General PC help/advice (3 Viewers)

[Photonenbert]

Yesterday my pc cut power, heared a click noise like a fuse blowing up. It did start again thougj so not sure abkut that but after 5 min my pc cut power again.
Guessing PSU or could it be something else?

 

[Invincible]

Ig you can, check for any popped elko's (may it be on the mainboard or in the psu).
My old Psu blew one of them. I ordered a new one for very little money and soldered it in. The Psu ran for another two years.

 

[Cluck]

Could be any number of things. PSU, motherboard, heat, RAM, GPU etc etc. If it does it consistently, the only thing you can do is swap bits out and see if that solves it.

 

[Jonno]

Hi guys hope some of you can help im looking for a budget gaming laptop for my son. his room is too small for a desktop and he will only be playing things like skyrim (with mods) dragonballz(with mods) and some other mmo games.
Budget is max £500

Iv come across one and the specs are
Price £429.

• Powerful intel core i5-6200u.
• Huge 1tb hdd.

CPU, Memory and Operating System:

• Intel Core i5 core i5-6200u dual core processor.
• 2.3GHz processor speed.
• 4GB RAM.
• 1TB SATA hard drive.
• Microsoft Windows 10.

Display features:

• 15.6 inch screen.
• High definition display.

DVD optical drives:

• DVD-RW (read/write).

Graphics:

• Intel HD Graphicsintel hd 520 graphics card.
• Shared graphics card.

Interfaces and connectivity:

• SD media card reader.
• Bluetooth.
• Wi-Fi enabled.

Multimedia features:

• HD webcam.
• Built-in mic.
• Dolby sound system.

Software included: n.

General features:

• Up to 4.1 hours battery life.
• Size H38, W26, D2.5cm.
• Weight 2039kg.

Just like to get some feed back on it really if its worth it or not or what should i really look out for..

 

[Cluck]

RAM, that's my main concern with that spec. Budget another £25 or so to upgrade it from 4GB to 8GB and you should be OK. Just bear in mind the graphics aren't exactly 'killer spec' so be prepared to run some stuff on lower detail if necessary.

Other than that, I only take issue with the marketing speak of "huge 1TB hdd". 1TB is not 'huge', it's distinctly average. Anything over 4TB would be classed as "huge" these days. But "average 1TB hdd" doesn't have the same ring to it

Finally, be aware that laptop Core i5 chips are almost always dual-core, so watch out for games that demand a quad-core. Although the chip can mimic a quad-core (via something called hyperthreading), it is not a true quad-core chip. It might catch you out in future. Sadly, the only way you're going to get a true quad-core is via AMD or specific Intel Core i7 chips.

 

[2scoops]

Still trying to sort out my 'unhandled exception error' having tried numerous things, it looks like the only way to sort this will be to reset Windows back to default. I really don't want to have to do this, but needs must. As all program files will be lost, will all the Project Cars settings be saved on Steam or will it all need to be re-configured? I assume iRacing will just be as it is.

 

[m4nu]

Still trying to sort out my 'unhandled exception error' having tried numerous things, it looks like the only way to sort this will be to reset Windows back to default. I really don't want to have to do this, but needs must. As all program files will be lost, will all the Project Cars settings be saved on Steam or will it all need to be re-configured? I assume iRacing will just be as it is.

Hm.. Did you try a complete reinstall? Updated all your drivers? Can't be that you have to reinstall everything just to be able to play pCars :/

 

[Cluck]

Trouble is, pCARS is well known for stressing parts of a computer system that other games can't reach. Time and again, through development, it exposed weaknesses in power supplies, motherboards, video cards etc. . Even some factory overclocked graphics cards have had problems . To misquote the popular Crysis meme :-

"Yes, but can it run pCARS .... without crashing?"

Going back to your specific problem, it might be worth removing all the USB devices from device manager, re-install the Intel Chipset software and then redetect the USB stuff.

Also, if your GPU is factory overclocked, try turning that overclock down to normal levels.

