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

LilJoka

Member
Need help, my CPU keeps spiking to 100% at times and makes the whole computer freeze up when starting/exiting certain programs or when playing games during specific moments. I've checked using Process Explorer and it is all 4 cores on my i5-6600K that flares up. During normal gameplay however the CPU is running fine, it only happens during these special moments but it is enough to drive me crazy and often ruin games.

Like for example, when I start Teamspeak, the processor spikes to 100% for a couple of seconds before setting back to normal.

Or when I play Overwatch, the moment I start the program it spikes to 100%, and during a match, whenever I respawn it spikes again to 100% and freezes the game, and when I close it the same happens again. During gameplay however it works as normal and the CPU runs fine.

This happens every time and I am at loss what causes it. This has happened before and the only solution I got was a complete reformat of the Windows drive and just reinstalling everything. This time however I really wanna figure out what's going on and would really appreciate any help anyone could give.

Try to see if its a driver issue:
http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

Run it whilst the pc is idle and see if any driver is causing a latency issue.

Full pc spec?
Overclocked ram/cpu? (XMP?)
Peripherals?
 

openrob

Member
I did a system restore of my Windows tablet.
I upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 10.

I am now being asked for a product key to activate Windows.
Do I own one, or do I have to settle with some reg edit work around?
Cheers
 

Keasar

Member
Try to see if its a driver issue:
http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

Run it whilst the pc is idle and see if any driver is causing a latency issue.

Full pc spec?
Overclocked ram/cpu? (XMP?)
Peripherals?
Thanks, gonna run that and see what I get. Thing is, when the computer is idle everything is normal. When I start a program that's the the processor suddenly spikes and everything freezes. Same with even small programs like Teamspeak. During gameplay everything is normal once again EXCEPT during specific moments like I mentioned when respawning in Overwatch.

Z-170 Pro Gaming Motherboard
i5-6600K
Nvidia GTX 1070
16 GB RAM
I know there is a overclock funtion on the motherboard, not sure if it is turned on at the moment but don't think it is.
No external peripherals that should be THAT intensive, a Corsair keyboard and Logitech mouse.
 

linkboy

Member
I did a system restore of my Windows tablet.
I upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 10.

I am now being asked for a product key to activate Windows.
Do I own one, or do I have to settle with some reg edit work around?
Cheers

Do you use a MS account? If so, you might have your product key assigned to your MS account.

I recently moved my 10 install from a Sony Vaio to a HP Elitebook laptop and I just activated my new Windows install using my MS account.
 

Spladam

Member
I did a system restore of my Windows tablet.
I upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 10.

I am now being asked for a product key to activate Windows.
Do I own one, or do I have to settle with some reg edit work around?
Cheers

Are you restoring it to Windows 8 or Windows 10?

If it's 10, and you used a free upgrade to upgrade from 8 to 10, then you have a "digital license key" and you can skip the product key step and Windows will automatically register itself online later, but it has to be the same version of Win 10 you upgraded to. Most modern devices that come with a pre-installed windows have a key in the UEFI /BIOS. If you need to extract the key from the BIOS, try using this little program: Windows OEM product key tool.

Ignore the name and email fields when downloading.

NirSoft makes one too, that only works with certain versions of Win 10, like Home, which is most likely what you have.
 

Spladam

Member
Need help, my CPU keeps spiking to 100% at times and makes the whole computer freeze up when starting/exiting certain programs or when playing games during specific moments. I've checked using Process Explorer and it is all 4 cores on my i5-6600K that flares up. During normal gameplay however the CPU is running fine, it only happens during these special moments but it is enough to drive me crazy and often ruin games.

Like for example, when I start Teamspeak, the processor spikes to 100% for a couple of seconds before setting back to normal.

Or when I play Overwatch, the moment I start the program it spikes to 100%, and during a match, whenever I respawn it spikes again to 100% and freezes the game, and when I close it the same happens again. During gameplay however it works as normal and the CPU runs fine.

This happens every time and I am at loss what causes it. This has happened before and the only solution I got was a complete reformat of the Windows drive and just reinstalling everything. This time however I really wanna figure out what's going on and would really appreciate any help anyone could give.

Ok, I've seen this issue a bunch of times, and it was always a mess to troubleshoot, it's a tough one, as it was a different cause many times and some of them were never solved.

BUT, since you know how to reproduce it (opening skype), I suggest opening Task Manager, sorting it by CPU usage, and then opening skype or do something that always makes it happen and check and see what processes are using the most CPU time. A couple of the times it was a virus program doing it, and this is how it was found.

Sadly, I've seen a couple instances of this issue where a windows restore or re-install was the only way to fix it.

Another time it was a bad USB driver on an Asus motherboard (like yours) and it was fixed by a clearing of the CMOS, a solution that Asus customer service provided (take the battery out of the motherboard and ground the positive terminal to the negative terminal for 10 seconds or just leave the battery out for 12 minutes.)

-Edit: Found it. Apparently taking the battery out on an Asus motherboard does more than just shorting the terminals. Read this thread.
 

Spladam

Member
So I just got a refurbished windows 2 in 1 from woot.com and I didn't have to go through all the windows welcome stuff I was expecting (in fact it felt like I was just booted up to the last save state of who ever was on it)

I mention that but there are a couple weird things going on.

1. While chrome seems to work in general if I go to adobe reader to get it, it crashes while trying to install it.
2. When trying to update spybot search and destroy it gets stuck updating.
3. Windows defender is turned off and I can't seem to turn it on. The thing is a damn virus on my windows 10 desktop and won't stay off no matter what I do so it is really weird in general that it is off.

