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Tech Support GAF Thread: No Case Too Big, No Case Too Small

H

hiroshawn

Banned
Back for tips.

My sister has new laptop (i7 and all that jazz) It has win 8, now I told her not to download shit until i put anti virus in there but she didn't listen and now the computer is filled with malware and spyware and it's running crappy.

How should I go about fixing this. Thanks.
 
A

ambientmystic

Member
hiroshawn said:
Back for tips.

My sister has new laptop (i7 and all that jazz) It has win 8, now I told her not to download shit until i put anti virus in there but she didn't listen and now the computer is filled with malware and spyware and it's running crappy.

How should I go about fixing this. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Just Refresh the installation of Windows 8.

Wipes out the garbage but keeps your personal files.

Read the following website carefully before you proceed:-

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc
 
H

hiroshawn

Banned
ambientmystic said:
Just Refresh the installation of Windows 8.

Wipes out the garbage but keeps your personal files.

Read the following website carefully before you proceed:-

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc
Click to expand...

HMM there is no "Update and recovery" button from step number 2. Could the malware have disabled that?

To refresh your PC

Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap Change PC settings.
(If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, click Settings, and then click Change PC settings.)

Tap or click Update and recovery, and then tap or click Recovery.

Under Refresh your PC without affecting your files, tap or click Get started.

Follow the instructions on the screen.
Click to expand...
 
C

CornDogg

Member
hiroshawn said:
HMM there is no "Update and recovery" button from step number 2. Could the malware have disabled that?
Click to expand...

Your recovery environment could be disabled. Open an elevated command prompt and type "reagentc /info", without quotes, and see what the first line says for "Windows RE status".
 
H

hiroshawn

Banned
OK it looks like DELL somehow hid the stock win 8 recovery and put in their own, they even have a premium paid version. Fuckinglown clowns
 
C

CornDogg

Member
ScOULaris said:
Thanks for the suggestion, but no dice. The only way the tethered connection takes over is if I completely disable the PC's internal network adapter. Of course when I do that I can't use anything intranet-related.

My next attempt was launching Chrome through ForceBindIP and pointing it to my tethered phone's IP, but something stops any internet from coming through when I do that. If I launch Chrome without ForceBindIP under that same scenario it works fine.

I think I might be out of options when it comes to using my phone's connection in tandem with my work connection.
Click to expand...

Could try setting up a persistent route. Do you have the ability to modify your IP configuration? Or is it set to DHCP through Group Policy (would look greyed out and not changeable)?
 
M

Megasoum

Banned
I noticed in the last 2 weeks or so that Netflix would suddenly kick out of full screen when the window lost focus (ie: doing something on the second screen). It was always fine before but now for some reason it won't stay in full screen.

I'm on Chrome on Windows 8.1.

I tried uninstalling and re-installing silverlight but it didn't fix it.

Btw, didn't Netflix announce a while ago that they were ditching Silverlight? Stupid piece of crap plugin.
 
R

Rebel Leader

THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
I had this in the "Build me a pc thread"

I need some more help, I figured out my problem.

Sys_fan3 will not power any fan at all. Should I return the motherboard? Or what?

I have 2 fans I can hook up by molex
Click to expand...
 
C

Captain Chaos

Member
Captain Chaos said:
Jumped into PC gaming recently as managed to get some parts for free. Setup is

Asus 990FX Sabertooth rev 2 Motherboard
8350 AMD CPU
R9 280X Sapphire Duel X OC GPU
16 GB Crucial Ballistix Ram
128 GB Corsair Force GS SSD
Corsair RM750 PSU
Fractal Node 605

Machine is on a lot as provides Live TV and Media to main TV in the house. I have steam big picture mode for gaming. Played through RE4 with no issue, now am going through Metro Last Light and perhaps once a night it freezes and only a hard reset can get the machine working again. I dont think its heat as the profile sets all case fans to 100% at 40c and cpu fan speed is fast upto 100% from 40 to 50c. When checking temps during gaming nothing really goes above 50c.

The crash is often black screen or vertical coloured lines during graphically intensive parts, occasionally the sound effects / music continue.

I've looked online at found some recommendations on enforcing constant voltage and switching off ULPS on the GPU. I've done this via trixx and thought it worked until after a couple of hours a crash like all the others happened.

I have seen advice on turning down the core mhz speed from 1020, but why should I, I pay for this speed and dont want to do this if avoidable. I have tried lowering the mhz prior enforcing constant voltage and disabling ULPS and noted slightly worse frame rates and anyway it still crashed.

Any advice greatly appreciated
Click to expand...

Sorry to bump but any advice out there?

