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POST COMPUTER PROBLEMS IN THIS THREAD ONLY

Started by Nobody Soup, February 08, 2013, 12:41:30 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Wilbur

Quote from: monkfromhavana on June 06, 2019, 08:11:42 AM
P.S. - what are the pros and cons of buying reconditioned laptops? I've bought all mine new from Dell, but I'm tempted by a cheaper refurb.

Pros. You get a much better spec machine than you could otherwise for around a third or a quarter of the original cost.

Cons. Its not all shiny and new.

hedgehog90

Quote from: monkfromhavana on June 06, 2019, 08:11:42 AM
Why are laptop power ports so shit?

For about the 5th laptop in a row (not all mine) it's knackered and I'm going to have to take it to get repaired.

It's probably a 10-minute job to replace it myself, but I'd probably blow myself up.

P.S. - what are the pros and cons of buying reconditioned laptops? I've bought all mine new from Dell, but I'm tempted by a cheaper refurb.

Has it gone all loose like an over-shagged hole?
That happened to mine, I opened it up and put a block of wood in there to fill the gap, problem solved.

NoSleep

Quote from: hedgehog90 on June 06, 2019, 10:38:14 AM
Has it gone all loose like an over-shagged hole?
That happened to mine, I opened it up and put a block of wood in there to fill the gap, problem solved.

Always worth saving any corks from your wine bottles for this kind of job (I have a bunch at the back of the kitchen drawer). The beauty of cork is how easy it is to fashion in to replacement parts like missing feet pads, fader handles, switches or just filling a gap.

monkfromhavana

Quote from: hedgehog90 on June 06, 2019, 10:38:14 AM
Has it gone all loose like an over-shagged hole?
That happened to mine, I opened it up and put a block of wood in there to fill the gap, problem solved.

It doesn't charge due to it being fucked (not literally). Now I have to entrust my porn collection to a random person in a repair shop.

JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: NoSleep on June 06, 2019, 10:57:26 AM
Always worth saving any corks from your wine bottles for this kind of job (I have a bunch at the back of the kitchen drawer). The beauty of cork is how easy it is to fashion in to replacement parts like missing feet pads, fader handles, switches or just filling a gap.

I once fixed a broken disc eject button on an Amiga with a nail and an elastic band!

NoSleep


JesusAndYourBush

Not a fingernail, a metal nail.
(The eject button fixed in place by two extremely thin little bits of plastic [so flimsy that I was surprised they hadn't broke sooner].  The bits of plastic stuck out either side of the main button, so with these bits of plastic gone I got a nail [sawed to the correct length] and heated it up over a flame and shoved it *through* the button so each end of the nail was now sticking out where the flimsy bit of plastic had been.  This new button wouldn't quite stay in place so an elastic band looped around it a certain way held it in place and it worked as good as it had before.)


Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

It looks like I might need to replace my PC's motherboard, so (in for a penny, in for a pound) I suppose I might as well look at upgrading my processor too. What's good these days? I have an Intel I7 currently which is fine on paper, but I've been noticing Photoshop running rather slowly lately.

My friend in tech support seems dogmatically opposed to AMD, but is he just set in his ways?

seepage

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on June 08, 2019, 01:40:00 PM
It looks like I might need to replace my PC's motherboard, so (in for a penny, in for a pound) I suppose I might as well look at upgrading my processor too. What's good these days? I have an Intel I7 currently which is fine on paper, but I've been noticing Photoshop running rather slowly lately.

Components seem to be a lot more expensive compared to my I7-4790K based PC from 2014. On the Intel side, ignoring Xeon, looks like need to decide whether socket 1151 will be sufficient (even so, an I9 9900K is about £500) or need socket 2066/X-series processor, which look very expensive indeed.   

Neomod

Quote from: hedgehog90 on June 02, 2019, 05:15:10 PM
This video seems like a pretty good 'how to':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H7D1HcfY9o

- Download Macrium Reflect 7 Free Edition (Home Edition) at the top of the page: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
- No need to enter your email address when prompted, just click continue.
- This is just a download agent, open it to download the installer. Installer will open once downloaded.
- During installation steps, uncheck 'Register this installation of Macrium Reflect'.
- Once installed, launch the program and watch the video for instructions on cloning the drive.

If the SSD has a smaller capacity than the source drive you want to clone, you'll need to delete some stuff from the source drive first.

