[Captain L]

I got the PC second hand, but I assume it's around 5 years old.

And I don't dust the area it's sitting in, but it's usually pretty clean.

[LocalH]

Captain L, on 08 July 2012 - 12:32 PM, said:

I've just decided to change the name of this thread for another problem of mine. My keyboard and mouse have stopped working. I was just trying to get my gamepad working (which used to work, but suddenly stopped), and following Microsoft's help advice. Suddenly, my mouse and keyboard stop responding. I just assumed the computer froze, so I reboot it. Nope, still doesn't work. So I grab another mouse to test it out. Nope, doesn't work.

If USB, are you having problem with any other type of USB device (flash disk, camera cable, etc?) If your gamepad is USB and it suddenly stopped at the same time as your mouse and keyboard, this points to your USB controller going bad.

If PS/2, you usually have to reboot to be able to unplug and replug a mouse. Keyboards tend to work fine when hot-swapping though.

[Captain L]

My gamepad stopped working a while ago, while the computer worked fine. And my USB controller apparently still works, seeing as how the bottom of the mouse still glows red and the gamepad receiver still flashes, but the keyboard doesn't show any lights.

[Captain L]

I hate PCs. Besides the fact that I've had more problems with it in 6 months than I've had with Macs in 6 years, at least when the Mac breaks down, there's an explanation. I decided to just open up the side of the PC to look at the USB stuff on the inside (I had no idea what I was doing). I poked the silver boxes on the inside, looked at it, closed it back up, and plugged it back in. Guess what? It works fine now.

[WheatThins]

Captain L, on 22 July 2012 - 08:10 PM, said:

I hate PCs. Besides the fact that I've had more problems with it in 6 months than I've had with Macs in 6 years, at least when the Mac breaks down, there's an explanation. I decided to just open up the side of the PC to look at the USB stuff on the inside (I had no idea what I was doing). I poked the silver boxes on the inside, looked at it, closed it back up, and plugged it back in. Guess what? It works fine now.

Take it to a computer repair shop, ask them to format and reinstall Windows. There's no good reason to hate a PC that hasn't already been fucked up, whoever you got it from secondhand may have fucked it up. If you don't feel like paying for someone to reinstall it, reinstall it yourself using some guides online. Furthermore, I recommend just buying a new computer. 5 years is a bit outdated regardless of the OS you're running. Post your specs here if you want to change my mind. (Start menu -> control panel -> classic view (or view small/large icons) -> system

As for dusting the computer, open it up again and take a tire compressor to the fan. Blow out all the dust and crap inside (I recommend doing so outside.)

I recommend you defrag at least once every few months, or get a program that will automate that for you.
(Start menu -> all programs -> accessories -> system tools -> system defragmentor)

Check your machine for any malware.
Download MalwareBytes, then run a flash scan and a quick scan, remove any threats.

Run CCleaner, remove any junk that shows up.

This post has been edited by WheatThins: 09 August 2012 - 02:11 AM

[Captain L]

Once again, I must say, I hate PCs. Now the problem is the internet has points where it barely works. I mean, it doesn't cut out or anything, but it's slow. As in, Speedtest is giving me 91ms Ping, .28mb/s download speed. YouTube videos are a pain to watch, and Blip/Springboard is even worse. I haven't even played any online games on Steam for a while because of it. I was hoping the problem would go away on its own as they usually do, but this one goes away for a few days, comes back, and so on. So, what's the problem here? It's not the wireless in my house, because my iPod runs fine. And the icon on the toolbar is telling me my internet speeds are 52mb/s. And standard internet browsing is usually fine, except for Know Your Meme image galleries.

And just for any future reference, my system is as follows:
Windows XP Professional SP3
Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 2.4GHz
2GB RAM (I was sure I had more)

And I'm not going to replace this computer. Not only do I not want to buy a PC, but aside from the problems this one faces, the only thing it can't do that I have is play Assassin's Creed II. Other than that, it's better than my 6 year old Macbook Pro, which runs fine mostly.

This post has been edited by Captain L: 30 November 2012 - 05:06 PM

[Captain L]

And new problems keep popping up! I've since gone to college, and I've get a new laptop with it. It's actually really good, runs any of my games on Steam without problems on high settings. It's been having a variety of issues, but they're mostly minor and fixed by now. Except for one that I just noticed today. Like I said, games on Steam run just fine, I've still tested that. My emulators are just fine now (had some issues with some of them running slow, but switching it to OpenGL fixed those). But fangames I downloaded from the internet run really slow. And even then, not all of them. Sonic Before the Sequel works fine, but Mega Pony and Continue? Philly Under Fire don't.

For all future reference (again) if I ever need other help, my current computer specs are
Intel Core i7 2.4GHz
8GB RAM
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

EDIT: Okay, I fixed the problem with Continue? Philly Under Fire by downloading an updated version.

This post has been edited by Captain L: 23 November 2013 - 07:15 PM

[Oerg866]

It fucking grinds my shit every time I see people who have absolutely ZERO knowledge of computers giving advice on computers....

Thousand Pancake, on 30 June 2012 - 03:36 PM, said:

Giving concrete specs would certainly help.

Not really

FeliciaVal, on 30 June 2012 - 03:50 PM, said:

Not be skeptical but probably your computer needs a format, maybe something within Windows got corrupted and it's causing that. My computer actually does that sometimes and doing a full format usually helps. I just can recommend you to do that if you want and if you do it and doesn't help probably it's hardware related, not sure...but I guess giving a try doesn't hurt, just my personal recommendation anyways

No

Chibisteven, on 02 July 2012 - 07:45 PM, said:

Sometimes, defragging can help with the start up hang when the Windows load up animation is taking forever. Atleast it does with my mom's laptop. (not sure how it happens, but it's weird).

