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I apologise in advance if this is in the wrong forum (in which case, mods please feel free to move it), but I think the following problem is probably best suited to this forum.

A friend has passed me his laptop (an ASUS K52F, running Windows 10) to sort out, as it was running slow (the usual problems, malware, unwanted programs etc). I couldn't use any boot keys to get into the factory restore, so I used Windows itself (via holding down SHIFT when clicking on RESET on the Windows shutdown menu) to get me to the factory reset menu, and the factory reset worked as it should, and now the laptop is running great.

But the thing is, I want to know how to ACCESS the BIOS and the boot menu (so I can make the laptop boot from a USB stick, DVD-drive, etc). I don't need to know, as the laptop is working now, but I'm curious and I'll probably need to know it for sometime in the future. You can't always rely on Windows running when you need to accessFactory reset, so working boot keys are a must.

But the problem is, no matter what keys I press when I turn on the laptop, I can't get into the BIOS or the Boot Device Menu. According to:

https://kb.wisc.edu/page.php?id=58779

the boot keys for the laptop (ASUS  K52F) are F8 for the boot menu (seems strange, but I've found other sites via Google that confirm the laptop uses the same key as Windows boot) and DEL for the BIOS, but whether I hold down one of these keys, or keep TAPPING on it when the laptop starts up, then it's as though no key is held down, and Windows 10 boots up. So of course I can't boot from a USB stick or DVD drive. I've tried the other usual suspect too (Esc, F9, F9 + FN, F11, F2 F1, etc) with the same result; Windows just acts like no key has been pressed/held down, and boots up to the Windows desktop.

Is it possible that somehow some settings in Windows 10 can cause the boot keys to not work? I wouldn't have though so, as I'd think the BIOS related code (which runs before Windows even starts, surely?) is never altered by Windows. Or is there something else I'm missing?

Thanks for any answers.Windows would not effect anything at boot because it hasn't loaded yet.

See if this helps: https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1008829/ Quote from: Allan on February 24, 2017, 07:26:08 AM

Windows would not effect anything at boot because it hasn't loaded yet.

See if this helps: https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1008829/

Check in Power Options whether Fast Boot is enabled.

2G and 3G to be phased out by 2020.
Mobile operators could close legacy networks in five years.
Mobile broadband customers will no longer be able to use 2G and 3G platforms by 2020, as 4G and 5G become the industry standard, analysts have predicted.Apr 30, 2015

Hello EVERYONE!

I have a problem with my 6 years old computer. Everything worked fine until 4 months ago, when I had to replace PSU. I replaced it with old one that I have at home. Everything was fine until yesterday. Yesterday computer reboot by itself and now is stuck in bootloop. I can't enter BIOS SETUP, it shows only motherboard screen and then after 5 seconds reboot. Only I can do is to pres TAB (to show POST screen) and then I get only black screen without any NUMBERS or letters. Beep code is ok, I have tried clearing CMOS, changed graphic card, unplugged all USB devices, tried PS2 keyboard, running with one RAM stick (usually i have 2x4GB). Do you have any other sugestions, what can be wrong?
I have gigabyte GA-p55-UD4 motherboard, intel i5 750 PROCESSOR, 2x4gb kingston ram, amd radeon 5770 graphic card, 250gb samsung ssd, 550w LC Power PSU.

Thank you in advance!Possibly old PSU was not compatible.
Good catch Salmon...
Also according to the 1st 3 reviews i read LC PSU's are to be avoided...just sayin.

tomazi BORROW a known good make PSU and swap it in there...you'll know overnite.
Low quality PSUs can have misleading wattage ratings, and voltages can sag at boot time, and components can deteriorate, especially if the PSU is operating near its limit. Maybe in the last 4 months the PSU has declined and is now terminal.
Seeing he stated it was a used unit it was likely already terminal...

Quote

I replaced it with old one that I have at home.

Reference:
When you FIND an old motherboard  you might WONDER if the video should be PCI, PCIe or AGP. I can't trust my memory. Do you?
You can just Google 'images of agp or pci'
And find gems like this:


[attachment deleted by admin to conserve SPACE]What, you mean you can search for images on Google? I never would have guessed.Really ? ?...thanx for the update Geek...Try images for Abe Lincoln.  When I was a boy in 1885, I never would have imagined the changes in everybody's lives that Mr Edison's Computergraph would bring. To hear and see President Hoover's latest speech in the comfort of your own home! To call up images from the National Geographic any time you want! And bathing ladies...



She's quite the LOOKER...She is, isn't she? I promise I didn't buy my Computergraph just to get pictures of bathing ladies, honest.

It is more than  just finding good hardware. You must have a good motive to do it yourself.

Many, many years ago, before personal computer became a household word, I built one of the earliest personal computers from a kit that came from a company in New Mexico.

The reasons I had been were valid reasons. But things have changed. That was a long time ago and technology has moved ahead at an incredible pace and now the options available for personal computer owners are much, much greater than they were back in those early days.

At this time I am not telling people that they should go out and buy their own parts and put it together. But that's me. For a more complete coverage of this subject there are some very good sites you can go to. Here is one that I think is the very BEST coverage of the pros and cons of building your own PC right now at this time.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/still-cheaper-build-pc/
The article explains there is more than saving money. Your own PC is a way of improving g your own  skills. Or proving you are a total idiot. 

Only ones I ever built were from mixing parts from dead computers back in the day when computers were thousands of dollars in the 1980s and early 1990s taking say 6 dead computers with different problems and figuring out what their problems were and putting together a pile of good parts. It wasnt until 2000 when i actually bought all new parts and built a new one. This was because I needed something better and I couldnt get my college professor to agree to my project or a computer build being a frankenstein, he required of me to research and buy parts and write up why each part was bought and describe my build. That computer cost me $500 to build and wasnt top of the line but was better than what I had at the time so I built a Celeron 733Mhz with Windows Me on a 20GB HDD with 128MB RAM. Saved money buying a computer case with power supply. First power up the computer locked up on me. I shut it off. I turned it back on and POP and a white cloud of smoke filled the room that smelled like rotten fish. The no name power supply that came with the case blew a capacitor. Contacted the company and got a replacement power supply and this replacement didnt have any problems. Wife really loved the room smelling like rotten fish from electrolyte for a week. Since then I didnt start building computers until around 2008 when the off the shelf Compaq S6030NX blew its motherboard and I needed a better than Pentium 4 and needed to buy a motherboard for it. At which point prices dropped on lower end builds and I went building all my desktops from then on and only buy laptops offthe shelf these days.I've put together 4 computers from components.

Some unmentioned advantages:

Cosmetics are teased apart from performance.

The main thing you'll be "looking at" will be the case. The choices for cases are innumerable and you can put whatever you like inside them (as long as it's the right form factor, of course). If you like flashy LED stuff and see-through sides you can get a case with a window and LED LIGHTING and other weird stuff. If you (like me) prefer something more simple, you can find many more standard and straightforward cases that don't try to be anything SPECIAL but have excellent build quality. My point is, when building you don't have to consider appearance at the same time you consider performance- eg there is no "I like how this one looks, but this one is faster" consideration. The two are separate and you can choose how to balance them as part of your budget. You do not get that choice with a pre-built and honestly a lot of pre-built manufacturers use kind of ugly designs (which isn't to suggest that all bare cases are beautiful, either)

Another advantage to building it oneself is that you will be familiar with the insides.  Upgrades tend to be easier in general, and most motherboards you can buy bare are more feature complete than prebuilt systems. Often with pre-built motherboards entire features are removed, stubbed out, or otherwise UNAVAILABLE, and sometimes they will use non-standard connections, and this can leak out to add-on cards that otherwise come with the system. Quote

Another advantage to building it oneself is that you will be familiar with the insides.  Upgrades tend to be easier in general, and most motherboards you can buy bare are more feature complete than prebuilt systems. Often with pre-built motherboards entire features are removed, stubbed out, or otherwise unavailable, and sometimes they will use non-standard connections, and this can leak out to add-on cards that otherwise come with the system.

Hi everybody!

I wanted to ask for your advice on a keyboard-related matter. It's my wife's birthday, and she's a writer. She literally hates her keyboard, and she finds my Acer Aspire One keyboard really comfortable for writing. It's a keyboard with the keys kind of "lifted" or separated from the base, as you can SEE here: https://i0.wp.com/www.mobilegeeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/acer-aspire-one-keyboard-view.jpg?fit=550%2C413

The thing is that I want to give her a similar wireless keyboard as a birthday present, with the keys separated from the base, but I am not being able to find any keyboard of this type, mostly because I don't know how these types of keyboards are called. I tried everything on Amazon, but I am not finding it. Is there any chance that you know how are they called? Maybe I could find it with the right keywords...

I'll deeply appreciate your help on this!

Thank you,

FedericoMore pictures please;
Google images of PC keyboards
.. and find this:
PC keyboard images from Google
If you want colour:

Or odd shape:

Or legacy:

Look on the link above and find one that lookalike what you want. 
I think the style you are looking for is nowdays referred to as a "chiclet" keyboard.

Here's a fairly basic model from Amazon.com which I think fits your description.He can take a normal keyboard and make it wireless...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey828QXPTTs
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey828QXPTTsIf you don't mind it not being a surprise, the best option would probably be to take her to a store that has a lot of keyboards out on display and let her try them and pick the one she likes the most.  Unless you are spending a lot on a well reviewed model, it's very hard to pick a keyboard based on pictures alone - I've SEEN plenty that look amazing yet are borderline unusable then you get the really GOOD high end ones that look really boring. QUOTE from: Geek-9pm on February 25, 2017, 11:03:31 PM

He can take a normal keyboard and make it wireless...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey828QXPTTs
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey828QXPTTs

I'm thinking of upgrading my Build with the price range of around $150 and I'd really like some suggestions.    My build is: 4GB g-skill Ram, 
AMD FX-6600 Black, RM-1000 PSU,
 EVGA GTX 750 TI,
1tb WD blue hard drive,
asrock extreme 970,
all in a Corsair 750d case.
 (I already plan to get more RAM BTW)$150.00 isn't gonna get you much at all...Could upgrade the GPU to a 1050ti

amazon has a few under $150   some have $10-20 rebates tooWhat are you using the machine for, is there anything you do that it CURRENTLY struggles with?

Personally I'd look into adding an SSD as it would provide a fairly decent jump in speed for GENERAL day to day use.

Someday it could happen to you. So, what play do yu have to REVUE your device from water damage? Assume tap water, which is not pure, but contains only a small amount of corrosive agents.

I did not include WD-40.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WD-40
Note that the EU mix of WD-40 is not the same.

Carbon tetrachloride is very toxic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_tetrachloride


You Americans must eat a lot of burned food if you think 1100 C is 212 F, or, conversely, your steel MILLS must have a very low output.

