The 'Help! My computer stuffed up!' thread

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

I'm returning a couple of Addonics Snap-In Mobile Racks because the fans sound like a plane taking off. But I've noticed the one I'm keeping makes some buzzing too. Can you lubricate a fan like that? Would WD40 do it or is there something better?

[Vindik8or]

Don't use an organic oil, it will go rancid.

[Surgeon.]

Been meaning to remove all the dust from my PC for some time and finally got around to getting a can of compressed air today.

So, is there any particular way to go about it or do I just go for it?

[Lazlow]

Don't use a hair dryer

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

Make sure to hook a car battery up to a metal part of your case, and crank that shit right up.

[Surgeon.]

Does anyone use Spybot S&D or Spyware Blaster?

Both seem to now be refusing to update, and I can't access the Spybot homepage. Curious to see if anyone has the same problem.

[buckstwits]

Spybot updated fine when I did it yesterday.

[Vindik8or]

So I've been messing around with my modem's port forwarding to try and stop Monster Hunter Tri from being a shitstick online and then after one update my router is reporting that it is not connected to the internet. This is both through the router's web interface and the blinking lights on the router. And yet I'm posting this. For a few minutes I couldn't access some websites, like this one, but others where fine.

EDIT: New information. The other computer cannot access the internet. My iPhone has a wireless connection. Goddamnit I hate the internet.

EDIT: Now messenger won't connect (after it has been connected), some webpages are having issues.

[Pai Mel]

I just set my Wii on demilitarised zone. It's not like hackers can hack my Wii and retrieve personal data and such.

[Vindik8or]

I don't even know what that means.

[Pai Mel]

Google it. It is a router setting which assigns a certain IP address basically an open gate (both ways) to the internet.

[Vindik8or]

That hardly fixes the fact that my router is shitting itself.

EDIT: Weeeelll. Seems like it hated the new port forwarding setting. Deleting that fixed up the connection. Maybe I can set up a demilitarised zone.

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

in your pants!

[Slurry Murray]

Well, if you want just anybody to get in there.

Do it. Short term gain, long term pain (potentially). But short term gain.

[Ad-Rock]

So... There was a "mishap" and my laptop screen is broken?

I'm removing all my valuable things from the computer via a secondary monitor. I know it will be fairly expensive to replace the monitor and the laptop is now three years old... Should I just buy a $500 one to replace it? Or would it be cheaper to get the monitor replaced? It's a public holiday so I can't take it to the guys I bought it from until tomorrow to do a price check.

[TAT]

Mate, if your lappy is 3 years old I can guarantee you can get a brand new one with better specs for $500

[Ad-Rock]

Mate, if your lappy is 3 years old I can guarantee you can get a brand new one with better specs for $500

Yeah I figured so... I don't need a good one, just one for uni work. I'm getting a new PC when the "Sandy Bridge" processors come out so gaming isn't really a requirement. Thanks :)

[TrinityJayOne]

That hardly fixes the fact that my router is shitting itself.

EDIT: Weeeelll. Seems like it hated the new port forwarding setting. Deleting that fixed up the connection. Maybe I can set up a demilitarised zone.
A bit late but be careful doing that. No, it won't harm your consoles because they aren't worth hacking, but at the same time rerouting ALL anonymous requests to a certain IP is going to make things like BitTorrent & online gaming not work very well (or at all) on every other device.

[Cerebral]

Because there is no 'help my phone stuffed up' thread, can anyone tell me if using a SIM card that is easily 5+ years old would prevent me from connecting to a 3G service? I used to get 2G internet on my old phone that I never used, and I'm trying to get mobile internet working on my current phone and it tells me that my APN setting is incorrect despite me using every setting for Optus/TPG I could find, including those found at http://ausdroid.net/apns/. fwiw, I can recieve mmses no problems, and my current plan makes allowances for data usage (0.02c per 10Kb...turns out that's pretty good).

If so, will TPG straight up give me a new SIM if I ask for one (or charge me $20 or w/e)?

[Cerebral]

Studied telecommunications at Uni and I can't get internet on my ****ing phone. My life is an abyss.

[Clockw0rk]

Just finished building my flatmate's new PC. Plugged it in, switched PSU on, pressed power button, PC powered up for 2 seconds then died. I tried re-seating a bunch of stuff and tried again, same problem.

I then switched the PSU on and left it on for ~30 seconds, the computer booted and ran fine and has been running fine for the last half hour.