I've been stress testing the GPU and CPU via furmark and getting temps of around 63c for the GPU on average hitting a max of 71c. This is with a 100% CPU burner on at the same time caining the 8350 which is pushing the CPU temp to a stable 60c. Case temperature at 38c.

So I dont think my issue is heat related and thus leads me to believe its possibly a driver issue with the set up and/or Metro LL.

Ironic thing is I finished MLL last night (whole experience blew me away) but the once a night crash somewhat tarnished the whole experience. I've got Bioshock Infinate sitting there waiting for me and dont want to go through the same hassle.

Any advice greatly appreciated
 
C

Calibus

Member
Using Win8.1 hooked up to a powerful modern GPU using 1080p dual monitors set at max resolution connected via HDMI. Windows setting say I am displaying at max resolution but still the text on everything I view looks blurry and kind of low res. Any thoughts on what may be happening?

EDIT: Nm, resolved. I switched from mini display port to HDMI connection to just HMDI and DVI, swapped some dual screen settings and it worked fine. Now if only I could get my PC to power on fully when I press the power button as opposed to it powering on for a few seconds then continuously power cycling itself.
 
Bumblebeetuna

Bumblebeetuna

Member
Anyone know if there is a 3rd party repair disc available anywhere that might fix a Vista installation? My father-in-law dropped off his tower and it won't boot. If you try, it beeps once then just idles. I can get to BIOS and it recognizes the HDD. I can try to boot to LKGC but it beeps then halts. If I try safe mode, it loads everything up to a point then beeps and goes black/idles. So I think something is corrupt in his boot sector/MBR whatever.

He doesn't have his Vista disc (I doubt the tower came with one), so Idk what options I have short of try g to pirate one to fix this, which I don't want to do. So I was hoping there would be a free repair program someone knows of I could boot to (preferably USB drive) to scan the HDD for errors. Even if it doesn't fix the error, at least id know.
 
K

Krusenstern

Banned
I've got a very annoying problem with my PC's RAM.

First my system:
OS: Windows 8.1 64bit
CPU: i7 975 XE
Motherboard: Asus P6T WS Pro
RAM: Corsair 6 GB Triple Kit (TR3X6G1333C9) [got two kits, making it 12 GB]

The issue:
I recently decided to upgrade my memory from 6 GB to 12 GB. Been using 6 GB (3x 2GB models) of the aforementioned memory nearly 2 years without a single incident. Never had a blue sceen once and PC never behaved strange before. TR3X6G1333C9 can be even found in the Qualified Vendor List for my mainboard. It says the mainboard supports six modules of that RAM inserted into both slots as two set of Triple-channel memory configuration. Both the mainboard and the CPU can support a total of up to 24 GB RAM.
So I bought another Triple Kit of the exact same RAM I've been using all along and installed it in the remaining slots of my mainboard.

The problem is: it only recognizes 12 GB after a warm boot. After a cold boot it only shows 10 GB installed.
Again, to be clear: When you boot up the system from a powered-down state the PC will only show that 10GB are installed. It will only show all of the installed 12 GB RAM when you restart the PC via the operating system.

But that's not everything. After further investigation I noticed something mindboggingly crazy: my available disc space also changes depending on cold and warm boot!

I have a SSD with 238 GB total space.
When my PC cold boots (showing 10 GB RAM installed) my SSD shows 36.5 GB out of 238 GB available hard drive space.
When my PC warm boots (showing 12 GB RAM installed) my SSD only shows 34.7 GB out of 238 GB available hard drive space.

Could this be related? Is part of my RAM being used as hard drive space?!
I'm at my wits end, people.

EDIT: Okay, I just installed the new RAM only and the problem persisted. So I removed the modules one by one to see how much RAM showed up and I found out that one module must be faulty. It only gets recognized by the system after multiple restarts. Guess I have to send this back. Fuck me.
 
R

RedBullEnergy

Member
Gaf! Help! Come to my rescue!

I put together a new build in December (Thanking GAF for the help), no problems until around May (cannot recall any hardware or drastic software changes though), since then every once and a while the computer won't come back to life after going into sleep mode (or so I thought). No hardware changes since the initial build. The monitors would power down and pressing any key or moving the mouse would NOT bring it back like it should. This has probably happened 4 or 5 times by now. Seems to be more frequent now. Only way to get the PC back is a hard-restart.

So thinking that it was some buggy sleep mode problem, I set the PC NOT to go into sleep mode (allowing the monitors to still turn off). It has since happened again, the entire PC locked up (I was AFK) for seemingly no reason. Except this time the monitors etc were on, so I think that would rule out it being any sleep or hibernation related issue.

