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Hello

I've searched for this issue and seen all kind of REASONS, but my own analysis doesn't seem to fit any. So I'm kind of desperate. I'll make it clear and simple:

Issue:
- "Random" black screen" with:
-- Infinite sound loop
-- Lose all input control
-- Nothing on screen, no text, nothing but a black void
-- No shutdown, no reboot
-- No lose of power
-- No lose of HDMI signal
-- Nothing in system and application events but this error around: "The CldFlt service failed to start due to the following error: The request is not supported."
-- Happen when playing a video, or simply loading a web page, at every 10-15min
-- Can play a game full-screen for hours without this happening
-- Reinstalled Windows 10 from SCRATCH. Still happening.
-- This is a high PERFORMANCE computer, no cheap parts. Not even 2 years old

My analysis:
- GPU: it doesn't happen for hours of intensive heat generating game. So it's surely not a temp or stress issue
- PSU/RAM/Motherboard/Hard disks: same as GPU. Why would it be the PSU if happening during low stress but never in high-stress?
- Not the OS, since it still happen after a clean Windows 10 install

What I think to do:
- GPU last driver is bogus with the GPU (Nvidia Geforce GTX 770)
- BIOS flash could maybe fix an evolutive change in OS system or drivers that now cause an issue
- Try another graphic card, I have an old one. If it's the GPU, it would reveal it.

Now I would like your opinion. What can it be? Thank you.The only thing I found in the event logs are those warnings always around after a reboot:
The driver \Driver\WUDFRd failed to load for the device ACPI\PNP0A0A\2&daba3ff&1.
The driver \Driver\WUDFRd failed to load for the device {C5A047D8-CB5B-40E9-B9E3-316AB06B5A18}\WirelessKeyboardFilter\8&2490b510&0&01.

Chipset drivers and BIOS updated to the last available version. There are several hits on google about those drivers warnings + a black screen, but I was not able to conclude for sure if it's the PSU, GPU, or something else. It doesn't happened this afternoon, alone for 4 hours. But soon as I started to use it, it happened when opening a web page, and also while watching a video (out of chrome). This make me think of something with GPU, GPU drivers, or those device warnings, much than anything else.You test a PSU by substitution.
Not all faiures are temp relatied.
breadboard it

Quote from: Bluewisp on JULY 14, 2017, 07:30:05 AM

Hello

I've searched for this issue and seen all kind of reasons, but my own analysis doesn't seem to fit any. So I'm kind of desperate. I'll make it clear and simple:

Issue:
- "Random" black screen" with:
-- Infinite sound loop
-- Lose all input control
-- Nothing on screen, no text, nothing but a black void
-- No shutdown, no reboot
-- No lose of power
-- No lose of HDMI signal
-- Nothing in system and application events but this error around: "The CldFlt service failed to start due to the following error: The request is not supported."
-- Happen when playing a video, or simply loading a web page, at every 10-15min
-- Can play a game full-screen for hours without this happening
-- Reinstalled Windows 10 from scratch. Still happening.
-- This is a high performance computer, no cheap parts. Not even 2 years old

My analysis:
- GPU: it doesn't happen for hours of intensive heat generating game. So it's surely not a temp or stress issue
- PSU/RAM/Motherboard/Hard disks: same as GPU. Why would it be the PSU if happening during low stress but never in high-stress?
- Not the OS, since it still happen after a clean Windows 10 install

What I think to do:
- GPU last driver is bogus with the GPU (Nvidia Geforce GTX 770)
- BIOS flash could maybe fix an evolutive change in OS system or drivers that now cause an issue
- Try another graphic card, I have an old one. If it's the GPU, it would reveal it.

Now I would like your opinion. What can it be? Thank you.

Hi all I'm new here looking for help or clarity... I have been wondering if it would be possible/viable to upgrade my pc components instead of buying a new one.  I purchased an ASUS computer from Best Buy my last go round but it seems simple enough inside that it would be upgradeable.  Wondering if 1)anyone has had experience doing this and 2)what parts should I get.

Currently has:
OS: Windows 10  64
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790S
Ram: 12 GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX750 1GB
HDD Storage: 2TB
PSU: I forgot to look at the wattage but would probably upgrade that regardless they don't usually install decent psu on pc's like this

I'm thinking of upgrading the cpu, gpu, psu, and probably getting a ssd, is my motherboard going to be an issue? :/ thanks in advance for any help.
Budget is relatively open just not looking to put 5k into this...Knowing which motherboard MAKE/model you have will help know what your main board maxes out at.

Surprised the i7 isnt enough that you have... if your thinking of upgrading that.... its a pretty decent CPU. Maybe you have something else going on that is causing a slow down like an infection of malware ETC if you think your system is too slow.

The Video Card and adding a SSD is only upgrades I can SEE needed for it if your doing HEAVY gaming. SSD woudl make games that are large in size launch faster than a hard drive.

The RAM should be fine at 12GB Your probably using only about 8GB of it when heavy gaming anyways.

Hello,

I RECENTLY upgraded from a 960 MSI graphics card to a 1070 MSI, I used DDU to uninstall and restarted with the drivers from the Nvidia website ready. Afterwards I opened GeForce Experience to update to the most recent drivers just in case. When I opened some games (Watch Dogs 2, The Witcher, and Far Cry Primal) the graphics even at max were a bit odd as if the grass was at 120p quality. I went to the MSI website and installed their driver as well and still have issues, changed the monitor from 144hz (acer predator) to 120hz, 100hz,85hz, and 60hz to no avail.

Here is my Speccy info

• Operating System
     Windows 10 Home 64-bit
  CPU
     Intel Core i5 6600K 3.50GHz   23 °C
     Skylake 14nm Technology
  RAM
     16.0GB Dual-Channel Unknown 1203MHz (16-16-16-39)
  Motherboard
     ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. Z170-E (LGA1151)   26 °C
  Graphics
     Acer XB241H ([email protected])
     NS-24D510NA17 ([email protected])
     4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (MSI)   40 °C
  Storage
     465GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB (SSD)   30 °C
     931GB TOSHIBA HDWD110 (SATA)   30 °C
  Optical Drives
     No optical disk drives detected
  Audio
     NVIDIA High Definition Audio
  

• Monitor 1
     Name   Acer XB241H on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
     Current Resolution   1920x1080 pixels
     Work Resolution   1920x1040 pixels
     State   Enabled
     Multiple displays   Extended, Primary, Enabled
     Monitor Width   1920
     Monitor Height   1080
     Monitor BPP   32 bits per pixel
     Monitor Frequency   144 Hz
     Device   \\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0
  Monitor 2
     Name   NS-24D510NA17 on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
     Current Resolution   1920x1080 pixels
     Work Resolution   1920x1040 pixels
     State   Enabled
     Multiple displays   Extended, Secondary, Enabled
     Monitor Width   1920
     Monitor Height   1080
     Monitor BPP   32 bits per pixel
     Monitor Frequency   60 Hz
     Device   \\.\DISPLAY2\Monitor0
  NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
     Manufacturer   NVIDIA
     Model   GeForce GTX 1070
     Device ID   10DE-1B81
     Revision   A2
     Subvendor   MSI (1462)
     Current Performance Level   Level 0
     Current GPU Clock   607 MHz
     Current Memory Clock   405 MHz
     Current Shader Clock   405 MHz
     Technology   16 nm
     Bus Interface   PCI Express x16
     Temperature   39 °C
     Driver version   22.21.13.8494
     BIOS Version   86.04.50.00.2a
     Memory   4095 MB
        Count of performance levels : 1
              Level 1 - "Perf Level 0"
                 GPU Clock   961 MHz
                 Shader Clock   3855 MHz

I looked on google and didnt find the answer i was looking for.

Question I have is...

Does a motherboard chipset bottleneck the potential of a PCI-E 16x slot. That is if the PCI-E 16x slot is a 2.0 slot is it the same among all motherboards with the PCI-E 16x 2.0 slot or will a motherboard with say a PCI-E 16x 2.0 slot with an older nVidia NVIDIA GeForce 6150 / nforce430a chipset perform differently than a newer board with AMD 760G / SB710 chipset.

I already have the parts, but just trying to determine if its worth mixing guts for any performance gain when the CPU and RAM is the same and only difference is a newer chipset motherboard used.

If I went through this motherboard swap another pro is that I'd raise my max memory to 8GB from 4GB. But knowing whether the video card would perform better in one board vs the other based on mainly just a chipset change has sparked my curiosity. If I did this, I would have to perform a completely new clean install of WINDOWS 7 64 bit too which I am avoiding if there isnt a video card performance gain in newer chipset. Just having an extra 4GB RAM to me isnt really worth bothering with going through a rebuild of parts. The system now runs fine on 4GB with older games and some newer stuff, but there are also times that the 4GB RAM is running at 95% and not much free memory, especially if Firefox is up and a game at same time. I can free up almost 800MB RAM by closing Firefox and running game.

Hardware info in case more info is needed is:

Original Motherboard is a Biostar MCP6PB M2+ http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=387#specification

Motherboard I am considering upgrading to for this older build using everything from prior build no other hardware changes same CPU and RAM and Video Card is Biostar A760G M2+  http://www.biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=394#specification

Video Card is EVGA 896-P3-1265-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card    https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130398

With no integrated video used and the memory controller for RAM built into the Athlon II x4 620 2.6Ghz CPU. I am curious if the PCI-E 16x 2.0 BUS is at all affected by a chipset bottleneck.  I've given up on all the AMD's.
The on board USB3.0's run at less than 2.0 speed.

Latest event was:
Remove PCI-e USB 3.0 card from Intel MACHINE, insert into Athlon II x4.  It killed the motherboard, wouldn't even POST.  Put the same card back into the Intel machine & it worked like it always did.

I wouldn't waste money upgrading any of them.To my UNDERSTANDING (which, as usual, could very well be wrong, particularly with newer stuff!) PCIE 2.0 cannot be reduces to, say, PCIE 1.0. Instead What can happen is an expansion card might get fewer PCI-E Lanes then is optimal.

Now, that said, I've also never heard of on-board graphics chipsets affecting performance of installed dedicated cards in this way. Typically when you install a dedicated graphics card, if the motherboard as a separate, on-board chipset, it disables altogether specifically to avoid the problem of the on-board using up PCI-E lanes and causing the dedicated card to throttle to say 8x lanes.

This reduction can happen when you populate specific slots. Some motherboards have two x16 slots, but if both are populated, then they both run at 8x. I'd guess that internally they are just "one slot"  that gets divvied up between two physical slots. I experienced this first hand without even realizing until, probably a year later, I started up GPU-Z to look at some detail of the card and noticed it listed it was running at 8x speed. The cause was that I had installed an expansion card into the other x16 slot over a year before.

I partly agree with Computer_Commando, as I think spending money on these sorts of upgrades is sort of throwing money down a hole; money which realistically you could instead put towards a much more modern system, which can be one of AMDs many more modern CPUs. Even using the lowest end components on the market today (eg value-oriented components) would likely outperform the Athlon II x4, which you can then repurpose for other tasks.


Thanks for both of your inputs on this. I wouldnt be spending any money, I already have all the parts.  I guess I typed so much trying not to miss any important details that it got hidden among all I typed. 

I guess this question all started because I hear online people talk about going with this one board vs another because it has a better chipset. ( Not in regards to the two boards I have here, but other boards between BARGAIN boards and/or gaming boards for example etc which can both run the same CPU, RAM, and Video Card.... so they should benchmark the same, but one is better than another without overclocking ect because the chipset comes into play).

I guess I was thinking that a chipset could affect the performance with two boards that both can run the same CPU, RAM, and Video card, but one chipset vs another might yield a lesser overall performance because of a limitation in the board as a result of the chipset even if both boards are PCI-E 16x 2.0, SATA II, and USB 2.0 etc because the motherboard functions that the chipset handles may be stronger in one chipset vs another even with integrated video disabled in the chipset because a video card is in use instead.

 I never did much research into chipsets other than which chipsets support what CPU upgrade path, or what CPUs etc such as back in the days of Intel socket 775 motherboards, you had to be really careful or else you could pick up a board that only supported Pentium 4 or Pentium D, or Dual-Core processor support only, and would have to double check that a motherboards chipset supported a quadcore and if so which ones. Then there are the oddball boards that are rated for a maximum of 65 watt processor but by which they have chipsets that support a quadcore, but you then need to use 65 watt quadcore CPU instead of 95 watt quadcore CPU or else risk cooking lightweight VRMs etc. Then on top of this what the BIOS supported for microcode for which CPUs are compatible with current or a later flash version.
I think the best advise is to go buy some PC diag kit. There are pci-e , cpu, sata power supply, thermal devices, ohm sensors .. and you can use them easily to see exactly what is happening, and test a product before you install it, so it wont blow out your module or system.  I had a internal media card reader with a faulty ohm resistor blow out the +5 rail and kill the MB and CPU. I fixed the MB and experimented with the cpu, and eventually it powered my home made Tower. If you buy these and use them correctly, you build will last a long time and operate at max capacity, and problems will be addressed before they arise.

