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

So Portal 2 is having a fair bit of hitching or stuttering on my system and I'm trying to figure out why. It's actually not just Portal 2; I've had the same problem to varying degrees in lots of games since I moved to Win7x64 (which makes me think it's a system-wide problem), but it's particularly bad with this title. It mostly occurs when the game is calling a new, unique sound, especially dialogue. Any scene where GLaDOS or Wheatley has several lines all in a row, each new line is likely to be started by about a second of the game stuttering and it's DRIVING ME NUTS. It seems like the game can't call it soon enough or the hard drive can't find it fast enough. I don't know how to diagnose this or cut it down though (and no way am I opening the Portal 2 forums to find out).

Hard drive: WD Caviar Black 1.5 TB, just 1 month old. I thought Caviar Blacks were supposed to be fast.
Sound card: Chaintech AV-710 and Asus Xonar DG (tried with both)

Like I said, I've had similar stuttering or sound hitching problems with some other games (Mass Effect, Bioshock, Beyond Good & Evil) but nowhere as bad as this. I thought it might be related to the sound card which is why I bought the Xonar, but it happened with that card too. :(
 
faceless007 said:
So Portal 2 is having a fair bit of hitching or stuttering on my system and I'm trying to figure out why. It's actually not just Portal 2; I've had the same problem to varying degrees in lots of games since I moved to Win7x64 (which makes me think it's a system-wide problem), but it's particularly bad with this title. It mostly occurs when the game is calling a new, unique sound, especially dialogue. Any scene where GLaDOS or Wheatley has several lines all in a row, each new line is likely to be started by about a second of the game stuttering and it's DRIVING ME NUTS. It seems like the game can't call it soon enough or the hard drive can't find it fast enough. I don't know how to diagnose this or cut it down though (and no way am I opening the Portal 2 forums to find out).

Hard drive: WD Caviar Black 1.5 TB, just 1 month old. I thought Caviar Blacks were supposed to be fast.
Sound card: Chaintech AV-710 and Asus Xonar DG (tried with both)

Like I said, I've had similar stuttering or sound hitching problems with some other games (Mass Effect, Bioshock, Beyond Good & Evil) but nowhere as bad as this. I thought it might be related to the sound card which is why I bought the Xonar, but it happened with that card too. :(
what kind of gpu, and cpu you have?
 

clav

Member
faceless007 said:
So Portal 2 is having a fair bit of hitching or stuttering on my system and I'm trying to figure out why. It's actually not just Portal 2; I've had the same problem to varying degrees in lots of games since I moved to Win7x64 (which makes me think it's a system-wide problem), but it's particularly bad with this title. It mostly occurs when the game is calling a new, unique sound, especially dialogue. Any scene where GLaDOS or Wheatley has several lines all in a row, each new line is likely to be started by about a second of the game stuttering and it's DRIVING ME NUTS. It seems like the game can't call it soon enough or the hard drive can't find it fast enough. I don't know how to diagnose this or cut it down though (and no way am I opening the Portal 2 forums to find out).

Hard drive: WD Caviar Black 1.5 TB, just 1 month old. I thought Caviar Blacks were supposed to be fast.
Sound card: Chaintech AV-710 and Asus Xonar DG (tried with both)

Like I said, I've had similar stuttering or sound hitching problems with some other games (Mass Effect, Bioshock, Beyond Good & Evil) but nowhere as bad as this. I thought it might be related to the sound card which is why I bought the Xonar, but it happened with that card too. :(

I've had that same problem in Portal 2 as well. Every 50-60 of combined loading screens + saves, I was required to restart the game to make it stop stuttering. I think Valve is working on a patch on this as this is pretty much unacceptable. I don't have stuttering in other PC games.

Still managed to finish it in 6-7 hours in one sitting.
 
I asked this in the stupid questions thread maybe you guys can help me.

I work at a relatively small company based out of Asia, we have an email server set up there that works fine, but it's slow and sometimes problematic for the few of us in America, is it possible to get another server in America that "extends" the original server and if so how? We're thinking of getting a second U.S. Domain but we'd prefer to be able to use the same domain name for all our email accounts.
 

clav

Member
faceless007 said:
C2D E6600 @2.4
Asus P5B Deluxe
Geforce GTX275
4GB RAM
Nvidia just released a new driver set on 4/18/2011. Update to those.

For an easy clean install of drivers, Nvidia installations have a checkmark in the installer file under Advanced Setup that you can Clean Install. Check that box.