I'm guessing that was the only thing I did wrong? Any advice?

[Italian Stallion]

Did you unplug it as soon as it turned off first time around? New motherboards have this strange tendency to turn on then off for a few seconds then back on again during first boot, as well as when you change BIOS settings etc. I don't know if this is true for all manufacturers, but Gigabyte definitely do it.

[Clockw0rk]

It's a Gigabyte motherboard, maybe that was it. We let it do it once or twice each time (and about four times the first time) before just leaving the PSU to charge up.

No issues since, though the case is all in bits. Hopefully it won't break again when I put the case back together.

[TAT]

Damo is right. It's almost like it powers on so it can power off and reset its BIOS values according to CMOS or something. Totally normal.

[Clockw0rk]

Ah. Maybe switching it on and off at the PSU was a bad idea then... I should read manuals more. Anyway it's running fine now, all driver'd up and just had its first game of SC2.

[TrinityJayOne]

Did you unplug it as soon as it turned off first time around? New motherboards have this strange tendency to turn on then off for a few seconds then back on again during first boot, as well as when you change BIOS settings etc. I don't know if this is true for all manufacturers, but Gigabyte definitely do it.
Mine does that too! When I first built it it was doing that, and it also seems to do it on first boot if the power goes out.

[TAT]

My brothers new pc, also gigabyte, did something similar on first boot but he has this problem where if the pc goes into sleep mode he can't wake it back up...
Sleep mode seems to have a lot of problems on a range of PCs. I personally never use it.


In other news, I have a new set of cheapy 2.1 speakers that I don't really need because my 2.0 yamaha speakers are awesome, but I can't help to think that I could put them to use somehow.

What would be the best way to plug them into the pc? I can just piggyback them off my current speakers but can I get the sub working on the sub channel and possibly the speakers as rear? afaik the speakers plug into the sub which drives them and the sub connects to the pc.
Is there any harm in using them as rear speakers when piggybacked?
Does your mobo use Realtek for audio?
If not, what does your audio control panel say when they're all plugged in?

[StorminNorman]

Got a new laser printer yesterday (the HP Laserjet 1025). It's a really awesome printer, but we discovered a strange problem with it:

It doesn't seem to want to print barcodes. Adeline went to print her boarding pass for a flight to Malaysia, and the page came out perfectly except that all the places where barcodes should be were blank.

Our other printer (a dodgy Lexmark MFC) printed the barcodes fine.

Anyone know what's going on? Is there some deep conspiracy that prevents me from printing barcodes, or is it just some bizarre glitch?

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

Something about print head alignment?

Those test patterns kinda look like barcodes!

[StorminNorman]

So it only occurs when printing from a Mac. :/

[Pai Mel]

Hai, I noticed a similar problem when printing clickandsend address labels from a Xerox laser printer. Instead of the funny barcode for the postage paid stamp, it printed just solid black square.
I was in a rush so I just reprinted from a different application, Photoshop instead of Preview, and it printed fine.

[Vindik8or]

You could get a GTX560 Ti Twin Frozr OC from MSI for cheaper than a GTX470 (and I assume 6870), and it performs better than both.

[Lex]

Slightly more espensive than both. Slightly.

****ing videocards, I started out looking for a sub-$200 upgrade, and have now justified $300 to myself.

I do need the upgrade though :(

[Vindik8or]

Where are you getting your pricing from?

[Lex]

pccasegear.

[Vindik8or]

Use staticice.com.au to get good price comparisons.

[Lex]

I have been, but for the most part pccasegear have the best prices.

[Vindik8or]

My brand new external HDD for my brand new computer has started constantly disconnecting and reconnecting. What do?

[Rambo]

Make sure the power supply is in fully, I know it sounds stupid but it's happened to me before.

Otherwise, have you tried another USB port?

[TrinityJayOne]

One of the heatsink clips on Theiffy's CPU has broken somehow and the resulting seal isn't strong enough to stop it overheating. This is a pretty old PC so I'd prefer not to buy an aftermarket cooler as it'd be a waste. All my old PCs were AMDs with completely different brackets, and the stock Intel one I got with this PC is ever so slightly too big. Is it possible to pull the two parts of the clip apart without breaking them so that I could just swap out the broken one?

[Second]

Complete the seal with semen.

[TrinityJayOne]

Crisis averted! Managed to get the broken clip to lock in, so as long as there's no major bumps it should hold.