Thanks. I tried EaseUs Todo Backup as this was recommended for bad sectors which my HD has. It hasn't worked and so I am looking at a clean install on the new SSD.

Rollocks!

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: seepage on June 08, 2019, 06:15:10 PM
Components seem to be a lot more expensive compared to my I7-4790K based PC from 2014. On the Intel side, ignoring Xeon, looks like need to decide whether socket 1151 will be sufficient (even so, an I9 9900K is about £500) or need socket 2066/X-series processor, which look very expensive indeed.   
I had no idea the socket itself was even a consideration. I don't know if it applies to AMD as well, but Intel's whole naming scheme for their stuff is maddening. Why can't it be a simple case of reading the number of gigahertz?

seepage

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on June 08, 2019, 11:18:58 PM
I had no idea the socket itself was even a consideration. I don't know if it applies to AMD as well, but Intel's whole naming scheme for their stuff is maddening. Why can't it be a simple case of reading the number of gigahertz?

It's about the no. of cores (threads) too. Running a program on its own that only uses one thread you might not see much difference between a lot of the processors, but e.g. Photoshop is multi-threaded and makes use of all the cores if it needs to.     

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Does that apply to CS6 Photoshop? I don't want to subscribe to the CC version if I can help it.

seepage

you can check yourself: open Task Manager --> performance --> CPU --> right-click in the graph -->  change graph to logical processors. Then run something in PS that you find slow and look at the usage in the graph.

magval

This isn't strictly a computer question, but you lot'll know - if I listen to the 5.1 track on a film on stereo speakers or headphones, does it force all 5 channels of audio into the 2 outputs, or will you lose information/sound?

Neomod

Quote from: Neomod on June 08, 2019, 08:27:46 PM
Thanks. I tried EaseUs Todo Backup as this was recommended for bad sectors which my HD has. It hasn't worked and so I am looking at a clean install on the new SSD.

Rollocks!

Having replaced the HD and reinstalled (with unsurprisingly a call to Microsoft to authenticate my windows) I can't recommend getting an SSD highly enough. Late to the party I know but I was still under the impression they were pricey (mine with a code was £22).

Now booting up takes 30 seconds as opposed to 2 and a bit minutes on my old cranky drive. Photoshop, FL Studio and Lightroom all now open instantaneously and everything is just quicker. Bought some additional ram that takes me up to 8GB and my once troublesome HP laptop is now super safe.

So thanks to whoever recommended getting an SSD in one of the making music threads.

Oh and I would never sign up to the adobe subscriptions. As was said up thread due to them doubling the cost a lot of people are leaving and using other software.

Blumf

Quote from: magval on June 26, 2019, 10:07:51 PM
This isn't strictly a computer question, but you lot'll know - if I listen to the 5.1 track on a film on stereo speakers or headphones, does it force all 5 channels of audio into the 2 outputs, or will you lose information/sound?

Quiet often on films, if they have a 5.1 audio track, they'll also have a normal stereo track which the media player should use if it knows it's only going to a stereo output. If that track isn't present, then the media player shouldn't have a problem down-mixing 5.1 to stereo.

Can be weird hearing only the front-L/R tracks from a 5.1 source if something is wrong with the setup. Just background and environment sounds whilst the dialogue on the centre speaker is missing. So if you do have an issue, you'll soon know. In that case, check for a menu option for force output to stereo.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

I have a quick query - I think the fan on my tower pc is broken.

I left it on all day last week by accident and when I returned home everything was suspiciously off. After several reboots the fan would start up, but almost go into overdrive before the power then cut out.

I left it a while and gave it another try, and although the bootup process got further along, I can't get more than 20 seconds out of it before the power cuts out.

From what I can tell the rest of the PC is fine. Is there a quick fix/sensible set of steps to try or simply a case of fucked mate, buy new component or new pc?

hedgehog90

Sounds like your CPU cooling fan has conked out and you need a replacement.
The reason it's shutting off after 20 seconds is probably due to overheating.
Just to make sure, try taking the cover off, boot it up and check to see if the fan seated on top of the CPU is spinning, if it doesn't spin up at all then that's the problem.

If you fancy replacing it yourself, this should do the trick:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ARCTIC-Freezer-Multicompatible-pre-applied-Performance/dp/B0048F64DU/ref=sr_1_3?crid=33EJ46BCVS8L7&keywords=arctic+cooler+cpu&qid=1561683216&s=gateway&sprefix=arctic+cool%2Caps%2C147&sr=8-3

Welcome back btw :)


Shoulders?-Stomach!

