Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread II

[shadowplay]

I'm troubleshooting a randomly recurring blue screen thats triggered by using the video card. When I've uninstalled the drivers, and am using "standard VGA adaptor" I don't get any crashes.

I'm trying to ascertain if the card itself is damaged, or if it's something farther up the line (power supply, RAM, motherboard, wrath of God) that's causing the problem.

The problem is present only about 90% of the time. It first appeared out of the blue a little over a month ago - It'll crash consistently at the same points (playing video, using the Aero desktop, playing a game, basically anything that uses graphics), but the real kicker for me is that another 10% of the time, such as right now for instance, it isn't crashing. It's doing everything fine. The problem has disappeared - but eventually, maybe hours, maybe days later - it reappears.

I've tried so many things to fix this - old drivers, older drivers, new drivers, omega drivers. Ran driver sweeper. Reinstalled Windows. Reseated the video-card and re-connected the wires.

I'm really at a loss here. The fact I don't have any spare parts to swap in to test each component individually is making things even more difficult to diagnose.

 

[The_J]

The answer is obvious, isn't it?
You tried every kind of software, and the problem doesn't get fixed. So it's not the software, has to be the hardware.
And if it runs without the drivers, then something which gets activated by the drivers is the problem. And then it's certainly the graphics card.

Don#t you have a friend who could lend you one?

I was reading some stuff on Tor (the anonymous network thing) and someone said "Don't run your torrents through it; that's just evil." Why is that?

a) because you're using a service which is meant for anonymous surfing for e.g. countries with repressive laws for your own freetime fun. You're taking away bandwith from users which are in much bigger need of it.

b) there was recently a scientific publication that the anonymization is pretty much nonexistent when you use torrents over TOR, due to the underlying technology (-> your torrents can still get tracked).

 

[shadowplay]

Alright, well with nothing to lose I decided to try baking the GPU in the oven, and it worked like a charm. Ridiculous.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I just got this in my email. Not my site email but my personal one. WTH?

from Vonda Mullins <vonda.mullins@gmail.com>
sender-time Sent at 8:49 PM (GMT-07:00). Current time there: 5:05 PM. &#9990;
to aimeeandbeatles@gmail.com
date Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 8:49 PM
subject The Toilet Paper Debate Infographic
signed-by smtp.com

hide details 8:49 PM (16 minutes ago)

Dear Aimee, My name is Vonda and I help promote content throughout the web. While searching for a few resources, I found your site and thought your readers would enjoy this humorous infographic! Over or Under? Toilet paper orientation is an endless debate, but this witty infographic takes a stab at providing some insight: Brainz.org/news/over-or-under-great-toilet-paper-debate/5659/ I hope your readers enjoy this as much as we do! If you have any feedback or questions regarding more graphics, please feel free to contact me. =) Thanks, Vonda Mullins Vonda.Mullins@gmail.com (815) 619-9076 Follow me on Twitter! @Vondamullins

I searched the name and got various social network things oh and a jail record.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Why would a PDF file open in one PDF reader but not another? I can provide an example if needed.

 

[The_J]

First answer would be, that the pdf might be infected with some exploit, which brings one of the readers to crash but the other not (...which is then probably bad).

Less problematic impression: the pdf has been created in a deprecated or unusual way, and one of the readers just can't handle it and the same thing happens: Crash.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Why does my mom get abusive at me for refusing to send out stupid fake virus warning chain mails?

 

[Yeekim]

My computer started acting strangely yesterday.
When I tried starting it up, after a promising "beep", instead of normal loading texts all I got on the screen were jumbled stripes and dots. First time, turn off/restart fixed this, the machine started normally and worked like a charm.
Second time (today morning) - restart no good any more. Strange thing is, cursor was properly visible at some point.

Anyone have an idea what could the problem be? Graphics card?

Why does my mom get abusive at me for refusing to send out stupid fake virus warning chain mails?

She don't think they are fake?
Just easier to send them then, probably.

 

[Turner]

Do you have another graphics card or port on your machine you can test with?

Also, aimee - Don't bring your problems with your mother up. You've been told countless times how to deal with her. You choose not to, so don't complain about it here.

 

[shadowplay]

Looks like somebody else is about to have to do a little baking.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Sometimes on the cables and stuff it will say in big letters "GOLD PLATED!"

I think thats something to do with gold being a conductive. But is there a real advantage to it or is it just there to make people think "ooh this is better!"

 

[PeteAtoms]

I think the gold actually makes better wires. SO, IIRC, it is better.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Gold is a slightly better conductor than copper, they only really use it for edge connectors though. Gold wires for audio cables is a waste of money. Platinum is a better conductor than gold IIRC but that is more expensive again.

 

[shadowplay]

Sometimes on the cables and stuff it will say in big letters "GOLD PLATED!"

I think thats something to do with gold being a conductive. But is there a real advantage to it or is it just there to make people think "ooh this is better!"

Basically, yes, it's mainly a marketing angle. Unless your equipment is top-notch, you're not really going to hear a difference. The idea is gold is highly conductive, and doesn't corrode.

 

[Zelig]

Gold is a slightly better conductor than copper

No it isn't.

 

[Quackers]

I have scanned multiple different things. They appear as different files - how do i merge them all into a super mega file?

 

[Yeekim]

Looks like somebody else is about to have to do a little baking.

Might try. Then again, my GeForce 8800 has served me truly for 4 years... might be a good excuse to swap for something newer.
After all, I'd like more than bare minimum requirements for Witcher 2, Skyrim etc...

 

[shadowplay]

If it's a GeForce 8800 it's almost certainly an issue with the thermal glue (in which case baking will fix it, at least temporarily). The card that I baked last week is a GeForce 9800 which is basically identical to the 8800.

But as you're saying, if you're into new games with the latest-greatest graphics it's probably a good excuse to upgrade.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I have scanned multiple different things. They appear as different files - how do i merge them all into a super mega file?

What I like to do is convert them all to PDF (If you have IrfanView with the extra plugins it does it quite well -- you have to turn the security off though) and then merge them all together (I use pdfsam). If this is kinda vague just say so and I'll slap together a simple tutorial

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Sometimes a website analysis will say that 20% of its users are 18-30 or something. How do they figure that out?