Quote

Carbon tetrachloride is very toxic

the boiling pint of water.

Hello everyone. I have this old computer that I have not used for maybe about a year and a half. I decided to try and fix it since I could put it to use or give it to someone. The specs of the hp slimline can be found on this link here http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03791266. My problem is that no display shows at all, but the computer turns on. Currently it's Windows 10, but it was windows 8 before the upgrade. Patio said that if I can perform a factory reset, it will work again because it won't have windows 10 anymore. I looked up methods and tried one where I press f11 and move to the reset option. The computer only has dvi connection and thats how I connected it to the monitor. I know the monitor works since I tested it on another computer. Any ideas?Can you see the BIOS splash screen?
Can you get into the BIOS setup?
You said windows  was working on it?  When?
Nothing shows up on the screen, so I'm not sure if Bios can actually pop up. I'm not entirely sure when the last time it worked, but it was about a year ago.hat about keyboard lights?
If you can turn on or off the caps lock light, then something is working. The CPU has to be running to do that.

What about fans?
Can you hear the HDD whine?
Smoke?Keyboard: The lights turn on for a second and then nothing works, cap locks light does not work

FAN: I do hear fans

HDD: i dont hear anything besides the fan

I do not see smokeOK. With no caps lock, the CPU is not running like it should.
Some possibilities:
 ▐ CPU jumped out of socket. Earthquake?
 ▐ Graphics card dislodged. Ignore this if it has only integrated graphics.
 ▐ Memory stick dislodged. Or gone bad.
 ▐ Power supply shut down.
 ▐ HDD has frozen and forced system to stall.

You can disconnect HDD and also CD-ROM drives. This will reduce load and power supply and should force the BIOS to display some kind of message.

Also try one stick of RAM. The the other.


If nothing shows up on the screen:

1) CHECK all connections to the display

2) try a different display

I'll have to test everything out when I get home, but THANK you for all the replies. I will let you guys know when I have tested out everyone's tips.If it's been sitting that long you may wanna also replace the CMOS battery...Part # CR2032...
Also remove and re-seat the RAM stiks...ALRIGHT, I'll be sure to check the Cmos battery as well.I reseated the ram sticks and tried a different display, but it didnt work.

things that i havent done yet: cmos battery suggestion and removal of HDD and CD ROMs.

The cables are really tight and I have remove a lot of things to get to hard drive, but I will do it. I will keep you guys updatedI tried out another PSU and replaced the cmos battery which seems to have solved the problem. I will try to factory reset it now and revert it back to its original windows. Thanks for all the support!

System Specs:
Dual boot system (win 10 home x64/win 10 pro x64) on 128 G SSD
Motherboard: Gigabyte 970A-DS3P
CPU: AMD FX-8350
Ram: 32G
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 internal graphics card
1x SSD data drive 1TB
2x sata data drive 1TB/4TB

I'm having trouble some issues on my PC which (I think?) are related to FAULTY hardware/or firmware- most likely the motherboard and I was hoping for some help with checking if this diagnosis is correct.

I've been having some long term problems – PC accasionally (every month or so) stops booting to windows. I tried diagnosing this when it first started but decided it happened infrequently enough to just use clonezilla system images to restore each time. The front two USB3 ports from the motherboard also often stop working after a restart, only being useable again after a shutdown, but again after some reseach just lived with it as I couldn't find a fix online.

More recently I've had problems with the computer freezing for about 20seconds (mouse still moveable) -usually, but not exclusively around start up which was accompanied by error I.D. codes in event viewer and in the notes described as relating to faulty hardware. The last time my computer failed to boot I restored to a recent system image and when I booted to my main OS successfully was informed that 'the recycle bin on drive G: (one of my 3 data drives) is corrupted would you like to empty the recycle bin'
I tried opening two doc. files on the drive in question. One opened but the writing was corrupted and the other had access denied. This was also accompanied by the 'the recycle bin on drive G: is corrupted would you like to empty the recycle bin' message again.
I closed the computer (it was very late) and when I next booted to windows I noticed there were 3 folders inside the G: drive recycle bin each from a different date which contained the same files.
I DELETED the two oldest files manually and the message, 'the recycle bin on drive G: is corrupted would you like to empty the recycle bin' ceased. I checked for viruses with Bit defender/Malwarebytes (no threats detected), the disc appeared fine in my computer/speccy/device manager. I did a restart and BIOS informed me it was repairing disks C:, F: (Both OS partitions) and G: Back in windows all the data on the G; drive appeared fine apart from the two files I had opened.
I gave myself back privalidges to open the the access denied file and copied the corrupted file back from a backup. Things seemed fine. At next boot bios informed me it was repairing G: again and once booted the G: drive in My Computer had data capacity/usage info missing and clicking on the drive I got an 'access denied' message. I gave myself back access rights thought right click/properties/security etc... and succeeded in getting access to the drive however each folder/file needed me to repeat the same process for them as well to get access. Thinking it might be a corrupt system image I went back to an earlier image and whenever I tried to open files/folders on the drive they would dissapear and I'd be left with a message that said the folder/files doesn't exist. 99% of my data is backed up and so I decided to try deleting the partition to recreate one and copy my data back. I did this but then also noticed that a second data drive (SSD 1TB) which has about 600G of data was also showing problems. In My Computer it still showed as having 600G amount of data used but when I clicked on the drive no files showed. Changing settings for show/hide hidden folders didn't make any difference. I checked the drive through paragon recovery media builder to if it was just the OS that couldn't see the files/folders. In the file tranfer wizard no files showed up on the drive. However in the undelete partition section of the program the drive showed up as a partition with the correct amount of data. Back in windows I tried to run an error check/chkdsk on the drive, it found errors and repaired them – if helpful I can post the full report tomorrow- but afterwards like the other drive the whole drive became access denied.

Because lots of my earlier -ongoing- problems seemed to be hardware related the fact that the problems seem to be related to more than one disk drive and remained constant over different system images it seems likely to me that it might be a PROBLEM with the motherboard. I'm still considering a fresh install of windows, flashing the bios or buying a new motherboard. But I don't want to buy a new motherboard if that isn't the problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Sam

So, this year, one of my laptops is going to be 10 years old. It never had anything replaced inside it, so I thought the best decision I can make, considering the fact that I'm still using it ocasionally, was to upgrade its Core 2 Duo T5300, Hitachi slow HDD and 1 GB of RAM to a Core 2 Duo T7600, a 120 GB SSD and 2.5 GB of RAM. Now, the question is, does the T7600 have integrated graphics? I know it's a really stupid question, but I can't seem to find any information on the Internet about it having some GMA. And the reason why I want to upgrade that T5300 is because I want to play some older NFS titles, like MW, U2 and HP 2 in acceptable FPS, even 25 will do, but the way they run on a T5300 because of the GMA version is awfull, 15 FPS in lowest settings for MW and U2 and 35-50 for HP2 at Medium settings. So, what kind of GMA does the T7600 have?Some links found:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_2
Quote

The successors to the Core 2 brand are a set of Nehalem microarchitecture based processors called Core i3, i5, and i7. Core i7 was officially launched on 17 November 2008 as a family of three quad-core processor desktop models, further models started appearing throughout 2009. The last Core 2 processor to be released was the Core 2 Quad Q9500 in January 2010. The Core 2 processor line was removed from the official price lists in July 2011.[8][9]

Before the introduction of Intel HD Graphics, Intel integrated graphics were built into the motherboard's northbridge, as part of the Intel's Hub Architecture. This included Intel Extreme Graphics and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator. As part of the Platform Controller Hub (PCH) design, the northbridge was eliminated and graphics processing was moved to the same die with the central processing unit (CPU).

To be honest, I'd be careful over how much you are spending on such an old machine, you could probably get better performance by replacing the machine with something used for not much more money than you would be spending on upgrading the Core 2 Duo machine.

...120 GB SSD and 2.5 GB of RAM. ...

Do these two & a faster wifi card & be happy.
I upgraded 2 Dell 1525's & am satisfied with the performance.
You can get the cpu, wifi card & RAM for next to nothing on eBay.

Hello there.
 
First off, it is great to be on this forum and hopefully I will get the answers to my problems. Also just to let you know, I am not so computer technical so please bare with me and my lack of terminology.

I have a couple of old hard drives from my old PCs that have all stopped working in different ways and I want to get some of the data like pictures, videos and documents off of them if possible. One of the drives lost the boot drive so it wouldn't boot into windows anymore. Another drive got dropped so that might just be completely dead and the third drive I'm not so sure if that is broken. The computer just stopped working one day.

Anyway. The hard drive are the same as the one in the picture below not to sure what size it maybe 2.5"...
I have brought a SATA to usb cable adapter/connector. I'm also not to sure so there will be a picture of that below also.
 
Any help would be greatly appreciated guys!!





Sorry about the size of the images i don't know how to make them smaller either....
 

Thank you!Has anybody any idea?The drive you show is an older style called "IDE" which is a 40 pin connector.
To convert it to USB, you may need both the adapter and a power supply. You can buy a kit with both items included. Having the external power supply means yu don't have to open up the computer to fish out a power connector.

The kit used to be in Walmart, but it is going out of demand. Still, you can ASK if they will get it for you. Or try Amazon. Or Newegg.

Search for:
USB 2.0 to External IDE SATA Converter Cable HDD Kit with AC Power Adapter
From Newegg:
External IDE SATA Converter Cable HDD Kit
Expect to pay under $25 plus shipping.

It is hard to say if you will be able to recover data.   

[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]I have this same IDE / USB kit and the cool thing is that laptop IDE HDD's are powered off the the USB port of the computer that you connect them to. The external power supply they give you is only needed for desktop IDE hard drives. The one I bought handles both IDE and SATA drives to connect via USB.

Sadly this only works for Hard Drives. I tried making an External DVD Rom using it to connect over USB and it doesnt support making an external DVD Rom when connecting to DVD Rom for a desktop and connecting to USB and powering it with external power supply. The DVD Rom would light up as its powered and spin up a disc that is inserted into the TRAY, but the computer did not see this drive and so the IDE to USB chip in this can only handle Hard Drives on the one I have.DaveLembke,
At  one time I did get a DVD drive to work with the USB / IDE kit.
I Think your  issue is the power supply. The little PSU they include just can not RUN a DVD drive at full speed. Quote

DaveLembke,
At  one time I did get a DVD drive to work with the USB / IDE kit.
I Think your  issue is the power supply. The little PSU they include just can not run a DVD drive at full speed.

The drive you show is an older style called "IDE" which is a 40 pin connector.
To convert it to USB, you may need both the adapter and a power supply. You can buy a kit with both items included. Having the external power supply means yu don't have to open up the computer to fish out a power connector.

