good 19" TFT offer (page 12)

@gav: He said an hour. Seems like it was quite stable round there......

It can make the computer reset depending on what kind of IDE cable you have. If it's just one cable, replace it with a slimline one to see whether it's hindering cooling. If you can find em cheap enough and you use 2 cables, replace both. I know it's tedious, but you wanna be absolutely sure before you blow hefty wonga on a motherboard and CPU.

The only way I can think of to determine whether it's a power delivery / supply is to ring your electricity supplier (good luck with that) and ask them if they can do tests to find out if there are power spikes in your plugs (again, good luck with that). You may find they're aware of a similar problem in the immediate area, in which case, there's not a lot you can do except play the patience game till they sort it.

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

yeah around an hour, i just sat watching and nothing happened, so i ran GP4 and watched a few laps of a race without me joining in, it worked fine.

at home last night, it was resetting practically as it had loaded up, but most of the time actually while it was loading up, then giving me the error in red text "your system failed to boot several times, press F1 to something something" as if it couldn't find the hard disc, even though they were in the list directly above the warning.

the ones i have are like this:



i assume the slim ones you mean are like this:



i didn't even know they made slimline ones, but i intended to ask earlier if there are "cheap" and "high quality" cables, so i could get a set of better quality ones.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

Muks, as far as I know there aren't cheap and high quality ones. I may be mistaken but there isn't really that much difference in the prices from what I've seen. True there is a variation in prices but I've never seen a generic cable and then a branded cable online.

I normally use [www.cableuniverse.co.uk] unless Ebuyer is cheaper by a fair margin or I'm buying other gear from Ebuyer. [www.ebuyer.com]

Quick look at both shows Ebuyer seems to be cheaper. I'm confused by what is going on with your PC. I know it must be bloody annoying, I've had moments with my PC in the past where I've had no idea what was wrong. Even if the cables aren't to blame, they don't cost that much compared to your new PSU and any new mobo/chip you might get. And at least you can eliminate them from the equation if the new cables don't stop the PC resetting.

@Muks_C: Those slim ones you think are slim are exactly the ones I refer to. They're primarily to make curving them much easier and less of a strain than normal flat IDE cables. It really can't hurt, especially since we're almost out of options save for a motherboard and CPU.


Though I have just had another brainwave. If you have another PC around, or a friend who's willing to lend ya a couple hours with his / her rig in your house, try that in the same situation you have yours at the moment, and see whether his / hers resets like buggery.

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

It's not going to be cables. You'd be seeing amongst other things read and write errors. Equally I'm not convinced a new mobo or CPU would fix things. If the power to your house is questionable, then simply replacing the parts shouldn't help. It might cope better or worse, but it's just going to damage it in the long run.

If it is a power delivery issue, then other than getting your power supplier to fix things, your only option I'm aware of is a proper uninterruptible power supply. They aren't cheap, so I'd do more and longer tests away from home if at all possible before you spend yet more.

what i might do is get some of those slimline cables anyway (as it's quite a jumbled mess inside my case) and then borrow my sisters pc for a day or 2 in my house, and see if anything happens.

it's weird because i've had a computer in this room for the past 8 years, never had a problem like this before.

i can't understand how the power supply can suddenly become dodgy, unless it was just slowly failing over the years and has now revealed itself like this.

oh and on a sidenote, i'm only about 20 years behind everyone else, but i have today replaced my wired ball mouse with a cordless optical (well laser) Logitech MX 1000 got it for £23 (plus £4 p&p) on ebay, with all accessories and box and everything, like new condition. it works best without a mousemat, it seems to jerk across the screen if using one, but is smooth when used directly on the table-top surface. although have now tried it on a smoother-surfaced mat, and it seems ok too. the mat i always used with the ball mouse must be quite nobbly compared to the spare ones i have. anyway, i don't use a mat anymore.