I learned about this from another source and had never read the full report from Intel.

I linked it, so that must be me. And while I certainly cannot claim to have read the report, I did read the title, which makes it clear that it is about USB3 interfering with other devices, not the other way around.

I have several devices and some long cables on my PC's USB buses and every now and then I get a message like hub 6-0:1.0: port 2 disabled by hub (EMI?), re-enabling... on my Linux machine. Especially the devices on my desk (keyboard, mouse, 2 Arduino's) are being disconnected and reconnected. These devices respond to electric shutters for the windows, but also from passing motorbikes.

What can I do to improve immunity to EMI?

Tried ferrite CORES on the mains cable of the shutters and some other equipment, but doesn't really improve much.

The purpose of this post was only to share the Intel Paper.

I learned about this from another source and had never read the full report from Intel.

I learned about this from another source who had never read the full report from Intel.

...

On the topic of the wireless interference consideration, I actually dealt with this myself. Or rather, didn't deal with it but worked around it. I found that if I had a USB3 device plugged into my computer, my wireless game controller needed me to hold it less than a foot away from the receiver dongle. But if the USB drive wasn't plugged in or it was an older USB2 drive, it worked as normal.

Hi guys,

I don't know if I'm posting this in the right place but I've had this problem for a while now. When I first got my MSI ge72 apache I had no problems with it. I CAPPED League Of Legends on 120fps while I could play another game in the background, use discord and listen to music with no problems. For quite a while now it hasn't been perfoming anywhere near that. I barely get 60fps on League and have to make sure everything else is turned off. If I try to listen to music while playing the music cracks. I can't play games like pubg without the screen freezing for a second when I switch weapons or am in the redzone for example (this is with all graphics turned down). I FEEL like this shouldn't be a problem with a pc this expensive definetly SINCE it worked way better at first. I've checked and I'm on best performance for every game and I'm not on battery saver.

Yesterday I checked my perfomance and task manager while playing League and using discord.
Performance:
cpu: 13%
dgpu: 0%
memory: 70%
battery: 93%
disk: 0%

in task manager League was the only thing noteworthy with 5% COU and 960mb memory. the temperatures of my dgpu and cpu were 60 and 72 degrees celcius respectively.what sort of maintenance have you performed?Is this laptop running Windows 10?

MICROSOFT has been making a mess of peoples systems with driver replacements for Windows 10, and I can see what you have for symptoms being related to a wrong driver for the GPU possibly.

Go to nvidia website and download and install latest driver for this.Actually Dave with laptops it's best to use the laptop manuf. GPU drivers...not nVidia's...

Hello,

Hopefully this is the correct place for this:

A few weeks ago I completely ruined my laptop by spilling a whole cup of coffee on it. I immediately turned the laptop off, etc. Once the laptop dried out it wouldnt boot up. It did initially, but ultimately it wouldn't.

My question: If I connected the hard drive from aforementioned laptop into my new laptop, via a caddy/usb, is it possible that the hard drive could damage my new laptop?

Thank you.Connected via USB if the drive is toast the worst it would do is blow the caddy. There is a chip that translates the drive from SATA to USB communications and so there is a level of isolation. I wouldnt connect the drive directly to laptop installing internally but its ok if connected externally via USB. Quote from: DaveLembke on August 14, 2017, 11:34:10 AM

Connected via USB if the drive is toast the worst it would do is blow the caddy. There is a chip that translates the drive from SATA to USB communications and so there is a level of isolation. I wouldnt connect the drive directly to laptop installing internally but its ok if connected externally via USB.

There a some videos that deal with this problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tASvbnODtq4
{Skip the ads..}
The methods used are what people really do to fix a water damaged laptop. Teally.

Sorry to hear that. 

I agree that doubtful it will hurt anything connected direct. But doubtful isnt 100%, so if you want a layer of protection / isolation to protect from shorted signals then an external caddy or external hard drive case will add a layer of protection/isolation and the caddy or external enclosures USB to SATA converter board would take the hit instead.

I already have an external USB dock myself that accepts 2.5 and 3.5" drives and so if it were me, I'd go the safest route. But if you want to save money at the low risk of damage then you can connect directly. Your odds of killing a computer with this drive connected directly is very low, but I have to state that there is a small risk if connecting a drive that could have been dunked direct.

No idea why it was so difficult to remove the HDD...
That being said an external enclosure is the best choice...
You want 1 thats powered A/C...you also have options as to what HDD's are accomodated...mine can take any HDD made...and has a cooling fan as well...so dont buy a cheapo.

So I am GOING to build my FIRST pc and I have picked a motherboard and I was wondering what ram fits. I really don`t know what the requirements for ram matching motherboard is.
Thanks in advance!

Motherboard: MSI B250 Krait Gaming S-1151 ATX

Link to ram I was LOOKING at https://www.komplett.no/product/893859/datautstyr/pc-komponenter/minnebrikker/hyperx-fury-ddr4-2400mhz-8gb#

 as per the MSI website: https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/B250-KRAIT-GAMING.html#productFeature-section

it supports DDR4 memory 2133 or 2400MHz.

the board has 4 memory slots, so for me, I would GET a pair of 4's (totalling 8GB) or a pair of 8's (totalling 16GB) but that'll come down to your budget and planned usage.

hope that helps.

A friend of mine has asked me to help with an upgrade (new build). But after looking over what he already has I came to the conclusion that an upgrade at this time wouldn't yield enough results to be worth it. But I wanted to get a second opinion.

He currently has:

CPU: AMD FX-9590
GPU: Nvidia GTX 960
RAM: 8GB DDR3
HDD: 2TB
SSD: 500GB

The best I came up with for him was a Ryzen 7 1800X with 16Gb DDR4 for £600-700 for a 1.5x boost in CPU performance only

Or an i7 6950X with 16Gb DDR4 for ~£1000 for a 2x boost in CPU performance only.

I know this is going to down to opinion but I didn't see either of those as a worth while direction other than mostly power management gains.I would concur, there would be a lot of money and time spent with little performance gained to justify the effort.
if the reason for the upgrade was to improve overall performance, perhaps a fresh install of the system would give as good a hit as anything.
but what with the PC already having a SSD, that would be slight at best.It entirely comes down to what they need the upgrade for, is there something they are trying to do that their current machine can't handle?Their current system should be plenty of processing power.

I'm CURIOUS if they really need to have anything better or if they just want something faster for bragging rights to say here look at me I have this overkill system. I dont see it worth the money to make that upgrade which would require a new Motherboard, CPU, and RAM.

Of course if they are rich and money is no object then sure buy the latest and throw away a system or motherboard/CPU/RAM combination more POWERFUL then the average user. Lots of people would grab up that tossed out FX-9590 in a heartbeat. As far as I'm aware he just thought that there was faster stuff on the market at the moment. He's not the type for a pimped PC. I think his MAIN problem is stability. His graphics card fans aren't working at the moment apparently.

Quote from: DaveLembke on August 17, 2017, 11:15:44 AM

... Lots of people would grab up that tossed out FX-9590 in a heartbeat. ...

Why would anyone want that CPU? It's 220W, his entire problem is thermal regulation.

Hello,

Problem: screen went black while watching a video on youtube and didn't go back to normal, restarted computer and received message overclocking failed (see file attached), NEXT day screen went black while on Skype video call, rebooted computer in safe mode with system RECOVERY option

Any advice is appreciated

[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]If you haven't in fact done any overclocking yourself you need to replace the CMOS battery...
Part # CR2032...available anywhere.thanks for the quick reply, patio. no, i never done any overclocking myself

just to make sure i BUY the right one, can you take a look at this link http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=2_1249_744&item_id=079255your ASUS mobo; https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A97/ takes a CR2032 as stated by patio.
it could well be the issue.

I've also seen examples where it's a corrupted BIOS and if you hit F1 and go into the BIOS settings and find the 'reset to factory settings' that may fix your issue as well.
but doing so will then make you re-configure it for your specific needs - like adjusting date/time, show or hide the bootup screen, how long to DISPLAY boot messages etc etc etc.understood. thanks Mark. i just checked my battery manufacture - it is Newsun CR2032 3V lithium battery. my guess is manufacture is not important as long as it is same type of battery CR 2032. so i can buy the one made by Philips for example or other company... Manuf dont matter...Remove all power when replacing it and you should be good to go...got it. thanks. if the problem persists, i will let you know, guys

thanks againWith the 2032 batteries the brand isn't critical, what really matters is whether the voltage measures 3 Volts or pretty close to 3 Volts within about +/- 0.10 volts,( tenth of a volt ) and holds steady at this voltage without diving to below 2.9 volts when testing for about 10 seconds on a meter is whats important.

If you have a multimeter you can pop the battery out and measure for 3 Volts. If its lesser than 2.9 Volts then replace it. Brand new they will generally measure 3.00 to 3.10 volts. As they age and drain they slowly drop to a voltage that motherboards will complain about them being dead, but if borderline it can cause problems without triggering the failed battery CMOS message.

If you dont have a multimeter, the 2032 batteries are pretty cheap and you wont be out more than a few dollars if its not the battery. I have had borderline CMOS batteries wig out a motherboard before so its a good direction to start in as Patio suggested.

In your BIOS I would also go to the section that is usually the last page of BIOS's where you can "Reset to Default" Settings just to be sure that no overclocking or voltage values for RAM etc are outside of normal factory settings. Mark also suggested this.

Just about every store that sells button cell / coin cell batteries sell the 2032. They are even in some PHARMACY's in the battery section.I've replaced the battery and loaded default settings by pressing F5 and then "Save Changes/Exit" (please see image attached)

Is there any additional testing that needs to be done?

[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]best testing now is to just use the PC normally and see if the error returns.  got it. thanks Mark. thanks again guys.

Hello, everyone!

Isn't the Micron Technology Inc. Solid State Drive (SSD) 480GB SATA III FLASH - NAND (MLC) 2.5" 5V, 12V — to be used for the purposes of basic video and photo editing and with a little bit of gaming — a little overkill? A friend told me that I can get 1TB Hdd to eke out money and storage space; on the other hand, this SSD can boost your pc's performance but rather pricey and is inferior to HDD's storage space.

Which is a better compromise? I am looking forward to your inputs. Hope you can help me with this one!Here's what I did. I went for a 1TB HDD and a 32 gig Cache SSD. The cache will remember your most frequent usage and cache it thus speeding it up.

For some reason my caching software wasn't working right so I used ReadyBoost. Worked out pretty good.Unless its a laptop and you have to chose one or the other, in desktop builds I suggest having one of each.

Here are my reasons:

- SSD's are faster than HDD, so you get the performance gain.
- HDD still present in case of a crashed drive, your far more likely to recover data from a hard drive than a SSD
- Data Storage on HDD is cheaper than on a SSD for price per GB of space used for long term storage of important data.
- Most critical of data you duplicate between the SSD and HDD so that if one drive or the other fails you have a backup
- SSD used for OS and Programs that you want to LAUNCH fast
- HDD used for Programs that you dont need fast launching of as well as this is your main work area for projects where data is created and destroyed. *You want to avoid write cycles on the SSD basically by using the HDD which is better for billions of read/write cycles, where as if your read/writing to a SSD your wearing the cells out that have a limited life and fail when used to many times.
- SSD's dont get fragmented like HDD's so you dont have to worry about defragging a SSD, so your OS and everything on it stays running optimal performance while your HDD requires occasional defragmentation so performance of a HDD isnt a constant but varies based on how close to full capacity it is and how much fragmentation you have.

Also to note, a 240GB SSD would be plenty large enough for a double drive desktop computer if your looking to save money and get a cheaper SSD. I have 3 systems with SSDs and the system I have with a 90GB SSD it ran out of space as Microsoft updates made Windows grow in size and I found myself uninstalling software to then reinstall it to the HDD to free up space on the SSD as Windows 7 64-bit continues to grow from updates. The other system I have has a 120GB SSD and that one has 10GB free currently and I am soon going to have to do like I did with the system that has the 90GB and uninstall software and reinstall it onto the HDD to free up SSD space. The system I have with a Crucial 240GB SSD I still have about 50% free drive space left on it, so thats why I suggest 240GB minimum.

