View Full Version : WTF - Never get your computer made by some budget company who know nothing (problem)
DigestiveBiscui
14-06-04, 23:48
Out of nowhere the last 2 days have been so cocked on this computer
it started last night, and for some reason windows now takes double as long to load, also i did a virus scan today and instead of it taking its usual 30mins it toook a good hour
i don't nkow whats wrong with it, nothing has been changd / updated bar my virus scanner and spyware checkers, no hardware have been changed / drivers updated, it's just decided to turn to shit
also, whenever i now load something off the HDD and a type of sound is playing (TS voices, MP3's etc) the sound will crackle and lag like mad until it stops loading
has anyone ever ecountered something like this / know wtf the problem is? i've had a look at task manager and nothing is eating my computer bar neocron :p
dodgy ide cable would fill all of those critera, there not expensive so its probably a good first thing to try.
try defragging your drive it might be that
DigestiveBiscui
14-06-04, 23:53
it's all pointing to IDE like the above suggested
the past month my CD drives have been becomming un-detected and uncompatible, this week though tey have sorted themselves out but this has now happend
*sigh* wish i wasn't so lazy and built it myself :p
I got the same problem on my "old" machine. The harddrive is damaged, sound will lag, soundcard will even die sometimes if the harddrive is being used to much. Burning normally took 3-5 minutes, now 30 minutes and so on.. But as the poster above stated, it could be the IDE cable.
DigestiveBiscui
14-06-04, 23:53
try defragging your drive it might be that
i thought it could be that, but then again surely everything wouldn't suddenly slow down within a day?
DigestiveBiscui
14-06-04, 23:55
I got the same problem on my "old" machine. The harddrive is damaged, sound will lag, soundcard will even die sometimes if the harddrive is being used to much. Burning normally took 3-5 minutes, now 30 minutes and so on.. But as the poster above stated, it could be the IDE cable.
hmmmm, the hard drive isn't old, and shown no problems so far
It just pisses me off how people can get away with such a poorly put together computer and make a living out of it, and all the time more and more people are going to them
aaaaaaaaaaaah - think i could get away with murder? just this once?
landofcake
14-06-04, 23:56
I've had crackly sound when the hard drive has been heavily used ... but this was something completely different and was to do with my Audigy not liking the VIA chipset on my motherboard relating to PCI latencies ;)
DigestiveBiscui
14-06-04, 23:59
OK
To clear something up about sound - just to help some people that might know a way round it
i'm using onboard sound from my motherboard - REaltek AC97 auido on the VIA chipset
If its a modern hard drive, which I guess it is, check to make sure SMART is on in the BIOS, then download a programme which checks your SMART status, tells you how healthy your hard drive is. I think SiSoft Sandra can test SMART, but dont remember.
DigestiveBiscui
15-06-04, 00:02
well i'm getting some guy round to look at it tomorrow
i don't like going into BIOS - bad memories of 'oops, wasn't meant to do that' BANG :)
Yeah, you could be having problems with an IDE cable, or your disk may have fallen back to a slower form of access, such as back to PIO Mode, when you used to have Ultra DMA 5 (for example). Another possibility might be you lost access to one or more memory cards, and so now you are "thrashing" due to having an inadequate amount of memory; i.e. the system does a helluva a lot of swapping/paging to get anything done and all of that means very frequent calls to your disk, which can slow everything way down. Then again, you could have picked up a malicious virus that is designed to slow systems down rather than corrupt data.
Spook @ Pluto
DigestiveBiscui
15-06-04, 00:06
so, if it's what people are saying i gotta buy a new hard drive right?
No, test your hard drive first (download SiSoft Sandra), it might be ur cable
/edit - download Sandra anyhow, its a system diagnostic software programme that can tell you whats fucked :p
Not necessarily, no. Have your system checked by someone who knows what they're doing when it comes to troubleshooting.
Spook @ Pluto
he says in first post that the sound only fucks up when the hd is busy, if windows was having to use gobs of swap the hdd would be active ALL the time, thats why i didnt really consider memory problems, but its still a definate possibility.
it is also entirly possible that the controller on the hdd has died, the actuall surfice of the drive shouldent be a problem with a new system unless the drive has been mistreated.
the reason i said the cable is because it is about the cheepest part of a system that you can go and buy, so your not wasting a ton of money if its not the problem. The moral of PC troubleshooting is start with the cheepest possibility, cos if you are wrong then you havnt wasted to much money and if your right *joy* :D
oh and alienware > homebrew > all :D
edit : yeah and if your not entirely sure what your up to get a professional to take a gander.
