[Andres Lechuga]

There's absolutely no reason to actually erase the data on a hard drive before installing an OS unless you have security concerns. All you're doing is replacing 1s and 0s that represent your data with some other 1s and 0s, usually all 0s.

[~Amy~]

Alright, I need some help here.

Last night my computer shut down of it's own volition. I was sitting there on Facebook, as is my wont to do from time to time, and I get the message "Other people are still logged into this computer. Are you sure you wish to restart?" Then within seconds the whole system powered down.

After that it would not power back on. I hit the power button, it starts up for about 3 seconds (I can hear the fans start spinning), beeps as it usually does, then powers down. I figured "It might be overheating somewhere", so I unplugged it and let it sit overnight. But it's still doing the same thing today.

Also, the other day it did the spontaneous shut-down thing. And when it came back on it sat at the BIOS screen indefinately. I disconnected the power for a few minutes and it fired right up.

What's the problem here?

Recent hardware changes:
HD 5770
2 GB Kingston ValuRam

Is it a bad stick of RAM? GPU drawing too much power off the stock Dell PSU? Bad PSU altogether? The PC itself is a 2007 Dell Inspiron 530.

Help!

[koumba]

Anyone? Please?

[no_excuse]

Anyone? Please?

I would backtrack with what you added. Take out the RAM and see what happens, if all is well try readding them and see what happens. Same for the video card. I haven't had any experience with what you're describing but that is what I'd do.

[Mylizards Dot com]

Since I had to unseat the GPU to even get to the RAM, I tried just taking the GPU out. And now it fires right up...

Is it a bad card, or is the PSU just not pumping out enough juice to run it?

[Alexandra walker]

PSU probably isn't cutting it, unfortunately. You don't have your monitor hooked into the back of the PSU do you? I know older computers had that option.

Other than that, I'd suggest an upgrade.

[Terry]

No, the monitor was hooked to the DVI port on the 5770. At the moment I'm running it on the on-board VGA port.

So a new PSU it is. What's a good retail one I can pick up from a box store (Best Buy, most likely)? I know I'll spend more at the store instead of newegg or tiger, but I want to get this figured out while I can still RMA the GPU with newegg, if it DOES turn out to be the culprit.

[Jessie]

Alright, still doing the same thing. Grr.

Tried removing the two RAM sticks as well. Same problem.

Still a PSU problem? Or do I have bigger fish to fry?

[Toby Green]

(oops, sorry for this post)

[Agnieszka Bak]

How quickly can I expect a fax to be received?

[Allison Sizemore]

Hey tech thread, it's been a while since I came here with my technical woes, but luckily I have what is hopefully a much simpler question then my last few visits.

Basically, my girlfriend broke my mp3 player headphones and I would like new ones. Just wanted some in-ear buds that aren't too costly. $30 dollar spending limit and they have to be in ear buds, those always feel the most comfortable to me. I was looking at the jBud line of in ear buds on amazon and those looked okay but I wanted some second opinions from here.

anyone know any ones in that price range that are of reasonable quality?

Thanks

[Genevieve]

I use iFrogz which costed me 8 euros and are quite good for what you're paying. For something slightly more expensive I'd go with AKG

[DAVId Bryant]

Alright, still doing the same thing. Grr.

Tried removing the two RAM sticks as well. Same problem.

Still a PSU problem? Or do I have bigger fish to fry?

What does event viewer say it was?

Download and run http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed to see if it is possibly a driver issue.
Also download http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463009.

The Debugging Tools are listed in two places on the Installation Options screen in the Windows SDK Setup Wizard:

Select the Debugging Tools option under the Common Utilities if you want the x86 version of Debugging Tools and you are installing on an x86 computer. This option automatically detects the CPU architecture of the computer on which you are installing the tools and it is the fastest method of installing the tools.

Select the Debugging Tools option under the Redistributable Packages to download all three versions of Debugging Tools (x86, x64, Itanium).

Let us know what all 3 say.

[Angela]

How quickly can I expect a fax to be received?

A quickly as a phone call; the paper gets scanned, the machine dials the phone number, sends the data, and the machine on the other end prints it out. If you're sending it to a big enough office it may take a while to find its way to where it needs to be, but that's a human induced delay, not the technology :shrug:. If its important, consider phoning them to make sure they got it/it didn't get itself lost.

[leni]

There's absolutely no reason to actually erase the data on a hard drive before installing an OS unless you have security concerns. All you're doing is replacing 1s and 0s that represent your data with some other 1s and 0s, usually all 0s.

If that OS happens to be Windows and you're re-installing Windows I'd suggest blowing away the old Windows partition (i.e., quick format) before installing the new one. I've had Windows installs find and attempt to import settings from old installations before. It can't hurt and it only takes a few minutes to do a quick format.

[ezra]

Hey tech thread, it's been a while since I came here with my technical woes, but luckily I have what is hopefully a much simpler question then my last few visits.

Basically, my girlfriend broke my mp3 player headphones and I would like new ones. Just wanted some in-ear buds that aren't too costly. $30 dollar spending limit and they have to be in ear buds, those always feel the most comfortable to me. I was looking at the jBud line of in ear buds on amazon and those looked okay but I wanted some second opinions from here.

anyone know any ones in that price range that are of reasonable quality?