I did however get malwarebytes to update fine and scanned without finding anything.
and I am currently running windows updates figuring some of the issues might be related to that but i mostly wanted to get others opinions.

edit: windows updates partially fixed windows defender. seems that it gets turned off if you have another antivirus and this thing started with mcafee or whatever it is called. I removed it right away (especially since it was expired :p) but despite it being gone and a number of reboots windows defender seems to still not want to do real time protection. I mean it's not a big deal just weird.

Do you have realtime protection turned on? Open the start menu and type "windows defender", it will pop up at the top, click that. (I'm assuming windows 10 here). This will open the Defender window, click the "shield" looking tab on the side, scroll down to "real time protection" slider and make sure it's set to on.
 

Keasar

Member
So, I've been getting "sorta" improvements, I've used CCleaner to clean out unecessary files, that fixed the problem until the next restart. Done a clean install of the GPU drivers, updated the bios and done some changes to the CPU power usage via the control panel as suggested by LatencyMon, runs smoothly again.

Occasionally (but not always), the computer runs fine. Teamspeak opens normally, games like Overwatch starts and plays without those serious hangups, but I haven't been able to confirm if it's a stable fix or just happens sometimes. Will have to do a couple of checks over the day tomorrow to see.

Ok, I've seen this issue a bunch of times, and it was always a mess to troubleshoot, it's a tough one, as it was a different cause many times and some of them were never solved.

BUT, since you know how to reproduce it (opening skype), I suggest opening Task Manager, sorting it by CPU usage, and then opening skype or do something that always makes it happen and check and see what processes are using the most CPU time. A couple of the times it was a virus program doing it, and this is how it was found.

Sadly, I've seen a couple instances of this issue where a windows restore or re-install was the only way to fix it.

Another time it was a bad USB driver on an Asus motherboard (like yours) and it was fixed by a clearing of the CMOS, a solution that Asus customer service provided (take the battery out of the motherboard and ground the positive terminal to the negative terminal for 10 seconds or just leave the battery out for 12 minutes.)

-Edit: Found it. Apparently taking the battery out on an Asus motherboard does more than just shorting the terminals. Read this thread.

Wow, that sounds kinda complicated. I must admit that I am not entirely sure how to do all this as I am not very experienced in computer building/modification. I assume there are some serious risks involved doing this? Is it difficult to pull this battery out? Virus is a potential thing since when I did a re-install last time all this happened, everything worked fine. Maybe will have to do it again but at this point it is such an awful bother that I'd like to try and avoid it if possible. Is there a good guide for people like me to follow?
 

Spladam

Member
So, I've been getting "sorta" improvements, I've used CCleaner to clean out unecessary files, that fixed the problem until the next restart. Done a clean install of the GPU drivers, updated the bios and done some changes to the CPU power usage via the control panel as suggested by LatencyMon, runs smoothly again.

Occasionally (but not always), the computer runs fine. Teamspeak opens normally, games like Overwatch starts and plays without those serious hangups, but I haven't been able to confirm if it's a stable fix or just happens sometimes. Will have to do a couple of checks over the day tomorrow to see.



Wow, that sounds kinda complicated. I must admit that I am not entirely sure how to do all this as I am not very experienced in computer building/modification. I assume there are some serious risks involved doing this? Is it difficult to pull this battery out? Virus is a potential thing since when I did a re-install last time all this happened, everything worked fine. Maybe will have to do it again but at this point it is such an awful bother that I'd like to try and avoid it if possible. Is there a good guide for people like me to follow?
Then don't do anything for the time, it seems like maybe you've got it fixed, your PC just need a cleaning. Those are all good troubleshooting steps you have taken so far, so good job.

As for your question, no, it's not hard at all and the risk is minimum. I've done it too many times to count on many systems. It just resets the BIOS to factory default, a quick google search will show you how to do it. The battery is easy to find, it's a large circular battery, looks like a large watch battery, and it's pretty easy to pop out. Make sure your system is powered down, the power chord is removed and the power supply is set to off (if it has a switch on the back).

Stay cool for now, if the issue starts to pop up again just PM me and I can give you a hand with the removal of the battery, it really is easy and safe. Remember if you dig around in your PC, it's always a good idea to keep one hand on the chassis so that your body is grounded to the PC and you avoid static discharge from your fingers, but this is a low risk occurrence that happens only when you reach near silicon or PCB trace.

https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1005740/
 

openrob

Member
Are you restoring it to Windows 8 or Windows 10?

If it's 10, and you used a free upgrade to upgrade from 8 to 10, then you have a "digital license key" and you can skip the product key step and Windows will automatically register itself online later, but it has to be the same version of Win 10 you upgraded to. Most modern devices that come with a pre-installed windows have a key in the UEFI /BIOS. If you need to extract the key from the BIOS, try using this little program: Windows OEM product key tool.

Ignore the name and email fields when downloading.

NirSoft makes one too, that only works with certain versions of Win 10, like Home, which is most likely what you have.


Damn you are right, the reset put me back to Windows 8.1!
 

Koren

Member
Not really a help call, more a rant...

My parents have had the nice idea to replace their keyboard/mouse... A K330 for a K330.