The kit used to be in Walmart, but it is going out of demand. Still, you can ask if they will get it for you. Or try Amazon. Or Newegg.

Search for:
USB 2.0 to External IDE SATA Converter Cable HDD Kit with AC Power Adapter
From Newegg:
External IDE SATA Converter Cable HDD Kit
Expect to pay under $25 plus shipping.

It is hard to say if you will be able to recover data.   

Hi; Upon overclocking only 2-3 hundred Mhz, my CPU overheats up to 65C at least.  I purchased this after market cooler: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4974358&pagenumber=1&RSort=1&csid=ITD&recordsPerPage=5&body=REVIEWS#CustomerReviewsBlock.  What gives?What CPU?

I can't find any information on the TDP of that heatsink but it doesn't look like it would do much better than a stock cooler.AMD FX-6300 3.5 Ghz CPU.  The cooler was $25.  I have a mini-ATX mobo.  Do the heavier duty coolers fit a mini-ATX mobo/tower?I had a fan that was sucking the wrong direction.Hi; I have a micro-ATX mobo and my CPU is an AMD FX-6300 3.5Ghz processor.   I'm looking to buy a cooler for this build in which I can achieve a substantial overclock.  Is it feasible?  I just want a fan/heatsink cooler.  I'm not looking to GO water-cooled.  My CPU is a 95W.  My PSU is 650W.   Upon attempting to overclock, Prime95 quickly raises the CPU temperature up past 65C on a mere raise of 200Mhz.  Can you suggest a good cooler?  I'm prepared to spend at least $60-85.What CPU? You said AMD FX-6300 3.5Ghz.
Most modern CPU designs allow the chip to get close to 90 C and not crash.
THEE is no simple way to extrapolate  a relation with clock, power and temperature. Other that to just says temp goes  up when the other FACTORS go up.

In other r words, a 20% up clock does not mean a 20% temp up.

The CPU may stop before you get to its temp limit. Thee is another reason for the clock speed limit other than  temp.
Here is a link that may be relevant:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/198882/overclocking_for_newbies.html
But that was written some time ago.

so i KNOW what im going with and i would like to ask wich power supply in wat should i use ? since my friends say 750 wat

MSI B150 PC MATE - Motherboard - ATX - LGA1151 Socket - B150 - USB 3.1 Gen1 - Gigabit LAN

Corsair Hydro Series H100i Extreme Performance CPU Cooler,120mm x120mm x25mm fan (CW-9060025-WW)

Gigabyte GeForce® GTX 1060 G1 Gaming 3G, Aktiv, NVIDIA, GeForce GTX 1060, GDDR5, PCI Express x16 3.0, 7680 x 4320 pixel

TOSHIBA X300 - High-Performance Hard Drive 5TB Bulk (HDWE150UZSVA)

Intel Core i7 6700 PC1151 8MB Cache 3,4GHz retail (BX80662I76700)

Corsair Vengeance DDR4 16GB kit 2133MHz CL13 (CMK16GX4M2A2133C13)

Corsair SP120 PWM High Static Pressure 120 mm 4 pin dual pack
Corsair AF140 High Airflow Fan 140mm 3 pin low noise single pack
CORSAIR Case Fan AF120 Low noise 21 dBA high airflow fan 120 mm x 25 mm 3 pin SinglePack Incl.3 colored rings 1100 RPM 750w would work but is pretty overkill.  A good quality 550w to 650w unit would be more than sufficient.  Stick to good brands and models like Corsair, XFX, Seasonic, EVGA.etc - Look at http://www.jonnyguru.com/ for reviews as they do proper tests of them.  You're almost always better off going for a higher quality, lower wattage unit rather than an cheap, high wattage one.

I'd also strongly recommend adding in an SSD, you're building a pretty high end machine so it seems silly to not add one in given how cheap they are nowadays, maybe drop to a slightly smaller hard drive if you don't really need 5tb of storage.

Also, given you aren't using an overclockable CPU/board I can't really see the reason to get an expensive liquid cooler when a basic air one would work fine. The money you save on this would go a long way towards an SSD which would give you a much more noticeable performance increase than a cooler would.

I'd also consider if you really need those 4 case fans - Your case will almost certainly include fans so you'll either end up replacing them or just packing your case with fans you don't really need (which would make it loud and pull more dust through the system).  With those parts, all you really need is one decent intake and one decent EXHAUST fan.MSI really suxx at this ...but i didn't see your RAM on the QVL list...you may wanna do some more research.
Many people pooh pooh QVL lists ...which is fine...but DDR4 is way less forgiving than others.

Hey so this is my first time trying to upgrade a computer so PLEASE bear with me if I don't have all the right information.
So I have a Inspiron 22-3265 it CAME with 4 gigs of installled RAM but it RUNS very poorly. I was going to get a guide on how to install ram but I read a few things that said this model is kind of hard to upgrade or obtuse about it. I think I read that it does something weird with its graphics card. Does anyone here know what is weird about this model and how to work AROUND it?
What are you running that runs poorly?

Looking online at the system specs for this system its not that powerful for gaming and adding extra RAM I dont think is going to help you much unless your performance issue is that you need to open more windows to multitask documents and are running out of memory that way.

Does your model have the integrated video or add-on video card for better performance?

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/19/help-me-choose/hmc-video-card-dt-consumerIm running maya and photoshop.  Though I do run games the slowdown that I find pretty bad is mainly while using google chrome. My laptop changes pages quite fast while changing pages with this computer can take up to 4 or more seconds. Its not a big deal but the slow down on actions is enough to really annoy me. I believe the video card is integratedState the FULL specs of your pc.  Everything from OS to processor ghz and gpu info ...click start , run >> type dxdiag > press enter and click yes... a window will open..at the bottom of the window it says "save all information"  ...click that and extract the file somewhere.  You can open the file and copy everything and paste it on this forum or you can attach the text fileYou gave us the make and model - you don't need to post any additional specs.

Hello, I just bought a gtx 1070..I'm not sure if i'm paranoid, but there are 2 SMALL scratches on one of the copper slots...ill post a picture... i'm not sure if those are scratches or not, but there are 2 small lines..you can't see it in the picture..but i have 2 arrows pointed to the copper pieces that are scratched.. I'm not sure if i should be concerned about this

http://imgur.com/a/xN6Wt

I'm not sure what those copper slots do, because my gpu is already inserted into my pci slot...those copper slots are for something else...Nothing to worry about.  Those connectors are for SLI which you would use if you were connecting multiple GPUs together.  Minor marks on connectors on components are nothing to worry about, the ones there will have just occurred in manufacturing.  Look at the connectors on a GPU or some sticks of RAM after you've put them in a slot and taken them out a few times, they will have much more noticeable marks on them (which do nothing to impact functionality)Ah ok, and one more thing.  I used compressed can air to blast the *censored* out of my gpu fan.  Someone was telling me i damaged the bearing and probably dislocated the fan. is that true or are they trolling me?I wouldn't worry as long as the fan is still running FINE.  I'd still wonder what the point of cleaning the fan on a brand new card was though!  It's best to stop the fan from SPINNING if you clean it but people tend to way overreact over things like that.  I find that often it's the inexperienced people that go mental about how you must do x or you must never do y.  It's really pretty hard to muck up building a PC!Thank you.  I agree. I deleted most of your last post. No need to bash another site - and please watch your LANGUAGE. Thank you.

Can someone recommend a high quality SOUND card for
1.  Computer gaming & music
2.  Computer media center
Thx
You have a Dell Optiplex 360? Is the sound bad? Did it fail?
Most sound CARDS give good sound, but the major weaknesses is the external speaker system. Many are really mediocre.
Almost any PCI sound card should work. Expect to pay around $70 for a nice card.


The image above is from the Newegg web site.
It is a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy FX 5.1 PCIe Sound Card with 600 ohm Headphone Amp.  Still, you have to have an our board l amplifier to DRIVE speakers.
Use the on-board audio. I'm skeptical of the idea that a separate Audio card is an upgrade from motherboard audio with any semi-recent system, and I speak as somebody who has replaced their motherboard audio in THREE systems with an audio card. Just as a minor correction to geek's statement: All Audio cards (including on-board) will have appropriate on-board amplifiers for speaker setups; I've never heard of one that doesn't except for some very early ISA-based cards.

In reviews, and in recommendations, people will be quick to state that their audio sounds a lot better. Of course they do. They just spent money and don't want to think themselves a fool.

And I don't speak from some high horse here either, looking down on the fools who would purchase them, since as mentioned I have a sound card in all my desktop systems. I just don't know if the slight improvement I think I hear on my desktop is because of the sound card or because of the money spent on them- and they spread the range of offerings- a Sound Blaster ZXR, or the Sound Blaster X-Fi and or the ASUS Xonar DG.

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to call it snake oil, but nowadays it might be getting very close to the line.
Maybe there is a  miss understanding. AC ' 97 does not specify output to a loudspeaker. Motherboards never drive loudspeakers directly.

Quote

The problem is simply this: the outputs of these sound card simply
do not have the current capability of driving speakers. At most,
they can supply but a few milliamps before running into current
limiting, and that's just not enough to driver a pair of speakers.

The image above is from the Newegg web site.
It is a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy FX 5.1 PCIe Sound Card with 600 ohm Headphone Amp.  Still, you have to have an our board l amplifier to drive speakers.

Newegg has a good reputation.
They will not sell something that brings trouble.

Yep, that is the same card I got for my XP system. It works well. However, one thing worth noting is it has a connector for the front-panel, but it is a non-standard one, so it only works with the rather hard-to-find 5-1/4" installable front panel that has a bunch of connections and knobs and stuff- and you can't use it with a normal front-panel audio header.

A store having a good reputation and selliing poor quality cheap stuff aren't mutually exclusive. They sell selfie sticks.

I changed the vibra 16 by an Ensoniq sound card and this is the best card ever ! the sound with the vibra 16
was really "rotten" 
with the ensoniq card it's like having a live orchestra 

Good Afternoon EVERYONE !
At least it's afternoon here.

I'd like some help with solving a problem with my CD drive:

The CD drive, an ASUS 4824AH read/write, internal to my PC does not seem to recognize media.
In Disk Management it recognizes the device, but the right panel opposite is blank (white) and the left hand panel says 'no media'.
R-clicking the entry in My Computer and selecting 'Properties' tells be the disk has no label, 0 bytes used, 0 bytes free, 0 bytes total capacity and does not give an FS entry.
The CD is blank, unformatted, new out of the box.  I wish to make a bootable disk out of it.

Two days ago it burned and recognized the burned files a CD from the same brand new 'cake', so I conclude it's the machine. Shortly after the burning success I burned some other files to a different CD, but they CD was blank in the drive.  I put the disk in my W7 laptop and all seemed good .

