PC questions that don't really deserve their own thread.

[Green]

Tried checking all the available log files but nothing came up with those CTRL+F terms.

At this point I'm willing to just do a clean reinstall of Windows 10. I've had a lot of garbage software and programs collected over the years so I don't mind a fresh clean do-over....I don't want to lose any of my files or settings if possible, though. Can you recommend the best way to do this?

Click to shrink...

Do you have any of those games in the list I posted? You would need to uninstall those games (if that's the issue).

As far as reset, not sure about best, but this is what I would try:
Start menu -> PC Settings -> Updates & Security -> Recovery -> Reset this PC -> Keep my files

Not sure about settings, some are synced to your Microsoft account, not many. It should back up your user folder into a window.old folder under your root drive, and in there the hidden Appdata folder exists with some settings.

 

[SOLDIER]

Do you have any of those games in the list I posted? You would need to uninstall those games (if that's the issue).

As far as reset, not sure about best, but this is what I would try:
Start menu -> PC Settings -> Updates & Security -> Recovery -> Reset this PC -> Keep my files

Not sure about settings, some are synced to your Microsoft account, not many. It should back up your user folder into a window.old folder under your root drive, and in there the hidden Appdata folder exists with some settings.

Click to shrink...

I had a couple, including PUBG. Uninstalled it and Battleye.

But I still get the same message when starting up the update on my USB stick: https://support.microsoft.com/en-sg/help/4500988/windows-update-hold-for-windows-10

Not sure what else could be conflicting it.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

To add to the above post:

1) I seem to recall something about Steam basically specifying a time based on server loads at certain times-of-day. You could maybe try changing your download region (Steam > Settings > Downloads > Download Region) and seeing if it alters the auto-download time.

2) Skyfireblaze has this entirely right, but I will add that I believe the process can be sped-up if the offending games are on an SSD, since I think the reason it chugs so much is partly down to mechanical drive read/write speeds.

3) This will probably be Shader Pre-Caching. Check Steam > Settings > Shader Pre-Caching for both a description, and a tick-box that I suspect is on by default.

Click to shrink...

Huh thanks for the heads-up on 1) and 3), interesting to know!

 

[thenexus6]

How do I have my downloads view files without the date seperation? It used to just show the files / folders, but now they are grouped by date?

image upload

 

[SOLDIER]

So at this point is there anything else I could try to bypass whatever is keeping me from updating? Or is a clean start my best bet?

I just want to be prepared for what will be removed/changed. As someone who has dabbled in lots of third party shit for modding certain games or making other things work properly, I'm just wondering how much I'll have to seek out and install all over again.

 

[XR.]

How do I have my downloads view files without the date seperation? It used to just show the files / folders, but now they are grouped by date?

image upload

Click to shrink...

Right click inside the Download folder -> Group by -> (None)

So at this point is there anything else I could try to bypass whatever is keeping me from updating? Or is a clean start my best bet?

I just want to be prepared for what will be removed/changed. As someone who has dabbled in lots of third party shit for modding certain games or making other things work properly, I'm just wondering how much I'll have to seek out and install all over again.

Click to shrink...

Have you tried DISM/SFC?

 

[SOLDIER]

Right click inside the Download folder -> Group by -> (None)


Have you tried DISM/SFC?

Click to shrink...

Ran both of those, but didn't seem to help. I can't even attempt the update as it stops before fully installing it to give me the same error message above.

 

[PixelatedDonut]

Hey guys I just started getting in to capping my framrlerate to get a consistent frame time. Wanted to know if it's better to have a low frametime thats hovers around 8-9ms or is a consistent 10ms better?
Edit: using doom 2016 as a benchmark.

 

[dgrdsv]

Hey guys I just started getting in to capping my framrlerate to get a consistent frame time. Wanted to know if it's better to have a low frametime thats hovers around 8-9ms or is a consistent 10ms better?
Edit: using doom 2016 as a benchmark.

Click to shrink...

I really doubt that you'll be able to feel 1-2ms difference in frametimes - unless this will lead to going out and back in of vsync.

 

[SOLDIER]

Even if I pick the "fresh start" option with Windows 10, I get this message: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4500988/windows-update-hold-for-windows-10

Getting frustrated. What do I need to do in order to just get a clean break so I can have the latest version afterwards (and still keep my files at least)?

 

[SOLDIER]

Bump? I'm not sure if there's another thread where I can ask for a solution.

 

[demosthenes]

Suggestions for blue tooth USB to get a ps4 controller to work?

 

[Green]

Bump? I'm not sure if there's another thread where I can ask for a solution.

Click to shrink...