Lastly I also do video editing and I work with very large files when I do so. I had a 60GB SSD OCZ brand that I bought cheap for $40 as a means to have a fast place for video editing and conversions to happen, and the SSD was very fast for the editing and conversions with VirtualDUB 64-bit and prior to installation of the SSD my CPU was running at 75% when converting video into an AVI with the HDD running full tilt, and for example a 30GB video file would take about an hour and a half to create an AVI the size of about 1.2GB of. After installing the 60GB SSD drive to be used as a faster work area for the conversion with far faster read/write speed than a HDD I was able to process that same video file in about 55 minutes. Additionally my CPU was also made more useful during the conversion process and I could tell so because the HDD was a speed bottleneck which the CPU was running at 75% and with the faster SSD the CPU wasnt starving for data to crunch and convert so my CPU had all cores go to 98-100% so the system ran more efficient by the CPU not having 25% idle time of wasted processing time due to speed limitation of HDD that was 75% CPU utilization. That being said if you want your video conversions to happen faster if you run a tool to shrink videos to size them down or convert from one format to another a cheap SSD large enough to take on your largest project would make for faster conversions. But if you dont want a SSD and dont mind the extra time it takes to process a conversion or resizing then just having a HDD and no SSD works too. I USE to do my conversions right before bed so my system would run into the night while sleeping doing conversions of videogame recorded game play videos in which I use to post them which were 30GB as recorded from FRAPS to 1.2GB AVI files to youtube for guild members to see guild events that they weren't able to attend or have instant replace ability to see how something played out and determine who tripped up that caused a wipe in World of Warcraft for example. NOTE: That 60GB OCZ Agility 3 SATA II SSD MLC is now DEAD. I overworked and killed it after 2 years of use. It didnt like the hours and hours of read/writes I have since gone back to using a HDD for my video editing and conversions.
At least one of each is an ideal, as Dave mentions

IMO an SSD is a better starting point as adding a standard HDD as a storage drive later when funds permit will be more hassle-free.




Dave nicely covered all the areas I would have brought up.

basically if a laptop, get the biggest SSD you can afford.
if a desktop, my go-to setup is currently a 120GB SSD (Windows needs ~20GB, Programs Files ~10GB) so there's plenty left over for personal stuff, other system needs and growth and a HDD of whatever size you need.I'd definitely go for the SSD, I moved all my machines over to SSDs a few years ago and haven't looked back.  Having both an SSD as a OS and application drive then a separate hard drive for storing large files generally works out pretty well, if your BUDGET is tight you can always just get the SSD now then buy a hard drive down the line if you need more capacity.Never did I know that it is possible to use both drives at the same time. Sounds tempting as you can get the best of both worlds, but I'll let my means decide. 

Anyway, I've gained a lot of insights on this from you, guys. Thanks a lot!:D

Hi,

I have bought a new mouse pad recently. It is the red Havit HV-GJ10, a silicone mouse pad.
All my mouses cannot work on its surface, they are Logitech M185, Logitech M235, Logitech MK3250.

Why?  I thought buying a mouse pad is just like buying a sandal.. it just works as is, plug and play, there is no specification/decision needed in choosing one (it is just an home-office mouse pad). Additionally, my mouses work WELL on any other surface, except the new mouse pad.

Do you think I should get a replacement? and I wonder if there is any explanation for this problem? 

Sorry if this question seems stupid. Thanks in advance  Optical and Laser mice work by "watching" the surface below the sensor and detecting movement. If a surface is too homogenous, it can have difficulty detecting that movement or the degree of movement.Not a stupid question at all. I have issues with some surfaces with my laser mice. If you really like the mouse pad and dont want to part with it, you could get rid of the gloss and it might work better. To get rid of gloss though would require taking a fine grain sand paper to mouse surface to get rid of the gloss. Once the glossy FINISH is gone it should work. But you dont want any deep PITTING, just to rub it evenly all over surface to remove the gloss and then it should fix the issue.

Myself I have a glass surface table that laser mice dont work on, and I have a cereal box that I cut the one side of cardboard out of it and put the print side down so I just have the brown paper upwards. I place my laptop on top of part of the cardboard to hold it in place and then my mouse on the exposed right hand corner of laptop where laser mouse is and it works awesome. Even works great for notation when no paper around. And when this cereal box mouse pad gets too written on etc, just cut out another as we eat cereal in our home.

I actually prefer the mouse on a more level to surface pad as for otherwise I get w wrist cramp if the mouse is on a thick pad in relation to ARM resting on table edge etc. So the thin cardboard for me works awesome and its free.  Is the mouse pad plugged in ? ?..,proper drivers installed ? ?Did you flip the pad over?  I like the back side better.  Quote from: patio on August 14, 2017, 05:37:16 PM

Is the mouse pad plugged in ? ?..,proper drivers installed ? ?

Did you flip the pad over?  I like the back side better. 

Not a stupid question at all. I have issues with some surfaces with my laser mice. If you really like the mouse pad and dont want to part with it, you could get rid of the gloss and it might work better. To get rid of gloss though would require taking a fine grain sand paper to mouse surface to get rid of the gloss. Once the glossy finish is gone it should work. But you dont want any deep pitting, just to rub it evenly all over the surface to remove the gloss and then it should fix the issue.

Myself I have a glass surface table that laser mice don't work on, and I have a cereal box that I cut the one side of cardboard out of it and put the print side down so I just have the brown paper upwards. I place my laptop on top of part of the cardboard to hold it in place and then my mouse on the exposed right hand corner of laptop where laser mouse is and it works awesome. Even works great for notation when no paper around. And when this cereal box mouse pad gets too written on etc, just cut out another as we eat cereal in our home.

I actually prefer the mouse on a more level to surface pad as for otherwise I get w wrist cramp if the mouse is on a thick pad in relation to arm resting on table edge etc. So the thin cardboard for me works awesome and its free. 

Optical and Laser mice work by "watching" the surface below the sensor and detecting movement. If a surface is too homogenous, it can have difficulty detecting that movement or the degree of movement.

It was a fine morning and i wanted to turn on my PC. I clicked the power button and the fans starting going off, but mouse, keyboard, monitors and graphic tablet stood without power.

I did some googling but only found stuff that wasnt working, i came up with the idea to switch the RAM around - for some reason that worked  . The peripherals starting lighting up again and windows booted up, after a while though i got bluescreens with various error messages or 20 second freezes, sometimes screens flickering and general instability. I looked them up and tried troubleshooting. None of the suggestions worked, but stuff was hinting towards the graphics cards drivers. I played around with that for a while, switching them around etc. didnt work either.

I ran a windows built in driver thing (no idea how its called), it finished, then crashed the computer with another bluescreen and got me into a boot-loop. I had enough and reinstalled my whole system. That done i thought that was gonna be it, because there didnt seem to be any issues anymore. A day of reinstalling stuff and downloading games again, then the same thing i described in the beginning took place, seemingly random. I tried some more troubleshooting from ADVICE from the internet but nothing helped once again. Since i had warranty left for it, i sent it in 2 weeks ago, received it today and the report said that they switched out my motherboard, since it was seemingly broken. Got into Windows, everything seemed to be working fine, was finally able to play some games for 3 hours and thought that was gonna be it. I closed the game and went to watch some videos - but the same thing happens again. Frustrated i boot up and try again, but after about 5 minutes or less, the problem keeps happening.
But now the weirdest thing: Whenever i have a game called "H1Z1:KOTK" open, i just doesnt happen 
The only way i can write this right now is because i got the game running in the background... It sounds stupid i know. I dont want to send in my PC again, holidays are over before i got the chance to enjoy them, you guys are my hope.
The PC has been working for 2 and a half years now, only time something broke it was the power supply.

Operating System
   Windows 8.1 64-bit
CPU
   AMD FX-4300   
   Vishera 32nm Technology
RAM
   16,0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 666MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
   MSI 970A-G43 PLUS (MS-7974) (CPU 1)   
Graphics
   BenQ GL2460 ([email protected])
   L1942 ([email protected])
   2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (Palit Microsystems)
Storage
   111GB Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120GB (SSD)   
   931GB Western Digital WDC WD10EZEX-08M2NA0 (SATA)   
   TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-224DB

Thanks in Advance!
wow, where to start.

so you have reloaded Windows, so as much as you ever can, that can be ruled out.
still assuming a software issue, it seems to work until you load something.  what are the chances it is failing at the same point in time, right after you installed the last piece of software?
is there any logic behind that theory???

then you move onto it being a hardware issue.  they replaced the mobo and PRESUMABLY tested the rest of the components (did they?) so that would leave maybe CPU or RAM as the next straws to clutch.

sadly, it sounds like it's going to be a 'suck it and see' exercise - testing one idea at a time.Yea, Windows has been wiped out completely.

I dont know if i understood the question correctly, but if you mean that the crash occurs when i do something specific, thats a no. I can have it run without anything open and it would happen. If you meant that the crash starts happening after i reinstalled windows recommended drivers or my Geforce Experience recommended drivers that could be a yes. After i completely wiped it out it seemed to have worked fine. After i got the drivers up to date it started happening again. Maybe this is just a coincidence though, because sometimes i can actually do something for a bit before it crashes.

I dont know if they tested the others, in the note it just said that the mainboard was faulty. I already checked all my RAM with MemTest86+ and let it run for 12 hours or so. Result was no errors, so the RAM is fine.while memtest is great, it's not perfect.
memtest saying your RAM passed would tell me to move onto another component - but not eliminate RAM from future testing.
if you have multiple sticks of RAM, leave only one in and run the PC, if it fails, swap the RAM and try again.

also, if possible, wipe the drive and reload Windows afresh (again, I know!) and just run it with basic Windows, no added drivers, no personal software (Word, AV etc) and see what happens.

basically, to troubleshoot, start with the bare minimum, run it, and if no issues, add one thing, then run it some more.
bare minimum also implies running the PC without your graphics card for example.  you want to get it as simple as possible and running reliably before you start adding things to the mix.

it sounds possible that you are installing something along the way, and this piece of software may be the trigger point.

so when it does go pear-shaped, is it spitting out an error message, a BSOD or simply freezing?When the crash accours, both monitors turn black, and all the peripherals dont respond anymore (different to what i had in the beginning, they dont loose power. I should have made the title differently). For example if i try to shut windows down with Keyboard shortcuts it doesnt work, neither a simple power button tap works. I can only get him restrated by holding the power button.
Aswell as that, when i had something running that plays audio, the audio distorts, but keeps playing for about 3 seconds, then going into silence.

Ill try the RAM stuff out, and ill take the GPU out and see. Thanks for the help so far, ill post results later.First.....  Stop all you are doing now, it is a waste of time and decreases the lifespan of your components.  when you post specs, use a file from Windows feedback Hub or a file that tells all hardware, revisions, drivers, and builds, also do a complete event report. EVERYTHING that happens is recorded somewhere. Always allow 20 gig of free space on a HD and have a external drive as a backup. Never allow windows to overwrite logs and events. I can already tell you what the problem likely is. You have automatic updates on or you have a background program causing conflicts, firewall perhaps.  See the file attached ?? This is the type you need to start

[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]All driver finder apps are garbage...start at the beginning and get all your drivers from the MBoard manuf. site...then all peripherals...What power supply did you replace the original with? Because this sounds suspiciously like power supply issues. Quote from: Accessless on August 11, 2017, 11:43:54 AM

What power supply did you replace the original with? Because this sounds suspiciously like power supply issues.

First.....  Stop all you are doing now, it is a waste of time and decreases the lifespan of your components.  when you post specs, use a file from Windows feedback Hub or a file that tells all hardware, revisions, drivers, and builds, also do a complete event report. EVERYTHING that happens is recorded somewhere. Always allow 20 gig of free space on a HD and have a external drive as a backup. Never allow windows to overwrite logs and events. I can already tell you what the problem likely is. You have automatic updates on or you have a background program causing conflicts, firewall perhaps.  See the file attached ?? This is the type you need to start

Only indication of your problems in the event viewer are Critical events that are written at boot when the system unexpectedly loses power, which is to be expected.


In any case, In the past when I have had a system unexpected freeze hard as described, I've found a few causes:

1. HDD Failure and bad sectors. It tries to read from a damaged part of the disk and it seems the take the entire system with it. the system will freeze HARD and won't BSOD or shut down on it's own in such a case. I found that running chkdsk /r on all my drives, scheduling it for reboot, and then rebooting and letting it run to completion was effective in solving the problem in those cases. It takes a good few hours to go through but it's worth eliminating I think.

