pc people i need help

[vtrigger77]

So my pc had been acting up for a while now. The screen would go retarded the restart itself and it would be fine. But now it does it alot to the point that i cant do annything on it. Every once in a while itl work for about 15-30 minutes. I was told it was the graphics card. The screen turns into a 6 bit screen almost actually worse i cant see annything.

[Peter.Steele]

So what are you asking?

[Eldraque]

pc people i need help

When dealing with computer problems give as much detail as possible.

How old is the computer?
Did you or someone else build it? Or did you buy it from a store?
Laptop or Desktop?
Windows or Mac?
What is the manufacturer?
What is the model?
What are the specs?
Did you try blowing all the dust out?
Did you inspect all cables/connections inside the computer? (Desktop)
How far does it get after booting?
Can you boot in safe mode?
Did you defrag the hard drive and scan for malware?
What is the problem and how often does it occur? (Ie: system crashes after 10 minutes)
What applications are you using when the problem occurs?
Is it possible the computer is overheating? Do you leave it on overnight? Or does it sit by a window or a low ventilation area?
When it crashes does the computer make any beeping noises? What are they?

[vtrigger77]

I dont know how old it is it is a
Hp media center pc m7277c
Desktop
Windows 7
Its clean no dust
sometimes itl do it as it boots when it shows the hp screen giving you tje option to press f1,f3 setup etc. Sometimes 15-30 mins later.
dont know how to defrag or scan for malware

[pc_load_letter]

Could be a couple things....

Video card not seated properly. Open case, remove, reseat, see if problem persists.

Do you have adequate ventilation? Might be overheating, especially during the summer time. Open the case, point a fan at the internals and see if it happens.

You can replace the video card cheaply. Might be the easiest fix.

But please be sure, while the system is still somewhat running, BACKUP YOUR STUFF. I don;t know how many times I've had to recover data from a working harddrive because the other system components failed and the user didn't back anything up.

[vtrigger77]

It is very well ventilated.
I have removen and re inserted the gpu already

[CAguy]

The bad news is you have a AMD graphics processor that is prone to over heating. This is why I would avoid them (go with Intel), although it seems they have fixed some of the problems.

If you want to use that computer until it fails totally then you can keep recovering it and dealing with updates but I would get a new machine. It's not even worth rebuilding IMO.

This is a good reminder for people to get a external hard drive and back up all important stuff and use a computer as a ancillary work station. Particularly if you're going to be using heavy windows based machines and you aren't up to building/maintaining/upgrading your own machine.

I think most people would be better off with a Chromebook and a 3T/4T external hard drive. Most stock machine offerings are pretty poor these days unless you buy a gaming specific device and the costs of such ready machines cause people to balk. Many could build them for cheaper but if you want the 4-star package pre-installed you are gonna pay a significant mark up due to bundling you may not need. You need power to run all the intensive programs and have speed left over. That or you can get rid of all the intensive heavy programming.

Most people don't need machines like this. Well 90% of the population anyway. Microsoft has done a great job of tethering weights to people unnecessarily.

[vtrigger77]

Well i want to build my own pc but that will till arround december

[the86d]

Sounds like a bad HDD (failing to detect happily), or bad caps (and/or power supply) off the top of my head.

Get a Linux LiveDVD, and boot to that (Knoppix is my goto LiveDVD for quick testing, and a neighbor, friend, or family member can help get one d/loaded and burned for you):
If it works fine, then it is the drive, or something on the drive that is the issue.
If it does not it's probably something else.

Process of elimination, go from there...

[vtrigger77]

Ok so i defragmented the hdd last night and used it for about 1:30 and everything went fine

[ldsnet]

Defrag won't "fix" problems unless you have bad sectors on the HDD and the defrag blocked the sectors and moved the data somewhere else.

If defrag appears to have fixed the issue, then you still have a hardware issue; and a failing hard drive or drive controller will continue to degrade.

[vtrigger77]

Ok ill keep using it and see what happens

[stilly]

So my pc had been acting up for a while now. The screen would go retarded the restart itself and it would be fine. But now it does it alot to the point that i cant do annything on it. Every once in a while itl work for about 15-30 minutes. I was told it was the graphics card. The screen turns into a 6 bit screen almost actually worse i cant see annything.

Wow. You called folks PC people... So nice to be called something that does not sound retarded or derogatory like NERD or GEEK...

If you are going about your business and the screen cuts up with lines, that is your gpu overheating and locking up. (most likely)

If you are playing and your monitor cuts out and back on and then off again or takes a while to turn on in the first place, then it is your monitor most likely.

Sounds to me like you need a new graphics card though. Turn on your computer and remove the side panel and then touch the heatsink of the graphics card once it locks up on you. If you get a 2nd degree burn, then you need a new graphics card.

I replaced a grfx card for a client and the fan STOPPED (gummed up) and the thing got so hot that it left marks on my fingers where I touched it.

Yeah anyways... $40 will get you a decent card but for day to day business only. If you want gaming then you will drop about $150 for a decent card in the 470 -570 zone that should be okay to run many games... (ebay prices for Nvidia)

Good luck.

[CessnaDriver]

Type "event viewer" by putting it in the search box when you click on the windows icon on the bottom left. This will launch event viewer, give it a few seconds to gather the data. There will be a "Summary of administrative events" section.
You may see recent critical errors and those codes may save you time troubleshooting by googling what they could mean.

[blazeaglory]

Defrag might help for a while if it is your HDD. If it is, you will start to have the same problems again.

Here is a quick and simple way to find problems for beginners.

Run event viewer as posted above.

Check all hardware is installed correctly and current drivers. Check your RAM sticks for dead sticks

Make sure you have updated Windows, if so then...

Have you installed any programs recently? If so, delete them and see if that helps. If not then...

Run all your virus and malware tests. If no malware program go to webattack.com (will redirect you to a new site called something else but thats OK) download Spybot. Run spybot and fix problems.

If no virus or malware go to Control Panel/System Security/Find and fix problems. Run it and see if it finds anything.

If nothing still, send computer to me and build a new comp