PC problems thread

[Borsuc]

Pol, can you please tell me which motherboards support ECC memory (for example, to support this or this (romanian but pics & specs speak for themselves).

The first one is "fully buffered", the second one is not. So I do not require that the motherboard supports the buffer!!! I only require that it supports ECC.

I tried but in other online shops it doesn't list if it does, and google isn't helpful (well maybe because I don't know where to look).

The processor's socket should be Intel 775 for Intel Core2 Quad please and FSB 1333 Mhz. Also, I heard Xeon processors have good Quads as well (but they are for servers). Is there any problems with using such a Xeon CPU for desktop (I mean in performance of course)? Anyway if it isn't, then the socket 771 can also be used for such motherboards which must support ECC



Just one more question: if the motherboard is microATX and has integrated video and chipset, does that mean that if I put in a video card, that chipset will be ignored, or will it work in parallel?

Thanks!

[Storm-giant]

F*cking dammed viruses, again my computer infected
Via msn, I stupidly click on the link, my computer froze.I rebooted it and when windows is loading(black background, the four colors windows simbol and such) it autoreboot again....in a vicious circle. Safe mode didn't make any change, so I brought my computer to the store, and obviously I won't see it for several days
I'm writing from a 5 years old laptop, but still
Anyway,it's christmas, I won't be pessimist(not today..)

[Asheera]

That sounds more like exactly what happened to me a few weeks ago on my old comp... I'm not sure if it's a virus

You shouldn't have send it to service that fast, but un-plug it from the power source and after one hour you should have tried again to boot. Because in my case which had exactly the same symptoms, it worked. Although that meant the Hard Disk or some other hardware component was faulty, so I bought a new comp anyway (since that one was very old), but at least this way I knew it wasn't a virus.

[Pol]

Hands off from "fully buffered". This is different dimm socket, for server's boards elite. (The theory behind it is, that memory is having it's own memory cache-controller chip integrated in - simply to serve it fast. Means for i7 it will be of very little need. )

The news for i7 are as follows:
* integrated memory controller in processor (This is how it's doing it AMD for a long time and it's a good thing!)
* not dual channel but triple, huge speed boost (Certainly more than dual channel, which was roughly 5% +/- *depending on conditions)
* shared L3 cache, for all Cores!

The boards supporting ECC:
775
some P45, most of X48
GA-X48-DS4
GA-X48-DQ6
GA-X48-DS5
Asus "Formula" series
majority what falls under category "server board"

1366
Don't know any.

Depending on your money, going directly to i7 may be a very viable solution, accompany it with 6GB of memory and you will crush everything in next year and could live with that happily for next five yrs.

Pros&Cons for 1366
huge performance boost, cost more money

Pros for 775
known architecture - less problems with drivers, incompatibility issues, unknown errors, will be supported at least two more yrs probably longer

Edit:
It should work in parallel in the case of recent nvidia chipset, this is called hybrid graphics. In the future it should start to work with ati too. Ati advertised first this idea but nvidia did first "make it happens".

Thus nvidia+nvidia yes, nvidia + ati no, ati + ati not yet, intel + anything not and not planned. (Read like mostly not for Intel processors.)

[ThunderTitan]

Yeah, once i clicked by mistake on a link from a yahoo msg... at first i was horrified... and then Firefox came up and guess what?! it didn't have whatever security hole the virus used for IE... and i was safe...

[Pol]

If something get wrong I have next my computer "panic" button. It's placed on the modem. All internet threats can be gone with one click. If I will hit fast.

[Asheera]

Or you could just remove that cable from the Modem

[Pol]

Or having a rescue hammer.

[ThunderTitan]

meh, a under 100kb virus/trojan can come very fast... and then you're back to cleaning you pc... one way or another.

Don't use IE... saves you some trouble.

[Asheera]

IE also has the stupid tendency of renaming every zip package to .zip, even if the file is supposed to have a different extension (for example, Heroes 5 maps, mods, paks, etc)

but I'm not sure if it's still like that with the newest version...

[Pol]

Actually some will go through ff to. Ideally it should be: Firewall, Sandie(Box), Priority Control and then Browser itself. (And as last resort internet off.)

Especially if you have Sandie you are almost immune to infection.

Firewall - alert you if any application will call the internet (to download the rest - in case of badware, the virus itself)
Sandie - create virtual space where is placed your browser, no files are transferred from internet to your system.
Priority Control - ensure that you will not be cut of the system whatever will happen. Prevent application to eat 100% of processor time.
Browser - per key on/off javascript, java, popup windows, kill flash, kill java applet.

Myself I don't use Sandie and have only partial keyboard control over browser, cause I'm lazy. As to the priority Process Lasso is taking care of it.

