The SSMB PC Troubleshooting and Discussion Thread

[Chaos Warp]

Oh, desktop computer. My bad. I do not think it should change anything in terms of this subject though.

 

Windows 8 has the same option to deactivate things like visual effects to increase performance, but whether it changes appearance as dramatic as in Windows 7, I am not so sure, since I am at work and am unable to test this at the moment. Nonetheless, Windows 8 should not need as dramatic a visual change, seeing as the corners are already square and windows (except transparency) are already basic looking, and so on.

 

There are some Start menu programs which I noticed have crashed or slowed down Windows 8. Classic Shell, on the other hand, have never seemed to be giving an impact on my customers' PCs. I do not use the program myself (I prefer no longer having a Start menu), but it seems to be without noticeable side effects. If Classic Shell for some reason would turn out to be slowing down your computer, then it would not be any slower than the same computer with Windows 7 due to improvement and optimalization of system performance.

Alright thanks. Now, I have a bit of a different question:

 

So apparently: at the repair shop I sent the PC into, my PC doesn't crash at all. They've had it on for several days apparently and have run a bunch of tests and it has not. crashed. ONCE! I can think of no logical reason for this to happen other then possibly my random-disconnecting beat up keyboard as they're using a different keyboard over there. Like, why is this happening? What other variable could contribute?

[Autosaver]

Could your PC not be getting enough power in your house causing it to crash?

[Chaos Warp]

Could your PC not be getting enough power in your house causing it to crash?

I'm thinking that might be it because right now it's plugged into the living room and seemingly working just fine. I'm posting from it. I should mention the power bar it was plugged into was full, so once this backup ends I'm going to try plugging it in somewhere else in my room. 

[Cyalume]

Considering upgrading from Windows 7 Professional to Windows 8 Professional, just because. Any pro-Windows 8 users out there care to list the advantages of 8 over 7, if any?

 

@Space_warp: This may be of some use to you:
http://www.resplendence.com/downloads

Under "Crash Analysis", WhoCrashed 5.01



Also, how many of you use IPS monitors for playing videogames?

[Autosaver]

Windows 8 performance is a lot better than WIndows 7.

[nintega137]

So I have been having an issue with connecting to my internet lately(and by lately I mean today, it was fine last night) I have an internet connection but every time i go online it says it's unable to connect to the proxy sever. I've tried numerous things, since and it seems to not be able to connect.

 

Then I tried turning off the proxy sever which does work..... for a few seconds, and then somehow the proxy sever just automatically turns itself back on and the internet stops working again. Does anyone know how I can get a connection again or stop this from happening? I use a windows 8 laptop in this case.

 

I don't know how tech savvy people usually are here, but if you can help it would be much appreciated. 

[Da Blu Hedgie]

I have been looking everywhere for this topic once again, anyways that's besides the point.

I have an old hp g61 306nr laptop running on Windows 7 home premium that's over 5 years old. High cpu usage is normal even on standby, but my ram has been spiking to about 70% at random, affecting my performance. Can I do anything about it.

Oh and on another note I have a Seagate 3tb external hard drive, but I can't backup anything up on it. I did do research on it that and found it it's a problem with 3tb hard drives, but having a 5 year old laptop when the average lifespan is 3 years and even experiencing a gpu fail has me paranoid to backup my data, Now I know you can use thumb drives or disk, but how big do they need to be if I have 120 gb of hard drive space and if I ever get a Windows 8 (or 9) laptop can I use the backup there. What does a backup even save?

[Diz]

Then I tried turning off the proxy sever which does work..... for a few seconds, and then somehow the proxy sever just automatically turns itself back on and the internet stops working again.

 

If this is a plain home computer on which you have not tweaked any network settings, proxy servers should not really be part of your configuration. Do you mean turning off automatically detecting proxy settings, or does it actually list a proxy server for you to use? It could sound like a virus, in which case I would download and run a full scan with the free edition of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. If that does not resolve the problem, I recommend running the following tools in the listed order: ComboFix (you will have to temporarily deactivate your antivirus' real-time protection for this), JRT and Adwcleaner. All of these programs could be transferred to the affected computer with a memory stick etc. and they should be placed on the desktop and run from there. All programs listed will display or save a detailed log of findings and settings.

