General PC FAQ and help thread

[katushkin]

We've had a lot of random PC threads in here, and I thought it might be a good idea to condense them into one thread. So in my quest to make lots of generalised threads, I wanted to start this one because I had a couple of PC questions.

Firstly, I need a wireless card for my PC, and was wondering if anyone used one, and if it was any good. I'm guessing they just slot into a PCIE slot?

On a related note, I would like some advice on getting a new GPU as well. I have two Sapphire Radeon R9 270s at the moment, and they are both slowly dying, with lots of screen tearing and driver crashes recently on lots of different games. Not fun I'm not against spending up to £400 on one, but I would like to play things on a decent detail level, especially with Fallout 4 just out.

<3

[fohat.digs]

I don't know about graphics above the basic level, but the PCIE wireless cards have worked pretty well for me over the last decade or so.

That said, USB internet dongles have also been surprisingly dependable.

I still prefer a hard-wire ethernet, even though it is sometimes slower, because I believe that it is more reliable and secure.

[raymogi]

I've used both PCIE wireless and the USB ones, and although I also thought the PCIE one should be better, the USB dongles is actually just fine if all you want to do is browse and download stuff. But if you wanna game then do look for PCIE card.

[katushkin]

I don't know about graphics above the basic level, but the PCIE wireless cards have worked pretty well for me over the last decade or so.

That said, USB internet dongles have also been surprisingly dependable.

I still prefer a hard-wire ethernet, even though it is sometimes slower, because I believe that it is more reliable and secure.

Yeah, as much as I would love to stick with a wired LAN connection, the GF is not happy about me drilling holes in the ceiling or trailing cables all round the skirting/door frames, and as I only have two plugs in the room my PC is going into, a wireless card is p much going to be my only option.

[Rodgaroon]

I am not a fan of wireless card but i HAVE to have wireless at my house. Anyways if you get a DDWRT flashable wireless router (there are hundred at different price points). Once flashed with the firmware go to youtube and watch a video on how to turn it into a wireless card (bridge mode) i have it here and it work WAY better then any $300 wireless card. the router i have is a simple G router and I get 25 up and down. $50 solution.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index (ddwrt site)

(wireless bridge)

http://www.ncix.com/detail/linksys-wrt54gl-4-port-wireless-25-17408-1940.htm (Router I turning into a wireless card) - $$ in Canadian funds.

[xredman]

Can someone assist me in picking a custom computer? I'm stuck on these two computers.
https://phoenix.craigslist.org/wvl/sys/5327229228.html
and
https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/sys/5322545994.html

[Badwrench]

We've had a lot of random PC threads in here, and I thought it might be a good idea to condense them into one thread. So in my quest to make lots of generalised threads, I wanted to start this one because I had a couple of PC questions.

Firstly, I need a wireless card for my PC, and was wondering if anyone used one, and if it was any good. I'm guessing they just slot into a PCIE slot?

On a related note, I would like some advice on getting a new GPU as well. I have two Sapphire Radeon R9 270s at the moment, and they are both slowly dying, with lots of screen tearing and driver crashes recently on lots of different games. Not fun I'm not against spending up to £400 on one, but I would like to play things on a decent detail level, especially with Fallout 4 just out.

<3

I would go with this Asus AC unit.  5 more pounds than the other one I was going to recommend (TP-Link WDN4800).  You get the added bonus of an adjustable antenna and the upgrade to AC if you are using it (or may in the future). 

If you just need a cheap one that will also work fine:  TP-LINK TL-WN881ND 300Mbps Wireless N.

I have had very good results with the TP link adapters.  I have that cheap one above in my daughters rig and it works great 2 stories up from our router for her to play LoL on - no lagging at all even with Curse running and youtube in the background for music. 