What's the fix  ?

Dumb_Question
13.March.2017

Compaq Presario S5160UK, MS-6577v2.1 m/b, SL77U CPU,  2 x 1GB RAM, OCZ 550W PSU, Ge7800GS video card, Windows XP Home SP3So it burned proper and the CD was read in another PC...but your PC won't read it ...correct ?

Borrow a different brand media from a friend...certain burners are finicky about the discs.
If that produces no joy-joy See Here...

Make sure to backup the registry prior to editing it...Thanks for your attention, Patio.

I burned two CDs from different manufacturers. One was DataWrite, the other I didn't know but it was similar on both sides, SHINY, etc., and I wasn't sure which side was the playing side - might have been both/either.  Both CDs seemed to burn ok (when I used the correct side of the double-sided one).  I checked them both while in the drive after burning, I THINK.  They looked ok. 

For a reason that I can't remember I had cause to check the double sided one again, not only wasn't it not recognized (either side) but I'd forgotten which side was the playing side    ! I inserted it a number of times into the drive with it not recognized on any of those occasions.  I can't remember whether I checked the other one (DataWrite) again or not: I was confident that the correct that had the correct files on it, as I definitely remember checking that after burning it.

So, I took the double-sided one to my W7 Pro laptop, and that read the CD without difficulty, CONFIRMING that the files were present and the right size.  I was satisfied with that and labeled the CD so that I wouldn't be confused again

I thought nothing more of it, until the next day, when I needed to make another CD.  I took a new, blank DataWrite one, and put in the drive of my XP computer.  I tried a number of times, but it wasn't recognized.  I took another, and at the second attempt it was recognized and I carried on and made the CD, a bootable one, which seemed to be fine.  I haven't tried booting from it yet though, but if that doesn't work I may have done something wrong in the creation process.  I used ImgBurn.  The CD is still in the drive, but the next step will involve making another one !  I'm not going to try booting from it yet.

(I apologise if this account doesn't tie up with what I said earlier, but is no more likely to inaccurate than what I had previously.  I have probably done a few more things since then as well)

So, I think you cannot help me further on this issue, and I think maybe the CD read/writer is going out, or I'm just putting the CDs in wrong most of the time    

Dumb_Question
13.March.2013
That model burner is OLD. People were asking forums for drivers in 2004! Asus show a firmware version 1.00 dated 5 January 2004 on their website. They don't last forever, the lasers die, and better drives (that also do DVD burning) cost not much.

Can someone help please? When I am typing whether it be in explorer or any other program my words are showing up backwards. Anyone know whats causing this?1.  What operating system and service pack level are you using; e.g.  Windows XP Home Edition SP2?

2.  Boot into Safe Mode, which loads a basic set of drivers, to see how it performs.  Safe Mode also disables much of the software scheduled to load at startup (so there's less exposure to virus/malware activity).

As you power up your system, tap the F8 key about once per second or faster.  Hopefully you'll see a startup menu with an option to boot into Safe Mode.  Use the up/down arrows of the key to select an item.  Select Safe Mode item and hit Enter key.

3.  Try a different keyboard.

4.  RUN a malware scan.I have windows vista  on there. And tried a different keyboard but doin the same thing.Apparently your computer is dyslexic. 1.  Safe Mode.  Boot into Safe Mode to see whether the problem follows you there.

2.  Malware Scan.  Download, install, and run (with updated malware databases) the following "free for personal use" anti-malware programs:
    SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition
    Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.5.2wow! I want some of what your smoking!! 


Go to the control panel and check your regional and language options are set right.


ive heard of this.

Its is malware or related, it places a command b4 you type "&&" somthing like that with the '&' sign. you can do it on forums.

does any1 know wat that command is?I assume you mean it is typing like this:

?siht ekil gnipyt si ti naem uoy emussa I
This has happened to me TWICE now. Both times I was on-line, agreed to take some stupid IQ test. To get the results I had to type in my phone number and agree to pay $9.99 (or something close to that) a month. And then they would text it to me.

I of course felt like an id10t both times and didn't put in my phone number. I'm not paying for any IQ test, especially a monthly fee and a test that was only 10 insanely easy answers.

The true IQ test was... are you stupid enough to pay them $10 month, for who knows how long (until you catch it) just to find out if your smart? If you said yes, the answer is... no, you are not smart.

Anyway, now that this feels and sounds off topic, I'll show you how it applies. So, how did I fix this issue, you ask? I just rebooted my computer and it once again will type the way GEEKS initially intended. Until then, I found that notepad is the only way to type forward. But it's best to REBOOT. It was for me, that is.

Of course, there could be a virus or some other form of malware out there that you picked up. One that won't go away with a reboot. I have a fairly secure computer, so a reboot fixes it for me. If that doesn't fix yours, you may need professional help to get rid of your new little critter. And stay away from that last website you were at. What ever it was, probably gave it to you. Some websites are just an infestation waiting to happen. And they come in all kinds of pretty shapes and sizes. Just to tempt you to come in. They may look healthy, but looks can deceive you! Just say no!

I hope you found a solution by now, either way. Thank you for your contribution, MsCtrl, but this topic is exactly a year old. Wow, you are so polite and blunt. I just found this topic. AND, I realize it was old. Hence my final line.

But this problem might continue to occur to other people out there that has never experienced it before. Just a thought. I could be wrong and no one will ever type backwards again. And no one may ever see this thread again. It's so old and search engines probably don't even know how to find it.

Congrats on single handedly resolving this concern so long ago. I will bow out now, so you won't get all emotional about it again. Boy, you showed me, sparky.

Oh and by the way, not EXACTLY a year old. But who's counting?




!detsop IInteresting.....I just wanted to say that you revived a dead topic.....jeez.....Oh, well in that case. My apologies.

What exactly does it say on this Win7 DVD ? ?

I just built my pc yesterday and I'm encountering little problems here and there. I've got one that I can't figure out here. My hard drive has about 750 inaccessible GBs. It's a 3TB drive and my storage says 2 TB available. I'm not sure how to work around this, as I cannot select new simple volume. Here's a pic of my problem

http://imgur.com/a/xVkP1Rite clik it and select Allocate...then format it I think yu should leave it alone until yu know why or how it got that way.
What is the name and model of the HDD?

EDIT: This is a know behaviour of Windows 8.
https://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/50491-formatting-3tb-hdd-windows-8-1-pro-install.html

Also, Seagate has documented this issue elsewhere.
http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/218619en
Quote

Most LEGACY systems built before 2011 have a traditional PC BIOS. This type of BIOS uses a Master Boot Record (MBR). The MBR Partitions can define a disk drive capacity up to 2.2TB. Windows operating systems that boot from an MBR are therefore limited to 2.2TB per MBR. A 3TB disk drive in a legacy BIOS and Window system will need a DiscWizard device driver to access the full capacity of a 3TB disk drive. Two partitions will be necessary because of the MBR limitation. The device driver mounts the capacity above 2.2TB with another MBR which looks to the system as a second virtual “PHYSICAL” device.

GUID Partition Tables (GPT) can define drives larger than 2.2TB. You can use GPT today on any Windows 10/ 8.1/8/7 and Vista system as a non-booting data drive. Windows can only boot a GPT partition on a new type of BIOS called UEFI.

UEFI BIOS desktop systems are new since 2011. Windows 10/8/8.1/7 64-bit and Vista 64-bit operating systems support booting from UEFI and GPT WITHOUT the need of a non-Microsoft device driver. This is the Windows native SOLUTION for booting a 3TB drive to a single partition.
 

i'm looking for a micro atx motherboard with a 1151 cpu port (for a intel i7 6700k cpu) an it's ALSO got to have either PCI express PCI express 2.0 or PCI express 3.0(for an evga nvidia 1080 Ti founders addition graphics card)
 
the reason it's a micro ATX is because i'm planing to build in an HP omen x case, I've looked on there page, however i'm having trouble finding the right motherboard suggestions that fit all of the requirements above would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.  So you want to buy a HP Omen X machine then replace the board with your own?  That doesn't REALLY make much sense to me.  That said, the requirements for a board you have listed don't seem to be ANYTHING particularly hard to find, any 1151 socket board will have the appropriate PCI-E slots.  Are you having difficulties finding such a board?AHH, just realised that you can buy the case on its own from HP, interesting decision on their part!  The other point still stands, are you having problems finding such a board?  Basically any high end mATX board would do what you need.

That said, the case appears to be £550 from what I can see which is a ridiculous amount for a case like that, apart from being at an angle, it doesn't really look to be anything particularly special.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not the SORT of person that tells people to buy the cheapest case possible, I strongly believe that you should get a good case however I can't see what makes that worth remotely near the price they are asking.550 for a case ? ?...i'd reconsider...especially since you are limiting yourself to mATX form factor and components...

Hey I need some help with a Toshiba Satellite C75D-B7230 that I can't seem to get to power up. I thought it was the power switch but that doesn't seem to be the case as I just replaced it and the computer still won't power on. Any ideas what else could be wrong and is it worth fixing?Power Supply tested with a multimeter to make sure it works is a start. If the power supply is bad then the laptop wont work without it unless the battery has a charge.

How did you replace the power switch on a laptop?The computer receives power when I plug it in, the Battery charging indicator lights up and when I press the button, it turns off for a moment, as if it was gonna boot, then turns back on. Nothing follows. As for replacing the part, I opened the case and exposed the Mother board, removed the small chip that initiates the boot process, and replaced it with a brand new one bought from New Egg. Its a poor build quality but this makes it all that much easier to open up. My gaming laptop was much harder to open up and get to the mother board.

http://imgur.com/EF6jGud
a picture of the Toshiba with it's exposed mother board. The power switch part is by the fan in the top right corner under the metal bracket for the screen. Three screws and it comes right out. Quote

The computer receives power when I plug it in, the Battery charging indicator lights up and when I press the button, it turns off for a moment, as if it was gonna boot, then turns back on. Nothing follows.

which of lenovo SERIES can take sim CARD?As far as I'm aware, you will only get that functionality on their ThinkPad series.  You will ALSO have to configure the machine with the OPTIONAL WWAN card in order to be able to use the SIM card.

Was LOOKING at Piledriver info for the FX-8300 and FX-8350 CPUs that I have and noticed that it lists DDR3-1866 as SPEC for both FX-8000 series CPUs. Both of these systems are running on 8GB and 16GB of DDR3-1600. Is it worth it at all to upgrade to DDR3-1866 for that extra 266Mhz?

Looking online I didnt FIND any benchmark comparisons between the 1600Mhz and 1866Mhz RAM. My guess is that its probably not worth buying 1866Mhz RAM, but curious if I am BOTTLENECKING my 8-CORE systems with the 1600Mhz RAM now or if the CPUs are pretty much running at peak performance at 1600Mhz because of the older core design of the Piledriver architecture?