 

I have an old hp g61 306nr laptop running on Windows 7 home premium that's over 5 years old. High cpu usage is normal even on standby, but my ram has been spiking to about 70% at random, affecting my performance. Can I do anything about it.

 

I am tempted to suggest reinstalling Windows, as it will usually clutter up a bit over time. You should evaluate your current Antivirus software, as some of them can be pretty demanding on older computers. You also need to investigate whether you have two antivirus software installed at the same time. The Action Center should be able to report this, but not always, so I recommend going through your entire list of installed program, where you can also uninstall things you do not need anymore. Chances are there are programs there you no longer use or may not even know about, yet they demand resources to run in the background and on every startup etc.

 

 

Oh and on another note I have a Seagate 3tb external hard drive, but I can't backup anything up on it. I did do research on it that and found it it's a problem with 3tb hard drives, but having a 5 year old laptop when the average lifespan is 3 years and even experiencing a gpu fail has me paranoid to backup my data, Now I know you can use thumb drives or disk, but how big do they need to be if I have 120 gb of hard drive space and if I ever get a Windows 8 (or 9) laptop can I use the backup there. What does a backup even save?

 

I do not know much about this, but one important thing about 3 TB HDDs is that you are going to have problems using or fully utilizing them if initialized the normal way. The standard MBR setting only supports capacities up to 2 TB. You will need to convert and/or initialize the HDD as GPT before using it. This can be achieved using Disk Management, accessible by right-clicking Computer, clicking Manage and looking through the list of tools in the left side of the window. Only change something on the external HDD entry in Disk Management if you are confident nothing is stored on it, as converting the HDD to GPT will empty it.

 

Backups come in different shapes and appearances. What a backup does depends entirely on your backup application and method. In most cases, you are given a choice of what to back up, and the easiest way can often be simply to click and drag individual files and folders directly over to the external HDD (dragging and dropping between partitions and HDDs performs a copy instead of moving by default). If you are thinking of doing a system image backup, this creates a copy of your entire 120 GB partition, thus requires a minimum of 120 GB free space or more on your external HDD, however restoring a system image type of backup on a different computer is going to go terribly wrong for many technical reasons. You can still use tools to extract individual folders and files from a system image backup, but this way, as is with most types of backup, the main rule of thumb is that games and applications, for instance custom applications used to open your various sort of files, need to be reinstalled from scratch, while the actual project files, documents and otherwise personal content can migrate safely without further hassle. In conclusion, most backup operations save whatever you specify, and system images saves more or less your entire partition, system and computer state.

[Law]

Thinking about building a $600 PC. I don't really care about playing games with the highest settings. This is what I built so far: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Q6DNgs

 

This is my first time building a PC, so I am noob .

[Autosaver]

1) The i5-4440 is one of the lower end i5's and based on the older line and not the refresh. The refresh is actually better. http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Core-i5-4460-1150-BX80646I54460/dp/B00JIJUBAS/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

 

2) You really don't need a CPU cooler. The stock one is fine and easy to install. Save the money and invest it somewhere else. You could probably ditch the CPU cooler and get a better processor.

 

3) I used that same motherboard across 2 PCs!

 

4) NO to that RAM! 4GB is way too little in today's world. Get a 8GB stick.

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-HyperX-FURY-1600MHz-DDR3/dp/B00J8E92M6/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1403382061&sr=1-2&keywords=Kingston+Hyper+X+8GB

 

5) Hard Drives are OK but honestly the performance of SSDs are so good right now that it's a huge step back to use one in a gaming PC. Not only will the OS load so much faster and be more responsive, game loading times will be reduced to nothing. Battlefield 4 can take minutes warming up on a hard drive but can load up in seconds on a SSD. You can get a PNY Optima (A highly reviewed drive) for $89.99 after rebate. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820178720

 

6) That GPU is trash. If you're building a gaming PC, you're going to run into issues running newer games on decent settings. You can play already released games fine but it's not future proofing. What are you going to do when the PS4 finally gets decent looking games that take full advantage of the hardware? An R9 270 is only $150 and blows the Nvidia GPU out of the water. Nvidia has a reputation of being over priced for the performance. You also get TWO free games with the R9 270. This saves you even more money as you will have games to play on your new set up.

 

7) I don't know much about that case I built a PC recently for my brother and got him the NZXT Guardian. It has LEDs and it was very easy to set up.

