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Post by HighProtein on Mar 13, 2008 4:38:35 GMT -5
A guy at work wants a cheap as hell bad ass pc what should I tell him to get?
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Post by Zer0 on Mar 13, 2008 13:17:15 GMT -5
What are your best responses for issues regarding user-error?
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Post by 5m4llP0X on Mar 14, 2008 0:48:47 GMT -5
A guy at work wants a cheap as hell bad ass pc what should I tell him to get? Can you build it yourself? If not: Get a refurb and get an extended warranty. If so: Go for open box stuff with a warranty.
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Post by 5m4llP0X on Mar 14, 2008 0:49:11 GMT -5
What are your best responses for issues regarding user-error? "Time to do a recovery!"
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Post by Zer0 on Mar 14, 2008 9:42:56 GMT -5
AAAAAAwwwwww..... I tell them to water it or decorate it with magnets.
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Post by Zer0 on Mar 14, 2008 9:44:19 GMT -5
A guy at work wants a cheap as hell bad ass pc what should I tell him to get? Can you build it yourself? If not: Get a refurb and get an extended warranty. If so: Go for open box stuff with a warranty. Refurbs are the best. They have been tested to work and they're so much cheaper than new price. Most computers returned to the factory are usually working just fine... People just don't know how to use them.
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Post by 5m4llP0X on Mar 15, 2008 18:16:18 GMT -5
Yes, and no...They do have their fair share of problems. But, I'd still say get a warranty with the OEM. This way, THEY can replace the broken shit.
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Post by 5m4llP0X on Mar 15, 2008 18:47:29 GMT -5
On a relevant note: Crucial Technology ROCKS!!! I bought 3 GB of RAM. That's 3 sticks running at 1024MB each. Right now my BIOS reads total RAM being: 3144MB And that's even after I UNDERCLOCKED it to 800MHZ.
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Post by HighProtein on Mar 17, 2008 0:43:35 GMT -5
On a relevant note: Crucial Technology ROCKS!!! I bought 3 GB of RAM. That's 3 sticks running at 1024MB each. Right now my BIOS reads total RAM being: 3144MB And that's even after I UNDERCLOCKED it to 800MHZ. I love how my IBM T-60 Laptop performs after I got 3 gigs og OCZ ram. My laptop is like a tank but its my desktop right now. I'd love to find an old 40 series to run around with.
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Post by 5m4llP0X on Mar 17, 2008 19:20:18 GMT -5
My vista rating has me at a mere 4.6...I'm annoyed. I need to upgrade my graphics card to a 1GB. Or Crossfire another one of these.
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Post by HighProtein on Apr 5, 2008 2:48:17 GMT -5
Powerful desk top PC for you CHECK So when are you going to get a powerful MAC?
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Post by 5m4llP0X on Apr 6, 2008 4:54:16 GMT -5
When they stop being such a trendy piece of shit.
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Post by TheLance on Apr 9, 2008 6:22:53 GMT -5
Hey Pox - I'm having some sort of issue with my PC. Every time I try to play something made after 2003 with faintyly fancy graphics and stuff (some recent examples: Doom 3, STALKER, Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines), my computer freezes up and then resets itself at random intervals during play, especially when it applies some fancy shader effect or has to zoom in on something (STALKER in particular would work fine until I used the binoculars. Vampire generally only fucks up when loading new areas, though). It doesn't do this with older or non-commercial games (Doom, Operation Flashpoint, Fallout etc. etc. run just fine), and certainly never does it on desktop. My PC isn't particularly fancy (AMD64 3500, Radeon 9550) but most of these games are a couple years old now and it should be able to handle them.
Anyway, all I really want to know is, does this sound to you more like a hardware issue - as in, will I need a new graphics card - or some sort of software conflict? The problem has endured through a couple of reformats. Oddly enough, reverting to older graphics drivers reduced the frequency of the problems.
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Post by 5m4llP0X on Apr 9, 2008 13:27:00 GMT -5
But yeah. Your graphics card is a 128 MB. Have you tried lowering the quality of the games? Also... Who made your comp? I could see a system lock up, or an error, but not a reboot like that. That sort of issue usually leads us down the path of it being hardware. Does your computer make any unusual noise when this happens? Edit: If you're willing to shell out cash for a new GFX, try this one: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161205This is AGP, which is what I think your GFX card is.
