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Me telling you what kind of motherboard I have isn't going to help you all that well. Do you have a 939 socket processor? If not, you don't need to know what kind of motherboard I'm using.

Glad to hear you fixed your problem, though.

Is that why you thought I was asking you? It is called curiosity, just wanting to know, bullshitting . . . . I had no clue I needed certain reasons before getting an answer. Forget I asked. I am.


I don't know what kind of motherboard I had, but the people at the place where I got the laptop said that it is the fault of the motherboard, it just went dead. He opened it up and everything. Anyway, because the laptop is under warrenty and they replace the motherboard for free, I couldn't care less about what kind it is or why it went dead. We have the warrenty for another year so if this ever happens again, we know what the problem is and then we can deal with it if it happens after the warrenty runs out.

Glad you still had a warranty. All of my parts are past warranty. That goes for my computer, too.



You ready? You look ready.
Is that why you thought I was asking you? It is called curiosity, just wanting to know, bullshitting . . . . I had no clue I needed certain reasons before getting an answer. Forget I asked. I am.
You said you were having restart problems. I was having restart problems because of my motherboard. You then asked me what kind I had so I was assuming you thought that was the problem.
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"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza



****in' A, man. I got a rash, man
Calling all computer boffins, calling all computer boffins, THIS IS BLIB. Help??

I know we have some super computer techy geek geeks (I say it with love ) on this site, so the time has come when i desperatly need your help. Would be mega appreciated. I know Seven and Oggy are good for it, anyone else?

Finally after several long months, ive pulled my wallet together and im finally forking out the squillions of dosh for a new computer. Iv'e been using Windows since my computer birth, so i thought this time, id go crazy and get a mac. Want a different operating system, and something quite small as my desk is minature. Plus theyre awful purty. Anywhoo, one of the other reasons is that theyre pretty good for creative gubbins. Such as photo/film editing being the main gub as i plan to start up my photography again.

So, basically i need some info. I know ive asked this before but its been lost in my memory, but who here has a MAC or did have and decided to dump it? and Why?

Heres what im looking into buying within the next week or so if all goes well and i finally make the decision....

The 20", 2 GHz Intel Core Duo iMac.

PURTY!

For a hefty, £1,229.00 (God bless interest free finance)

Comes with:
•20-inch widescreen LCD with 1680x1050 resolution

•2.0GHz Intel Core Duo processor with 2MB shared L2 cache

•512MB (single SO-DIMM) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300)

•250GB Serial ATA hard drive

•Slot-load 8x double-layer SuperDrive

•ATI Radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB GDDR3 memory

•Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0

And the software:
•Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger

•iLife ’06

•iWork ’06 30-day trial

•Front Row

•Photo Booth

•Big Bang Board Games

•Comic Life

•OmniOutliner

So how does all this sound? I have some questions that would ease my mind and wallet...

Would you guys say its worth the money?

Would i be better off getting the slightly older and cheaper G5 superdrive thingy one?

Is it very difficult/expensive to add new software or drives (Like CD ROM drives etc) to the computer if i need them at a later date?

Ive got broadband at my house (Not sure what you guys call it in the states but its your basic high speed internet connection), will the Mac be able to use it or will i need to buy some extra stuff for that?

Are they reliable? I know ive got a years warranty at elast and from how they treat my iPod i know these guys are good for that.

Is the graphics card good enough to play up to date games that are being released?

and is there anything else i should know? This is a big investment for me as im normally used to living the tramps life, so i just want to make sure im not making a mistake.

Anyway, hope you wonderful human beings can help....
I think OSX (Mac operating system) is far better than anything Microsoft has come up with.

Games are a problem on OSX though but with the Intel Core Duo it will be possible to run both OSX and XP.

As far as reliability goes Macs are far better than PCs. They very rarely crash and the only security measures you need to take is making sure you turn on the built in firewall. There are very few viruses that exist for OSX making it an almost exclusive Windows problem.
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"You smell that? Do you smell that?... Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end..."



Hey 7th. I know this thread's a bit old, and I'm pretty sure I'm taking my computer into the shop in a few hours regardless, but I thought I'd post my problem here in case anyone recognizes it:

My computer's a few years old. When on, the fan can run quite often. Sometimes constantly. I figured my computer probably needed a defragmentation and a cleaning. I defragged a few weeks ago, computer runs fine, but not too much difference in fan activity.

Anyway, a few days ago I was using it, and it suddenly shut down. It was as if the power had gone out (though, of course, it hadn't). The power switch was blinking orange/amber. I couldn't turn it on right away, but instead had to hold on the switch until the light stopped blinking. THEN I turned it out, and it booted up fine. No big deal, I thought.

Couple days later, it happens again. I try to do the same thing, it boots right up again...and then shuts off the exact same way. Both times within a few minutes of booting up and starting to open programs. So, I boot up again, but decide not to open anything. Computer stays on for a few minutes. I open one program. Still fine. I open FireFox instead of Internet Explorer, and a couple folders. No problem there. Stays on for a solid 20 minutes -- much longer than the last two times.

