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

T

TGMIII

Member
McNei1y said:
My computer restarted by itself yesterday. When it loaded back on, it attempted to load into Windows but a few seconds later it went straight to System Recovery options. The system recovery cannot fix this problem automatically. I've attempted this about 33 times. System Restore won't work and I do not have a System Image to restore my computer back to.

Does this mean I need to reinstall windows? If so, I do not have the disk. Is that the only way to fix this?
Click to expand...

Depends on the error, start the PC up and keep pressing F8 until you see the option "disable automatic restart upon system failure". If it crashes/blue screens write down the error code it'll start with 0x. Depending on what's causing it to crash it could be something simple or it could just be easier to rebuild in the long run.

Assuming your PC is pre-built you'll have an OEM Windows licence on the case so any disk of the same version of Windows will do, I'm sure you know someone out there with a copy or who can get you a copy.
 
M

Monkeylord

Member
Monkeylord said:
I've been spending the last god-knows how long backing up my DVD collection to MP4s and have them all filed nicely on a 1.5TB HDD in my PC, which is in the basement. I stream everything to my PS3 or 360.

Recently, I'd get halfway through an episode of something and all of a sudden it'd freeze. If (for example) I quit out to the 360 dash all the thumbnails turn into generic icons and I get complaints that the 360 is no longer connected to the PC.

At this point I go to the basement and everything seems fine until I start browsing to the video files. I'd open "My Computer" and it takes ages to populate the drive list (green progress bar at the top of the window moves REAL slow).

Same happens when I actually eventually navigate to a file. Thumbnails take forever to generate. If I try and open a file then WMP opens but doesn't seem to do anything. Trying to close doesn't help either.

After maybe 10mins the PC spontaneously springs back to life. Everything runs instantly again, and I'll find the video now happily playing as if nothing happened.


Anyone got any ideas what's going on? Is it possible my HDD's on it's last legs?
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, about a month or so ago I did perform an intensive disc scan which took the best part of of 16 or so hours to complete, and it said there was no problems. Also, I've found a few of the video files are now corrupted so I'm having to reencode them... annoying!
 
M

McNei1y

Member
awwyeahgurrl said:
Depends on the error, start the PC up and keep pressing F8 until you see the option "disable automatic restart upon system failure". If it crashes/blue screens write down the error code it'll start with 0x. Depending on what's causing it to crash it could be something simple or it could just be easier to rebuild in the long run.

Assuming your PC is pre-built you'll have an OEM Windows licence on the case so any disk of the same version of Windows will do, I'm sure you know someone out there with a copy or who can get you a copy.
Click to expand...

Well the problem is the computer won't start windows. All it does is go straight to the Startup Repair thing so I don't even know what the error is.

I also built my computer so I guess I'll just have to borrow a cd.
 
Emerson

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Hello friends,

I just bought A Game of Thrones - Genesis tonight and was hoping to play it. Upon trying to do so, I get this:

2011-09-28_00001.jpg


This isn't my image but displays what I'm experiencing.

It could be a problem with the game, but most people don't have this issue. The only other person who I've seen have it is someone who shares a GPU with me, which is Intel HD Graphics.

I've asked for support on the official forums which hasn't come through yet and I would really like to get it resolved seeing as a I just paid for this game. My PC specs easily surpass the requirements and the Intel HD driver is up to date. If someone thinks they could help I'd really appreciate it. I'll provide full specs if necessary.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Laptop battery is no longer charging to 100%. A week ago it was stopping at 96%, today it's at 87%. Unless the power got disconnected when I was away from it, I never unplugged it, so it shouldn't have lost any of the charge.

Definitely a problem with the battery and not the charger, right?
 
Jzero

Jzero

Member
Zoe said:
Laptop battery is no longer charging to 100%. A week ago it was stopping at 96%, today it's at 87%. Unless the power got disconnected when I was away from it, I never unplugged it, so it shouldn't have lost any of the charge.

Definitely a problem with the battery and not the charger, right?
Click to expand...
yea, batteries die, especially if the computer is an older one.
 
M

mysticwhip

Banned
I NEED fucking help, went on porn site you porn, my mousepad(acer aspire one netbook) has been errastic ever since, it moves left ot right on it's own and I might get control of for 1 minute or so, I tried reinstalling browsers and system restore, did a quick scan on malware bytes and removed some problems but none seemed to relate to the mouse. I doubt its a hardware prob since it only started when i went on youporn. It's so hard to do anything now. This happened my 3 hours ago. Do you guys think that reinstalling windows xp will help? if so, how do i do it? I don't have a disk or anything.
 
Jzero

Jzero

Member
mysticwhip said:
Trust me, Ive tried.Fn+f7 doesn't help me one bit.
Click to expand...
well if it's not that the only thing i could think of is the ribbon got disconnected.
Did you check device manager to see if it's enabled/disabled?
 
N

NinjaFridge

Unconfirmed Member
I want to copy some files from my desktop to my new laptop. I have a crossover cable and both machines are running W7, laptop is on Home Premium and the desktop is on Professional. I thought i knew how to do this but apparently not. Help is much appreciated.
 
