I’m not entirely sure if there’s an existing thread or a specific section for this kind of inquiry, so I figured I’d just post it here. Is there any way—perhaps through a service like Chase or a similar major bank—to see all outstanding debts or penalties tied to my name? I recently had my account frozen out of nowhere because of a parking ticket from four years ago! I never received a single notice in the mail or anything; it just hit me out of the blue. The fine itself was only about $9.00, but getting my account unfrozen cost me $150 🙂. My main concern is that I don't want to be blindsided by some random charge for a few bucks from years ago. Is there a way to check this, or am I stuck just hoping that my record is clean? Thanks!
I went ahead and swapped out the drivers just to rule out any potential issues with the GPU software, like someone suggested, but honestly... it’s still doing the exact same thing...
Guys, please help! If anyone has any suggestions on what I should do or if there are any other options left to try, I would be eternally grateful because I am looood more than stressed out right
I have projects to finish, deadlines are looming, and I'm constantly on edge wondering if my PC is going to freeze up on me again. It’s driving me insane having to manually save every two minutes just to stay safe. Sometimes it freezes four or five times within a fifteen-minute window, and then other times it goes hours without a single hiccup.
To summarize the situation: temperatures are definitely not "optimal," I've already reset the BIOS to defaults (pulled the CMOS battery on the motherboard), and I performed a clean install of Windows 10 using the official site (and even immediately after installation, as soon as I hopped online to grab the GPU driver, the whole thing froze). I’ve swapped through three different graphics drivers, ran a RAM test which came back error-free, replaced the old hard drive and ran HDTune tests on both the SSD and the HDD—everything shows as healthy with no bad sectors. I even swapped out the power strip. When I run a stability test in Intel Overdrive, the voltage stays constant, so I'm assuming the PSU is fine. It's obvious there's an issue here, but honestly, it feels impossible to test every single component individually via the process of elimination because I simply don't have the time, the space, or the gear to pull that off.
After reading a mountain of articles about potential causes, I’m starting to believe this processor and this motherboard just plain don't get along. They refuse to cooperate. A ton of people seem to be dealing with the exact same issue, while others don't have any problems at all, which is a total mindf***.
At the end of the day, I can't wrap my head around why it crashes instantly sometimes, yet runs perfectly for hours at other times... Are there any additional chipset drivers I might have missed? I've already installed the latest ones from the manufacturer's website, but nothing works. Maybe I should try a BIOS downgrade since I'm already on the latest version? I don't know anymore, but I swear I'm going to smash this thing soon and bury it in a hole somewhere.
Everything was set to the factory defaults—I’m talking BIOS settings here. Before this whole mess started, I tried messing around with some overclocking, but the system kept freezing on me. I figured that was the culprit, so I went back to the basics. I actually hit that "load default values" option in the BIOS menu, but now I'm second-guessing myself. Is doing that enough to clear everything out, or do I really need to go through the hassle of popping the CMOS battery out of the motherboard to get a true reset?
My idle temps are hovering around 40 degrees Celsius, so there is absolutely no way this thing is going to overheat during a two-minute stability test. Even if I hit my max operating temperature—which is roughly 70+ C or whatever the limit is—I’ve got a really solid cooler installed. Honestly, even with a basic stock cooler at default settings, this shouldn't be hitting any thermal limits... I reached out and felt the radiator and the surrounding area by hand, and honestly, it feels like it’s sitting right around that 40-degree mark I was estimating...
So, I let MemTest86 run overnight, and it finished all four passes—100% complete... without a single error popping up. Does that mean we can officially rule out the RAM? As for the GPU, I’ve been updating the drivers through GeForce Experience, which pushes out a new one almost every month; it’s downloaded and installed perfectly every single time, and there hasn't been any sign that the driver could be the culprit, though maybe I'm mistaken? I'll check the hard drives once I get home. I also played around with some overclocking settings, disabling Turbo and Cool & Quiet, but the freezing happened a few times regardless... perhaps I didn't set the voltage correctly, so I just reverted everything back to the defaults.
One realization: there's a stability test built into the Intel software. When I kick that off, I can clearly see via Task Manager that the CPU hits a full load and runs at 100% capacity at 3.3 GHz... but in that state, it barely lasts two minutes before the whole system freezes. Doesn't that point toward it being a processor issue? Like, maybe the power supply is feeding it too much voltage, or something similar to what you mentioned once regarding that "X Boost" feature on my motherboard...
So, I'm looking at my CPU temps while idling. In Intel Overdrive, under the thermal margin section, it's showing 41°C. When I check the BIOS under H/W Monitor, it also says 41°C, though the motherboard itself reports 31°C. I obviously can't see the temps under load right now. The weird part is that when I open Task Manager, the CPU usage is sitting at 56%, which makes zero sense because I've closed every single program. Everything looks completely idle... or so it seems. When I dig into the processes to figure out what's eating up the resources, everything shows 0% usage, yet Windows Explorer is reporting 55% usage. Why on earth would that be? As for memory, usage is at 1.4GB with 6.4GB free. While the processor is hitting that 56% mark, it's boosting to 3.56GHz at a voltage of 1.3375v.