It also happened again this morning, the monitors powered down last night and I fell asleep..woke up this morning and they wouldn't come back on from hitting any key or moving the mouse. Hard-restart required.

CPU and Mobo temps are fairly normal for summer in a warm room (45c and 25c), it doesn't seem to be an heating issue. Fans were still running, CD Tray ejected fine etc. Just screens were locked. I didn't have a window open with a blinking cursor so I couldn't tell whether the computer WAS still active and it was just the input devices which had been disabled somehow or it had actually locked up completely.

Event viewer doesn't seem to show very much, temps are still fine now and I've even been rendering for 12 solid hours with 100% CPU without crash so I'm totally convinced it's not a work-load or heating problem.

Gaaaaaaf!?
 
K

kennah

Member
Krusenstern said:
I have a SSD with 238 GB total space.
When my PC cold boots (showing 10 GB RAM installed) my SSD shows 36.5 GB out of 238 GB available hard drive space.
When my PC warm boots (showing 12 GB RAM installed) my SSD only shows 34.7 GB out of 238 GB available hard drive space.

Could this be related? Is part of my RAM being used as hard drive space?!
I'm at my wits end, people.
Click to expand...

To answer this question - you have hibernation enabled - it reserves the exact amount of space of your ram so it can copy it to the drive when you put your computer to sleep/hibernation. Disable that to free up some space.
 
C

cheesetom

Member
RedBullEnergy said:
Gaf! Help! Come to my rescue!

I put together a new build in December (Thanking GAF for the help), no problems until around May (cannot recall any hardware or drastic software changes though), since then every once and a while the computer won't come back to life after going into sleep mode (or so I thought). No hardware changes since the initial build. The monitors would power down and pressing any key or moving the mouse would NOT bring it back like it should. This has probably happened 4 or 5 times by now. Seems to be more frequent now. Only way to get the PC back is a hard-restart.

So thinking that it was some buggy sleep mode problem, I set the PC NOT to go into sleep mode (allowing the monitors to still turn off). It has since happened again, the entire PC locked up (I was AFK) for seemingly no reason. Except this time the monitors etc were on, so I think that would rule out it being any sleep or hibernation related issue.

It also happened again this morning, the monitors powered down last night and I fell asleep..woke up this morning and they wouldn't come back on from hitting any key or moving the mouse. Hard-restart required.

CPU and Mobo temps are fairly normal for summer in a warm room (45c and 25c), it doesn't seem to be an heating issue. Fans were still running, CD Tray ejected fine etc. Just screens were locked. I didn't have a window open with a blinking cursor so I couldn't tell whether the computer WAS still active and it was just the input devices which had been disabled somehow or it had actually locked up completely.

Event viewer doesn't seem to show very much, temps are still fine now and I've even been rendering for 12 solid hours with 100% CPU without crash so I'm totally convinced it's not a work-load or heating problem.

Gaaaaaaf!?
Click to expand...


When it locks up, do the mouse and keyboard light up? Num/scroll/caps lock buttons light up? If you disconnect the mouse and reconnect it does windows make that hardware detected sound?
 
W

Wanace

Member
I'm having an annoying problem on my Surface Pro 1 with a type cover.

Whenever I am playing a game like minecraft or other game where I press the "W" or some other key for an extended period of time, when I let off the key, the game thinks I'm still pressing it and I'll continue moving in that direction until I press the key again.

I did a google search but I can't seem to find a solution.

I don't have sticky keys on as far as I know.

How can I fix this?
 
R

RedBullEnergy

Member
cheesetom said:
When it locks up, do the mouse and keyboard light up? Num/scroll/caps lock buttons light up? If you disconnect the mouse and reconnect it does windows make that hardware detected sound?
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for the reply. Not sure about the keyboard (no LEDs) but the other USB input devices are still lit, mouse still has the light on and the Wacom tablet is still lit?

I've got Windows sounds turned off so I can't answer that but re-connecting the mouse doesn't bring the machine back to life.
 
G

Grath

Member
I hope someone can help me: my PC got much slower in a few weeks - and when I check the task manager, it seems that something is using up 75%-80% of the RAM (even while idling), when the processes shown barely add up to 10%.

It's a Windows 8.1 64 bit OS, i5 processor and 8 GB of RAM. The OS runs from an SSD and I have other 2 external drives for everything else.

I have Spybot and Malwarebytes running in the background, but the task manager shows only 71 and 40 MB of RAM usage for those. I don't think I have a virus, as these two are pretty good.

Because of the very high RAM usage, the PC got very slow when starting any program, be it Chrome, Spotify or even Notepad.

CPU usage is around 10% when idling, so it must be something RAM-related, but all the 8GB shows up in the system menu.