2. Power management issues. I've found power management options of various kinds can sometimes contribute to a system simply hanging hard or even rebooting for no reason. Sometimes specific devices or drivers aren't compatible with sleep states and cause problems. In the cases I encountered it I just turned off all power management and it seemed to sort the issue.

3. Failing Motherboard. I've had motherboards with failing capacitors that would always hang hard after a time of being powered on. I'm not sure but we may be able to assume this isn't the case if the motherboard was replaced/repaired.

One thing to try may be to run a Linux Live installation from a DVD, and see if you see any similar issues. If you do- then that proves it is hardware. If it's not, then it's specific to the Windows Installation. (or the HDD!)

These are of course in addition to Mark's excellent suggestions.

Hello

I have some computer problems. So the problem is a random black screen. This happens when I go to resolution settings and without changing anything the computer goes black. All other things work music and so on. To solve this I just do alt+tab a few times and it goes to normal. Some times it happens randomly when Im on internet.
I have tried a smaller monitor and it works fine. I got a new 24in monitor and the same black screen all over again. Im thinking GPU but Im not shure.
Can anyone help me. (Sorry for bad english)What resolution are you using between the monitor that has no problems and the one that does this black screen on you?

Is same video cable used for both monitors in your test?

What GPU or Video Card are you using so we know its limitations/normal operating parameters, as well as system specs including OS version?

If you run this larger display on a slightly lesser resolution than what you normally would run it on, does the problem completely go away?

*Also to note that if english is difficult, but your native language easier, Google has a free online translator to where you can type into one box in your native language and out in the other box next to it can pop out the english translation to make it easier if needed. You can then SELECT all in the english box and copy/paste it to here. But I had no problems reading what you stated, I just have a bunch of questions to get more info.  First, thank you for looking into my problem.
My current monitor is 1920x1080 (24in) this one is giving me problems, the other one that work fine is 1024x768 (17in). Small samsung syncmaster.
The cable was the same for both monitors.
If I change the resolution to really low some time it works some time it doesn't.
I had to mention that YESTERDAY I played some games with a friend and I get all settings on high and the game worked fine. when we finished, I tried changing the resolution and it worked without any problems. Today same story as before.

This are my system SPEC. If you need anything else I will get it for you.

Operating System : Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU : Intel Core I5 2400 (Code Name: Sandy Bridge..Package: Socket 1155 LGA)
RAM : 6GB
Motherboard : IPISB-CH2 (Chicago)

GPU:
ATI AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
   Manufacturer: ATI
   Model: AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
   Current Performance Level   Level 0
   Current GPU Clock: 300 MHz
   Current Memory Clock: 150 MHz
   Current Shader Clock: 150 MHz
   Voltage: 0.825 V
   GPU Clock: 1000.0 MHz
   Temperature: 35 °C
   Core Voltage: 0.825 V
   Driver version: 22.19.662.4
   BIOS Version: 113-C4680100-100
   Memory Type: GDDR5
   Memory: 2048 MB
   Bandwidth   72.0 GB/s
I have made a new discovery. So when the black screen happens if I move my mouse to the right bottom side where the "Go to desktop" button is then the desktop is visible. If i move away there is that black screen again. If I press the button it goes to normal unitil next BS.

Hey everyone,

After using a laptop exclusively for over the past decade I'm interested in having the desktop experience of having a large screen and mouse. I guess I'm a bit picky when it comes to components (like I'd spend more to have a quieter power supply, CPU fan and case) and when looking at prices I'm probably looking at about
~$300 cpu
~$100+ motherboard
~$50-60 quiet cpu fan
~$100 case
~$80 power supply
~$120+ RAM
~$150 SSD
So approximately $900, plus the monitor, mouse, and keyboard. I thought for that price I could just buy a pretty decent laptop and plug in a monitor, keyboard and mouse for a similar experience. I'm also thinking plugging into a laptop might be quieter overall too (I haven't used a desktop in a quiet room for awhile so I'm not sure what they're capable of). The main advantage to doing this would be that I can take the laptop with me wherever I WANT of course. I have a chromebook atm that's fine for remote USE although I'm still getting used to it not being able to do some things windows can. One advantage I see for a desktop is that if one of the parts like the on board video card (or any video card) dies, I can just replace the one part instead of junking a whole laptop (they've lasted me 2-3 years in the past). Also I bet the desktop would be fairly faster than a comparable $900 laptop. I don't game though so I don't need it for that. I do use Autocad occasionally (which has worked okay on a i5 laptop) and want to use a 4 K monitor for excel and youtube.

I'm curious if you have opinions regarding using a laptop to mostly use an external monitor and mouse with versus building a proper desktop. Thanks!For the past 7 years, my employers have only provided me with a laptop for a work computer.  Whether in the office or working from home, I always use an external monitor, mouse and keyboard.  With those items attached to my laptop (I use a dock to make things easier), it functions nearly indistinguishably from a desktop computer.  Since it's a work computer, I don't use it for gaming but I run compilers, VMs, Excel, Word, Visio, PowerPoint and all types of other software on it.  The main advantage to having just the laptop is that I can move from place to place and bring my setup with me.  In my current job, I often travel to remote client sites and work on-site but other times, I work from my home.  Portability is the main reason for this setup and it works fine. 

However, if I didn't require portability, I would choose a desktop over a laptop every time.  The cost to performance ratio for a desktop is much better than a laptop.  A desktop is easier to maintain, repair and UPGRADE and has better storage options.  Although I own several personal laptops, I always prefer using my desktop at home.   

Quote

However, if I didn't require portability, I would choose a desktop over a laptop every time.  The cost to performance ratio for a desktop is much better than a laptop.  A desktop is easier to maintain, repair and upgrade and has better storage options.  Although I own several personal laptops, I always prefer using my desktop at home.   

My PC suddenly STOP working.
Then when I tried to restart it (by reset button) it didn't give any Display. (CPU fan & other fans started)
Then again I tried to restart it now this time even CPU fans wont start( but green light on motherboard lights up ).
Than I tried,
Disassemble and REASSEMBLE... didn't work
Changing the RAM... didn't work
Changing PSU... didn't work
Reseting BIOS (By removing battery)... didn't work
Reseting BIOS (By removing jumper)... didn't work

I have notice extreme heating on 2 chipset of motherboard (for which I have attached a picture of by highlighting it)
And those chipset start heating even if dont press the power button on cabinet... As soon as I switch on the power supply (power line from switch board to PSU) it starts heating up...


config....
ASUS M5A78L-M LX V2
AMD FX 4100
CROSAIR 4GB RAM
WD 500GB

[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]just confirming...
with the PC turned off, but PLUGGED in, those chips overheat?
that's not good obviously and would indicate you mobo is faulty.


when you say excessive heat, are we talking toasty warm or fry-an-egg hot?Does the keyboard num lock light come on?

If not, what test equipment do your have?
Mark.
Yes... even if I just ON the switch board button...

I wasn't able to measure its extend of heat as I got scared... Because within seconds it reach to a piont where i could not touch the chipset... And still the heating of the chipset was increasing..
It was giving the ironing smell.. (the smell which comes from iron when it is heated)yep, I know that smell, it's closely followed by the magical WHITE smoke escaping from the chip, never to be put back in.
if the chips got that hot, there is an excellent chance that they have been fried.Geek-9pm

Nope it does not...
I have just another working PC for testing (that is how I came to know that motherboard is having issue) no other special equipment for testingYou could always buy a new motherboard and if your lucky that swap will fix the issue. I'm curious if your have a bad power supply that over voltaged your board. What make/model power supply do you have in this system? QUOTE from: Ibrahim699 on August 16, 2017, 02:22:41 PM

1.  but green light on motherboard lights up.
2.  I have notice extreme heating on 2 chipset of motherboard (for which I have attached a picture of by highlighting it)
And those chipset start heating even if dont press the power button on cabinet... As soon as I switch on the power supply (power line from switch board to PSU) it starts heating up...

I have an old HP G6000 series laptop, which I have recently disassembled, cleaned out, re-applied thermal paste and reassembled to resolve an overheating issue. This got me thinking about the possibility of upgrading the old gal (the misses named it Lappy).

A RAM upgrade will be simple but the CPU is going to be more interesting. It's a socket S1, currently using an AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile TL-56.

There are plenty of S1 CPU's to choose from (not that they are easy to find, this will probably be more of a theoretical exercise than practical), but is there any way of finding out which CPU's will be compatible before buying them? (besides straight up asking HP, their customer service is amazing so they would probably just mail me a complete list but that would spoil the fun :p ).Best bet is look at your laptop model and see if they used that same motherboard for other higher end CPU models. This way your almost guaranteed that the BIOS would support it. Lastly you will want to stick with a CPU that is pretty close if not exact to the TDP of the original CPU to avoid an overheat condition as a better CPU may run hotter.

Back in the day i upgraded a PENTIUM III 500Mhz laptop to 600Mhz processor from another Dell that was dead. CPU worked like a CHARM and it ran slightly warmer but no problems. the upgrade was nice to have the extra 100Mhz which made it slightly faster when compiling code and running games like Diablo 2 etc.

Processors are pretty cheap on ebay. I have been buying 2nd hand processors there for $5-$20 each and no problems yet. * Only problem I had was not paying attention with a socket 478 Pentium 4 HT 3.0Ghz CPU that I bought for $5. Installed it in the motherboard and no boot, I was going to leave negative feedback and then I saw that stupid me didnt read the entire description it was a Mobile Pentium 4HT socket 478 CPU and the pinout is different so not compatible with desktop socket 478 motherboards. Oh well it was only $5 wasted. Learned to read full description. At least I didnt get a picture of the processor for $5 as some people I heard got scammed on ebay years ago buying pictures of Play Station 3 systems when they first came out... description said it was a picture of the system and it was priced like $200 when the system was brand new and just came out for more. Some people thought they were getting an really good deal until the picture of the Play Station 3's arrived.  Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, my laptop has the top end CPU that they ever manufactured with so no clues there.


Just found out an interesting Intel-esk quirk to the S1 socket, it has variations... S1G1, S1G2, S1G3 & S1G4.

Judging buy my current CPU only Gen 1's are compatible.


Sigh... so much for just ramming a 2.4GHz quad core in place of a 1.9 GHz dual core.Accessless, May I ask some question?
Do you think there might be something weak about tthe CPU your have?
(Maybe it was the low end of a family of CPUs for that laptop.)
How much gain would you like to have with your old laptop?
How you considered other ways to improve performance?
Have you got the best RAM for that laptop?
Have you thought about a better, larger hard drive?
Just asking. 

Quote from: Geek-9pm on August 29, 2017, 11:28:37 PM

Accessless, May I ask some question?
Do you think there might be something weak about tthe CPU your have?
(Maybe it was the low end of a family of CPUs for that laptop.)
How much gain would you like to have with your old laptop?
How you considered other ways to improve performance?
Have you got the best RAM for that laptop?
Have you thought about a better, larger hard drive?
Just asking. 

Waste of money...on that laptop.

Okay, i want to upgrade my pc its really slow and i dont know what to do i would like to add like 2 to 3 components so my pc could work BETTER. I would like to get tips from you so i could i upgrade my pc

Here is my configuration:
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core 4000+ 2.10 Ghz
RAM: 4 GB
Graphic card: ATI Radeon HD 3600 Series

And i have Windows 7 Its probably a socket AM2 or AM2+ motherboard. We need motherboard make/model to see what CPU's your system supports and if it maxes out at 4GB or 8GB of RAM. You might be at the maximum memory at 4GB. Some boards of this time period only supported 4GB, the newer boards or most boards with 4 memory slots supported 2GB per slot for a total of 8GB?

If you dont know the motherboard make/model then if it was a purchased system such as a HP or Dell or Compaq etc, we need the make and model # of the system?

Also what 2 or 3 components are you looking to add?

Also what games or software are you looking for this system to support that it might struggle with now?


For starters, the video card could be upgraded and that would make a pretty significant difference. If your motherboard supports a quadcore processor, upgrading to a Athlon quadcore or even a Phenom quadcore would help, however I have a Athlon 64 x2 4450B 2.3Ghz Dual-Core and with a decent video card its not a bad dual core. The CPU all depends on what software or games you plan on running.