[Watchers]

Think my video card is dead. Playing DAII, it did the purple-green thing before locking. Rebooted, started playing again, same deal. I could do some light browsing and stuff, no problem. Tried Fallout 3, it just locked up. Updated the drivers, ran DAII again, crash, now I can't even get into Windows. Goes through up until login, then the system just reboots itself. Anything that could be causing it that's fixable, or is it just dead? It's a 4-5 year old 8800GTS if that makes a difference.

[TrinityJayOne]

100 times out of 10 if you're crashing when you try to do anything intensive, and/or crashes start happening with increasing frequency the more you keep trying to do stuff, you have an overheating problem.

Shut it down and let it cool for a bit (5mins should do), then download HWMonitor (http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor-pro/versions-history.html) and check the temps. If you can't get into Windows at all, try leaving it to cool longer, or check the temps in the BIOS instead.

[Silverwolf]

Think my video card is dead. Playing DAII, it did the purple-green thing before locking. Rebooted, started playing again, same deal. I could do some light browsing and stuff, no problem. Tried Fallout 3, it just locked up. Updated the drivers, ran DAII again, crash, now I can't even get into Windows. Goes through up until login, then the system just reboots itself. Anything that could be causing it that's fixable, or is it just dead? It's a 4-5 year old 8800GTS if that makes a difference.

512mb or 320mb version? If its 320mb is possible it could be dying, my old 8800GTS 320mb I put in my friend's PC died recently.

Of course, make sure its not overheating like Trin said. Dust blah blah etc. If you've got onboard video test it with that.

[Watchers]

TAT gave me an old one of his video cards, so I shoved that in and things seem to be working fine atm. <3 to TAT Slightly more powerful than my old one, just had to install ATI drivers after booting.

[Watchers]

Weird thing is, Windows XP recognizes the new hardware, but needs a driver in the .inf format. Not knowing what to do, I installed the ATI drivers as I normally would. Everything seems to be working, but Windows will still detect new hardware and ask me if it can find drivers for it, such that it is still an 'unknown device' in Device Manager. There are .inf files in the ATI folder, but if I try to select these, it gives me a stern warning telling me it doesn't recommend I do this. I am confuse.

NVM, fixed. Turns out the ATI cards have some sort of HD on board audio, and that is a separate driver. Done and done.

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

Windows XP

I have isolated your problem.

[Watchers]

Blake, please send me some fat moneys to completely overhaul my system to run Windows 7. In exchange, I offer you pep.

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

Here's two:

http://www.hahastop.com/pictures/Fat_Monkey.jpg

http://images.paraorkut.com/img/funnypics/images/m/monkey_wearing_clothes-11981.jpg

Good luck!

[Watchers]

They don't look like they'd be very good works imo.

[TrinityJayOne]

So my Windows Explorer is crashing nearly every time I open up my video library, usually within 1-2secs. I'm assuming it's something to do with video thumbnails + codecs, because I don't remember having the problem before I updated the latter. I've only ever used K-lite or CCC packs, but I have NFI whether this update went from one to the other or if I have both or what. I have 1,257 files in my library of all different formats so finding out what combo causes the crashes isn't viable.

How do I completely wipe all codecs, and which ones to install? Running W7.

[Italian Stallion]

Just uninstall them both through Control Panel? :p It should get rid of everything..

I've always found K-lite to be mega bloated, and I recall having some issues with CCCP. I've had Shark's Codecs installed since my last windows installation and it's worked well.

[TrinityJayOne]

Website is very amateur. >_> No crashes so far, but programs are going weird. Some files play in WMP with no sound, nothing has video in VLC, everything works fine in MPC.

[Italian Stallion]

I'll give you that much, the website's not the best. :P I think it is more or less made to work with MPC, so I guess that would explain that.. but my WMP works fine with everything I've thrown at it, too. Open the settings thingo as admin, and set it to use recommended settings.

I can't see why it would screw around with VLC though? Doesn't that use it's own internal filters & codecs exclusively?

Also, there's a version of MPC on their website which is made to run even better!

[TrinityJayOne]

Changing to recommended settings was the first thing I did. Just it specifically said it would make EVERYTHING play in WMP and that I wouldn't need anything else, and the first file I tried to play proved that wrong. :P I'll have a fiddle with it tonight.

[HD Boy]

Can't play certain youtube videos, it comes up with a play button, once I hit it it just loads. Others work, I think it's anything with 720p & 1080p. Here's a screen cap.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v615/xinxsx/you.jpg

Why is this?

