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Author Topic: The Epic Fail'puter Saga  (Read 1074 times)

DarkStar

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The Epic Fail'puter Saga
« on: September 03, 2010, 09:37:46 am »

So the saga starts with my Windows XP desktop suffering a major heart attack after a week or so of unresolved virus problems. The computer at this stage now fails to boot into anything. Safe Mode, Recovery Console, anything. I write the hard drive off and switch to a new hd, a formerly external hard drive that I extracted from its casing after the usb connection cables failed.

Only problem now is that I have no way to install a new OS, the computer was second hand anyway and came with no installation CD. Fast forward a week and a half, filled with sugar and awesome food fueled antics in a field in Derbyshire and we get to tuesday. My laptop has just been recovered from the Tech Guys at PC World with a brand spanking new power cable.

I also purchase myself a Windows 7 Home Premium installation CD (32 and 64 bit versions both included) and set about installing Windows 7 onto my internal-external HD. It works, I have an operational OS, for about 5 minutes. It seemed to be the case that whenever the computer wanted to save power and switch of the monitor, the computer froze and would not accept any input of any kind. Easily enough quick-fixed, switch off the power saving options in the control panel. Done!

But not so easily is the problem banished. Safe to say I updated my graphics card (nVidea GeForce 9500 GT) driver (twice!!), installed DirectX 10 and 9 to be on the safe side, but failed to find a driver for my monitor (which windows insists is a "Generic PnP Display" device and the driver from 2006 is up to date). The monitor is a GNR TS702 model monitor, and trawling the internet doesn't reveal much in the way of driver information.

But I decide to see if the other drivers have fixed the problem, and it appears to have done so. Until yesterday. I was downloading Eve Online and left it alone to get on with it, and when I come back, what do I find? The monitor in standby mode and unresponsive to my wishes for it to turn back on, and now way to know if windows is still running behind the scenes or if its actually crashed.

So I forcibly restart the computer and sit with the computer the entire time its downloading Eve Online, wiggling the mouse just in case and for my peace of mind. And the monitor does not go into standby mode. However, running Eve Online seems to be just as problematic, due to the fact that whenever I load the game, I see a few seconds of the login screen and then, oh look, the monitor goes into standby mode and the computer crashes (certainty of crashing large as sounds from the game are played but are stuttered and stop after 3-4 seconds).

I believe my state of mind concerning the computer is now "GR-ARG ANTHONY SMASH IMPUDENT COMPUTER MONITOR"

Can anyone suggest anything to help out with this infuriating problem of mine?
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nenjin

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Re: The Epic Fail'puter Saga
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2010, 03:20:37 pm »

First off, when you need technical advice, try to cut down on the unnecessary information?

So this is your desktop right? How much memory do you have? Windows 7 requires a crap load more system memory than XP. If you have enough for Win 7, but not enough for gaming, that might be why things take a dump whenever you launch EVE.

The sleep mode in Win 7 is pretty annoying, but it's not caused me to have unrecoverable crashes. It could just be your monitor is failing too.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2010, 03:22:41 pm by nenjin »
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DarkStar

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Re: The Epic Fail'puter Saga
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2010, 03:33:15 pm »

Yes, this is my desktop, and has 2 * 2GB sticks inserted into the motherboard.

At the time I posted this I hadn't thought to do the most obvious thing. I blew out the dust from the inside of my case and made sure to clear the fan of the graphics card and all seems to be ok. So, I think my graphics card may have been overheating. Whoops ^^;

Of couse if it happens again now I've cleaned the dust out, I will ask for some more assistance, but for now I'm finished being an idiot. =) Thanks nenjin.
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Puck

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Re: The Epic Fail'puter Saga
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2010, 08:52:51 am »

90% of the time it's just dirt, heh.

I said it a lot on these forums, but it seems I'll better repeat it once more... short version:

Enable the FPS monitor in eve online. Ask help channel, if you have to, on how to do that. When you made sure, it never goes into those 200-300 fps spikes, you can turn it off until the next patch. (Seriously, they bring that bug back from time to time...)

If it has those spikes, use the interval settings to cap fps to refresh rate. If the client doesnt have the interval settngs anymore, force vsync in nvidia control panel (and enable triple buffering).