Choosing a Computer

[Slapshot136]

And computer is now on it's way! I'll probably be back here on Tuesday asking for help with putting the darn thing together.

And computer is up and running! Going to see about downloading some games to run it through it's paces, but everything seems to be working great. Thanks again for all the help!

(This was posted from the new computer, by the way)

seems like you didn't need any help - good job putting it together, I would still recommend you let it run a memtest overnight though, if you installed windows, go to the start menu and type in "memory" and let it boot into the memtest, and then have it do a few passes

 

[AgentPaper]

Well, I did need help, it just turns out that a few guys at the office have put together so many computers that they can do it blindfolded. (literally)

However, now I'm having a bit of trouble. Up until now, I've had my monitor hooked into the motherboard directly, as opposed to the graphics card, because I was having a bit of trouble early on with those slots. Everything was working fine, the graphics was full resolution and I was able to play Shogun 2 without any issues.

However, after this I decided that now that I had all the graphics drivers installed, I should try plugging my monitor into the graphics card directly. I did so, and it seemed to work; the display showed as normal for 10-20 seconds, but then the screen froze, there were a bunch of strange artifacts, and then it went black. I tried re-starting the computer, and again it worked for a bit, but shortly after logging in it has the same problem, no matter what I'm doing. (or even if I do nothing)

The computer itself seems to be operating just fine. The mouse and fan LEDs are still on, and I suspect that everything else is running fine, but no matter what I do I can't get the screen to display past those first few seconds. The monitor itself seems to be fine too, after it goes black it starts doing it's little color test thing, as if it was simply not connected to a computer.

Even worse, the monitor doesn't seem to work whatsoever now when I plug it into the motherboard slot, which means that I basically can't use my computer at all.

Another thing, as I've been turning the computer on and off trying to get things to work, I've gotten a "windows repair" screen a few times, and the boot-up log as asked me if I want to start in that mode. I've let it run, and the screen seemed to work while that was going, but then after re-starting when it's finished it didn't help anything.

Hopefully somewhere in this mess of my experiences with the problem someone can figure out what's actually going on. Hopefully it won't take too long to resolve this, I'd like to be able to use my new computer again.


Update: Ok, got it working with the motherboard plug again, I just needed to jiggle the cord a bit more it seems. The issues with the other two plugs remains unresolved, however.

 

[AgentPaper]

Another question: What's the best way to manage my two storage devices? Right now, I'm simply installing and downloading everything onto the SSD because that's where windows wants to put it. Can I somehow tell it to put everything onto the HDD by default instead, so then I can put the specific programs I want onto the SSD?

 

[Slapshot136]

Can I somehow tell it to put everything onto the HDD by default instead, so then I can put the specific programs I want onto the SSD?

while this is possible, it isn't recommended, since a lot of programs are hard-coded to be installed on the C drive (or atleast some part of the program), and won't work - for most programs, they are small to where it dosen't really matter where you install them, but for larger ones the best option is to manually install them to the larger hard drive

the above sounds like a bad graphics card, although I don't quite understand the cable "jiggling" either, there should be screws on it to keep it in place and eliminate any "jiggling" - also normally the integrated graphics is disabled when a graphics card is installed - just to troubleshoot,

1. is the graphics card installed in the PCIe slot closest to the CPU?
2. does the graphics card have both of it's power adapters connected?
3. does windows recognize the graphics card? (ex: if you go to "device manager -> display adapters), does it show up there?

when you "turned the computer on and off", did you shut it down properly or just use the power button/switch?

 

[AgentPaper]

Yes to all, and I had to use the power button to turn it off, since I couldn't see anything on the screen. I've turned the computer on from a normal restart with the plug in the other slot, though, and get the same error.

As for "jiggling", that was just a euphemism for messing around until it worked. The plug itself is of course fairly solid.

I don't know whether I'm running off of the integrated graphics card or not, I just know I only get the error when I plug into one of the lower slots that come directly from the graphics card. If I am using the integrated graphics, then it's good enough to run Shogun 2 at high settings with large battles, no problem.

 

[Slapshot136]

I don't know whether I'm running off of the integrated graphics card or not

what does windows see in the device manager?