[TrinityJayOne]

Wait, "Sytadel"?

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

Busted!

[HD Boy]

A name I made up for youtube, anyone have any idea why I cannot play these videos?

[Bob the Destroyer]

What browser are you using?

[TrinityJayOne]

A name I made up for youtube, anyone have any idea why I cannot play these videos?
Forum poster Sytadel will not be impressed!

Also, no idea. The video in question works fine for me. It's all just flash, so I have no idea why one file size would work but another doesn't. Codecs etc don't come into it.

EDIT: Hang on, are you saying that any video with a HD option won't work, or just when you try to view the HD version? Is this an ongoing issue or something new? Sometimes certain videos will work for me and others not for a brief period, but that's due to server downtime on Youtube's part.

[HD Boy]

Chrome, had some really annoying issues with videos crashing which I've sorted out. However, I have no idea why certain videos aren't working now? I've never seen a video with that play button on it either. Very strange.

[Kotche]

chrome? use IE mate, it's the best internet browser on the internet.

ever.

[TrinityJayOne]

Well, I solved my torrenting and/or internet issues.

Basically μTorrent was crippling my internet, regardless of how few torrents I had running or what bandwidth limits I imposed. Contrary to popular belief this should NOT be the norm (when correctly configured), as back in the day I could have Azureus running at full steam and not see any adverse effects in games. I read that DHT & peer exchange could be the culprits of spamming up the routing table, but even with those turned off the router was showing a very large number of active connections (with just one torrent there was hundreds), so the finger of blame was pointed squarely at μTorrent. I've now switched to Tixati, and with the same peer restrictions & settings the router is registering less than half the active connections, even with DHT and peer exchange enabled. I just had it downloading at 900+Kb/sec and could play online games without issue.

Also, that shark codec pack has introduced a small but still noticable amount of audio de-syncedness into files that were fine before. Curse you, Damo! Might have to look into some alternatives.

[Silverwolf]

Also, that shark codec pack has introduced a small but still noticable amount of audio de-syncedness into files that were fine before. Curse you, Damo! Might have to look into some alternatives.

Have you used CCCP with MPC-HC? (they come together)

If not, google it. Flawless media player/codec pack in my experience.
If so, disregard.

[TrinityJayOne]

I used to have it at one point, dunno if that was the one that made W7 keep crashing or not. I only ever updated codecs when I found a file I couldn't play, and I just downloaded whatever pack was newer regardless of what I already had installed. >_>

[Silverwolf]

Never had any CCCP related crash issues myself.

Video possibly just hates you.

[TrinityJayOne]

That damn Shark codec pack started causing the crash issues just now with a new file. I looked it up and it's caused by Windows trying to render the thumbnail when it can't find the right codec. In this scenario it decides to load the whole file, crashing Explorer. Got a new version of K-lite that released today and all is well.

[Silverwolf]

K-lite sucks, cause it isn't CCCP.

[Ad-Rock]

So my computer just gave me message that my 4 day old hard disk is probably failing and that I should shut down my computer after backing up and contact a technician or the manufacturer.

Should I believe what it's telling me? Is there anyway I can test whether or not it's failing?

[Kotche]

What's telling you that? Sounds like those fake virus' people get

[Ad-Rock]

A microsoft windows window opened when I brought the computer out of stand by and while I was running a virus scan. Apart from it being out of the blue it all looks legit. I've downloaded a diagnostics kit from the samsung website so hopefully that will confirm/deny.

I'd be surprised if it was a virus; I've only downloaded a game from steam and windows/driver updates.

[TrinityJayOne]

If the drive is new do you even have anything on it yet? If you don't have Windows system files on it, let Scandisk check it out for starters. Go to My Computer -> select drive in question -> right click -> properties -> "Tools" tab, then click the error-checking button. Make sure both boxes are checked on the popup. If it asks to dismount the drive it's basically going to (virtually) unplug it, so save anything you have open from it.

PS- This could take a looooong time on a big drive.

[Ad-Rock]

Yeah it's got windows and a few games on it... Going to run the samsung diagnostics tool when I can find a blank CD to burn it to.

The drive is making a bunch of weird sounds and seems to be much slower in accessing files... Don't think that's a good sign.

Looks like Samsung is going on my Blacklist.