Now, for the fun part:
- plug the new receiver, it works
- keyboard and mouse work in Bios
- boot windows, both work at least I can enter password), but Windows want to install the driver
- the driver install fail, because the file already exists or it can't find a driver (depends on how I proceed)
- the keyboard doesn't work anymore

Any attempt to reboot put us back to step 2

The fun part is that my parents don't have a single spare corded USB keyboard, so anything is 10 times more difficult to solve. I have to upload drivers to a place my father has in his bookmarks just to be able to try to install a driver :/ My USB key wants a driver also (??) and I obviously don't have one.

(Granted, the computer uses Vista, that's bound to bring issues, but I really don't understand how a keyboard don't have at least a fallback to a general USB keyboard)
 

Burnburn

Member
I remembered reading something about the fans on one of the MSI Twin Frozr cards, so I went to the Newegg page for your card and read the user reviews. Lots of dead fans. A quick internet search shows me the fans are very effective, but very infamous for having a short life span.
.

Just wanted to make a quick shout-out/ thank you. I ordered new fans, put it in 3 days ago and tried to push it as much as possible. It's working like a charm and (probably placebo) but it seems more quiet too.

So thanks a bunch for your help it worked out really well!
 

Keasar

Member
Then don't do anything for the time, it seems like maybe you've got it fixed, your PC just need a cleaning. Those are all good troubleshooting steps you have taken so far, so good job.

As for your question, no, it's not hard at all and the risk is minimum. I've done it too many times to count on many systems. It just resets the BIOS to factory default, a quick google search will show you how to do it. The battery is easy to find, it's a large circular battery, looks like a large watch battery, and it's pretty easy to pop out. Make sure your system is powered down, the power chord is removed and the power supply is set to off (if it has a switch on the back).

Stay cool for now, if the issue starts to pop up again just PM me and I can give you a hand with the removal of the battery, it really is easy and safe. Remember if you dig around in your PC, it's always a good idea to keep one hand on the chassis so that your body is grounded to the PC and you avoid static discharge from your fingers, but this is a low risk occurrence that happens only when you reach near silicon or PCB trace.

https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1005740/

Thanks mate, I'll keep that in mind, computer worked fine again this morning so will see how it acts in the near future. :)
 

jotun?

Member
Probably no hope here, but is there any chance of retrieving data from this seemingly dead SSD?

Bought in 2011, g.skill model FM-25S2S-120GBSR, sandforce sf-1200 controller ( https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231415 )

I used it in raid 0 with another one for a while, then reformatted to use it solo as the primary drive with windows 10 on it.

One day the PC just shut down and wouldn't boot up. BIOS still recognizes that the drive exists and reports the right model number. When booting it sometimes just gets skipped like nothing is there, and sometimes reports an error about a bad BootBCD

Trying to load the windows repair tools from a recovery drive fails most of the time, just hangs while loading. When it does load up, none of the tools recognize that the drive exists at all.

Tried using a USB<->SATA adapter ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HJZJI84/?tag=neogaf0e-20 ). When I plug it in, one or two new drives show up in windows explorer, but they never actually become accessible, and the properties window won't load.

I connected it to a working PC and made sure it wasn't in the boot order, but it actually seems to prevent a working PC from booting up just by being there. The windows loading circle of dots shows up, but just keeps spinning forever.

Any other ideas for getting data off of this thing?
 

Spladam

Member
I know these are old parts, but out of these two RAM options, which would be better for normal use/gaming?

8GB (4 x 2GB) of https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145194

4GB (4 x 1GB) of https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148069
Pro's and cons: 8GB is really what you need today for gaming. The 8GB kit is slower (800Mhz is slow by today's standards), the 1066 kit being one step up in speed, but if you have to choose between RAM latency or more RAM, go with more RAM, it will have more of an affect on system response than the additional speed. 1066 DDR2 will cost you more, but if you can find the 2GB part at 1066 that would be optimal.

Remember that if you want to upgrade from that you have to match speeds, and the 1066 pieces will take up all of your DIMM slots so you'd have to replace one or two anyway. With the slower part you could bring that old system up to 16GB in the future if you needed.

What is your motherboard make and model? A word of caution: Not all DDR2 chipsets support 1066 RAM. Regardless, no matter what your motherboard is it will set the RAM to 800Mhz by default, as all DDR2 1066 is just 800Mhz DDR2 that has been RATED to run at 1066, you will have to OC the RAM yourself in the BIOS. The RAM says 1066 because it has been TESTED to run at that speed, but it will default to 800Mhz. So before you buy the part, make sure your motherboard's FSB can support dual channel at that speed.

TL;DR: go with the slower 8GB kit.
 

Korey

Member
Pro's and cons: 8GB is really what you need today for gaming. The 8GB kit is slower (800Mhz is slow by today's standards), the 1066 kit being one step up in speed, but if you have to choose between RAM latency or more RAM, go with more RAM, it will have more of an affect on system response than the additional speed. 1066 DDR2 will cost you more, but if you can find the 2GB part at 1066 that would be optimal.

Remember that if you want to upgrade from that you have to match speeds, and the 1066 pieces will take up all of your DIMM slots so you'd have to replace one or two anyway. With the slower part you could bring that old system up to 16GB in the future if you needed.

What is your motherboard make and model? A word of caution: Not all DDR2 chipsets support 1066 RAM. Regardless, no matter what your motherboard is it will set the RAM to 800Mhz by default, as all DDR2 1066 is just 800Mhz DDR2 that has been RATED to run at 1066, you will have to OC the RAM yourself in the BIOS. The RAM says 1066 because it has been TESTED to run at that speed, but it will default to 800Mhz. So before you buy the part, make sure your motherboard's FSB can support dual channel at that speed.

