Whats safe, whats not?

[ShinRa]

Ever since my computer crapped me for an entire year (2005), I'm extremely paranoid. As many of you know, my hd's failed, my comp locked up, and I couldn't play any games...and this was with a fx-53, raptor 74g, an x800xt and a gig of memory.


I am so nervous about making a wrong move with my new fx-57 and x1900pe that I am afraid to play games, use certain apps,and even visit certain sites. I'm running AVG and Spybot S&D. I still feel insecure. So I want to know a few things.

A. Is limewire a safe program to use?
B. Is Azureus, the bittorent client, safe to use?
C. Can I play HL2 and it's mods, bf2, and other games and not worry about lock ups and shit just going terribly wrong, even when I haven't done anything?

Do you see how scared I am yet? Also what precautions can I take to ensure the safety of my parts. I'm worried about parts burning out, shit failing for no reason, and spyware and trojans owning my very expensive new comp. Please help a nervous and overly paranoid mother****er enjoy his new comp, because so far all he's doing is using AIM, firefox, and itunes. ;(

 

[Cole]

Heres the thing:
-Just keep the computer in a nice rather open area so it can run cool.
-Just get Microsofts own Anti-spyware program
-Use Firefox, never IE except maybe checking your email via msn messenger.
-Get Service Pack 2
-Don't look at porn except if you know exactly what your doing and the site your at.
-Dont open emails promising porn, don't install any spyware.

 

[ShinRa]

-Ok i have sp2.
-I use firefox completely and only.
-The comp has 7 case fans. 2 side, 2 back, 2 front, 1 top. Idle the cpu and motherboard both level at about 43-44c. Full load I am uncertain. The video card idle runs at 56c. If these are rediculously high or dangerous please let me know and I'll get a cold cathode light installed or something.
-I have gmail so all porn emails i never see.

Thanks for the help

 

[ShinRa]

JESUS ****ING CHRIST. RIGHT AFTER I LEFT MY LAST POST MY COMP FROZE AND THE BSOD CAME UP! Everythings running fine now but WHAT THE ****?!? Does that just randomly happen sometimes? Could it be the memory that was the problem the whole time? The ram is the only thing I carried over from my old comp.;( Please help I'm so nervous.

 

[Shamrock]

Well, if your old computer had BSODs and froze at random times and the only thing you carried over was the RAM, then I will say you have borked RAM. Try using a friend's RAM for a day or so and see if that solves any problems.

I would definetly say it is the RAM so go out and buy some new ones, and you will be a much happier camper.

Did you carry over anything else? PSU, etc?

Also, don't worry. BSODs aren't fatal. If you follow my advice, that should be your last BSOD forever! ...Or at least until you upgrade again.

 

[ShinRa]

Just the soundcard. Its an audigy 2 zs, which I doubt is giving me BSODS. If it is the ram I'll be happy and pissed at the same time. Happy i got a new comp, pissed that i could have saved $2000 and just gotten new ram.

 

[Glirk Dient]

Is your PSU good? How many watts and post the rails...or take a picture of the white sticker on the side and post it here.

Indeed, also sounds like RAM is bad if thats the only thing that carried over. You could also try to reformat and see what happens, however sounds like RAM or bad PSU in this case.

Also you never have to buy a new comp...it is always fixable cheaper than buying a new comp. The parts can't be ruined by viruses, so the worst software can do is cause you to reformat, but id you put windows on a seperate partition you dont lose anything except drivers and windows when you need to reformat.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Just wondering, did you make this computer yourself?

Since you might well be doing something wrong

 

[ShinRa]

It's an Antec TruepowerII 550watts.

 

[Shakermaker]

Just wondering, did you make this computer yourself?

Since you might well be doing something wrong

Exactly what I was thinking. It's the reason I let my rig be built in stead of have doing it myself. It was well worth the 50 euro.