Lastly upgrading to a SSD makes a big difference as well and for under $100 you can upgrade to a 128GB or maybe even 240GB SSD making that 8 or so year OLD dual-core system feel like new. Also to mention, how fast is your internet as for computer hardware cant make the internet faster of your connection is a weak internet connection speed.two major factors to consider are 1) budget and 2) usage.


so assuming money is tight and usage isn't going to change, the best upgrade for the smallest outlay with the biggest 'wham' factor would be in swapping your hard drive for a Solid State Drive.
clone your current drive to the new SSD and simply unplug the old drive and swap in the new.
no reinstalling, no downtime.


free cloning software like Macrium Reflect could achieve this, or if you get (for example) a Samsung SSD, they include software to migrate to the SSD for you.


that would be my personal preference, but really, you may just need a good maintenance regime put through the PC, or just wipe the drive and reload Windows.
there are many options on how this particular cat could be skinned.


your RAM, CPU and video card, while not the latest or greatest, are obviously all you need.
and upgrading the memory or graphics won't improve THINGS too much, your CPU would still be the bottleneck.


then there's the over-riding factor - is the expenditure of time and money better spent towards a replacement unit rather than an upgrade?
it's a personally decision with no right or wrong answer really.Very Cheap CPU Upgrade option might be possible to upgrade to a Phenom Quadcore like this one, but we need to know what you have for hardware to ensure that its a match or not to what your system will support. This here is a Phenom x4 9550 2.2Ghz http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Phenom-X4-9550-Socket-AM2-AM2-CPU-HD9550WCJ4BGH-2-20GHz-/332359990161?epid=74121847&hash=item4d6232fb91:g:vwEAAOSw2b1Zo7Y7

While I AGREE with mark on the SSD upgrade makes quite a difference and is easier, from my experience with the Radeon HD 3000 to 5450 GPU's in systems that I own, the 3000 series radeon is a weakling and for around $30 a brand new video card could be added to make better performance with streaming video and games.

My Athlon 64 x2 4450B 2.3Ghz which is similar benchmark to your CPU I have paired with a Radeon HD 5450 instead of the Radeon HD 3000 which is onboard. There is quite a difference between the HD 3000 and HD 5450 and the 5450 and 6000 series radeon video cards can be picked up for around $30 if thats something that interests you.

Biggest thing is whats your application for this system so we know what exactly needs to be sped up... such as I mentioned prior if its internet is slow its probably just that internet is slow and not so much the computer etc.

Lastly on the SSD subject the best part of that upgrade is that say you do that upgrade and your system will be faster to boot and load programs, but applications remain the same speed in CPU execution, you eventually find yourself needing a better system for some reason, that SSD can migrate forward to a newer build so its not wasted money. Video card also can migrate forward to a newer build as well. But for maybe $10 you can more than double the processing power by leaping forward to a high end CPU such as the Phenom x4 9550 2.2Ghz vs the Athlon 64 x2 4000+ 2.1Ghz. *Note: single threaded applications will run about the same but applications able to tap into multithreaded execution will be more responsive. Single threaded applications would only run 100Mhz faster in execution due to the 2200Mhz vs 2100Mhz difference unless able to make use of the extra cache that the Phenom has in which there is 2MB of L3 cache and your current CPU doesnt have any L3 cache.

Here is your current CPU for specs etc: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103774
Here is what you might be able to upgrade to cheaply for specs: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103251

If able to upgrade to this and confident in your ability to perform a CPU upgrade or have someone else who is around who might be able to help hands on, for $10, I'd perform the upgrade. But dont purchase this just yet, we need to make sure your motherboard would handle this and verify that cheap upgrade to older hardware makes sense or not.

Here is your current CPU benchmark = 1042 = https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+64+X2+Dual+Core+4000%2B

Here is the Phenom x4 9550 benchmark = 2549 = https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Phenom+9550+Quad-Core

2.5x faster benchmark, but that doesnt mean necessarily that stuff will launch 2.5x faster, however the SSD would make stuff launch faster by its ability to feed the RAM a faster dump of information than the Hard Drive can.

I have a Toshiba P50-A that I took apart to dust off the cooler and replace the thermal paste on. Now there's no lights turning on on it, even when plugged in, and it does nothing when the power button is pressed.


Things I've tried:

1. Reseating RAM
2. Taking out battery and power and holding down power button for 2 minutes, then reconnecting power and trying to boot.


Any IDEAS? You probably missed a connector somewhere, its easily done. Best thing to do is take it apart again and search for unplugged cables. Try searching for instructional disassembly videos for your laptop on YouTube if you are still struggling.

Last time I did this I missed the CPU fan connector and wondered why it ran hotter with no dust and new paste  Quote from: Accessless on August 30, 2017, 11:12:23 PM

Best thing to do is take it apart again and search for unplugged cables.

You might remember me for having a Polaroid 7 inch tablet. Well, last WEEK it died. I mean I couldn't turn it on and everytime I'd try to charge it, it would get very warm.

I just bought a 14 inch HP Laptop. My question is that I bookmarked a lot of stuff on the tablet. Is there anyway I can retrieve that stuff off my tablet and onto my laptop?The battery for the tablet is toast and likely has a shorted cell which is causing the heat up.

A battery replacement would allow for you to get the polaroid tablet to work again BUT these tablets dont generally have readily available replacement parts.

One idea is to open it and disconnect the battery and see if you can get it to boot off of the wall adapter or USB power connection connected to a power source. If the battery is not REQUIRED to boot it then it can run direct off the wall adapter or usb cable is its that type of microusb port etc.

Once if your able to boot the tablet then I would save info to a MICROSD card and then transfer the data that way or if you have the google drive app installed use cloud storage as a transfer means.

I have opened devices like this and its a royal pain. It required guitar picks and pry tools to open a kindle for example. The good thing is that the pry tool set was like $7 at newegg. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6RP39M6074&cm_re=pry_tool-_-9SIA6RP39M6074-_-ProductI'm an IDIOT. Can you dumb this down a bit?this may get you started; https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Polaroid_Tablet
but you haven't mentioned your make/model.

then you have to ask yourself, how many bookmarks are we talking about and is the effort worth it?What browser were you using on the old tablet?  Some browsers have the ability to sync bookmarks between computers.  It's a long shot but, if you USED a browser that had you create an account, you may be able to login to that account from another device using the same browser and sync your bookmarks to the new device.I think it was internet explorer. And as far as the bookmarks, there was a lot of them. Can somebody help me?Either you or someone else needs to disconnect the internal battery and see if it can be powered direct from its power jack without battery present. If not able to do this then I'd suggest bringing it to a computer repair shop which might support tablets to have them try this.and we still don't know the make/model.
it may help others help you!I was actually able to import my bookmarks by signing into my google account because when I sign to my google account on my laptop, I see the bookmarks from my tablet.Cool ... Congrats in getting them.  Account sync for the win

Hi guys I've got an issue here.

Specs:
CPU: Intel i7-5820k
GPU: Radeon Tri-X R9 290X
MB: AsRock X99 Extreme4
RAM: 2x 8GB DDR4
HDD/SDD: Samsung SSD 840 250GB / WD 1TD HDD
OS: Windows 10

So it's a custom build PC which I've been running for little under three years unfortunately it won't boot anymore. I leave it on sleep mode over night normally a wiggle of the mouse and I'm good to go in the mornings but there was no display today so I restarted the system manually by clicking the power button. It then loaded with a loud fan (not normal and still no display) so I INSTANTLY turned it off again and since have not been able to load with any display. I've tried resetting the BIOS and the CMOS. I've tried re-fitting the GPU, switching out the GPU for another card, re-fitting the RAM, fitting both RAM sticks separately and trying to boot without the other. All to no avail still no sign of life on the monitor. Every one of the fans spin when powered. The motherboard has a red LED lit by the "BIOS_A" which I'm unsure has always been there but suspect it is to show which BIOS is active. (I've also tried booting in BIOS_B also and the red light switched)

I suspect that both RAM sticks have died at the same time which seems unlikely or that the MB is shot, although the fact it lights the LED and powers the separate parts is signs of some life right?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated   
 
Guessing you have tested this system with another monitor to make sure the video signal is in fact missing?

Were you overclocking at all?

Do you have a spare power supply to swap out the power supply and see if that fixes the issue as for a WEAK power supply will cause fans to spin but no boot?Yea the set up is triple monitor anyways so it surely wouldn't be an issue with all three of the displays, but I have been testing on a separate monitor altogether since having the initial problems. I wasn't overclocking no and I don't have a spare power supply the one I'm using is a 650W XTR. Direction I would go would be borrow a power supply from someone to test with or buy a replacement and see if your system will boot. Or if you can safely test your voltages or have a power supply tester that displays voltages you can avoid BUYING a power supply. But your failure sounds like a bad power supply with a low power rail or your main board. Power supply is the cheaper route and most likely cause.

Before buying a NEW power supply try minimal boot and if you have a different video card try that to see if symptoms change. I have had a system before act just like this and when putting in an old video card i had that drew less power the system booted and ran. I then knew that it was either my video card or the power supply. I found out that the 12V was very low and so my video card was causing motherboard to hang at boot because the video card wasnt fully powered. The GeForce 8800GT that I put into the system to test, ran off the PCI-E 16x power and the system behaved. So I knew everything else was healthy and a multimeter test of my 12V showed that it was running at around 10 volts whereas a healthy power supply would be greater than 11.5 volts. Swapped my power supply and was able to stick my better GTX card back in which required the 12V power molex connections and was back in business.

Do you still have a warranty on any parts? The power supply might be under warranty for replacement.Ok cheers I'll borrow a power supply from a friend tomorrow and give it a try, unfortunately don't have a power supply tester. Is it common for power supplies to stop working/fail after working for a while?

The GPU I tried instead of my REGULAR one was a much smaller card that used motherboard power only (which I'm guessing draws less power but I'm a slight noivce with this stuff) I believe I still have warranty on my CPU but from what your saying I'm guessing that's not the issue. Not sure about other parts I'd have to dig up old boxes to find out. Thanks for the replies I'll let you know how the PS test goes, if you have any other suggestions in the mean time all are welcome!

Managed to get a known good stick of RAM to test and that didn't work also (just an update) it's not the RAM. Quote

Managed to get a known good stick of RAM to test and that didn't work also (just an update) it's not the RAM.

Showing my son the joys of building his own PC and relearning the process myself.  We have the following:

>ASUS PRIME B350 MB
>AMD Ryzen 5 1600x CPU
>G SKILL Trident Z DDR 8G RAM (quantity 2)
>EVGA 600W PSU
>TESSERACT Deep Cool Case
>SCANDISK 480G SSD
>Windows 10 OS (Not yet installed)

Assembly has been the fun part, and we both agree that making the front panel connections to the MB has been our greatest achievement to date.  We powered up for the first time yesterday and got spinning fans and an initial beep followed by one sustained and three short beeps, followed by one sustained and four short beeps, followed by one sustained.  Here's what we've done to troubleshoot and the results:

>DISCONNECTED SSD - No change in behavior
>Installed a single DDR STICK - No change in behavior from either stick regardless of the MB port used
>Removed DDR sticks - Fans power up, but no beeps
>Reset CMOS - Maybe an additional 20 seconds to hear the initial beep followed by the beep pattern described above

Here are my suspicions:

>No graphics card - The ASUS has native VGA and HDMI ports.  There are no jumpers, so I can't see why this would be a show stopper.
>No CPU FAN - I thought it STRANGE that AMD does not include a cooler for the 1600x.  I might have gone with the R5 1600 had I known this prior to making the purchase.  We won't be overclocking the CPU for the time being, but if the MB is expecting a fan, then I can see the incomplete POST.  Thoughts/suggestions/gentle mocking appreciated!right off the bat, I'd be checking your RAM is DDR4 and has the FREQUENCY (MHz) compatible with your motherboard.
don't use an add-on video card just yet, just run it with the onboard card to eliminate one avenue of those beeps.


next is the CPU fan, definitely install one, you need it.
not only for cooling but the mobo BIOS will have some sort of "hey, where's the fan stupid?" warning indicator.


then look up the ASUS website for a 3-1-4-1 beep code.You'll need a graphics card on that system, the Ryzen CPUs don't have integrated graphics hardware, the ports are on the motherboard so that future AMD APUs (which do have integrated graphics) will be able to use them.  Of course there may be other issues but you'll definitely need some sort of add on graphics card with that CPU.

I have an iBall Power Supply LPS223-400 ATX which GOT BLOWN. This particular model PRODUCTION has stopped and i want to know which smps i should buy.Can anybody tell me , pleaseAny standard ATX PSU will do...i'd get a better unit this time...