TL;DR: go with the slower 8GB kit.

Thank you! Btw I already have all these sticks of RAM, I'm not buying them. Just didn't know which ones to put in this machine. Looks like I'll go with the 8GBs.

The motherboard is an ASUS P5K DELUXE.
 
Maybe someone here can help me, because I am desperate and pretty clueless when it comes to PCs.

I have a 256GB USB drive that I use for my videos. A few days ago I needed to store some files and plugged it into another computer (at a government facility) and that's where the problems began. All the folders on the drive started to open in a new window whenever I double clicked them, which wasn't that bad, just annoying. So I stored the videos (without their folders) on my HDD, fully reformated the drive and loaded them back onto the Stick. Same problem. All the new videos and new folders are fine, but folders with the old videos kept opening in a separate window.

Fast forward a few days, I plug in the stick, Avira pops up and tells me there's a problem, the stupid Piece of Shit program doesn't have a fucking ignore function, because why would I as a human person know better than a fucking program, but whatever. So it does something to the files and I was too stupid to make a screenshot, since then all the folders with the old videos don't show up anymore, only the new ones. But it still shows that the drive is almost full. They don't show up when I plug it into another pc, but when I plug it in my tv all the folders and files show up and I can play the videos from USB just fine.

I ran MalwareBytes, shows no problems, I ran a program called Recuva, only shows the new files. Honestly, I'm ready to give up and just write it off as a loss.
 

Spladam

Member
Maybe someone here can help me, because I am desperate and pretty clueless when it comes to PCs.

I have a 256GB USB drive that I use for my videos. A few days ago I needed to store some files and plugged it into another computer (at a government facility) and that's where the problems began. All the folders on the drive started to open in a new window whenever I double clicked them, which wasn't that bad, just annoying. So I stored the videos (without their folders) on my HDD, fully reformated the drive and loaded them back onto the Stick. Same problem. All the new videos and new folders are fine, but folders with the old videos kept opening in a separate window.

Fast forward a few days, I plug in the stick, Avira pops up and tells me there's a problem, the stupid Piece of Shit program doesn't have a fucking ignore function, because why would I as a human person know better than a fucking program, but whatever. So it does something to the files and I was too stupid to make a screenshot, since then all the folders with the old videos don't show up anymore, only the new ones. But it still shows that the drive is almost full. They don't show up when I plug it into another pc, but when I plug it in my tv all the folders and files show up and I can play the videos from USB just fine.

I ran MalwareBytes, shows no problems, I ran a program called Recuva, only shows the new files. Honestly, I'm ready to give up and just write it off as a loss.

That thing that computer did at the government site, that was a setting on the OS of THAT computer and had nothing to do with your USB drive. In Windows and other Operating Systems you can instruct the OS on what to do when both a USB is inserted and when a folder is clicked. It's very frustrating when someone sets the OS to open the folder in a new window, but that is just what someone did on that PC as most everything defaults to "open in the same window". Your stick was fine I believe and needed no reformatting.

I assume Avira told you something was wrong with the USB drive? Do you know how to set your OS to view hidden files? Tell me what OS you are using and I'll tell you how to do that or you can ask google, it's pretty straight forward. Anyway, there is a chance the files have been set to "hidden", that's my best guess here without knowing more.
 
That thing that computer did at the government site, that was a setting on the OS of THAT computer and had nothing to do with your USB drive. In Windows and other Operating Systems you can instruct the OS on what to do when both a USB is inserted and when a folder is clicked. It's very frustrating when someone sets the OS to open the folder in a new window, but that is just what someone did on that PC as most everything defaults to "open in the same window". Your stick was fine I believe and needed no reformatting.

I assume Avira told you something was wrong with the USB drive? Do you know how to set your OS to view hidden files? Tell me what OS you are using and I'll tell you how to do that or you can ask google, it's pretty straight forward. Anyway, there is a chance the files have been set to "hidden", that's my best guess here without knowing more.

I'm on Windows 8.1. I tried the show hidden folders option, no luck there. And it told me that there was something wrong with the files, not the stick, I distinctly remember that. Man I could really kick myself for not paying more attention, writing the whole thing down or making a screenshot.
 

Spladam

Member
I'm on Windows 8.1. I tried the show hidden folders option, no luck there. And it told me that there was something wrong with the files, not the stick, I distinctly remember that. Man I could really kick myself for not paying more attention, writing the whole thing down or making a screenshot.

Might as well try this, insert the drive in your Win 8 machine, open the file browser (it might open automatically), right click on the USB drive, select properties, when the properties dialogue box opens up, select the tools tab, and then click "Check" to check it for errors. Usually does not help in Windows, but it's worth a shot.

Remember to always close out a drive before you remove it, weather or not it will hurt a drive depends on how you have it formatted, but it's always a good practice to do anyway.
 

GAMEPROFF

Banned
When he sticks the device on a different machine with a file browser, he can see all files, even the old ones.

I am not 100% sure how to handle this, I think the easiest solution would be take another computer, safe the files there, format the stick and copy the files back.
 

Spladam

Member
When he sticks the device on a different machine with a file browser, he can see all files, even the old ones.

I am not 100% sure how to handle this, I think the easiest solution would be take another computer, safe the files there, format the stick and copy the files back.

Agreed. Super simple and hassle free. I can't figure out what is going on here either.
 
