Decrepit, a nice creative solution - glad it worked out well.

For what it's worth, I've been running W10 for several years and am perfectly happy with it.

Notice something odd now that I can see my keys easily. Letter designations on two of them have partially worn off. Worse of the two is "C." Looks more like "=," as the connecting "|" is missing. Why "C?" It's not a key I use much in any game I currently play. Oddly, the keys I use most while gaming look good as new.

As to Win10, it's a very good OS except in the ways it isn't. I like it better than expected. In any case, Win7 users 'need' to seriously consider updating if they plan to continue using their PCs online once MS security updates cease mid Jan 2020. Unless something changed within the past few weeks, updating from Win7 remains free, so long as yours is a verified copy of Win7. My Win7 PC survived the update unscathed.

Here's a video describing the process of updating for free, along with helpful advice. The commentator recommends Google Search to find the needed update download. Pretty much any search engine will find it, though it might not be at the top of the results page. (It was a bit further down using DuckDuckGo.)

There can of course legit reasons to not update, such as officially being to old/slow for Win10. Or essential programs that aren't compatible. But if your Win7 PC can be updated, at least consider it while it's free.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Dec 31 2019, 01:23 AM

Looking into buying another Win 7 computer as a backup to my current one.

Does anyone know how Oblivion and Fallout 3 works with Radeon cards? Specifically HD 6320. It's also 32-bits rather than my 64 but I reckon it'll work just as fine or even better than 64.

Anybody here ever have an issue where you would be playing a game and the monitor would go to a black screen but you can still hear things going on in the game? I’m so afraid my gpu is dying on me D:

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Dec 31 2019, 04:52 PM

Had something weird happening awhile ago but the screen didn't go black and I wasn't playing a game. A restart fixed it and haven't been experiencing it again. But I got that computer I talked about above, because of that thing happening. I need a backup.

The things I’ve been reading aren’t encouraging.
I’m currently playing BATTLETECH (which is fairly graphics intensive) with the pc’s side panel off just to see if it’s maybe a heat issue. We just got through an entire mission with no issue so perhaps it was just getting too hot? It’s definitely overdue for a cleaning so that might be the whole issue.

That's a good theory; heat. Maybe that is indeed what it can be if the game is graphic intensive.

Edit: That's the problem I had with my excavator. The hydraulics would suddenly stop working because it got over-heated. As soon as I started working with the hud open I never had that problem again, even in the midst of summer.

This post has been edited by mirocu: Dec 31 2019, 05:27 PM

Update: well, I got a short way into another mission and it cut out on me again, with the side panel off. So I think I’ll get a couple cans of compressed air and try cleaning it really good and see if that helps. I’m not optimistic though

Can we assume you checked to make sure the GPU fans still spin when appropriate?

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Dec 31 2019, 06:40 PM

I... made a casual glance to see and I think the fans were turning. I’ll make sure when I get home tonight, though I will still be getting the canned air and giving the internals a good spray down.

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Dec 31 2019, 07:15 PM

Ok, so update on my recent video troubles with my PC. I gave everything a good air dusting and gave the PC a spin this morning. I got a good 2.5 hours or so of gaming in before the same video crash happened. So, maybe that’s progress? I’ll probably try removing the gpu tonight and spraying it down really good just to see if that helps.

Well, fingers and claws crossed!

May want to check the minimum stats required for that game and make sure your PC meets them if it is overheating on just that game. Would it be throwing an error message when it does this that would indicate what is failing when it happens?





This post has been edited by mALX: Jan 2 2020, 10:04 PM

It’s ESO and BATTLETECH, two games I’ve been playing fine for over at least a year. And yes, it does pop up an error message, I can hear the notification, but I can’t see what it says because no video. I tried switching to the integrated graphics just to try and read what it said, but the screen never came back up. Hmmm... is it possible the monitor is over heating?

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Jan 2 2020, 10:28 PM

Going back to my days as doing tech support, have you checked the cable? It might just be loose.

Well, when my old PC started overheating I did a few things to prolong it's life:

1. Clear off any obstructions to it breathing: It should sit with a good gap between it and the table = no papers underneath it; never sitting on carpet or cloth surface; etc.

2. Like Decrepit mentioned; make sure your fan is working properly.

3. If you are using heat for the winter; make sure your PC isn't anywhere near any heat vents.

What I did was set my PC up on two milk crates for air flow; took off the outer shell and put a box floor fan next to it; but facing away from it so it sucked the air off the PC rather than blowing air onto it. On the other side I cracked a window so the outside cold winter air was being sucked through by that fan on the other side.

(make sure pets like cats and dogs can't stick their noses into the PC at any time whether you are on it or not; though = no electrocuted pets or animal dust in PC).

If it is just doing this while doing graphics intensive gaming then it is probably an overheating issue. Doing the above quick fixes won't stop the issue; especially if it is your fan that is faulty - and pushing your PC to overheating repeatedly can't be good for it. (so might need to back off any long play sessions on power hungry games till the issues is fixed).

** If you buy a new fan for it; make sure your PC has the power to handle whatever fan you get. (and if you get a new graphics card = make sure the fan can handle the new graphics).

1. It currently is sitting on carpet, so thanks for that advice, lol
2. I’ve got multiple fans in my case and on the cpu and gpu and all are functioning as they always have.
3. It’s not near a heat vent.
4. I like the milk crate and fan idea. I may look into that.
5. The dog doesn’t go in my room so there’s no issue there.
6. Yeah it’s only started doing this *this* week. I’m afraid the gpu needs replacing ($$$, which I don’t have)

Also I feel I must clarify that I’ve changed nothing about what I’m running on my PC. No new games, launchers, anything. It’s like it just decided this week to start being ornery, after running perfectly since it was first switched on in 2016.

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Jan 3 2020, 12:09 AM

Yeah; most def get it off the carpet. And if it just started this week; it could very well be being aggravated by heating your house for the winter. (it wouldn't be the cure; just eliminate the extra burden of the heated house)

But is there a way to make sure if it is the GPU (and not the fan) that is failing?

I assume Windows 10 didn't 'update' itself (one of the major updates, like 1803 to 1903/09) around the time this started? Could your graphics driver have automatically updated?