Hi SOLDIER, sorry to see you're still having trouble with this! I was hoping you'd be gaming at this point!

I think at this point I can provide you with 2 options:

1. If you're comfortable, you can PM me the log files generated after an installation failure, I will take a look and see if I have any luck finding what's causing your installation reboot/rollbacks. I can't make any promises, but I can do my best to help you as I have time. I promise to not share anything, snoop or do anything malicious (not sure if there's rules against this, if so, sorry!)
2. A complete backup, then complete wipe of your hard drive, re-installation of Windows 10 from scratch (including manually re-doing all your settings and such), and a transfer of your backed-up files, then a manual reinstallation of your preferred programs+games (some launchers allow importing backed-up games, some don't). There are several ways to do this, it does take a while and requires you to manually go through your hard drive looking through and backing up all your files. Ideally, you would have 2 hard drives, but with more time commitment (and ample HDD space) it can be done with 1.

 

[SOLDIER]

Hi SOLDIER, sorry to see you're still having trouble with this! I was hoping you'd be gaming at this point!

I think at this point I can provide you with 2 options:

1. If you're comfortable, you can PM me the log files generated after an installation failure, I will take a look and see if I have any luck finding what's causing your installation reboot/rollbacks. I can't make any promises, but I can do my best to help you as I have time. I promise to not share anything, snoop or do anything malicious (not sure if there's rules against this, if so, sorry!)
2. A complete backup, then complete wipe of your hard drive, re-installation of Windows 10 from scratch (including manually re-doing all your settings and such), and a transfer of your backed-up files, then a manual reinstallation of your preferred programs+games (some launchers allow importing backed-up games, some don't). There are several ways to do this, it does take a while and requires you to manually go through your hard drive looking through and backing up all your files. Ideally, you would have 2 hard drives, but with more time commitment (and ample HDD space) it can be done with 1.

Click to shrink...

Sent you a PM. I have no problems sharing logging info with you, so feel free to ask whatever you need to help me fix this issue.

In the meantime, I wanted to ask another PC-related question for the thread: My Firefox has been loading websites pretty slowly. I opened up Chrome to test, and it loads content nearly instantly, so it's not a connection problem on my end.

I've used CC Cleaner to clean up files but that didn't seem to help. I don't have too many add-ons installed either, but I wanted to check what could potentially be slowing Firefox down?

 

[Deleted member 10234]

Windows question, maybe a bit specific but I'm hoping someone else has struggled with this and can help me.

I use two different monitor/audio setups on my PC. First is with my actual monitor and a USB audio interface. The other is my TV (via my AV receiver) with the audio going through HDMI. So basically I switch between the "monitor only" and "external only" configurations that you get when you press Win+P. I have an Nvidia GPU if that makes a difference.

I switch between these setups using a keyboard shortcut and for video this works nicely. But whenever I switch from the monitor to the TV it won't recognize it as an audio device. Sound will keep playing through the USB interface and I can't even select the AVR from the taskbar's audio device selector. I need to first go to the "modern" style audio options (where again I don't see the AVR as an option) from where I can go to the oldschool control panel audio options, and opening that seems to force Windows to refresh the audio devices and the AVR becomes the default device automatically.

Sooo long story short, is there a way to not have to do this? They even removed the option to get to the old style audio control panel from the right-click menu of the taskbar volume button in the most recent update..

 

[Walker_Boh]

Is there a reason why my PC hard locks randomly when I plug in my external hard drive?

 

[SOLDIER]

A big thanks to Green for solving my Windows update issue.

That out of the way, I'm still having some trouble with sites loading slowly on Firefox. Even with the refresh option and add-ons removed, all content seems to load slower than other browsers or devices.

 

[flyinj]

What is the best way to clone my boot HDD to a new SSD?

Preferably not having to go through the process of having to format a USB thumb drive so it can be booted off of and installing clobezilla onto it.

I have an external USB 3 enclosure, and I would like to just clone the internal drive to the SSD in the enclosure. Then I would replace the internal HDD with the newly cloned onto SSD.

Running Windows 10

 

[ProstatePuncher]

Headset has begun making an annoying pop/distortion noise every time the cable gets moved at the earpiece. I've opened it up, all the cables appear to be properly attached and without issue. However, there's this very weird burn looking damage on the inside of the earpiece. I suppose this is the source of the pop, some sort of damage like this?

Click to shrink...

 

[SOLDIER]

Since I'm now using Chrome over Firefox, I had a few questions pertaining to settings/add-ons.

1. I'm looking for an add-on that lets me zoom images in and out (Firefox had one that let me hold the right mouse button while using the mouse wheel to zoom in and out). I haven't been able to find one that does this.

