Dalo Harkin

Lol , yes :D This one even has me stumped - Wolfey - just buy components that are mainstream so ASUS for MOBO (unlike me :() OCZ ram (like me :D) and a core 2 duo or quad. throw it together and away you go - ASUS OCZ and INTEL work really well together being the 3 main leaders in their fields - I agree on the external HDD's waste of time ;)

Sounds daft but is the printer USB 2.0 - and you have a 1.1 cable in it? that would cause it to run much slower

If you have a load of fans and HDD's you need to take it all into consideration when buying a PSU - 600 WATT is by far the most you would ever need unless you have 2 VERY high end cards. My 2900XT for example draws 300 watt at full load. A 7900GS would never draw above 200 even at full load regardless what nvidea say - Even the older 7900GTX (used to have one, were not as hungry as what you have listed for the GS) So if you have a mid range CPU, GPU, RAM a few HDD's and a few DVD-RW you are looking 400 watt max. Higher end - Quad core, GTX or XT model GPU 3+ HDD 2+ DVD-RW you are then getting into the 500-600 range.

If there are no physical looking cracks in the liquid you (they) may have got away with it and just need a new ribbon. Yeah I am always weary when someone gives you a laptop with the hinges half hanging of as its normally a new screen needed :(

does sound more like the printer if it works from windows - do any of the other buttons work on the front panel?

Its mostly called an ECO button - its just to reduce battery usage whist doing simple tasks like surfing the net, writing word docs etc. ''Throttling'' is when the CPU cannot do the amount of work that you are asking it to (100% load) (and will cause the PC to be very sluggish and hang)

Hi Spartan, and welcome - challenges are there to test us, and if we dont get it right first time - it really tests us! (our patience) ever see anyone snap a keyboard over there own head :eek: I have, I kid you not, was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life - even thinking about it now I am chuckling

That looks very similar to one I saw last year the laptop had been picked up by the screen and stretched the ribbons on the inside of the cable. If it is that - new ribbon or a soldering iron needed.

I have been on the ABIT forums and people there are stumped too - I have tried every configuration I can imagine even down to putting an E6600 back in with the new memory and there are no problems :( The ABIT tech guys have not got back to me and there is nowhere else to find this form of specific help - so one of my PC's is down and its the highest spec one - D'OH If it comes to the crunch it will be a new MOBO and I will be £100 worse off :eek:

Hi Seth, I have swapped the memory for many other types and the same for the GPU. BIOS 17 is the very latest and there is no BETA 18 yet either 17 is literally a few weeks old. It is disabled and will not BSOD - seems to be a major problem with the combination of the memory the board and the CPU - yet some people with the same board and CPU are ok - I think that there must be a 'sweet spot' for this configuration, I have seen NO overclock profiles for this chip and RAM - or I would try them and see if its all ok. I think that its down to the way the board is trying to run the memory as in the divider and the timings and cannot figure itself out. I have looked EVERYWHERE and the timings I have seen are 5-5-5-15 and the voltage between 2.1 and 2.3 volts - but there is no mention of the tRAS setting for these modules.

Hi all My name is Dave, I am 25, I am from the UK (Manchester) and have been building PC's for about 9 years, and my main interests for my PC is Gaming, internet, watching films etc - I am an avid fan of Guild Wars - hence my name Dalo Harkin. I am into all the geeky stuff Star Wars and Star Trek and am not ashamed to admit it :cool: I have 2 kids and I love the fact they are young because I get to buy and watch all the programs I used to watch on tele - Thundercats, Transformers and stuff like that :D (gives me an excuse to watch them to the missus lol) I was looking for some help on a specific problem and found this website yesterday and been posting lots since, hope that some of my experiences can help others, having a pc is painful in more ways than one - is it ok to stick your fingers in your pc when its on? - CAUTION 99% yes, but that 1% really hurts :eek: for those that have touched a heatpipe by mistake know what I mean. Is watercooling ok? in my opinion - yes in the same that walking in a thunder storm with a javelin is :eek:

I am 99% sure that you have to force the software Nvidea and ATI driver software that is t recognise the monitor - get the screen on in safe mode if need be and right click the desktop and select nvidea options there is a setting in there saying TV detection - There is an option in their - its something to do with the way that TV's connect to the PC.

Saving a load of cash is still true - just buy OEM stuff :) There is no point in buying a retail CPU if you are going to put an uprated cooler on it ;)

The only thing that you may find with this card is the heat - I installed one the other day and Ideally you need a case with a roof fan like the Antecs - as you are not after a rocket ship card - you may be better looking at the 9600GT range they are slightly cheaper and dont rev up as much - use less power and generate less heat, but they are a fair distance behind the 8600GT in term of raw power.

I would NEVER buy a pre built PC - do it yourself its like a jigsaw puzzle lol you save a load of cash and get a better spec :D

Boot error - go into the Bios repeatedly press the F10 key or one some its delete. I would go into the advanced setup option and there is one called:- First boot device set this to HDD and set option 1,2,3 to disable and also disable boot other device under it - SAVE and retry

Can I just clear somethign up - you say rebooted - do you mean reinstalled? and the backup files are for the old versions of the installs? If they are indeed old then you can get rid of them. If your PC is having trouble booting always check the following:- HEAT - is the inside of the case overly hot? DUST - have you cleaned the inside of the PC recently and the fans? (related to HEAT) BIOS - do you have the first boot device set to hard drive? HARDWARE changes - installed anything new recently? All of the above are easy to check and are often the most generic reasons for a reboot. Post back and let us know.

