General Computer Thread

[Marc]

I love building computers, and building my current system reminded me what happens when you stay out of the game for a decade.
I often recommend pre-built for people, because building is something I enjoy, and they probably just want something out of a box and ready to go. I understand that, but there are still savings in building it yourself, as long as you know what you're doing.

Though sometimes you can get caught out

When I built my server back in 2012 I fell for the New Egg description of some ram that would work in any server well it was actually registered ECC whcih wasn't supported by the Xeon 3s and I fucked up a motherboard in the process so it was rather expensive in the end.

With the money I spent I could have ended up going for dual processor E5 and wouldn't be wanting to replace it now

But supermicro board and case and the fucker has run almost none stop since I built it.

Fortunately the next system I build wasn't an issue and it's going (Core i5, 16GB on an Asrock ITx board in a bit fennix case). probably could do with a video card as the integrated graphics are struggling with some games.

 

[Amaris]

Though sometimes you can get caught out

When I built my server back in 2012 I fell for the New Egg description of some ram that would work in any server well it was actually registered ECC whcih wasn't supported by the Xeon 3s and I fucked up a motherboard in the process so it was rather expensive in the end.

With the money I spent I could have ended up going for dual processor E5 and wouldn't be wanting to replace it now

But supermicro board and case and the fucker has run almost none stop since I built it.

Fortunately the next system I build wasn't an issue and it's going (Core i5, 16GB on an Asrock ITx board in a bit fennix case). probably could do with a video card as the integrated graphics are struggling with some games.

Shouldn't Newegg have refunded your money? It was their error, after all.

 

[Marc]

Shouldn't Newegg have refunded your money? It was their error, after all.

I realised it a bit too late.

 

[Santaman]

Begone you foul creature

For once IBM came up with an idea that didn't hamstring the person computer but then put on such a high price target it was pretty much dead on arrival.

We could have broken the shackles of ISA long before PCI came along.

MCA all the way!
I do agree that there was a long history of hit and misses.. ISA, mwah, slow but worked, VESA Local bus, ow now that was a hassle at times, PCI never gave me problems of course there was PCI-X for servers and no that is NOT PCI-E(xpress) like on current boards and there was EISA of course AGP.. yeah in the past computing was more adventerous.

As for building computers, I've got thousands and thousands of machines under my belt including servers, laptops, office machines, game machines and so on, nowadays I tell not so savvy people to buy a good clone from a local shop or a Dell, HP, Lenovo because I don't want to be tech support anymore for people..
I do like to build my own of course, gives me the parts I want and I don't have to pay for a Windows licence since I run mostly Linux.

I do have prebuilds here a Dell Precission T3400 which I got for free, also a Optiplex machine, also for free.

As for the advantage in building your own, in the past it indeed was cheaper, that is no longer the case but that is not important, I want to control what goes into the machine, I always buy quality parts and you can't be sure you get that with a prebuild.

*edit*
found a pic of my IBM AT inside the Aopen minitower

 

[Australis]

Having driver problems.

I have an Asus PW191 monitor and a Samsung S24E390 monitor. When I look in Device Mngr, I found they were both using the Generic PnP monitor driver. I've been trying to update but hit 2 problems.

1) Running the 'Update Driver' button does nothing, even though I thought I'd DL'd the relevant driver (not sure if I have).

2) any time I tried to download one, I'd actually end up with a tool that would scan the computer and say "20 drivers out of date! Install them for only $29.99!" which is infuriating. All I want is the drivers and directions where to install them. Is that so much to ask?

Do you guys have a source for drivers that aren't these so-called tools?

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

MCA all the way!
I do agree that there was a long history of hit and misses.. ISA, mwah, slow but worked, VESA Local bus, ow now that was a hassle at times, PCI never gave me problems of course there was PCI-X for servers and no that is NOT PCI-E(xpress) like on current boards and there was EISA of course AGP.. yeah in the past computing was more adventerous.

As for building computers, I've got thousands and thousands of machines under my belt including servers, laptops, office machines, game machines and so on, nowadays I tell not so savvy people to buy a good clone from a local shop or a Dell, HP, Lenovo because I don't want to be tech support anymore for people..
I do like to build my own of course, gives me the parts I want and I don't have to pay for a Windows licence since I run mostly Linux.

I do have prebuilds here a Dell Precission T3400 which I got for free, also a Optiplex machine, also for free.

As for the advantage in building your own, in the past it indeed was cheaper, that is no longer the case but that is not important, I want to control what goes into the machine, I always buy quality parts and you can't be sure you get that with a prebuild.

*edit*
found a pic of my IBM AT inside the Aopen minitower

Chip porn.

 

[Amaris]

Having driver problems.

I have an Asus PW191 monitor and a Samsung S24E390 monitor. When I look in Device Mngr, I found they were both using the Generic PnP monitor driver. I've been trying to update but hit 2 problems.

