If you're seeing those kinds of temps during a stress test, I honestly wouldn't sweat it too much—after all, a stress test is designed to push your components right to the absolute edge, isn't it?
Maybe try downloading Core Temp and just leaving it running in the background. Then, hop into whatever game you're playing and check the program periodically to see what the temperatures actually look like under a more realistic load...
I'm honestly stumped—everything seems connected perfectly. The power supply should have plenty of juice, too; I even tried using their specific cables and made sure they were dual-connected to the PSU. All I see on my monitor is a single dash in the top right corner.
For what it's worth, my old GTX 660 ti is still working just fine.
Is there any chance the card itself is just a dud?
There isn't much you can really mess up here, so maybe just double-check that the card is fully seated in the PCIe slot on the motherboard and that the power cables are plugged all the way into the GPU. If you've checked it a dozen times and it's still doing this, try popping the card into another PC if you have one handy—just to see if the issue follows the hardware. If it does, your best bet is to take it back to the store where you bought it and let the technicians test it out on their end.
It sounds like you're dealing with the classic issue where there's no sound while Windows is running in Safe mode... It’s actually pretty normal—Windows basically strips everything down to the bare essentials and just loads the most basic drivers and files when you're in that mode. If you have access to another computer, maybe try downloading CrystalDiskInfo from there? Then, you could jump back into Safe mode on your own machine, install it, and run the program. It'll give us a clear picture of what's going on with your hard drive status, so just let me know what it says once you've had a look..
Nicole Thompson46 said:Fair enough. I hadn't actually factored an SSD into my plans since I've never used one, but I'm guessing it’ll be a total game-changer for boot times and general system snappiness. The math makes sense now. If I go with the Skylake route, I'm looking at $167 spending more upfront plus grabbing a new power supply. If I stick with my current setup, I save $167 by skipping the new PSU. That would leave me with $300 extra cash, which opens the door to picking up a 240GB SSD...
By the way, is my 560ti going to be a massive bottleneck for a new build?
According to this, it looks like it might, but since a 660ti doesn't show much of a bottleneck, I'm thinking it won't be too disastrous with my 560ti given how close those two cards are...
Your GPU is going to be the bottleneck here—and I don't just mean that the processor won't be able to keep up with it. It’s actually going to become the single "weakest" link in your entire build. I put quotes around "weakest," but let's be real: that graphics card just isn't powerful enough to push all the latest titles at 1080p on ultra settings.
Let the guy decide for himself—at the end of the day, it's his call, and honestly, he can't really go wrong regardless of what he picks.
I was just sharing my own take on how I’d handle it. Since it's newer, it feels like the smarter move, right? It’s kind of like choosing between an old Samsung Galaxy S5 for $167 versus grabbing the S6 for $0.33. I’d definitely go with the S6 because it’s more recent and generally just snappier. (That is, assuming an extra $167 isn't a huge deal for him) — I'm not talking about someone who's struggling to cover the rent or buy groceries next month.
I’m leaning toward the 1151 socket—I mean, $167 there's definitely a difference, but you get access to the latest tech on the market and DDR4 RAM. But hey, that's just my two cents. If I'm buying everything brand new and I've got the budget for it, I’d rather just invest in the newer stuff, even if it costs a bit more.
David Martinez15 said:Is it worth upgrading from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to SP3?
I have a secondary machine running Windows XP Service Pack 2 that has been rock solid for years. I’m wondering if moving up to SP3 actually offers any tangible benefit, or if I’m just wasting my time tinkering with something that isn't broken.😁
Keep in mind this machine is strictly for basic tasks—email, Office, music, the occasional video. I have all the necessary security tools installed, and I haven't run into a single virus.
If I were you, I'd definitely say go ahead and install SP3 if you're still on SP2. Since Windows XP doesn't get official support anymore, more and more programs are becoming incompatible with it every single day. The risk of getting hacked is pretty high—unless, of course, you're using an old potato of a computer just to read the news, check Facebook, or watch YouTube, in which case you can probably leave it be. But since you're already running such an ancient OS, I'll say it again: install SP3 if you possibly can.
hiddenviper13 is actually mistaken here—you don't need to wipe everything to install SP3. You can upgrade from SP2 to SP3 via Windows Update, or just Google "Windows XP Service Pack 3 download" and grab it directly from Microsoft's website.
Emily Booth32 said:I already tried using a recovery drive, a cleaner tool... even moving the installation to a different partition. All I have left is that virtual machine suggestion you made, but honestly, I’m worried I don't have the technical chops for it. Is VirtualBox what people use for that?
Maybe give Revo Uninstaller a shot to wipe the program out completely—then run CCleaner to clear out any leftover junk files. If that still doesn't do the trick and you absolutely need that software, your best bet might be to set up a new partition and just run it through a virtual machine instead...
Check the network icon down by your system tray—is there any kind of warning or status indicator popping up there? Also, have you made sure the network card drivers are actually installed? One more thing—double-check that your system clock, date, and year are all set correctly. Sometimes that little detail can throw everything off, right?
As funny as it sounds—at least to me—you’re just working with too small of a budget for a 4K setup. Honestly, you barely have enough to cover the basics, let alone a high-end monitor and all the other peripherals. If your goal is to run every new release on 4K Ultra settings, you might want to rethink this one. You’d need something like an NVIDIA RTX 4090 just to get close, and that's before you even start talking about the cost of a decent monitor, a solid processor, and plenty of RAM...
Under Custom views-administrative events: There are quite a few listed—some show up in red (errors) and others in yellow (warnings). The columns available are just: level, date and time, source, event ID, and Task category. Where's the error code?
@Larry Ortiz5/">@@Larry Ortiz5: So, does that mean I should just reinstall Windows and wipe my hard drive every couple of years?
Honestly, you probably should. Think about it—over those four years, you’ve likely installed and uninstalled dozens of programs, right? You end up with all sorts of leftover junk files. Plus, there’s always the chance you picked up some random malware, or your browser history and cache just start piling up. It's a lot of unwanted clutter. If you were to just format the drive and install a fresh version of Windows, you wouldn't believe how much faster your computer would feel.
From what I can tell, this Windows installation hasn't been touched in four years—which means who knows how much digital junk or malware has piled up in the background? Honestly, I still think a clean wipe and a fresh install would be the best way to fix this issue.
I’m leaning toward this being a software issue—honestly, you might just need to wipe the drive and do a clean install of Windows to get everything running smoothly again. That's just my take on it...
So, the motherboard actually has a PCIe x16 slot—I honestly thought it would have an AGP slot since it's such an old setup. Anyway, does the NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 look like it's seated properly in the slot? You might also want to try a CMOS reset; just pop that little battery out of the motherboard for maybe 30 seconds or so, then put it back in. After that, fire up the PC and see if anything changes..
So, I just finished setting up a fresh install of Windows 10 a couple of days ago and got Zoom up and running—then this popped up. It looks like it's built right into the Zoom software itself, which is pretty annoying, honestly. Anyway, just a heads-up: don't click on it. That’s really all there is to it.
You suggested the latest Intel processor—honestly, if I were in your shoes, I’d definitely go that route. Since you're investing so much into this build anyway, why not just grab the best components currently available on the market?