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Brody
Advanced Contributer
1326 Posts |
 Posted - 12/06/2012 : 20:33:06
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| Done all the connection speed checks, and phoned my provider - apparently my connections speed's very fast (indeed, stuff downloads quick). However, if listening to online radio while flicking through other tabs/opening email, it freezes and breaks up and generally throws a Norman Collier. Coupled with the fact that my computer takes multiple attempts to boot up, is my processor dying on its arse? |
www.myspace.com/evisorax
www.arendia.co.uk
www.myspace.com/rocklikeergon
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beezerk
Advanced Contributer
United Kingdom
29229 Posts |
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Badman_batman
Advanced Contributer
United Kingdom
667 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2012 : 20:56:52
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When it does this hit the ctrl+alt+delete and check to see what the CPU load is but my guess is it will be the ram
Also it may have nothing at all to do with your hardware, most of my customer problems are software problems, too many programs running in the task manager is the biggest issue and will overload the cpu
I know it does not help your problem but really a windows based PC shu be formatted about every 18 months and reinstalled to keep it healthy |
www.thedrumchapel.co.uk
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Brody
Advanced Contributer
1326 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2012 : 21:08:51
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Thanks for the tips. CPU usage at around 30 per cent. Physical memory 55 percent but also says 1 free?
Tons of processes running though hmmm will have a poke about. I've recently defragged and gained about 10GB so perhaps I can save a bit of memory here too.. |
www.myspace.com/evisorax
www.arendia.co.uk
www.myspace.com/rocklikeergon
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Brigham
Advanced Contributer
United Kingdom
7854 Posts |
Posted - 13/06/2012 : 09:20:51
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quote:
Originally posted by Brody
Thanks for the tips. CPU usage at around 30 per cent. Physical memory 55 percent but also says 1 free?
Tons of processes running though hmmm will have a poke about. I've recently defragged and gained about 10GB so perhaps I can save a bit of memory here too..
Please don't confuse disk space with memory. You'll get even more confused. |
Briglet uses:
Mapex 15th Anniversary Pro-M 22,10,12,14
Yamaha Stage Custom Advantage 22,12,13,16
Zildjian, Istanbul, Stagg |
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Sharklaar
Advanced Contributer
United Kingdom
1884 Posts |
Posted - 13/06/2012 : 13:24:37
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You should always try and keep at least 10% of your hard drive free - my hard drive is pretty small and it's loaded full of porn music so it's a struggle for me... I find everything slows down horrendously when I've not got a lot of free space. Also if your recycle bin is full of crap that won't help.
Have you tried CCCleaner? You can see what processes run on startup, you might find some stuff in there that's screwing with your machine. I did this and reduced my boot time from about 5 minutes to a few seconds. |
http://www.blackhawkdown.org.uk |
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Badman_batman
Advanced Contributer
United Kingdom
667 Posts |
Posted - 13/06/2012 : 16:36:27
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If you computer is low on memory i.e under 2GB RAM then try using a paging file, you can find how to do this if you Google it. If you have 2GB and above to be honest you can actually speed up the pc by removing the paging file and setting the services to background
Alternatively either replace the PC with more memory or if you have an old memory stick you could use that as temporary RAM (windows 7 only)
Where are you based, im in the north east and would help you sort it for free and tell you what parts you need IF any
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www.thedrumchapel.co.uk
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Dave The Drummer
Advanced Contributer
United Kingdom
9128 Posts |
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Brody
Advanced Contributer
1326 Posts |
Posted - 20/06/2012 : 23:04:37
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Sorry Badman, thought this thread had been left - thanks for responding again. I'll try what you say when you get a minute. To be honest, I'm on Vista on a five-year old computer with a single core AMD, so it's not exactly flying anyway. I just want to keep it limping on a bit longer before I upgrade!
Dave - it's literally a power button problem. You have to press the button between 5 and 10 times before it boots up. |
www.myspace.com/evisorax
www.arendia.co.uk
www.myspace.com/rocklikeergon
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Badman_batman
Advanced Contributer
United Kingdom
667 Posts |
Posted - 22/06/2012 : 11:45:57
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Mate your biggest problem will be the OS. Vista was seriously memory intensive and the worst they ever made. They tried to make it graphically beautiful but is very heavy on resources
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www.thedrumchapel.co.uk
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Brody
Advanced Contributer
1326 Posts |
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Dave The Drummer
Advanced Contributer
United Kingdom
9128 Posts |
Posted - 24/06/2012 : 15:59:29
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Before power is applied and the fans start turning ?
If that's it then it's either the button or the PSU. It's also possible that the connector to the motherboard is loose so check that. Unplug the main plug from the PSU to the motherboard and plug it back in again.
Check where the power switch is connected to the motherboard too. That may be loose.
Obviously do this when the computer is off and unplugged from the mains.
All the other stuff sounds like it could just do with a rebuild.