2. Is there a way to turn the address bar into a traditional drop-down address bar?

3. How do I adjust the mouse scrolling speed for scrolling up and down websites?

 

[ErichWK]

So my PC for the entire time it's been built has had massive problems installing any Cumulative Update and other odd updates in General. I think it might have to be that I have SSDs and Set up so all my downloads go to my D Drive? (i did switch it over to my C drive for a test and it still didn't install) I dunno. Anyways.. I haven't been able to install a Cumulative update in months (it just says it couldn't install it so it restarts).. I've tried A LOT OF STUFF. I've Tried WuReset2.0 (it worked once 8 months ago), Update Troubleshooting.. sfc /scannow..and other odd things and still absolutely nothing. I really, really really do not wanna wipe everything (i do a lot of music recording and have a lot of programs that only let me install so many times and music plugins installed i don't wanna search for again)

Anyone Else Have this problem they solved?

 

[Old World Monkey]

So when I started my PC today, the colors were completely messed up, a bit as if they were inverted. This happend directly when entering the Windows home screen and disappeared upon restart. There were no artifacts, crashes or stuttering of any kind, just weird colors. I know that its not the monitor because restarting only it did't fix the colors.
I tried google but didn't find anything that looked just like it.

My GPU is an undervolted RX570 (P7 is 1055mV/1300Mhz) but it is completely stable while gaming and stress testing.

(Please just tell me that my GPU is not dying)

 

[ss_lemonade]

Why do I have to disable deep color on my 4k TV to be able to use any resolution higher than 1920x1440 in Metro 2033 Redux (I just found out about this after an hour of trying to figure out why I cannot select my native resolution in this game)? Are there any other games that are like this? I already hate having to micromanage HDR when switching between some games, so having to mess with my TV for another game sucks.

 

[IMACOMPUTA]

Hi guys,
This is a major shot in the dark, because I'm sure it's just a motherboard quirk.
But anyone have any suggestions for me?

I have a ASRock Fatal1ty z370 Gaming K6.
I was using a regular old 2.5" sata SSD and had a m.2 in my m2_2 slot on my mobo.
The 2.5" sata SSD is my OS drive.
I just bought a 1tb m.2 and put it in m2_1.
My mobo manual tells me that the m2 slots share lanes with specified sata ports on my mobo.
So sata3_0 and 3_1 are shared with m2_1 and sata3_4 and sata3_5 are shared with m2_2.

I moved my OS drive to a port that isn't shared.
And now even though my bios sees all drives (including my new one) it does not find a bootable drive.

Maybe the sata port I'm using isn't bootable? Is that a thing these days?

Real answer is probably use nvme as OS drive, but I'm being lazy right now.

I appreciate anyone spending any amount of time trying to help.

 

[Uncle00Jesse]

So I have a 9700k and a 2080. I'm noticing a lot of micro stutter in games like bf5 even with an aw3418dw gsync monitor. Could that be due to internet latency and the game itself or is it a product of my hardware?

 

[Brood_Star]

Is my onboard sound card fried?

The past few days, I've had troubles with my sound where it would start dying down to a barely audible minimum while running games, but a restart would fix it so I thought nothing of it. Yesterday, it cut out completely, and nothing seems to be able to fix it. I am using the onboard sound card with my cheap MSI B360M Bazooka motherboard, and Speccy shows the following under audio:

https:///hW3d.png

-It's not my headphones: headphones works fine when plugged in to my laptop.
-I don't think it's a driver issue: updated my Realtek drivers to latest and no dice, as well as system restoring to about a week ago and still no dice.
-I don't think it's my USB jack?: both front USB jack and line out back jack do not work, although to be fair, I never tested if the back jack ever worked.
-Other oddities: when the sound finally died, it felt almost like if I turned it the audio up to 400%, it would still function as normal. There were very faint whispers and static that mimicked audio playing. Now, I hear absolutely nothing.

I've opened the case up but all the sound cables look to be connected properly, but I'm not an expert with hardware by any means. I'm not sure what else to do—should I just buy a new audio card to test at this point?

 

[Solbright]

I recently purchased an ASUS TUF Laptop with a GTX 1660 Ti and a 120hz display, this one specifically, and was wondering how I could cap the display to use a 60hz refresh, with half vsync or otherwise. The 1660Ti doesn't have enough power to take advantage of the extra frames, and I'm more than happy sticking to 60 frames on all of my games. Anyone able to help?