LyleLanley said:
I asked this in the stupid questions thread maybe you guys can help me.

I work at a relatively small company based out of Asia, we have an email server set up there that works fine, but it's slow and sometimes problematic for the few of us in America, is it possible to get another server in America that "extends" the original server and if so how? We're thinking of getting a second U.S. Domain but we'd prefer to be able to use the same domain name for all our email accounts.

Has your company considered switching to Google Mail for Business clients? That would solve a lot of things.

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/gmail.html
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
claviertekky said:
What version of Windows do you have? It's listed in the system properties under System Protection in Windows Vista/7.

Also, be sure to empty your Google Chrome cache if you do use it. It tends not to clean up after itself.

-------------

On a side note, this might help out with your situation as I encountered with another person's computer recently.

I was in the process of upgrading a Windows Vista Home Basic computer to Windows 7 SP1, but the upgrade required 16 GB of free space. I looked everywhere by right clicking on folders and displaying details, using ccleaner, and disabling system restore.

Turns out in the AppData\Local folder, the person had shared files with the friend sharing folder feature in Windows Live Messenger. The stuff totaled about 10GB, which is what I needed for the upgrade.

Also a small tidbit info: After the Windows 7 upgrade install, Windows cleared up 8 more GB of memory post installation, which was very amazing.

Yeah, it actually was the system restore, i desactivated it, it's now at 103gb. Thanks.
 
claviertekky said:
Nvidia just released a new driver set on 4/18/2011. Update to those.

For an easy clean install of drivers, Nvidia installations have a checkmark in the installer file under Advanced Setup that you can Clean Install. Check that box.




Has your company considered switching to Google Mail for Business clients? That would solve a lot of things.

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/gmail.html
That's not a bad idea, I'll pass it along. Although I'm not sure how I feel trusting another company with all of our email and such.

Edit: If we switched to an exchange server would we be able to have one in Asia and one here in America serving up emails under the same domain?
 
There are pictures on here for the good of neogaf sales-age help me out friends!

Okay I've got a canon powershotS80 camera.

I plug it into windows, it searches for drivers and then tells me to insert the windows xp cd(Which I don't have on me)

I tried to download the drivers from canon's site, but both the drivers they have on thier site give me an error when I try to install them

"Twain Windows XP driver not found"
"WIA windows xp driver not found"

Searched google, lots of people with the same problem, not much help... anybody else have any ideas?
 

Moppet13

Member
So I built my computer maybe 5 months ago and it had been working absolutely fine up until a little while ago. There was a 2 week period where I had my computer unplugged and out of the way. Finally when I decided to plug everything back in the monitor was black. Nothing was showing at all.

So I figured it was probably the GPU (460GTX) and I reseated it, made sure it was plugged in, and all that good stuff. My monitor was still blank, so I took the graphics card out so the computer would be running on integrated graphics and everything was working fine.

As far as I know Graphics Cards can't burn themselves out when they haven't been on/plugged. Help?
 

MrBig

Member
Whogie said:
See if you can put the memory card in something? Laptops and even older PS3s have memory card ports.
Or just get a cheap usb sd card reader if you don't have one that can connect to your PC.
 

Whogie

Member
Moppet13 said:
As far as I know Graphics Cards can't burn themselves out when they haven't been on/plugged. Help?

Not that I've heard of but it isn't working so :/
If you have access try testing another GPU in your system or that GPU in another system.
 

Morn

Banned
Moppet13 said:
So I built my computer maybe 5 months ago and it had been working absolutely fine up until a little while ago. There was a 2 week period where I had my computer unplugged and out of the way. Finally when I decided to plug everything back in the monitor was black. Nothing was showing at all.

So I figured it was probably the GPU (460GTX) and I reseated it, made sure it was plugged in, and all that good stuff. My monitor was still blank, so I took the graphics card out so the computer would be running on integrated graphics and everything was working fine.

As far as I know Graphics Cards can't burn themselves out when they haven't been on/plugged. Help?

Can you boot to windows in safe mode with the card plugged in?
 

Morn

Banned
From a cold boot, hold F8 when starting the computer and see if it goes into safe mode with the card plugged in.

Also, you probably already checked it, but how are the connectors where you plug in the monitor?
 

Moppet13

Member
Morn said:
From a cold boot, hold F8 when starting the computer and see if it goes into safe mode with the card plugged in.

Also, you probably already checked it, but how are the connectors where you plug in the monitor?
They are fine, I will give that a shot in a few. Everything works except when the graphics card is plugged in.
 