The 266Mhz difference comes out to 14.25% frequency difference between them, but not sure if that will exactly be 14.25% better performance or not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piledriver_(microarchitecture)

I had it for nearly 2 years,
Lenovo Y50-70 Touch -

2 days ago while playing games on it, I smell a chemical smell coming from it so I immediately shut it down just in case. The next time I turn it on, it was fine the backlit keyboard glow red as usual but no display, and now it shut down after 4 SECONDS (with the fan running) whenever I turn it on except, sometimes It stay on (but still no display and no fan running).

I got no experience into opening pc and such, I I tried opening it up and remove the dust that built us by quite a bit and tried to locate where the chemical smell was from, I though it was probably from the Fan or Coolers as it seems more strong there but not sure. After trying to turn the laptop on a few time the strong smell kind of dissipate a lot, and smell weaker.

I been having a hard time trying to pinpoint just which part of the laptop is needed to replace. So if anyone could help me in the right DIRECTION it would be great. I just hope it wont have to buy a whole new motherboard x.x

Also idk if thats helpful information, but the first year playing games was fine, but the 2nd year and the laptop kind of overheated so I tried to cut down a bit and the fans were making more noises than ever. Especially when opening a new game or google chrome. A chemical smell to me tells me it's likely a failing/burnt out capacitor...

It would be BEST to have it checked out at a shop...Candy,
Hello. It is very possible that the battery in your laptop computer is at the end of its life. It will consume power yet not be able to keep your laptop running. If that is the problem, the solution is just to buy a new battery.
Unfortunately, the industrious a whole is having difficulty adjusting to the use of lithium ion batteries. It seems that it's very difficult to get these batteries to last an indefinite period of time. These batteries also are very sensitive to heat, even more sensitive than other components of the computer.
It should be possible to remove the battery from your laptop and then plug it into the electric outlet and run it directly without the need for the battery in PLACE. I don't have your instruction manual in hand, but I think that is a STANDARD procedure for most laptop computers. In fact, leaving the battery in the laptop for long periods of time and running it off of AC power is not really good for the battery itself.
Anyway, removing the battery may be your best choice at this point. If your laptop will work without the battery in place, you might consider buying a new battery at some time in the future. Of course, without the battery any time you have a power outage whatever you're working on at the time gets lost. That is one of the reasons people like laptop computers is because if the power should accidentally go off the computer will keep running. Unfortunately, the lithium ion batteries are rather expensive to maintain. These type of batteries seldom, if ever, last as long as the laptop would.
That's the best I can do. Perhaps others here have some better ideas.
Patio,
I thought about that aswell but if the part end up something easy to replace I wouldn't want to waste nearly 100-150 bucks for the diagnostic alone and even more for the repair. Especially since my budget is low atm x.x

Geek,
I tried removing the battery before while letting the plug in, the laptop still give the same problem n shut down after 3-4 seconds.
I thought of removing the motherboard battery and switching it with a brand new one but it was nearly impossible to get it out as it was kind of stuck to the metal so I left it alone.OK, do like Patio said. Take it to a local shop.
Ask them to look for a bad capacitor.

Candy...Spotting burnt caps is actually fairly easy...however disassebling laptops is the opposite...which is the only reason i suggested a shop...
If you happen to know anyone good at that that's another option...or the local PC Users group and / or a PC class at a local high school/College...

Just thinkin of options.

Hello EXPERTS,

 I have a GIGABYTE P55A-UD3P rev 1.
 What RAM does this motherboard support?

http://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-P55A-UD3P-rev-10#sp
 The website says that it SUPPORTS DDR3 2200/1600/1333/1066/800 MHz, but I was told by several shops that 2200 and 1600 MHz is unstable with this motherboard.

 Can someone please advise?

 Thank you in advanced.Memory Support list is here:

http://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-P55A-UD3P-rev-10#support-doc

Most 1600Mhz DDR3 should be fine with this. If you WANT to GO with faster than 1600Mhz RAM, then i would stick to the list they provided. When it comes to RAM if you stick with a good quality name brand and go with 1600Mhz I feel you would be ok. The faster RAM than 1600Mhz I would definitely stick to the support list for.You might also visit http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Giga-Byte/ga-p55a-ud3p  They show numerous 1600 options for your motherboard.

Getting no signal on a new pc,
Amd fx6300
Gigabyte 78lmt-usb3
Crucial 8gb ct102464bd160b 1 stick
Geforce gt640
Evga 500w psu

I have tried another processor, and psu with still no signal also replaced the vga cable This motherboard supports integrated video. Remove video card and use the onboard VGA.  Make sure RAM stick is in slot 0. Make sure the 12V Molex is CONNECTED for CPU power as well as the main power supply connection to motherboard. Attach speaker to the speaker pins of the motherboard of one is not attached to head the beep codes. Maybe your not hearing the POST failure beep codes because nothing is connected to the speaker pins which are located near the front panel pins. Reset RAM as well as a try to get it to boot.Tried in integrated vga slot nothing
No slot 0 it's 1-4
Don't understand the 12v molex part
Speaker is attached Is it this?
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/409831/Gigabyte-Ga-78lmt-Usb3.htmlYeahhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B009FC3YJ8/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1Your RAM is not on the QVL list for that MBoard...incorrect RAM is one of the most common reasons for no signal on a new build when all other options have been tried...

See Here...My ram is on the list, I see it Missed it...my apologies...ANYTHING else or am I doomed? It's not Molex ...which may have confused you...it's a 4/6 pin connector right by the CPU...Pcie? The wire coming from the psu labelled Cpu is in the 12v half can fit in or the whole thing, none show signal Cpu fan is plugged in to Cpu fan labelled on the motherboard Quote from: Askall123 on March 20, 2017, 01:20:38 PM

Tried in integrated vga slot nothing

I dont know if it would be compatible?
My computer has:
Half height pcie x16
Half height pcie x16 (WIRED x4)
Half heigjt pcie x1
Helf height pci

The graphics card I'm getting needs a pcie 2.0 x8 and I dont know if it would WORK. I am terrible with computers and I am AWARE my computer is bad so any help would be appreciatedSalles.
Can you give the make and model of the motherboard?
And the card...and the case...and the PSU you have ...

I've been wanting to put together a LITTLE server rig for a little while now for a better experience on the games that I love. I have never gone to the trouble though as up until recently I thought that I would require the latest i7 or beefiest Xeon CPU, which of course made it prohibitively expensive. I've come to realise though that most, if not all; dedicated game servers are single threaded. So I should only need a CPU with high single thread performance correct?

To that end I've come up this imaginary rig:

Intel i3-7350K
Asus H110I-PLUS (Mini-ITX)
7600 RPM 1TB HDD
32GB DDR4 SDRAM
Random disc drive out of a draw
>250W PSU
Mini-ITX case

This all came in at a cost of ~£600. But is the RAM necessary? I've seen many reports saying that more than 8GBs of RAM on most computers is pointless. If I could get this going for even less then it would most certainly seem like a better upgrade path than a new Ryzen CPU +everything else needed #compatibility whoop!

In case you are curious game servers would consist of:
- 7 Days to Die
- Minecraft
- Space Engineers
- etc (basically multiplayer sandbox games for 2-4 people)Minecraft ?
Realty, I don't know.I don' t thunk it matters.
How much research have you already done?
What did you think of this?
What's the best laptop for a child ... who plays Minecraft?
2 to 4 people CONNECTED 32GB is likely overkill. 8GB should be plenty for 2 to 4 players. I havent hosted any of these specific game servers, but other games that are multiplayer that I served up were mainly memory and hard drive intensive vs CPU intensive. I have yet to see a game server that is CPU intensive as for the calculations and rendering is all mainly done at the client side, and the server just maintains the data juggling between all who are connected which you want to make sure you have a very good network connection to avoid latency.

My one friend hosted Minecraft server on a Pentium 4 computer and it all worked OK for 3 people playing connected all with broadband to his home server in Kentucky. This was years ago with the original minecraft server. I know its gone though a bunch of updates since and a Pentium 4 might not cut it with the latest PRIVATE server of it.

There should be spec info online for all of these on suggested specs for serving them up. I am unable to search for that info with internet connection i have right now with limited search ability. I am thinking the Core i3 should be plenty. The 32GB is likely overkill and 8GB is probably a better choice for memory.Overall, You don't need a new or recent system to run game servers. an older system is usually quite capable of a reasonable server experience. I've used my T3200 based Dual Core laptop for running a Minecraft server back when I worked on GriefPrevention for testing changes, and it worked well enough. I used my Q8200 based Quad Core system for running the actual build server for our entire company and it kept up admirably, and that was far more load than it would ever see as a Game Server.

if you want to do a separate build for it, you likely don't need the latest processors. The latest Xeons and i7's are pricey but you could go back a few GENERATIONS. If you go back far enough you can find Xeons and even Dual-Socket motherboards for cheap. (But don't go back too far because while they get cheaper you are suddenly in single-core territory, like with Socket 604)

For example, there are Haswell-based Xeon chips available for only about 20-30 dollars more than the i3 you've listed. UNlike the i3 though you might be able to find an affordable dual-socket motherboard for it as well, specifically for use as a server.

For RAM, if you are running all of those you would definitely want more. This goes particularly if the Minecraft server is "modded" in some way. I use -Xmx8G just for my Single Player Modded setup for example, just to be safe.

Otherwise, If you are only running one at a time and switching, then you could probably do fine with 16GB. But of course then t here is shutting down the old game, starting the new one, etc. and if the server is headless you need to do that through RDP and it's a pain.




People seem to be getting the wrong impression here, I only plan on running one server at a time. I have an old Athlon 64 6400+ (not sure what ram I've got, will have to dig through the spares box), or alternatively an old laptop; however I would say that it was considerably slower than the aged Athlon.

I ignored it as a possibility after seeing that the i3 had twice the performance score (probably more overall)


I plan on testing the old rig as a server, I'm just pondering what a modern miniature power saving server should be made of.

Ive already upgraded my ram to 4gb (its maxed), video card (2gb) and my power supply.  I still want to add a usb 3.0 internal hub in the front, and I was thinking of upgrading the processor to the fastest intel I can buy.  I know they are old but I figure I can find one on Ebay.  I've upgraded AMD's before but not intels, and I'm very confused about all the different processors.   The current chip is an Pentium E2200.   Any help would be great, thanks in advance!