A second thing is turn on diagnoise in the BIOS to see if something shows up or turn it off if it's on (quick boot in some BIOS).

Run a stress test as well.

NO

Captain L, on 22 July 2012 - 08:10 PM, said:

I hate PCs. Besides the fact that I've had more problems with it in 6 months than I've had with Macs in 6 years, at least when the Mac breaks down, there's an explanation. I decided to just open up the side of the PC to look at the USB stuff on the inside (I had no idea what I was doing). I poked the silver boxes on the inside, looked at it, closed it back up, and plugged it back in. Guess what? It works fine now.

ARGHHHHH *explodes*

So much faggotry in this thread. certainly comparing a fucked up 2nd hand machine to a first hand macbook is a very fair contest.

Also, your laptop probably has a "run with dedicated GPU" or something option where the GPU is only used if it's really necessary. Check that. Most of the things running slow are probably running on the integrated graphics unit.

This post has been edited by Oerg866: 25 November 2013 - 08:58 AM

[Chibisteven]

Oerg866, on 25 November 2013 - 08:55 AM, said:

It fucking grinds my shit every time I see people who have absolutely ZERO knowledge of computers giving advice on computers....

Excuse me? Quite rude.

This post has been edited by Chibisteven: 25 November 2013 - 06:45 PM

[Oerg866]

Rude, but more importantly: the truth. The truth is never polite.

This post has been edited by Oerg866: 25 November 2013 - 09:44 PM

[Chibisteven]

Oerg866, on 25 November 2013 - 09:42 PM, said:

Rude, but more importantly: the truth. The truth is never polite.

And everyone's experiences with computers are different.

EDIT: I saw your post on SEGA-16. You come as hostile and just mean. So I'm done with this. No more. I'm quite pissed you feel the need to say that to my face. To be honest. We were all newbies at one point, but to say I know nothing about computing is rude to me. If I don't know something or it's inaccurite you are welcomed to politely point it out. Otherwise you got nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. Learn some manners. Their people out there that can't even turn the machines on without having problems.

This post has been edited by Chibisteven: 25 November 2013 - 11:17 PM

[winterhell]

There are 2 main reasons why people are having hardware problems.

A) They are being cheap(getting the CPU, RAM and GPU first and then having the "oh well whatever fits the budget" mainboard and PSU). There is a reason there can be 2 different 520W PSUs with 5 times the price tag difference. Same with motherboards "fitting" the same CPU.

B) Being greedy. Overclocking your CPU to higher frequency than most reviewers can achieve and then leaving it with little cooling, because silence is golden. No wonder why 12 months later one of the cores bites the dust. Or installing promising drivers or updates for hardware that works just fine without them.

The past 16 years I've had 5 different PCs, very heavy usage, and the only hardware problems I've had were 1 busted core and 1 GPU, both due to the greediness( though they gave me a full refund on the GPU because the drivers were defective anyway). If I had only bought Apple products I'd have only 2 macs with the same money, and I wouldnt be able to do anything with them. No diverse games, no diverse programs, just the few "elitist" content creation exclusives. Its a full blown joke when I cant open 2 text files so I can compare their contents.

[Oerg866]

Chibisteven, on 25 November 2013 - 10:56 PM, said:

Oerg866, on 25 November 2013 - 09:42 PM, said:

Rude, but more importantly: the truth. The truth is never polite.

And everyone's experiences with computers are different.

EDIT: I saw your post on SEGA-16. You come as hostile and just mean. So I'm done with this. No more. I'm quite pissed you feel the need to say that to my face. To be honest. We were all newbies at one point, but to say I know nothing about computing is rude to me. If I don't know something or it's inaccurite you are welcomed to politely point it out. Otherwise you got nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. Learn some manners. Their people out there that can't even turn the machines on without having problems.

After reading all of your posts that are relevant to this issue, I can wholeheartedly say: Fuck you. (You will probably stop reading here.)

I have done two things in my post above:

1) Tell people to GTFO if they don't know anything
2) Tried to help Captain L with the actual issue he's still having.

For some reason I guess you thought I was being mean to you, directly. No, I was being honest and telling all the people I quoted that they don't know a thing about what they're talking about. If the machine hangs at the POST screen, a defrag CAN and WILL NOT HELP. No matter what you say, Chibisteven, you are WRONG. So, so WRONG.

Neither FORMATTING or REINSTALLING WINDOWS will help either.

And that is what pisses me off here. Nobody in this thread except for a few people actually have a clue on what they're talking about.

If you think that's mean, well what's mean? 10 people who don't know shit wasting the topic creator's time? Or someone with real knowledge telling everyone else to shut the fuck up and help him instead?

You need to grow some balls.

EDIT: About the sega-16 thing, you were being very assumptous and trying to catch me off guard on a subject that I actually spent the last several years of my life doing. Are you sure you're not the rude one?

This post has been edited by Oerg866: 26 November 2013 - 07:50 AM

[Nova]

Considering the lack of information presented by OP, I'd say you also are being assumptive at best, Oerg. Maybe good assumptions, but assumptions nonetheless.

I also wanted to point out that your way with people, as Chibisteven has mentioned, is fucking terrible. Certainly, there's merit in what you're saying and maybe you do know better than some other people - that doesn't give you the right to be an absolute cunt about it, particularly when they were just trying to help the best way they could in the first place.

The truth doesn't have to be rude, especially not so explosively so. You're acting like a 17-year old with a superiority complex, dude.

[Oerg866]

Maybe you're right. But my point still stands. Don't try to help people if you know absolutely fuck all.

Quote

I'd say you also are being assumptive at best

The OP clearly says it's not a windows problem.

Quote

The BIOS part beforehand is the part that takes over an hour.

This post has been edited by Oerg866: 26 November 2013 - 10:05 AM