1) Running the 'Update Driver' button does nothing, even though I thought I'd DL'd the relevant driver (not sure if I have).

2) any time I tried to download one, I'd actually end up with a tool that would scan the computer and say "20 drivers out of date! Install them for only $29.99!" which is infuriating. All I want is the drivers and directions where to install them. Is that so much to ask?

Do you guys have a source for drivers that aren't these so-called tools?

Asus PW191: https://www.asus.com/supportonly/PW191/HelpDesk_Download/
Samsung S24E390: https://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/led-monitor-sd390-series

 

[Santaman]

@Tetragrammaton Invictus yeah those old mainboards didn't have chipsets like we have now but for every function they needed a seperate chip.

Having driver problems.

I have an Asus PW191 monitor and a Samsung S24E390 monitor. When I look in Device Mngr, I found they were both using the Generic PnP monitor driver. I've been trying to update but hit 2 problems.

1) Running the 'Update Driver' button does nothing, even though I thought I'd DL'd the relevant driver (not sure if I have).

2) any time I tried to download one, I'd actually end up with a tool that would scan the computer and say "20 drivers out of date! Install them for only $29.99!" which is infuriating. All I want is the drivers and directions where to install them. Is that so much to ask?

Do you guys have a source for drivers that aren't these so-called tools?

What about the manufacturers websites?
Just a DuckDuckGo away:

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/PW191/HelpDesk_Download/

https://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/led-monitor-sd390-series

Sometimes the monitor itself just uses the generic PNP driver, nothing wrong with that... updating the generic driver doesn't work because it always has the latest one because it comes with windows/windows update.

So, if you have an Asus product then it might be handy to look at the Asus website, for Samsung the Samsung website etc etc etc

Ah! Amaris was faster!

 

[Amaris]

@Tetragrammaton Invictus yeah those old mainboards didn't have chipsets like we have now but for every function they needed a seperate chip.





What about the manufacturers websites?
Just a DuckDuckGo away:

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/PW191/HelpDesk_Download/

https://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/led-monitor-sd390-series

Sometimes the monitor itself just uses the generic PNP driver, nothing wrong with that... updating the generic driver doesn't work because it always has the latest one because it comes with windows/windows update.

So, if you have an Asus product then it might be handy to look at the Asus website, for Samsung the Samsung website etc etc etc

Ah! Amaris was faster!

Sh-sh-sha! /karate kick

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I know in the old days they needed separate chips for specialist functions unlike today. I have been fiddling with computers since the 80s. I love old circuit boards with lots of chip population, chip porn.

Also drilled and mounted in a frame some boards make for unique art pieces.

 

[Santaman]

If you love old hardware then you need to look here
http://www.redhill.net.au/ig.html

http://www.redhill.net.au/ib.html
Mainboards

http://www.redhill.net.au/d/1.php
Harddrives

http://www.redhill.net.au/iu.html
CPU's

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

If you love old hardware then you need to look here
http://www.redhill.net.au/ig.html

http://www.redhill.net.au/ib.html
Mainboards

http://www.redhill.net.au/d/1.php
Harddrives

http://www.redhill.net.au/iu.html
CPU's

Nice.

 

[Australis]

Asus PW191: https://www.asus.com/supportonly/PW191/HelpDesk_Download/
Samsung S24E390: https://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/led-monitor-sd390-series

What about the manufacturers websites?
Just a DuckDuckGo away:

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/PW191/HelpDesk_Download/
https://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/led-monitor-sd390-series

Sometimes the monitor itself just uses the generic PNP driver, nothing wrong with that... updating the generic driver doesn't work because it always has the latest one because it comes with windows/windows update.

So, if you have an Asus product then it might be handy to look at the Asus website, for Samsung the Samsung website etc etc etc

Ah! Amaris was faster!

Dat Amaris, he a sneaky guy!

This is coming to you LIVE! as I try it.

Well, the Asus site wants all your details and a serial number, not easy to access, which is super annoying. Why can't they just say, "here's a driver, go away"? I did just that with a Compaq monitor, and improved its functionality significantly.

So, downloaded a driver utility from each company as per links and installed them, and they apparently ran successfully, but I wasn't asked to reboot, and when I hit update driver, specifying location etc, it just goes nope and reverts to Generic PnP. Example, the Asus software installed to a specific folder, and even when I say browse to that folder for the driver it says nup. And it seems to be seeing the Samsung driver but not using it.

When I did this on my notebook, I registered the monitor as a device, and that worked, but the monitors are already registered in Devices and Printers. Should I unregister and reregister?

Reason for doing this. Using the Generic PnP, I've noticed there's weird lines and blotches on the Asus monitor (Samsung mostly OK, but if I could sharpen it that'd be cool), especially on people, and I think the proper driver would be an improvement.