 

[Shamrock]

Exactly what I was thinking. It's the reason I let my rig be built in stead of have doing it myself. It was well worth the 50 euro.

Thats funny. I built my own computer with little to no help. I plugged everything in correctly, I tightened every screw, and my computer is now as perfect as it ever could be. I find no reason to purchase a computer from companies anymore since this is the easiest and cheapest way to own a computer. Then again you get warranties and what not with the companies and they actually test to see if your computer works.

Anyway, I prefer building.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

You know with all this money you spend on pc's, why not just use all the old hardware and making a pc for browsing, talking to friends, etc. This is what I do, my other pc only has games+spybot and adaware, and thats it. It runs perfectly fine aswell, never have any issues because nothing crap ever gets installed onto it.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

B. Is Azureus, the bittorent client, safe to use?

Since when has any bittorrent client been safe? You are walking a fine line, just make sure you know how to balance

 

[ShinRa]

i tried running ati tool to see if i could bump up my x1900's fan speed, and in the log i read temperature control not available. any idea why? ive heard other people having the same problem that the fan only runs at 1% by default, which is why its running idle at 56c and at full load 80c. Disturbed thats a great idea but unfortunately what pays for half the new comp is selling the old one.

 

[Cole]

It's an Antec TruepowerII 550watts.

Great power supply, I have one myself.
But yeah I'd buy some new ram.

 

[psyno]

FFS SHINRA, BEFORE YOU SPEND ANY MORE MONEY, DIAGNOSE YOUR PROBLEM!

memtest86+

Download it. Burn it. Run it.

-The comp has 7 case fans. 2 side, 2 back, 2 front, 1 top. Idle the cpu and motherboard both level at about 43-44c. Full load I am uncertain. The video card idle runs at 56c.

If that is accurate, then I'm shocked. I think you've stated before that at least some of these are 80 mm fans. With that kind of ventillation you should expect temperatures close to room temperature. You're about 20 C over that. I can only guess that these figures have been reported erroneously (possibly by your hardware).

If these are rediculously high or dangerous please let me know and I'll get a cold cathode light installed or something.

Please don't. The term "cold cathode" is meant to distinguish these devices from "hot cathodes." They still draw power and dissipate heat. If anything, this would exacerbate a heat-related problem.

 

[ShinRa]

ok well yesterday, shortly after my internet cable went out (again), i went to play gta:sa, the monitor went black as if to load the game, the monitor idled, and the computer restarted. i went to try again and had no problems the game ran fine. still sound like a ram problem? im telling u this now because my internet is down at home for some reason so im using a comp at my college. thanks for the advice everyone.

 

[CptStern]

-Ok i have sp2.
-I use firefox completely and only.
-The comp has 7 case fans. 2 side, 2 back, 2 front, 1 top. Idle the cpu and motherboard both level at about 43-44c. Full load I am uncertain. The video card idle runs at 56c. If these are rediculously high or dangerous please let me know and I'll get a cold cathode light installed or something.
-I have gmail so all porn emails i never see.

Thanks for the help

solution: buy yourself a cheap fan/temp controller ..that way you can always see what your temps are and some even have alarms that sound if your components get too hot, some will even rev up the fan speeds to compensate

this is a fairly decent one that monitors 3 temp settings and controls 4 fans

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/coolermaster_aerogate_2.php

oh and cool cathode lights dont cool your pc ..it just lights it up. And your temps do seem high for idle ..put your hand over your fans to determine what direction the airflow is flowing ..ideally it should suck from the front of the case and blow out the back

 

[15357]

Your video card is probably going into a infinite loop, whenever you play 'graphic' games. It happened to me too.

