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Does hardware get old?
Yes i realize that hardware becomes out dated with better and faster parts. but my computer recently died and to hold me off for a couple months for me to get money a friend of mine pieced together a couple parts. Namely Nvidia 5900 FX, 2 gigs of ram (DDR2 i think? if thats a type of ram?) and an AGP mother board. its been almost a year now (because of the economy and all these otherthings i haven't had the money, won't go into detail) and i have been able to play WoW, EvE, LotR, and a whole slew of F2P games completly okay. but over the past 2 months my computer has been shutting down on just about any game i play. I have just ordered a $30 Nvidia 7300, but will that fix it? My 5900 wasn't overclocked very much i've been told, and the RAM was brand new at the time it was put together. any solutions?
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Yes parts can get old and stop working properly. Things like heat can help speed up the process. Sounds like it may be your video card. The only way to know for sure really is to swap it out with a known working card. Well not the only way, but one of the easier ones. Something to try until you get your new card is take the side of the case off so your system stays cooler. If the card doesn't fix your problem, I'd look at the power supply or CPU. Make sure your computer is in a place where you're getting plenty of airflow. Clean your fans out if they're caked with dust. Stuff like that. = )
try replacing your power supply first, it could simply be your mobo is shutting down the computer because of out of spec voltages etc.
well, yea ofc. Everything you use gets old...and most of them end up broken. And I believe all man made things are like this.
Try cleaning your graphics card from dust. I cleaned my graphic card last weekend and it dropped my graphic cards temperature from 65c to 45c
Currently playing: N/A
Retired from: GW, WAR, Aion, LOTRO, Rift, SW:TOR, Vinductus
What do you mean by shutting down? Like it actually turns off while you're playing? It does sound like PSU to me, the PSU also ages the worst of computer components. Other components do age, and start taking more voltage to keep going over time, but generally last longer than their usefulness.
But like the above post says the first thing to check should be dust, especially in the PSU since that often gets looked over.
I started back in the Commodore 64/TRS 80 days and i have owned probably 10 or more computers and i have NEVER had one break down,as a matter of fact i have never had any parts break down.I have always left my machines on 24/7,i might reboot or give them a break every 7-10 days ,and still never a problem.
IMO they are worth their cost,they really last forever,i have only cleared some out ,just because i won't use them anymore,but it is hard for me,i feel like they are museum pieces lol.
Just take them apart once a year and clean any dust that might be built up on the hardware.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
power supplies degrade probably quicker than anything in your tower. Also you really need to blow out all of your fans and heat sinks every few months to extend the life of cpus, gpus and your motherboard.
Some motherboards are manufactured with some pretty poor components. Theres definitely a life expectancy on the capacitors etc. on motherboards.. Sometimes all the preventitive maintance in the world wont extend the life of a cheaply build motherboard.
dusting computer ever season is a must(and i mean inside and vent
since dust is number one computer killer!
Hardware in itself doesn't get old but sometimes it breaks. DDR ram does so sometimes and that would make your computer to bluescreen. Since you werent so specific I will run you through some common problems:
1. The computer gets slower and sometimes it bluescreens or do other weird things. The reason for that is that windows is full of crap: Solution re-install windows or at least use a program to clear out all crap and programs running in the background. Re-installing a computer once a year isn't a bad idea.
2. Suddenly the computer just bluescreens, this happens a few times a day seemingly random. Probably a broken memory. Can be ram, memory on GFX card or even cash on processor (happens to a buddy of mine, was hell to find the problem. Run memcheck 86 or similar program to confirm it is a memory problem. Then try to remove a memory chip at a time and run memcheck again until you find the wrong one (and your GFX card, change it to your old one if the rams are ok and run memcheck again. If you still got error after checked ram and GFX card it is the processor but it is 80% ram gstick, 19% GFX ram and 1% processor cash. Change the thing that is broken.
3. Computer just turns itself off or reboot sometimes. Either a heat issue, most likely is the fans (CPU and GFX) full of crap, also clean out all dust you can from the box, particularly the airholes. It can also be that the computer cant get enough electricity because the PSU is old or not good enough for your new GFX card.
Besides faulty drivers those are the 3 most common reasons for crashes, be a little more specific and if you can, copy the log and write it here if you want more help (or PM me).