 

[2scoops]

Let me try and catch that as it flies over my head

It's not just Project Cars that crashes, iRacing does too. How do I re-install the Chipset Software? GPU is 980ti not overclocked, which should run everything on ultra with one arm tied behind it's back, if it had arms Chillblast sent me a utility to remove all traces of the GPU driver and re-install the latest and have looked at all the error logs and debug logs and they say that the problem is pointing to the graphics in some way, as i've tried another 980ti and it does the same. It's not doing it as often as it did now, it didn't do it at all yesterday, which is a first, but it did it twice the day before. It crashed during the GT4 at Sakitto, luckily it hasn't happened since in races, but it's always at the back of my mind.

 

[m4nu]

Let me try and catch that as it flies over my head

It's not just Project Cars that crashes, iRacing does too. How do I re-install the Chipset Software? GPU is 980ti not overclocked, which should run everything on ultra with one arm tied behind it's back, if it had arms Chillblast sent me a utility to remove all traces of the GPU driver and re-install the latest and have looked at all the error logs and debug logs and they say that the problem is pointing to the graphics in some way, as i've tried another 980ti and it does the same. It's not doing it as often as it did now, it didn't do it at all yesterday, which is a first, but it did it twice the day before. It crashed during the GT4 at Sakitto, luckily it hasn't happened since in races, but it's always at the back of my mind.

If its not only in pCars than a complete fresh install might not be the stupest idea. Depends heavily how much effort it would be for you to reinstall everything, set everything new up..

 

[2scoops]

Yeah, it's a real pain in the arse, i'm just worried i'll f**k it up in some way. I've never been lucky with PC's, that's why my main machine is a Mac.

 

[Cluck]

If the GPU is of a non-reference design then, chances are, it has a factory overclock applied. It really would be worth trying to downclock it to NVidia reference levels - try MSI Afterburner.

As for the Intel chipset utility, go to Intel's website here

 

[2scoops]

Thanks Cluck, appreciate it

 

[MelBonkers]

Guys,

I'm getting a little bit desperate here :-(. Been having problems since last race on Sunday and I can't play PCARS for more than 4 laps or so and the game crashes with the following error message (see attached file). Does anybody have any idea what can be causing that? If I can't resolve this issue I'm affraid I have to withdraw from Sunday's race :-(

 

[2scoops]

I've been having the same issue for a while, see tech forum

 

[MelBonkers]

I've been having the same issue for a while, see tech forum

2scoops, thanx for pointing me to that. Maybe a stupid question, but can you help me with the name of the thread? Much appreciated if you can help me to the right forum.

 

[2scoops]

Sorry, it's in general pc help and advice. I will check in the morning if you have any questions

 

[MelBonkers]

Sorry, it's in general pc help and advice. I will check in the morning if you have any questions

No worries 2scoops. If you can check later and let me know. In the meantime I will try to find the thread and posts.

 

[Cluck]

Mo, I've moved your posts (and 2scoops' replies) here

Go to the dbgsession subfolder of your Project CARS folder (in Documents), right-click on the folder with the date/time closest to the time when pCARS crashed, select Send To..., select Compressed folder, and then upload the new ZIP file that's created to a hosting site and post a link in here. I'll take a look and see if there's anything obvious.

As per 2scoops problems, it might be worth downclocking your GPU, in case the new Rift updates are stressing the card a bit more than before. You'll need something like MSI Afterburner to do that and what values you use really depend on what card you have at the moment and how overclocked it is

 

[Jonno]

Guys,

I'm getting a little bit desperate here :-(. Been having problems since last race on Sunday and I can't play PCARS for more than 4 laps or so and the game crashes with the following error message (see attached file). Does anybody have any idea what can be causing that? If I can't resolve this issue I'm affraid I have to withdraw from Sunday's race :-(

I get that now and again i simply go to task manager and kill all steam items running. That sorts it out for me..only happens possibly 1 every 5 to 6 weeks but killing all steam items running sorts it out.
I dont know if it will work for you but worth a shot.