Tech GAF, I need some help with an iPad Pro (12 inches&#8203;) on battery issue.

I went to bed the night before forgot to turn off the iPad and left the screen on. woke up yesterday morning with a dead iPad so I plugged&#8203; it back in to get a quick charge. much to my despair, the iPad won't charge up at all and I am stuck with the blank screen. it does show that battery with a silver of energy in red blinking at the bottom and the Lighting Port plugged in but after spending a whole night plugged in it still remains the same. I've tried getting a different plug to charge it and blowing into the port but no changes. I also try to force restart it but it won't even do that. I'm working on the road right now out in Salt Lake City and after searching a little I realized there is no Apple store out here. please help.
 

Kerensky

Banned
Tech GAF, I need some help with an iPad Pro (12 inches&#8203;) on battery issue.

I went to bed the night before forgot to turn off the iPad and left the screen on. woke up yesterday morning with a dead iPad so I plugged&#8203; it back in to get a quick charge. much to my despair, the iPad won't charge up at all and I am stuck with the blank screen. it does show that battery with a silver of energy in red blinking at the bottom and the Lighting Port plugged in but after spending a whole night plugged in it still remains the same. I've tried getting a different plug to charge it and blowing into the port but no changes. I also try to force restart it but it won't even do that. I'm working on the road right now out in Salt Lake City and after searching a little I realized there is no Apple store out here. please help.

Does the charger make a high-pitched buzz if it's connected? Does the ipad get warm? If yes then there is definitely power going into the device.
 
Does the charger make a high-pitched buzz if it's connected? Does the ipad get warm? If yes then there is definitely power going into the device.

nope, thou the battery screen does show up when I plug in but it doesn't get warm and no charge seems to be happening.

edit, and I just found an Apple store in SLC, thank goodness. gonna make an appointment to go in when I can.
 
I need help, gaf. I was having an issue with a pc from work and searching on the Internet, I found that updating the BIOS could solve it. I decided to do so, despite not knowing too much about it, and got an error message saying that the BIOS update failed. Restarted the pc and it doesn't seem to boot now. I just get a black screen. Is there any way to solve this? Otherwise I may get fired tomorrow lol
 

Kadin

Member
Is there a recommended amount of space you should leave empty on SSD drives? I have one for my OS which is mostly empty and then a gaming SSD which I'd like to fill up as much as possible. It's a 480 GB drive, how much should I keep free?
 

Spladam

Member
I need help, gaf. I was having an issue with a pc from work and searching on the Internet, I found that updating the BIOS could solve it. I decided to do so, despite not knowing too much about it, and got an error message saying that the BIOS update failed. Restarted the pc and it doesn't seem to boot now. I just get a black screen. Is there any way to solve this? Otherwise I may get fired tomorrow lol
You're gonna be ok, hope you learned a lesson here. Bios update is an exact science, and should not be taken lightly. It has to be the exact BIOS for that EXACT motherboard revision.

Open up the case, you may need a phillips screwdriver to do so, make sure it's a steel tipped screwdriver and not the magnetic type. Look at the motherboard and find the CMOS battery, search google tonight for what it looks like. It looks like a large watch battery, it's circular. Use the scredriver to pop it out.

Now the metal on the side is the negative lead and the bottom of the battery slot is the positive, take the screwdriver and connect the two using the end, this will short the positive to the negative, it will cause the CMOS to default to the factory BIOS.

Alternatively you can just leave the battery out for ten minutes, but on some machines this will reset some of the drivers to.
MAKE SURE THE POWER IS OFF AND THE CHORD IS REMOVED FROM THE BACK OF THE MACHINE.
Hope you get this post and get to work early tomorrow. Good luck.

Is there a recommended amount of space you should leave empty on SSD drives? I have one for my OS which is mostly empty and then a gaming SSD which I'd like to fill up as much as possible. It's a 480 GB drive, how much should I keep free?

16% is the rule of thumb. The closer you get to full, the slower your read/write times become, especially the write times, but SSD experience this to a less dramatic degree than physical platter drives. So for your drive try to leave somewhere around 70GB free, or not more than 405-410GB used. This will leave room for the drive to maintain itself and also extend the life of the drive itself.
 

Kadin

Member
16% is the rule of thumb. The closer you get to full, the slower your read/write times become, especially the write times, but SSD experience this to a less dramatic degree than physical platter drives. So for your drive try to leave somewhere around 70GB free, or not more than 405-410GB used. This will leave room for the drive to maintain itself and also extend the life of the drive itself.

Great, I thought I'd read something like 25% a while back but I like your number better. Haha, thanks.
 
Alright this is driving me mad and I can't even find people with this issue on google because I can't seem to describe it properly.

I plugged my Win 10 / 980ti system into my TV via HDMI, and I've started noticing a problem. I don't remember if it was there on my monitor via DisplayPort or not, but it might have been.

Basically, when I play games SOMETIMES and when I am watching videos SOMETIMES the colour settings on the tv fuckup drastically. Like contrast, sharpness, all that shit just goes mental, super bright, text is hard to read, everything's totally wrong. Then I exit the tab with the video, and a second or two later windows reverts to normal.

This happens:

  • Youtube
  • Twitch
  • Some games, particularly diablo 3 when I change display settings sometimes (then it will fix itself after an alt tab usually)

Sometimes it doesn't revert to normal even when I close stuff if I've left them open in the broken state for a long time. I usually have to sleep and then wake my pc or restart to get it back to normal (both work 100% of the time).