Anyone has any tips before I reinstall Windows?

Thanks
 
Fixed1979

Fixed1979

Member
Alright, computer is out of commission... Hoping someone might have an idea before I start what could likely be a time consuming trouble shoot.

Last night while not in use I heard the fans spin up as fast as they've ever gone, I was in this bed and got out and just held the power button in until it went into shutdown. Got home from work today and it won't start. I hit the power button and it the fans kick in and immediately shut down again, if I try to start it again I get no response at all, though give it some time...maybe flip the switch on the power supply off and on and I can get the same q second or so fan startup. The power and reset button on the MB are both lit up so there is at least some power getting to the board. I'll probably rip the whole thing apart this weekend to try to trouble shoot it, but if anyone has any advice in the meantime I'd appreciate it.
 
W

WoodWERD

Member
I've moved to a new apartment and it seems the internet connection (ADSL) is causing my laptop to hang and crash instead of sleep. If I remember to disconnect before I close it then it sleeps just fine. Any way to fix this?
 
A

ambientmystic

Member
WoodWERD said:
I've moved to a new apartment and it seems the internet connection (ADSL) is causing my laptop to hang and crash instead of sleep. If I remember to disconnect before I close it then it sleeps just fine. Any way to fix this?
Click to expand...

Are you using your laptop as the dialer itself (softmodem) with the modem set to bridged mode? (i.e. Windows is performing the connection via the WAN Miniport (PPPOE) service)

Try letting the ADSL modem do its own thing and use its dialer instead. Unless of course you have no other option.
 
W

WoodWERD

Member
ambientmystic said:
Are you using your laptop as the dialer itself (softmodem) with the modem set to bridged mode? (i.e. Windows is performing the connection via the WAN Miniport (PPPOE) service)

Try letting the ADSL modem do its own thing and use its dialer instead. Unless of course you have no other option.
Click to expand...

Yes to the bolded afaik...no idea how to do what you're suggesting though. Modem is TP-Link TD-8620T (in China). Thanks for the reply though, I'll try to googleize more tomorrow.
 
T

tch

Member
Hey guys. Had a power surge, (surge protector has surge light lit up). Reset everything, but only my psu fan is on and my case fans. My Radeon 4890 has three red lights on and it's fan isn't spinning. I've even tried plugging the PC into another surge protector and the wall and still have the same issues.

Is there anything I can do to figure out what is wrong (psu, motherboard, gpu)? Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm posting this from my phone. I can post more details if it would help. Thanks
 
A

ambientmystic

Member
WoodWERD said:
Yes to the bolded afaik...no idea how to do what you're suggesting though. Modem is TP-Link TD-8620T (in China). Thanks for the reply though, I'll try to googleize more tomorrow.
Click to expand...

I was having a look at the reference pages for this product via Google. They're all in Chinese though, this particular model was built for the Chinese market, and the firmware is also in Chinese, which I don't understand one bit.

But essentially, what you're looking for is a Quick Setup option, which will let you configure the modem's WAN settings and let you input your username and password for your ADSL service directly into the modem so that it is the modem itself that performs the dialup to the internet, not your computer.

Your computer would just be a part of the LAN, and be autoassigned a local IP address by the DHCP of the modem. Assuming of course your modem provides that functionality.
 
C

cheesetom

Member
RedBullEnergy said:
Hey, thanks for the reply. Not sure about the keyboard (no LEDs) but the other USB input devices are still lit, mouse still has the light on and the Wacom tablet is still lit?

I've got Windows sounds turned off so I can't answer that but re-connecting the mouse doesn't bring the machine back to life.
Click to expand...

The only issue I've ever had with mouse and keyboard being lit up but unresponsive was after installing Intel's USB 3.0 drivers. It was a doozy to troubleshoot and I ended up reformating because it screwed up EVERY usb port I had.

Not installing Intel's stuff solved everything. Maybe you can try that?
 
P

Prez

Member
Is there any way to test if your HDD is nearing the end of its life or to test your HDD's condition in general? So far no bad signs but I've been using it daily for 7 years now. I'm surprised it still works after all that time to be honest.
 
P

Prez

Member
ambientmystic said:
CrystalDiskInfo.
Click to expand...

Thanks! This is what I got:

ILbErAt.jpg
Click to expand...

So I guess I shouldn't be worried yet?

I bought a new HDD a few years ago to replace this one but I still haven't done it... I think it's about time I do and I could use my current one as a second back-up.
 
A

ambientmystic

Member
Prez said:
Thanks! This is what I got:

So I guess I shouldn't be worried yet?