Cheers, I'll take a closer look this weekend. It was a loud fan at the best of times and produced so much heat you don't even need to turn a radiator on in the room.

That one looks like it might be easy enough for me to install.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

New non hardware query.

I run http://[SPAM - REMOVED].com which features several customised Google maps, 1 global and the rest by country.

I've seen other sites whose maps are more extensively customised and have a cleaner appearance. Eg. http://micropubassociation.co.uk/finder

Can I ask anyone who may know how to get mine looking somewhat more similar to theirs.

- the search box in the top right
- the full screen option
- the indents in the top right and bottom right
- the caption boxes with photo

It would help my site look a bit more professional. If it involves coding then bear in mind I'm using WordPress.

Mr_Simnock

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on June 28, 2019, 07:41:47 AM
Cheers, I'll take a closer look this weekend. It was a loud fan at the best of times and produced so much heat you don't even need to turn a radiator on in the room.

That one looks like it might be easy enough for me to install.

Do you ever clean out your PC case of dust? Have you considered changing the thermal paste as well once every now and again?

Mr_Simnock

Quote from: seepage on June 08, 2019, 06:15:10 PM
Components seem to be a lot more expensive compared to my I7-4790K based PC from 2014. On the Intel side, ignoring Xeon, looks like need to decide whether socket 1151 will be sufficient (even so, an I9 9900K is about £500) or need socket 2066/X-series processor, which look very expensive indeed.

Unless it's absolutely critical to get the very latest hardware (if your a competitive gamer for e.g.) I don't know why anyone bothers, I've always gone for the middle ground in processors and done very well over the last 20 years of PC usage with that thank you. Your I7-4790K (5 year old CPU design) scores on average a 11171 CPU benchmark score here. As a replacement you could get an I5-9600K (giving a 13524 score) processor and an ASRock Z390M Pro4 motherboard for about £365 pound with delivery from Scan computers?
You could go down the AMD processor route and pre order an AMD Ryzen 5 3600X (20744 CPU Benchmark Score, almost double your old one) and an MSI X570 A Pro motherboard for about £420 from the same place as above)

seepage

^ thanks. I was replying to Claude who said Photoshop wasn't as fast as he'd like, on a similar spec. Myself, I've decided to just get a better GPU at some point (GTX 760 at present). Although the PC's been playing up of late, e.g. sometimes continually restarting after hibernation, until I can get to recovery mode and run safe mode once, they reboots OK after that (without changing anything).

Another thing: VLC offers hardware-accelerated decoding but can't play 4K @ 50/60 fps unless that's disabled. Why offer it at all, or do more recent graphics cards have better 2D chips? 

hedgehog90

4K video is usually encoded with a new(ish) video codec called h265/HEVC that is best processed with new(ish) GPU based hardware decoders.
You can check the video codec of the video playing in VLC by going to Tools -> Media information -> Codec.
A decent CPU can decode 4K HEVC, but mine however struggles even with 1080p HEVC.

I happen to have the same GPU as you (GTX 760) and recently tested to see if VLC could handle 4K HEVC.
Forcing GPU video decoding with HEVC video proved to be impossible with VLC, any 4K HEVC video I threw at it was stuttery and unwatchable. I had many other issues with VLC so decided to move onto a different video player called MPV.
I seem to recall it played these video files much better, but I don't think it was using hardware based decoding either.
According to the 4th post in this thread, it would suggest that the GTX 760 is not capable of hardware decoding HEVC video:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/981372/geforce-basics/which-gpus-support-hevc-a-k-a-h-265-/

Regarding MPV - it's very basic looking, it has a very limited interface and requires learning keyboard shortcuts for certain commands, but it performs better than any other player for me so I've stuck with it.
Haven't touched VLC since.

PS - video cards don't really differentiate between 2D and 3D processing tasks, it's not like there's a 2D processor and a 3D processor. It's all just a bunch of triangles at the end of the day.

seepage

Thanks. My GTX 760 decodes 4K @ 30 fps via VLC fine, but not 4K @ 50 fps or 60 fps. According to Wikipedia, there is a separate block of the die for PureVideo video decoding, which I thought might not necessarily keep step with the other features of the chip. e.g. the GTX 760 (GK104) has PureVideo version VP5 but the GTX 750, which I thought would be less capable overall, has the later chip GM107 with PV version VP6 and "Introduced DCI 4K video decoding". Looks like the GM206 (GTX 750 SE, GTX 950, GTX 960) introduced dedicated HEVC decoding, so that might explain things. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_PureVideo .I was thinking of upgrading to a GTX 1070.       

hedgehog90

Quote from: seepage on July 15, 2019, 01:29:12 PM
I was thinking of upgrading to a GTX 1070.       

