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Aaaagh! PC Down. Suggestions?


Fidcal

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I just checked my Newegg account and it's actually about 3 1/2 years and the cost was more like $750. Some of the stuff from my old system carried over. At the time I think I jacked up my graphics card a notch or two so it's still pretty good.

 

I believe Thief 4 has been confirmed for the Unreal engine, although I doubt what Arkane/Dishonored has done has anything to do with it.

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Thanks Biker. Yes, as said, this time it was money versus time - hassle time, delay time before I can get a machine, etc. versus money. I had some spare cash so... I'll still get a decent machine but but with much less hassle and time and it cost me 10% more than it should.

 

Amazon told me last night my other stuff is also coming today so I only lost one day there. Also, strangely, it seems the payment went through without me having to ring the bank again.

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Amazon told me last night my other stuff is also coming today so I only lost one day there. Also, strangely, it seems the payment went through without me having to ring the bank again.

Keep an a eye on that, you dont want a dopuble debit going through yer account (have had that happen, and then I have to get the overdrawn fees refunded etc)

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Yes, definitely.

 

Anyway, have got new pc but only booted to desktop and configured a few things. I'm new to Win7 so the missing 'safely remove hardwared' confused me for a while. I see now it defaults to no cache so not needed - though I'll have to compare speeds.

 

Problem now is I'd look to boot to my Linux CD but it's not booting from CD and I can't access CMOS - or BIOS if you prefer to call it. This machine boots with a completely black screen. I've tried pressing DEL but that just seems to stop in the black screen.

 

There's almost zero info with the machine - no manual or anything. One tiny pamphlet says alt + F10 I think if Windows doesn't run but I suspect that's just to trigger the recovery routine.

 

I googled and saw various keys for Acer. Tried F12 and F2 but neither works.

 

Any other ideas? I'd rather see the POST than a black screen.

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Any other ideas? I'd rather see the POST than a black screen.

Your Z68 based motherboard will have one of two types of bios, Traditional and UEFI. Which ever one it is its usally either 'F2" or DEL" to get into the bios configuration page. To see the POST screen pressing exscape while booting "shows" it and then you maye see the message "press F2 to enter the bios" or some something similar.

 

Do me a favour, can you pop the side of the case of and take a pic of the following:

 

PSU - should have a sticker with the model and specs.

MOBO - there will be a make and model printed on the board, useally next to the long PCI-E sockets (the GTX580's will be in this type of slot)

GPU - I would like to know whicje vender/model they are.

 

Alternately what you could run for me that will give me a complete system report, bar the PSU is an app called Sandra. I have attached a script with will generate a system report in sandra for you. Just remove the .txt from the end and then going into sandra then tools>creat report then select "load setting from script file", then just keep clicking the next (right) arrow untill you get to page 8 select .HTML and then post the report here or pm me.

 

Sandra System Report.sis.txt

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Esc and F2 just proceed to Windows. Del hangs with the black screen so my guess is that is the one but it's not displaying for some reason. I might try hdmi later. reason why I'm using vga is I've got no free hdmi slots on my tv/monitor - they're full of pvrs, dvds, xbox, etc. I'll borrow one for a test.

 

I've downloaded Sandra and the script. Will test later when I can transfer it to my other pc. I have no camera so can't snapshot the internals. In fact I can't see how to get this one open. No visible screws and I'm always wary about 'popping 'off' the side in case I damage something. I'd like to rip the front facia off too because it's just flashy without any function that I can see.

 

I couldn't find any eject button on the dvd drives so how one is supposed to boot a cd without first booting Windows and using Explorer's eject I dunno.

 

I don't think saw any Windows reg code on the machine so don't know how I'm going to reg it when I get on the net. I'm not plugging in the modem until I've given more thought to the firewall setup and the anti-virus program in the bloatware. Or is the reg done differently these days? Like just click something in windows and does it automatically?

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Couldn't you just eject the drive in Windows then hold down the power button until it switches off? Then slide the boot CD in, or (if you have to, if it doesn't close manually without busting it) even open in Windows to close the drive and shut down, then restart with the boot CD in...