Jzero

Jzero

Member
mysticwhip said:
I don't what the fuck else to do guys. how do i reinstall windows without a cd?
Click to expand...
You can download the .iso image and burn it to a cd or make a bootable flash drive.

NinjaFridge said:
I want to copy some files from my desktop to my new laptop. I have a crossover cable and both machines are running W7, laptop is on Home Premium and the desktop is on Professional. I thought i knew how to do this but apparently not. Help is much appreciated.
Click to expand...
click on Windows easy transfer and it pretty much does everything for you
 
M

mysticwhip

Banned
IDK if this is a permenent fix or whathere's what i did:
Control panel>mouse>device settings>synaptics>I clicked disable>used tab button to navigate and reenable it and so far so good for now.

woow as i'm typing this shit comes back.
 
Jzero

Jzero

Member
mysticwhip said:
Not sure how to do that and do you think that I should try and use my pc in safe mode to see if that helps?
Click to expand...
yea, try that first, i still don't see how watching p0rn could disable your trackpad though.

you can also try updating the drivers.
 
N

NinjaFridge

Unconfirmed Member
Jzero15 said:
You can download the .iso image and burn it to a cd or make a bootable flash drive.


click on Windows easy transfer and it pretty much does everything for you
Click to expand...

Can't believe i didn't think of that. I've even used it before! Thanks!!
 
M

McSmiggins

Neo Member
NinjaFridge said:
I want to copy some files from my desktop to my new laptop. I have a crossover cable and both machines are running W7, laptop is on Home Premium and the desktop is on Professional. I thought i knew how to do this but apparently not. Help is much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Alright GAF, first post, it's been a while since you posted it, do you still need help? you've got a crossover cable, what's assigning your IPs? Have you done them manually? If so, what are they?
 
M

McSmiggins

Neo Member
Jzero15 said:
yea, try that first, i still don't see how watching p0rn could disable your trackpad though.

you can also try updating the drivers.
Click to expand...

Just to add to this one, take Windows out of the equation and try a Linux live cd. Just out of interest, how did you clean your trackpad?

Normally when things get jumpy it's finger grease building up in one point on the trackpad, especially if you've done a system restore, that's not to say it couldn't be anything else.
 
M

mysticwhip

Banned
Does it matter which driver i use? I'm getting desperate there's this other mousepad driver called ALPS, I'm using Synaptics right now. It couldn't be a disconnected ribbon or else the touch pad wouldn't work at all right? If dl another brand of driver or updating another driver doesn't work, i doubt reinstalling winxp is gonna work either so im just gonna get a usb mouse or some shit. FUCK
 
M

mysticwhip

Banned
McSmiggins said:
Just to add to this one, take Windows out of the equation and try a Linux live cd. Just out of interest, how did you clean your trackpad?

Normally when things get jumpy it's finger grease building up in one point on the trackpad, especially if you've done a system restore, that's not to say it couldn't be anything else.
Click to expand...
I've cleaned the trackpad multiple times unless some how finger grease slipped on the inside idk wtf to do.
 
V

Virzeth

Member
I recently upgraded my video card and power supply and, having found a decent deal, I decided to upgrade my RAM as well.
I already had 4 GB of Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333 MHz (two 2 GB sticks), so I bought two more sticks for the two empty slots on my motherboard (a Gigabyte GA-P55-UD5), planning to get to 8 GB total. It's the exact same RAM (same brand, frequency et al), and my motherboard supports up to 16 GB.

Too bad it didn't work. I got a black screen at POST with a long, seemingly modulated beep. Or, randomly, the computer would start booting and hang up before loading Windows.

I tried testing the new sticks one at a time, thinking one of them could be defective, same issue. I replaced one of the old sticks with one of the new ones... and it worked perfectly. Same for the other new stick.

On my motherboard, slots 1 and 3 are blue, 2 and 4 are white. The old RAM is on the blue slots. These are the combinations I tried (the text color matches the color of the slots):
1UoKy.png


So, apparently, I can't seem to boot my computer with more than two sticks at the same time, regardless of their location (and the new ones work perfectly if I don't go over 4 GB). Any idea why?
 
M

McSmiggins

Neo Member
How have you got it set to set the memory speed?

Have you tried dropping the memory speed when you've got it working with 2 sticks and then putting in the other two?

You see it more in servers though, where they'll automatically drop the speed if you go over X sticks of RAM.

Edit: just as an additional though, are you running the latest BIOS?
 
M

McSmiggins

Neo Member
mysticwhip said:
I've cleaned the trackpad multiple times unless some how finger grease slipped on the inside idk wtf to do.
Click to expand...

That's ok, no problem

As Jzero15 said, did you try safe mode? Any joy?

Have you got the exact model number of the netbook and I'll find you the latest drivers.