This has persisted after graphics driver updates and windows updates (before and after anniversary update). Anybody ever experienced something similar, or even just know what to search for? I've found people with a million other problems relating to brightness, video playback etc but none of them seem to be exactly what I'm experiencing.
 

Spladam

Member
Alright this is driving me mad and I can't even find people with this issue on google because I can't seem to describe it properly.

I plugged my Win 10 / 980ti system into my TV via HDMI, and I've started noticing a problem. I don't remember if it was there on my monitor via DisplayPort or not, but it might have been.

Basically, when I play games SOMETIMES and when I am watching videos SOMETIMES the colour settings on the tv fuckup drastically. Like contrast, sharpness, all that shit just goes mental, super bright, text is hard to read, everything's totally wrong. Then I exit the tab with the video, and a second or two later windows reverts to normal.

This happens:

  • Youtube
  • Twitch
  • Some games, particularly diablo 3 when I change display settings sometimes (then it will fix itself after an alt tab usually)

Sometimes it doesn't revert to normal even when I close stuff if I've left them open in the broken state for a long time. I usually have to sleep and then wake my pc or restart to get it back to normal (both work 100% of the time).

This has persisted after graphics driver updates and windows updates (before and after anniversary update). Anybody ever experienced something similar, or even just know what to search for? I've found people with a million other problems relating to brightness, video playback etc but none of them seem to be exactly what I'm experiencing.
There are a number of problems similar to this one using HDTV's which have not yet been completely homogenized to work as PC monitors, as they some times don't feed correct EDID info to the graphics driver, and this causes the GPU to send the wrong range of color signal.

I'll need the exact make and model of your TV, down to the long serial number that states the version (ex: Sony Bravia KDL-55EX710).

First, go into your NVIDIA control panel, navigating to &#8216;Display' &#8211; &#8216;Change resolution'. Make sure the GPU knows it's an HDTV and not a monitor, it should list it something like &#8216;Ultra HD, HD, SD' as "1080p, 1920 x 1080 (native)".
looks like this (ignore the DVI part on the side)
Ultra-HD-HD-SD-resolution-list.png

While we're at it, you might as well clean your graphics driver, as the driver for the NVIDIA driver has had some problems in the past with leaving residual errors in it. Download the latest driver and save it to a safe folder or your desktop, then download this program and use it to clean that old driver out, then run the installer for the new driver. This program is a godsend.

We might be able to fix this with a custom resolution, but we need your TV's exact specs. Try searching Google (it's what I'm going to do) using the exact model and "NVIDIA", "980Ti", "HDMI" and "Color" key words. Maybe throw the word "bug", "EDID" or "error" in there.
 

robox

Member
what i want to do: use an old router as a bridge (switch?) to provide access to a wired printer.

what i have:
- modem/router provided by internet company that's the main router
- a printer located in another location in the house that only has wired network connection
- a d-link router, about 2013 vintage, still on d-link firmware


right now i connect to the printer directly when i want to print. it's annoying

i'm thinking i want the router to mirror/repeat(?) the wifi network. do i need custom firmware for that? help with the config please
 
There are a number of problems similar to this one using HDTV's which have not yet been completely homogenized to work as PC monitors, as they some times don't feed correct EDID info to the graphics driver, and this causes the GPU to send the wrong range of color signal.

I'll need the exact make and model of your TV, down to the long serial number that states the version (ex: Sony Bravia KDL-55EX710).

First, go into your NVIDIA control panel, navigating to &#8216;Display' &#8211; &#8216;Change resolution'. Make sure the GPU knows it's an HDTV and not a monitor, it should list it something like &#8216;Ultra HD, HD, SD' as "1080p, 1920 x 1080 (native)".
looks like this (ignore the DVI part on the side)


While we're at it, you might as well clean your graphics driver, as the driver for the NVIDIA driver has had some problems in the past with leaving residual errors in it. Download the latest driver and save it to a safe folder or your desktop, then download this program and use it to clean that old driver out, then run the installer for the new driver. This program is a godsend.

We might be able to fix this with a custom resolution, but we need your TV's exact specs. Try searching Google (it's what I'm going to do) using the exact model and "NVIDIA", "980Ti", "HDMI" and "Color" key words. Maybe throw the word "bug", "EDID" or "error" in there.

Thank you for the detailed reply. The video card does seem to know it's an HDTV. Just now I tried fiddling with the Full/Limited/RGB/YYYwhatever settings on manual picture option, but none of them fixed this issue, so I reverted back to automatic.

As for my TV, it's this model according to the back of the TV:

http://www.sony.com.au/support/product/kdl-40w600b

KDL-40W600B. Non 3d, 40" Sony from ~2014, the Australian model.

I'll do a display driver uninstall/reinstall later on today when I've got some time, but thanks so far. I did some light googling and nothing came up, the serial number (Australian version) is too obscure I think. I also have this problem trying to find reviews for Australian TVs - everyone big on the net is using American or Euro versions which generally use different naming schemes.
 
You're gonna be ok, hope you learned a lesson here. Bios update is an exact science, and should not be taken lightly. It has to be the exact BIOS for that EXACT motherboard revision.

Open up the case, you may need a phillips screwdriver to do so, make sure it's a steel tipped screwdriver and not the magnetic type. Look at the motherboard and find the CMOS battery, search google tonight for what it looks like. It looks like a large watch battery, it's circular. Use the scredriver to pop it out.