 

[sredgrin]

I recently purchased an ASUS TUF Laptop with a GTX 1660 Ti and a 120hz display, this one specifically, and was wondering how I could cap the display to use a 60hz refresh, with half vsync or otherwise. The 1660Ti doesn't have enough power to take advantage of the extra frames, and I'm more than happy sticking to 60 frames on all of my games. Anyone able to help?

Click to shrink...

If the monitor supports multiple refresh rates it should be as simple as an option in the Nvidia Control panel (where you can pick resolution). But a lot of screens / monitors only have the one mode.

You don't really need to cap the refresh though. Just set a global vsytnc cap of 60, since 60 goes into 120 evenly, it'll be simplest that way. You can use programs like Rivatuner to cap games individually or you can globally, and should still let you do some non-gaming stuff at 120hz / fps.

 

[issa]

I have a laptop with a GTX 1050 in it. It runs everything like shit, even indie 2D stuff. What could be the problem?

 

[Solbright]

If the monitor supports multiple refresh rates it should be as simple as an option in the Nvidia Control panel (where you can pick resolution). But a lot of screens / monitors only have the one mode.

You don't really need to cap the refresh though. Just set a global vsytnc cap of 60, since 60 goes into 120 evenly, it'll be simplest that way. You can use programs like Rivatuner to cap games individually or you can globally, and should still let you do some non-gaming stuff at 120hz / fps.

Click to shrink...

I've seemingly gotten this to work, using Rivatuner globally capping framerate at 60. Thank you for the help!

 

[SirBaron]

I know my 1660ti isn't the fastest thing on earth, but is my CPU (4770k OC 4.3GHZ) limiting my pc at 2560x1080 144hz?

 

[dgrdsv]

I know my 1660ti isn't the fastest thing on earth, but is my CPU (4770k OC 4.3GHZ) limiting my pc at 2560x1080 144hz?

Click to shrink...

Highly unlikely but it's completely game dependent and can be checked easily with any performance overlay showing the %s of CPU and GPU load.

 

[Kyle Cross]

I got two questions.

1. I really need help with the proper setup to get a smooth 60fps. One piece of advice I've gotten is to only use Vsync and to disable frame limiters/set it to unlimited, that having both Vsync and a frame limiter engaged causes judder. Problem is, not every game offers the option to disable frame limiters/unlock the framerate. There's also been games which unlocking the framerate and just having Vsync has caused weird performance issues (this happened in Resident Evil 2 Remake for me). There's also been instances in which setting a game to Borderless instead of Fullscreen has improved things, but everything I hear is that actually makes performance worse.

2. I own an Alienware prebuilt PC which I have upgraded. To maintain CPU temperature it came with an Alienware program called "AlienThermal" where I am able to set fan curves or a manual fan speed to maintain my CPUs temperature. The problem is, the program is crap. It frequently crashes, especially during gameplay, and results in the CPU getting quite warm and the cooler loud as my curve is no longer controlling it. Do I have any options to disable this program and use another reliable program in its place?

 

[Nemesis121]

The fan in my PSU might be dying, not sure,
PSU is only 13 months, EVGA Supernova 550 G3..

I was playing BFV, my system shutdown then rebooted, no BSOD, ran memtest for 2 hours no errors, gonna run it over night, PSU has a hibernate mode to extend the fan's life, after testing with BFV again the fan doesn't spin with hibernate mode on, had to turn off the hibernate mode..do you think the fan is dying? and should i start the RMA process?

Edit: don't bother i just check the warranty got 5 years 11 months to run this sucker into the ground...

 

[dgrdsv]

I got two questions.

Click to shrink...

1. This is completely game dependent. There is no universal advice.
2. Can you not set the needed CPU cooling mode in BIOS and just uninstall this program? I'm not really familiar with Aienware PCs.

 

[Nemesis121]

PSU fan is fucked, it stops spinning while gaming, my back up PSU fan also spinning faster than while gaming than busted PSU.. my case looks like shit probably going to leave it open until i get replacement, my back up PSU none modular, too lazy to fix it like it used to be..

 

[Prelude]

I have a laptop with a GTX 1050 in it. It runs everything like shit, even indie 2D stuff. What could be the problem?

Click to shrink...

Are you sure it's using the 1050 and not the integrated Intel gpu?

 

[issa]

Are you sure it's using the 1050 and not the integrated Intel gpu?

Click to shrink...

Yup. At least that's what it's telling me.

 

[ss_lemonade]

Yup. At least that's what it's telling me.

Click to shrink...

Maybe Windows is running in some power savings mode

 

[issa]

I get <40 fps on Cuphead, <20 on Fortnite (both on optimal settings).

