€1200 Gaming Build

raymix

Every time I take off heatsink I would clean surfaces and reapply new pea sized grease on it. There is a good reason behind it, too, this way I am sure there is never air bubble left between heatsink and CPU that could increase temperatures. Temps are important for lifespan of CPU and stability.

Applying thermal grease is super easy, just add small pea sized amount and let the gravity and screws do its magic.

Never run your CPU without a heatsink on, that is crazy, man Even for short tests, at least put a radiator on, even without a fan.

solidMGSsnake

Hey, I'll try the Sleep mode thing tomorrow. I don't have another user to change to so I can't try that. The PC will "Restart" fine though so I assume that will work.

Actually now that you've mentioned it, there was one windows update it wouldn't let me update. It gave me an error code and when I searched the code people said it meant you don't have enough Admin privileges, which is BS since I'm an Admin. Do you think that update is stopping me so? I tried troubleshooting the Windows Update and the computer said it fixed all issues but since then whenever I try to "Check for Updates", it just keeps checking and I never get any results out of it. However it still asks me to install updates automatically and they seem to update ok so I figured that my computer fixed the issue and updated successfully. Anyhow I want to try this out, how do I disable Auto Windows Updates?

I turned on my PC and left it idle in the BIOS for 20 minutes to see how the CPU temp was and it seemed to be maxing out at 45 degrees C. That's a bit high isn't it? To be fair it is quite warm weather wise at the moment though.

Also the BIOS can't read my Power Supply's temperature. I understand that it can't read my case's because I plugged it into the 4 pin molex instead of into the mobo. But why can't I read the PSU's? Is it ok to plug it into both the Molex AND the mobo at the same time or will that short it out?

raymix

For fans yellow cable is for data. But no, you can't plug in both, either mobo or molex, choose one.
PSU overheating isn't a problem.

Sprog_4 has a good point about sleep mode, tho. And I am pretty sure I know where he's aiming with that.

Have you tried changing between S1 and S3 power modes?
My older PC would keep fans running while sleeping in S1. In S3 it would completely BSOD. But it was due to unstable overclock. Just to give you an idea what those are for

solidMGSsnake

I'm sorry, I'm actually a novice when it comes to building a PC, this is my first build. What's S1 and S3 and how do I change it? Is it in the BIOS or what?

I'll go with Molex then because it allows me to use a fan speed slider on my case, which by the way is on high. I haven't even attempted Overclocking until I sort this out.

BTW that "tsst" noise I was hearing, I'm almost certain that is just my HDD turning off or whatever because the HDD light flashes as the sound is being made.

EDIT: Ok guys I just played Counter Strike: Source there for about an hour (and I'm surprisingly good at it, I unlocked 10% of the achievements in one sitting xD) and using Speed Fan, most stuff were in the mid 50 degrees C range or less, with my GPU sometimes reaching 60 degrees C max. That's fairly normal readings right?!

beno619

Temps seem normal, might be a windows issue like the other lads have alluded to.

Monotype

solidMGSsnake wrote: »

I just turned it on there without the heatsink fan...

Don't EVER do this again. You can destroy a CPU by doing this.

Do you have any access to other spare parts, like a PSU?

raymix

Yes, S1 and S3 are in BIOS under power options
take a quick glance at this page, you will understand it's safe to play around with:
http://gsmblog.com/post/Difference-between-S1-(POS)-and-S3-(STR)-standby-mode-in-BIOS.aspx

solidMGSsnake

Monotype wrote: »

Don't EVER do this again. You can destroy a CPU by doing this.

Do you have any access to other spare parts, like a PSU?

Dude it was literally on for 15 seconds, it was fine, it's not like I started browsing while it was like that.

No, this is my first build.

Monotype

Don't do it for even 15 seconds!

solidMGSsnake

Ok ok sorry.

I deactivated Windows Updates and it STILL wouldn't shutdown. Damn it I really thought that would work.

I also tried to put my PC into "Sleep" as it's called in Win 8, not "Standby". It went into Sleep and the fans kept spinning, but I want able to shut it off, I had to do a hard shutdown. I can't find any Power Management settings in my BIOS.

I found a ACPI Configuration under Advanced but I didn't have any function to change from S1 to S3. Also when I turned my computer back on after failing to wake it up from Sleep mode, it seemed to think I was after waking it up instead of re-turning it back on.

Monotype

It's about preserving your own equipment, not mine!

