Revision as of 13:26, 6 September 2007

General information

• Make the title of the post as relevant as possible. Titles like "weird problem" or "fucking computer" are less helpful than "blue screen problem", "suspected virus" or "PC will not switch on"
• Give as much information as possible about your problem and whatever steps you've taken so far to solve it. If you don't do this this, you may waste time waiting for advice that you've already thought of and done.
• If it's a purchasing question, be sure to give the specifications of what you want and a budget.
• If errorz are given please written them down exactly, including all fiddly numbers, letters and CDC's. Screenshots are also acceptable.

Suspected malware/virus/etc

• Do a virus scan! http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=884 is still relevant.
• wait 5 minutes after booting, then go to a command prompt and type

tasklist /V >C:\tasklist.txt

then show us the textfile created on your C drive called tasklist.txt. It helps to put it in [code] and [/code] tags for readability on the forums.

• Download HijackThis and run it, it's self installing.
  • Click the button labelled Do a system scan and save a logfile.
  • HijackThis will quickly scan your system, and then open two new windows. The results of the HijackThis scan, and hijackthis.log in Notepad. Save hijackthis.log. By default it will be saved to C:\HijackThis, or you can chose “Save As…”, and save to another location.
  • Hijackthis.log contains the info that’s required to receive analysis and assistance. Highlight the entire contents. Copy and paste the contents into your post, along with a complete description of your problem(s).(again put it in [code] and [/code] tags for readability) DO NOT fix anything. Wait for help.

Hardware

• If you don't know what hardware you have you can use SIW then select File > Create Log File. This will export the hardware and software information about your system and product a file. If you need to share the file and have no other means then try https://www.dropboks.com/ with un: 5punksiw@5punk.co.uk pw: 5punksiw

General Troubleshooting

BSODs

Blue Screens Of Death are evil, but generally not [i]that[/i] much trouble, as they can usually be pinned down to Memory issues or Graphics card Driver or heat issues.

Unfortunately, the best way to work it out is by looking at the bsod (assuming it stays up long enough) Note it down (or get a photo) then google it, you'll usually be able to work out what the issue is by what the BSOD says.

Memory Issues.

Do memtest, leave it for a while, if no issues, swear and maybe consider timings and voltages.

Graphics issues.

Do Atitool (works on nvidia cards) check how hot the card gets

Aquire a copy of drivercleaner, follow the instructions to nuke graphics drivers.

Just not working (Failing to post)

First thing to do is to listen. Hopefully you'll hear some beeps, which you can look up in your motherboard manual to identify the issue.

If you get no beeps at all, reset your bios/cmos (will be covered in the manual, usually requires moving a jumper or removing the battery)

If that didn't help, it's likely there's a hardware issue, remove everything but cpu and keyboard (remember to remove USB drives etc too)

If it beeps, add memory and try again. (once cpu and ram is in, the machine should post right, (usually a single happy beep) Repeat this adding hardware 1 part at a time, working from most important to least important. once it breaks, remove the last item and feed it to your laser eyed sharks.