Trackpad's can get a bit finicky after a while, I'd try the following: (Increasing levels of severity)

1. Gently rub in it small circles with your finger with a fair bit of pressure, work the corners pretty hard, not too much pressure, just a little more than you'd do for dragging something with it.
2. Use a dry cloth and give it a firm rub
3. Use a VERY slightly damp tissue and wipe it (enough to get it wet, nowhere near wet enough to drop), then use a dry one to dry it off.
4. This one's at your own risk, but I've had both Dell and HP support give me the same advice at different time and I laughed both times when they said it to me, but again, at your own risk - take a magnet (not too strong, I used one from a phone case) and gently rub it over the trackpad. I'd leave this one as a real last resort, not as an "ahh I need to get this fixed" but as an "I'm calm and this is what I'm going to do" fix.)
 
M

mysticwhip

Banned
I did the wet cloth and dry cloth, then the circle motion thing and so far *let me check again* It's WORKING, i love you McSmiggins ! but i don't know if it's a temporary fix or not but thanks. If it comes back I don't know if I'll try that magnet thing, couldn't that fuck up my hdd?

This circular motion cleaning has saved my life, I guess that i should have payed more attention to The Karate Kid.
 
M

McSmiggins

Neo Member
No problem, anytime, glad it's working :)

And as for the magnet, there is a chance you could, but tbh hard drives susceptibility to magnets is a little overstated. (That's not the say it doesn't exist don't just go waving one around.) As I said, that's all at your own risk, I wouldn't try it unless it's really last resort I had engineers on the line who knew the system design when I was doing it.
 
Jzero

Jzero

Member
mysticwhip said:
Yea the problem was still happening in safe mode.
Click to expand...
I looked at the reviews for your model and they all said that after a few months the trackpad started crapping out, so it's not the p0rn that caused it.
 
A

AndyD

aka andydumi
I know laptops mute the speakers when you plug in headphones. Do desktops do it as well when you plug in headphones to the front output?

In other words, is it hardware or software usually? Because I would like to do it on the desktop. And the speakers don't have a mute button.

Right now it seems the front and rear outputs are in tandem, what happens with one happens with the other. So I cant use the windows volume to differentiate between them. And the ac97 manager has one volume for both front and rear.

Asus motherboard, AC97 rather than HD audio for the front panel, and an Antec case.
 
Jzero

Jzero

Member
AndyD said:
I know laptops mute the speakers when you plug in headphones. Do desktops do it as well when you plug in headphones to the front output?

In other words, is it hardware or software usually? Because I would like to do it on the desktop. And the speakers don't have a mute button.

Right now it seems the front and rear outputs are in tandem, what happens with one happens with the other. So I cant use the windows volume to differentiate between them. And the ac97 manager has one volume for both front and rear.

Asus motherboard, AC97 rather than HD audio for the front panel, and an Antec case.
Click to expand...
just tried it and it does mute the speakers, i'm pretty sure windows detects you plugged some in and sends the sound to the headphones.
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Have you tried it already? I think anything plugged into that front port should mute the speakers.

Also I'm not sure what you mean by don't have a mute button. You should be able to control everything here:
CAyJ6.jpg

You could just disable the speakers you don't want playing if they continue to do so, right?
 
M

McSmiggins

Neo Member
mysticwhip said:
fuck im not even sure what model it is, ive checked system properties but no dice.

OK im pretty sire its a KAV-60
Click to expand...

Latest drivers for the ALPS version of the trackpad are:

Windows XP:
Here

Windows 7:
Here

However as Jzero15 has said, if they've got a history of going then it could just be a hardware fault. In which case I'm afraid it's a warranty call or replacing it yourself.

As a last random thought, you might try lowering the sensitivity in the mouse options in control panel, it's a very long shot though
 
C

clav

Member
mysticwhip said:
alps, i got synaptics, does it matter? I'll try that and if it doesn't work i'm just gonna get a usb mouse. :(((
Click to expand...
Yes.

Alps drivers won't work on Synaptics touchpads and vice versa.

Usually manufacturers use Synaptics. It used to be five or six years ago that manufactueres used ALPS.
 
A

AndyD

aka andydumi
Hawkian said:
Have you tried it already? I think anything plugged into that front port should mute the speakers.

Also I'm not sure what you mean by don't have a mute button. You should be able to control everything here:
CAyJ6.jpg

You could just disable the speakers you don't want playing if they continue to do so, right?
Click to expand...

I tried it now.

Ok. I uninstalled the Realtek HD audio manager that came with the motherboard, and installed the most recent one from the Realtek site.

Here is what I have now:
32sN0.png


And when I plug in headphones it does not mute the speakers. Now its even worse though, I don't even hear the same soundstream in both at the same time. I have to enable/disable the one I don't want before beginning playback.
 
K

kharma45

Member
The speed of the wireless on my laptop has dropped by almost half over the last week.

I was getting around 50Mb download speeds through it and now it's between 15-25Mb at all times.

Connected it up over Ethernet and got normal speeds, and got a friend to try his over wireless and he got normal speeds too.

Any ideas as to why my laptops wireless would all of a sudden slow down?
 
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