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Author Topic: General Hardware Discussion  (Read 13177 times)

Offline quorn

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Re: General Hardware Discussion
« Reply #30 on: September 06, 2009, 09:59:07 am »
Are the 1366 MBs safe to buy now?  I guess I'm asking whether they've been around long enough for at least one manufacturer to have produced a consistently working product.  If you base your opinions of equipment on newegg reviews, you'd often get the feeling that few things ever worked right the first time.
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Offline anomaly

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Re: General Hardware Discussion
« Reply #31 on: September 06, 2009, 08:10:24 pm »
i know 2 friends that have the lower end Evga mobo and all seems good.

i say go for it if you *need* a new PC and have the budget to move to I7. but if you have a mid range to high end core2 Dual/core2 Quad Cpu your not going to notice any real world gains in speed. unless you do lots of video encoding, rendering etc... even then your only looking at maybe 10-15% increase over say a Q9650. not worth the price of a new mobo, DDR3 and Cpu if you already own a descent core 2 setup.

i cant speak for a upgrade on the AMD side tho. i haven't worked on any AM3 PCs yet
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Offline Drem

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Re: General Hardware Discussion
« Reply #32 on: September 07, 2009, 01:29:38 am »
getting pissed off at my computer because i can only play counter strike, far cry 2, guild wars, and oblivion...pretty much every other game i launch gives me a stupid error "cannot read memory from file (jumble of letters) please terminate program or run defrag" and well, apparently my graphics card doesn't have a defrag option with it. *sigh* can't wait to get a new system....and there's nothing i can do about it till i get a new graphics card at least...
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Offline mephisto_kur

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Re: General Hardware Discussion
« Reply #33 on: September 07, 2009, 01:51:14 am »
every symptom you have described with your video card sounds like file corruption or bad RAM.  Not a single thing sounds like an issue your video card would cause.
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It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. - Sagan


Offline Drem

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Re: General Hardware Discussion
« Reply #34 on: September 07, 2009, 02:13:58 pm »
already tried replacing all my RAM. its not any of them. My graphics card used to refuse to let my computer to POST. I tested this theory. Removed each and every card/RAM. Tried starting up with each one. When i tried it with my graphics card it wouldn't boot. Plus i get a lot of graphical errors when i'm playing some games. Even when i have nothing running in the background. I have found that most games dont like it when iTunes is running in the background too.

But now that i think about it ya you're right meph it probably is a memory issue. Is there anyway i can fix that besides doing a clean install? Because some random force in the universe is not letting me download any updates for anything. I'm still stuck on the first download of SP2 for XP >:(
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Offline anomaly

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Re: General Hardware Discussion
« Reply #35 on: September 07, 2009, 04:01:40 pm »
does your mother board have adjustable Ram settings in the bios? (clocks,timings & voltages)?
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Offline Drem

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Re: General Hardware Discussion
« Reply #36 on: September 07, 2009, 04:24:11 pm »
yeah it does. everything is set for "Auto" though. what should i set it for?
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Offline mephisto_kur

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Re: General Hardware Discussion
« Reply #37 on: September 07, 2009, 05:38:13 pm »
Keep them set to auto.

As I said to Anomaly, the first place to start (because it is the easiest) is to download and run memtest.  Swapping RAM in and out does not necessarily spot bad RAM.  It is quite easy for you to just not hit the bad block of RAM.  Your video card may still be an issue, but the problems you describe outside of games simply 99% of the time have absolutely nothing to do with your video card.

As for the games and iTunes, I'll start with my hatred of Apple's bloated malware and suggest you find a different media player.

Now that that is out of the way...  Gaming in general does not mix with the graphics shows that many media software play in the background.  Make sure you have them ALL turned off.

But start with memtest.  One stick at a time.  Once you have ruled each individual stick out, move a stick to a different RAM slot and start over - it could be a bad RAM socket on the mobo.

After you've finished the memtest stuff, we'll get you started on chkdsk.  Let us know.
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Offline mephisto_kur

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Re: General Hardware Discussion
« Reply #38 on: September 07, 2009, 05:43:08 pm »
You can get memtest86 here.  click on FREE DOWNLOAD on the left.

Or you can get memtest86+ here.  The work the same way, just memtest86+ is newer.  Click on "Download (Pre-built & ISOs)" then click on "Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)" unzip and burn.
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Offline anomaly

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Re: General Hardware Discussion
« Reply #39 on: September 07, 2009, 08:39:14 pm »
Quote from: Drem on September 07, 2009, 04:24:11 pm
yeah it does. everything is set for "Auto" though. what should i set it for?

just a side note on settings... "auto" almost always never sets the right voltages and depending on your board it may try to run your RAM out of spec.

the first time i ran a Asus P5KPL-CM it was trying to run my RAM @ 853Mhz(1.8v) on a 5:4 divider to the FSB of 1066Mhz. this gave me some problems since the RAM was rated @ 800Mhz(2.1v).

as for what you should set the settings to... it should be listed on the sticker on the side of your RAM if its not. then you may need to find the package your RAM came in and look up the model number on the manufacture's site.

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Offline mephisto_kur

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Re: General Hardware Discussion
« Reply #40 on: September 07, 2009, 08:43:57 pm »
Memtest will fail if the RAM can't handle the settings in the BIOS :D
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Offline Drem

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Re: General Hardware Discussion
« Reply #41 on: September 07, 2009, 11:25:38 pm »
alright. i do boot from the CD correct? i'm going to go ahead and try it anyways since i'll make any attempt to fix it. as for the music player. I have GOM, winamp, and windows media player, but i'm not really fond of them very much (i've had a lot of problems with windows media player to actually play a lot of my music and/or movies). And winamp is just a little eh...anyone use anything i didn't list? I only used iTunes because i used to have an iPod but it got stolen a long time ago.

oh forgot i have messed with Realplayer, and VEOH.
« Last Edit: September 07, 2009, 11:40:52 pm by Drem »
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Offline anomaly

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Re: General Hardware Discussion
« Reply #42 on: September 07, 2009, 11:49:24 pm »
got my other mutt PC finally all finished up today, it no longer looks like a science project.   :dremel:

its nothing spectacular but it can play TF2 on a full server at high setting with AA & AF set at 2x.

P4 3.2Ghz 2Mb L2 w/ HT @ 4.0Ghz (FSB 1000Mhz 1.28v)
Asus P5KPL-CM
2Gb 800Mhz OCZ DDR2 @ 500Mhz (2.0v)
80Gb 8Mb WD IDE HDD
DVD/CD combo IDE drive
1650 Pro PCIe

currently folding one instance @ 100% and running pretty quiet but warm on a stock Intel 775 cooler.  :)
« Last Edit: September 07, 2009, 11:56:38 pm by anomaly »
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Doughnut?

Offline Drem

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Re: General Hardware Discussion
« Reply #43 on: September 08, 2009, 12:07:07 am »
Quote from: mephisto_kur on September 07, 2009, 05:43:08 pm
You can get memtest86 here.  click on FREE DOWNLOAD on the left.

Or you can get memtest86+ here.  The work the same way, just memtest86+ is newer.  Click on "Download (Pre-built & ISOs)" then click on "Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)" unzip and burn.

do i burn the actual files inside the .iso or burn the .iso? cuz i did that and tried booting from CD-ROM and it didn't do anything. it just started normally.
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Offline mephisto_kur

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Re: General Hardware Discussion
« Reply #44 on: September 08, 2009, 12:19:12 am »
Yep, just boot from the CD.

You've never worked with iso's before?

What CD burning software do you use?
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It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. - Sagan


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