On my tablet, I downloaded apps from the google play store. Now, I have a laptop but I'd like to know where I could find these apps on my laptop. Some of the apps I downloaded even say "installed" when I go to the google play store on my laptop. Can you please help?I'm sure I'll be corrected if wrong (I'm not big on the Android OS) but Google Play Store apps only works on Android devices.
So unless the laptop has an Android OS, I believe you can't install them.Mark is correct... however if you want to run an emulator, I use Andyroid which allows you to connect to the google play store and install apps to PC to run in the emulator. The emulator works AWESOME for everything that I have wanted to run for android apps on my Windows 7 64-bit system with 4GB RAM and 8 year old Quadcore Athlon II x4 620 2600Mhz with Nvidia Geforce GT 730 128-bit with 2GB RAM. The emulator is lightweight and would PROBABLY run fine on any Windows 7 or newer OS computer. https://www.andyroid.net/My laptop is an HP. Would they work if I open it in google chrome?Chrome is just a browser...likely no...So, how do I use the apps on my laptop? Do I have to reinstall the apps using another store? Not Google Play, but what about ITunes? The apps aren't available. You can't install them. You can't use them. You will need to find alternatives.

They show as "installed" because they are installed to a device linked to your google account. I see "installed" next to stuff installed on my Smartphone for example.What BCP is TELLING you is that the apps are not intended to install or run under Windows. They are for Android or IOS systems.Ok. But how do I find apps on a laptop. What website can I use. In other words, on my tablet, I went to the google play store for apps. What or where do I go for my laptop?if the laptop has Windows 8, 8.1 or 10, the equivalent app store is the Windows Store.
if you have one of those Operating Systems, then you will see an icon called Store, or hit the Start button and simply type in Store and it'll find it for you.


otherwise you'll need to do what everyone has done before these 'app stores' existed - Google search for a program that satisfies your needs - old school style.  Its a Windows 10 Notebook so the apps would be available at the windows store?yes and no.

it all depends on what apps you are after.


Programs, or software, like Office, anti-virus, Photoshop, that sort of thing, you'll still only get from RETAIL, or their equivalent online, website (or store if you like).


Google Play Store, Apple App Store and those sort of locations are typically for little, fun, 'utilities' (or apps) type of things, lightweight games is a good example.
if you are chasing for example, something to "how do I convert my AVI movies into MP4 files?" then these app stores are not what you should be looking at.


the whole 'app' term is loosely thrown around these days when referring to programs or software.So, if I wanted to download the WatchESPN app, CBS Sports App, Netflix, where would I go to download those apps?for your Notebook, you'll either have to see if those examples have an app in the Windows Store (I know Netflix does) or you'll have to go to their respective website, like www.espn.com/watch


all those apps you gave as examples are simply another way to go to the companies website and have the content streamed in a mobile friendly format.
when using a PC (or notebook, laptop) just go to the website.


and either way, you'll still need to subscribe to their service in order to watch it, like Netflix.Ok, now I downloaded google chrome and using that for a web browser. Now, if I am on the internet using google chrome, would I be able to use the apps that I downloaded from my tablet?

Hi there,

I am thinking to UPGRADE the laptop to SSD (at least 1TB). What brand would you suggest? Are there other options I should consider before I upgrade? Does SSD comes with ONE speed or there are differences between them ?

Regardswhat's the make/model of the laptop?
that'll determine the type of SSD; it MAY be a normal 3.5" type, or mSata, or m.2 type drive.


and have you prepared yourself for the cost... 1TB SSD's are around $AUD500.


as to speed differences, all the manufactures have benchmark scores (if you can believe them) so use that as your guide.
but give or take, they all seem to fall with the same ballpark figures.


I've used Intel, Samsung, Kingston units without complaint, but things LIKE price, performance and warranty will sway your decision.Personally, I like Intel SSD's the BEST. But Samsung and Kingston make great SSD's, too, and the Dell SSD's in my Compellent SAN are amazing.

Check out these links:
http://ssdboss.com/ssds/the-best-ssds
http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/

Things to consider before upgrading. You will have to either image your laptop or reinstall Windows. I recommend reinstalling, but make sure you backup your data before either option.Thanks for replies guys!

Interesting - Plextor and Toshiba are the top ones.

Greetings folks!

So basicaly I purchased my laptop for the sole purpose of gaming (lenovo Z5170)... so as you would imagine I recently purchased a cooling fan since I noticed that its TEMPERATURE is rising alot whenever I play a demanding game... I had about 3 FRIENDS of mine who were in the same situation as I am so they bought one ASWELL and SURPRISINGLY it causes motherboard / graphics card failure after some time so I figured that I'd just connect the cooling pad to my mobile charger via my USB cable to a power source...So my question is will this cause any damage to the cooling pad on the long term since I can't see the power requirement written on it? Thanks in advance!

P.S. My charger's output is 0.2 amperes and 5 volts and this is the cooling pad I bought (dual fans)

http://www.kanbkam.com/eg/en/2b-lf015-notebook-cooling-pad-silver-11723177Since they provide zero specs on that site i would contact them directly...Is it powered via usb from your laptop? If so, plugging it into a usb charger will be fine.

I recently got a new CPU, and im wondering why i cant stream with it, since i thought it should be able to.

CPU: http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bulldozer/AMD-FX-Series%20FX-8350.html
GPU: http://www.nvidia.com/gtx-700-graphics-cards/gtx-760/
Mobo: 970A-G43 PLUS (msi)
Win: 8.1

Ive seen people with much worse cpus stream the games i want to quite fine but mine seems to giving me a bit of a struggle.
Im using OBS and im streaming at 30FPS 3000Bitrate, preset ultrafast, x264 on 1280x720. I tried other presets and settings and there are basically no changes except framerate.
To eliminate any other factors such as lag from webcam-recording or overlays i ran with only the game-capture.

On the game H1Z1 i get 80FPS on highest settings but iput it on lowest settings for the stream to e able to run it. I get 40FPS ingame and stutters every now and then. OBS tells me that its using 5-15% of the CPU when streaming. I guess this is fine since im rarely getting skipped frames. If you guys tell me that the CPU just isnt good enough to run the game and the stream and also get a good performance with my rig ill accept it, but i also wanted to stream another game and had some odd issues.

When playing the game "osu", which is a really not graphically or memory demanding game it runs on barely 60FPS when streaming. When the streams off i get 1000+FPS, since as i said its really not resource demanding. Aswell as that i get very SMALL stutters every 30secs or so, making it basically unplayable. This game isnt an fp-shooter or anything you probably know, you click circles to the beat on a 2d surface, thats it. It gets extremely fast though, and a small lag can really ruin things very easily. When im Streaming osu OBS pretty much tells me the same as for H1Z1, but programs like HWMonitor tell me that any core is max used 40% every now and then, otherwise lower. This is weird and the reason i also POSTED the H1Z1 stuff above, because when im streaming H1Z1 max core usage is around 70%. This leads me to the conclusion that theres something wrong with the CPU.

The chips 8 cores are unlocked by default, so theres nothing to do there, and HWMonitor tells me that CPU temperatures when idle are ~40 (almost same for osu open), ~50 with H1Z1, and ~60-70 when streaming, so it cant really be the temperatures fault either. I tried overclocking the cpu to 4.3 with OC GENIE, but it gave me stability issues and the 10 mins i was able to stream didnt feel much different, so i went back.

I really hope SOMEBODY can help me with this.


How fast is your internet connection? You might be looking at a bandwidth bottleneck in which it can only send so much through a straw and so the frame rates of the stream are low. Test internet speed / bandwidth at www.speedtest.netMy Stream itself is fine, as i said no dropped frames and it runs smoothly at 30fps, its just the lag i get myself. I get around 4 up btw.

I recently moved and now that I'm settled I tried to set up my laptop (Lenovo Y560) to my monitor ( Gateway 23" flatscreen) but the monitor won't mirror the laptop. I have power up the monitor and I see a flashing blue LIGHT in the lower rt. of the screen. I have tried using the FN keys but still no HELP. All connections are in order and I just simply don't know what to try NEXT. I can get by WITHOUT the monitor but it is nice to have the HUGE screen to use. Can anyone offer suggestions please?Did this work this way prior to the move with that display?

What type of connection do you have between display and laptop? ( VGA, HDMI )

Are you using any signal or connection type converters VGA to DVI or a box that CONVERTS one signal type to another in between or older single directional HDMI cables to where turning cable around fixes the issue between laptop and display?

Found my old Dell Vostro laptop, which was not in use for about 4 YEARS. Made some CLEANING, checked connectors, changed thermal paste...
HDD failed to boot and BIOS was unable to recognize it.
Everything else passed internal tests and seem to WORK just fine.

Then HDD booted (I did nothing, it just happened). But now I'm afraid to start laptop and run HDDScan: if it is some mechanical problem, next failure can be devastating.
So, basically, what may it be? Can you approximate risk of major damage if I just boot and try to go through scan? Or should I just go and buy new HDD?Replace it... Quote from: patio on November 15, 2017, 07:20:46 AM

Replace it...

Hey there! Can anyone help me?

**CPU** | [AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor]
**Motherboard** | [ASRock - AB350M Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard]
**Memory** | [Crucial - Ballistix Tactical 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory]
**Memory** | [Crucial - Ballistix Tactical 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory]
**Storage** | [Kingston - A400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
**Storage** | [SEAGATE - BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive]
**Video Card** | [PowerColor - Radeon R9 280X 3GB TurboDuo Video Card]
**Case** | [Cougar - MX330 ATX Mid Tower Case]
**Power Supply** | [Cooler Master - 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply]
**Operating System** | [Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit

Here's the situation: I have just upgraded my rig, and the only pieces that aren't new are the PSU and the GPU. They were workin really fine before upgrading everything else (and formatting). The problem here is: Everytime i try to launch anything that needs my GPU, the pc restarts. Games (Wolfenstein,Overwatch,TERA) and stresstests (furmark) I tried AMD driver 17.7.1 , and the latest one (as of 11.13.2017) (always uninstalling the drivers via DDU on safemode) . Already checked the CPU, the RAM Memory, the PSU, the SSD and the HDD. Everything is working fine. Already took off the GPU, cleaned connectors with rubbing alcohol, put it back in. I mean,everything GPU related was working fine before the massive change on the other pieces, and now it seems that the GPU itself is causing those reboots. One thing i noticed in HWMonitor is that the frequency is really low (300MHz/150MHz) . Checked the temps, and they're fine. Pc literally restarts like 1 second after demading more of the GPU, so no temperature problem.
Can anyone help? thanks!!
 EDIT: On device manager, some components appear with a exclamation mark: https://imgur.com/UUOyKP4Hey,

I've been glancing at your mobo manual.. http://asrock.pc.cdn.bitgravity.com/Manual/AB350M.pdf

What changes have you made in the BIOS? For instance have you been overclocking this PC?

Is the BIOS up to date or is there a firmware update available?

If I were you I would reset the BIOS to factory defaults and see if the GPU is still giving you problems & you're still seeing PCI errors in device manager

If there are firmware updates for the BIOS I would not apply them until after you do the factory reset

Can't guarantee this will work but it's what I would do
Did you re-install ALL the motherboard drivers after the format ?   
What version of windows were you RUNNING before the format ?
Have you got the drivers disc SUPPLIED with the GPU ? if so, try them drivers.
Does the motherboard have windows 10 drivers available ( check at the motherboard makers web site) If so, download and install them.

I am a gamer I don't really know a lot about computers so all of the system specs I put are from the System information screen I also don't understand half of the information but anyway my questions are: I have an    AMD FX-8800P Radeon R7, 12 Compute Cores 4C+8G, 2100 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s) and want to upgrade it to either an i5 or i7 Intel core processor are the i5 and i7 better than what I have?

I want to upgrade my graphics card from what i have which is Name   AMD Radeon (TM) R9 360 (I THINK I typed "graphics" into the search and this is what appeared) to a super clocked EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti SC GAMING, 4GB GDDR5, DX12 OSD Support (PXOC) Graphics Card 04G-P4-6253-KR I'm ASSUMING this is better than what i have.

i do not know what type of motherboard I have (unless the BASEBOARD thing on here is it: BaseBoard Manufacturer:   Dell Inc. BaseBoard Model:   Not Available BaseBoard Name:   Base Board still no very helpful to me.)
 or how to find out. i have a Dell Inspiron 3656 if that helps if not let me know how to find out what motherboard I have and I will

if any needed information is missing tell me what it is and where to look to get it and ill add it.


