The Computer Thread

Rather Random Rachel, see if you can get some extra ram, if not go with just the card. Check MSI's website for the latest, stable drivers. From the time the card shipped till now there may be bug fixes and upgrades on the card or from NVIDIA themselves. Don't go with Beta unless you love to tinker or your just that crazy. Make sure your power supply can handle the load AND that the card will fit without moving too much.

edited 9th Apr '14 8:06:18 PM by TairaMai

Beta tends to be more stable form Nvidia in my experience though....

I think "Latest drivers" in general is the best advice...

Well, I think my new PC (been using it for about a month now) may have a problem with its GPU.

A week or two ago, I left the machine on overnight rendering a Terragen 2 scene, with the monitor turned off manually (via the monitor's power button). When I got up in the morning and turned the monitor's power on, I just got a black screen. The mouse, keyboard and USB wireless adapter had their LEDs on as usual, but no keys or mouse actions did anything, and Caps Lock wouldn't activate the corresponding LED on the keyboard. When I forced it to shut down by holding the power button, and then restarted it, it gave that 'start Windows normally' message and afterwards worked as usual. I figured that some bizarre Terragen 2 error was probably at fault, so I decided to ignore the problem and wait and see if it happened again.

Today, I left the machine on for a few hours running a Javascript test (about 60% of one core, compared to Terragen 2's usage of 100% of all cores) while I was out of the house (long enough for the screensaver to come on, and then for the computer to turn the monitor off automatically). When I came home, I found it in the same black screen state. This time I tried unplugging the monitor and plugging it back in (with no effect), and pinging my machine (across its wireless connection) from another device connected to the LAN, which worked perfectly (I got about 3ms ping). In the end I still had to shut it down using the power button.

After it was turned back on, at one point I had SCMDraft open and noticed an occasional graphics glitch in part of the screen, a horizontal line of wrong-colored pixels that would flash into existence very briefly. Since SCMDraft isn't exactly a paragon of well-written software (and has to keep up compatibility with data and graphics standards from the Windows 95 era), I assumed this was just some goof in the color encoding and probably not a serious issue. However, a little while later, I briefly saw a weird glitchy-looking phenomenon on a page in Firefox, that went away when I moved the pointer near it. In order to test the GPU, I fired up Sauerbraten (1280X1024, high settings) for a minute or so, then ran the 3DMark tests (3DMark came with this machine). Both of those worked perfectly with no sign of graphical glitches. Moreover, although I don't have temperature-monitoring software running, the Internet indicates that the FX-6300 and Radeon 7790 are relatively cool as CPUs and GPUs go, and my experience is that the case always feels nice and cool to the touch, even when under load.

So, at this point I'm not really sure what to think. Should I assume I have a real GPU hardware issue, or some set of unrelated software problems? I've never gotten the black screen crash while I was actually using the machine (which has probably been most of the time that it's spent turned on so far), or for that matter while the monitor was turned on. Nor have I noticed any graphical glitches before today. I've downloaded this program, but actually running the test might take several hours; is it likely to correctly identify a GPU hardware issue, if in fact there is one to find?

EDIT: Downloaded SpeedFan, it reports idle GPU temperature to be about 27C, after ten minutes of Sauerbraten it was only up to 35C.

EDIT: Last night the computer crashed in a similar way despite the monitor being left on the whole time.

EDIT: Ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool, it found no errors in 8GB of system RAM across 2 passes.

edited 11th Apr '14 11:10:54 AM by Meklar

Hey, does anyone know if K9 Web Protection can block downloading of all files? Like, everything, except streaming and trusted program updates?

Seems to be the best parental control software after a cursory look, so if it can do that it'd be helpful.

edited 12th Apr '14 11:29:52 AM by CassidyTheDevil

This made me LOL.

That's hilarious, including the shout-out to our site.

Was browsing this site when I managed to catch a Firefox graphical glitch with a screenshot.◊ It looks pretty similar to the one I saw earlier. What do you think, does it look like a GPU issue or just a software bug?

That looks like some pixels didn't load.

Meaning...?

So, I've got to get a new battery for my laptop.

Any suggestions on where to buy online? (Or if)

http://NewEgg.com, Amazon, try the maker's website and see if they have OEM batteries.

What's the make and model of your computer?

edited 18th Apr '14 12:16:53 PM by TairaMai

So the power supply I needed is out of stock and doesn't seem to be coming back in anytime soon.

Anyone got any good ones for cheap?

Does anyone know any programs I can use to see what programs are using how much bandwidth, like in Task Manager?

IIRC Networx will do so.

Again, Le Garcon, try Newegg.com. If it's a laptop power supply, there are various aftermarket adapters that will work. Corsair is a good maker of budget power supplies for desktops. DO NOT skimp on this. Your comp will CRASH if your PS can't deliver "clean" power: no spikes, consistent voltage, no noise to disrupt the system clock and good parts for long life. Sure you can get a $20.00-$50.00 (US) cheapie one, but in a year you'll be buying another one.

Thermaltake is another good brand. And they do have pwoersupplies for less than 50 bones.

edited 18th Apr '14 2:41:38 PM by TairaMai

I have an Hp-Pavilon g6 notebook.

I have no experience with laptop batteries that are not the ones that came with the laptop.

Google is your friend. Type in [make] [model] [battery number] and try either Google's "shopping" category or see if your laptop pops up. Many makers will sell you batteries and adaptors for your laptop.

You should be pointing that to Matues, not me. All I'm saying is that I could personally not help with the question asked in the earlier post. lol

Ack! Need more Annoying Arrows!

EDIT:

Welcome to another edition of my "Useless Notes"! Now with theme music!

Hey everyone, just Google(TM) your laptop's maker. Most have a "shop" or "support" section of their website.

• Check the webzone for your laptop's make and model.
• See what parts they stock.
• If that fails try Google: {LAPTOP MAKE} {LAPTOP MODEL}} battery
• click and order.
• Enjoy!

• Google Shopping "LAPTOP BATTERY"
• Laptop Battery Depot
• New Egg
• Amazon Batteries -Laptop&Notebook

edited 19th Apr '14 8:01:20 PM by TairaMai

MS Office for Ipad is a thing now. Hear that? That's the sound of butthurt from the WindowsRT team. And the sound of $200 million surface tables not being sold...

I use Office on a tablet for school and it sucks. Then again I find that trying to cram anything productive onto a tablet sucks.

We're actually discussing whether or not tablets and phones will entirely supplant desktops in my class. I maintain that they won't simply because they have tiny screens and suck to type on.

@AFP: Absolutely true, but the industry seems to be pushing that for some reason.

Well, they're also starting to push these tiny little desktop P Cs lately too. Basically, imagine what you would get if you built a computer using laptop hardware, but without needing to worry about fitting a keyboard, screen, or lid in anywhere. You end up with a little computer that's about the size of a thick paperback (so maybe Stranger in a Strange Land, or Battlefield Earth if you wanted the version with a laptop HDD bay). Costs $250-$400 depending on the hardware and software on it (I paid around $250 for a kit that didn't include HDD, memory, or OS, but I had all of those lying around).

Seems to run Windows 7 and play movies well enough. Probably more than enough to do basic office productivity type things, especially with everything being done as a web app nowadays.