Is this type of software available for free

viv0147

Hi I also recommend pcpitstop while had a p.c. I used it and it was brilliant not only does it diagnose your computer it also explains in layman's terms how to correct any faults it may find, and the best news its free!!!! I now have a Mac so thankfully over the last 2 years not 1 problem.

mrian_2

turbobob wrote: »

What CPU temps are you getting?

Hi, Max I can get this up to (converting 2 big avis to mpg at the same time)
cpu running 100% is 65. My old 3.0Ghz used to get up to 73 so I do not think temps are the issue

mrian_2

I do appreciate all your help and advice but I am now thinking to myself that if I break the PC up and sell on ebay along with my spares (based on some quick searches of completed listings) I may get the following:-
Case (2 weeks old) - £10
IC7-Max3 M/B - £50
3.4GHZ CPU + Intel Extreme cooler - £30
Corsair 2Gb (2x 1Gb) XMS3200 Platinum - £50
Crucial 2 X 1Gb - £30
Kingston PC3200 2 X 512mb - £10
Maxtor 320GB SATA - £30
6600GT Grafix (AGP) - £25
X1300/1550 Grafix (AGP) - £10
Arctic 600W PSU - £10
Arctic 700W PSU - £15
(I have virtually all the original packaging)
This would leave me with a Samsung DVD (Worthless)
an oem DVD (Even more worthless)
A New 500GB Caviar (for backups)
Keyboard and Mouse
Decent Monitor
Windows 7 Retail (assuming I could load it onto another PC, I have already activated it on this one and Microsoft are beggers for not allowing you to move Operating Systems)
and £265 towards a new PC.
Rather than stressing out I am now thinking that this may be my favoured option.
The problem I have is that I am getting into areas far beyond my knowledge and experience as an amateur.
I would be interested in your thoughts and what I could get to last me a few years
Thanks

mrian_2

Just to cheer me up I am on the interweb and listening to a bit of music, my temps are all over the low 40's and my PC is as happy as Larry today!
I cannot get it to crash no matter what I do.
This is what does my head in.

JasX

Does sound unusual, over what period of time did you upgrade the various components?

AGP is pretty ancient these days as most machines since 2005 have been PCIe based so trying to mesh a pre2005 graphics arcitechture with a 2009 OS and other modern components its not the ideal setup for avoiding conflicts (although alot of manufacturers do their best to make things backwards compatible they're not always that successful).

If you're detemined to get a little more life out of the old AGP stuff perhaps stick with the older IDE hard disk, one DVD drive only (few people ever need 2) and the known good RAM and see if you can get the machine working with the minimum number of necessary components, should be fine for surfing and basic PC tasks.

if the machine is getting on a bit and you were considering upgrading perhaps get an up to date motherboard and starting over? (tho hard disk, DVD drive, PSU and general peripherials should still be good). Altho these days unless you're after a high end machine you don't get all that much value from building it yourself and may as well look at a pre-built mid range dell type thing.

since you've had it apart are you sure all the necessary mother board connections have been plugged in (eg additional power connections) and when putting it into the new case did you use any spacers provided to make sure the motherboard underside is raised/not touching the case, also did you take anti-static measures?

turbobob

mrian wrote: »

Just to cheer me up I am on the interweb and listening to a bit of music, my temps are all over the low 40's and my PC is as happy as Larry today!
I cannot get it to crash no matter what I do.
This is what does my head in.

Sounds frustrating! In the past when I've had stability issues (mainly to do with overclocking) I've used software designed to stress the CPU and memory, such as this - http://sp2004.fre3.com/beta/beta2.htm It pretty quickly showed up calculation errors when the computer was unstable (although the computer would quite happily run the desktop and most programs in this state, at least until it crashed randomly). When the program found errors, I'd go back into the BIOS, make tweaks to voltages or timings, and then try again..

If you do decide to go with new stuff, then IMO at the cheaper end of the scale AMD is probably the best option at the moment in terms of bang for buck. Many of the motherboards have decent integrated ATI graphics that should be more than good enough for non hardcore gaming.

For example:
AMD Athlon X4 620 quad core CPU
Gigabyte 785G based motherboard
Add 4gb of DDR3 and I think it should be the basis of a pretty powerful system for the money.

Oneday77

mrian wrote: »

I do appreciate all your help and advice but I am now thinking to myself that if I break the PC up and sell on ebay along with my spares (based on some quick searches of completed listings) I may get the following:-
Case (2 weeks old) - £10
IC7-Max3 M/B - £50
3.4GHZ CPU + Intel Extreme cooler - £30
Corsair 2Gb (2x 1Gb) XMS3200 Platinum - £50
Crucial 2 X 1Gb - £30
Kingston PC3200 2 X 512mb - £10
Maxtor 320GB SATA - £30
6600GT Grafix (AGP) - £25
X1300/1550 Grafix (AGP) - £10
Arctic 600W PSU - £10
Arctic 700W PSU - £15
(I have virtually all the original packaging)
This would leave me with a Samsung DVD (Worthless)
an oem DVD (Even more worthless)
A New 500GB Caviar (for backups)
Keyboard and Mouse
Decent Monitor
Windows 7 Retail (assuming I could load it onto another PC, I have already activated it on this one and Microsoft are beggers for not allowing you to move Operating Systems)
and £265 towards a new PC.
Rather than stressing out I am now thinking that this may be my favoured option.
The problem I have is that I am getting into areas far beyond my knowledge and experience as an amateur.
I would be interested in your thoughts and what I could get to last me a few years
Thanks

Recycle your case and PSU assuming it has a PCI-E power point and it has SATA power to.
The MB your unlikely to gte £50 for it but you can try.
NEVER sell an Hard Drive second hand. You never kown what people might pull off it, even if you do format it and remove the partitions. Not worth the risk. The Caviar will be fine as a main Drive initially, I guess its a SATA.
Windows will be fine, I have changed my motherboard 3 times and windows worked each time, I just had to call the number on screen to reactivate it, XP admittedly.
A new AMD processor, Motherboard, 2GB DDR3 ram and a basic PCI-E graphics card is about £200 and will perform better than your current setup.
If you can replace components you can build a new PC.

basmic

mrian wrote: »

Just to cheer me up I am on the interweb and listening to a bit of music, my temps are all over the low 40's and my PC is as happy as Larry today!
I cannot get it to crash no matter what I do.
This is what does my head in.

Out of interest, do you use any surge protectors on the same plug? I seem to remember reading about them causing allsorts of problems.

mrian_2

Thanks for all the replies again. No I do not use surge protectors. I do not overclock or play games or do anything stressful with high CPU usage. The Maxtor HD is a sata 1 and the Caviar is a sata 11 with a jumper to make it sata 1. The psu is brand new and has sata connectors and it seems like every type of connector imaginable with it.
I have been looking on ebay and have noticed Palicomp regularly auctioning a PC which has the following:
Case
AthlonII DUAL CORE AM3 240 CPU
ASrock K10n78 M/B with built in graphics
500GB H/D
DVD R/W
2GB Memory
Case
CPU
It has no o/s
I reckon I could probably get one of these for less than £180 delivered (Less than I could buy all the bits for!)
I could swap the PSU for my new 700W one
I could put both my Hard drives in and use my Caviar for Windows 7 and put xp on the existing supplied HD (I have so much software that runs on xp but not 7) and leave the Maxtor just as storage/backup and I reckon that if I sold my current spare PC bits and bobs It would probably end up costing me zeroish pounds for a PC that might work. I could then buy a bit more RAM and be a lot better off.
Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. Thank you