PC fettling and repairs thread

[cyberknight]

Just been told mini ck1 laptop is farked and the one mini ck2 is using is on its last legs

I see chromebooks on wowcher etc for from about £70 , are they ok for college work or just to old to be worth bothering with ? eg dell 3120 / 3180 came out about 6-7 years ago or i can get a small cloudbook currently on offer for £139 with ms office already installed .

 

[Grant Fondo]

Retro Computing

I retrieved my old Desktop from te attic where its sat since I moved into this house. I've kept the hard drive which I can use as a bare external drive for backups etc.
The only other bits I've saved from the tip run were the DDR Ram, 2xCorsair DDR2 2GB 800mhz modules (cm2x2048-6400c4dhx). Are these any use to anyone?

I doubt it but you never know. I found some old, and quite fetching, OCZ sticks which I probably paid far too much for. 20 years since DDR2 came out!

 

[MontyVeda]

my PC monitors keep flickering, like a dodgy connection... a quick black flicker then back, every minute or two. I've checked the connections and they're all secure at each end, and the fact it's happening on both monitors makes me wonder if it's the onboard graphics struggling to run them both, but spec-wise it should be capable of running two monitors at 1920x1080.

I've had a look in task manager and performance but can't see where to check if the graphics is running at or near capacity.

Drivers are upto date so not sure what to do other than see if i can fit a dedicated graphics card in there.

 

[ColinJ]

What happens if you just run one at a time?

 

[Grant Fondo]

my PC monitors keep flickering, like a dodgy connection... a quick black flicker then back, every minute or two. I've checked the connections and they're all secure at each end, and the fact it's happening on both monitors makes me wonder if it's the onboard graphics struggling to run them both, but spec-wise it should be capable of running two monitors at 1920x1080.

I've had a look in task manager and performance but can't see where to check if the graphics is running at or near capacity.

Drivers are upto date so not sure what to do other than see if i can fit a dedicated graphics card in there.

Anything else connected to socket? I had a heater connected to same extension, screen flicker each time heater kicked in.
Windows 11 shows gpu use in task manager, win 10 not. GPU-Z is handy for detailed info. Good luck.

 

[MontyVeda]

There's countless things going into this one socket

But it's only started happening since bought a bigger 2nd monitor (plugged into a different power socket)... so as far as the array of extensions on this socket is concerned, nothing has changed. There is a heater which has clicked on as i type... no flicker.

I'll have a look at GPU-Z. Thank you for that

 

[lazybloke]

My wife's tablet has just died (Galaxy Tab S3). No charging via cable or wireless; no light, nothing. Looked up the key combinations to force a hard power-cycle & reboot; nothing.
She had it over 6 years; not sure if that's good or bad!

 

[DCBassman]

There's countless things going into this one socket

But it's only started happening since bought a bigger 2nd monitor (plugged into a different power socket)... so as far as the array of extensions on this socket is concerned, nothing has changed. There is a heater which has clicked on as i type... no flicker.

I'll have a look at GPU-Z. Thank you for that

Just to eliminate the possibility of earth loops, relocate the 2nd monitor plug to the same power strip. If that works, consider investing in Y-cables to reduce socket use and keep everything common.

 

[MontyVeda]

Just to eliminate the possibility of earth loops, relocate the 2nd monitor plug to the same power strip. If that works, consider investing in Y-cables to reduce socket use and keep everything common.

not possible unless i get a six meter kettle lead. If an earth loop was the problem, why has it just manifested itself? I've been running two monitors for well over a decade

 

[Dadam]

When the "flicker" happens, is it on both monitors or just one? If both is it exactly the same time? Does the screen go completely blank? How long for? How are the monitors connected for the display signal? HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C, VGA? Are they daisy chained or on different ports?
Can you try different cables? If HDMI you could nick one or two from a TV for a few minutes.

Highly unlikely to be a video bandwidth issue, it would probably just not run at all and most cards these days can easily drive 2x 1920x1080.
My guess is video cable connection issue.

 

[MontyVeda]

It does happen on both but I can't really tell if its simultaneous because monitor 1 is the PC screen and monitor 2 is the TV screen in an opposite corner. Connections are DVI and VGA so no change there from the previous dual set-up.

it's a flicker rather than a blackout; a split second of diagonal shifting reminiscent of VHS video scrolling but a lot quickerer.

 

[Grant Fondo]

This cured it completely for me as I was using a cheapo powerstrip before, and I wanted the USB sockets.

 

[DCBassman]

Now down to just two desktops. Imac is up for sale, so when that goes, just one left.
This is a now-completed new build, i7-4790, 32GB RAM, GTX980, on Asus CS-B mATX board. Corsair RM650 modular psu. All fitted into a BitFenix Prodigy 2022 case, minus all the flashing lights nonsense.
There's still a Techair backpack full of laptops, mind...

 

[MontyVeda]

This cured it completely for me as I was using a cheapo powerstrip before, and I wanted the USB sockets.
View attachment 716602

my extensions are all surge protected.

I installed GPU-Z and this is what it monitored for a flicker. There are similar peaks if I scroll down a webpage, so if it means anything or not, I have no idea.

 

[Grant Fondo]

my extensions are all surge protected.

I installed GPU-Z and this is what it monitored for a flicker. There are similar peaks if I scroll down a webpage, so if it means anything or not, I have no idea.

View attachment 716616

Mmm, dunno. Onboard graphics are usually ok for general work, how old is the cpu?