Now the metal on the side is the negative lead and the bottom of the battery slot is the positive, take the screwdriver and connect the two using the end, this will short the positive to the negative, it will cause the CMOS to default to the factory BIOS.

Alternatively you can just leave the battery out for ten minutes, but on some machines this will reset some of the drivers to.
MAKE SURE THE POWER IS OFF AND THE CHORD IS REMOVED FROM THE BACK OF THE MACHINE.
Hope you get this post and get to work early tomorrow. Good luck.

I want to thank you again for being so helpful here and via PMs. You are the reason why this forum is so awesome.
When I arrived, my boss was already there and he just told me to go to a technician lol, but the fact that I explained to him how I could fix it, probably made him stay calm.
The method the technician used was a little different btw, he took out the BIOS chip, reprogrammed it and welded it back, That fixed it, and I installed and configured Windows Server there just fine, which is what I was originally trying to do.
 

Spladam

Member
Thank you for the detailed reply. The video card does seem to know it's an HDTV. Just now I tried fiddling with the Full/Limited/RGB/YYYwhatever settings on manual picture option, but none of them fixed this issue, so I reverted back to automatic.

As for my TV, it's this model according to the back of the TV:

http://www.sony.com.au/support/product/kdl-40w600b

KDL-40W600B. Non 3d, 40" Sony from ~2014, the Australian model.

I'll do a display driver uninstall/reinstall later on today when I've got some time, but thanks so far. I did some light googling and nothing came up, the serial number (Australian version) is too obscure I think. I also have this problem trying to find reviews for Australian TVs - everyone big on the net is using American or Euro versions which generally use different naming schemes.

No worries mate, and thanks for the info, so the specifications for your TV tell us it has a native 50Hz refresh rate, so let's try to go back to that "change resolution" screen and make sure the settings are matching that. I think 50Hz is the lowest NVIDIA control panel will allow you to set. It's worth a try.
-Edit: Actually the specifications also state it supports "1080/60p (HDMI / Component)", so it should work at 60Hz....

-Edit: Yeah, your right DefMutes, despite the memory of having seen something like this, possibly on Tom's Hardware, I can't find anything like your issue. Every fix (and there are dozens of thread about it) for NVIDIA > HDMI > HDTV is for the well known color range issue (what you were messing with earlier with the full/limited settings, which is an issue for consoles on some HDTVs). I'll ask around and see what I can find.
One other thing, any chance you have a second HDMI chord? That would also be an easy and quick troubleshooting step if you did.
I want to thank you again for being so helpful here and via PMs. You are the reason why this forum is so awesome.
When I arrived, my boss was already there and he just told me to go to a technician lol, but the fact that I explained to him how I could fix it, probably made him stay calm.
The method the technician used was a little different btw, he took out the BIOS chip, reprogrammed it and welded it back, That fixed it, and I installed and configured Windows Server there just fine, which is what I was originally trying to do.
Glad I could be of use.
Holy crap, he did WHAT?? Hahahaha, I think the tech guy might have gone out of his way to earn some bonus points, maybe some extra fees, or just appear to be irreplaceable, for which I say smart move. The fix I gave you works for almost every modern PC and server station, on old 8088's and early 8086's there was a jumper by the CMOS batter that you had to either remove or short with wire, same for some old style commercial grade server boards, but removing, externally flashing, and then re-soldering the BIOS is an extreme fix. A quick search of google will show you dozens of "reset my BIOS" articles, and none will suggest that.

Doesn't matter, glad you didn't get in trouble and it all worked out.
 

Spladam

Member
what i want to do: use an old router as a bridge (switch?) to provide access to a wired printer.

what i have:
- modem/router provided by internet company that's the main router
- a printer located in another location in the house that only has wired network connection
- a d-link router, about 2013 vintage, still on d-link firmware


right now i connect to the printer directly when i want to print. it's annoying

i'm thinking i want the router to mirror/repeat(?) the wifi network. do i need custom firmware for that? help with the config please

Sorry I forgot about your post robox. Yes, you can most likely use that old router as a repeater/ wifi extender. You will have to flash new firmware onto it, a process that you will have to be very careful about. This is what you're looking for, the amazing dd-wrt firmware, more specifically, you'll want to find your router on this page and flash the dd-wrt package SPECIFICALLY FOR YOUR ROUTER. Make sure you have the correct model and revision, and follow the directions carefully. Let me know if you need some help.

Sorry for the delayed response, I meant to come back to your post and got distracted.
 

Ultryx

Member
Hey all. Could use some help here. I have an MSI headset on my PC that I use for Skype when I'm playing games. Whenever there's something loud going on in my game or I yell or get loud my microphone audio to the receiver's end is cut out. My friend describes it as cutting in and out so only small parts of what I say can be heard. This can be remedied by unplugging and plugging in the headset again.

OS : Windows 10

I have tried connecting the headset with the audio and mic jack and through my USB. It happens on both.

Is there some audio setting I'm missing here? I didn't used to have this issue.
 

Kadin

Member
Hey all. Could use some help here. I have an MSI headset on my PC that I use for Skype when I'm playing games. Whenever there's something loud going on in my game or I yell or get loud my microphone audio to the receiver's end is cut out. My friend describes it as cutting in and out so only small parts of what I say can be heard. This can be remedied by unplugging and plugging in the headset again.

OS : Windows 10

I have tried connecting the headset with the audio and mic jack and through my USB. It happens on both.