now where did i put that msce :P
Alienware != good >.< Best computers are made by people with plenty of time, and more money, they can get the best boards, the best CPU's, the fastest RAM, super hard drives, and have systems that roar. Mine currently goes "squeak" but new hard drive arriving soon, ph34r :D
Alienware != good >.<
you ever seen an alienware system in the flesh? ive never seen anything run that quick before.
doesnt so much roar as bellow, shattering all the windows on its way past :) just a shame about the ridiculous price tags really
edit : my system sounds like a vacuum cleaner but i dont quite think thats what you ment :P
Alienware != good >.< Best computers are made by people with plenty of time, and more money, they can get the best boards, the best CPU's, the fastest RAM, super hard drives, and have systems that roar. Mine currently goes "squeak" but new hard drive arriving soon, ph34r :DMine attempts to sweak then splutters, chokes and promptly keels over and dies. :p
I have the know-how to make a system that roars big time, but I don't have the money. :lol: *sigh* But I can dream. :p
--Stryfe
DigestiveBiscui
15-06-04, 01:11
well, thx for the info guys
i'll see what this guy /person / thing says tomorrow :)
Crucificio
15-06-04, 01:24
There was a scam a while back where less reputable companies were selling people computers that were supposed to contain a high-speed CPU, but were actually shipping it with a cheaper, slower model. Some consumers were not computer-savvy enough to check that, so they got scammed, and the company made a profit for equipment they didnt provide.
There was another case where a company was changing the specification markings on the CPU to try and dupe customers.
Always buy from a reputable dealer, no matter how much you think you will save.
If i had the money, my perfect system would be :
S478 Intel 875P ATX A R
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.2GHz, with 2MB Cache
4GB of Crucial 400MHZ (CL2) DDR Ram (4x1GB)
2x Western Digital Caviar 250GB SATA150 Hard Drives (Raid)
GeForce FX5950 wiv 256MB Ram
And probably a case to put it all in :D
DigestiveBiscui
15-06-04, 01:44
just noticed - it hates the hack screen
all the little bep's makes my HDD and sound go nuts, and even when i come out of the hack screen from then on all i get is move, jolt, freeze, move , jolt, freeze and so on
ARGS - GOD HELP THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THIS COMPUTER
got any background processes running that might be sucking your RAM up? something with a memory leak, or just plain ole screwed?
If i had the money, my perfect system would be :
S478 Intel 875P ATX A R
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.2GHz, with 2MB Cache
4GB of Crucial 400MHZ (CL2) DDR Ram (4x1GB)
2x Western Digital Caviar 250GB SATA150 Hard Drives (Raid)
GeForce FX5950 wiv 256MB Ram
And probably a case to put it all in :D
You call that a perfect system? That's good.. but not the best... :D
according to a pc world not to long ago they say with the newer operating systems and larger hard drives defraging does squat, not even a 5 percent performance gain, havent tested it myself but i do trust pc world
You call that a perfect system? That's good.. but not the best... :D
True, the motherboard could do with a bit of research, and maybe if I'm pushed, a complete re-write for a Dual AMD64FX (fastest they got) using Mandrake 10 64bit edition, and Windows Server 2003 64Bit (I got the CD here somewhere, think its for Xeon's though)
If i had the money, my perfect system would be :
S478 Intel 875P ATX A R
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.2GHz, with 2MB Cache
4GB of Crucial 400MHZ (CL2) DDR Ram (4x1GB)
2x Western Digital Caviar 250GB SATA150 Hard Drives (Raid)
GeForce FX5950 wiv 256MB Ram
And probably a case to put it all in :DPfft. Screw Intel. :p
If you could get the ASUS K8N-E Deluxe (http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket754/k8n-e_d/overview.htm) in a Socket 939 format (I'm sure they're working on something like that), I'd use that and an AMD FX-53 for the CPU then your choice of high-end level 2 perf Mushkin (http://www.mushkin.com/epages/mushkin.storefront) RAM. Then couple that with 6 of these babies (http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=65), 2 in RAID 0 config for your primary boot volume, then the other 4 in RAID 0 for config as storage. :eek:
I could go into extreme detail, but alas, I'm hungry and you lot don't rank high enough to come between me and my food. Hell, pretty much nothing does. :p
--Stryfe
Pfft. Screw Intel. :p
If you could get the ASUS K8N-E Deluxe (http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket754/k8n-e_d/overview.htm) in a Socket 939 format (I'm sure they're working on something like that), I'd use that and an AMD FX-53 for the CPU then your choice of high-end Mushkin RAM. Then couple that with 6 of these babies (http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=65), 2 in RAID 0 config for your primary boot volume, then the other 4 in RAID 0 for config as storage. :eek:
I could go into extreme detail, but alas, I'm hungry and you lot don't rank high enough to come between me and my food. Hell, pretty much nothing does. :p
--Stryfe
Yep, I have a couple of those in a raid array too! :)
Raptor v.2 > Else (For SATA)
I wouldn't choose the video card he has either...
yea i gotta do virus checker on my pc but then again i wanna lom my spy to cst while im out mmmmm..
btw i didnt read this forum but opar was the last to read this so his prob said something about his new pc o nos alien ware > my crappy computer :(
geforce 2 > opars face
that will show him...... :( (dies alittle inside)
edit
Its gonna blow.......
ok maybe i was wrong but i gotta go out clicky clicky on nc
4GB of RAM would be such a fucking waste, and only DDR400?