Thanks

JVC Marshmallows. Best cheap IEMs, but if you don't like memory foam tips, you might be better off with J2 JBuds.

[RObert loVes MOmmy]

If that OS happens to be Windows and you're re-installing Windows I'd suggest blowing away the old Windows partition (i.e., quick format) before installing the new one. I've had Windows installs find and attempt to import settings from old installations before. It can't hurt and it only takes a few minutes to do a quick format.

iGuess was talking about fully erasing data, rather than a simple format. A traditional HDD does never truly destroys its data; while the blocks do get overwritten, there is still a 'ghost' (so to speak) of what was there before. This is can be useful, as it may (not guaranteed) allow you to recover data even when the drive has been used for a time after its deletion, but for the very same reason it can be a security risk, since a person who gets hold of the HD could potentially dig out sensitive information even after you have deleted it.

That's where software such as http://www.dban.org/ comes in: by repeated writing and deleting (nonsense) data to the drive, whatever was on there to start with gradually gets scrubbed away (it 'fades' more and more each time it gets overwritten). It is the minimum you should do when disposing of your old drives (especially if you're giving/selling them to someone). Hitting them with a hammer afterwards won't hurt your security, either .

When reinstalling your operating system, complete erasure is normally excessive, since it will still just be you using it. A simple, quick format is all you need to clean it up in regards to performance and configuration files .

[JESSE]

iGuess was talking about fully erasing data, rather than a simple format. A traditional HDD does never truly destroys its data; while the blocks do get overwritten, there is still a 'ghost' (so to speak) of what was there before. This is can be useful, as it may (not guaranteed) allow you to recover data even when the drive has been used for a time after its deletion, but for the very same reason it can be a security risk, since a person who gets hold of the HD could potentially dig out sensitive information even after you have deleted it.

That's where software such as http://www.dban.org/ comes in: by repeated writing and deleting (nonsense) data to the drive, whatever was on there to start with gradually gets scrubbed away (it 'fades' more and more each time it gets overwritten). It is the minimum you should do when disposing of your old drives (especially if you're giving/selling them to someone). Hitting them with a hammer afterwards won't hurt your security, either .

When reinstalling your operating system, complete erasure is normally excessive, since it will still just be you using it. A simple, quick format is all you need to clean it up in regards to performance and configuration files .

Right. Deleting a file is really only marking sectors as "re-writable" in the file allocation data. I didn't read the post before that one, so I was assuming iGuess was saying that it's ok to just install over the old OS, which is often fine but can potentially leave behind some undesirables. Thread-reading fail on my part.

Back in another life when I was a hardware technician we used to try to come up with creative ways to destroy old hard drives. That was good fun. Now that I only work with software there's nothing tangible to take my frustrations out on when things go wrong or some code won't compile and the error message is telling me nothing.

[mimi_lys]

What does event viewer say it was?

Download and run http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed to see if it is possibly a driver issue.
Also download http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463009.

Not sure if you've been playing the "at home" version of the game, but my computer won't even turn on.

[Naomi Ward]

Right. Deleting a file is really only marking sectors as "re-writable" in the file allocation data. I didn't read the post before that one, so I was assuming iGuess was saying that it's ok to just install over the old OS, which is often fine but can potentially leave behind some undesirables. Thread-reading fail on my part.

Back in another life when I was a hardware technician we used to try to come up with creative ways to destroy old hard drives. That was good fun. Now that I only work with software there's nothing tangible to take my frustrations out on when things go wrong or some code won't compile and the error message is telling me nothing.

Most of that was for Lord Crow's benefit (expanding on what you said), in case he didn't know it already. And the rambling ball started rolling a bit, too :hehe:.

Oh, and I've heard that grinding them down and mixing 'em into concrete does the trick .

[Emma Louise Adams]

Not sure if you've been playing the "at home" version of the game

Huh? Just trying to help, no need to be a......

but my computer won't even turn on.

Oh really?

Since I had to unseat the GPU to even get to the RAM, I tried just taking the GPU out. And now it fires right up...

Is it a bad card, or is the PSU just not pumping out enough juice to run it?

So, which is it, "but my computer won't even turn on." or "And now it fires right up..."???????

Actually, never mind, I don't care any more after that first remark.

[Tarka]

I have a question about a PC problem. I have a 2-year old PC and just recently it started having this problem: when I boot it (so far only in the morning), after the motherboard screen, it goes to a blank screen -- no windows logo. If I power it down and turn it on again, it boots normally. Any ideas about what could cause this to happen?

Oh and if anyone can answer my earlier printer questions in this thread, I'd much appreciate it.

[Karl harris]

So, which is it, "but my computer won't even turn on." or "And now it fires right up..."???????

I believe it is..my computer randomly started shutting down. Now that it is shut down, it won't turn on. I took out the new GPU and it turned back on, everything worked good for a bit then the same exact problem, now it won't turn on again. Took out the new RAM, still the same problem, the computer will not turn on.

I unfortunately don't have an answer, maybe you or someone else does?

[claire ley]

Sorry, wolfpup. Wasn't trying to be a string of periods... Just makin' a lil joke.

I made a post shortly after saying it worked to the effect of "Same problem is still happening, even with the GPU and RAM taken out."

So basically Sivartus is absolutely correct.

[Laura Samson]

Hello, whats a good cheap pocessor for a gaming pc?
and Video card?