Maybe Windows is running in some power savings mode

Click to shrink...

Nope, everything is set to high performance.

 

[SirMossyBloke]

I get <40 fps on Cuphead, <20 on Fortnite (both on optimal settings).


Nope, everything is set to high performance.

Click to shrink...

Bad driver? Did you try DDU in safe mode and a reinstall?

 

[issa]

Bad driver? Did you try DDU in safe mode and a reinstall?

Click to shrink...

DDU?

 

[Drakhoran]

Display Driver Uninstaller. It will clean up any files/registry entries etc, left behind by uninstalling the driver normally.

 

[shodgson8]

So through a range of deals I can get...

Zotac Geforce RTX 2060 (with Control & Wolfenstein included)
AMD Ryzen 5 2600
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK
Corsair 16GB DDR4 3000MHZ RAM

All for £578.17

I play at 1080p and this is to replace an i5 4670k & R9 390. What do people think? I would sell my old components to offset the cost as well so it would at least be under £500 for a pretty heavy build revamp.

 

[GhostBanana]

So through a range of deals I can get...

Zotac Geforce RTX 2060 (with Control & Wolfenstein included)
AMD Ryzen 5 2600
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK
Corsair 16GB DDR4 3000MHZ RAM

All for £578.17

I play at 1080p and this is to replace an i5 4670k & R9 390. What do people think? I would sell my old components to offset the cost as well so it would at least be under £500 for a pretty heavy build revamp.

Click to shrink...

I think that's beautiful. Very strong build for so little money. I have the same mobo and a Ryzen 5 2600x. You should have a monitor with a display port though, worth spending money for one to get the benifit of gsync. I'm upgrading to a 2060S and will need a new monitor b/c mine is freesync only with only HDMI.

 

[GameAddict411]

Hey people. I am struggling to use MSI afterburner. So I used it to undervolt my RTX 2080 TI. I basically tested the GPU and it plotted the voltage and core clock frequency. I clocked on the desired voltage for the clock, and it was a good way to lower temperature and keep up the clock. But I noticed that the GPU clock speed stopped being dynamic and just kept running at really high frequency when there is no load. It kept boosting to 1850 MHz. Is it possible to under volt while keeping dynamic? Like an offset of some kind like CPU undervolt? It seems to be harder then CPU undervolt so far.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Hey people. I am struggling to use MSI afterburner. So I used it to undervolt my RTX 2080 TI. I basically tested the GPU and it plotted the voltage and core clock frequency. I clocked on the desired voltage for the clock, and it was a good way to lower temperature and keep up the clock. But I noticed that the GPU clock speed stopped being dynamic and just kept running at really high frequency when there is no load. It kept boosting to 1850 MHz. Is it possible to under volt while keeping dynamic? Like an offset of some kind like CPU undervolt? It seems to be harder then CPU undervolt so far.

Click to shrink...

How did you undervolt your card in Afterburner, with the sliders or with the CTRL+F curve?

 

[GameAddict411]

How did you undervolt your card in Afterburner, with the sliders or with the CTRL+F curve?

Click to shrink...

I don't know what you are referring to. I picked the voltage I wanted to test and overclocked it to match the desirable boost speed. Is there guide you trust? It seems I don't know wtf I am doing lmao

 

[Skyfireblaze]

I don't know what you are referring to. I picked the voltage I wanted to test and overclocked it to match the desirable boost speed. Is there guide you trust? It seems I don't know wtf I am doing lmao

Click to shrink...

Hmm I don't know of a guide from the top of my head but it's actually really simple once you see it with your own eyes.

First set everything back to stock in Afterburner and then press CRTL+ F. The Curve Window will pop-up, there you can see the curve with the frequency and voltage values for the card along with the anchor-points the card follows.

What you want to do now is to find the point that represents the maximum voltage you want the card to run at, for this example let's say 0.9v, then move the 0.9v point to the maximum frequency you want to reach, let's say 1950mhz. With the 0.9v point now up at 1950mhz you now want to move every single voltage point after 0.9v to 1950mhz aswell so the curve ends completely flat. After you are done press the "Apply" checkmark and do a stability test with anything that pegs you card at 99-100% usage.

If it's stable go back to the Curve Editor and look at the values before 0.9v and raise them ever so slightly so the curve gets nice and round without any steep climbings as otherwise the card could get unstable when it's not running at max load. That's really all there is to it. If you still have questions asks away! :)

 

[GhostBanana]

So I've never used DDV before. Can I use it to select and remove a second set of old GPU drivers I want gone, or will it remove everything existing? I know you aren't suppose to have two sets of drivers installed at once but I currently do.