Ask the IT Network Engineer

[Jaymz]

Similar thread to the Ask the copper one in the pub section.

About me:

My job title at work is Senior Network Engineer, and in laymans terms i am an IT geek!

I have been working with computers since high school, and 6 years here at my current job, so have quite a bit of knowledge with most computer problems.

I also have extensive experience with windows servers.

Most computer problems take a bit of troubleshooting, so creating a thread so we can work on it in there would be a good idea.

But things like "is this laptop good", "how can i speed up my PC", "what is a good free Antivirus program" can be answered nice and easy here and can benefit other users who might stumble on this thread.

 

[Tatiana]

Good idea Jaymz.

My computer is being odd still. Haven't done anything since we last spoke (didn't need BIOS upgrade as I was correct, it is the latest ver) however the BSOD's have stopped, haven't seen one since 12th, and it stays up most of the time. Occassionaly though the HDD light comes on solid and the entire system freezes then reboots (no BSOD) and instead of restarting (HDD light still solid) I get the "insert boot disk" on a black screen. I have to power it down for about 20 seconds then power back up.

Just thought I would give you an update.

 

[Jaymz]

Thanks Clair,

Interesting how the BSOD have appeared to stop, but worrying that the random reboots are still there. I recently (today actually) got my hands on three identical computers all with failed Power supplies in them (power surge) and one of them exhibited the same issues (reboot with no errors). I initially thought hard drive, but replacing that made no difference. Replaced RAM, CPU, CD Drive still the same errors. Upon closer inspection of the board i found that some of the capacitors were bulging and leaking! Bingo, that was the issue.

Both good and bad capacitors are shown here in this pic:

Have a look on your board next time you have the case open and see if any are bulging or leaking, as that could be your problem.

 

[Tatiana]

Will do Jaymz. I also read online that sometimes the thermal paste could have dried out, so will need to check that out when I open the case to check the capacitors.

Love computers!!

 

[Jaymz]

When thermal paste dries out, it normally causes over temperature conditions on the CPU, this will result in throttling of the CPU speeds and eventually a system shutdown. Though normally the system will stay shut down rather than rebooting. and MSI motherboards are good at reporting CPU overtemp conditions. still worth a check though! Good luck!

 

[Jonno]

good work mate saving your fellow JCers alot of $$$

i have a small question

will deliting a old user and their files speed up the computer?

it lags a fair bit

 

[Jaymz]

Hey Jonnoo! Normally deleting old user files (or any files on your computer for that matter) will not cause a huge increase of performance unless the computer's hard drives are nearly full.

A few good tools to try run to narrow down the problem are Task manager and Performance monitor. To start these:

Task Manager:
Right click on a blank area on your task bar (bar along the bottom of the screen) and select Task Manager

Performance Monitor:
Windows XP:
Click Start > Run > type in PERFMON > click OK
Windows Vista/7
Click Start > type in search field: PERFMON > press enter

In task manager, look in the Performance tab and see how high the line graph is, if it is constantly above 50% with nothing open then that will be what is slowing it down. Going back to the Processes tab, you can sort by CPU. Googling the Image Name will yeild results as to what the process is and if it should be working that hard.

In Performance monitor, note also how high the bar graphs are. The line that represents Avg. Disk Queue length is the one you will be interested in. that represents if something is reading and writing to the hard drive. Finding out what is doing that is harder though and beyond what i can suggest here (more a case by case approach)

Other than that, running disk defragmenters, check disks and running other free AV scans (Free ESET Online Antivirus Scanner) are good to make sure there isnt anything else wrong with your pc.

hope this helps!

 

[Jonno]

sweet cheers man i just delited the user and restarted. i actually already did see a bit of speed up.. eg not lagging when moving the mouse etc.

thanks mate

i opend the 2 things u stated above, they both started high but then dropped loww after that, so im guessing all is ok thanks

 

[GothicKidd]

Got a problem. Owned this computer for 2 years now.. Used to run great,was running it with no fan for a bit and killed the motherboard. Had that replaced with a new graphics card + PSU.
I often reformat my computer and freshly re-install Vista. I recently done this and a couple months on Ive barelly downloaded anything.. and it's running really slow.
There's 261GB free of 347GB.
I normally have 2 monitors on.. normally disabling one I don't use. Also tried using 2 HDD's was running okay than slowed down so I removed that again..
Tried Disk cleanup, Defrag, ccleaner, and virus scanned it with 2 different programs with no luck
So what can I do? or am I due for a upgrade?

 

[Tatiana]

MSI motherboards are good at reporting CPU overtemp conditions.

Check the temp via the tray icon quite often. Generally hovers between 30 and 32 degress even when she starts to play up a bit.