Re: Time to Spring Clean
 

Never used an Anti Static strap in my life, never killed anything, but I also have a habit of keeping my hands away from anything that can conduct.

Drop a new case out of a box, take the styrene off and then see the spark that can discharge when you touch the case! Better safe than sorry I would think.

Agreed, Comodo is quality, been using it for a few months now, for free.....forget about it, they have a decent looking Anti Virus as well, but it is in Beta and was a bit unstable last time I tried it, but it will run with Avast at the same time, double protection for free, can't be bad.

"Spring Cleaning" your PC is a great idea, I always give mine (MY PC ;) ) a clean every six months. Fixed many a system with a simple blast of air into the PSU/Gfx Card and HSF.

The ammount of Gfx cards "It crashes in games" I see, and the cooler is clogged with dust!

Re: Time to Spring Clean
 

Yep, a spring clean is definately worth doing.
Get your systems running nice and cool before summer comes round.

Oh, and whilst you are servicing your PC, do a backup too of important data.
The amount of people who never backup and then it's too late.

Re: Time to Spring Clean
 

I wish I had read this advice earlier in the year when I decided to clean my pc.

I disconnected my pc, took the side off and decided to clean inside of it, I started off using the hoover and then I decided to use the hoover and compressed air at the same time and it caught my fan and cause a blow back of sorts which erupted in flames and it burn my face and the inside of my pc which I had to throw out my window whilst it was still alight. :(

One of the stupidest things i've ever done

Re: Time to Spring Clean
 

Made me laugh when I read your post:D

Re: Time to Spring Clean
 

Haha it made everyone laugh at the time.

I had to goto the hospital and explain what had happened and nobody could quite take it in at the time :D There are pictures of me with my hands in bandages and my nose all red whilst i'm looking really sorry for myself haha.

Re: Time to Spring Clean
 

You should post them in the funny pictures section with the story.:D

Re: Time to Spring Clean
 

Haha i'll do that :D

Just glad my face eventually healed haha

Re: Time to Spring Clean
 

Thats all that really matters anyway as it was only hardware.:)

Re: Time to Spring Clean
 

How on earth did it ignite and produce flames?


-------------------------------------------------

Talking of keyboards, I threw mine out the other day.
Now I have a new metal, quality Apple keyboard that is very thin.
Works great on my PC.

Re: Time to Spring Clean
 

We have no idea and just asumed it was because the canned air was too close to the vacume as when we came back from the hospital the whole vacume tube was burnt and it looked like that's where it started....other than that were stumped.

Re: Time to Spring Clean
 

I got a new monitor the other day and while sound came out of it at first, when i installed windows again, there was no sound coming through the speakers in the monitor, it was coming out of the independent speakers which i got ages ago but there is no sound coming through the monitor speakers, they did at first and now after the new install, no sound are coming through them im going to take this piece of **** back to the shops if i cant get it to work, its an lg monitor and the sound only came out of it on the old install

ive got xp

and yes the cables are attached properly otherwise it wouldnt have worked in the firstplace!

Re: Time to Spring Clean
 

If you get a pair of headphones or other speakers and plug them in to the same place you have the monitor plugged into the Pc's audio output, can you hear audio ?

Is there a mute button on the monitor itself? Check to see in the menu settings.

What is the model of the monitor ?

Re: Time to Spring Clean
 

the monitor is fine, if i plug it into the front ports of the pc it works, but the back ports what real tech control are not working, i have plugged my speakers in there and they dont work, so its the ports, BUT THE BACK PORTS WERE WORKING BEFORE ON MY OLD INSTALATION but not on the new one, same disk , same xp and same asus driver

Re: Time to Spring Clean
 

Ok, the only thing I can think is that some motherboards use the sound ports for several uses, sometimes inputs, sometimes outputs, and sometimes for different channels of sound in a 5.1 set up for example.

I would open up Control panel and look at your audio devices or the soundcards own control panel if it has one. You may find this on the motherboard CD.

See if you can change the output ports settings.

Also try booting the machine without anything plugged in to the audio port, and then once into windows, plug it in. See if it comes up with anything.

That's all I can think of, unless anyone else has any other suggestions.

Good luck.

Re: Time to Spring Clean
 

In control panel look for Real HD Audio Manager

Open it

Pull out a speaker plug, then plug it back in.

A pop-up should ask you what you just plugged in.

Click the right option.