Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2010 July 24

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July 24

Power Supply Failing?

Hey guys, i've been having some computer issues lately and i thought it wouldn't hurt to get a second opinion. The past couple of days its been running a lot slower than it normally does and it would randomly shut off. Music would sometimes stutter when playing and so would the windows start up sound & just be generally slow all around.

I think im pretty experienced with computers at this stage (always more to learn though) so i rarely get viruses anymore. I scanned using AviraAntivir & Checked for spyware using super antispyware and it came up with nothing. I can't find any strange processes running either. So I'm fairly sure its not that. I don't have a spare XP CD lying around and my burner isnt working (died ages ago never bothered to buy a new one) so i can't really burn one and i can't get someone else to burn one or borrow one untill monday but i really need to be able to use my computer before then to study for something comming up.

(I should probably add it might not be the best powersupply. After my old antec one failed after 3 or 4 years, i went in to buy another antec one but the guy didnt have the one i wanted in stock. He managed to get me to buy any old one... some brand i never heard of .. "master" or something. It didnt concern me much at the time because i was more concerned about getting my computer to turn back on again, i made sure if there were any problems with it i'd be able to bring it back. (This was about a year ago) (All my other components are quality but are getting abit old 3-4 years but theyre all quality names intel...seagate..corsair..gigabyte)) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.181.80.198 (talk) 03:52, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

So, does it sound like the powersupply or do you guys have any other ideas? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.181.80.198 (talk) 03:45, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

A failing power supply can cause your computer to restart, but would never make your computer run slowly. By restarting, do you mean it displays a blue screen and then restarts, or just restarts without a blue flash or anything? If you right-click on My Computer and choose Properties --> Advanced --> Startup and Recovery and uncheck "Automatically restart" it should show you a blue screen when it restarts next time. If there is no blue screen, then my guess is that it's a power-supply issue. If there is a blue screen, tell us what it says.

As for running slowly, I bet that you have some programs starting automatically that don't need to. If you go to Start --> Run... --> msconfig --> Startup you will see many of the third-party programs that start automatically. Google them to see which ones you can shut down.--Best Dog Ever (talk) 04:06, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Stuttering audio and overall slowness makes me first think that you're low on RAM, possibly due to some new software you have installed. To check current RAM usage, start the Windows Task Manager with ctrl-alt-del, then click the "Performance" tab. Are you almost out of memory? Comet Tuttle (talk) 04:31, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

I keep my services and program start ups rather clean. It wasnt always this slow before so i doubt it was this, its just in the past couple of days. I reduced program startups and such to what i need for it to just run though. It doesnt bluescreen. It just turns off then back on and shows the bios screen like it normally would when turning on.

Not low on ram, i have a healthy reserve of a physical 2gb according to task manager and more in page file.I've also checked all the fans and connections and cleaned out any dust i could find. It's not overheating the temperatures are fine and its a rather good case and cooling setup.Thanks for all the ideas thus far guys. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.181.80.198 (talk) 04:39, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

I have seen failing daughter cards (e.g., NICs, graphics cards, etc.) both slow a computer down and cause it to restart. The slowness comes from CPU utilization via IRQs. The process named "System" sometimes shows high CPU utilization or the task manager's performance tab shows high CPU utilization. Inside the task manager, under "Performance," if you go to View --> Show kernel times, it will tell you how much CPU time is taken up by the kernel. Since hardware interfaces with the kernel, high kernel CPU usage can be an indication of a failing daughter card. Another indication may be question marks placed next to devices in the device manager (Start --> Run... --> devmgmt.msc).--Best Dog Ever (talk) 06:03, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Could still be malware, perhaps hidden from the OS (including Task Manager) by a rootkit. Astronaut (talk) 12:08, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

XBox 360 data storage

Was it a real Xbox 360 hard disk?

Or was it a hard disk like this?

My son needed a hard drive to store game data from his XBox 360 games, so I lent him mine. I just tried to back up my digital photos onto it, and it appears to have been reformatted. Is this a standard feature of the XBox? Is the data recoverable, or lost forever? Hemoroid Agastordoff (talk) 15:00, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

I'm slightly confused. The official Xbox 360 hard disks are from Microsoft and they look like this. The unit clips onto the side of the Xbox. Inside the sealed case there's a 2.5" hard disk. Did you lend him this type of hard disk? If so, moving it to another Xbox does not reformat the drive. A regular hard disk (see the bottom photo to the right) can't be attached to an Xbox unless maybe you're using some sort of hardware hack. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:47, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

The hard drive I had was an external type in it's own case, which connects to the XBox though a USB port. It had been connected to my computer's USB port. Hemoroid Agastordoff (talk) 16:59, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

The Xbox360 does appear to support USB mass storage devices such as USB hard drives [1] [2] Xbox 360 accessories#USB Storage Devices including for game profiles and the like since April this year. It seems standard that it will remove content if isn't already set up for the Xbox 360 but per the screen shot in the first link and simple logic, it should have warned your son of this. Some recovery may be possible, it depends somewhat how lucky you are and whether a copy of filesystem can be found. Nil Einne (talk) 07:36, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

It might be possible to salvage the data on the hard drive with a program like Recuva 82.43.90.93 (talk) 21:39, 24 July 2010 (UTC)