Morn

Banned
Also make sure the PSU connectors on the PSU itself are snug. I've seen that cause the black screen on boot with graphics cards a lot.
 

Moppet13

Member
Morn said:
Also make sure the PSU connectors on the PSU itself are snug. I've seen that cause the black screen on boot with graphics cards a lot.
I tried the whole F8 thing, nothing still just a blank screen. Pretty sure everything is okay with the PSU but I will double check. Any other ideas?
 

bozeman

Member
Just got a hand me down HP Media Center. I restored it to factory settings to get all the stuff off it, then reinstalled things like Firefox, Open Office, and Microsoft Security Essentials (I deleted the free Norton trial completely from the system).

Problem is that every now and then, the Windows firewall turns off automatically. It stays off for 10-20 seconds and then comes back on. Scan turns up nothing. That Microsoft malware search and destroy thingy finds nothing.

Any suggestions?
 
Hey, eventually someone can help me with Adobe Premiere CS4.

I want to fool around with my videos, which I've shot with my iPhone 4, but my system is getting beaten like a hooker whenever I play the files in Premiere. WHY?

My system cannot be that bad :/

Here are my Specs: Athlon X2 3000+, 4GB DDR2, ATI Radeon 3850 HD, Win7 64bit.

Is there anything wrong with my preferences in the program? I'm pretty new to Premiere. I can prerender the sequence and it plays smooth as in WMP, but I can't prerender my rootfile, can I?

Thanks for your help.
 
I have this really annoying problem, my mouse and keyboard suddenly freezes (there's no response). Now, the computer doesn't freeze, since if I plug them in into other USB-ports the icon in the taskbar does notify me. But they still don't work when I switch. The problem does not last if I reboot, but it can happen randomly, which is very bad since if I'm working on something I won't be able to save it. Does anybody know what this is? They still get power as I can see the red light from the mouse and the lights on num lock etc on the keyboard.
 
Just threw a 2nd 1TB hard drive in my Win 7 box. What's the best solution as far as back ups are concerned. I pretty much just want 2 copies of everything in case a drive crashes.
 

Whogie

Member
If you have Windows 7 Pro you can use the weekly automatic backup utility. I have a hard drive attached to my router for this purpose. Or you could look into RAID 1 (mirroring) or 5 (striping -- requires at least 3 hard drives, gives the capacity of two drives, but any one drive can fail and your data is safe).

I haven't looked into it, but there are online backup services.
 

Feep

Banned
So, my happy-go-lucky HD5850 Black Edition's fan started making an annoying humming sound recently. Well above normal fan noise levels. The temperature levels look okay, but I just can't take this shit.

Are there any shut-this-fan-the-fuck up DIY techniques out there? While I got this card from a friend, it came with a double lifetime warranty, so I can use the second of the two, I guess. Should I send it back? I mean, the *card* still works fine.

It's just annoying.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Case 1: When I try to run anything in the Windows Live Essentials 2011 collection it flickers black upon mouse movement and renders some boxes and text in false positions.

Example:

u3hc1.jpg


But then mouse over that bar in the middle and it switches to this.

0ILWM.jpg


Things really turn into a ridiculous flickering mess if I actually try to put together a video.

Things I have tried:
-Uninstalling and reinstalling.
-Video driver sweep and reinstall
-Change Windows to low-graphics appearance.

Phenom X4 955
ATI Radeon 5850
8GB RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Everything updated to the latest version.

Case 2: When I try to run RadeonPro it says it encountered an unexpected error with this report inside.

-- Begin Report----------
AppProfiles.dll Ver 1, 0, 4, 9
ATI.dll Ver 1.0.0.0
atimgpud.dll
exec.exe Ver 1.0.0.2
ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.dll Ver 0.85.5
Localization.dll Ver 1.0.0.1
Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.dll Ver 1.0.0.3
Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell.dll Ver 1.0.0.3
PSTaskDialog.dll Ver 1.0.0.0
RadeonPro.exe Ver 1.1.0.6
RadeonProSupport.exe Ver 1.0.3.4
RPExtender.dll Ver 1.0.0.1
RPJumpLists.dll Ver 1.0.0.8
RPSupport.dll Ver 1.0.8.9
Start.exe Ver 1.0.3.4
unins000.exe
V8.Net.dll Ver 1, 0, 0, 0
----------------------
Can't start program due to an unexpected error.