I bought a new HDD a few years ago to replace this one but I still haven't done it... I think it's about time I do and I could use my current one as a second back-up.
Click to expand...

Looks good to me.

Just do it anyway, I'd say you're pretty fortunate to have a surviving Seagate Barracuda Drive of that generation after 5 years.
 
A

ambientmystic

Member
Canon said:
Firefox (windows 7) recently won't play any YouTube videos -- just a black screen. Works on Chrome.
Click to expand...

Facing the same issue too, still looking for a solution.

EDIT:- Okay, so it's apparently only an issue with YouTube, other sites with flash videos (e.g. The Escapist's Jimquisition) work properly with Firefox.
 
C

Canon

Banned
ambientmystic said:
Facing the same issue too, still looking for a solution.

EDIT:- Okay, so it's apparently only an issue with YouTube, other sites with flash videos (e.g. The Escapist's Jimquisition) work properly with Firefox.
Click to expand...
Solution: Disable all your plugins and re-enable them manually. I don't know which one caused it but I'd guess Greasemonkey and YouTube center, but I haven't tested. Just disable them all and re-enable one by one.
 
M

marimorimo

Member
Could someone please enlighten me as to what is an ATML document?

Background: A society has agreed to let us advertise in their newsletter, and told us to provide them with an ATML document.

I thought she meant HTML document and just to be sure, I asked for any further specifications. Then she said 750 x 200 px which made me think is JPEG banner.... But she replied and insisted on ATML.

The ad/newsletter we want them to run contains a substantial amount of text and some photos.

I'm really confused- I'd really appreciate any help, TechSupportGAF! (I hope this is the correct section?)
 
A

ambientmystic

Member
Canon said:
Solution: Disable all your plugins and re-enable them manually. I don't know which one caused it but I'd guess Greasemonkey and YouTube center, but I haven't tested. Just disable them all and re-enable one by one.
Click to expand...

Cheers for that, the issue resolved by itself today. I wasn't using any of those plugins to begin with.
 
G

Glassboy

Member
Hello tech gaf! Hopefully someone can provide me some guidance.

My roomates cat jumped off the top of my desktop tower, knocking it over in the process. The computer fell over but not at any great distance since it was sitting in the floor.

My problem is that it turns on for 4 seconds or so and then shuts itself off. During that time nothing loads up on the monitor that I have it connected to. I built the computer myself I reconnected everything, including making sure the CPU was settled in nicely. Even after all that the same thing happens. Power kicks in for four or five seconds and then shuts itself off.

Any help would be much appreciated!
 
B

Big Papa Husker

Member
I'm having some weird issues with my PC. I'm thinking it could be a power supply issue, but I'm not totally sure. When I boot up my PC, most of the time it will show the BIOS splash screen and then start loading Windows. Recently, however, it sometimes will show the splash screen, then go to a black screen and then shows the splash screen again and then load into Windows. About a year before this booting issue happened I noticed a clicking sound when the machine is running.

If I want to get a new power supply, what brand and size should I get? Here is what is in my PC. I think my current PSU is an UltraX3 800w.

CPU: 2500K OC'd to 4.5GHZ
RAM: 8GB DDR3
HDD: 256GB SSD (OS), 2x - 2TB 5400rpm (Data)
DVD: Blu-ray Writer, DVD/CD Writer
GFX: 2GB GTX670
 
R

Random Painted HIghway

Member
Are there any rumors when hard drives larger than 4TB are going to come out at reasonable prices? I've been scanning all of my photos/negatives and digitizing my vhs home movies and am in danger of running out of space on my 3TB drive in the next month or so, so am looking to upgrade. I have a full tower so it isn't a big deal to just slave in another drive, but that gets a bit obnoxious to have, at that point 4 drives. SSD/1TB/3TB and a new 4TB .

Also, what's the deal with the hybrid drives like: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FQH7MQ2/?tag=neogaf0e-20 this isn't going to be my main drive, would this be of any benefit to me?
 
Druz

Druz

Member
Glassboy said:
Hello tech gaf! Hopefully someone can provide me some guidance.

My roomates cat jumped off the top of my desktop tower, knocking it over in the process. The computer fell over but not at any great distance since it was sitting in the floor.

My problem is that it turns on for 4 seconds or so and then shuts itself off. During that time nothing loads up on the monitor that I have it connected to. I built the computer myself I reconnected everything, including making sure the CPU was settled in nicely. Even after all that the same thing happens. Power kicks in for four or five seconds and then shuts itself off.

Any help would be much appreciated!
Click to expand...

Are you sure the heatsink is secure? Usually powering it on and it turns itself off after 4 seconds is for protection. If heat levels rose really quick it could be powering down.
 
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