The Official Computer Tech Support Thread

[Metal Connoisseur]

This has probably been asked before and I feel sort of silly for asking but how does one get a .gif to animate in their avatar and/or how do you resize your avatar to something bigger than the allotted 80 x 80?

[Freebase Dali]

Originally Posted by Metal Connoisseur

This has probably been asked before and I feel sort of silly for asking but how does one get a .gif to animate in their avatar and/or how do you resize your avatar to something bigger than the allotted 80 x 80?

Find an animated .gif online and use it as your signature. For larger avatars, make a request HERE.

If you have an animated .gif that you'd like to use as your avatar but it's larger than the size restrictions listed in the Avatar Requests thread, HERE is a free program you can use to resize the .gif without losing the animation. After you resize it, simply upload it to a hosting service and use the direct link when you request your avatar change.

[Scarlett O'Hara]

What's the best/cheapest way to get my laptop cleaned inside? It's overheating and it will blow my graphics card if I don't sort it soon. I am not going to pay the money stealing Indian down the street charge $280 just to open the damn thing.

[debaserr]

How much is it overheating by, what does the card load at? Video cards run quite hot.

[Scarlett O'Hara]

Originally Posted by eric generic

How much is it overheating by, what does the card load at? Video cards run quite hot.

90 degrees Celsius. I have a program that monitors it.

[debaserr]

Usually 90c isn't an issue, but it might be on a laptop. I've never had one so I couldn't say.

[Freebase Dali]

90c is not good at all, whether it's in a laptop or a desktop. The components can take high spikes at those temps, but for an extended period of time it's going to kill them prematurely.

Laptops usually have higher temps due to the compacted nature of the setup and the airflow disadvantage, but the sensitive parts still have the same limitations when it comes to how much heat they can withstand over extended and consistent periods of time.
If a person is experiencing unusually high temps in a laptop, the first thing they should do is make sure they're not resting a laptop with bottom air vents on bed comforters and restricting air flow (which is probably the case 90 percent of the time). Also, if the fans are giving out or are no longer operable, that's obviously going to have an effect.

Assuming the fans are still running and the vents are not being obstructed, one way to lower the temps would be to underclock the CPU and RAM, provided the BIOS provides that capability on the laptop. If not, there should at least a setting in the BIOS to have the fans run at high speed constantly instead of letting the motherboard control the fan speed in response to temperatures, should there be a faulty heat sensor or fan control module. Battery power would be affected somewhat, but it beats a dead computer.

[Scarlett O'Hara]

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

90c is not good at all, whether it's in a laptop or a desktop. The components can take high spikes at those temps, but for an extended period of time it's going to kill them prematurely.

Laptops usually have higher temps due to the compacted nature of the setup and the airflow disadvantage, but the sensitive parts still have the same limitations when it comes to how much heat they can withstand over extended and consistent periods of time.
If a person is experiencing unusually high temps in a laptop, the first thing they should do is make sure they're not resting a laptop with bottom air vents on bed comforters and restricting air flow (which is probably the case 90 percent of the time). Also, if the fans are giving out or are no longer operable, that's obviously going to have an effect.

Assuming the fans are still running and the vents are not being obstructed, one way to lower the temps would be to underclock the CPU and RAM, provided the BIOS provides that capability on the laptop. If not, there should at least a setting in the BIOS to have the fans run at high speed constantly instead of letting the motherboard control the fan speed in response to temperatures, should there be a faulty heat sensor or fan control module. Battery power would be affected somewhat, but it beats a dead computer.

Thanks for the advice, so how to I get the fans to be running constantly? My battery is stuffed anyway it doesn't last 5 minutes without power.

[Freebase Dali]

Originally Posted by Vanilla

Thanks for the advice, so how to I get the fans to be running constantly? My battery is stuffed anyway it doesn't last 5 minutes without power.

When you first start the computer, there's a key that you hit to make it enter the bios. It's different between computers, but it will usually be either F2 or delete. Maybe escape. If you're unsure, you can google the make/model of your computer with the word "bios key" and find it quickly.

When you know (or just wanna try) the key, restart the computer and when the screen goes black, just keep hitting the key repeatedly until it boots into the bios. From there, it's just a matter of scrolling through the options until you find any relevant settings.

Alternately, you can give me the make/model of your computer and I can search for what bios it has and explore the options myself to let you know if there's something you can do in it, and what to do.

[Scarlett O'Hara]

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

When you first start the computer, there's a key that you hit to make it enter the bios. It's different between computers, but it will usually be either F2 or delete. Maybe escape. If you're unsure, you can google the make/model of your computer with the word "bios key" and find it quickly.

When you know (or just wanna try) the key, restart the computer and when the screen goes black, just keep hitting the key repeatedly until it boots into the bios. From there, it's just a matter of scrolling through the options until you find any relevant settings.

Alternately, you can give me the make/model of your computer and I can search for what bios it has and explore the options myself to let you know if there's something you can do in it, and what to do.

You're so sexy when you talk computers. I will do this in the weekend, thank you kind Sir!