wall, as this is the only way to get it to stop. I will, however, walk back into the room after being gone for at least and hour or two, and the system will have restarted (probably multiple times,) and it will be hanging on the POST saying 'System Safe-Mode Profile Loaded,' or some crap like that. It's really nothing more than restarting it and entering setup that will correct this, and in most cases just restarting it will make it load my custom settings back.

Wondering if it had something to do with BIOS settings, I loaded the 'Optimized Default' profile a few days back... didn't help any.
My case is old, and really beaten to hell. I'm wondering if it's causing some short between the motherboard and the case's motherboard tray. Pretty much, I can only think of three causes.

1) Short between MoBo + Case's Motherboard tray
2) Damage to MoBo (easily fixed with an RMA)
3) Problem with Power Supply

As you can probably guess, they're listed from most likely IMO to least likely. I was planning on buying that Antec 1200 soon out of the fact that my case really won't last much longer (the damn thing doesn't even have a power button,) but still... it's starting to restart in the middle of the night while I'm asleep, which could end up being very bad for me, as I use an alarm program on my computer to wake me up in the mornings.

It started when I had my subwoofer turned up one day, it that helps any. I really have no idea what would cause it to do this, nor have I ever heard of a computer doing this.

Thanks for the help, if anyone needs more info, please tell me.

(Also, System Specs:)
Intel C2Q Q6600 @ 2.7Ghz (Now @ stock 2.4, due to this problem) (Purchased last year)
Abit AW9D-MAX Mobo (Purchased last year - may be near end of warranty)
4GB G.Skill DDR2-800 (3GB Running - 32bit OS) (Purchased very recently)
Western Digital 500GB HDD (Purchased in last six months - Second HDD Purchase pending)
[Old] Sony DVD-RW Drive (Up for replacement soon)
And of course, my trusty old BFG 7600, which has also been beaten to hell. (And proud of it!)

If you all agree it's not the PSU, then I'll probably order the case ASAP and RMA the Abit while it ships, since it's warranty runs out on the 27th of this month.

[baumaxx1]

Erm... get an alarm clock...

I'm not quite sure what a sub would have to do with it... unless the PCs on it or something and it's causing vibration...

Why are you still running a 7600GT though? You have a Q6600, 4GB DDR 800RAM... I'll probably get better gaming performance with my 9600GT and budget end 2GB DDR667 and e2180.

Now, not sure if it's anything like my problem, but I had one where after a heatwave, my pc wouldn't stay on... it'll lose power straight away, or after a sec... eventually staying on. Replaced the PSU that day and it was fine.

If it's saying safe mode though my bet would be on the hardware... most likely the mobo.

[prince1142003]

It could be the PSU. The motherboard could just be sensing numerous restarts and think there's hardware issues. In a case like this, I would first try replacing the PSU and then check for hardware issues.

[Carcrazy]

I ran what I like to call a death-test (full stress test set for max. heat, power, + cpu usage w/ no or little ram; 2 Memtest windows using all available memory (minus ~ 100MB,) and let it run in the background (under monitoring) as I worked.

Ran for probably about 10 minutes before it started the restarting crap. It restarted just before that (which caused me to run the test,) and I counted it restarting 10 times (I'd say there could only me a margin of error by three - I started counting it a bit late and guessed off what I remembered hearing.) After this test it restarted 15 times before I flipped the switch on the PSU. Guess I'll email Zalman about an RMA. (I had less trouble with that $50 575 watt Logisys PSU.)

[donaldgladden]

If i connect a ethernet cable from my computer directly to my father's Linksys router, will i be able to get a internet connection? Right now the router is connected to a modem supplied by comcast i think which is our internet provider.

[prince1142003]

Theoretically, yes. I used to have a similar setup and it worked out of the box, without a hitch.

[donaldgladden]

Okay thanks!