Okay, Hello and thank you for taking the time to look at this thread. It may be long.
I have searched high and low for the many things wrong with my computer and no one can come up with an answer be it online or in a shop physically looking/testing it.
Specs:
CPU - Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad @ 2.4 GHz (Stock) fitted with Arctic Cooling Freezing Pro 7
Graphics Card - Asus EAHD4850 (Stock) fitted with a stock cooler.
RAM - 2 x of XMS2 (1Gb) RAM (PC2-6400 400MHz)
Mobo - Asus P5N-D (updated BIOS to Rev 1101)
OS - Win XP SP3 (OEM)
HDD - Seagate Barracude (7200) 500 GB
2 CD/DVD Drives
OK here goes. Built the PC originally by hand. Worked fine. Then I started to notice that when I was playing a game and listening to music the music started to lag. I noticed this was due to the CPU spiking. The music lagged even when I was just on firefox and listening to WMP. It APPEARS to slow down all audio on the system.
Before this I had attached a VGA cooler to my HD4850.
No one could figure out this problem s I sent my computer down to England to a friend (who is an officially registered PCA member and [at the time] owner of a reputable computer shop). It went down ok. My friend said that the cooler was fitted incorrectly (my mistake). Also the gfx card appeared to be incorrectly fitted, causing it to send signlas to the CPU also causing the CPU to have to use processing power to deal with these constant interruptions from the gfx card.
He sent it back up. COURTESY OF DHL who lovingly delivered my PC. When it arrived it was smashed up due to mishandling. (I am STILL in contact with trading standards/consumer advice trying to get SOME sortof compensation from them).
I sent my friend in England the pictures. He could tell that it had been subjected to a high G-force (being dropped off the back of a lorry or similar). The chassis AROUND THE PSU had been twisted it was that bad. Also there had been some point impacts (possibly kicked or objects dropped onto it) where the clear side of my computer had been cracked.
The case was sufficiently packed by my friend. The box did CLEARLY state THIS WAY UP and COMPUTER CASE and in the description "High end computer".
As is said before we are still in a legal battle with the company. In the meantime consumer advice told us to get it fixed by a computer shop and for the computer shop to make an independent assessment on the computer for insurance purposes.
They had done so and I was told by consumer advice I would not be able to claim the full costs of the computer only for the DAMAGED CASE.
Got the new case. Computer shop put back all the components that had been in the original smashed up case (which admittedly looked physically ok. (Please note I am aware the consquences of electronics and being thrown about. I am aware that they may appear to work fine initially but will never be the same or will break after a few days/weeks/months.
The computer shop tested every component to it's limits. Everything worked fine.
Got the PC back.
Pc appeared to function fine for the past few weeks. I have put the latest gfx drivers for the card on (ATI 9.8 CCC) and updated the bios ot rev 1101 aswell as installing the usual games, programs etc.
I noticed that other people with GTA IV and the same specs as me (some with even lower CPU specs than me) could run the game well on high with no lag. I however could not. I set all the settings to what suited me and played for about 10 days and everything seemed ok (with the occasional crash or long lag in the game).
Only two days ago (nothing had changed hardware, software or physically to the computer from when it had been working before) I decided to play EVE and listen to WMP. At which point I noticed the CPU spikes came back due to the lagging music and oscillating frame rate of EVE. I closed all programs and the cPU was spiking between 10 - 70% (which on a quad core I thought was improbable). I restarted the computer and looked ta the cpu with just the startup programs running (AVG, windows messenger, ati drivers and EVEMon) and it sat around 0-3 %. I started wmp, it sounded fine for 2 mins then the lag happened. After that the cpu was spiking again.
My soundcard is stock on this computer (I honestly don't think that's the problem though and neither does anyone else that has tried to help me.)
I have both side of the computer off, a fan fitted to the chipset, gfx card and cpu aswell as an 8 inch desk fan blowing into the side of the pc. Temperatures for quad sit between 30 - 33 idle and 35-45under load. Gfx card sits around 49 idle and up to 60 underload (before the bigger fan blowing in was put there temperatures typically hit around 80 under load).
I am SICK TO DEATH OF THIS COMPUTER. I cannot claim for a new one as I would need evidence for the courts and everytime someone tests it under load the pc appears to be working, but there are so many underlying issues with it, it just doesnt work when I use it normally.
I apologise for the caps and the rants but you have to understand I have spent £500 - £600 on a pc that has been giving me nothing but problems for the last YEAR SOLID.
All i ask for is either technical help OR legal advice on what to do next with this computer.
Honestly thank you for reading this thread, whatever you do though please do not let this problem get to you as much as it has got to me. I am at my whit's end with this computer but cannot simply stop using it.
(Feel free to ask any questions and I will try my best to answer them)
Once again thank you.