I had some problems with sleep with Win 8 on my HTPC. It was eventually ironed out by updates. Is everything fully up to date. All chipset drivers installed and that sort of thing? The latest ones from your motherboard makers website?

raymix

I looked into video of your BIOS.
GO to Power Management
Change Soft-Off by Pwr-BTTN to Instant-Off
What you are experiencing is not a bug, it's a rather dumb feature imo caused by "Delay #" setting

That should fix your power button problem

As for coming up properly from sleep mode, play around with AC BACK settings.

edit: more on power states here, if interested

solidMGSsnake

All my drivers are up to date as far as I know, I took them all from their websites.

There are still Windows Updates I need to do but every time I'm prompted to do them, I do.

That's not my BIOS, I'm using a Asrock Z75 Pro 3 mobo, not a Gigabyte, but maybe my mobo has that function as well? I don't have a Power Management tab in my BIOS.

Here's a video of my BIOS, the video itself is in Spanish or something but the BIOS is in English, the guy goes through all the functions on the BIOS so maybe you could spot the function I need to click on. The is also this guide here

raymix

Page 59 in Manual:

In BIOS go to Advanced / ACPI configuration
set:
Suspend to RAM: Enabled or Auto
Check Ready Bit: Disabled

Suspend to RAM (aka S3) should be enabled in BIOS, this lets your OS to control S3 mode from Power options you can change in control panel. If it's disabled, system will run in S1 mode (which leaves all fans running etc, pretty much like just turning monitor off only).

Further down in BIOS rest of the settings are used for S5 mode. You can specify which devices can be used to wake your PC up. Most of them are easy to understand. Ring-in is used for something like IR remote (ie HTPC) and RTC alarm is used like a normal every day alarm - you set a clock and PC turns on when alarm goes off.

I can't find any info on Check Ready Bit setting. Even manual has nothing on it. However people reports that keeping it disabled helps with ACPI problems

Let me know if this helps with your problem with both - proper shut down and resuming from sleep. Plugging mouse or keyboard into USB3.0 port sometimes help with waking up the PC from sleep, too.

As for Windows updates - don't wait for Prompts. Get into habit forcing updates asap yourself. Use Start > All Programms > Windows Update every single time a previous update has been installed until no more updates are available. Better to be on safe side before chasing all the bugs. Also apart from bug fixes and security patches, updates brings stability to your system, that's the thing I personally love the most about them.

solidMGSsnake

Ok I'll try that in a bit. I told you, if I go onto Windows Updates and select "Check for updates" it just keeps searching and never yields results.

Update: Ok I did what you said but it still wouldn't shutdown and fans kept spinning, although the whole shutting down process was twice as fast. I also set my keyboard and mouse to wake from S5 and while my PC was in that limbo state, pressing my mouse (which has LED lights) caused it to light up for a second, like what it did when I tried to wake my PC up from Sleep. Could it be that my PC thinks it's in Sleep mode? Although the Power indicator wasn't flashing like it does when in Sleep.

BTW I installed more Auto Windows updates and as it was restarting, it was saying "Installing update 1 of 12" and so on. But when it got to update 9 the computer just acted like it completed all the updates, finished and restarted. I went to check for new Update manually and it say all important updates were completed but there was another one ready for update, I selected it and it was an update for Windows Defender - a Windows 8 anti-virus programme, if you don't know. I selected it to be downloaded but it said it can't as there is already an update installing, but there doesn't seem to be. Whatever this update is, is probably the cause of my PC not shutting down

BTW now that that solution didn't work, should I revert my BIOS back to it's original settings or will I keep it as is?

Monotype

Are there any newer versions of the BIOS? Sometimes that can help.
It could be that Windows got corrupted somehow and may need a reinstall.

raymix

To be honest I am out of ideas for random fixes.
At this point you need to find something to blame before carrying any further.

Have you got USB thumb stick? You could install Ubuntu Live-CD on your USB stick and launch it. It lets you boot linux Operating system without any installation. What you do here is simple task - once loaded, you simply shut it down. You will find the button on top-right corner, simple task.

If it shuts down properly - the problem is with your Windows 8 configuration
If it doesn't shut down properly - it's most likely your BIOS acting.

At this point you could try hundreds of solutions, but they will be crapshoots since we can't figure out what actually causes it.

solidMGSsnake

I have a USB memory stick that holds 8GB, would that be enough?