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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Yes, that's what I tried to do - what I will do when I get it to boot to a CD - but I was thinking more generally. Firstly, from a pc that's switched off, why should on be obliged to boot up Windows just to open a drive? Second, what if Windows is inoperable (or you have a reason you don't want it to boot like you know a virus is operating in it) and you want the emergency linux cd to examine the drive?

 

Likely there's a pinhole in the drives one can push in a paperclip (you can do this with the machine off) but one shouldn't have to. My tower is on the floor between an armchair and a shelf unit - hard to get down there. Plus there is this bloated facia that obscures the drives deeply and in front of the drives is double pincer like spring covering so you need two hands to hold them open then a third hand to feel inside for a button. I'll have to move the chair away, disconnect everything and lift the pc up onto a table - just to insert a cd. Madness.

 

There are 4 usbs on top at the front. I thought - that's handy - I can plug stuff in more easily from above. True - except the cables trail down over the dvd drives! I'll try taping them to one side with sellotape but the whole point of the front usbs is for quick plug in and remove whereas the usbs at the back are for more permanent connections.

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  • I've downloaded Sandra and the script. Will test later when I can transfer it to my other pc.
  • I have no camera so can't snapshot the internals.
  • In fact I can't see how to get this one open. No visible screws and I'm always wary about 'popping 'off' the side in case I damage something.
  • I'd like to rip the front facia off too because it's just flashy without any function that I can see.
  • I couldn't find any eject button on the dvd drives so how one is supposed to boot a cd without first booting Windows and using Explorer's eject I dunno.
  • I don't think saw any Windows reg code on the machine so don't know how I'm going to reg it when I get on the net.

  • Ok good.
  • Ah thats a shame
  • The left hand cover will slide backwards to come off, if there are no screws along the back edge then there will be some clips - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI9VUvvO4YY&feature=related
  • If you mean that stupid thing that drops down from above, yeah superfluous - see the above clip.
  • The eject button is just below and to the right of each drive bay - see the above video clip.
  • The windows code has to be on the outside of the case someone, its illegal not to.

I would also say now that i think about it, before you go installing linux, cam i ask did the machine come with a windows DVD..? if not then you will need to create the recovery disc from an acer application installed on the pc.

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Found product key on far side.

 

The DVD drive eject buttons are below the front plastic ribbed facia and part of one of the ribs presses them in.

 

There are two plastic flags or tags at the back that rotate around a screw. Normally locked down flat, I can pull them out but still can't see how to get this side panel off. I'll take a mallett, hacksaw, and crowbar to it tomorrow.

 

The Macafee firewall defaults to enabling ALL programs free access to the internet! wtf? Perhaps they rely on their anti-virus preventing any local programs doing anything bad.

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  • There are two plastic flags or tags at the back that rotate around a screw. Normally locked down flat, I can pull them out but still can't see how to get this side panel off. I'll take a mallett, hacksaw, and crowbar to it tomorrow.
  • The Macafee firewall defaults to enabling ALL programs free access to the internet! wtf? Perhaps they rely on their anti-virus preventing any local programs doing anything bad.

  • No Need, the circular bolts that hold the hinges to the side simply unscrew - see the attached video, they go and borrow a camera so you can send me some pictures as mentioned before.
  • Hmm not a fan of mcafee, hopefully its the latest version, or you can upgrade to that.
  • the other cool thing I wonder if you have noticed is you have 4 hot swap hard drive bays so you could could run a raid array if you wanted too as the mother is sure to have an on-board controller.
  • oh and you have a closed loop liquid cooling solution for the cpu, which I have to admit is quite cool (pun intended). And if its the one I think it is (CooliT- £100) then that would explain some of the price. The fan on the cooler is huge depthwise, double the depth of a normal 120mm fan.
  • A bit more digging suggests the mobo is a MSI re-branded item, just need to know which one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVBt4jDTc4Y

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Biker - you are a god! This video was so useful. The side panel does slide off as shown but far tighter than in the video which is why it didn't seem likely yesterday. Inside, the central plastic shield is not in mine. I don't think it's missing; I think they probably think it unnecessary in my G7760 (the vid was for G7700 so I assume mine is a later version.) The plastic shield over the graphic card cables etc I couldn't budge even with two hands! It's early and I didn't want to make a noise this early - I'll try again later. Hard to see why it's so tight - I can only see two lugs that slide in.