@ Marc, yes it is bloody infuriating that it keeps doing it, especially when i'm typing something and it resets before i've posted it, hence the numerous edits in my posts.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/2006 03:15PM by Muks_C.

just a little update, ysterday my computr worked for longer periods before resetting,a nd only reset around 5 times in the whole day, compared to 5 times in a couple of minutes.

it worked foran hour or 2, then reset once, then same again, but then it reset a couple of times quickly (withint seconds), then stayed stable again for an hour.

but today, i switched the socket on, and i heard a crackling coming from the surge protecting socket, so quickly switched it off again. so maybe my actual 6-way surge protector socket is faulty also? or maybe the dodgy power to the house (or my room) has damaged it?

i had 5 items plugged into my 6-way socket (pc, monitor, speakers, mouse, printer).

so i unplugged them all, and tried just 2 at a time. i plugged any 2 items in, and switched the socket on. sometimes there was crackling, sometimes there wasn't. sometimes with all 5 plugged in there wasn't crackling, but sometimes with just 1 or 2 things plugged in, there was crackling.

i have now tried it with other 4-way sockets, and it has also reset a few times.

so now i've got 2 different sockets, the 6-way just has the pc plug in it, and is plugged into the hallway socket, the monitor and mouse are plugged into a 4-way socket plugged in a socket in my room.

so not sure what's going on.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2006 02:41PM by Muks_C.

for the past couple of days it's stayed stable for approximately 10 minutes before resetting, it's stayed on longer and sometimes shorter periods also.

but today, i've tried for the past hour or so, and it just wouldn't get past startup, i only saw the desktop twice in that time, it just kept resetting.

then i remembered something i read on a forum when i googled the subject of randon resets. one guy said he cut the wire of the reset switch, just in case it was faulty and causing the resets.

i didn't want to cut it, but i remember seeing some connectors coming from the switches and LED's on the case to the bottom of the mobo.

so i pulled them out thinking it was 1 big connector, but in fact the LED ones were 2-wire connectors, and there were 2 single-wire ones for the power switch or something (+ & -) and a 2-wire one fo rthe power switch and a 2-wire one for the reset switch.

so i put them all back in apart from the reset button, and i managed to load up and get online.

hasn't reset in about 8 minutes, so maybe that was all the problem was?

touchwood it won't reset and i can continue uninterrupted use.

will report back after longer use.

but any idea why the reset switch would suddenly go berserk like this?

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

well it ran for as long as i wanted (about 40 mins) then i switched it off myself.

i had been running it with just 1 hdd and 1 dvd drive (disconnected the slave hdd, dvd writer and floppy) so reconnected them all and it seems to be running fine. started first time, no resets yet.

so it really does look like it was just an issue with the reset switch, either in the switch itself or the wire or the connection to the mobo.

i will report if it resets again (hopefully it won't), so fingers crossed!

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

It could be just like any other cable at the case end. However, from that switch down to the motherboard the cable is split into 2 at all points - I know, as only a week ago I had to botch a load of them up for my HTPC. I really can't see how it could be the reset cable, as as such, I'd prepare yourself for more resets... you didn't do anything else which might have repaired the situation?

I suppose it's possible the connection at the motherboard could have been loose, and it was occasionally invoking a reset, but realistically it's been way too random for that - you'd expect it to not reset for long periods, then have a batch period of black screens as the PC reset itself every millisecond or so.

//edit: and I thought I was sad for editing the school panto DVD on Christmas day



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/25/2006 09:30PM by gav.

nope, Gav, nothing else, apart from brushing dust away with a small brush.

as i said, i spent an hour with it just continuouslyt resetting, only getting as far as seeing the desktop twice.

disconnected the reset switch off the mobo, and hey presto, started first time, with no resets since. haven't run it for longer periods yet as i had to go to work, but it's stayed on as long as i've wanted it with no dodgy behaviour (yet).

again now, started first time, no problems.

going to work again at 12, so will only know if this was the solution tomorrow when i can run it longer.

but looks promising so far.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

I'm amazed I didn't think of that before. I read something similar in PC Format in the Ask Luis section, where apparantly somebody's computer would randomly reset whenever he pressed the Eject button. Turns out he kept hitting the Reset button instead of the Eject button. The only thing I can think of is the wires have got very close to each other on the actual switch, so much so that when there's enough rigourous airflow the wires touch and the computer resets.