I have searched high and low for the many things wrong with my computer and no one can come up with an answer be it online or in a shop physically looking/testing it.
Specs:
CPU - Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad @ 2.4 GHz (Stock) fitted with Arctic Cooling Freezing Pro 7
Graphics Card - Asus EAHD4850 (Stock) fitted with a stock cooler.
RAM - 2 x of XMS2 (1Gb) RAM (PC2-6400 400MHz)
Mobo - Asus P5N-D (updated BIOS to Rev 1101)
OS - Win XP SP3 (OEM)
HDD - Seagate Barracude (7200) 500 GB
2 CD/DVD Drives
OK here goes. Built the PC originally by hand. Worked fine. Then I started to notice that when I was playing a game and listening to music the music started to lag. I noticed this was due to the CPU spiking. The music lagged even when I was just on firefox and listening to WMP. It APPEARS to slow down all audio on the system.
Before this I had attached a VGA cooler to my HD4850.
No one could figure out this problem s I sent my computer down to England to a friend (who is an officially registered PCA member and [at the time] owner of a reputable computer shop). It went down ok. My friend said that the cooler was fitted incorrectly (my mistake). Also the gfx card appeared to be incorrectly fitted, causing it to send signlas to the CPU also causing the CPU to have to use processing power to deal with these constant interruptions from the gfx card.
He sent it back up. COURTESY OF DHL who lovingly delivered my PC. When it arrived it was smashed up due to mishandling. (I am STILL in contact with trading standards/consumer advice trying to get SOME sortof compensation from them).
I sent my friend in England the pictures. He could tell that it had been subjected to a high G-force (being dropped off the back of a lorry or similar). The chassis AROUND THE PSU had been twisted it was that bad. Also there had been some point impacts (possibly kicked or objects dropped onto it) where the clear side of my computer had been cracked.
The case was sufficiently packed by my friend. The box did CLEARLY state THIS WAY UP and COMPUTER CASE and in the description "High end computer".
As is said before we are still in a legal battle with the company. In the meantime consumer advice told us to get it fixed by a computer shop and for the computer shop to make an independent assessment on the computer for insurance purposes.
They had done so and I was told by consumer advice I would not be able to claim the full costs of the computer only for the DAMAGED CASE.
Got the new case. Computer shop put back all the components that had been in the original smashed up case (which admittedly looked physically ok. (Please note I am aware the consquences of electronics and being thrown about. I am aware that they may appear to work fine initially but will never be the same or will break after a few days/weeks/months.
The computer shop tested every component to it's limits. Everything worked fine.
Got the PC back.
Pc appeared to function fine for the past few weeks. I have put the latest gfx drivers for the card on (ATI 9.8 CCC) and updated the bios ot rev 1101 aswell as installing the usual games, programs etc.
I noticed that other people with GTA IV and the same specs as me (some with even lower CPU specs than me) could run the game well on high with no lag. I however could not. I set all the settings to what suited me and played for about 10 days and everything seemed ok (with the occasional crash or long lag in the game).
Only two days ago (nothing had changed hardware, software or physically to the computer from when it had been working before) I decided to play EVE and listen to WMP. At which point I noticed the CPU spikes came back due to the lagging music and oscillating frame rate of EVE. I closed all programs and the cPU was spiking between 10 - 70% (which on a quad core I thought was improbable). I restarted the computer and looked ta the cpu with just the startup programs running (AVG, windows messenger, ati drivers and EVEMon) and it sat around 0-3 %. I started wmp, it sounded fine for 2 mins then the lag happened. After that the cpu was spiking again.
My soundcard is stock on this computer (I honestly don't think that's the problem though and neither does anyone else that has tried to help me.)
I have both side of the computer off, a fan fitted to the chipset, gfx card and cpu aswell as an 8 inch desk fan blowing into the side of the pc. Temperatures for quad sit between 30 - 33 idle and 35-45under load. Gfx card sits around 49 idle and up to 60 underload (before the bigger fan blowing in was put there temperatures typically hit around 80 under load).
I am SICK TO DEATH OF THIS COMPUTER. I cannot claim for a new one as I would need evidence for the courts and everytime someone tests it under load the pc appears to be working, but there are so many underlying issues with it, it just doesnt work when I use it normally.
I apologise for the caps and the rants but you have to understand I have spent £500 - £600 on a pc that has been giving me nothing but problems for the last YEAR SOLID.
All i ask for is either technical help OR legal advice on what to do next with this computer.
Honestly thank you for reading this thread, whatever you do though please do not let this problem get to you as much as it has got to me. I am at my whit's end with this computer but cannot simply stop using it.
(Feel free to ask any questions and I will try my best to answer them)
Once again thank you.