 

The hard drive bays are great. I hadn't realised they just unclip and pull out. I assumed you disconnected them inside then pulled them out the front but they just unplug dead easy.

 

I'll try and get that Sandra software transferred later - I've got other stuff to transfer and one folder, WinXP won't let me access (start menu from my old Vista.) I'm going to try from the Linux CD later. All my downloads are in that folder. It might be just a problem of it being a virtual folder or something and I need to search.

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Looks like Windows trashed my old drive yesterday. I had it in a usb caddy and was trying to access my old desktop. Windows tried to stop me. Eventually I saw an error message and gave up. Booted to Linux CD and it could no longer see the physical drive at all in the usb. Back to XP and now it can't see it at all. Checked all connections. Nothing.

 

So, I'm looking to get a disk recovery program.

 

Stellar Phoenix gets top review here...

 

http://disk-recovery...tenreviews.com/

 

But there are several versions some of which do not run on Win7...

 

http://www.avanquest...O_STELLAR_BRAND

 

Recommendations for ease of use?

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heh, well I do try :-)

 

WinXP won't let me access (start menu from my old Vista.) I'm going to try from the Linux CD later. All my downloads are in that folder. It might be just a problem of it being a virtual folder or something and I need to search.

Vritual folder..? do you mean it was setup using vmware or some such..?

 

Looks like Windows trashed my old drive yesterday. I had it in a usb caddy and was trying to access my old desktop. Windows tried to stop me. Eventually I saw an error message and gave up. Booted to Linux CD and it could no longer see the physical drive at all in the usb. Back to XP and now it can't see it at all. Checked all connections. Nothing.

 

if the drive is sata, have you trying plonking it in one of the hotswap drive bays..?

 

And if the drive itself isnt fubard,you could try a free app called "recova" which I have had some success with in the past. Then if it dosent find your data then try Either "R-Stufio" or "Stellar Pheonix", from the little I read R-Studio will attempt recover of damaged sectors which is quite advanced.

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Just connected up my new Win7 again (but still not to internet) and plugged in the bad old drive and it can see it. I daren't navigate into the users folder so am attempting to copy the lot to another drive if it will let me. If I'm lucky I might not need a disk recovery.

 

Still get black screen at bootup and I my hdmi cable won't fit the graphics card output. I might have a cable somewhere but I'll leave that for now. Shouldn't make any difference anyway but try anything once.

 

I've now removed the front facia so I can get directly at the dvd drives.

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the bad news is that I can only see a fraction of all the files so need to investigate further or get a disk recovery.

 

The other bad news is that the new machine is now completely dead. Without the front facia there is no real restart button, just a tiny hollowed out stump I can barely get a finger nail on and buried behind four usb cables. I switched off and tried to screw a cap on to give me something to press and I've probably bent a contact inside - or worse. Checked cable and 0/1 button etc but its all dead.

 

The good news is... Oh no sorry, there isn't any. :(

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  • 2 weeks later...

Where were we? Oh yes, the button was fixed and I've configured most things on the new pc - just got DR to fix properly and a few bits.

 

I went back to the problem of the black screen boot and no bios access and searched the net. The answer I found was the cable was plugged in the secondary output. Well, I've got two outputs per card = 4 in total. I found if I plugged it the other output of the same card it made no difference. But if I plugged it into either of the outputs of the other card then I saw the full boot up and could access BIOS! So I set CD as first boot and now I can boot a CD. HOWEVER... the problem now is reversed. I get the full boot sequence up to Windows is starting, then I get the Windows start sound and then.... NOTHING! it hangs on the startup screen. Clearly Windows is using the other output! So, I've plugged the cable into the original output but no BIOS.

 

So, question: How do I get both without having to swap cables over each time?

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