Here is what I have:

I'm using windows 10 home 64bit.  My computer is an old HP.  a6600f.   
Socket type: 775
my motherboard is a:
Manufacturer: Foxconn
Form factor: microATX - 9.6 inches (24.4 cm) x 8.5 inches (21.5 cm)
Chipset: GeForce 7100/nForce 630i
Memory sockets: 2 x DDR2
Front side bus speeds: 800/1066/1333 MHz
Processor socket: 775
Expansion Slots:

    1 PCI Express x16 SLOT for graphics card
    2 PCI Express x1 slots
    1 PCI slot

 
supports the following processor upgrades

    Intel Core 2 Duo (Wolfsdale) E8xxx
    Core 2 Duo E6xxx (Conroe) up to E6850
    Pentium E2xxx series (Conroe) with Dual Core technology up to E2160
    Core 2 Duo E4xxx (Conroe)
    Celeron 4xx series (Conroe) up to Celeron 450

In case I missed something: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01527396
I found Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz Quadcores to be the best bang for the buck a while back when upgrading a bunch of dual core SYSTEMS to quadcores. Not all socket 775 boards support the Quadcores, but your chipset says that it should support quadcores. Here are some cheap offerings for the Q6600 and drastic performance gain from the E2200. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1311.R6.TR11.TRC2.A0.H0.Xq6600.TRS0&_nkw=q6600+processor&_sacat=0


*Upgrading Intel CPUs are generally much easier than AMDs because no pins to bend on the CPU and there are notches that match up to socket for PROPER installation. Juts have to be careful not to bend socket pins and not to have anything get into the socket pins, so I always clean the area of the old thermal compound and dust before removing the old cpu and EXPOSING the delicate spring loaded socket pins.I just got the Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz today it took about 20 seconds to install, and is working like a CHARM!  THanks for your help!   Q6600's...solid as a rock...Enjoy.

I came across a HP CD-RW/DVD drive model GCC-4243N and I can't FIND the connection type
I've FOUND a few sites that say it's an ATAPI/IDE but judging by the pictures I've seen there's no way that it will match.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

[attachment deleted by ADMIN to conserve space]That connector is a standard IDE connector USED on laptop optical drives, you would need an adapter to connect it to a regular IDE port.  What are you trying to connect it to?I salvaged it from a junked laptop and was hoping to connect it to my Raspberry Pi device.
Is this possible?You would only be able to connect it to a Pi if you were able to find an appropriate adapter to convert it to USB.  At that point you are probably just better off buying a USB DVD drive.

Aspire R5-471T-52EE
Model: N15P6
BIOS: V1.03
CPU: Intel Core i5 6200U 2.3GHz
SSD: SSD M.2 2280 256GB KIngston RBU-SNS8152S3-256GF
RAM: 8GB onboard

Want to upgrade to 512GB Sandisk X400 SD8SN8U-512G-1122, but want to clone the the whole disc so that all original hidden partitions are migrated too. Doing it with an M.2-USB adapter. Tried with AOMEI Backupper 3.2 unsuccessfully. The system doesn't see a bootable drive at startup. By the way, when connected to a different system via the same adapter, unlike the original 256GB one, Windows explorer as well as Disc Management show all of the partitions at 512GB, but for the original one Disc Management only, Win Explorer shows just one partition. That's another indicator that something is going wrong while cloning.
Acronis Disc Director 12 doesn't allow cloning it, guess because of the running OS on it.
Please help.A stand alone drive clone would work best for this.

Here is a list of some: https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=clone+docking+station&N=-1&isNodeId=1

I have one of these and it works perfect. Just need to be sure to insert the master drive that your copying from in the one slot and then the drive to take the bit for bit image to the other slot. Run the clone function and give it time to clone the master drive to the bare drive.

After you clone the partitions will be the same size as the master drive that you cloned from. Next step is to then resize the partitions that you want larger or make another partition in the unused portion of the drive to get your full capacity of use out of the drive.

The clone docking station I have is a stand alone unit. It doesnt require a computer to close the drive. the drive is cloned by the device alone. Mine has status LEDs with progress bar to show 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% clone complete as indicators to see how far along it is vs just a blinky light.Thanks. Any other solutions that don't require Docking station?It likely doesn't show bootable because of the USB adapter...can't you connect it internally ? ?

I'd also give Easus ToDo clone a try...there's still a Free Home version i believe..
If you want all partitions intact as is then you want to select sector by sector clone...slower but more accurate.

The fact Aeomei is mis-reporting it is slightly troubling...i have seen some so-so reviews on it so i never bothered testing it myself.

Also suprised Acronis wouldn't handle it...True Image is the Paid app i use for cloning. It needs to be ran from a bootable CD/DVD...not from inside Windows. Quote

It likely doesn't show bootable because of the USB adapter...can't you connect it internally ? ?

I have a 2 year old dell inspiron 3847 Haswell deskopc which has worked perfectly since i bought it new. It has  an Intel i5 processor, 1tb had drive and 12 gb of ram.  Recently i had it on playing either Pandora or Spotify...i left it on for several hours and when i returned it was shut down. I tried to restart it and while it would appear to go through a normal boot up it would not get past the Dell icon on the screen.There was no BSOD, no blinkiig or solid orange lights or any other indicator of what might be wrong...just wouldnt complete the boot process.

Initially i was abe to access both the F2 and F12 keys. i could get into the bios but i didnt change any. Through F12 i ran the diagnostics they provide and it passed 100% on every element tested. I ran them 3 times to be sure. The device mgr showed no problems with the hardware.

I systematically replaced the batteries in the mouse, keyboard and remote(i use a samsung 32 n tv as a monitor), checked and tested both the cable modem and wireless router..no problems. I tried every source on the monitor ...no connection.  I replaced the VGA cable connecting the pc to ther monitor...nothing. i connected the monitor and pc with an HDMI cable...didnt work.  I tested the Monitor by hooking it to one of my cable tvs and it worked fine. I connected the monitor to a laptop i have and it worked fine...

By now i NO LONGER CAN ACCESS EITHER THE BIOS OR DIAGNOSTICS VIA F2 or F12. Since then when i start up the PC it still acts like it is going to start normally but DOESNT get past the Dell  icon on the desktop. What it does do is give a message on the monitor....."no signal...check device's power, cable connection and source selection"....all of which i have checked at least 25 times. ..no luck. I also tried turning the PC off and holding down the p;ower button for abou a minute then trying to reboot...didnt work.

I am now sitting here with the PC open...reseated the memory sticks...no luck...thinking about replacing the CMOS battery....COULD THAT HELP?Maybe get me into the Bios? I have a the OS disc fromn Dell which came with the system but unless i can change the boot sequence i cant get it to run. When  i was originally able to get into the BIOS and the diagnostics i was able to run SYSTEM RESTORE...ran it twice...it completed but then GAVE me message that 'NO CHNAGES WERE MADE"

iIMNOT A COMPUTER TECHNICIAN so im sort of out of ideas. Hard to believe it could be a hardware problem but if it is would it more likely be a bad HD, Motherboard or maybe Power Supply?

I guess i may have to resort to having it repaired somewhere...which would be a first for me. I am retired and not crazy about paying a PC reparir person for something i can do...if i can do it.

Can anyone tell me if a REMOTE ONLINE PC REPAIR COMPANY will be able to get my PC to boot up if i havent been able to? If not why would i call one of them?

Anyway i have my 32 in monitor hooked up to my laptop and wireless keyboard and mouse so there is no emergency.Any help you could give me on how to boot up or what you SUSPECT the problem is would really be appreciated.
Thanks very much.   It seems your PC cannot even POST, as it cannot reach past the Dell icon, and such problem is most likely hardware issue. To POST, a computer needs it's power supply, RAM and CPU, along with a cooler for the CPU. If your PC cannot POST, it's most likely these component's issues.
 
Dell has a support page for troubleshooting no POST issues:
http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln292599/resolve-no-power--no-post--no-boot-or-no-video-issues-with-your-dell-computer?lang=en
At this point, it might be better seeking Dell support.Based on your account of events my first suspect would be CPU overheating. Perhaps the CPU Fan has failed, or perhaps the Heatsink is clogged with dust. You may have noticed if the latter was the case when you opened up the system- a good blast of compressed air would fix it. For the former you'd have to see if the Fan spins when the system is turned on (Sometimes during boot the fan stops- if it spins at all, that is usually a good sign).

-I wouldn't expect a battery replacement to provide any positive results, but I also wouldn't expect it to make anything worse.

-The message on the monitor is from the Monitor itself. It has stopped receiving any output from the system.

Quote from: bearcatjer on July 17, 2017, 01:14:35 PM

Can anyone tell me if a REMOTE ONLINE PC REPAIR COMPANY will be able to get my PC to boot up if i havent been able to? If not why would i call one of them?

Thinking bout replacing my 12 year old tired HP a1600 tower. I am a very light user but I want a fast quiet machine. Was wondering if I could tell much difference, especially between i5 and i7? Thanks.It ultimately comes down to what you plan on doing.  For general office work and web browsing.etc then an i3 or i5 would be more than sufficient. If you plan on doing something heavier like heavy video editing then an i7 may make a noticeable difference but outside of that you probably won't see a huge difference.  I'd strongly recommend looking for a machine that has an SSD, this will give you a much more noticeable improvement in terms of general responsiveness than going up to a higher end CPU would.Interesting. Your post prompted me to start learning about SSD's. MAYBE I should replace my current HD with an SSD? Since I am limited to 4GB RAM, my HD gets worked to death. Just read an article on how to do it by using Macrium Reflect to close existing HD on an SSD and then replacing HD with SSD. Looks easy enough. What do you think?A reference of possible interest:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/intel-core-i3-vs-i5-vs-i7-one-really-need/

The article goes on  to show that are more letters and numbers that differentiate Intel CPUs. Some are meant to be very low power. Some are for HD graphics. So you have a lot of choices.


While you certainly could add an SSD to your current machine, it's really getting on a bit in terms of age so it wouldn't be able to take full advantage of a new SSD.   That said, there's nothing stopping you getting an SSD now and then down the line if you decide to get a new desktop, MOVING the drive over.Thanks Geek for that great link. Cameron, just checked and discovered my HD will soon be 5 years old. It seems like I installed it just yesterday. Also, as mentioned in another thread, I just realized I have 3GB RAM instead of 4. I'm thinking PC came from factory with 2x512MB cards and I added 2x1GB in the two open slots. I am using about half of my 256GB HD. What size SSD should I get? Should I also increase RAM to 4 GB? Seems like I read somewhere that Win 10 or my old PC (can't remember which) can only use 3.3GB of RAM which is probably why I installed this only 3 GB. Thanks for your help.Like many other things, adding just a SSD gives just an incremental boast in performance. In some cases, no boast at all. The SSD does nothing for graphics quality.  Nor does it help the CPU solve math problems.

As munch as I hat to say it, trying to upgrade a PC r is like banging your head into a wall.  Sometimes it is worth the effort, but you will have a bad headache.

