New PC queries

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Due to current problems with my desktop PC, I've been researching what to replace it with. Last night I filled in the wizard on the PC Specialists web site where I got my LT from. I selected the best graphics card I could afford the 4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 770 & what I thought was a suitable power supply the CORSAIR 700W VS SERIES™ VS-700 POWER SUPPLY. When I went to the quote stage the wizard told me I had over specked the PS & the 550 would be OK. So I chose the 650 as a compromise. Then I went to Nvidia's site to have a look at the graphics card & they said the card needed a 700Watt PS, so I emailed PC Specialists to see what they said, but they are closed until tomorrow. Then I got to thinking about voltage & wondered if NV were quoting a 700 watt based on 110 volts input. (Ohms Law & all that). Anyone got anything to say on this anomoly? :unsure:/> :unsure:/> :unsure:/>

Yachtsman1.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

After the excitement of the Korean GP, I had a look at OHM's law. It must be 45 years since it was taught to me at training college & I must say I haven't had a lot of use for it since. However a quick search on the 'net & my memory banks were refreshed. Anyone else interested see here- http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/dccircuits/dcp_2.html

:unsure:/> :unsure:/> :unsure:/>

Yachtsman1

[smithrg]

Hi Eric, I don't know anything about ohms, and such,I bought the 1000 watt power (just in case) supply for my new machine. (see below)

Good luck, robertg

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Robert

Yes I saw your spec', I have a 1000w power supply on my current PC, which is what started me off wondering why PC Specialists were quoting one half the size, :unsure:/> unless technology has improved & current (no pun intended) hardware doesn't need as much ooomph!!!

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Got a reply back from PC Specialists to my query about power supplies quoted by them & Nvidia-

Hi there

I can confirm 600W would be enough for this card, the numbers given on the Nvidia website may indeed be in American format.

Kind Regards

PC Specialist Support Team

( 0844 499 4000

:unsure:/> :unsure:/> :unsure:/>

Yachtsman1.

[tom95521]

Hi Eric,

What's American format? I think wattage is universal? Maybe it has to do with input voltage or frequency but I would not want to take any chance on a power supply rating too low.

We like to super size everything over here.

Tom

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Tom

My thoughts precisely, my current PC has a 1000 watt PS which is why I queried it with the so called "specialists". I'm not sure they are the specialists now. I have sent the spec to the builder of my PC who I thought had gone bust but hasn't. He missed the operating system on the spec & asked me what I wanted :huh:

I am still battling to try to fix my PC, tried Malwarebytes & CCleaner. It has now speeded up but still getting the BSOD occassionally when stressed. Luckily I have been able to get it back up to now. Spec & error screen shots attached.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

new pc 2013. spec.doc

[Barry Beckham]

Those "PC Specialists" have made at least 6 PC's for me over many years and they have all been superb for the job. 2 of which are still in daily use and are over 6 years old

[tom95521]

Eric,Some viruses are very good at hiding. If you continue to have problems you might want to boot from an Avira rescue CD. It boots from your optical drive and loads a Linux kernel. I have found a few viruses that regular AV software did not find.

http://www.avira.com/en/download/product/avira-rescue-system

My desktop PCs usually last about 3 years. Not because parts wear out but because the applications require more resources. I rarely upgrade components except more ram and larger hard drives.

I like the specs of your PC. I was curious about your hard drive choices. Your second drive is "only" 500 GB. The price difference between 500 GB and 1 TB is probably a very small amount.

Tom

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Tom

My first custom desk top didn't have a second HD, I had the 1 TB HD partitioned 50/50. In the 3 1/2 years I've been using it the D Drive is about 50% and the C drive 30%, so 1.5TB would be a 50% increase in total. I also have a 1 TB remote HD which I back up my pictures on, this is about 15% full & a second 1TB that is about 60% which I only access to get music copies & the odd pic. My storage of files has dropped dramatically from last year compared to previous years, so I thought I was well on top of future needs.

Thanks for the tip for Avira I've downloaded the manuals & will have a look after breakfast. My PAT man also repairs computers & had a quick look while he was here testing my latest lamps & thought that maybe a Ram chip was failing, but would need more time to do a thorough check which is why I'm tossing up repair or replace.

I have also done full scans with MSE (which I understand cannot be relied on) & AVG which I downloaded for the purposed of rooting out anything that shouldn't be there, since removed as it was interefering with stuff it shouldn't be. All this originally stems from my return from holiday in Somerset & the latest Audacity version which has been reported as giving problems on certain machines, so that was removed & the earlier version installed.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Tom

Read the two info PDF's from Avira. I'm afraid it's probably beyond my capabilities to do anything in the registry. When I googled the wording on the screen dump a few days ago, it mentioned a virus which I can't rememer the name, something akin to software logger. When I checked my programmes file it was there so I uninstalled it. Google also mentioned that beside the programme it would also drop a couple of seeds in the registry, which I didn't look for as modifying the registry frightens me to death. I may let my PAT man see if he knows about Avira & if he could run it through my machine.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

The saga trawls on. Just downloaded the latest windows updates about 30mb, when the PC was re-booting I got error messages that MSE app wasn't responding, which I assume refers to W8 systems, which kept repeating. So I closed down & forgot about it for a couple of hours. Just switched on, things worked OK no errors lock ups or blue screen, but when I looked in the bottom R/H of my desk top there was the attached message??? :unsure:/> :unsure:/> :unsure:/>

Yachtsman1.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Left machine off for another hour, when I switched on it booted to a black screen with my desktop icons & the attached messages asking for product code verification. So I typed in the code & took the attached screen JPEGS. The message in the previous post disappeared but remained black with icons, so I activated my usual blue windows 7 back ground. I've had one message saying windows explorer wasn't responding??? :unsure:/> :unsure:/> :unsure:/> which I ignored, edited the JPEGS and came on here??? :unsure:/> :unsure:/> :unsure:/>

Yachtsman1.