If it's ancient then just check the connections to make sure the power problem is sorted and then soldier on until you can get a new machine. There's no point in replacing components at this point unless it's the PSU.
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Reaching out to embrace the random, reaching out to embrace whatever may come.
Hampshire Skeptics // What's The Harm ? // Photography // Facebook // Twitter // Truth Saves |
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Brody
Advanced Contributer
1326 Posts |
Posted - 24/06/2012 : 21:16:13
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| Thanks Dave. As for the start up, power button just doesn't stay on - fan starts then dies - you can hear hard drive clickin-whiring then stopping. After about 5 goes it boots up. Yes your right - it's a pretty old spec, so not worth spending on. I did have the case off to see if there was a build up of dust or anything and checked the power button then - it looked Ok. Had a quick look to see if anything was loose but nothing. I may have another look and try the plug/unplug thing. Thanks again. |
www.myspace.com/evisorax
www.arendia.co.uk
www.myspace.com/rocklikeergon
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Dave The Drummer
Advanced Contributer
United Kingdom
9128 Posts |
Posted - 26/06/2012 : 22:54:52
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OK. I suspect the PSU here. It'd be useful o find out if the PSU is cutting out or if the power is being cut by something else.
You can check the PSU to see if it's broadly working OK like this :
Unplug the computer from the mains and if it has a switch, switch it to the off position. You can leave the actual cable in as you'll have to plug it in again in a minute.
Unplug the PSU from the motherboard completely and unplug all things connected to the PSU. That means your drives, graphics cards etc...
The PSU should be completely disconnected from the computer.
Then have a look at the big plug on the PSU that goes into the motherboard. You'll see laods of different coloured wires.
What you're looking for is a green one. There'll only be one of them. This is the line that tells the PSU that the motherboard is present and OK.
Next to the green one will be a couple of black ones. These are lines going to earth.
Get yourself a paperclip and bend it into a U shape.
Put one end of the paperclip into the PSU plug where the green wire is. Do this from the side that plugs into the motherboard.
Put the other end of the paperclip into one of the black pins next to the green wire.
You have just shorted out the green wire to a black wire.
This simulates the presence of a good motherboard to the PSU.
Make sure the paperclip isn't going to touch anything else like the chassis of the computer or any of the other components. You can quickly stuff it into a small plastic bag if you wish. It's very low voltage and very, very low current anyway so it's very low risk indeed. Make sure the paperclip is ONLY contacting the green wire pin and a black wire pin.
Plug the computer power lead back into the mains socket and switch it on at the wall. The PSU itself should still be off because of its switch if it has one.
If it doesn't have an individual switch it'll power up straight away. If it has a switch, switch it and the PSU should power up.
The PSU fan will run.
Keep a close eye on the fan to see if it runs continuously for half a minute or so or at least longer than it does when there's a problem.
Switch the PSU off and switch off the mains at the wall and unplug the mains cable.
Remove the paperclip from the PSU plug.
Now, if the PSU ran up and kept running for a minute then I'd suggest the PSU is OK. You can only really know by checking the voltages and doing load tests but we don't have the gear or the time for that and it's difficult at best over a forum.
But this check tells you that the PSU is running up anyway.
If it stops running or fails or switches on and then off etc... then the PSU is toast. Get a new one.
If the PSU is OK then you have a different problem and that would need investigation.
Either way this is a quick and cheap way to find out if the PSU is roughly OK.
When you're done testing ensure that paperclip is either in the bin or far away from the computer and then you can reconnect the PSU to the computer and the peripherals. The plug the power lead back into the wall, power up and see what happens.
Obviously this is all done at your own risk.
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Reaching out to embrace the random, reaching out to embrace whatever may come.
Hampshire Skeptics // What's The Harm ? // Photography // Facebook // Twitter // Truth Saves |
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Badman_batman
Advanced Contributer
United Kingdom
667 Posts |
Posted - 26/06/2012 : 23:29:15
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^ do this
there are quite a few voltage lines such as -5v, 12v + 5v etc and it could be this under load thats resetting the PSU and its a very common problem with bulging capacitors
If you want i will send you a power supply free, i have hundreds of em, PM me an address and i will send one down, we have a power supply tester but for the sake of what they cost just replace it FREE from me and if it doesn't solve the problem nothing lost
Mark |
www.thedrumchapel.co.uk
facebook.com/thedrumchapel
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averagewaistdude
Advanced Contributer
United Kingdom
7376 Posts |
Posted - 27/06/2012 : 14:19:43
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| Alternatively you could irritate the pelvic splachnic ganglion and cause an intestinal spasm. That'll sort it. |
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In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe
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Badman_batman
Advanced Contributer
United Kingdom
667 Posts |
Posted - 27/06/2012 : 17:41:27
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quote:
Originally posted by averagewaistdude
Alternatively you could irritate the pelvic splachnic ganglion and cause an intestinal spasm. That'll sort it.
That's what i was going to say  |
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