IMO, one can look for refurbished computers from a certified dealer and you can get some better hardware and still have your old PC as a backup. Works for me. I now have a Dell 745 sff desktop and a midi and a Dell 755 desktop. I can watch a movie on one and do something else on the other.  I already had a monitor and extra keyboard and hard drive. So I got the 755 for under $50 without the hard drive and monitor, keyboard and mouse. I had to talk to MS support to re-load my Windows 7 pro onto the new 755, which replaced my old Dell 250 that went bad. Sometimes MS support will let you do that . Sometimes.
I could have bought a SSD for about $50.  But I think the used computer was a better investment for me. Having two computers increases my effective use of computers much more than a better drive.
But the choice is yours, SSD will bring some improvement.  I know, I know. Cameron has also suggested buying a used Optiplex coming off a corporate lease. Just can't get my head wrapped around buying a used PC. Feel the same way about cars. Always thinking I am buying someone else's problems. According to info online it looks like your motherboard supports up to a Athlon 64 x2 5000+ which benchmarks 31% better than what you have.

Here is benchmark of your current CPU with a score of 1003 http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+64+X2+Dual+Core+3800%2B

Here is benchmark of what you could upgrade to with score of 1312 ( 31% faster than current CPU ) http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+64+X2+Dual+Core+5000%2B

Here is article with CPU upgrade info for your model: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/365252-28-upgrade-pavillion-media-center-a1600n

Here is the Athlon 64 x2 5000+ for $7.85 with free shipping if you live in the USA, otherwise price is different if outside USA: http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-ATHLON-64-X2-5000-2-6Ghz-1MB-AM2-ado5000iaa5do-Dual-Core-500b-5000-/232347876005?epid=74192261&hash=item3619033aa5:g:vSAAAOSwgmJXxIB0

Performance increase would be noticeable. A SSD in this build though while better wouldnt really make use of the SSD's true performance. Looking at the motherboard the SATA Controller states that its 1.5 and not 3.0.

I have used ebay for years for buying obsolete parts on the cheap and havent had any problems YET. Its a way to take an otherwise really old and noticeably slow system and make it faster on the cheap. You will just want new thermal compound to apply to CPU and Heatsink after you do the swap. Also if any BIOS updates are available to do those first. Looking online I didnt see any BIOS updates for that board. But according to article the CPU listed here should work no problems with your motherboard.

A new build would be far more powerful and more expensive than this $7.85 upgrade option, but if looking to upgrade on a very very low cost budget, there is nothing wrong with using used CPUs. 

I have been able to turn what use to be low cost performance crippled single-core Celeron CPU systems into old school gaming rigs for about $5.00 with free shipping off ebay buying a used Pentium 4 3.0Ghz HT socket 478 CPU ( which acts like a dual core with the hyper threading ) and turning what was once sadly performance crippled $399 system into what use to be high end $600 more costly $999 gaming system back in the day with games of back in the day run on it.Thanks dave. How did you find this info. I logged onto HP Support only to discover they had retired my rig and no longer provided detailed specifications. If I changed the chip, would I need permission from MS to activate my current product key?Toms Hardware has lots of good info for obsolete stuff that back in the day info existed and as HP and others pull old legacy info off the internet, Toms Hardware and other places still have old pages with helpful info like this. Most info there is good info. Its nice when others have been where your going already to warn what will or wont work etc. I feel this is a safe upgrade. the BIOS likely supports the 5000+ as well without a flash required.

The better CPU is the same family CPU and so it shouldnt break your OS key alone. Its only when drastic change happens that you run the risk. The only thing it might request is a reboot after first boot on the better CPU as it updates the registry etc.

Its a shame that the socket AM2 motherboard wont support a Phenom x4 9000 series CPU for example such as the Phenom x4 9950 Black Edition, because if it did that would be way better and for $35 on ebay you'd have performance close to a 2nd generation Core i3... But your stuck with a maximum of this 5000+ Dual-Core according to old info on Toms Hardware website. The AMD Athlon x2 5000+ CPU will give you performance similar to a Core 2 Duo E4500 or E4600 Intel CPU system as a comparison to Intel processors.

This is info on socket AM2 ... http://www.cpu-world.com/Sockets/Socket%20AM2.html

Phenom x4 9950 Black Edition .... your system cant run it, but its one of the meanest AM2 CPU's made. I have a Athlon II x4 620 Socket AM3 which is just a hair slower than this and on that system right now typing this. Paired with a decent video card it is still an ok gaming rig although I have 2 better systems a FX-8300 3.3Ghz 8-core 95 watt TDP and a FX-8350 4.0Ghz 8-core 125watt TDP. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Phenom+9950+Quad-Core

Your computer isnt worth putting much money into, but for the $7.85, I'd go for the 31% CPU processing power gain of the Athlon X2 5000+ if otherwise happy with this system and just wanting it to be a little more snappy. CPU upgrades are pretty easy, and no need to even get a different heatsink, the heatsink you have will handle the slightly hotter CPU. You will just want to watch videos on youtube etc showing the process of swapping a CPU before you dig into doing this if you decide to take this cheap upgrade on, as well as have thermal compound such as Arctic Silver available to place a drop of it on the top of the clean CPU top center and clean flat of the CPU heatsink to squash the droplet of thermal compound and lock the heatsink to the socket body then you should be all set to boot and run with it. There is a pin one indicator on the socket and the CPU marked by a small gold triangle in the corner top side of CPU. The pins are fragile so you just want to avoid dropping the CPU or bending them with fingers. There is a lock/release lever on the side of the socket that you need to lift up to unlock the CPU from the socket otherwise you can damage the socket. Lever  up means its unlocked, lever down means CPU pins are locked in the jaws of the socket.

If all else fails and system wont boot and run on the Athlon X2 5000+, you could always toss your original CPU back into it and only be out $7.85  Already watched several videos. Looks pretty straightforward. To be honest, I have done lots of work on my PC without doing anything special to protect against static electricity. Do I really need to use anti static-straps?

Dave, thanks again for your help!

Edit:  I just purchased the 5000 but now see the AM2 socket will take a max 64x2 6400+ chip. Many for sale on eBay for $30+/-. Any reason I shouldn't get the faster 6400+? Quote from: artbuc on July 24, 2017, 01:47:33 AM

Already watched several videos. Looks pretty straightforward. To be honest, I have done lots of work on my PC without doing anything special to protect against static electricity. Do I really need to use anti static-straps?

Dave, thanks again for your help!

Edit:  I just purchased the 5000 but now see the AM2 socket will take a max 64x2 6400+ chip. Many for sale on eBay for $30+/-. Any reason I shouldn't get the faster 6400+?

Earlier today my 4 year old decided to take some tweezers and touch them to the adapter plug of my laptop and touched the the little prong inside of it and got a really bad shock, a while after those events I attempted to charge my laptop back up as it was almost dead  and it just wont charge and I am pretty sure it is from my son sticking tweezers in the adapter part that plugs into the laptop. I don't know if I need to get a new charger or if there is any quick fix i can do? It does not look damaged either. If someone can helping as soon as possible that would be amazing! Thanks!Can you provide the make and model # of the laptop?
Or, better yet, a hot of the damaged area. It might be some metal was burnt off and the plug does not make contact.
Otherwise, a fusible devise inside the charger has blown. Whiteout knowing the model number, it is hard to guess.


Surprised he got a shock, as the voltage is really low. Could be cheapest to get a new charger.

Time for a new power supply. They are sealed and not intended for servicing.

Also surprised at the shock as for voltages are usually around 19VDC which doesnt shock most. I think the most shocking part about it might have been the spark that would make one jump at the surprise of it not expecting it etc.

My daughter when she was about 3 YEARS old put tweezers into a 120VAC outlet in our bathroom and she was very fortunate that the GFI outlet popped. While the GFI outlet popped it did happen to vaporize part of one end of the tweezers before popping leaving sharp edge of tweezer a rounded ball of metal. This pitted the GFI outlet contact and I had to replace it because plugs were going in hard past a pitted bur contact inside. I asked her what she was thinking and she didnt know why she did it.

When I was about 5 or 6 I found what I thought were some INTERESTING light bulbs in the basement. I screwed one into the livingroom lamp and turned the switch on and the lamp died. It was one of the older screw in type fuses for a fuse panel which share the same socket as a light bulb. The Lamp was the weak link between the 14 GA wiring in the home and the 15 AMP fuse in the fuse box and the 15 AMP fuse I screwed into the lamp. It did blow the 15 Amp fuse in the fuse box for the living room but not before turning lamp cord into a heating element inside making a very lovely melted plastic smell. I was asked why I did this, I said I thought they were light bulbs they have the same screw in socket and glass top and you look in and see the filament which its a fuse not a light bulb but I didnt know better at age 5 or 6. I had a fascination with electricity and light bulbs as a young child and shocked myself many times, and luckily didnt burn my parents house down or kill myself in the process.  DaveLembke,
Therefore, because of you, they no longer make those kind of fuses. 
My first famous ELECTRICAL experiment was a bobby pin and a wall socket. Shocking results. STILL, they did not stop making bobby pins because of me. Quote from: DaveLembke on July 24, 2017, 02:47:48 PM

My daughter when she was about 3 years old put tweezers into a 120VAC outlet in our bathroom ... I asked her what she was thinking and she didnt know why she did it.

My first famous electrical experiment was a bobby pin and a wall socket.

Re: HP a1600n (Media Center) with Win 10 Creator

I have 4GB RAM installed but PC is detecting only 3GB. I installed ADDITIONAL RAM many years ago and PC recognized 4GB. I do not REGULARLY check this so I have no idea when PC started SEEING 3 vs 4GB installed RAM.

Does this mean one or more of my RAM sticks is defective? How would I check? Thanks. Scratch that request. Found my old memtest disk and I only have 3GB. Thought for sure I had 4... will have to physically check.

I BOUGHT a new HDD and was cloning it and this message popped up
http://imgur.com/PGlHWUk
I am using acronis to clone and i only INITIALIZED my new HDD i didn't formatted and i did nothing in bios.
Please helpYou bought a new hard drive and you were cloning it? What does that mean? You were trying to making a copy of a BLANK disk? Why would you even do that?

Cloning MEANS to make an exact copy of one HDD on a second HDD. Possibly the source disk is FAILING. Try runnning a disk check utility on the source disk.

I have been running my current setup for the past half-year WITHOUT any problems what so ever. That is until I WENT on vacation for 2 weeks and returned to my computer not posting. I went through all sorts of troubleshooting to no avail. My computer will not get past post no MATTER what I do so I could't find my Bios Version. I have changed out graphics cards and ram so I dont think either of them are the problem.