I then decide to turn it off myself, go get a can of compressed air, and clean out the insides. I do this...goes fairly well. I wonder if I used too much air at some points, as doing so gives whatever they're pointed out that quick white coating for a moment, but nothing feels broken or cold, and I'm pretty careful with everything.

Anyway, I finish up, close the computer, plug it in, turn it on, and get an unusual series of beeps (which I've never heard before), along with the same orange blinking. I turn it off and try again, get the beeps again, along with the fan starting up, and then turning off. After that, it won't beep, or start the fan...when I plug it in, the orange light just glows.

I searched around and tried a few simple tasks, like removing the memory and putting it right back in, doing the same with the motherboard battery, etc. No luck.

From what I've read, odds sound decent that the power supply is shot. This is the only way I can make sense of the really odd, constantly changing symptoms I've described above, though none of it quite makes sense to me.

Anyway, if anyone's had any similar experiences, I'd love to hear them. Anything I can learn in advance of taking it in would be helpful.



The People's Republic of Clogher
The only times I've had systems switching off like that was when the PSU was shagged.

I'm no expert but I think that beeping gubbins is your motherboard telling you what's wrong, depending on the amount of beeps. The only time it has happened to me was when I had a dodgy RAM connection.
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The Adventure Starts Here!
Gee, Yoda, I am going to show this to Mr. Austruck ("W" to you), because we may even have spare power supplies here that would work. (He builds computers from parts, ya know.)

Also, this sounds dumb, but IS the fan actually working? I once had a noisy fan that seemed to run all the time. When the computer was off we looked at it and realized that two of the fan blades were actually gone (??), and when we turned the computer on, the fan made noise but didn't actually MOVE.

Overheating would definitely cause sudden shutdowns. (I had that problem.)

But whether it's fan or power supply, we might save you a bundle if Dubya can take a shot at it.

Then again, when does he have time? Ha ha haaaa.....

ANYWAY, be sure to get an ESTIMATE of costs when you take it in somewhere. If it's really expensive, ASK again and perhaps he can find time if he knows it's coming....



The Adventure Starts Here!
Oh, one more thing: Perhaps your canned air and fiddling dislodged something (which would explain the beeps). Did you make sure everything was well-seated, including all the little power-connections to the various pieces/parts?

Have you tried leaving the case open and perhaps blowing a regular house fan on it too (not permanently, but to test the fan theory)? (Not TOO close, but close enough to the unit to cool it off.)

Just some other things to try to narrow down variables before you take in it....



The People's Republic of Clogher
You could also install SpeedFan to give you an accurate idea of the temperatures you've got going on in there and check it against whatever Google says is the average temp of your processor.

The worst thing about my PC case is the big red LED on the front telling me how hot my motherboard is. I swear, it gets looked at a couple of times a minute and an eyebrow gets raised every time it increases by a degree. I'm seriously thinking of taping over it...

Have a stab at trying to fix it yourself, if you work out what the problem is. If an idiot like me can build PCs I don't see why anyone else can't.



Yeah, I thought about mentioning all this to Wayne, but I just assumed he was insanely busy, and obviously this is something I have to get taken care of pretty quickly.

Not positive the fan is going now, as I obviously can't test it anymore. I know it was working in the fairly recent past, though, as I'd notice it working overtime and I'd put my hand behind the computer, and would feel quite a bit of warm air shooting out.

Yeah, it's entirely possible I dislodged something, but I was being reasonably careful, and I have gone over most of the innards quite a bit. But who knows? There's dozens of things in there, of course, so it's completely possible.

It's hard to test the fan thing manually, because the main one seems to be the kind that doesn't really keep spinning if it's not "on." That is to say, some fans you spin the blades with your hand and they keep going for awhile, then gradually stop. This one goes for a bit, but stops more suddenly (though it doesn't get caught on anything, as far as I can tell). It seems to need a consistent "oomph" to keep going.

I'll be dropping it off in a few hours. When I get an estimate and a diagnosis, I'll give you a call, I suppose. Based on my description the guy at the shop estimated it was probably several problems, which certainly seems in keeping with what's happened, but who knows.



Thanks for the tip, Tac. I'll take a look.

I think I'm probably past being able to fix it. It doesn't boot up and I get no more beeps or lights other than the orange blinking one, so I don't think I can do anything other than start removing or replacing components until it starts up again. That's a little outside of my expertise, I think, and seeing as how the guy at the shop will at least glance at it for free, I figure it's worth the trip.

I've liked having a sleek PC for a few years, but desk space isn't such an issue these days, so I'll definitely be getting something bigger and boxier next time, so that it's easier to manuever around in.

Gotta give props to Dell for the cool way the case slides up and latches shut again (like a briefcase). I dunno if that's old-hat now, but my computer's pretty old and I thought it was pretty cool the first time I opened it.



