The Computer Thread

Or just drop $25-30 for an external DVD drive and don't worry about The Blue Ray (you need to drop more money on a BD player program anyways, so at that point, you might as well just get a blue ray player for the TV instead)

New DVD drives aren't too expensive. The one I put into my build was an OEM LG and cost about £16.

Speaking of which, the hardware side of the build is done.◊

(Yes, I know the stickers aren't on straight.)

edited 16th Mar '14 7:59:24 AM by Deadbeatloser22

"Yup. That tasted purple."

So I finally unpacked and booted up my new desktop yesterday. It looks like this◊ and contains an AMD FX-6300, 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 RAM, a 2GB Sapphire Radeon HD 7790 factory-OCed to 1050MHz and a 1TB 7200RPM Seagate hard drive, running off a 500W PSU. It's running 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium. The idea now is to switch to it as my main machine (I've been using this 2008 laptop as my main for several years), but so far I've just run into a mountain of problems, so I'm wondering if I can get any advice here.

First, the machine occasionally makes a sort of metallic 'click' noise. It kinda sounds like the hard drive head resetting (and is associated with a brief flash of the hard drive light), and will tend to happen once every minute or so for spans of several minutes. Also, sometimes right after the clicking noise there's a slight buzz that abruptly stops several seconds later, and when the hard drive spins down I can clearly hear a similar sort of buzz. Is the hard drive bad? If not, is there at least some way of making the clicking noise stop? Because it's kinda loud (the machine itself is already louder than my laptop, but the clicking noise is more distracting).

Second, the two times I've tried to shut the machine down (once to restart it during the setup for my Tenda USB wireless adapter, then again later with the normal shutdown command), it has gone back to the BIOS startup screen and stopped with the message 'verifying DMI pool data'. Both times, hitting the power button (not holding it down, just pressing it once) shut it down completely. The first time I turned it back on, it also said that 'Windows was not shut down properly' and prompted me for startup options (I selected 'start Windows normally'). I suspect this may have something to do with the wireless adapter being plugged in during startup (the machine may mistake the wireless adapter for a boot drive, this seems consistent with what I've read online about this particular error message), and the next time I start it up I'll do so with the adapter unplugged, but I'd rather not have to unplug and plug in the adapter each time the machine goes off and on, and having to reset it with the power button during startup is no good for either the hardware or the software. Does anyone know of other things I could try to fix this?

Third, the new machine and my laptop (the latter running 32-bit Windows Vista Home Premium) can't see each other on the network or share their Public folders with each other. I'd especially like the laptop to be able to see the desktop's Public folder, the reverse is not so important. I've set all the settings the way they're supposed to be according to every online guide (both machines have the same workgroup name and can both access the Internet through the same router just fine), and even tried turning off the new machine's firewall temporarily, but nothing worked. I guess the other alternative is to transfer everything using my external USB hard drive (it's big enough, but the reading and writing would take a long time). Any ideas? I've noticed an option in Windows 7 that says something like 'create an ad-hoc network', so I may try that and see if I can get anywhere with it, but still, it pisses me off that the one method that's supposed to work doesn't.

Fourth, Process Explorer reports that the xhcdrv.sys thread in the System process is constantly sucking up about 16.67% CPU usage (i.e. all of one core). Due to having 5 other cores the machine is actually pretty usable even with this happening (and it runs really cool so far, the case barely feels warmer than the room around it), but I'd still like to fix this problem sooner rather than later. The Internet suggests that Gigabyte's motherboard USB3.0 drivers are responsible, but I checked them in the Device Manager and it said the drivers were up to date. Also, even when I unplugged the wireless adapter (which is the only thing plugged into a blue USB port, the mouse and keyboard are in black ones), CPU usage stayed up. Any ideas?

EDIT: The fourth problem (System drawing excess CPU time) has been solved by installing a driver patch.

edited 19th Mar '14 11:06:22 AM by Meklar

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Try getting CrystalDiskInfo. I use it to get information about my hard drives, and it's called S.M.A.R.T.

Make sure you get the Info program and not the benchmarks...

Oh, and if you can, please determine what exactly your 500W PSU is.

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

NCIX gave me a big box of all the packaging for the components. Hang on a sec...