Is there some audio setting I'm missing here? I didn't used to have this issue.
I had a similar issue and I want to say it had to do within the settings below, specifically the Exclusive Mode settings. I don't remember the exact fix but I'd look into the various things you can change within these tabs on the right. You can get here by right clicking on the sound icon in the system tray and selecting, Recording Devices, then right clicking the microphone and going to Properties.

It also can be Skype itself trying to take control of the microphone and adjusting as it thinks it should. So check within those settings as well.

 

Ultryx

Member
I had a similar issue and I want to say it had to do within the settings below, specifically the Exclusive Mode settings. I don't remember the exact fix but I'd look into the various things you can change within these tabs on the right. You can get here by right clicking on the sound icon in the system tray and selecting, Recording Devices, then right clicking the microphone and going to Properties.

It also can be Skype itself trying to take control of the microphone and adjusting as it thinks it should. So check within those settings as well.

Hey thanks for the reply. I have tried both settings on Skype: the control microphone volume automatically and the option to max it out or control it. I've tried changing the sound settings for the microphone also and checked and unchecked both of those boxes that you have selected in the screenshot.

Edit: I'm so fed up with it that I'm about to go to my local store and pick up another headset just to test.
 

Kadin

Member
Hey thanks for the reply. I have tried both settings on Skype: the control microphone volume automatically and the option to max it out or control it. I've tried changing the sound settings for the microphone also and checked and unchecked both of those boxes that you have selected in the screenshot.

Edit: I'm so fed up with it that I'm about to go to my local store and pick up another headset just to test.
This still happens with my group when we play PUBG. Sometimes I think it's more internet related because some of them can't seem to get it fixed either. What is your upload speed from your ISP? Like you said, it only happens to them when stuff gets really intense and a lot of stuff is going on.

Also, have you tried another program like Discord. We all switched from Skype to Discord and this doesn't seem to happen as much.
 

LuffyZoro

Member
I just started having a problem. I have a R9 290,a i5 4570 and 8GB of RAM, so normally I can play Overwatch on ultra with 100+ fps. Now though, every couple of seconds I'm dropping down to ~15 fps. Looking at 3DMark I get a score of ~3500 when it should be about 11000. I've checked all of my temperatures and none of them are going above 70C under load, so I'm lost for what to do. I've checked for new graphics drivers, unplugged and replugged my GPU, and reinstalled Windows just in case, but no dice.

After so much fiddling with voltages and clock speeds, I figured out something that apparently works - switch from borderless windowed to fullscreen. I don't even know anymore.
 

pbsapeer

Banned
Hi guys / girls.

I'm putting together a unit for my tv with my consoles underneath and looking for advice. I have 3 HDMI ports on my tv but want to hook everything up using a splitter. I have a Wii u, PS4, nes mini, switch, youview box and firestick to connect. I've tried a splitter previously (no external power cable) and the PS4 would just flicker. I later found out connecting the PS4 via a splitter requires the powered hdmi splitter so sent it back.
I'm thinking:

HDMI 1 -> PS4
HDMI 2 -> splitter w/ youview wii u switch and nes mini connected
HDMI 3 -> firestick.

My question is does anyone know if these consoles require the same powered hdmi splitter as the PS4? I've found stuff that says no but nothing 100%. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks
 

Ultryx

Member
This still happens with my group when we play PUBG. Sometimes I think it's more internet related because some of them can't seem to get it fixed either. What is your upload speed from your ISP? Like you said, it only happens to them when stuff gets really intense and a lot of stuff is going on.

Also, have you tried another program like Discord. We all switched from Skype to Discord and this doesn't seem to happen as much.

This occurs when I'm playing single player games also. For example, I was playing Dark Souls III last night and go into a boss fight. When the boss is screaming/yelling and thrashing around it seems to affect the audio a little, but not as bad as when I get loud or yell. That's when it's the worst. It's like my headset has a freaking decibel limiter haha.

I have Discord downloaded, but haven't used it yet. We'll eventually migrate over to it but at this point I want to see if this is a settings issue or a hardware issue with the headset itself. I got a new headset from a local store so we'll see how it goes in a little bit.
 

Kadin

Member
This occurs when I'm playing single player games also. For example, I was playing Dark Souls III last night and go into a boss fight. When the boss is screaming/yelling and thrashing around it seems to affect the audio a little, but not as bad as when I get loud or yell. That's when it's the worst. It's like my headset has a freaking decibel limiter haha.

I have Discord downloaded, but haven't used it yet. We'll eventually migrate over to it but at this point I want to see if this is a settings issue or a hardware issue with the headset itself. I got a new headset from a local store so we'll see how it goes in a little bit.
Gotcha, so yeah it might not be internet related at all. Curious to see what your findings are, good luck.
 

Spladam

Member
This occurs when I'm playing single player games also. For example, I was playing Dark Souls III last night and go into a boss fight. When the boss is screaming/yelling and thrashing around it seems to affect the audio a little, but not as bad as when I get loud or yell. That's when it's the worst. It's like my headset has a freaking decibel limiter haha.

I have Discord downloaded, but haven't used it yet. We'll eventually migrate over to it but at this point I want to see if this is a settings issue or a hardware issue with the headset itself. I got a new headset from a local store so we'll see how it goes in a little bit.

This is what my first thought was, that there was some kind of loudness limiter on the headset mic, which would cap audio signal above a certain amplitude. Some fancier software just use compression, which flattens the tops of the wave forms to limit the loudness. Check the settings in the mics native software for something like this.
 
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