 

[ShinRa]

does this "infinite loop" have a solution or is my card ****ed up? because its happened to me with my x800 as well. this is not only a different card, its an entirely different format (agp to pci-e).

i have two fans in the front taking in cool air, two fans from the side taking in cool air, 2 back fans blowing out, and one on the ceiling of the case blowing out. should i turn the side case fans around and have them blow out? even so i dont think its a heating issue, as ive gotten the games to play without a hitch. i had that one incident (which im sure will repeat itself), but nothing since. ill test the memory when i get home. if its not the memory then i am REALLY lost because every other part of my comp is brand new, so there should be no reason for crashes and comp restarts.

 

[CptStern]

if your card was ****ed up it wouldnt work at all ..seems to me (just a guess) that's it's either a driver problem, a power problem (what psu do you have?) or a cooling problem (cant tell cuz you didnt provide temps on full load, but the idle temps seem way off)

sometimes a side case fan does little to nothing to help cooling as it disrupts the airflow ..if I turn on my side case fan I usually jump a degree or two but nothing like what you're reporting

 

[15357]

Oh, btw, do you have software installed for a virtual CD drive?

 

[CptStern]

daemon tools is a software virtual cd drive

 

[Last One In]

Just the soundcard. Its an audigy 2 zs, which I doubt is giving me BSODS. If it is the ram I'll be happy and pissed at the same time. Happy i got a new comp, pissed that i could have saved $2000 and just gotten new ram.

Before you install new ram, make sure that your drivers from your own sound card are uninstalled! I had the exact same sound card and it gave me the exact same bios error. Never install sound card drivers over one another! If you have questions i'll tell you exactly what to do to fix the problem.

 

[Codcommando]

Limewire is perfectly safe iff you have antivirus.And iff you have enough sense to avoid a file that sais HALF LIFE 2 Full with crack.....and its only a 1mb file

 

[ShinRa]

last one in id really appriciate telling me how to fix the problem. ive never actually uninstalled the old drivers on the sound card. and every time i play games the sound seems to go haywire every now and then, especiall when i alt tab out and come back everything is 5 times louder and scratchy for a while. so please tell me how to go about fixing my soundcard and we'll see if thats the problem.

btw i dont think the BSOD i got yesterday was a bad one. i got it again today doing the same thing. i went to change which port i had my ethernet cable plugged into and sure enough my system crashed and the BSOD came up saying MACHINE_CHANGE_EXCEPTION. Which I'm assuming the mobo doesnt like you changing out wires while it's on or something.

 

[Roland Deschain]

Limewire is perfectly safe iff you have antivirus.And iff you have enough sense to avoid a file that sais HALF LIFE 2 Full with crack.....and its only a 1mb file

Now you tell me!!! Jeez.

On topic. My computer has a weird quirk too. It has been so for 2 years now with nothing going wrong, so it doesn't seem to do it too much harm (and if it did, perfect excuse for an upgrade).

When I start playing a game I play for about 10-20 min and then my screen goes blank and I have to restart (I can still hear the game on my speakers). Once I restart I can play the game for the entire day without having that problem. It just happens once on a daily basis.

I have a 9800 Pro and my friend told me they have a notorious history of complications.

 

[ShinRa]

Wow roland...scary...i remember that exact same thing happening with my 9800. nothing to worry about but ur definately in for an upgrade.

 

[carrera]

hold on...you upgraded from a fx-53 to a fx-57?:rolling:

 

[Link]

Shinra, if you have more than 1 stick of ram, try removing them one at a time and see if you still get the problem. I had these sorts of problems (Random reboots etc) and assumed the GFX card or PSU was faulty (GFX card artifacted occasionally before restarts and PSU whined) so I replaced both, but still got random restarts. Ditched the most recently added stick of ram and have had no problems since. And I just spotted a deal for 1gb of RAM DDR400 at aria for £50, so am a happy bunny

 

[ShinRa]

hold on...you upgraded from a fx-53 to a fx-57?:rolling:

:imu:

 

[Synthos]

I get BSODs/Monitor cop-outs sometimes and I'm 50% sure it's my ram, 50% sure it's my motherboard. Either way I live through and I'm not overly worried.