I forgot to mention that I have this ancient secondary hard drive just for file storage, and it isn't showing any activity. The same goes for my SSD (just a small one) where Windows, my software, and everything else is installed—but the whole system keeps freezing regardless.
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
I'll run that MemTest and let you guys know what the results look like.
Basically, I picked up these parts over at Best Buy:
asrock 970 pro3 2.0 fx 8300 cpu cooler (freezer pro 7 ) g.skill ripjaws 8gb 1866mhz gtx 1060 3gb ssd adata su800 antec vp600 (I think, just going by memory)
I put the rig together myself—didn't really know what I was doing, just followed some YouTube tutorials. I'm hoping I didn't mess anything up too badly, since everything seemed to be running normally at first glance. Windows is fully up-to-date, my GPU drivers are current, and I used Driver Booster to make sure every single available driver is installed.
The issue is, the computer just freezes up on its own.
It happened a few times while I was just browsing randomly, but it was pretty rare, so maybe it felt fine because I wasn't pushing it hard. I've been using software that relies heavily on the GPU, but I'm ruling that out because it seems to perform perfectly fine under heavy load. Now, I've started using a program that's clearly more CPU-intensive, and I wanted to see how games would hold up—specifically Hitman—but every single time, the system freezes. It crashes before I can even get into the game, sometimes accompanied by that annoying "bzzzz" looping sound, and then I have to force a restart. I'm honestly stumped... why is this happening? Especially since all these components are relatively new... From my amateur perspective, I'm leaning toward the processor, but I don't really get why. Could it be the RAM? Or the power supply? I'm just not sure... Thanks.
Thanks so much to everyone for putting in the time and effort; I finally got it sorted out! It turns out I didn't even need to go through the hassle of a clean macOS installation after all. A quick run of "fixboot" and "fixmbr" did the trick instead. Cheers!
I wasn't quite sure where to start this thread, so I figured I'd just drop it here. My dad is having some serious trouble getting his computer to boot up. Basically, he keeps getting stuck with two choices: one is an option to "start recovery" or something similar (which doesn't actually fix anything and just loops him right back to the same menu), and the other is "start Windows normally." When he tries to boot normally, the system starts loading, but then the PC just restarts itself and lands right back at those same options again... It’s essentially refusing to load the OS entirely. Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this or how we could fix it without having to go through a full Windows installation? He's running Windows 7 on this machine.
The build would be pretty much the same, just with a few tweaks—I’d probably swap out the GPU for a GTX 1060 or maybe even a 480... I was wondering, though, could I get away with a slightly weaker power supply? Or perhaps there's a cheaper option available, or is what you listed the absolute bare minimum... I know I'm being a total nitpicker, but I really want to squeeze every last drop of performance out of every single component, even if it means spending a bit extra in July. I have this obsessive streak about these things and I just can't help myself.
About a month and a half ago, you all helped me brainstorm a build, focusing just on the case at the time. I decided to hold off for a bit, and honestly, the price drops lately have been a nice little bonus. I have a much clearer idea of what I’m aiming for now, so I’ll be posting the full list here soon to get your stamp of approval 😁 Right now, though, I need some solid advice on a power supply. I'm looking for something around 500W—basically a "best buy" situation. I want the most budget-friendly option possible, provided it isn't total junk! I need something reliable that can actually take a hit...
So, having one stick of RAM is fine if I want to look into a dual-channel upgrade down the road. As for the graphics card, that was actually my initial plan (GTX 1060), but since those custom builds won't be hitting the local shops here in the States for another month and will probably run me upwards of $300... well, this R9 isn't half bad either, right?
Well, I'll let the final budget dictate things at the end, provided we keep the cost of the other components to an absolute minimum while still ensuring there's enough breathing room to reliably power the CPU and GPU. Whatever the total comes out to, I'm fine with it. If it proves easier, I'll just start a fresh thread. Thanks!
I'm quoting my question from an old thread just to kick off a fresh discussion here:
"Hey guys! I'm building a PC—just the tower itself, I don't need any peripherals. I'm looking for recommendations for all the other components. I want to keep things as budget-friendly as possible... like, absolute bare minimum pricing, but it still needs to play nice with the parts I've already picked out: The core setup I'm planning includes a processor (Core i5 6400) and a graphics card (Radeon RX 470), plus about 8GB of RAM, maybe a 2x4GB kit for dual channel. Now, give me your suggestions for everything else. Thanks! "
NOTE: My final budget will depend on the outcome, provided that the price for the remaining components stays at the absolute MINIMUM while still reliably supporting the CPU and GPU. Whatever the total ends up being, it is what it is. Thanks!
Hey everyone! I don't want to start an entirely new thread if I can just get some advice here first. I'm currently putting together a PC build—just the tower itself, nothing else, I don't need any peripherals. I'm looking for recommendations on all the other components. Ideally, I want to keep this as budget-friendly as humanly possible... we're talking absolute bottom-dollar pricing, but it still needs to be compatible with what I've already picked out: My current plan is to go with an Intel Core i5-6400 and an AMD Radeon R9 380x 4GB OC. I think 8GB of RAM should be plenty—maybe a 2x4GB kit to take advantage of dual channel. Now, I'd love to hear your suggestions for everything else. Thanks!