1 04/27/2011 16:11:25.2499902 Creating FileMap
2 04/27/2011 16:11:25.7900211 Loading AppProfiles
3 04/27/2011 16:11:25.9070278 Checking for failed skin
4 04/27/2011 16:11:25.9070278 Using classic skin
5 04/27/2011 16:11:25.9070278 Creating main window
6 04/27/2011 16:11:25.9180284 BaseForm Enter
7 04/27/2011 16:11:25.9200285 InitializeComponentEx Enter
8 04/27/2011 16:11:25.9200285 InitializeComponentEx Leave
9 04/27/2011 16:11:27.7561335 RegisterFileAssociations Enter
10 04/27/2011 16:11:27.7751346 RegisterFileAssociations Leave
11 04/27/2011 16:11:27.7971359 Creating Remoting Server
12 04/27/2011 16:11:27.8071365 Signaling Start
13 04/27/2011 16:11:27.8101366 Initialization Done
14 04/27/2011 16:11:27.8101366 BaseForm Leave
15 04/27/2011 16:11:28.0611510 Can't create main window
16 04/27/2011 16:11:28.0611510 Opening registry HKCU\Software\RadeonPro for writing
17 04/27/2011 16:11:28.0611510 Registry opened for writing
18 04/27/2011 16:11:28.0611510 Check for InterfaceSkin

----------------------
CpuCores: 4
Installed drivers: aticfx64.dll, aticfx64.dll, aticfx64.dll, aticfx32, aticfx32, aticfx32, atiumd64.dll, atidxx64.dll, atidxx64.dll, atiumdag, atidxx32, atidxx32, atiumdva, atiumd6a.cap, atitmm64.dll
Main Device Registry Key: System\ControlSet001\Control\Video\{48D76B45-F720-4A92-96C7-AE4D274DB974}\0000
Main Display Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
PNPDeviceID: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6899&SUBSYS_0B001002&REV_00\4&25B761A6&0&0010
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series 1024 MB
Video Processor: ATI display adapter (0x6899)
Video Driver: Catalyst 11.2 (8.821-110126a-112962C-ATI)
-- End Report ------------
 

daoster

Member
So my computer randomly restarts, and as far as I know, I have no idea whats wrong with it.
I can't seem to find a common cause to the reason of its restart.

And after it restarts, I might not necessarily be able to turn it on right away, though eventually, I'm always to turn it back on. Sometimes I can leave my PC on for a day or two without it restarting, and other times, it'll restart on me when the computer is on for barely 10 minutes!

I'm running Windows 7 64 Bit
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
daoster said:
So my computer randomly restarts, and as far as I know, I have no idea whats wrong with it.
I can't seem to find a common cause to the reason of its restart.

And after it restarts, I might not necessarily be able to turn it on right away, though eventually, I'm always to turn it back on. Sometimes I can leave my PC on for a day or two without it restarting, and other times, it'll restart on me when the computer is on for barely 10 minutes!
Almost certainly a power source problem. It might also be an overheated CPU if you're overclocking. It is the former, you probably added more new components than your current power source can handle without realizing it, or maybe it just went bad. If it is the latter, it could pop at any moment and you should really tune it down to a cooler setting.
 

clav

Member
Feep said:
So, my happy-go-lucky HD5850 Black Edition's fan started making an annoying humming sound recently. Well above normal fan noise levels. The temperature levels look okay, but I just can't take this shit.

Are there any shut-this-fan-the-fuck up DIY techniques out there? While I got this card from a friend, it came with a double lifetime warranty, so I can use the second of the two, I guess. Should I send it back? I mean, the *card* still works fine.

It's just annoying.
Consider getting an aftermarket fan for the video cards although that would void your warranty. Generally stock cooling is really crappy.


Dice said:
Case 1: When I try to run anything in the Windows Live Essentials 2011 collection it flickers black upon mouse movement and renders some boxes and text in false positions.

Example:

http://i.imgur.com/u3hc1.jpg

But then mouse over that bar in the middle and it switches to this.

http://i.imgur.com/0ILWM.jpg

Things really turn into a ridiculous flickering mess if I actually try to put together a video.

Things I have tried:
-Uninstalling and reinstalling.
-Video driver sweep and reinstall
-Change Windows to low-graphics appearance.

Phenom X4 955
ATI Radeon 5850
8GB RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Everything updated to the latest version.

Case 2: When I try to run RadeonPro it says it encountered an unexpected error with this report inside.