[Kotche]

least it will be under warranty regardless

[Ad-Rock]

Well I ran Samsungs diagnostic tool, estools, overnight. It didn't find any problems with the HDD. I guess I'll keep using the computer until I notice a distinct drop off in function or the HDD bites the dust.

[Ad-Rock]

Is it normal for a Samsung SpinPoint F3 to be noisy when it's being accessed. I don't remember it making making alot of noise prior to the "incident"...

[Clift]

My F3 has been whisper quiet in the time I've owned it.

[TrinityJayOne]

I have 2 and they haven't made a peep.

[Ad-Rock]

Well I've been doing a bit more research and it isn't the 'click of death'. I've heard other hard drives make the same sort of grinding/clicking noises. Going to try a few more things when I get home from work and run a few more tests.

Edit: Judging by the number of forum topics out there it seems as if this isn't that uncommon... I'll contact Samsung and see what they have to say, but I think that because estools gave the all clear they'll say there is nothing impairing its function and I just have to put up with the noise. I might buy a second one to use as my system drive and keep the noisy one as a storage drive.

[Lex]

F3's are disgustingly loud if you put them in a shitty case that resonates like a mother****er. Apart from that they're usually quiet.

[Ad-Rock]

Yeah it is in an Antec 300, which is completely perforated and where it's just screwed into a metal bracket. I am going to take it outside of the case to see whether that could be exacerbating problem.

[Ad-Rock]

Update:

So I held the HDD and started up my computer. I could feel it vibrating and hear it only if I put my ear up close. Put it back in to a different bracket and it was noisy again, but not quite as noisy as before.

That pretty much explains the noise, apart from why it got gradually louder. Maybe the case was just being broken in before..?

Not sure about the error message, maybe it Windows was just having a bad day. I'll back it up consistently and keep an eye on performance troubles. It should still be under warranty for a few months.

[Slippery]

My phone not my computer, not sure where else to post it.

My HTC Desire has intermittent problems where when I touch the screen it thinks I'm touching the very top, like I'm trying to drag down the notification bar. Sometimes it seems like it doesn't register touch at all, but that might be because it's a situation where there is nothing at the top.

Seems to go away when I lock and unlock the phone (that button at the top). Anyone heard of a fix for this? I bought it from the UK so sending it back would take ages (and it's been close to a year).

[Azzaman]

Without starting a new thread; my kid's managed to destroy his second DS. He did take it to the beach once (well away from the water though) so I suspect water damage, which ninty wont cover. Does anyone have any experience getting into the circuit boards etc? If I were to open up the case could I give it a clean and get it running, or would it be proper ******ed?

[TrinityJayOne]

Nintendo seem like the type of company that'd be using non-standard screws, like Torx or some proprietary geometric design. But even if you can get it open and it hasn't been turned on, your chances of it working would be slim I'd say.

[Ad-Rock]

My friends and I have had our phones stop working from water damage and got them working again.

Pulling it in to as many pieces as you can and sitting it in the sun to dry out can work. My mate put is phone in the washing machine, so he followed it up by drying it in the dryer, and surprisingly it worked.

[Azzaman]

I have another one for ya, for the last few weeks my pc has been booting up strangely. Basically when I turn it on the system will power up for about 1 or 2 secs, then turn itself off. Then it will turn on again and boot correctly (without me having to do anything). I'm assuming my PSU is on the way out, as the pc doesn't even have time to get to any sort of OS before resetting itself.

Time for a new PSU?

[Vicious]

I have another one for ya, for the last few weeks my pc has been booting up strangely. Basically when I turn it on the system will power up for about 1 or 2 secs, then turn itself off. Then it will turn on again and boot correctly (without me having to do anything). I'm assuming my PSU is on the way out, as the pc doesn't even have time to get to any sort of OS before resetting itself.

Time for a new PSU?

So this is new behavior? Mine does the same thing, but it's done it ever since it was built and overclocked. Have you checked the bios to make sure everything's booting properly, including RAM at the proper speed?

[Azzaman]

I did have it OC'ed, but I used the utility that came with my mobo and is actually in the bios (sort of a OC for dummies, 3 big buttons, slow, normal or fast ;)) Just changed that back to normal with no change.

How do I tell if my RAM is going at it's proper speed? Would the mobo auto-detect it? I haven't changed any settings manually.

[Vicious]

I did have it OC'ed, but I used the utility that came with my mobo and is actually in the bios (sort of a OC for dummies, 3 big buttons, slow, normal or fast ;)) Just changed that back to normal with no change.

