Pesky PC - random shutdowns *shakes fist* - wha'gwan?

[editor]

Actually, that's not a reasonable conclusion, because your Android and Thinkpad may well have better quality PSUs, especially if your PC has come from a white-box builder, and your PC likely consumes vastly more power anyway so will be more sensitive.

The new PC has a very high quality PSU and the faults haven't all been consistent with power surges/spikes.

 

[Quartz]

Fair enough.

 

[editor]

I really have bought a King Pup of a PC here from a spectacularly useless company (Palicomp).

It's now back in a blue screen loop while I await the unbelievably leisurely attentions of the retailer.

If it's not fixed properly by the end of today, it's refund time.

 

[Mungy]

I was very pleased with the pc i bought from dino pc. I have not had to contact them since buying it, which is good - so no idea if their customer service is any good if there are problems with the pc.

 

[editor]

I've no idea why palicomp.co.uk have had good reviews because they are absolutely dreadful.

They never return emails until days later no matter how many times you ask, their phone is either permanently engaged/unanswered and their tech guy - who had promised to call me back at 4.10 today has just left me with a PC half installed.

I've told them that unless it's fixed by 6pm then I'll be wanting a full refund.

Words can't express how scathing my review is going to be: I don't want anyone to suffer the grief I've had to put up with for the past two weeks.

 

[Quartz]

{{Editor}}

 

[Sunray]

If I were to buy a ready built PC from anyone, it'd be Dell knowing full well that the next OS MS produce will be hit and miss for drivers and upgrading anything other than ram or hard disk will be nearly impossible. I do it because it generally will work out of the box. Had them pretty much solid for 13 years at work. Never had an issue.

Or I'll build it myself, but that's because I want a red motherboard that has more settings than word has features and can take 3 x16 pci-e graphics cards and a totally modular SeaSonic psu that comes in a fleecy draw string bag and makes no noise.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

3 Graphics cards?

 

[Quartz]

I've been looking at Palicomp's website and they seem to use Asus and Gigabyte motherboards which are top tier, so that won't be the problem. I'm suspicious about their no-name and Powercool PSUs; but the XFX PSU - which I assume is the one you have - is well-regarded. Everything else looks fine.

 

[Quartz]

and a totally modular SeaSonic psu that comes in a fleecy draw string bag and makes no noise.

That would be their 460W jobbie (of which I have a re-badged model) right?

 

[Sunray]

I've the 650w version as I have 2 graphics cards, 6 hard disks and over clock it to 3Ghz. All the SeaSonics come in the little bag and its noticeable as the all the power cords are detachable. They are often rebadged. Corsair HX series are SeaSonic psu's.

Having nice components is all very well, but if they are configured incorrectly or one of them is flakey as can happen on an over clocked machine, wave good bye to mr reliable.

 

[Bluesman]

"Having nice components is all very well, but if they are configured incorrectly or one of them is flakey as can happen on an over clocked machine, wave good bye to mr reliable.

I'd second that, and add that if you are installing an OS drivers etc to keep the config to a minimum, only fit the OS drive (presuming that data drives are part of the build, obviously RAID arrays need to be set up from the start if you go that way), I only put in one stick of RAM whilst installing and stuck the other 12GB in later and put the data drives in once I'd got everything stable. You don't need USB hubs etc plugged in for setting up (this caused a friend no end of grief on a PC build) etc etc

In short keep it lightweight until it's playing nicely, then go berserk adding stuff ;-)

 

[editor]

Well, I'm now on my *third* machine. I'm just running a Windows update (the point where the last one went terminally skewiff). If this one doesn't work, I'm going to get a ruddy Dell or something.

 

[two sheds]

If it doesn't it'll be an intermittent mains power problem

*taps nose*

 

[Bluesman]

Well, I'm now on my *third* machine. I'm just running a Windows update (the point where the last one went terminally skewiff). If this one doesn't work, I'm going to get a ruddy Dell or something.

I keep finding excuses not to fix my MacbookPro (its got a dead fan, so has permanent heatstroke down one side ) -it's presently in pieces in a large padded envelope with the offending fan removed ready for me to get it together to buy a replacement and fit it, fitting's a 5 minute job getting the replacement just keeps getting put off...

I know, I should fix it (it's a lovely lappy) but since I got a quad core i7 (I'm running at 4.4GHZ -I did have it at 5GHZ for a while! But it started getting "slightly warm" too so I' wound it back a bit, and it's still as fast-as-f*ck and rock-solid stable (I think it has a 30-some day uptime at the moment) it takes ages to do anything on the MBP in comparison, and I feel like I'm getting old waiting for it to catch up with whatever I was doing 5 minutes ago

Impatient???

Me?!!!

I should co-co

 

[editor]

If it doesn't it'll be an intermittent mains power problem

*taps nose*

Except that wouldn't make any sense at all seeing as the symptoms haven't consistently in line with such a prognosis, neither has the laptop or Asus Transformer experienced any problems, or the monitors plugged into it.