And "Extreme Edition" is beyond marketing bullshit, it surpasses even the whole AGP 8x and Dual Channel hype.
I wouldn't choose the video card he has either...
OMG, u r soooo off my x-mas card list >.<
I'm hungry and you lot don't rank high enough to come between me and my food.
And so are you :p
4GB of RAM would be such a fucking waste, and only DDR400?
No point in getting DDR4000, when the motherboard only supports 3200 (400Hmz)
Anyhow, for Mobo, I'm a AOpen fanboi, so would go for a AK89 Max (http://english.aopen.com.tw/products/mb/AK89Max.htm) for teh mobo, coz it looks nice :angel: that and it supports Hyper Transport Technology (http://english.aopen.com.tw/tech/techinside/HyperTransport.htm)
Because I'm usin AOpen mobo, I'd get a AOpen vid card, the nVIDIA GeForce 6800-Ultra (dont forget, money no object here :p)
Topped off with the full 3GB of 400Mhz of luvly DDR Ram, topped off with a couple of Seagate Baracuda 7200.8, which
Seagate claims the 3.5in 400GB Barracuda 7200.8 is "the industry's first native SATA interface with native command queuing". NCQ was designed for asynchronous I/O. And it "increases drive reliability in heavy workloads by eliminating much of the mechanical wear and tear that a non-NCQ drive must endure to transfer the same amount of data", Seagate said. There's an Ultra ATA version of the product on its way too.
Its 400GB per drive (think the mobo only supports 147GB, mite be wrong) so I'd not be running outta space for meh uber pr0n collection.
Personally though, I still prefer the Pentium extreme edition, i've no need for 64bit CPU, which could only run at 32bits with XP Pro, and iirc, it has to emulate 32bit somewhat, so could slow down the system a fraction.
As for "4GB being a waste" no chance, I'm running 768MB of ram at the moment apparently, with 4GB, i could easily turn off the swap file, and not feel any performance hit. And with a 64bit CPU, it can easily access > 4GB, which is somewhere near the 32bit limit.
DigestiveBiscui
15-06-04, 14:18
got any background processes running that might be sucking your RAM up? something with a memory leak, or just plain ole screwed?
nah, im a clean freak
spyware scan every other day + virus scan once a week
only thing i have noticed is, everytime the system loads, exploerer.exe eats up at least 10% of my CPU. Whether or not is has always done that i'm ot sure, but on boot and when it's loading nc it's eating loads
on load its doing lots of stuff so i wouldent say its that unusual, on nc startup it could be a DX issue
again not saying there definate reasons for it, but they are possibilitys
Peeping Tom
15-06-04, 14:39
Have you checked your puter for dust ?
could be that your heatsinks are full of dust and it get overheated ( well it is summer time ) so check your cpu\nbridge\vid card coler for dust...
K4F
btw this game is lame lame lame
nah, im a clean freak
spyware scan every other day + virus scan once a week
only thing i have noticed is, everytime the system loads, exploerer.exe eats up at least 10% of my CPU. Whether or not is has always done that i'm ot sure, but on boot and when it's loading nc it's eating loads
odd my explorer.exe is not even getting close to 10 it not even get past 5% it hop around at 0 and 2% cpu and i keep my C drive as free as posible
You really need to check the BIOS, since it could really be any number of things. I have seen issues where the BIOS can for no apparent reason suddenly incorrectly indentify a CPU, e.g. a friend of mine with a 2.5 Athlon XP found the temperature skyrocketing all of a sudden and it kept freezing, no matter how many times he rebooted, turned out the BIOS thought it was a 3.2. So I'd check the BIOS and make sure things like that match up (but note if you're using an Athlon XP then you'll have to check their website for the actual clock speed, XPs are numbered according to the standard Athlon clock speed which would deliver the same performance. So a 1500+ is actually at 1333, a 2600+ is 1917 (I think). Sorry if you already knew that and I'm patronising you. :p
btw ar you jusing a intel or amd one coz i juse a amd 3000+ whit 1 gig ram
OMG, u r soooo off my x-mas card list >.<
Aww come on, don't be that way! :(
Because I'm usin AOpen mobo, I'd get a AOpen vid card, the nVIDIA GeForce 6800-Ultra (dont forget, money no object here :p)
I said I wouldn't support your other video card choice, but I'll support this choice!
