The SSMB PC Troubleshooting and Discussion Thread

[Diz]

PC upgrade help... -> The SSMB PC Hardware Troubleshooting and Discussion Thread

We prefer one topic per subject, so the topic have been merged together. =)

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

Oh the things that happen the one time I have an exam. ._.

I smell a rip-off merchant, by the way; or worse, someone who doesn't know what he's doing.

You are far better off at this point starting from scratch and getting a new system. If your system struggles to run anything newer than XP you will find it far too challenging to find suitable upgrades for the system and worse they'll be inferior to newer, similar-priced equivalents anyway.

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

Ladies and gentlemen, it's the new GeForce 600 series!

I'm looking forward to the inevitable GTX 660Ti showing up, though I doubt I'll actually need it for a while!

tl;dr: This thing conclusively craps all over any other GPU released to date. Hooray!

Edited March 23, 2012 by Velotix von Skruviktorrius

[Silencer226]

Ladies and gentlemen, it's the new GeForce 600 series!

I'm looking forward to the inevitable GTX 660Ti showing up, though I doubt I'll actually need it for a while!

Hmm... I need to upgrade my rig... well I don't "need" to, I just want to. Still running a Phenom II X4 on my current rig, so I'm looking at the i5 and might wait on one of these babies.

[Swiss]

I recently picked up a Turtle Beach X12 headset to use with my Xbox and PC (which are both connected through HDMI into my LCD TV) and while I can get them to work perfectly on my Xbox, I'm having no luck with the PC side of things. I plug the pink and green jacks into the PC, along with the USB but there's nothing in either the default or Realtek HD sound managers that suggest the headset is plugged in. The mic seems to show, but not the headset, and sound still only plays through the TV.

Thanks for any help in advance!

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

Sometimes you need to switch to Headphone output manually.

For example, I have both a back port and front port for my headphones and I need to switch between "7.1 Speaker" mode and "FP [Front Panel] Headphone" mode all the time.

[Swiss]

Problem is, I can't find out where exactly I can do this.

Like I said, there's nothing that suggests the headset is plugged in, save for the microphone portion of it. D:

Never mind, managed to fix it! For some reason the green cable only seems to work when it goes into the blue 'In' socket, not the headphone one, as instructed...strange, but either way it works perfectly!

Edited March 26, 2012 by Swiss

[Yoko/葉子]

We all use computers and we all need help with some stuff that is worded in a difficult/confusing manner. So, if you can't figure how to program something, obnoxious error codes, "blue screens of death," web cams etc ask a techno geek member here.

(I need some help figuring out Ustream)

[DGam'r]

Ok, every single time I log into my laptop it always says a C:\Program needs to be renamed to Program_1, but every single time I press "Rename" It says something like, "Unable to rename because it's opened in another program." But I no programs opened. I also tried to use the C++ code, but that's not working.

Can anyone help?

Also here's the code:

#include <stdio.h>

int main () {

int renameFile=0;

renameFile=rename("MYFILE.txt", "HELLO.txt");

if (renameFile!=0)

perror("Error in renaming file.");

return 0;

}

the website says, "Save it to a C File", which I can't do

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

The folder is being used by your operating system and is opened on startup. You will need to start the PC in a mode that doesn't use the folder. This is usually Safe Mode when using Windows.

However it sounds like it wants you to rename your Program Files folder. It shouldn't ever need to do that, so first I'd find out why it's nagging you to rename the folder in the first place.

[PeanutButterDimond]

Well, today hasn't been fun. All of a sudden, videos are now loading very very very slowly. At a snail's pace. On all the browsers I've tried, it's very slow. Which is very odd as videos have always loaded very fast for me but not today. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Tornado]

Reset any routers that you have, and restart your computer.

Edited April 16, 2012 by Tornado

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

To expand on the above, on rare occasions a router that works fine 99% of the time will tie itself in knots trying to keep everything connected and cripple itself. In those cases the simplest way to kick it up the butt is to turn it on and off again.

Whilst a lot of times turning it on and off again is overkill for the problem, trying to uncripple a crippled router without restarting it is a fool's errand as the restart is much faster and just as safe.

[PeanutButterDimond]

I'm not really well verseD with tech. What is a router and how do i restart it?

Edited April 16, 2012 by PeanutButterDimond

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

Right. How do you get internet?