As for graphics cards, are yours still under warranty?  If so, I would consider just doing an rma on them and selling them outright when the replacements arrive.  If not, blow them out in the classifieds and get a 970.  They are all over the place on sale right now.  Absolute best bang for the buck right now and you can even get them in an ITX form factor for the same $$ if you ever wanted to go smaller. 
EVGA 970 for 257 shipped

[Badwrench]

Can someone assist me in picking a custom computer? I'm stuck on these two computers.
https://phoenix.craigslist.org/wvl/sys/5327229228.html
and
https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/sys/5322545994.html

The first one is a much more powerful rig and comes with peripherals.  I would put my $$ there between the 2. 

This is the cost on only a few of the parts on that x99 rig.  You could part it out for way more than $1400.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor  ($379.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Asus X99-A ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($238.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($347.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 7K3000 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($79.95 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card  ($649.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1736.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-24 00:01 EST-0500

[xredman]

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, I was not able to catch it in time and was already sold.

[katushkin]

I'm gonna bump my old thread, because I'm in need of help again.

As some of you may or may not be aware from my snap chat and forum posts, I've been having a lot of trouble with windows recently. I thought I had sorted it yesterday, but I had been getting more and more corruption errors on startup, with chkdsks running every few times I boot, and I'm currently looking at another startup repair.

I've had to reinstall windows a total of about seven times in the last 8 months or so, so my thoughts are that my SSD is fried. I'm also having issues with only half of my RAM being detected as well, but I would like to only have to spend money on an SSD.

If anyone could help me, I would be most grateful. Thanks.

[Badwrench]

I'm gonna bump my old thread, because I'm in need of help again.

As some of you may or may not be aware from my snap chat and forum posts, I've been having a lot of trouble with windows recently. I thought I had sorted it yesterday, but I had been getting more and more corruption errors on startup, with chkdsks running every few times I boot, and I'm currently looking at another startup repair.

I've had to reinstall windows a total of about seven times in the last 8 months or so, so my thoughts are that my SSD is fried. I'm also having issues with only half of my RAM being detected as well, but I would like to only have to spend money on an SSD.

If anyone could help me, I would be most grateful. Thanks.

Do you have another sata port to try the ssd in?  I also recommend trying a different cable.  I had one that was intermittently working and was causing all kinds of wonky ****. 

As far as memory stuff, how many slots do you have?  Pull one stick at a time and start in the slot closest to the cpu and keep restarting until you find your bad slot - if no bad slots, start again with the other stick and rule that out as well. 

[katushkin]

I could try another cable. I will interrupt the repair which is doing **** all, and try it.

As for the memory slots, I've got four, but my CPU cooler is so large, I cant use any other slots lmao.

I really need a new mobo or cooler too...

Edit: Changing SATA cables makes no difference

[DaveW]

I'm gonna bump my old thread, because I'm in need of help again.

As some of you may or may not be aware from my snap chat and forum posts, I've been having a lot of trouble with windows recently. I thought I had sorted it yesterday, but I had been getting more and more corruption errors on startup, with chkdsks running every few times I boot, and I'm currently looking at another startup repair.

I've had to reinstall windows a total of about seven times in the last 8 months or so, so my thoughts are that my SSD is fried. I'm also having issues with only half of my RAM being detected as well, but I would like to only have to spend money on an SSD.

If anyone could help me, I would be most grateful. Thanks.

Regarding the RAM, Windows is 64-bit correct? Does all of the RAM show up in the BIOS?

[fohat.digs]

My impression is that SSDs get skittish after a couple of years.

I replaced one a year ago and everything seemed to firm up quite a bit.

[meow a cat]

I'm gonna bump my old thread, because I'm in need of help again.

As some of you may or may not be aware from my snap chat and forum posts, I've been having a lot of trouble with windows recently. I thought I had sorted it yesterday, but I had been getting more and more corruption errors on startup, with chkdsks running every few times I boot, and I'm currently looking at another startup repair.

I've had to reinstall windows a total of about seven times in the last 8 months or so, so my thoughts are that my SSD is fried. I'm also having issues with only half of my RAM being detected as well, but I would like to only have to spend money on an SSD.