[tom95521]

Left machine off for another hour, when I switched on it booted to a black screen with my desktop icons & the attached messages asking for product code verification. So I typed in the code & took the attached screen JPEGS. The message in the previous post disappeared but remained black with icons, so I activated my usual blue windows 7 back ground. I've had one message saying windows explorer wasn't responding??? /> /> /> which I ignored, edited the JPEGS and came on here??? /> /> />

Yachtsman1.

Sounds like you might be having hard drive problems (file corruption). Did you do a scandisk and defrag?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/156571

I usually just right click on drive letter, select Properties, Tools.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/improve-performance-by-defragmenting-your-hard-disk

Also if you want to run a memory diagnostic Microsoft has one you can download for free.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.09.utilityspotlight.aspx

Format and reinstalling Windows is a good idea, but a lot of work. I think I would buy a new PC if my budget allowed.

Tom

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Thanks Tom

I did scan disc & de-frag early on at the start of my problems, the other two I'm not sure about, I've done so much in the month since it started. I was going to get up early to watch the qualifying for the Japanese GP but slept through. I'll see how things go today and try the other suggestions if the problems are still there. Thanks.

Kind Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Started PC up from scratch this morning wth no error messages or lock ups. When I came to shut down just now from my desktop half the names of the shortcut icons on there had turned black. Switched off then re-booted & they were normal but the windows live ID error message was back??? sideways JPEG intentional.

Yachtsman1.

[coopernatural]

Bogus Cracked Software ?

[Ken Cox]

I had the windows bogus thing on my latest build once

- I have win 7 disk that we bought from tiger direct

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/

when we bought new mob

never seen it again

back up everything cw serials and take to a shop and let them look at it before you do something bad -- you are just digging the hole deeper

ken

ken

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Ken

There isn't anyone around here I could trust, it would mean shipping it off somewhere with the added costs & then it my not be ecomomical to repair. If you remember it's a small form case with components to fit & it's crammed tight. I still have an inkling there is a virus of some sort, I'll PM you with why I think that.

Regards Eric.

Yachtsman1.

[tom95521]

Eric,

There are many AV emergency boot disks to choose from. Just google 'antivirus emergency boot'. You might find a virus that is hidden when Windows is running.

http://www.geekomad.com/2013/03/3-best-free-bootable-antivirus-rescue.html

Microsoft even has one.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/what-is-windows-defender-offline

Tom

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Eric,

There are many AV emergency boot disks to choose from. Just google 'antivirus emergency boot'. You might find a virus that is hidden when Windows is running.

http://www.geekomad.com/2013/03/3-best-free-bootable-antivirus-rescue.html

Microsoft even has one.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/what-is-windows-defender-offline

Tom

Hi Tom

I already ran it through MALWAREBYTES, cleared what it suggested but still getting occasional lock ups, blue screen dumps & error messages about this & that. But at the moment I can cope until I decide how to proceed.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[Barry Beckham]

I have been caught out a few times over the years, by making the assumption (which would be right in 99% of cases) that the issue I am suffering from is software related. On a few occasions after spending ages trying to track down a software problem I found it was hardware related. Could it be something like that? A fault between the ram and the motherboard had me chasing a software issue for a year till I had that eureka moment.

Possible?

[cjdnzl]

Download and run Memtest86. It cycles through memory with all possibilities of bit settings for each byte of memory. Leave it running overnight to verify - or otherwise - your memory.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Download and run Memtest86. It cycles through memory with all possibilities of bit settings for each byte of memory. Leave it running overnight to verify - or otherwise - your memory.

Hi CJDNZL

Had a look at your suggestion, from what I can see running that programme leads you onto eventually changing components to check out what it finds, which I don't have the facilities or skill to do. I've up-graded laptop memories but the machine in question is a non standard format, a hybrid in a way. Thanks for the suggestion, if I do go down the repair route I'll pass that on to whoever I get to do it.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Eric,

There are many AV emergency boot disks to choose from. Just google 'antivirus emergency boot'. You might find a virus that is hidden when Windows is running.

http://www.geekomad.com/2013/03/3-best-free-bootable-antivirus-rescue.html

Microsoft even has one.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/what-is-windows-defender-offline

Tom

Hi tom

Had another look at comparing costs to repair or replace my PC & the scales have swung towards replace. I did another re-spec' with PC specialists reducing my spec a little & got it down to £1000.00. I've attached a copy of the revised spec' please let me know what you think.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

revised pc spec.pdf