Okay, the box says the brand is Antec and the model is BP500U. So basically this thing, except that says ATX V2.01 and mine says V2.3. From what I've heard, the FX-6300 (no OC) maxes at 95W and the 7790 peaks at about 240W with a TDP of about 90W, so a 500W PSU should be more than enough to hold up this hardware. NCIX's basic build actually comes with a 450W PSU running essentially the same hardware, I got the 500W one because I wanted to be on the safe side.

Also, in this case the PSU and hard drive are mounted on the bottom. I did open up the case and check the wiring before starting the machine, and I didn't see anything obviously wrong with the assembly, but then I'm no expert.

edited 16th Mar '14 11:56:44 AM by Meklar

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To add to the above problems: I downloaded and installed GIMP 2.8.10, but when I try to start it, during the loading screen, it says 'brushes' and just hangs, using up all of one core. At that point I have to forcibly terminate it. I tried running it under the compatibility setting for Windows Vista, but with similar results. I am going to be needing this program to work, any ideas?

EDIT: Never mind, it seems GIMP was just taking a really long time during its first startup. Why that would happen on this hardware I don't know, but it's working now.

edited 17th Mar '14 12:32:02 PM by Meklar

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I should have heeded your warning AFP, I just had my extension die on me, forcing me to redo the wiring of my computer station. So that was mildly annoying.

OK, got my copy of Windows 7 ordered, so I should have my new PC up and running by this weekend.

"Yup. That tasted purple."

So, what would you guys recommend for antivirus for a shiny new Windows 8 computer? This thing has a free trial of Mc Afee installed, and while it seems to be working (not that I've been doing anything that'd get me viruses), it has the annoying habit of claiming the firewall is off after every Windows update (though it doesn't actually seem to be off). That's kind of annoying.

I couldn't conceive a dream so wet; your bongos make me congo.

I've used AVG Free on every computer I've owned (it's running this new one right now), and it seems to do pretty well for me.

Of course, effective computer security is about more than just having a single really good antivirus program installed. For instance, turning off the Java and Adobe Reader browser plugins has done more to keep viruses off my machines than any actual antivirus software, and at least one of the viruses I did get required a specialized tool to clean out (it's good to keep such tools on your hard drive somewhere, they're usually small and it's best to have them available without needing to connect to the Internet).

Join my forum game!

What melkar said, my laptop runs AVG and my desktop uses no antivirus software what so ever, neither have had problems due to smart computer use.

Although I recomend AVG and dont know why I have neever installed it on my desktop.

I run avast! on everything (desktop, Macbook and Android) since AVG was being a pain in the ass about downgrading from trial to free.

edited 19th Mar '14 12:21:16 PM by Deadbeatloser22

"Yup. That tasted purple."

I think we used to have Avast on the desktop computer but changed to eset because... I don't remember why, actually. Huh.

But anyway, is eset also good?

I couldn't conceive a dream so wet; your bongos make me congo.

I never selected to have the trial version in the first place.

Join my forum game!

I couldn't find a download for just the free version though.

"Yup. That tasted purple."

free.avg.com gets me to their free version easily enough, though they do try to steer you to the paid version for obvious reasons.

I used to use AVG free, but its resource usage got to be too much for my tastes. I'm currently using Avast's free AV program, which seems to play fairly nicely on my W7 system.

All your safe space are belong to Trump

Also, I'm surprised that no-one has taken offence to me saying I run an antivirus on a Mac.

"Yup. That tasted purple."

You have a Mac...?

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

Yes. I'm using it right now.

"Yup. That tasted purple."

Why would I take offense?

Everyone's made bad decisions in the past, yours was choosing a Mac.

But anyway, I never bought into the notion that Macs or Linux/UNIX systems were immune to malware. They just don't get as much attention from malware writers as Windows systems because of the respective distributions. If anything I'd give you a for not relying on "security through obscurity".

All your safe space are belong to Trump

Then again you're not as bad as the moderator on a tech support forum I saw who claimed "You don't need antivirus on a Mac because OSX has a built-in firewall."

"Yup. That tasted purple."

An Ars Technica article about the analog computers the Navy used to use on the Iowa battleships.

Anyway, got the Windows 7 disc running now so I should have a spiffy new PC by tomorrow morning. ^.^

Sadly camera flashes overpower the fan lights.◊

"Yup. That tasted purple."

And here I am worried about how my room looks. XD

Computer does look nice though, whats the thing on top of it?

Huh?

"Yup. That tasted purple."