Trying to build on a budget

[bluearth]

Originally Posted by Toptube

alright dude calm down.


First off, start over. Make two partitions, one for windows and one for data. Make the windows installation something decent like 200 gigs. The data partition is whatever is leftover. Any semi important data should be saved onto this partition. That way if you have problems in the future and the steps to recover your installation or your windows partitiona data fails, at least you still have your important data on a separate partition. This is especially good practice for novices like yourself.

Try to install windows 7 again.

the first thing you need to tell us is what are you using for a video driver? whatever windows defaults to? whatever came on a disc with your video card? downloaded latest from Nvidia? I would recommend running on windows generic default drivers for your whole system until you have windows 7 mostly updated. During windows' update, do not allow it to install drivers for you. They are old. Just install updates for wiindows and microsoft software. Then download all of the latest drivers off manufacturers' websites. Don't use anything that came on a disc with your stuff. Its all super old. The ONLY thing that you should install off the disc is the network card driver, IF windows doesn't already automatically have one for it.

Also once you've updated windows, go download all of the .net frameworks, the C++ distributable, and the Direct X distributable. Install these BEFORE any of your drivers.

Then install drivers in this order: motherboard/chipset, latest network driver, Soundcard, Video card.


then go to control panel, system, advanced system settings, advanced, performance, advanced, virtual memory. Change it to a manual set size that never changes. Make it DOUBLE your amount of ram.

make sure that your system is set to create restore points. at least 3 times a week and to keep them for two weeks or so. This can save a lot of time, effort, and heartache if you ever have major problems.

Also you should run some sort of anti-virus and anti-spyware. I recommend Avast! for anti-virus and Spybot for anti-spyware. They are both free. When you install spybot it will give you an option for something like a "system teatimer" uncheck that. DO install the Internet explore protection thing. download the updates for it once its installed. Then open the program and go to the immunization section and manually run the immunization service. every couple of months you should download the updates and re-run the immunization service. Do spyware scans whenever you feel like it.

Avast! will keep itself up to date, only occasionally asking you to download a whole new release. Avast! kicks ass and will actively repel viruses before they have a chance to connect with and/or initiate. You can also deactivate Avast! by right clicking on it anytime you wish. Some people deactivate Anti-Virus software while gaming.

You will now probably never get a virus unless you are absolutely dumb and asking for it. Spyware and bots will be at a minimum. The keyword to remember is probably*.

If you still have any problems along the way, post back in here.

also just for reference, post your CPU, videocard, and ram (actual amount and size of sticks)



*You may get a virus at some point, it happens. One time Nvidia was hacked and a virus downloaded off the link for their drivers. So just try to keep yourself protected as much as you can. If you ever get a virus the first thing you should do is A: disconnect your network cable.

If you have control of your computer in regular windows, try to restore from a restore point that you know FOR SURE is from before the virus. IF you don't have control, reboot and go into safe mode. Try to run a restore. If the restore completes, the virus is now rendered inert, at least temporarily. Now go into Avast! and find the option to setup a boot time scan (this will run a scan next time you computer restarts, before windows loads) and set it to automatically move bad files to the quarantine. bad bing bad boom. Sometimes infected files can be important windows files, so run a disk check with the automatic repair option after that.

Before I do any major rehaul, it turns out the problem is more annoying then crippling. Its hard to get the signal back when restarting or rebooting immediately. But if you turn the computer off all night in the mourning it boots through VGA fine. It has done this twice now. All I have to do is switch it to HDMI. I have played a few game demos already and no problems. I'll call EVGA Monday and see if they have any solution for why it acts up on restarts.

My BIOS is version F3, the latest update at the website is F3.

I have the latest video card drivers from the nvidia site

I heard that system save points actually save viruses? Any truth to that?

My core temps are 29c idle. Is that what I should expect from the Hyper 212 Plus?

[Toptube]

Idle temps of 29C are awesome and as good as you'll likely ever get on air cooling. From here its about keeping your load temp as low as possible. Or if you are trying for a quiet/silent computer, keeping your load temp low enough.

restore points backup your registry as well as some of the most key system files. If you've had a virus for awhile, and its a virus that embeds itself in the registry, then yes its possible it could get partially saved with a restore point. But MOST viruses are quite noticeable. The only two scenarios I could think of where a Virus would be allowed to persist on a system long enough for it to get backed up like that would be A. one of the very few viruses that are "silent" B. A user who learns to live with it and/or probably already has a ton of other shit on their computer that they've been living with, so another thing is just lost in the noise. You'd be surprised at what people will leave unfixed on their computers. Its hard to imagine how they could even use them at all.


Restore points are your friend. Turn them on and as I said, make sure they happen a few times a week and are saved for about two weeks before they auto delete. This will give you plenty of headroom should you ever have major problems.