Topped off with the full 3GB of 400Mhz of luvly DDR Ram, topped off with a couple of Seagate Baracuda 7200.8, which
Its 400GB per drive (think the mobo only supports 147GB, mite be wrong) so I'd not be running outta space for meh uber pr0n collection.
If money was not an issue, what you SHOULD do is put two 74GB Raptors (10,000 RPM) in a RAID 0 array as your system array (OS), and a couple of Seagates 7,200.8 with command queuing in a radi 0 for storage. The reason I say this is because the Raptors are STILL faster. The large capacity of your storage array (800GB) will be great.
Alternately, you could put maybe 5 or 6 of these drives in a RAID 5 array, but that would oversaturate the PCI bus, it's best to wait for PCI-Express (Or get a server board with PCI-X already.) (PCI-X is NOT PCI-Express!!!)
Personally though, I still prefer the Pentium extreme edition, i've no need for 64bit CPU, which could only run at 32bits with XP Pro, and iirc, it has to emulate 32bit somewhat, so could slow down the system a fraction.
Actually, The AMD 64 (x86-64) works NATIVELY in 32 bit AND 64 bit mode. It is NOT like an Itanium 2 which is natively 64 bit and emulates 32 bit. Besides, the benchmarks have already been out for quite some time, the AMD processors stomp all over the Intels currently. In 32 bit mode even.
As for "4GB being a waste" no chance, I'm running 768MB of ram at the moment apparently, with 4GB, i could easily turn off the swap file, and not feel any performance hit. And with a 64bit CPU, it can easily access > 4GB, which is somewhere near the 32bit limit.
Windows XP isn't the smartest OS, it will not use 4GB of RAM, and it will ALWAYS use a swapfile... People that have 2GB of RAM today with a memory usage of less than 1 GB have tried deactivating their swap file (setting it to 0MB), but guess what? Everything didn't work right after that. Until the OS gets smarter, don't you touch that swap file!
DigestiveBiscui
15-06-04, 16:18
SYSTEM SPECS:
AMD Athlon 1800+
512 RAM (DDR)
80GB Maxtor (dont know the exact type)
Soltek motherboard SL-75FRV/75FRV-L - VIA appollo KT400 series (NOOOOO)
GeForce 4 MX440 (64MB)
REaltek AC97 onboard sound
anything else u need tell me :P
I had spy ware preventing me from accessing my network. Would Force a static IP, Could Ping the router and the other machines but not see them.
Ran Ad-aware ancd it picked up the spy ware progs and trashed them, now I am fine....worth a look at Digi
DigestiveBiscui
15-06-04, 17:47
just had a guy round - has a look in the event viewer for me, nothing but bad block errors all over it
also, there was a message about out of date firmware saying it could result in a lackof performance
cut it short, bye bye HDD, they have gone back to there office thing to see the prices of new Hard drives and, if i order one, shall come and do the transfer tomorrow :)
nooo, dont smear the guess work with facts biccy :P
sorry to hear about the disk, whens the funeral?
DigestiveBiscui
15-06-04, 23:57
nooo, dont smear the guess work with facts biccy :P
sorry to hear about the disk, whens the funeral?
never, seeing as im a rich little student the coversation went like this
'Seems to be the hard-drive, it will need replacing'
'Shit, do you stock them'
'We can stock a new 120GB for £79 by tomorrow if you want'
'yea, whatever'
:p
oops - seems to be diagnosed already :)
Aww come on, don't be that way!
Ok, you can go back on my xmas list :D but I'm still waitin for my new hard drive to arrive, blergh :p
btw, not sure if your hard drive can do it (@ original poster) but IBM have a little programme for their hard drive that can look for and correct errors, I think they made it because most of their returned hard drives, actually did work but had a problem that could easily be fixed, might be worth you checking out (especially if Windows says its a healthy drive, might be something as silly as a partition table error :p)
Ok, you can go back on my xmas list :DWhat about me?! :p
<3 lexxy
@Biscuit: Lucky sod. I want one too. :p
--Stryfe
DigestiveBiscui
16-06-04, 15:37
rah
new HD = win :)
What about me?! :p
<3 lexxy
Ok, ur back on my X-Mas list too :p
and aye, new hard drives pwnz0rs, unless i get me a card though, i r stuck with UMDA133 :(
Jackie Chan
16-06-04, 16:28
yeah defrag is good
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