The processor you have is pretty good, unless you wanna pay 300 dollars for a better one, and yes that graphics card is better than what you have. If you could try and find out how much RAM your PC has then you could upgrade that, but you would need to figure out what type of RAM your PC takes. I hope this helps!1st off if you are looking to move to an i5 or i7 you cannot use your EXISTING MBoard...
2nd Dell's are notorious for having just enuff power for as built so you would be lookin at a new PSU as well..

It may be wise to start considering a new build rather than upgrading an existing Dell.I agree with Patio on the fact that you might want to build a new system fresh vs upgrading this one. The Motherboard you have currently has a AMD FX-8800P which is a Mobile CPU with a maximum TDP of 35 watts. https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-FX-8800P-Notebook-Processor-Specifications-and-Benchmarks.144074.0.html

If your tight on money you could get a refurbished (used) Core i5 or Core i7 and go that route. I'd check with us here before you make a purchase if going this direction as for there are many generations of i5 and i7's and some used computers out there can be misleading where they hide the fact that its early i5 or i7s in hopes to snag someone thinking its the latest generation etc. If your just looking at i5 or i7 and how many Mhz or Ghz it is you can get bit by paying too much if you don't verify the actual CPU that's in it for Intel Builds.

hello,
 
ill try to make this short. im only able to fully charge my laptop when its off. it does charge when im using it but it takes hours and hours and so far i havent been able to fully charge it when on; even when im using it for like 7 hours.....this all started when i unfortunately downloaded a program called "driver easy" thinking that updating all my drivers was NECESSARY and would make it faster. i feel like it ruined my laptop, after i installed like 30 drivers in one day. so i wasnt able to figure out which drivers to delete, i mean its a very delicate SITUATION, so i was advised to just install windows 10, since i had windows 7 and maybe the problem would be solved.
 
 so i clean installed windows 10....same problem. and when i plug the laptop in it starts acting FUNNY, veeery slow and just lagging in everything, and keeping it PLUGGED in is already eating up my battery cuz it wont charge 100% anymore...so if its not the drivers, is it the motherboard? i googled some things and im thinking maybe this is the issue. idk. is it because my laptop has always overheated since the beginning and finally it has permanently damaged it? why does it only charge fully when off? are the drivers interfering w/ charging when on? whats going on and how can i fix it? do i have to replace the motherboard?
 
i have a dell laptop, E6400, now has 64 bitChecking on additional info with this one...

So laptop states its not charging when its running and will run with no other problems off of its wall adapter power supply, but battery wont charge when its in operation, battery only charges when its off?

When off and charged to 100%, with running off the battery alone its able to power this laptop for at least an hour without the battery going dead on you after a full charge from power off charging?

If the battery once fully charged from being powered off and charged is able to hold the laptop live for at least an hour on its own without diving/draining fast, then I'd think that the power supply for the laptop might need to be replaced. However if the laptop running on battery when fully charged runs out of juice faster than when it was new, then I'd suggest a new battery. Its more probable for the battery itself to be pulling heavier with a weak cell. If this is the case then you might feel warmth from the battery when its being charged as the battery is fighting the taking of a charge. Some laptops have the ability to sense current input and if the EXTERNAL power supply isnt able to charge the battery + run the laptop, it will switch over to not charging the battery and as a last resort of staying alive it will run off of direct power from the power supply adapter which is the power supply that goes between outlet and the cord to the laptop. Interestingly on Lenovo Laptops they will even report that the power supply isnt the proper wattage for the laptop and act like yours plus the Core i5 2.4Ghz CPU will run in a non-turbo green power state affecting performance until a suitable heavier wattage power adapter/supply is used. Your is a Dell and not sure if Dell has such a current sensor to underclock a laptop and report wrong rated power supply.

By the way, is this power supply the one that came with laptop or a replacement that your using? If its a replacement then it might be the correct voltage but not able to carry the current demands of charging a battery + operation at the same time.

If this battery has never been replaced, it is probably a good idea to replace that first. Just saw that this is about a 10 year old laptop. https://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-Latitude-E6400-Notebook.12875.0.html  This link has all sorts of useful info on your laptop including battery life before drained figures of a healthy battery.If you didn't install the proper Dell Win 10 drivers it'll exhibit this issue...Yeah I checked there too Patio    before posting what I posted earlier and their driver support ended with Windows 7 as seen here. Its a laptop that is around 10 years old. Here is the supported OS listing for drivers: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/drivers/supportedos/latitude-e6400

Dell did however state this:

Quote

Note regarding operating systems not listed above:
Dell may not support an operating system for various reasons, including discontinued support from the software vendor or lack of availability with certain products.
For more information about an unsupported platform or operating system, please contact the software vendor.

Originally the PROBLEM was just my ethernet ports drivers were out of date so I TRANSFERRED the correct update over nothing happened I then browsed the internet for answers nothing really worked I tried using a backup to a PREVIOUS update resetting the computer ( as in restoring to practically factory mode) and downgrading I'm quickly running out of options wondered if anyone here could have any insight as to what I could try right now it's windows 8 pro brick not internet access and out of date drivers under the "other DEVICES TAB". I just want this fixed already and just out of curiosity would getting a new hard drive fix this. As for specs it's a custom built with a graphics cards with windows 10 home version.Where exactly are you getting drivers from ? ?

Hi everyone,

So I need to upgrade my ram for editing purposes, I have a cheap motherboard which I got a while ago from a friend, it is a gigabyte ONE and I can't seem to find the model
number to know what ram is compatible for my pc.
I have tried looking on the actual motherboard itself, and have used SYSTEM information utility, and have had no luck with either.
Is there any other places I can check to see for my model?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!the good news is it will be on the motherboard, and as you are finding, the bad news is they can be tricky to find.
if you have an add-on graphics card, it maybe HIDING under that.


being Gigabyte, it probably starts with GA-....


if no luck, take a snapshot and post that, SOMEONE here may be able to spot it.


if you haven't already, GET Speccy from here; https://www.piriform.com/speccy/builds
it should show the motherboard specs.

Hi everybody,

My 4-year-old HP envy laptop (dv6-7245) was frequently crashing due to overheating, so I decided to CLEAN the fan and apply new thermal paste.

I fully disassembled the laptop to access the fan, from which I removed a thick layer of dust. Then I removed the old thermal paste from the CPU heat sink with alcohol and replaced it with new paste.
When reassembled, I connected to the ac adapter and tried to turn it on.

The laptop makes its usual STARTUP noises (fan whirring, hard drive spinning) but the screen is black. Caps lock button is blinking continuously. Tried to reseat RAM and remove static electricity, and disassembled/reassembled 3x more to make sure everything is in its place. Also tried connecting to external display, and same result. Don't know what to do now-- this sounds like one for a tech expert. Any suggestions?

Thanks for helping,

-TylerVerify all ribbon cables are attached properly to the main board and ribbon cable locks locked. If you removed ribbons without RELEASING the ribbon cable locks then you could have damaged the connection. You arent suppose to yank on them until they come out, there are small PLASTIC locks on them. Its very common for people to just pull them forcefully from the ribbon cable to board connection dragging the ribbon out of the jacks jaws as well as pressing firmly to get the ribbon back into the jack without making sure the jaw is unlocked first then applying the ribbon cable lock.

Hi,
I bought a new MONITOR, LG 24MP68VQ.
The idea was to connect my PC through DVI or VGA, and connect the PS3 by HDMI.
Now, PC works just fine. But the PS3 doesn't.

So I turned on the PS3, Then SWITCHED the output to HDMI, And I see a black screen. The black screen flashes every 5or10 second, And I can see there is a text in every flash. But it's so fast that i can't read it. So I record a video of it and I paused that moment. And it says "HDMI out of range".

I saw other THREADS on this issue. And their problem was solved by resetting PS3's display setting by holding the power button for 2 beeps. But my problem remains the same.

So far i tried :
- Holding the power botton for 2 beeps. (RESULT: Flashing Screen)
- USING a HDMI to VGA converter. (RESULT: A little of PS3 menu flashes, but its all white noise!)
- I even connect the PS3 to an old LCD trough VGA converter, Most of the display was out of screen, But I managed to set up the display setting. And then connect to the new monitor. (RESULT: No Flashing Screen. But it says "HDMI out of range"!)


Is there any Awesome Expert who can help me...
Where are your vid card drivers from ? ?...or is this a laptop ?

More info...Video card drivers on the PC wouldn't affect the PS3's HDMI output to the TV.

Unfortunately I think this is the sort of thing that REQUIRES somebody who is familiar with the PS3 which I'd go out on a limb and say is probably not a description of the typical volunteer here.
:p

:X3::X3:


Solved it!!!

It was the HDMI cable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who Knew!!!!???

I have a ~3 year old Asus X552e laptop which has begun regularly losing the Wifi connection perhaps 2-3 times per day.  Fixes I've tried include updating the wireless ADAPTER drivers, CHANGING the power settings so that Wifi does not switch off when in power-saving mode, and running the troubleshooter if and when it does go off. 

The connection always comes back upon restarting, but obviously time and sometimes work is lost by losing all browser activities and having to restart the whole system.

This began happening within the last 2 months or so; it occurred to me that a Windows 10 update released during that time may have been a partial cause. 

MOBILE and other devices using the same router have no such issues, so the problem is only with this laptop.

Can anyone suggest any possible solutions? Thanks in advance.
Friend of mine ran into same ISSUE with a HP laptop he had and Windows 10 stomping on his wireless drivers. His solution was to buy a USB Wireless Adapter and connect through that. He bought one that was listed as Windows 10 compatible and so Windows 10 didnt see drivers for a prior version of Windows and take it upon itself to replace them etc.

He has this adapter here which fixed his issue and also has bluetooth in addition to Wireless N which supports backwards compatibility to B/G as well: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833315160&cm_re=usb_wireless_adapter-_-33-315-160-_-Product

Only drawback is that it consumed one of his few USB ports, but he had plenty of USB ports to get by on his laptop. Additionally this adapter installs very close to the body of the laptop, there are some out there that look like USB Flash Sticks and those come at a risk of SHEERING off your USB port when bumped or bent upwards etc, while this model is small and not much to catch on anything. Theres a hidden setting in Device Manager most people miss...it says "allow Windows to turn this off to save power"...

Long story short…keyboard stopped working on laptop, DELL 5759 TOUCH screen..nothing on is  working…. I am rather COMPUTER savy, hence I did do they obvious things, including removing driver via device manager.  Tried exterior keyboard, it would not respond either.   Took it to a PC repair shop, they had it for an entire day, unable to resolve as well.  Their suggestion.  Return it to dell have motherboard replace. its a MB issue
I’m not convinced its mother board.  No other issues.  I can use exterior mouse and OSK. 
I did a reboot and used my F2 key to get into bios.  It got me there.  It’s now doing an ePSA  diagnostic scan.  That’s another perplexing issue…in this screen, my ARROW keys and enter key, the only ones I can use in this screen, do work!!    And as I said, nothing on my keyboard works when my windows is up!
Could a factory reset help for this?   any opinion, advise, welcome, i am completely at a loss as to what it could be!  again all else is working smoothly, so i doubt its a virus type issue!  it's a tuffy
Boot this computer from a free Linux distro like Linux Mint. It it behaves fine on Mint then its not a motherboard issue and is an issue with Windows somehow. If keyboard acts up under Linux then you have a hardware issue.

https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

I did a reinstall of Windows 10 on my laptop last week. All went well and the first days I did not run into any PROBLEMS. Two days ago HOWEVER, my sound is disabled whenever a sound is played. Here's what happens: when I reboot my laptop I can see the speaker icon in my sys tray with the soundwaves. When I play a sound, I can hear the sound for about 1 second and then the sound is disabled. The speaker icon in the sys tray changes to an icon with no soundwaves but with a cross next to it. Whenever I click on the icon, I can set my audio LEVEL and can enable the sound again. But when I play another sound, the problems reoccurs.
 
I already uninstalled the audio (Realtek HD) driver by uninstalling the Realtek software and uninstalling the driver, and then reinstalling it but to no avail. I also ran the Audio Trouble Shooter but to no avail either.
Anyone has any suggestions?
Where did you get the audio drivers from ? ?From my laptop provider. The laptop is assembled by a in my country well KNOWN and legitimate laptop assembler. They also provide support by making drivers tailored for your specific laptop available for download on their website.