 

8) Power supply might be too low for a R9 270. You can get a 450 PSU GOLD Modular for $15 After Rebate if you stack it with the iPhone Newegg app promotion.

 

9) Head over to /r/softwareswap on Reddit for cheap licenses on Microsoft software such as Windows and Office. They're not pirated copies and it's fully genuine software. Basically people have access to free copies of Windows via services they sign up for and simply sell these licenses as they don't use them. This can save you $100's on your gaming PC. You can get a 8.1 license for at the most $15 and a Office 2013 for at most $25.

[Law]

So, I opted out the 4GB ram for a 6GB ram stick to fit my $600 budget. I also took out the CPU cooler and will reuse my old PC's optical drive.

This is my current Build as of right now

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 LGA 1150 ($190)

Motherboard: MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate ATX LGA1150 ($75.66)

GPU: Radeon R9 270 ($160)

Memory: Crucial 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 ($64.18)

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM ($52)

Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 ATX Mid Tower Case ($35)

PSU: Thermaltake TR2 500W ATX ($20)

[Autosaver]

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Ballistix-PC3-12800-240-Pin-BLS8G3D1609DS1S00/dp/B006YG9E7O/ref=sr_1_6?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1403419437&sr=1-6&keywords=8GB+DDR3

 

Crucial 8GB Ram (1 stick) $69.99. Future proofs your PC and limits wasted money.

[Bluecore]

I just want to thank everyone who told me to buy a brand new pc instead of updating my old one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AadYwKzkWcw

 

I decided to splash out a bit more to update the card to a GTX 760. Hope that will be enough to run Sonic Generations!

[Autosaver]

Good on the GPU upgrade. I saw this and...

 

GPU: Nvidia Quadro FX 380 (256 MB GDDR3)

 

almost puked. The GTX 760 should be really good for gaming.

[Cyalume]

http://www.cnet.com/news/intel-to-deliver-cheaper-4k-monitors-thanks-to-samsung-partnership/


If this holds true, we could be seeing some really decently priced PLS (same as IPS) monitors very soon. Anyone here planning to go 4k in the near future?

[Autosaver]

Cheap PLS monitors actually already exist. They're made by different Korean brands that people may not have a lot of information about.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121117252582?customid=a8c27c4e45e44ae3bd346327acd33830&pub=5574652453&afepn=5337259887&campid=5337259887&icep_id=117&ipn=icep&afepn=5337259887

 

Higher quality ones made by Samsung would be great.

[Cyalume]

These cheap PLS monitors are coming directly from Samsung and will be A+ quality panels, whereas the QNIXes, X-Stars and Yamakasi Catleaps are all A- quality panels that generally suffer from dead pixels, uneven backlighting, uneven color temperatures, and various other assorted problems. The monitors are the result of a collaboration between Intel and Samsung and will be purchasable without going through Korean eBay outlets.

PWM would be the only thing to kill this for me, personally. I can't stand it, it gives me massive headaches and eyestrain.

[Diz]

I decided to splash out a bit more to update the card to a GTX 760. Hope that will be enough to run Sonic Generations!

 

I am using GTX 760, myself. I do not know how it performs along with your other components, but I would say the GTX 760 is currently definitely one of the best cards to go for, and I have played Sonic Generations on high graphics settings with no issues (of course, recording your gameplay is not going to feel as smooth, but still). Enjoy!

[Strickerx5]

Ok, so I've been putting this post off for a while but since I'm going off to college soon I guess now is a better time than later. I'm in the market for a new laptop. This is a little odd for me since I've been so pro Mac since I was in the 4th grade. XD Ever since the early months of this year my Mac Book Pro has been progressively starting to show it's age. It doesn't help that I got a taste of pc mods when I started using bootcamp last summer. It's gotten to the point where I can't even boot into my windows side at this point due to me overheating (and more than likely damaging) my graphics card.

 

I'm looking for a good gaming laptop for around $1000. This is the best option I've found so far and was wondering if anyone knows of something better. I'm pretty sure I'm set when it comes to games like Generations since my current laptop could run it on high with minimal hiccups but I am worried about future games. The goal is to be able to run a game like Arkham Knight on at least half decent settings, which I think this can do.

