[Hoggett]

Hello all,

I am having problems with a computer(new), I bought it for the neighbour next door (They have been exceptionally good to me this past year) but I/they are having problems with it,

Problem 1 - When they go to use stand-by the machine closes down and the power light blinks which is normal however there is a system fan still operating, which in my eyes is wrong, so I contacted the manufacturer and they say that stand-by is only used on laptops(?) which I don't believe.

Problem 2 - The daughter (15) tried to plug in a usb device in the two slots in the front of the computer but when she did the computer went off, as so there was no power, now I don't know what happened(I am going in tonight to try and find out what exactly happened) but I think I have got a dodgy computer.

I know it was cheapish (£500) but it should still operate correctly. It is running on Windows XP home edition sp2.

So the question is how many of you can use the stand-by mode without problems and does anyone thing that I may have a dodgy computer.

Thanks for any input you have - good or bad.

Ian

 

[norton850]

Standby cuts down on power consumption by your system. It doesn't shut it off so it is normal for some items, like fans to operate. It is really intended for laptops and sometimes works and sometimes doesn't on desktops.

Let us know what you find out about the USB problem.

 

[obvious]

thats a bios prob me thinks. or it could be the windows power saving. or both. im not a windowsXP user, so i havent a clue with it =(

 

[Hoggett]

Hi thanks, I have checked the BIOS and the settings in XP they all appear correct.

Hi Norton850, I haven't had time to check it out tonight, try tomorrow.

Ian

 

[griffinspc]

Problem 2 - The daughter (15) tried to plug in a usb device in the two slots in the front of the computer but when she did the computer went off, as so there was no power, now I don't know what happened(I am going in tonight to try and find out what exactly happened) but I think I have got a dodgy computer.

The first thing I'd make sure of is that the daughter isn't trying to plug a USB device into a firewire port. Bad things can happen. The second thing is a possible short at the plug in point (I had that happen myself once), again bad and the 3rd thing may be that internally the machine was wired incorrectly in the first place and the firewire port was plugged to the USB port and the USB port was plugged to the firewire port at the motherboard. Again, bad. Bad enough to fry the motherboard. You didn't say whether the machine rebooted OK after this happened.

 

[Hoggett]

Hi the computer did boot up ok afterwards as though nothing had happened. - is it possible to plug a usb into a firewire port? I didn't know you could. Also in the booklets etc it says the computer has 6 usb ports so I assume that the four at the back are usb and also the two front ones make up the six.

 

[griffinspc]

Also in the booklets etc it says the computer has 6 usb ports so I assume that the four at the back are usb and also the two front ones make up the six.

I would assume that too. I would also assume you may have USB 2.0 in the back and 1.1 in front. Many older machines have that configuration. I didn't have that info so made a guess at a possible reason for your problem.

As far as plugging in incorrectly, as I said "trying to". It sounds as if the PC runs fine now except when trying to use the front panel. Is that correct?

 

[Hoggett]

Hello griffinpc, yes it works fine, I am going around tonight if poss to see exactly what happens. I am wondering if it was possible that she hit the power button as she was try to find the ports, although with upto date computers that should not make a difference.

about the usb ports, I don't really know either if the front one's 1.1 or 2.0

 

[griffinspc]

If there's a manual it should tell you if they're 1.1 or 2.0. Good luck.

 

[Hoggett]

That's the problem, there is only a motherboard manual, and that's it.

Ian

 

[Hoggett]

Hello again,

I finally got to check out the ports, and they are ok, I think what it is is that the machine has been made from cheapish parts etc and when she has gone to plug in the usb connector she has disturbed the power supply connection, (she must have moved the computer which in turn has disturbed the plug) anyway I have triecd putting fairly basic programs on it and it refuses to play them, the problem I have found is that the graphics memory is too small and also it is shared with the main memory which was advertised as being 256mb which in actuall fact is only 224mb with the graphics taken the rest, so I think that once the year's gaurantee is up, I may suggest getting a graphics card and extra memory to bring it up to my specs.

Thanks for your help, I am pleased I hadn't to battle the big boys.

Ian

 

[griffinspc]

which was advertised as being 256mb which in actuall fact is only 224mb with the graphics taken the rest

That's standard for integrated graphics. It's not a huge drain on your system. At least a system of that type. You also said:

I have triecd putting fairly basic programs on it and it refuses to play them, the problem I have found is that the graphics memory is too small

What specs do the games require that you feel the amont of RAM is too small? Do you get any error messages such as "out of memory"? Does it lock up or just refuse to load the game?

 

[Hoggett]

I think the main problem is the naff graphics card, it uses 32 mb and most games need at least 32 mb, the main problem is that the games freeze, I have tried using the compatibility mode (win95 as most the games that are playing up have been used on that os. The games are for example :- London Racer, Colin McRae rally (an old one, which to be honest can even play up on mine sometimes), The Sim's original works but Hot Date and Sims on holiday won't.

I hope this gives you an idea of the type of problems I/they are having.

Ian

I

 

[griffinspc]

Me thinks you have another problem. If the games are that old the specs are referring to 32 MB's of total memory to run not 32 MB's of video memory. I'm not familiar with these games actually, I'm only going by the age. If I take an old Descent that I had years ago with my W95 machine and try and play it on my new machine (not even my fastest) it has a stroke almost immediately. It's just too darn fast for those older games.

Did these games work before on this machine? I did a search on Racer and found about a million hits none of which had any specs but when some of the info is in DOS type files you know it's old. The Sims on Holiday has these specs;

SPECIFICATIONS:Requires Pentium II 300, 64Mb RAM, 700Mb free hard disk space.

As you can see you have more than enough power right now to run that game.

 

[Hoggett]

Hi Griffinpc,

These games haven't been run on this machine before because they have just purchased it, it is the first time, however I have a P4 2.2Ghz with 512mb ram and 64mb Nvidia gforce 420 and they run perfect on mine, so I still blame the graphics capabilites of the new machine.

Ian

P.S. the memory I quoted was video memory it needed nor system memory, thanks.