Note, this system also uses a Nvidia GeForce card for them, should I update the driver for it, assuming it has one?

 

[Owain Taggart]

So, I got a new video card (GTX 1050 Ti) to replace the GT440 I was having problems with a few months ago. I think the memory was flaking out on the old card leading to some crashes and black screens. So, I get the new card, get it installed along with a new PSU and I start playing some more intensive games than I used to. Frustrated, the card kept crashing, often 10 min into a game, sometimes earlier, and couldn't figure out why.

I should preface this by saying that earlier this year I cleaned my PC out of malware and I think my card had been tipping to the point of wearing out. Took the advantage of moving from Win 7 to Win10 and had been pretty pleased until I started running into problems with the old card.

Well, what follows next is quite embarrassing. I think what happened next with the crashing was that I was technically out of practice in getting more demanding games working. I have an old first-gen i5 processor that's nearly 10 years old. With my previous processor before that one, I had a standard process of closing out any programs like browsers running in the background before starting up a game. In my foolhardiness in wanting to test out my new card, I hadn't factored in that my CPU might be a tad aged when for a long time I hadn't needed to close things out. So, low and behold, one night after being frustrated by the crashing, I decided to close out Firefox (which itself can be pretty processor intensive.) My antivirus software (NOD32) has a gamer-mode that suspends any update activity and popups and lowers CPU usage. Technically it's supposed to engage automatically when it detects a full-screen application like a game or movie, but I started to realize I hadn't seen that happened after my upgrade to Win10. It's still technically set to do it, but doesn't engage unless I do it manually beforehand. A weird bug, I think, or maybe something to do with the settings transferred over. Anyhow, it all works after doing all that, and I was embarrassed to admit all my frustration could have been avoided if I had paid attention to it in the first place. Amazing how something so simple could cause so much aggravation. Maybe I should just game more often so that I don't forget in the future

 

[Marc]

Reason for doing this. Using the Generic PnP, I've noticed there's weird lines and blotches on the Asus monitor (Samsung mostly OK, but if I could sharpen it that'd be cool), especially on people, and I think the proper driver would be an improvement.

Not normally something I would have put down as caused by a monitor driver but a physical issue/hardware issue

FWIW I'm running a Samsung 27" FHD (not sure on the exact model - It's the curved screen) that I've had for 5 months and an Acer 24" FHD that's about 2 years old.

Using the onboard video on my driven by the graphics in my i5 with one monitor connected by HDMI the other via DVI.

Both are using the Generic PnP driver under Windows and I don't have any screen artifacts or another issues.

I'm running Windows 10 but don't think that makes much of a difference.

I'd look more to the video card or possible the cables.

Also drivers would make any difference to the sharpness. With the LCD monitors that pretty much comes down down the panel used such as the type (IPS/TN/OLED etc) and the quality of the panel.

 

[Amaris]

Dat Amaris, he a sneaky guy!

This is coming to you LIVE! as I try it.

Well, the Asus site wants all your details and a serial number, not easy to access, which is super annoying. Why can't they just say, "here's a driver, go away"? I did just that with a Compaq monitor, and improved its functionality significantly.

So, downloaded a driver utility from each company as per links and installed them, and they apparently ran successfully, but I wasn't asked to reboot, and when I hit update driver, specifying location etc, it just goes nope and reverts to Generic PnP. Example, the Asus software installed to a specific folder, and even when I say browse to that folder for the driver it says nup. And it seems to be seeing the Samsung driver but not using it.

When I did this on my notebook, I registered the monitor as a device, and that worked, but the monitors are already registered in Devices and Printers. Should I unregister and reregister?

Reason for doing this. Using the Generic PnP, I've noticed there's weird lines and blotches on the Asus monitor (Samsung mostly OK, but if I could sharpen it that'd be cool), especially on people, and I think the proper driver would be an improvement.

Note, this system also uses a Nvidia GeForce card for them, should I update the driver for it, assuming it has one?

In general, updating the video drivers is almost always a good idea. Start with that first.

 

[Australis]

Well, I think I did, but the updater desn't recognise them or something like that.

 

[Marc]

Well, I think I did, but the updater desn't recognise them or something like that.

Doing an update via the update driver option only works if they've released an updated drive for inclusion by Microsoft (WDM).

The manufacturers website is the best option for your video card driver but be aware old cards are no longer having drivers being developed so what you've got might be all there is.

 

[Australis]

Ahhhh, OK.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I'm running FX 6300
32gig ddr3
MSI 970 gaming mainboard
Radeon R9 380 4gig
Corsaid RMX 750 gold PSU

This system will be 2 years old in December. Should I be OK for next year or two providing my PSU doesn't shit itself and die? My last build the PSU lasted only 14 months and took the mainboard with it.