How do I tell if my RAM is going at it's proper speed? Would the mobo auto-detect it? I haven't changed any settings manually.

Usually it will tell you the speed in the post message or in the bios itself - which model motherboard are you using? Also check all of the voltages, and consider running a memtest if you can. Lastly, have you updated your bios recently? If not it's worth checking if there's an update.


Still, you're definitely not the only person that's had this happen (see here) (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/289219-31-computer-shuts-boot-starts-back-fine). Personally mine's done it since day one and I've had it for well over three years.

[Azzaman]

Ran memtest overnight and it got to 700% with no errors.

EDIT: booted up the pc today and it loaded up without resetting. Hopefully this trend continues...

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

Middle clicking has stopped opening links in new tabs in firefox.

Also control clicking isn't doing it either.

What be broke?!

[dinopoke]

Tried restarting Firefox?

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

Are you asking if I turned it off and back on again?

[TrinityJayOne]

Tried downloading Opera (www.opera.com)?

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

Yes, but I got a warning from NOD32 about installing Super AIDS.



The button seems fine since it will still bring up the auto-scroll button, and I have restarted the PC.

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

Hmm, middle click will still open items from my bookmark bar in a background tab.

I have nfi.

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

Apparently it was a compatibility issue with the last version of Greasemonkey and TabMixPlus. All fixed.

[Pai Mel]

My last resort for a non-booting PC is finding that tiny button next to the CMOS battery and pressing it. It clears the CMOS memory for the BIOS and returns the mobo to factory default. Some mobos use jumper-pin settings to clear the CMOS instead of a button. If you don't know which method your mobo uses to clear the CMOS, just take out the small CMOS battery for several seconds and completely unplug the PC from the mains.

But first I try other things, like unplugging all USB devices. Sometimes just having a printer, or the USB hub on my Dell monitor connected will prevent the PC from booting up.

To avoid all this hassle though, I just run the PC 24 hours and only reboot when I absolutely have to, like when the PC seems to feel sluggish. My Asus mobo has always had wake from sleep issues so I never let it go to sleep.

[ley-cyrus]

http://www.webcam-steamate.com/cookies/37/b/happy.gif

Steven Paul Jobs (/ˈdʒɒbz/; February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution.[4][5] He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Jobs was co-founder and previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney.

In the late 1970s, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak engineered one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. Jobs directed its aesthetic design and marketing along with A.C. "Mike" Markkula, Jr. and others.

In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Apple Lisa (engineered by Ken Rothmuller and John Couch) and, one year later, of Apple employee Jef Raskin's Macintosh. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs left Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets.

In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd, which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios.[6] He was credited in Toy Story (1995) as an executive producer. He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1 percent until its acquisition by The Walt Disney Company in 2006,[7] making Jobs Disney's largest individual shareholder at seven percent and a member of Disney's Board of Directors.[8][9] Apple's 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he served as its interim CEO from 1997, then becoming permanent CEO from 2000, onwards, spearheading the advent of the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and iPad.[10] In buying NeXT, Apple also "acquire[d] the operating system that became Mac OS X."[11] From 2003, Jobs fought an eight-year battle with cancer,[12] and eventually resigned as CEO in August 2011, while on his third medical leave. He was then elected chairman of Apple's board of directors.

On October 5, 2011, around 3:00 p.m., Jobs died at his home in Palo Alto, California, aged 56, six weeks after resigning as CEO of Apple. A copy of his death certificate indicated respiratory arrest as the immediate cause of death, with "metastatic pancreas neuroendocrine tumor" as the underlying cause. His occupation was listed as "entrepreneur" in the "high tech" business.

[TrinityJayOne]

Just put together a new PC for my partner tonight, having issues booting. At first had nothing, blank screen, no POST beeps, etc, figured RAM issue as that's what happened when I did my own PC. Took the RAM out all together, got a RAM error at POST. Reseated it about 5 times with both one stick and two, no beeps and nothing on screen again. Put RAM into opposite slots of what motherboard says, problem solved first go. *shrug*

Now when it boots it gets as far as the Windows splash screen, then the instant it disappears the system reboots. It's somehow overheating as the CPU is reading 57° as soon as I'm able to get into the BIOS (about 10sec after it reboots), and then it very slowly cools down to 44°, probably after about 2mins.