But I'd love to hear how you reckon an intermittent mains power problem would stop the internal SD card reader in the previous machine working while an external one worked fine from the off.

 

[two sheds]

Intermittent mate - it's all random.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

to computers.

I have spent a heck of a lot of this week sorting out computer related crap.

Event Viewer followed by some web searching to translate a lot of it into English led to the need to update drivers for some obscure bit of the system.

Followed by ckdsk to sort out some dodgy blocks or sectors or something

Windoze Update isn't updating, so I'm now downloading a System Update Readiness Tool

I'm sure they told us computers would make our lives easier...

 

[editor]

Intermittent mate - it's all random.

So it's so random that it only impacts on the one machine - the newest one with the most expensive power supply - and manifests itself in no other way at all, with the monitors remaining rock solid with no flickering, and no audio feedback being heard via the radio and speakers from the supposed problem? Nah.

PS The power supply is surge protected too.

 

[two sheds]

That's the thing about random, it's all random.

 

[editor]

That's the thing about random, it's all random.

If a power supply is so dodgy as to cause high-end machines to bomb out then you'd hear and see that dodginess in some way or another. Most of the problems I've had don't even match up with what you get with dodgy power supplies.

 

[Bluesman]

If a power supply is so dodgy as to cause high-end machines to bomb out then you'd hear and see that dodginess in some way or another. Most of the problems I've had don't even match up with what you get with dodgy power supplies.

Time for percussive maintainance...



???

 

[bi0boy]

Well, I'm now on my *third* machine.

Replacements from the same company? I'd have fucked them off before now if I were you.

I always make my own from bits off ebuyer. Only takes a few minutes to put together and I can make sure that not one of the components cuts corners.

 

[elbows]

Followed by ckdsk to sort out some dodgy blocks or sectors or something

You should watch out with that sort of problem, if your hard disk is developing bad sectors then theres a good chance of it developing more, or failing completely. Backup anything important that isnt already backed up straight away.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

You should watch out with that sort of problem, if your hard disk is developing bad sectors then theres a good chance of it developing more, or failing completely. Backup anything important that isnt already backed up straight away.

i'm fairly sure it was 'blocks' the more I think about it - is that the same thing?

I'll be a bit pissed off, as it was a new (reconditioned) computer a few months ago

but will do backups if anything more often than usual - thanks

 

[elbows]

Except that wouldn't make any sense at all seeing as the symptoms haven't consistently in line with such a prognosis, neither has the laptop or Asus Transformer experienced any problems, or the monitors plugged into it.

But I'd love to hear how you reckon an intermittent mains power problem would stop the internal SD card reader in the previous machine working while an external one worked fine from the off.

As I mentioned before its not the most likely problem, not by a long shot, and its only something I would investigate if a machine from another supplier also started going all weird & wrong not long after you got it.

However just to be boring about detail, laptops working ok on the same circuit arent proof of much, because even when they are getting their juice from the power supply rather than their battery, they are designed to keep working should the power suddenly be removed or become less than sufficient. And they are drawing less power.

That in no way makes me think you do have a power supply problem, just saying you cant use laptops or other sorts of equipment working just fine to completely and utterly rule out the issue.

 

[elbows]

i'm fairly sure it was 'blocks' the more I think about it - is that the same thing?

Fraid so. Its usually not a good sign and depending on what files lived on the area of the disk thats now bad it might be responsible for other issues you may have (eg if some of the files were part of the operating system or a driver).

Its possible the drive may carry on working ok for ages but I generally never trust a disk once its developed some bad sectors/blocks. However remote diagnosis based on words is obviously not as good as looking at the machine for myself so I cannot put my hand on my heart and tell you to trust computer doctor elbows expert diagnosis . Still backup stuff though.

 

[Bluesman]

i'm fairly sure it was 'blocks' the more I think about it - is that the same thing?

I'll be a bit pissed off, as it was a new (reconditioned) computer a few months ago

but will do backups if anything more often than usual - thanks

If it's any help, I found this on Amazon...

Generic Hard Disk Drive 500GB SATA II - 1 Year Warranty by Generic

Price at a Glance RRP:£99.95 New: from £30.95 (plus approx £6 P&P)


If you're on a budget , or this...

IBM 3TB 3.5" SATA/600 by IBM

Price:£444.56 (plus approx £5 P&P)

If you're flush

HTH

 

[editor]

That in no way makes me think you do have a power supply problem, just saying you cant use laptops or other sorts of equipment working just fine to completely and utterly rule out the issue.

I'm not ruling anything out, but on the balance of probability, I think it's hugely unlikely to be a power supply problem. Those things tend to manifest themselves in lots of ways and that hasn't happened.

 

[Sunray]

From where I am standing, sounds like a poorly constructed PC, poorly configured machine.

I applaud your persistence. I'd not have lasted beyond the 1st.