Hi guys,

I have a Dell Latitude E6330 laptop. All the usb ports stopped working suddenly. It doesn't recognize any
device plugged in. I have reinstalled Windows but still not working. But you are able to use the usb ports of
a DOCKING station when you PLACE the laptop on.
Any SOLUTION for me to fix my usb ports not working?

Thanks. Many laptops have a USB daughter board. The fact that it works with docking station which would use the same USB controller MAKES me think you have a damaged daughter board. You would need to open laptop to see if this is the case or with make/model look up to see if a picture of the inside or a parts break down is available to show a daughter board.

 I have had to replace these before on laptops where somehow something was plugged in and the USB port got struck and bent damaging the daughter board inside such as child running through a mouse CORD and pulling whole laptop off of the stool that it was resting on etc. This required a daughter board and a new hard drive to repair.

Hi, i am using an hp spectre 360 laptop mainly for my daughter to watch her cartoons and such. But recently from time to time, the mouse and keyboard does not RESPOND or function. I have seen at times the caps lock will blink.

I had to replace the hdd a month ago as the old one failed. But it worked fine up until like a few days ago. The only way i have found to fix it was to hard reset the laptop a couple times. I checked (using the touchscreen) to see if they are working from the control PANEL and it says they are working fine.

Sometimes it will randomly start working again. But its just annoying when it decides not to work and i have to use the touchscreen

So any idea on what is causing them to not respond and more importantly how to get them to work again without resetting the laptop over and over again?


This laptop is a 360 hp Spectre, it has 4GB ram, and i INSTALLED a 500GB HDD as the old one failed. I have windows 7. Used to be windows 8 on the original hdd. My antivirus is Eset internet securityBluetooth or wireless keyboard/mouse?
May be they are going to sleep to save power, CHECK your Power Saving options in Control Panel and set to HIGH Performance.


So when you replaced the drive, you reloaded all the software and drivers?
What happened a few days ago when it started playing up, Anh updates or new software installed?Just the regular keyboard and touchpad mouse on the laptop. I set to high performance and still does not work. 

Yes when i replaced the drive, i installed all the necessary drivers. Everything was working fine for a few weeks no problems until a few days ago. I did not install any programs. I just use the laptop to watch youtube videos. Where are the drivers from ? ?I think i got the drivers from the driverpak website. But i will need to double check it to make sure when i get homeOk i seemed to have solve the problem. I installed some optional updates from windows that includes the mouse and keyboard. And now its functioning. There was also some needed updates too. But so far it is working fine. Thanks all who tried to help.

I will post again if there is a problem in the future Quote from: Ksinley on September 15, 2017, 09:44:27 AM

I think i got the drivers from the driverpak website. But i will need to double check it to make sure when i get home

So a few MONTHS ago my battery died, which in turn made my computer turn off while gaming. It seemed that the computer (GPU?) needed more power than the AC could give causing it to shut down.

So I got a new battery, and EVERYTHING worked fine for a week or two. Now when I play demanding games like PUBG the AC charger disconnects and reconnects frequently, and sometimes the computer shuts down. GPU-Z logs say that the temperature is not above 80' degrees just before the shut downs, which leads me to believe its a problem with energy consumption.

The computer is an ASUS ROG G751JY with Nvidia 980m. The AC part is original, and the seller said the battery is original too (and it looks and feels identical to the original).

Other things to note is that during gaming the right side of the laptop is significantly warmer than the left side. The right side is where the AC intake is. The AC jack (?) is also pretty warm when gaming.

Again the disconnections and shut-downs only happens during demanding games. Never during browsing.

I am attaching some photos from a gaming session, with information form HWiNFO64 and GPU-z. The last picture is taken just as the charger disconnects and reconnects. The temps are not over 80 degrees C.

https://imgur.com/a/pgjnY

If I understand correctly my AC charger has 230 watt (19,5 V x 11,8 A), so I don't understand why its disconnecting. I thought maybe I could try to undervolt the GPU, but I dint find a program that could do it. The volt option in Afterburner is already at minimum it seems. I can only overvolt?

When I run Furmark the laptop shuts down immediately when starting the stress-test - both on PSU and on the battery. When I start the test, the temps are around 50. So I dont understand how it can be a HEAT issue. And since it happens on the battery too, maybe it isnt a PSU issue?

Regards*sad*AC Adapters typically INCLUDE a circuit which opens the connection (disconnects) if they detect an overload. This is entirely consistent with the disconnection/reconnection you are seeing.

Since based on what you've said this hasn't always been the CASE ,either the system is drawing more power than it used to or the AC Adapter is now overloading at a lower current draw. Most of what you've stated would seem to indicate it isn't the laptop itself which points at the AC Adapter as failing.I'll bet the adapter and battery are aftermarket... Quote from: BC_Programmer on September 16, 2017, 01:00:57 PM

AC Adapters typically include a circuit which opens the connection (disconnects) if they detect an overload. This is entirely consistent with the disconnection/reconnection you are seeing.

Since based on what you've said this hasn't always been the case ,either the system is drawing more power than it used to or the AC Adapter is now overloading at a lower current draw. Most of what you've stated would seem to indicate it isn't the laptop itself which points at the AC Adapter as failing.

I found an old flash drive and wanted to see what had been saved on it. I want to make sure that the pictures that were on the flash drive aren't hiding somewhere in the COMPUTER's memory. How can I be sure they have been completely erased?Low level format will overwrite the contents of the unit.


Right click the drive from within File Explorer and choose Format and unstick Quick Format.Do I need the flash drive to do this? Hang on guys - I think there's a misunderstanding here. mwine79 wants to make sure the PIX aren't on the hard drive or "in the computer's memory". A low level format of the hard drive (or ANY format of the hd, for that matter) will erase EVERYTHING on the drive. If that's what you want to do, fine. But if all you want to do is make sure the photos aren't on the drive, just do a search on the drive and if you find them, DELETE them. If you want to make sure they aren't in the computer's "memory", just reboot the system. A common misnomer is "memory" when you mean hard drive and vice versa, so I'm not 100% certain what you mean. Anyway, the above should ANSWER your question either way.+1 with Allan's comment - DO NOT low level format your system hard drive.


The only drive you mention is the flash drive and that's the only drive I was referring to, but it never hurts to double check these things.We will PROBABLY know after it's too late...

so i was thinking about getting a new GPU and a friend of mine suggested his which is AMD HD 7770 2GB
my specs are I5-2400 3.10GHz
8GB RAM
my question is will it bottleneck with the cpu and will it be able to play new titles such as the witcher 3 on 1024x786 and med. settings ?Not sure what you mean by "will it bottleneck with the cpu".
We would need to know more about your setup, such as ram speed, motherboard, make/model of pc, hard drive or solid state drive, etc.

Also, the 7770 is an older card. If you have a set BUDGET, you might be able to get a newer/better card. If it's free, just install it and see if it's better.
to get a detailed report on your system's specs, get Speccy from here; https://www.piriform.com/speccy/builds


in Speccy, click File > Publish Snapshot > Copy to Clipboard > Close.
now you can paste(Ctrl+V) that link into a post.A 1050ti is $150.00 bucks right now...best value/performance card out right now...Okay so i just installed the card but when i press the power BUTTON nothing happens, i can see the screen light which means the case has electricity RUNNING through it but everytime i press the button nothing happens
Also i should mention that my MAX wattage for the PSU is 350W
And i libe in egypt so that 150$ card is probably 1000 L.E+Double check to see if the graphics card power adapter is plugged in. I double checked and its plugged in
Can this happen due to low wattage ?I dont know how to explain this but this time i connected my graphics card WITHOUT the 6 pin power cable
And it now works fine
My question now is, will this continue to work fine or will it blow up eventually ?   Probably won't blow up. I wonder if it has some sort of low power mode built-in. It might be throttling down to compensate. Most graphics cards I've used SIMPLY won't work if the power is disconnected, though.
What's the rating on your power supply?i really don't know what you mean by rating
all i know is that im using an HP-COMPAQ 8200 elite mini tower
when it comes to PSUs im a bit of a noob sorry 
but i really want to know if i should continue with this method or not Quote from: nagy98 on September 01, 2017, 03:16:35 PM

i really don't know what you mean by rating

So what would happen if i continue using it ?

Hello there. I got myself this motherboard: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-X58A-UD3R-rev-20#sp
The specs regarding rams says this:
6 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 24 GB of system MEMORY(Note 1)
Dual/3 channel memory architecture
Support for DDR3 2200/1333/1066/800 MHz memory modules
Support for non-ECC memory modules
Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

Ive USED a service online to find compatible rams but ive seen it AINT compatible since my motherboard dosent use 1666 mhz so something is wrong there.
http://eu.crucial.com/eur/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Giga-Byte/ga-x58a-ud3r <-- this service. So then instead i found these rams and I WOULD like to hear you guys out of you KNOW if these rams:http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/HX313C9FBK2_16.pdf

are compatible with my motherboard.

Thank you!can't see any reason why those Kingston HX313's wouldn't work.
also, anything in the Kingston KVR13 range should also be fine.


I've almost solely used Kingston in my builds for the last 15 years due to their reliability and price.

Hi there,

I am looking for a laptop cover that would cover KEYBOARD and rest of the laptop from the dust as I use an external keyboard and the laptop only for screen purposes. I can't find anything that would cover laptop fully, only the keyboard. What are the key words if there is a cover, that covers fully?

RegardsCovering a laptop can spell DISASTER with overheating!

Most laptops draw cool air in around their keypads/keyboards and so covering this area will cause an overheat and potentially damage to laptop. One work around might be to cut a SECTION of nylon screen to lay over the laptops surface. This will allow airflow and larger particles/objects than the size of the nylon screen wont pass through the holes such as pet hair etc.Thanks for the tip, never thought about that before. But what about some people they close the laptop lid and use an external screen. If the lid is closed that means there is no cool air going through ? underneath you'll see the intake vents for air cooling.
with the unit turned on, running your hands down either side of the laptop and you'll find the exhausted vent.


as long as the intakes are not restricted, closing the lid and running the laptop from external keyboard, mouse and monitor is quiet normal.
just make sure to go into the POWER settings and tell it to Do Nothing when the lid is closed.  If "Do Nothing" is not configured it will shutdown or put laptop to sleep when closed. Then a screen is closed its not air tight and so its ABLE to breathe. The problem with placing anything over the keyboard is that if its air tight, then your restricting airflow. Some laptops even have rubber bumps that limit the travel of the display to the surface that the keypad/keyboard is located and this allows there to be a slight gap between display an laptop body as well as it cushions the closing of laptop so that the display doesnt clash hard with the laptop body when closing which could shock parts when parts collide.

Hi, I am having an issue with my computer failing POST, but the beep code does not match anything I can find.

Current Specs:
AMD 6350 Black Edition Unlocked 6-core CPU
Asus Sabertooth 990 R2.0 MOBO
Asus Radeon HD 7850 GPU
Asus Blu-ray/DVD/CD Burner
OCZ 90GB SSD
Western Digital 500GB Blue HDD
Western Digital 2TB HDD
Corsair Ballistix Sport RAM 2x8GB (16GB total)
735 Watt Raidmax 80 Bronze PSU w/ blue led
Thermaltek Armor Evo CASE w/ hot swap HDD bay, 2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB2.0, 2 x 200mm fan (one w/ blue led), 1 x 120mm fan

Issue:
Upon power up, the PC fails POST and gives me the following: 1 long beep, 3 short beeps. A slight pause and then the "normal" beep that usually indicates a good POST, then the 1 long three short pattern repeats one time at a higher frequency.

No display on any monitors. Everything else seems to be working (lights, fans, ETC)

What I have done (not necessarily in this exact order):
Power Cycle
Unplugged all EXTERNAL drives
Unplugged all external components (mouse, KB, etc)
Unplugged everything from the back except the power.
Switched RAM locations
Removed 1 stick of RAM and cycled it through different locations
Cycled second stick of RAM through all locations
Removed all RAM (this was the only thing that resulted in a changed. I then got a short beep repeating without stopping)
Unplugged all fans
Removed GPU
Put GPU in different PCIe slots (the bottom one was not checked; PSU blocks it)
Unplugged all internal drives
Removed PSU cord for 10 minutes
Removed CMOS battery for 10 minutes

The only thing that changed was during the RAM removal, after powering on it gave me a short beep that repeated over and over. Other than that, not changes. I did not remove the heat sink or the CPU (mainly because I don't know how to test those apart from the MOBO).

The beep pattern matches with ASUS patterns for a bad video card, but it is not supposed to repeat. So the repeating is throwing me off. Is there any other way to test the video card without just buying a new one?

Any help would be appreciated.