-- Begin Report----------
AppProfiles.dll Ver 1, 0, 4, 9
ATI.dll Ver 1.0.0.0
atimgpud.dll
exec.exe Ver 1.0.0.2
ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.dll Ver 0.85.5
Localization.dll Ver 1.0.0.1
Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.dll Ver 1.0.0.3
Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell.dll Ver 1.0.0.3
PSTaskDialog.dll Ver 1.0.0.0
RadeonPro.exe Ver 1.1.0.6
RadeonProSupport.exe Ver 1.0.3.4
RPExtender.dll Ver 1.0.0.1
RPJumpLists.dll Ver 1.0.0.8
RPSupport.dll Ver 1.0.8.9
Start.exe Ver 1.0.3.4
unins000.exe
V8.Net.dll Ver 1, 0, 0, 0
----------------------
Can't start program due to an unexpected error.

1 04/27/2011 16:11:25.2499902 Creating FileMap
2 04/27/2011 16:11:25.7900211 Loading AppProfiles
3 04/27/2011 16:11:25.9070278 Checking for failed skin
4 04/27/2011 16:11:25.9070278 Using classic skin
5 04/27/2011 16:11:25.9070278 Creating main window
6 04/27/2011 16:11:25.9180284 BaseForm Enter
7 04/27/2011 16:11:25.9200285 InitializeComponentEx Enter
8 04/27/2011 16:11:25.9200285 InitializeComponentEx Leave
9 04/27/2011 16:11:27.7561335 RegisterFileAssociations Enter
10 04/27/2011 16:11:27.7751346 RegisterFileAssociations Leave
11 04/27/2011 16:11:27.7971359 Creating Remoting Server
12 04/27/2011 16:11:27.8071365 Signaling Start
13 04/27/2011 16:11:27.8101366 Initialization Done
14 04/27/2011 16:11:27.8101366 BaseForm Leave
15 04/27/2011 16:11:28.0611510 Can't create main window
16 04/27/2011 16:11:28.0611510 Opening registry HKCU\Software\RadeonPro for writing
17 04/27/2011 16:11:28.0611510 Registry opened for writing
18 04/27/2011 16:11:28.0611510 Check for InterfaceSkin

----------------------
CpuCores: 4
Installed drivers: aticfx64.dll, aticfx64.dll, aticfx64.dll, aticfx32, aticfx32, aticfx32, atiumd64.dll, atidxx64.dll, atidxx64.dll, atiumdag, atidxx32, atidxx32, atiumdva, atiumd6a.cap, atitmm64.dll
Main Device Registry Key: System\ControlSet001\Control\Video\{48D76B45-F720-4A92-96C7-AE4D274DB974}\0000
Main Display Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
PNPDeviceID: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6899&SUBSYS_0B001002&REV_00\4&25B761A6&0&0010
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series 1024 MB
Video Processor: ATI display adapter (0x6899)
Video Driver: Catalyst 11.2 (8.821-110126a-112962C-ATI)
-- End Report ------------

I suppose the same thing happens if you use Windows Media Player as well?

I wonder if you can isolate the issue by using a different graphics card (i.e. onboard/integrated).

Report back.
 

daoster

Member
Dice said:
Almost certainly a power source problem. It might also be an overheated CPU if you're overclocking. It is the former, you probably added more new components than your current power source can handle without realizing it, or maybe it just went bad. If it is the latter, it could pop at any moment and you should really tune it down to a cooler setting.

I haven't been overclocking the CPU, so its not that...as for the power source, I don't quite remember my power level, but I remember thinking, "more than enough" when I originally bought the thing.

I also haven't added anything new to my system, other than swapping in a new hard drive with my old one (which died).

Is there anyway I can test it out to find out that its the power source?
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
claviertekky said:
I suppose the same thing happens if you use Windows Media Player as well?
No, that works fine, as well as Microsoft Security and other programs. It only happens with programs from the Windows Live Essentials 2011 collection.

I wonder if you can isolate the issue by using a different graphics card (i.e. onboard/integrated).
Onboard is a lesser Radeon so I doubt it would make a difference in terms of rendering process.

daoster said:
Is there anyway I can test it out to find out that its the power source?
I don't know, I'm just remembering cases with my brother and friends. They got new power supplies and it fixed the issue.

I also just remembered this time when I used a space heater on the same power strip as my computer and it'd occasionally knock out my computer when it kicked on. Is there anything like that going on that might be sending a power spike through your computer?
 

daoster

Member
Dice said:
I also just remembered this time when I used a space heater on the same power strip as my computer and it'd occasionally knock out my computer when it kicked on. Is there anything like that going on that might be sending a power spike through your computer?

