Non DDO technical rant

[Aurora1979]

Then definitely disable video memory sharing in the BIOS. I can't tell you how to do that other than PB uses a modified Phoenix BIOS and usually responds to F1, F2 or DEL to launch into setup. From there look around under the options until you find one that says something about shared memory. Disable it or set to 0 (zero, zed, naught, however you say it).

And when you next see your "guy", let him know that DDR3 VRAM is not sharable with system memory of a lesser speed or different timings.


Hey, we're all in this together and knowledge costs nothing to pass along. I hope my advice works out for you.

Ah ok, nice one. I have been in and out of the BIOS loads, I dont know the exact bit but Ill be able to find it.

The guy was a Pc world tech.... I knida should of guessed I couldnt trust him as he was probably pushing a product but I had look round on the net first and the gt seriers seemed like the choice.... Ive only ever had Nvidia before.... I cant speak from experiance but I like them so never felt the need to try others.

Im not bad at being able to pick products, I research for a while, get a good few different sites up, trwal some forums and compare the stats for the items. Ill google things so I know what im comparing, ish. The biggest problem I have is I know that some things can conflict with others but I have no idea what or why.... so I try to keep it all to similar products.... If any of that makes sense

[sebastianosmith]

No problem.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. dont tell me nortons a badun!!!! lol

Norton 360 or AV are pretty good products. 360 is a wee bit intrusive for my tastes and tries to do too many things I'd rather handle myself or are already built into the OS. But, it does do it's job well and Symantec keeps the virus defs updated about daily. The long and the short of it is run whatever AV software you can. Avast, Norton, Kaspersky, AVG, even MS Security Essentials will do the trick for most users. I'm just happy you're running some sort of AV and not allowing your box to be zombied into a spammer hole.

[Aurora1979]

Norton 360 or AV are pretty good products. 360 is a wee bit intrusive for my tastes and tries to do too many things I'd rather handle myself or are already built into the OS. But, it does do it's job well and Symantec keeps the virus defs updated about daily. The long and the short of it is run whatever AV software you can. Avast, Norton, Kaspersky, AVG, even MS Security Essentials will do the trick for most users. I'm just happy you're running some sort of AV and not allowing your box to be zombied into a spammer hole.

oooo.....

erm......

lets just say... hypothetically..... for arguments sake and with no basis on reality at all, that i had.... for a period run no protection at all... and maybe, again hypothe...aww who am i kidding.

so then my email started spamming everyone, I had to delete all my contacts and then just stopped using hotmail.

But, say if I had contracted something... would reformatting the hard drive have gotten rid of it.....

Note: I did do this, and I did have these problems but back on the first post I said about running a scan and it found and fixed a trojan, I then reformetted and have since run a N360 scan which has come up clear.

[sebastianosmith]

oooo.....

erm......

lets just say... hypothetically..... for arguments sake and with no basis on reality at all, that i had.... for a period run no protection at all... and maybe, again hypothe...aww who am i kidding.

so then my email started spamming everyone, I had to delete all my contacts and then just stopped using hotmail.

But, say if I had contracted something... would reformatting the hard drive have gotten rid of it.....

Note: I did do this, and I did have these problems but back on the first post I said about running a scan and it found and fixed a trojan, I then reformetted and have since run a N360 scan which has come up clear.

Oh, you naughty, naughty boy.

If it was a trojan app then reformatting the HD would get ride of it - if you didn't restore a backup that contained it afterwards. Reformatting will get ride of almost anything except some root kits that hide themselves in the MBR. Those have to be pried out of with power of DISKPART or FDISK for you old-schoolers out there.

[Aurora1979]

ok kool. i know i know, i promise i wont do it again. i got angry

[Cauthey]

The HD is not likely given the symptoms. Slow disk access is because it's thrashing like crazy over N360 mucking about and Vista's file indexing and reordering. The rest, BSODs, freezing, failure to boot or POST, all point to a physical memory problem. Because he's using the same MB and memory as when it ran just fine, I'm going with insufficient power and possibly the video card.