If anyone could help me, I would be most grateful. Thanks.

My experience with dead SSD's has been total failure. I've had two die over the years, and both times I booted my rig it told me to insert OS installation media. Not much help I know, just sharing how they've died for me.

[Connly33]

I'm gonna bump my old thread, because I'm in need of help again.

As some of you may or may not be aware from my snap chat and forum posts, I've been having a lot of trouble with windows recently. I thought I had sorted it yesterday, but I had been getting more and more corruption errors on startup, with chkdsks running every few times I boot, and I'm currently looking at another startup repair.

I've had to reinstall windows a total of about seven times in the last 8 months or so, so my thoughts are that my SSD is fried. I'm also having issues with only half of my RAM being detected as well, but I would like to only have to spend money on an SSD.


If anyone could help me, I would be most grateful. Thanks.

My experience with dead SSD's has been total failure. I've had two die over the years, and both times I booted my rig it told me to insert OS installation media. Not much help I know, just sharing how they've died for me.

My experience is generally the same, i've dealt with a lot less SSD than HDD failures but when they fail 8.5/10 they work fin one minutes and there gone the next.

But the OCZ Vertex 120 GB SSD in my main rig is causing occasional lock up's, even though I/O performance is still good, but this particular line is prone to serious memory controller issues. And that's why i got it so cheap 4 years ago.


But i have seen SSD's 2 or 3 times that seem to be functioning fine, and SMART data still does not indicate any issues, but the drive will slowly corrupt a windows install, though the same thing can happen with a bad motherboard Sata controller

[Fire Brand]

Katty most RAM memory comes with lifetime warranty if you are the original owner, might be worth running the sticks ones by one on Memtest 89+ for a couple of hours each to see if they bring any errors up, if they are corsair they have a UK base so it wouldn't take too long to get them replaced as for SSD not much you can do only SSD I have had fail just flat out do not work when trying to boot, I would just go through the motions of Check memory one by one first and see how you go

[katushkin]

Katty most RAM memory comes with lifetime warranty if you are the original owner, might be worth running the sticks ones by one on Memtest 89+ for a couple of hours each to see if they bring any errors up, if they are corsair they have a UK base so it wouldn't take too long to get them replaced as for SSD not much you can do only SSD I have had fail just flat out do not work when trying to boot, I would just go through the motions of Check memory one by one first and see how you go

Turns out it was actually unplugged. LOL. It kind of threw me because it was lighting up before, but it turns out it wasn't plugged in all the way.

I ordered a new SSD last night and managed to stop the delivery driver in the street on mu way into town today and I grabbed it off him

I've reinstalled and I'm never going to upgrade to windows ten lmao. Lets hope it survives!

[Waateva]

Katty most RAM memory comes with lifetime warranty if you are the original owner, might be worth running the sticks ones by one on Memtest 89+ for a couple of hours each to see if they bring any errors up, if they are corsair they have a UK base so it wouldn't take too long to get them replaced as for SSD not much you can do only SSD I have had fail just flat out do not work when trying to boot, I would just go through the motions of Check memory one by one first and see how you go

Turns out it was actually unplugged. LOL. It kind of threw me because it was lighting up before, but it turns out it wasn't plugged in all the way.

I ordered a new SSD last night and managed to stop the delivery driver in the street on mu way into town today and I grabbed it off him

I've reinstalled and I'm never going to upgrade to windows ten lmao. Lets hope it survives!

I have had that happen a couple times here at work when I was putting things together, I think everything is in but it won't start and I'm worrying about a DOA mobo or RAM and then when I pop it open its something simple like the mobo power not being plugged in or the RAM stick not being seated properly.  Glad everything is working fine, and enjoy the new SSD!

[vivalarevolución]

Good thread.  Perhaps it might be help to include "hardware" in the thread title, if we only wish to discuss PC hardware and not software.