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Post by TheLance on Apr 9, 2008 22:39:50 GMT -5
I crank the quality down by default, since I like a consistently smooth framerate and am a massive graphics luddite anyway (bump mapping? Bloom? Pfft). I have the 256mb version by the way, one of these. I put my own comp together, and don't get any odd noises when it locks up. I don't think I was clear enough - it locks up for a while before it reboots, quite often with an accompanying screen blackout - as in, it goes black, and then I get a 'no signal received' message on my monitor. Still sound like a hardware issue?
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Post by 5m4llP0X on Apr 10, 2008 2:37:39 GMT -5
Try this: Windows XP may experience a problem during startup that causes a Stop error message. Depending on the system configuration, the Stop error message may appear too briefly to record the error information. To gather important information about the Stop error message and to verify the cause, follow these steps: 1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. 2. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery. 3. Clear the Automatically restart check box under System failure, and then click OK. The error message should remain on the screen so that you can record the error information. I want to see if an error will pop up. Oh wow. It's a 256. All the ones I found for yours where 128's. The 256 should run your programs without a problem.
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Post by TheLance on Apr 10, 2008 4:21:06 GMT -5
OK, I'll give that a try. Might be a day or two before I can give a report though, since I'm going to try formatting everything on my PC (not just the boot drive) and need to make a lot of backups. Cheers for taking the time to help by the way, probably should have said that earlier.
Since I suspect I'll need a new card, what AGP Nvidias would you recommend? Might try one of those since the Radeon's (probably) giving me crap.
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Post by HighProtein on Apr 10, 2008 5:24:24 GMT -5
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Post by Zer0 on Apr 10, 2008 10:07:40 GMT -5
Good kitty.
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Post by 5m4llP0X on Apr 11, 2008 5:01:06 GMT -5
OK, I'll give that a try. Might be a day or two before I can give a report though, since I'm going to try formatting everything on my PC (not just the boot drive) and need to make a lot of backups. Cheers for taking the time to help by the way, probably should have said that earlier. Since I suspect I'll need a new card, what AGP Nvidias would you recommend? Might try one of those since the Radeon's (probably) giving me crap. I would not go with NVidia. Your Mobo has Radeon. It's going to cause MASSIVE driver conflicts. Unless you wipe out all of the video drivers from the registry and then install the card, it will cause a horde of issues.
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Post by Zer0 on May 15, 2008 18:25:21 GMT -5
Oh almighty P0x, I need thyne assistance....
My best friend who lives near Seattle is having SD card issues. She has a functional SD card (it reads in the camera) and it usually has no problems with being read in the SD card slot on her PC. However, one magical day her PC no longer wishes to read her SD card. It won't even appear in My Computer. She rebooted. She put the card in the camera and it reads just fine... I'm feeling kinda blank on troubleshooting for this one. She's kinda inept about computers. I could figure out that she is running XP, but couldn't get her to open device manager (user error) to find out what type of SD card reader she's using...
...Any thoughts?
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Post by 5m4llP0X on May 16, 2008 3:23:50 GMT -5
Thank you, I feel godlike already. Check "My Computer" to see if it shows up under "devices with removable storage" (It would just be drives.) If it does not show Re-seat the cables. And reboot. If that fails try to have her try and find the device manager again (Easiest way: Right-Click My Computer and go into hardware tab) From there, check to see if there are any unknown devices, USB root hubs, and (I forget what they show up as...). Then reboot and have windows figure it all out. If that fails: I would guess a recovery, since it will not show up in Safemode. If she's HP she can run PC Doctor 5. (Start, All Programs, PC help and tools, PC DR 5 for Windows)
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Post by HighProtein on Jul 13, 2008 23:54:56 GMT -5
Dontcha just love Blackberries?
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Post by 5m4llP0X on Jul 15, 2008 19:22:45 GMT -5
Never went much into PDAs. I hear good things about Blackberries, but I may wait for the GPhone.
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Post by HighProtein on Jul 17, 2008 18:33:41 GMT -5
PDAs work great for inventory. Blackberries are fairly solid for GPS, Minor net surfing, IMing and minor note taking. They lock up from time to time but after intense usage.
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Post by 5m4llP0X on Jul 19, 2008 3:55:04 GMT -5
Yeah. I wouldn't mind one...But I have no major need for it.
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