Danger781

solidMGSsnake wrote: »

I have a USB memory stick that holds 8GB, would that be enough?

Yeah should be grand

solidMGSsnake

Is this download safe? I don't want any virus'

raymix

solidMGSsnake wrote: »

Is this download safe? I don't want any virus'

Yes, lol. It's an operating system. Just like Windows or MAC OSX.
Ubuntu is of many popular distributions of Linux.

Don't worry, you are not installing anything. In fact you can even disconnect your HDDs while testing if you are still worried. Live CD lets you boot from CD-ROM or USB memory stick and run temporary OS from RAM to help troubleshooting problems.

Monotype

You can use the universal usb installer to get it on the USB stick with no trouble.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

You can use kubuntu if you want it more windowsy.
http://www.kubuntu.org

EoinHef

Im not sure if its relevant but i was looking up another problem on ASRock site and saw this so just thought id post it in the hope it helps

How could I change Windows 8 shut down behavior from Hibernate (S4) to shut down (S5)?
http://www.asrock.com/support/QA/TSDQA-98.pdf


Its on one of asrocks FAQs

solidMGSsnake

Hey appreciate the help, but I actually already tried that, no results.

I don't have access to my USB stick until either tomorrow or the day after as I had given it to a friend, I forgot until now.

So please be a little patient with me, I appreciate all the help you guys have been giving me, from the build to now with this problem, thanks.

EoinHef

No worries man,hope you get it sorted

Danger781

solidMGSsnake wrote: »

Is this download safe? I don't want any virus'

I'm sorry but this made me giggle :pac:

marco_polo

EoinHef wrote: »

Im not sure if its relevant but i was looking up another problem on ASRock site and saw this so just thought id post it in the hope it helps

How could I change Windows 8 shut down behavior from Hibernate (S4) to shut down (S5)?
http://www.asrock.com/support/QA/TSDQA-98.pdf


Its on one of asrocks FAQs

To get rid of it completely and claim back the space the hybernate.sys file is using, open a command window (in Administrator mode) and run
powercfg -h off

solidMGSsnake

Don't I need a hybernate.sys file for my PC to be able to hibernate?

raymix

Hibernate (or S4) is much slower than Susped to RAM (S3), since it's dumping data trough southbridge to much slower HDD. S3 allows to suspend to RAM almost instantly and is much faster.
You can have both if you so desire, it's called Hybrid suspend mode. First PC suspends to RAM, and after some time you've set, it will transfer data from RAM to HDD and turn off devices.

Personally, since I use SDD, I got rid off hibernate completely. I'm happy with shutting down my PC due to fast boot, otherwise in S3 my PC goes into and out of sleep almost instantly.

Your own preference really.

solidMGSsnake

Hey guys, still don't have the USB stick, probably tomorrow.

I have yet ANOTHER problem! I was just on youtube say 5 minutes ago, when suddenly my monitor starts flickering purple and the image is all distorted. I tried wiggling the wires and reinserting all the connectors to make sure it wasn't a loose wire, but no change. I was using HDMI and I inserted a VGA Cable into the on board VGA port to insure it wasn't a graphics card problem but it was still flickering. Even when I disconnect it from the PC entirely, the "no signal" screen still flickers, so it's definitely the monitor's fault. Sometimes the flickering calms down for a brief few seconds, only to come back. The top of the screen is coming out the bottom sometimes as well. There is also this vertical line on the right side of the screen, a few inches before the frame, it's usually yellow, but while I'm typing this, it's a light blue.

I did nothing to bring this on, it was stationary all day. I didn't tug at any wires or change any settings. The only thing I can think of was earlier I removed the HDMI cable to use on a different device but that was 3 or 4 hours before the flickering suddenly occurred. I also changed the resolution on Half-Life 1 a few times, but that was the in game resolution, not the monitor's or PC's.

One thing however is that the monitor's plug was a bit hotter than I expected when I touched it, but I wasn't so hot that I would be concerned. It is also plugged into a UK plug converter since the plug was 2 pin. Do you think if I leave it cool down, it will be ok?

Update: While I was checking the display settings to see if I could fix this, my speakers make a short loud noise and for a second my monitor flashed and then displayed my input settings, as if I changed the input or woke it up. But the flickering hasn't improved.

This has got to be the weirdest most unprovoked problem, is my PC cursed or what?! I just want to be able to enjoy it