 

I know full well that I could probably get a bit more bang for my buck if I built my own desktop rig but I really want something that I can take back and forth from college (Philadelphia) to my home (Chicago). I don't want to lug a desktop into my dorm room either since that would probably just be asking for trouble down the line. I'll save the joy of building my own rig after I get out of college and find a stable living space (assuming college actually goes well for me). So yeah, something semi powerful but portable and affordable at the same time. A rough position if I do say so myself. I think I'm on the right track with my finding above but any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Willsy]

I'm having some trouble with Sonic Transformed PC. Now I'll say this: The computer I use is by no means a powerhouse. But it can run most modern games very decently. I can get pretty much console quality performance for Sonic Generations, and Batman Arkham Asylum runs extremely well on medium setting (haven't tried high yet).

However I'm having an issue in Transformed where races and events simply won't load. After the loading screen the sound loads but the screen remains black. I've tried updating drivers, rolling back and repudiating drivers, but to no avail. I've tried verifying the game cache and reinstalling, but nothing.

My specs are (don't laugh ):

Intel Graphics (integrated, please shoot me now)

Celeron 1005i (Eeeewwww)

4GB RAM

Windoge 8.1

I know that I need an upgrade. It's not really my computer though, it's a shared family one. I'm apparently supposed to be getting a new one soon so I'll opt for something without an integrated graphics send a better CPU. But I should be able to run it, and when I asked on the SEGA forums S0L confirmed that these specs can run the game.

[Diz]

This

 

I am not a hardware expert, but that looks pretty solid for a good gaming experience. My gaming notebook has a GeForce 540M with 1 GB of dedicated memory, and that runs modern games shockingly well, at least on medium graphics settings, so an 860M with 2 GB of dedicated memory would do wonders, I would think.

 

Intel Graphics

Celeron 1005i

 

I will go ahead and assume this is a laptop.

 

I am surprised you can even run any games on that. When I have tried what I assume to be similar specifications, the games refuse to load.

 

The first thing I would do and try is to make sure that Windows' power management is set to full performance and not battery saving. After that, I would simply play around in the grapics settings of the game you are having trouble with. Even decent graphics cards can suffer blank screens due to fog or blur effects being enabled in the game, so I recommend trying to disable those, if there are any. I would also try disabling full screen mode and run it in window mode, if there is an option for doing so, only to see if there is any difference. If not, if this is a laptop, does it get really hot?

[Willsy]

I've switched performance to full, and that doesn't seem to do anything. I've played around with the graphics and set the resolution to 600X400. The laptop doesn't really get hot, no. At worst, it get's moderately warm in games like Saints Row 3. In Arkham Asylum, it actually stays cool which was surprising. 

[Autosaver]

Sonic All Stars Racing has these horrible issues with low power PCs. I know that Sumo released a patch that addressed some of these issues but they still exist. When I had a Radeon HD 2400 I could play the game but everything looked like a mess. 

[Chaos Warp]

Okay, so last night when I tried to shut down my PC, it got to the spinning icon "Shutting Down" screen, and didn't actually shut down and was still doing that when I woke up this morning, forcing me to hold the power button to force it off. Turned it back on and test shut it down twice and the problem didn't reoccur. Does anyone have an idea what caused it? If there's a problem I want to nip it in the bud right now before it possibly becomes fatal for the computer, since I bought this thing less then a month ago. 

[Potada]

Okay, figured I might as well see if I can get some help from here.

 

A little while back, I tried to update my computer's back-up because I have to occasionally restore my computer to an earlier time and hate having to go back to the factory settings. I usually use my Toshiba 1TB Portable External Drive to store this back-up, along with all of my files.

 

Thing is, when I tried to make this latest back-up, it mentioned a "bad sector" and said it might not work if I continued. So, I looked up what a bad sector was; needless to say, I was a bit freaked out about it. I tried using the disk checker Windows has to look at it and fix it. It didn't find anything, so I tried making that back-up, again. Still got the bad sector message. Worried it might be a "hard" bad sector, I moved all the files I knew I needed to keep directly onto my computer.

 

Another thing: I've had this external drive for nearly a year, at least, and had it plugged in almost constantly to my computer. I'm assuming that's not good for its health, so I'm leaving it unplugged more often unless I really need to use it.

 

So, my questions are: is there a good way of finding out whether this is a "soft" or "hard" bad sector? And, if it is the former, are there any programs or other methods anyone could recommend to fix it?

 

Thanks to any troopers who actually read this whole thing.

Edited March 17, 2015 by Potada