[PeanutButterDimond]

Oh. Right. I'm an idiot. How did I forget what router is!? Excuse me, I'm just going to go and be an idiot somewhere else. Thanks for the suggestions.

[vgmaster]

I'm trying to figure out the commands for these steps to solve this assignment. You don't have to tell me the exact commands. You could also tell me how to figure out the commands:

Edit the readcal_final file

Delete all of the lines that comprise the colandar portion of the memo

Without leaving vi, open a new shell

Copy the readcal_final file to readcal_final3

Question: "If you cat the readcal_final3 file what do you expect to see? Cat the file and see if you were

correct"

Issue the ps command. "How many shells are you executing?"

Exit the new shell; Save your data and leave vi

-------

Edit the readcal_final2 file

While remaining in vi, edit the readcal_final3 file

While remaining in vi, go back to the readcal_final2 file

Scroll to the bottom of readcal_final2

While remaining in vi, go back to the readcal_final3 file

Delete everything in the file except the calendar, i.e. delete the text of the memo

While remaining in vi, go back to readcal_final2

When prompted save your changes

Leave vi

(At this point your first "final" file should contain only the memo. The 2nd "final" file should contain the memo and the calendar. The 3rd final file should contain only the calendar.)

[SenEDDtor Missile]

I've already posted this on my status, but I feel the need to elaborate.

Basically, over the past few days (or was it week?), my computer has developed a rather strange pattern.

Every nighttime, at about 8:30 to 11:00 pm, my computer starts to crash in this order:

1) I'm browsing around on the internet, and then everything on the browser stops responding. After the first few times, I thought it was because Internet Explorer was being a piece of crud, but this occurs with any of the browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, it still happens.

2) After I exit the browser (assuming it doesn't freeze on the screen), I click on my taskbar to boot it up again, but the taskbar doesn't do jack. And if I minimize any existing windows, I cannot start it up again from the taskbar.

3) I go to shut down my computer via Start > Shut Down/Restart, but then that freezes as well.

AND THEN THE WHOLE SCREEN BECOMES COVERED WITH WHITE OPAQUENESS, AND EVERYTHING GOES TO HELL, AND I HAVE TO MANUALLY SHUT IT DOWN.

4) Rinse and repeat for the next hour or so until it finally seems to fix it self.

This is a concern to me because it happens EVERY NIGHT, at almost the exact same time! I don't want to tell my Dad because I don't want this quirky pattern to result in me losing all of my data on this computer. Help?

[novelty]

Get Combofix. Follow Directions. Rinse. Repeat.

Combofix: The Antivirus Brillo Pad.

Edited May 14, 2012 by novelty

[Diz]

There is an already-existing topic in the Computer Games section for this purpose, so I merged your topic into that one. I will go ahead and notify you of this change. =D

Umm, computers, computers ... So much can go wrong, right? Frustrating stuff!

AND THEN THE WHOLE SCREEN BECOMES COVERED WITH WHITE OPAQUENESS, AND EVERYTHING GOES TO HELL, AND I HAVE TO MANUALLY SHUT IT DOWN.

What might be the problem is the graphics component of the computer overheating or failing. I have had the same symptoms recently with older computers (a notebook and a stationary PC), and apparently it was the graphics card failing. My stationary PC's graphics component's fan was somewhat jamned, so that was supposedly an overheating issue. My notebook's graphics card I guess just slowly died. I could start it up for a while before crashing. Using a web browser made it crash faster. First, elements on the screen would become strange, like the cursor for instance. Then shortly, the whole computer would become completely unresponsive. Right now, its monitor isn't even displaying when booting or during POST.

There may be other things, like viruses, or just the PC needing a clean-up or re-install. Nonetheless, a back-up on personal files is always a recommended thing in these kind of cases, so if you have not already an external harddrive or storage unit to safety-store your most precious files, it is recommended that you do so as soon as possible. =)

[SenEDDtor Missile]

There is an already-existing topic in the Computer Games section for this purpose, so I merged your topic into that one. I will go ahead and notify you of this change. =D

Umm, computers, computers ... So much can go wrong, right? Frustrating stuff!

What might be the problem is the graphics component of the computer overheating or failing. I have had the same symptoms recently with older computers (a notebook and a stationary PC), and apparently it was the graphics card failing. My stationary PC's graphics component's fan was somewhat jamned, so that was supposedly an overheating issue. My notebook's graphics card I guess just slowly died. I could start it up for a while before crashing. Using a web browser made it crash faster. First, elements on the screen would become strange, like the cursor for instance. Then shortly, the whole computer would become completely unresponsive. Right now, its monitor isn't even displaying when booting or during POST.