The CPU is an i5 2500K, straight out of the box at stock 3.3GHz with the stock heatsink, all overclocking features of the mobo disabled. I didn't put any thermal paste on the heatsink when I installed it, I figured the stuff Intel put on there would be sufficient if you're not overclocking. Was I wrong? I'm positive the heatsink is seated correctly, all the legs clicked into place and it's not loose at all. Halps!

[Italian Stallion]

Updated the BIOS? Probably the first thing to do if not.

High BIOS temps are normal - CPU runs at 100% in BIOS, in Windows it's scaled down. Does seem a bit odd that it comes down to 44 though.. have you tried booting into BIOS without letting Windows boot first, to check temps for comparison?

The stock heatsink & thermal paste should be more than adequate.. they wouldn't supply it if that was a potential issue.

Swapping RAM around to make it boot seems strange as well.. maybe there's more problems with that than you're giving it credit for. Don't happen to have some spare DDR3 around to test? I've had similar issues with faulty (or apparently, incompatible RAM).. swapping sticks would make it boot, then it would crash, etc.

Could also be a bad Windows install or a corrupt HDD?

[TrinityJayOne]

Haven't updated the BIOS but that's going to be difficult anyway as the old CD drive can't be plugged in, this mobo doesn't have an IDE port. The BIOS screen says the build is dated Nov 2011 anyway.

Anyhoo, I took off the heatsink lastnight and the thermal paste looks like it had barely touched the CPU at all (and it's applied in thick strips). Put the heatsink on again and wiggled it around a bit first to spread the paste, all 4 legs definitely clicked in but it still won't boot to Windows. Temps are better now, idling at 33° in BIOS and is at 37° after a crash. The temperature may just be the first problem though, because now it's crashing with a BSOD that flashes too quickly to read. I do have some other RAM though, mine. They're both identical in terms of base stats from what I can see, only hers is the Trident series as mine is Ripjaws. I'll try swapping it over, and I'm positive I have a bootable flashdrive with a RAM checker on it somewhere too.

[TrinityJayOne]

RAM swap has done nothing, but I've seated it in the slots that the manual says to and now it's working. This mobo has static clips on one end that I'm not used to so it's possible I wasn't doing it right before.

Moving along, I recorded video of the screen while it was booting then reviewed it frame by frame to catch the error. :D It suggested running Chkdsk on the F drive. Previously the F drive was one of my Samsung 1TB Spinpoint drives I temporarily had in there (those ones that were going for like $60 at one point) and Windows was installed on C drive (an old WD 320GB), but I don't know if plugging them into different SATA ports gives different default drive letters or not, or perhaps the message to check F is just generic. Regardless, the case is still the old one so that particular HDD hasn't even moved. Not sure how it could've become damaged all of a sudden. I might just plug in my own CD drive and reinstall XP on the new drive for now.

[TrinityJayOne]

Well that wasn't the problem. I plugged in my CD drive and booted from the Windows XP disc. Everything goes along fine until it tries to start Windows, and then I get the same error as before, so it's not that. The CPU still seems hot to me but I checked the heatsink again and the thermal paste is spread out perfectly.

Currently running Memtest to make sure it's not dodgy RAM, but if it turns out ok I'm out of ideas.

[TrinityJayOne]

Fixed! The SATA connections were set to AHCI and the PC is still running XP for now. I changed it to the legacy mode and now it works fine.

[Vindik8or]

XP? How vulgar.

[TrinityJayOne]

I'm updating it to W7 as soon as it gets here (completely forgot to put it in with the original order).

[FX-GTZ]

I nearly ran into a whole heap of virus and malware trouble earlier. Some website I had been to had hidden malware in their ad's and one of them called My Security Shield had fake installed itself. The funny thing is the borders on the programs window were windows XP themed, I'm on vista.

[Dunkurtin]

My PSU shat itself today. Don't have a spare to test if it took anything else with it. Dont want to go buy another to find the pc is still useless. I just spent a grand upgrading everything else a month ago too...

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

Then it might be time to start repurchasing components!

I'd start with a PSU.

[Dunkurtin]

Think my computer may be overheating after replacing my PSU. I hope that's all it is. Whenever playing a higher stress game it just suddenly powers off after about an hour. Was playing a possibly not quiet legitimate version of Anno 2070 when it first started. Thought at first it was something to do with that so i did a system restore. But its still happening when I play Skyrim. =[

[Vindik8or]

Don't guess, get CPU-Z and/or GPU-Z and be certain.

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

Glad you took my advice.