Recent content by WinnieThePujols

K, sort of a unique situation here... I bought a very slimline HTPC case that came with a power supply. The power supply is very small and compact -- about half the size of a conventional power supply. The power supply that came with the case was DOA. I didn't bother sending it back for a...

I'm looking for a set top box, and I'm having a little trouble finding what I need. It seems like these devices are capable of connecting to a network drive and playing media directly off of that (like, for instance, the Argosy HV335T that I own), OR are exclusively "cloud devices", that...

I was fully-expecting the one that came with my case to die pretty quickly. It was remarkable how many reviews on NewEgg spoke negatively about the bundled power supply ('d say at least half of them). In that respect, no it was not at all surprising or interesting. I just think it's sort of...

Well, both sticks of RAM ended up passing the memory tests from the Windows utility. I tried swapping to the new power supply, and it ran continuously for four hours last night without a problem. I'm going to let it run all day while I'm at work to make sure that it can stay powered for a...

I don't have any blank CD-R's, so I couldn't use memtest. I had to settle for the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool. I'm sure that thing sucks by comparison, but it's all I had to work with. I popped the new RAM in, used the Windows tool to do two passes, new RAM checked out OK. I booted into...

Yes, I did try doing this. I forgot to mention that. The settings for the RAM were set to auto; however, it displayed what the automatic settings were, and they were set exactly as you had listed. Just to be sure, I set it to manual anyway, configured it as described. It was still...

Well, I got off work tonight and played around with this some more. Mixed results. The first thing I tried was removing the RAM and putting it back in, to make sure that it was seated properly. I don't think I've tried this -- I'd just been focusing on the processor / heat sink until now. No...

Yes, this is what I have: - Processor: i3-540 Clarkdale (link) - Motherboard: ASRock H55M (link) - RAM: G. SKIL Ripjaws (link) Now that you mention the memory stick thing... my motherboard said it supported DDR3 1600 RAM, but after you said that, I checked a compatibility chart on the...

OK, thanks for the recommendations guys, I'm going to take a look into some of those suggestions. For what it's worth, let me elaborate a little bit on the stability issues. I reinstalled Windows something like four times, thinking that this was a driver issue. Attempt #1: hardware was...

Here's an update on the situation: After playing around with the computer for a while, I was really convinced that my issues were actually on the software side; in particular, I thought it was a driver issue. Here's why: when I would initially install Windows, everything was completely...

I wanted to update this: this actually turned out to be the power supply, in spite of the fact that the fans and disk drives were powering up.

OK, looking in the BIOS, the CPU temperature is running at about 33 degrees celsius.

One of the motherboard's CPU pins had trace amounts of paste near the top; I gently wiped this off and was able to get it off. There is also a tiny bit on the motherboard itself, near the "stem" of a couple of pins. I think the stuff I wiped off could possibly interfere with operations, but...

Well, what do you mean by the "back" of the processor? I'm talking about the bottom of the processor -- there was thermal paste on the pins on the bottom of it. I had to rub a few of them to get it off. Also, I can't even really look at temps. It crashes like immediately going into Windows.

I was putting together my seventh or so computer today. I liberally applied some thermal paste, installed Windows.... every time I would install VGA drivers (I'm using integrated graphics and an i3, by the way), my computer would crash. It would just reboot. I looked online, and determined that...