The error/post codes I am GETTING are CC, C2, C4, and C5. Once it goes through those codes it stops for a minute and goes through all the codes again. It often stays the longest on C4 and C5 if that means anything.

heres a video showing the codes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X4BA_sE1OI

Any help would be appreciated.

specs-
Product NAME:   GA-Z170X-Gaming G1 (1.0)
BIOS Ver:   Unkown - cant get past post to check
Brand:   Nvidia GTX 950
Model:   Intel Core i7-6700
Operating System:   Win 10 64-bit
Brand: G.Skill Ripjaws
Memory Part No.:   F4-3200C16D-16GVRB

Hello all, I have a 4790k with a MSI z97s SLI Krait edition, annnd I bought a Kraken x62 cooler so I wanted to try and overclock. I have my CPU 4.5Ghz with a voltage of 1.200. I did not change anything else,and the core voltage/ring thing is left on default. so my question is, just to be sure, it's not hogging all the power all the time is it? I'm new to OC  CPU's only really consume most power when they are processing data and full tilt 100% per core. When idle they go into a lesser power consumption state even if overclocked. Intel CPUs have Speed Stepping which when the CPU is idle unless Stepping is disabled somewheres it will generally come to rest at around 1/4 or 1/5 clock, so if your CPU was idle and utilizing Speed Stepping, it will be around 1/4 or 1/5 the clock of full clock of 4.5Ghz and will be somewhere around 1.12Ghz or 900Mhz. AMD also has this stepping feature but they call it Cool n Quiet the fan speed can be reduced lessening noise and the CPU clock drops down by quarter clock intervals such as my 2.8Ghz IDLES at around 700Mhz saving electricity and not creating unnecessary heat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedStep

There really is not MUCH benefit at all to having this feature disabled to have it running full clock all the time. The CPU is able to split second change from say 900Mhz to 4.5Ghz without missing a beat, and if you ran a test to see if there is any performance loss in doing this, it would be a very very small difference that is unnoticeable to the end user. The only benefit I can think of to forcing a CPU to stay full clock would be if the program itself didnt stress and load down the CPU enough to have to ramp up to full or max clock, and so it could slow that single threaded program possibly by calculations that happen at slower clock. 99.9% of the people out there would never run into this as well as if performing scientific calculations, usually the CPU is loaded down pretty well for all cores to make full use of the multiple core CPU's potential vs say only using 1/4th of an AMD Quadcore etc.

There are tools out there to monitor the systems GPU and CPU speeds. You can watch the clocks go to maximum speed and go back to an idle at 1/4 or 1/5 clocks or if there is something going on in background to where its not completely idle 3/4, 1/2, or 1/3 clock etc.One thing worth noting is that overclocking does increase the base power usage of a processor. Increasing the clock and/or the voltage will increase power consumption overall.Good point BC... An overclocked CPU will use more power than a normal clocked CPU, even if speed stepping is under clocking and an overclocked under clock.  It will also produce more heat as a byproduct of the additional power consumption. As well as other components on the motherboard also can consume more power and produce more heat such as VRM's, RAM, Bridges, as well as the Power Supply itself. For a 5 to 12% increase in output it's a waste of time... Quote

For a 5 to 12% increase in output it's a waste of time...

Hello, I'm trying to use a Virtual machine on my computer (Thinkpad Yoga 11e Lenovo and it';s running on WINDOWS 10) and I've (somehow) managed to get it to work but it's very slow 
I've tried with two different Virtual machines (Bluestacks and MEmu) and both say to speed it up they recommend turning on hardware virtualization. I've tried a lot of different ways to try and enable the Hardware Virtualization but my computer doesn't seem to have a way I can get there.  (like the option is not there...it's really weird)
If I can give any of you guys any other INFO about this to help me figure this out I'll be glad to
Thanks!Performance issue is that its a weak processing tablet to begin with. Your pretty lucky that you can get it to do the virualization given the specs. I dont see any way to get better performance than you already have from this tablet.

Quote

TYPE: General Purpose, Ultraportable, Value, Tablet
Processor Name: Intel Celeron N2930
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
Operating System: Windows 8.1
RAM: 4 GB
Graphics Card: Intel HD Graphics
Storage Capacity (as Tested): 500 GB
Screen Size: 11.6 inches
Resolution: 1366 x 768
Weight: 3.7 lb
Screen Type: Widescreen

Was looking at the specs on new HP desktops. One model has a 1TB 7200 SATA HD and a secondary 128GB SSD Drive. How would one use this secondary SSD? It is not clear, to me at least, if the OS is on the SSD but it says some of the SSD comes preloaded. Perhaps HP wants you to use the SSD for FAST boot-ups? Thanks.

PS. This is the footnote describing the secondary SSD:

"[8] Actual formatted capacity is less. Portion of internal storage is reserved for preloaded content."Usually the SSD would be the boot device with the OS installed and then the hard drive would show up as a separate drive letter that you would use for larger files.  The preloaded content they are talking about is probably a recovery/diagnostics partition, it's just saying that although the SSD is 128gb, you'll get slightly less available to actually use.Does it actually say that the SSD is "secondary"? Here in the UK HP are advertising (for example) a PC with these specs, frankly it would be crazy not to have the OS on the SSD

Quote

    Windows 10 Home 64
    Latest generation Intel® Core™ i5-7400T processor
    60.45 cm (23.8") diagonal Full-HD multitouch (1920 x 1080) micro-edge display
    8GB RAM with 128GB SSD and 1TB storage
    Wireless keyboard & mouse; Pop-up HD webcam for Windows Hello; Dual front-firing HP speakers

 

the C: drive ... is the solid state drive containing the OS.

I want to change my integrated Intel HD graphics 4600 CARD for my NVIDIA 860m card so that I can use 144hz instead of 60hz.

The problem is I have tried everything I can find online, like deleting drivers, CHANGING settings in nvidia controlpanel and such. When I delete my Intel driver it just reinstalls itself when I restart the computer, My LAPTOP also switch to some basic microsoft screen driver when I delete the Intel driver.

Please help me, I just GOT this new monitor and it sucks that I can't use it fully.What make/model laptop?

Im a first time computer BUILDER, looking to make a fairly basic gaming pc. I am planning to USE these parts,

rosewill tyrfin atx mid tower case,
Eva 450 B1 power supply,
wd 250 gb 2.5 inch SSD- blue,
corsair 8gb vengeance lpx ddr4 memory module- black,
evga geforce gtx 1050 ti sc INTERNAL graphics card 4096 mb,
intel pentium dual core 3.6 ghz cpu- black,

and am wondering what motherboard to use. I live in the uk, and would prefer not to have to pay shipping costs from overseas. If anyone could recommend a motherboard then thank you.
No need to start a 2nd Topic...

I just did a fresh install of Windows XP Home (I know, it's for retro gaming) on a Compaq Presario 2236CL (2200 series) laptop. This is definitely an olide, with a Pentium M 350 on an 852GM/V chipset. Accoding to the laptop manual (and intel's specs on the 350 M), it should be running at a 400MHz FSB and the memory at 333 MHz (SDRAM). The installed memory is PC2700. Looking in HWiNFO 32, it says my FSB is actually running at 100MHZ, and my memory at 133MHz! (Edit: DDR makes that 266MHz, but still, that's quite a lot lower than it should be?). The processor clock, 1.3GHz, actually seems normal.

Why is the FSB, and consequently, my memory clock so low? I know it's a laptop and things will typically be slower, but even the manual indicates that the clocks should be higher!

edit2: HANG on, HWiNFO seems to be reporting TWO memory clocks... One is for "Memory", which says 133MHz or 266MHZ DDR, then another section that says "Memory Modules", which has a clock of 167MHz or approximately 333MHz DDR. That's slightly confusing...100 Mhz Bus Speed would be correct for a 400Mhz Front-Side Bus as the CPU Front Side Bus has been a MULTIPLIER of the system bus speed for some time (486 perhaps?). Pentium M chips use a multiplier of 4.

"Memory" would indicate what the memory is currently running at. "Memory Modules" indicates the capabilities of the individual memory modules.

It's likely the laptop is only capable of running the memory at 133Mhz, rather than 166Mhz. Possibly due to it being a lower-end SKU of the model. Quote from: BC_Programmer on August 06, 2017, 08:31:40 AM

100 Mhz Bus Speed would be correct for a 400Mhz Front-Side Bus as the CPU Front Side Bus has been a multiplier of the system bus speed for some time (486 perhaps?). Pentium M chips use a multiplier of 4.

"Memory" would indicate what the memory is currently running at. "Memory Modules" indicates the capabilities of the individual memory modules.

It's likely the laptop is only capable of running the memory at 133Mhz, rather than 166Mhz. Possibly due to it being a lower-end SKU of the model.

Issue:

From a cold boot, the system gets past the POST screen. Boot sequence is successful up until after the Windows 10 loading screen, of which inconsistently (1 out of 7 attempts average) results in a black screen afterwards. Monitors do not detect input. All fans are spinning – system is non-responsive to any input afterwards (keyboard is not lit up).

System was newly built 3 months ago. Thoroughly stability tested and ran issue free for 2 months (this issue has been happening in the past month).

Specs:

* Windows 10
* RAM 3200Ghz
* EVGA 750W B2
* Ryzen 1600 3.75Ghz
* MX 200 SSD
* GTX 1070
* MSI B350 Tomahawk


Troubleshooting:

Only workaround so far is to perform a forced shutdown via power button and turn the system back on (and hope for the best). So far, the issue has not persisted twice in a row on boot attempts.

I had a thought to downclock the CPU to default (and RAM) as well, however I would figure that with instabilities, they would not allow the system to POST. In addition, the issue appears to be new.

I also have Event Viewer Logs from “System” events available as needed – not sure where to upload these if they are helpful.

Any ideas on what the issue might be?

Thanks!

I have a dell Inspiron 540. A month ago it had windows 10 on it and started crashing. I replaced the hard drive reinstalled windows 10 same issue. I recently downgraded it to windows 7 the original os with the same problem. It seems to crash more often when WATCHING VIDEOS on my computer and also YouTube. I replaced the graphics card twice and am still getting the same issue. I ran a test on the ram slots seemed to check out ok. Any help WOULD be appreciated memory testers are good but not 100%.
it could still be memory related.
if you have multiple sticks, just try running with one and seeing if the problem repeats.

it still leaves a question mark over the mobo and CPU.

you can probably rule of malware and the like since you have done a couple of reinstalls across multiple OS's.

what is the crash?  do you get an error message, a BSOD?In windows 10 the BSOD said fltmgr.sys error. I got a different one in windows 7 if it pops up again I'll post it.You running ESET >? ?No no ESET

lava pci parallel card for radio so i need the card

People having that error on the LAVA forums are instructed that their motherboard is incompatible.