All Posts by eric1000

Motherboard is pretty poor and only supports slow memory, video card again is poor by todays standards.  The sound system is not HD so you will not get the full surround sound under vista, PSU is kinda small as well.  How much are they charging for it?

Intel core 2 quad QX6700 Extreme 2.66 GHz

Asus Striker II Formula 780i

2 x XfX GeForce 8800GTX in SLi

4 Gb DDR2

NorthQ 1000w PSU

Coolermaster Stacker Case with 8 120mm case fans

Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit

Razer Tarantula Keyboard

Microsoft habu mouse

There is still the possibility of a virus that the AV program is missing.  Some viruses these days are very clever, some even shut down the resident AV checker so as not to be detected.  It's like the old saying, build a better mousetrap and some bastard will build a better mouse.

Avira is indeed a good AV program and should catch 99% of the threats out there, however, just in case download this http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

Registration for home use is free and unlike most free AV programs which are scaled down to encourage you to buy the full version the Virus checking capabilities of Avast are not scaled down at all, they add other stuff like anti-spyware etc. to encourage you to buy.  Set everything to thorough and let it scan, be warned though that it may take a few hours to complete as when it says thorough it means it.  You will need to turn off Avira before scanning.  Also, in some instances a virus will rewrite itself to the drive after a virus checker has deleted it.  You mentioned that Avira found two threats, ensure that these have not reappeared.  If they have then it's possible that they are hiding inside the system restore functions.  Turn off system restore, delete the offending file manually and restart the machine.  It should now be gone as turning off system restore prevents it from cloning itself back again.  System restore can be turned back on once the file has been deleted and the system restarted.

download and run this http://www.download.com/Registry-Mechanic/3000-2094_4-10190447.html

It will not fix everything unless you pay to register it but it will give you a rundown of all your registry errors and fix the most crucial ones.

and also this one http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/downloads/index.cfm?categoryID=1727&itemID=23258

never rely on just one anti-spyware program.  Anti-virus programs are all pretty much the same but anti-spyware ones are not, I have 3 different ones.

You may also want to run a program that checks the winsock, many adware or spyware programs are badly written and attach themselves to the winsock, screwing it up in the process.  I don't think that you have this problem as your internet connection is ok but no harm in checking.

Originally posted by Darkholme

Originally posted by eric1000 

Btw eabservr.exe is a compaq process  that manages Easy Access Buttons control panel on Compaq laptop computers so what it's doing running on your HP I have no idea.

Compaq was bought by HP a long time ago and is now a subsidiary I believe.

That would explain it :)

Originally posted by mrcalhou

After running avira and removing two things it classified as a virus I have noticed an improvement in my performance. I'm not sure if this is just a placebo effect but I will do the other things as well. I was monitoring the cpu usage though and I noticed that on both my laptop and pc internet explorer will ramp it up into the 70 and 80 percents briefly. Is this normal?

Yes that's normal.  Run the spyware programs and see if it's any better.

Originally posted by Darkholme

Yeah I think I might try to find something a bit smaller in the CPU cooling department. Maybe something in a 90mm would fit better.

Yes I am going back and forth between 2 GX2's and GTX 2xx's, but I haven't decided yet.

As for the CPU you may be right, but I've heard conflicting stories about it's performance compared to the next step down. Some epople say as you do, and some people say it's definitely worth it. I still have some time before I can even order the parts, as I still need to save up some. So I have time to do more research, get more opinoins, and think it through.

I bought the QX6700 when I built my rig and I do get slightly better performance than the Q6700 but not that noticible that it was worth the extra £400 which would have been better spent elsewhere.  As for the video:  The 790i boards have been developed with the GX2's in mind and to fit anything lesser would be a waste.  However, the performance boost of the GX2 over the 8800 GTX or Ultra is minimal when compared again to the extra cost involved.  A much more cost effective solution would be a 780i based board with a couple of 8800 Ultras.  Whichever way you decide to go however the PC will still double as a nice room heater so I would seriously consider a water cooled system, especially if you live in a warm climate.

Unlikely.  Run the spyware programs and the anti-virus, you may also want to run a good registry cleaner as the windows registry has a habit of filling up with all kinds of rubbish which slows the machine down a lot.  Windows itself ( especially vista ) is known to go off at a tangent from time to time and do what it wants to do rather than what you want it to do, usually stuff related to security etc. which makes the PC seem unresponsive for a few seconds.

Btw eabservr.exe is a compaq process  that manages Easy Access Buttons control panel on Compaq laptop computers so what it's doing running on your HP I have no idea.

Originally posted by mrcalhou

it's a HP pavilion dv 8309us

So far avira has found two things, but if it isn't a virus, what else could it be?

Spyware or Malware.  Run a couple of decent spyware checkers like Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D. 

Short answer is no it wont fit.  Take a look at the top down view of the mainboard and note all the stuff around the cpu socket.  Also you would be crazy spending that kind of money on that cpu as the performance gain over the non-extreme version is not worth the extra cost.  I assume that you are fitting a couple of GX2's in there as thats the only reason to go for a 790i based board and if so I would also consider the physical size of those cards, which are more like house bricks :)

ccapp.exe is part of Norton and as you are no longer using Norton it should be disabled so as not to conflict with any other anti-virus software that you install.

What kind of laptop is it because you have processes running from HP, Compaq & IBM there.

See if you can borrow another video card from a friend to try and see if the problem persists, if it goes away then you need a new card.

This is normally caused by an error in the NForce chipset with the way it handles PCi devices.  The usual solution is to update the motherboard bios to the latest one available.

Originally posted by Texar

Hi everyone,

I am about to build a new rig and wanted to get some opinions on video cards.  I mainly play mmo's and am wondering if more video memory is beneficial or is there a certain point where more isnt better? Some of the components I am planning on using are an Intel Core 2 Duo 8500, 8gb ddr2 800, vista 64, and a 24 or 28" monitor @ 1920x1200 resolution. I am undecided on the video card and am considering the Sapphire 4850 1gb, 4870 512mb, Nvidia GTX  260 896mb, 9800GX2 1gb among others. Would I get better performance from the cards with more memory or is 512mb enough from the faster 4870?

512mb is a major limiting factor on some of the newer cards, I would go for a card with 1Gb

Originally posted by Maseloc

and I'm not even in the beta. Seriously how does that possibly happen?

Don't worry about it mate, I got a weeks ban from this site for insulting someones intelligence in response to them insulting me.  They didn't get a ban so I suppose around here it's a case of he who reports 1st wins.

open up the case and clean any dust away from the motherboard, graphics card, cpu heatsink etc. using a can of compressed air.  After this ensure that the video card is seated securely in it's slot.  Modern games will not run too well on that card though.

Do you connect directly from the modem to the PC or are you going through a router?  If the latter try taking the router out of line.  Also I'm not much of a windows boffin but I would recheck all of your internet settings and ensure that auto-disconnect is disabled.

I would contact your ISP's techmical support first of all and see if they have a solution for you.

I am assuming that is a full Dell system and that you intend to use it for gaming as you are posting here.  If both these assumptions are correct I would advise that you throw away the Dell brochure as quite honestly they are crap for gaming even when they look good on paper.  Save yourself some money and frustration by building a PC yourself, it's not as hard as you think it is and there are a great many knowledgable people on these boards that would be happy to advise you on it.

Originally posted by Arndur

Intel will handle 1 program faster, but if your like me and like to multi task a lot amd does that better. Also overall a better deal imo.

Other way around actually :)  AMD has more pipes but they are long and thin ( excellent for single applications )  Intel has less pipes but they are short and fat ( better for multi-tasking )/