The Adventure Starts Here!
Also, ask them while they're in there fiddling if they can install a small second fan. We've done that with a few computers to help with cooling off issues (especially while gaming).

This is probably obvious stuff, but also, make sure your CPU placement doesn't cover up the back where the fan blows out or whichever side has slits/slots for air circulation (once you get it fixed, of course).

And if you ever need, like, a cheapie loaner computer in the meantime, we have an old Compaq that does get online quite nicely (it's a spare in the downstairs office here, running fine), plus probably a few others we could mangle together in a pinch.



The Adventure Starts Here!
Oh, a bigger, boxier case is nice -- if only to keep the temps down a little bit too! Get as much air circulation space in there as possible!

My CPU case opens nicely too -- I don't have to rearrange everything on my desk in order to get at the innards like I had to with past computers. I think designers are rethinking stuff like that as people get a little more tech-savvy and don't want to hassle much in taking apart a CPU cover.



Good idea. I won't actually be in there watching them, I don't think; I'll be dropping it off. But I'll see what they say and suggest it, assuming it's a cooling issue. Does that fit, by the by? IE: can the power supply wig out because of cooling problems?

The CPU placement might have had something to do with it. My room can be a bit warm in general, and while it wasn't up against the wall, it wasn't as far as it could have been, either, so that might have contributed to the problem, if it was in fact a heating problem.

Thanks for the offer. I may take you up on it for a short while. I'll let you know. Hopefully they'll just say "yeah, it's just the power supply, we can have it done in an hour or two." If that's the case, I'll just shell out the $170 and be more careful in the future, I think.

I shall keep you posted, either way. I appreciate all the advice, guys.



The People's Republic of Clogher
Anyone, 7th or otherwise, got experience with AMD's Phenom processor?

My Mobo (in which lives a 6000+ which is ok but not wonderful) is compatible with the Phenom and they're certainly great value compared to the Intel quad cores. Any flavour will do.



I am running a Phenom right now, this one to be exact. I can tell you that when it comes to multi tasking it has beat out everything else I have ever used. One note however is that I di dnot really notice that big of an increase in peformance between this and many other cpus until I upgraded my OS to 64 bit. Along with the ability to use 1066 DDR2 memory things are flying for me right now. Cooling seems to be a problem for many people I have built systems for, but that is self inflicted. If you do not want to OC the cpu then you should not have any problems, not sure why one would want to OC these anyway, but boys will be boys I guess. I run it straight up with the retail cpe fan and my temps are fine. I can only speak from my own experience, but I love my Phenom. Now if you are really looking for something to show off try this:


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The People's Republic of Clogher
Excellent! Thanks buddy.

We don't get anywhere near as good deals over here but I've found some 9950s on eBay for £90 (and I'll need to double check that my mobo can take that particular one - it's an Asus M2A VM - also on your recommendation, if I remember ).

I've been using Vista x64 ever since I got 4GB of RAM (got some OCZ RAM last week and it flies) so no worries there and I've not OC'd a CPU since my 468 socket P4. The case has a 20" fan (EDIT: cm not inch, you clot!) on the side anyway so it'll cope if I want to be stupid but, as you say, there's no real need. I've OC'd my 9800GT slightly though, but run it with a non-standard cooler for quietness if nothing else.

Now to see how much pennies I have left at the end of the month.



The People's Republic of Clogher
Do you know anything about the 9850? Apparently it's the most modern Phenom my mobo can support.


EDIT - Here's a bit more info from the support forum.

"The board will also run slower Agena core Phenom processors. Asus list a newer 95watt 9850 that is supported and runs at 2.5Ghz but I don't know where you could get one."

"Phenom X4 9850 (HD9850WCJ4BGH,rev.B3,SocketAM2+,Quad-Core"

"The 9750 runs at 2.4Ghz and is probably easier to find... HD9750WCGHBOX"

"Phenom X4 9750 (HD9750WCJ4BGH),2.4GHz,95W,rev.B3,SocketAM2+,Quad-Core"



I do not think I have ever used or instaled that exact cpu before - it seems to be hard to find but I did locate a few places on pricewatch that still carries them. It seems (from the specs) that it is a solid quad core processor. I do not think you could go wrong with any of these along the 9500+ series. You may see if there is a new bios update on your mb also.



The People's Republic of Clogher
Aye it's weird. I've found a few places here selling them and they're more expensive than the 9950 and it's the same with the 9750. I might be better just holding off for a bit and getting a more powerful mobo.

The BIOS updates are what is enabling me to install an AM2+ chip and I'm pretty sure I've flashed the latest one. It's always a heart-in-mouth moment flashing mobos for me at the best of times.

Thanks for your help anyway, I'll bend your ear again once I've finally made my mind up.



Does anyone here have recent (last few weeks) issues with broswer crashes? It does not matter what browser you are using but if you are please let me know and what browser it is. Thanks.