There may be other things, like viruses, or just the PC needing a clean-up or re-install. Nonetheless, a back-up on personal files is always a recommended thing in these kind of cases, so if you have not already an external harddrive or storage unit to safety-store your most precious files, it is recommended that you do so as soon as possible. =)

I'm not tech savvy, so this helps alot. But is there an explanation as to why it always crashes at nearly the same time each day?

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

The fact that it crashes at the same time every day either means you have such a rigid routine that the system reaches its breaking point at the same time every day or it could also mean that there's something on your computer trying to do something at a set time each day. Not necessarily a virus, could also be an overzealous piece of legit software.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Quick Question: Is the Display Driver connected to my graphics component thing? Because on some rare occasions, my display driver fritzs out and then gets rebooted.

Edited May 14, 2012 by Enigmatus

[Diz]

It's not easy to say about the timing part (or for me anyway! xD). It might be a coincidence. However, let me revise your post again:

THEN THE WHOLE SCREEN BECOMES COVERED WITH WHITE OPAQUENESS, AND EVERYTHING GOES TO HELL, AND I HAVE TO MANUALLY SHUT IT DOWN.

I might not have read this line properly last time. Then again, it is not always easy to say. Windows makes program windows white when the programs are "not responding", ie. computer running slow or programs crashing hardcore style. Your whole screen becoming white, especially after your web browser and taskbar being unresponsive, might indicate that the process responsible for your whole desktop experience (explorer.exe, dwm.exe or something) becomes unresponsive for a little while or crashes completely. This I think can happen particularly on computers with Windows Vista or Windows 7 that become slow over time.

Can you still see and move your mouse cursor when this happens, or does everything become white and freeze completely?

One other thing I did not really think of until now is the possibility of too much dust inside your PC. Dust can be a real computer killer, and if there is too much of it, one symptom is for your PC to freeze up.

I am no real specialist with this kind of thing, but the only ways I can explain a crash always occuring around a specific time other than coincidence other than certain types of viruses are programs with a specific schedule: Antivirus-, antispyware applications and Windows Update. Such applications are often set to download and install updates at specific times. Additionally, antivirus- and antispyware applications also tend to scan your computer after dealing with these updates. Installing updates and especially scanning computers can be a resource heavy task, depending both on the anti-malware software and your computer's age, capability and current status. If you combine this with installing a lot of applications, going overboard with shortcuts on your desktop (like we all do at least once in a lifetime!) then your computer might not be able to handle it and crash like that. Then again, I may be too used with stone age computers not capable of doing much.

Edit:

Quick Question: Is the Display Driver connected to my graphics component thing? Because on some rare occasions, my display driver fritzs out and then gets rebooted.

Ah, yush. A driver is a file, or set of files, which Windows requires in order to communicate with any given component. A graphics/display driver needs to be working properly for a graphics component to do its job and display thingies. If something fishy goes on with a display driver, your system may become unstable, resulting in unresponsiveness or even crashes/freezes.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

It's not easy to say about the timing part (or for me anyway! xD). It might be a coincidence. However, let me revise your post again:

I might not have read this line properly last time. Then again, it is not always easy to say. Windows makes program windows white when the programs are "not responding", ie. computer running slow or programs crashing hardcore style. Your whole screen becoming white, especially after your web browser and taskbar being unresponsive, might indicate that the process responsible for your whole desktop experience (explorer.exe, dwm.exe or something) becomes unresponsive for a little while or crashes completely. This I think can happen particularly on computers with Windows Vista or Windows 7 that become slow over time.

Can you still see and move your mouse cursor when this happens, or does everything become white and freeze completely?

One other thing I did not really think of until now is the possibility of too much dust inside your PC. Dust can be a real computer killer, and if there is too much of it, one symptom is for your PC to freeze up.

Well, the mouse is definitely moveable, but I just can't click on anything.

As for the dust thing... Well my room is very dust filled, and I'll leave it at that.

EDIT: HOLY CRAP! I just opened up that tiny compartment right below my disc thing (the place where you put discs into, it's Windows 7 BTW), and the whole thing has a crapton of dust in it.

One more thing! Is the Graphics Component able to get very dusty? If so, is the effect potential crashing?

Edited May 14, 2012 by Enigmatus