And I'm not a betting man - Especially when it's over something a frustrating as computer problems. Those are painful enough without a bunch of yahoos gambling about the outcome.

Yeah, that's very possible. I actually don't run any sort of AV in my house. I can't stand the disk churn and cycles the AV applications these days are responsible for. I do a lot of hardware level guarding at the gate, and then have a lot of rules for computer users in my home to follow. The boon is none of that Norton poo poo running in the background.

Still, I'm not going to bank on an AV app dumping to a BSOD. I guess it is possible, but they do test the hades out of that poo poo to save on phone support costs.

You know, looking in the event log might actually offer some hints about what the computer is doing before it BSODs. If you really want to become a PC troubleshooting nerd, Aurora.

[sebastianosmith]

I do a lot of hardware level guarding at the gate, and then have a lot of rules for computer users in my home to follow.

I've got DD-WRT installed on all our routers and have them locked down as best I can so I understand your situation. But those HOUSE RULES... got two kids and live-in GF that are really not going to follow "teh rulez" no matter what I say which makes some sort of AV on everyone's box kind of mandatory. Given that they mostly read e-mail, play games and hit Facebook, MS Security Essentials works just fine. And really, it's pretty light on the resources. It's actually quite impressive for a Micro$oft product.

[Missing_Minds]

Cauthy, you really should have an anti viri on your systems, but Seb is right about the router also.

I assume you never have anything come in on usb, cd, or dvd?

[Cauthey]

I've worked in IT for practically my entire life. And for much of that time I've been opposed to AV apps. They're just too hoggy for me.

I did like Defender, and I do like Security Essentials. It seems to have a much lighter footprint than many of the other products out there. In fact, I think I've had both of those installed on the laptop that the wife uses, come to think of it.

Yes, I'm aware that any peripheral can bring infection. But we do not do a lot of USB thumb drive swapping around. And when we do, we often are careful about where that thumb drive has been.

It is certainly a risk/reward situation. But as far as I'm concerned, I've made out like a bandit getting my extra disk I/Os and CPU cycles back. Should any of my systems get infected even 3 times, I would still be securely seated in the win column.

[katz]

lot of info in this thread. i ended up skimming... so forgive me if any of these have been mentioned, but here goes:

• Vista sux. if/when you can afford to replace it, do so. windows 7 works fine.
• 3 gigs of RAM? either you have a wonky amount of ram going on (1 stick of 2 G, 1 stick of 1) OR there may be something wrong with your RAM. 32 bit can only use up to not quite 4 gigs anyway.
• yes, RAM sticks can be damaged during removal/installation. anything can, really, but if you (or whoever is doing it) is careful and gentle most problems are avoided
• Norton sucks. get rid of it. it hogs every bit of available memory alot of times.
• check for hardware conflicts... do you have onboard audio or video AND a vid card and/or sound card? disable the onboard stuff. disable the video shareing. the 1 Gig on the vid card should be enough.

[Missing_Minds]

I've worked in IT for practically my entire life.

... snip...

But as far as I'm concerned, I've made out like a bandit getting my extra disk I/Os and CPU cycles back.

Disk I/O I won't argue, but if you aren't using your CPU 100%, you haven't gained anything computing wise. Sure, it may cost a little less in electricity usage and heat generation, but that is it.

[Smitey]

on aload of occassions Ive been getting a blue screen and reset. often while playing DDO but also while doing other stuff.

Use this program to help you analyze the dump from the bluescreen:

http://majorgeeks.com/BlueScreenView_d6200.html

Post the screenshot / report for further assistance.

Updated audio drivers in case you haven't got them :

http://majorgeeks.com/Realtek_High_D...n_7_d5513.html

It could be a conflict with the ASUSTeK Tiger2 on-board capture card (if you are not using this visit the BIOS to disable if possible) or your wireless controller driver (not listed - cables not an option I take it?) but the BSOD diagnosis tool will help clarify the source of your crashes.

Sort out the crashing first; slowness should be looked into afterwards and may be related anyway.