Posts by Larry Ortiz5

Everyone’s got their own thing when it comes to style—personally, I’ve always thought the Corsair gaming series cases looked the best 😁

Would you mind taking a screenshot if it pops up again? Maybe just grab a shot and post it here on the forum... It’s probably just some malware or some junk trying to get into your PC, but wouldn't it be smartest to actually see what we're dealing with first?

Do you think that's coming from the monitor itself or just how Windows is displaying things? Give me a bit more detail to work with...

Do you think it would work?

A monitor is a monitor—you just plug it in via VGA or DVI (though I’d definitely go with DVI if you can) to get an image on the screen, and that's pretty much it...

Everything 👍

Go ahead and download WhoCrashed. Once you've got it installed, you'll see an option to run an analysis—just click that, and it should generate a log explaining why your computer restarted. If you want, go ahead and copy that log here so we can take a look together...

Nathan Ramos
Why wouldn't there be a recovery partition on Windows Vista? (Assuming one actually exists, anyway)

steeltinker99
If there's a recovery partition available, you usually have to trigger it right when the computer starts up—it should pop up on the screen saying something like "press F12 to start recovery." Once you do that, Windows takes over the process, though keep in mind it’ll likely need to format the C: drive to install a fresh version of Windows. After that's done, you'll just need to enter the product key—the one stuck on the bottom of your laptop—to get everything activated. Then it's just a matter of finishing the installation and getting your drivers sorted out...

Do you already have a motherboard? If not, go for an LGA 1150 socket—something like THIS PROCESSOR
The price is actually a bit lower too, but since this one uses a newer socket, it just makes more sense to buy something current rather than investing in tech that's two years old... Just something to keep in mind, right? And if you grab a matching motherboard, you could even go with THIS ONE

Jerry Watson2 said:Hey there,
I'm thinking about upgrading my CPU and GPU.

Intel Core i5
MSI Radeon R9 270x

Right now, I'm running an EVGA Redwing 450W—do you think that can handle the jump, or should I just swap out the PSU while I'm at it?

thanks

Which specific i5 were you eyeing?

So, it’s pretty much exactly how you laid it out—you put the whole rig together, fire it up, and then boot from a DVD or a USB drive containing macOS. From there, you just wipe the old partitions, create whatever new ones you want, and perform a fresh install of macOS. Once that's done, you'll definitely want to make sure you grab all the necessary drivers and the chipset updates to get everything running smoothly, and then you're good to go...

I don't know—it feels to me like we might be looking at a hardware issue here, maybe something going on with the hard drive or the RAM... Do you happen to have another spare hard drive lying around that you could plug in, just to see if it'll actually let you install Windows on it?

If I were in your shoes, honestly, the best move would be to just wipe the hard drive and do a clean install of macOS. It lets you start from scratch—which is usually the best way to rule out any software glitches making your internet feel sluggish. Once you've got macOS back up and running, just make sure to grab all those necessary drivers. If the computer still acts up after that, then you know for sure you're looking at a hardware issue...

Move this over to the desktops thread... This is basically just an IT help desk—you know, for when you're dealing with computer issues 😁

I was actually just about to ask you—did you set it up to scan for drivers automatically? Man, if you did, I honestly have no clue what else could be going wrong... it's just not working at all.

Maybe you could borrow a GPU from a friend or a neighbor just to test things out—you know, just to see if the system actually boots up and sends a signal to the monitor? It might also be worth trying to clear the CMOS by pulling the battery off the motherboard and popping it back in. I’d also suggest reseating the RAM—just take it out and click it back in firmly. Honestly, if you try swapping in that other graphics card and still get nothing, I’m starting to suspect the motherboard might have finally kicked the bucket... Is your current card definitely seated all the way into the PCIe slot? Also, when you hit the power button, do you see any signs of life from the keyboard, like the lights coming on?

Have you tried plugging it into a different USB port yet? It might be worth checking Device Manager to see if there are any yellow exclamation marks popping up. By the way, which version of Windows are you running on that machine?

I’ve got a bad feeling about your RAM. Why don't you run Memtest86 all the way to the end and see if it flags any errors?

Ronald Bishop58 said:Could some experts weigh in on these two graphics cards for me?

http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/produc...n-r9-280a-tdbd

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presenta...n=&lid=1&leg=0

They're priced pretty close together... which one is actually better?

Thanks in advance!

Just grab whichever one is cheaper—they're basically the same thing, really.

It’s probably just a software issue—drivers acting up, most likely. Why don't you try uninstalling everything first, then run a tool like Driver Sweeper to really clean out the old junk? After you restart, grab the latest drivers directly from NVIDIA's site and see if that stabilizes things...

Another thing—you could always pop that GTX 750 into a different PC, just to rule out any hardware issues. By the way, when exactly are you getting that black screen? Is it just totally random, or does it happen specifically while you're gaming?

If you're really that worried about losing those files on your laptop, why not just toss them onto a cloud service—maybe something like Microsoft OneDrive? Or, if you want to go old school, you could always burn them onto a DVD...