You and me too! I've just been scouring the web for an upgrade, figured there might be some nice discounts on Amazon as it's Prime Day today.

Instead of a GTX 1070 might I suggest you look at the GTX 1660 Ti?
It was released earlier this year, seems to perform about the same as the GTX 1070 and it's available for £230-250 on amazon right now, while the 1070 is going on 3 years old now and is more around £310.

On videocardbenchmark.net the GTX 1660 Ti actually scores a bit higher than the GTX 1070.

1660 Ti: https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+1660+Ti&id=4045
1070: https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+1070&id=3521

Here's some CaB affiliated links, using these should kick back a little something extra to Neil who's struggling right now:

1660 Ti (single fan):
   https://www.amazon.co.uk/EVGA-GeForce-Gaming-Graphics-06G-P4-1261-KR/dp/B07NQGB82C/ref=sr_1_10?tag=codanbod-21&keywords=gtx+1660&qid=1563199449&s=computers&sr=1-10
   https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07NQGB82C/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?tag=codanbod-21&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

1660 Ti (dual fan):
   https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GeForce-GTX-1660-WINDFORCE/dp/B07NWD9VGH/ref=sr_1_4?tag=codanbod-21&keywords=GeForce+GTX+1660+Ti&qid=1563201844&s=computers&sr=1-4

You should also consider the GTX 1660 regular. A little less powerful but with a better price/performance margin. Better margin than any other nvidia video card right now:

1660 (single fan):
   https://www.amazon.co.uk/EVGA-GeForce-GAMING-Graphics-06G-P4-1161-KR/dp/B07PJ4L2C4/ref=sr_1_21?tag=codanbod-21&keywords=GeForce+GTX+1660+Ti&qid=1563201844&s=computers&sr=1-21

1660 (dual fan):
   https://www.amazon.co.uk/EVGA-GeForce-GAMING-Backplate-06G-P4-1067-KR/dp/B07SCCT1TK/ref=sr_1_1?tag=codanbod-21&tag=codanbod-21&keywords=gtx+1660&qid=1563201445&s=computers&sr=1-1
   https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-Aorus-GeForce-GTX-1660/dp/B07PDT2H55/ref=pd_sbs_147_1/259-1973764-5189858?tag=codanbod-21&_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07PDT2H55&pd_rd_r=8f53271f-a70f-11e9-bf11-297d145b86fc&pd_rd_w=6y7Bj&pd_rd_wg=g04iw&pf_rd_p=18edf98b-139a-41ee-bb40-d725dd59d1d3&pf_rd_r=B3AJWZ5BFG22QZH5BD2J&psc=1&refRID=B3AJWZ5BFG22QZH5BD2J

(Links were generated using affiliate tag codanbod-21 and Amazon Affiliate Link Maker)

Edit - Got a bit carried away there with the links, I've just bought myself a 1660 Ti (first link) for £230, seems like the best deal, not sold by amazon though.

Edit again - If you do plan on upgrading make sure your power supply can handle it. I've got a Corsair CX 650M (650 watts), anything over 500 watts with a 6/8 pin additional power lead for the range of GPUs listed here should be ok.

hedgehog90

Also I've got a £5 Amazon voucher that I don't think I'm going to use in time and it expires in 5 days, you can only use it on products sold by Amazon.
If anyone wants it, click the link below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HpxoHpEbOlR4dz2Stjrq-5rs_h8saMGh7ZsbBBtUzvo/edit?usp=sharing

Edit - There's also a promotion right now whereby you can save another £8 on any purchase by using their gift card balance system.
Top up your gift card balance (an online wallet essentially) with £80 and get an extra £8 added for free. At the checkout it automatically uses your gift card balance. Just tried it and it works, expires at the end of tomorrow:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=16749737031

seepage

cheers @hedgehog90, I'll probably go for a 1660 Ti too. Just checking first whether the extra for a RTX 2060 Super or RTX 2070 Super might be worth it, although I doubt I'll play any game that makes use of the ray-tracing feature.