If you have a quick search on google for Nvidea driver complete uninstall or on nvidea website they have a software to get rid of EVERYTHING that the nvidea drivers add - if you go in your C drive there is a folder called Nvidea and if you go in their and there is more than one folder i.e 159.10 and then another delete the one that is the oldest version (by the lower number) and then use the program from the website to get rid of all the other bits that lurk around. For future reference you NEED to uninstall the old Nvidea driver, run the program that you get off the nvidea site to get rid of all the gubbings and then Restart and then install the new one and then restart again - DONE for those with ATI cards like myself ;) they have the same version of the software on their website

Q6600 and AW9D MAX problem OK I have an AW9D MAX motherboad and I was running an E6600 and PC6400 memory, I upgraded this to a Q6600 GO SLACR and some PC8500 memory. I tried booting to windows and the PC rebooted before it got anywhere near windows. Looked on the ABIT forums and loads of people are having the same problems with the GO SLACR but not the B3 version of the Q6600. So they recommended setting the memory timings manually so they are 5-5-5-15 42tRAS and the voltage as recommended by OCZ is 2.1-2.3V (so set at 2.2V) If I set the memory devider at more than a 1:1 ratio it will not boot to windows. (I am not trying to Overclock just run at stock) so it boots to windows now but if I run any CPU intensive programs ie games it reboots the PC. I have tried upping the CPU Voltage and the MCH voltage in the smallest increments and the maximum I can get the MCH to is 1.57 (1.50 is stock) and if I move the CPU voltage will not get to windows. ok so when in windows I run Everest and the CPU heat on the 4 cores is always between 25-35 and thats fine so nothing wrong with heat. (checked these in the BIOS too and they are spot on!) Emailed ABIT and no reply lol even though its been a week. so hardware is:- AW9D MAX - MOBO Q6600 GO SLACR - CPU 2900XT - GPU OCZ PC8500 - RAM Seasonic 600 watt M12 - PSU 7 various SATA 2 drives. Windows vista 32bit home premium

8600GT is a very good mid range card is at the moment very sensibly priced - go for the reference Nvidea one - dont get one thats pre overclocked as you would not notice the benefits for the amount of extra cost.

If you have a quick search on google for Nvidea driver complete uninstall or on nvidea website they have a software to get rid of EVERYTHING that the nvidea drivers add - if you go in your C drive there is a folder called Nvidea and if you go in their and there is more than one folder i.e 159.10 and then another delete the one that is the oldest version (by the lower number) and then use the program from the website to get rid of all the other bits that lurk around. Sounds like you have installed a driver over one that was already their and Vista is seeing both and dropping the score. For future reference you NEED to uninstall the old Nvidea driver, run the program that you get off the nvidea site to get rid of all the gubbings and then Restart and then install the new one and then restart again - DONE for those with ATI cards like myself ;) they have the same version of the software on their website

Get the latest BIOS for the board and try again and if that doesnt work you will need to set the timings and the voltage of the RAM differently remember that if you are using more RAM sticks then they will require more voltage to make them all run.......... If for an example you are running the 2GB at 5-5-5-15 and 42 tRAS you will NEVER get that speed with 4GB you need to drop it 4-4-4-12 and you may get away with 42 tRAS but may have to up it to 52

Don't want to sound patronising but did you set the first boot device back to HDD after putting the recovery disk in? if its taking so long to load there are probably a million start up programs on it that have never been stopped if they are no longer in use (msconfig will sort that) and also if it was neglected probably never been defragged either, 20 minutes aint bad if it was never defragged lol

Pop the CMOS battery out (while the PC is off) leave 10 seconds - put it back in and see if it boots - you will lose all the BIOS options but if it does come on go into the BIOS and select 'optimal settings' and then save and restart and see if that helps - it may have the CPU and memory timings set wrong or OC'd and they may be generating too much heat.

1. would this psu be compatible? how do i find out? - see if it has what you need i.e 20 pin for mobo and 4 pin ATX cable and enough molex and what have you for what you need. 2. would it allow me to oc my cpu and gpu and get a total of 2gb ram? No you need to buy 2GB of ram and overclocking just makes them run faster but with OC you get much more heat and need more expensive components like faster RAM 3. would it be futureproof for a mid range gpu in 6 months or so? 8600 GT will play most games at 1024x768 maybe 1280x1024 and anymore you will struggle with AA and shadows etc 4. if i ocd my cpu or gpu would i need cooling? Oh yes, as above! 5.would it be worth it, ocing my cpu or gpu? how much would it improve performance in say crysis? If you look at the tech spec on the back of crysis its very high and the only card that I know that can smoothly play the game at 1680x1050 is the 9800GTXx2 and Its £340 :eek: 6.should i get 2gb of faster ram or 1gb of the same ram? would there be a significant difference? if you get 2GB of DUAL CHANNEL then it will be faster (but check that the MOBO supports it) 2GB dual channel is as far as I would go in terms of gaming performance 4,8, and 16GB is more for serious video editing etc Hope this answers all your questions :D