On a side note, I hate reset switches. There's one on a case I had that thankfully I don't have. When the computer was on the floor, it was all too easy to just knock the switch when swivelling on the chair. It got infuriating, so I disconnected it from the motherboard and haven't used reset switches since. Holding the power button for 5 seconds is adequate, Ctrl+Alt+Delete most of the time works.

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

Most decent cases have a switch set in from the case itself, and as such, you can't realistically depress the reset accidentally. Older cases even required a pencil or something equally pointy to press the button.

Like you said, it's not really required, but if you work with PCs day in, day out, breaking them frequently, as I do, then you're grateful of it once in a while



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2006 06:18PM by gav.

well, had it running for 2 hours now, no resets at all.

i will reconnect the reset switch to the mobo to see if it happens again, it might have just been loose, or it might be a terminal problem for it, in which case i'll just disconnect it again.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

stupid double post. when i pressed post the first time, i got an error message above the window you type in, saying "an error occurred during this post".

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2006 03:24PM by Muks_C.

hey guys, as you may know i've had a look at some tft monitors over the months, but haven't yet taken the plunge. i want to spend upto about £120, and i know there is a huge choice in that price range. i was initially looking at 17" ones, but i got a mailshot from Misco.co.uk, they have this HannsG 19" for just £114 (inc VAT) and with £6 delivery, makes £120.

is it a good deal?

is 19" too big for me, as i currently have a 15" crt? am i wasting my time getting a 19", where a 17" would suit me better?

[www.misco.co.uk]

or have you seen any other good deals for 19" tft's? that you can show me?

i would prefer if it was height-adjustable, but this one isn't.

cheers

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2006 07:07PM by Muks_C.

The HannsG ones are apparently awesome value for money (as I've said hundreds of times already here) - the widescreen especially.

I wouldn't say the screen is too big. You can never have enough desktop space to work with. You may not be able to game at the resolution the monitor is capable of (that depends on the rest of your system), but all decent graphics cards now have the option to 'letterbox' the 3D view, so if you choose a lower resolution than the monitor's native one, you can still get all the pixels mapped correctly, just with a black box around the image.

In short, get the best monitor you can afford, as it'll easily outlast the rest of your system.

here's a HannG 19" heigh adjustable one (and can be rotated 90degrees for portrait view)), for just £8 more in total (free postage on Super Saver): [www.ebuyer.com]

i don't know much about them, but i think that's great value.

Makro has 17" HannsG ones for £99, but there's £17 VAT on top of that, and 19" ones for £120 (plus another £20 VAT), so this Ebuyer deal looks good.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

I've got an acer widescreen, and its awesome! 19" WS, it cost me 170 or so about 6 months ago (or something) but now its way cheaper. The hannsG one is meant ot be even beter I think. Would never go back to normal tfts now, widescreen is too good!

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She says brief things, her love’s a pony
My love’s subliminal

I'm interested in a WS monitor. My flatmate has an Asus one with a webcam built in. Not sure if I want a webcam or not, but then I'm also interested in a MacBook so I 'spose I am.

I don't want to get the same monitor as my flatmate but I just don't know what to get. About 20 inches seems to be the most common WS size, which is about 1680x1050? The only problem is that I'd kind of want to be able to hook an Xbox 360 up to this monitor, should I get one so I'd need component input is it? The only monitor I've found on the Overclockers site that has it is the one my flatmate has. ARGH!!

So sorry Muks if this is hijacking your thread but any ideas on suitable monitors? I'd rather have a monitor with black edges and an absolute max of £400 but as much under that if poss.

Tell me to eff off if you want but this thread is fairly relevant and I'm stumped for what to get.