[Borsuc]

Thanks for that informative post Pol I really appreciate it

And yeah I figured that 1366 motherboards don't support ECC -- may be also because I haven't seen ANY DDR3 modules with ECC either. Shame that developers focus more on performance than data stability.

Personally, I think that a Core2 Quad isn't a lot worse than a i7, apart from not using DDR3 and a shared L3 cache, but I don't want DDR3 either since they don't have ECC.

It should work in parallel in the case of recent nvidia chipset, this is called hybrid graphics. In the future it should start to work with ati too. Ati advertised first this idea but nvidia did first "make it happens".

Thus nvidia+nvidia yes, nvidia + ati no, ati + ati not yet, intel + anything not and not planned. (Read like mostly not for Intel processors.)

Oh so if the chipset is Intel and I get a Nvidia video card they will not work in parallel... ok, I'll either have to get an integrated Nvidia chipset then, or none at all

(I already planned on getting a Nvidia card so that's not a problem hehe)
I'm not really into super performance sort of especially not for ultra gaming (probably why I don't want a monster video card ), just okish and especially stability. It's why I want ECC


Thanks again

[Storm-giant]

That sounds more like exactly what happened to me a few weeks ago on my old comp... I'm not sure if it's a virus

You shouldn't have send it to service that fast, but un-plug it from the power source and after one hour you should have tried again to boot. Because in my case which had exactly the same symptoms, it worked. Although that meant the Hard Disk or some other hardware component was faulty, so I bought a new comp anyway (since that one was very old), but at least this way I knew it wasn't a virus.

I'm sure it was a virus, as I ''let'' him enter in my computer(I click on the link, so the virus was downloaded, and once downloaded the computer froze.
I manage to reenter on my account but it frozes again, and since that it always reboot while windows was loading...I rebember that in safe mode I read something like some kind of hardware had been changed(even though I haven't added nothing to my computer since I get it back in july). And almost two hours after It was infected again I tried and it kept rebooting
This holidays I planned to format the computer, but I haven't been able to make a backup of what I wanted to save(why we left everything to the last moment? bad habbit )

[Asheera]

If you have another Hard Disk you can format it, install Windows and boot from it, and then copy the important files from the old one to the new one

[Storm-giant]

One friend told me about installing a linux(don't remember exacly what, but isn't linux like windows(an operating system?)), which lets you to copy files.
Also, I'm thinking on buying an external hard-disk, either with a Terabyte or a half of capacity, so I could make backup copies quickly. Next week I'll ask for one(and how much it cost!), but for the moment I can't do anything else than waiting

[Pol]

Ain't easier to learn yourself to not to click on every link given by MSN?

Linux is OS, so apart some exceptions it's either windows or linux. The exception is virtualization, virtualpc, wmvare - where you could run your linux separatedly or topogolinux and colinux - which can run in your windows

http://topologi-linux.sourceforge.net/
http://www.colinux.org/

Another saver can come from Asus (almost hard to believe but it's right) with theirs Express Gate - which is quick and simple linux environment available very fast after boot - they boast about five seconds after booting your system will be ready, could be true on hihger boards but the promise is not likely on mainstream.

Also you may solve problem from where it does come and install AVG or something, what can do link prefetch and av check or forbid them. Not sure the exact programs needed for, never went this way. However imho it does sound best.

[Asheera]

Hmm I have some weird thing happening. Sometimes (rarely) when I start up my comp the BIOS stuff doesn't appear anymore with all those tests on the black screen. However, it still goes normally, I think, because, there's a phase when it says: "Press <Esc> to boot" and when it came (I didn't see it because nothing is displayed, but I got the "pattern" and I know when it comes), I pressed Esc and then Windows started to load (yes, after the BIOS, Windows is displayed and everything goes to normal)

Should I be worried? Is it something connected with the Motherboard (an error?) or the Video Card has a "bug" at startup at times? Or is it something normal?

My Motherboard is ASUS P5K Pro and my Video Card is Geforce 9600 GT.

[Storm-giant]

Ain't easier to learn yourself to not to click on every link given by MSN?

Definetly, even though I've saw twice in the past something similar and didn't click, but for some reason I clicked last time .
Anyway, I got the computer back one hour ago(an clean ), I have every file&folder back, so I can't save anything I need, luckily
By the way, do anyone know how to recover all the favourites links from mozilla firefox?(between history and tools)

[Asheera]

Well you need to launch the old Mozilla Firefox first with all those favorites, go to Bookmarks->Organize Bookmarks then select "Import and Backup" and Export HTML.

Then just do the same steps with the new Firefox but select Import HTML instead and select that exported file

[Storm-giant]

Nop, launching the old exe makes to run the new one, so I only see the bookmarks I have now Any other suggestions?