Nope. Nothing like that.



Whogie said:
Download SpeedFan and see if your CPU temps are high regardless.

Its a dual core, and my cores are 38C and 39C after being on all day.
 

bozeman

Member
bozeman said:
Just got a hand me down HP Media Center. I restored it to factory settings to get all the stuff off it, then reinstalled things like Firefox, Open Office, and Microsoft Security Essentials (I deleted the free Norton trial completely from the system).

Problem is that every now and then, the Windows firewall turns off automatically. It stays off for 10-20 seconds and then comes back on. Scan turns up nothing. That Microsoft malware search and destroy thingy finds nothing.

Any suggestions?


Anyone???
 
Okay, guys. Serious question from a guy who have otherwise considered himself a tech guy:

I was playing Crysis 2 late last night and everything was fine. After a few hours the computer shut itself off. I thought this was odd, since there were no power flucuations in my home. I try to turn it on again after a few seconds and the computer just beeps. I turn it back off...then that scary-as-hell-to-a-PC-guy moment happens: SOMETHING SMELLS LIKE IT'S BURNING.

"well shit, I guess this nice, new 6950 GPU just bit it."

Smell is fairly strong, then fades.

I open the case up and start sniffing around. I can't identify the source, though I assume it's the GPU. After a few minutes, I restart the computer and everything is acting perfectly normal.

hmph.

As of right now (about 12 hours later), it hasn't had any issues, though I also haven't played any games since.

In light of this, my "tech guy guess" is that the issue lays with the PSU. I presume if the GPU had burned itself out, I'd see some kind of screen artifacting if I were to see anything on the screen at all. Perhaps I'm demanding too much of it...or demanded too much for too long a period of time.

Computer specs:
i7-920 CPU (no oc)
AMD 6950 GPU (OC'd in CCC + 20% power)
9GB ram (5 sticks, IIRC)
4x HDDs
DVD Drive
multi card reader
650W PSU​


Do you guys think the combination of all of those things running simultaneously for the hours I was playing lead to the PSU shutting down due to heat? Or could it be something else?
 

Ashhong

Member
hmmm seems like the PSU would be fine. It does sound like it shut itself off to protect itself or something though. Maybe run a test? I forgot what it was called now...like memtest45? no thats not it...puts your cpu and gpu at load and logs the data, etc etc
 
Hopefully someone has a good quick recommendation for this. I need to wipe out a hard drive before I send it back in because it's having issues. I'm currently zero writing out the drive now, but upon further reading, apparently that's not good enough. Can anyone recommend a tool to make sure the drive is clean before I send it in? I read there is some government standard for wiping things out. I guess something that complies with that. Thanks.
 

MrBig

Member
Marty Chinn said:
Hopefully someone has a good quick recommendation for this. I need to wipe out a hard drive before I send it back in because it's having issues. I'm currently zero writing out the drive now, but upon further reading, apparently that's not good enough. Can anyone recommend a tool to make sure the drive is clean before I send it in? I read there is some government standard for wiping things out. I guess something that complies with that. Thanks.
Download CCleaner, go to options, and hit Secure Deletion under Wipe Free Space, then select DOD from the drop down, then select the drive letter that you want to wipe, then go back to Cleaner on the left side and check Wipe Free Space at the bottom of the list, and uncheck everything else. Click run cleaner. It will take a while.
Before you do this though, delete the partition and create a new one.
 

devilhawk

Member
So I have a virus. No big deal as I know how to get rid of it. Unfortunately that requires going into Safe Mode. My laptop screen recently went out again and I now have to use an external monitor. I can not for the life of me get the monitor to work while inside Safe Mode. I am one hundred percent sure I am in Safe Mode. Pounding on the Fn-f4 key is not switching the signal over when it normally does.

Edit: Nevermind. I instead used the vga out with an old desktop monitor and the laptop recognizes in safe mode.
 
Okay, so I just got a new Samsung monitor. Same model as the old one, while I've already got ANOTHER one, rocking a dual monitor setup.

When I split a window between the two monitors, the older one looks just a tiny bit faded like it's a softer white than the new one which is pure white.

I checked the settings and they all seem to match. However when I go to display information the old one says:

55.9kHz 60Hz NP

and the new one says:


55.9kHz 60Hz NN

What the heck do those letters mean?
 
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