I bought this desktop in Dec 2011. Within the first week, it started having problems whenever I played graphics-heavy games. The computer would freeze and these colored lines would appear on the screen. It's accompanied by a loud buzzing sound. Nothing wakes the computer up (esc, alt+tab, ctrl+alt+del); only manual shut down via power button.
So, I worked this out with HP support back in Jan 2012. Their final solution was to replace the video card (I did some driver updating and re-installing, along with some diagnostic tests, to no avail, before that). So HP replaced the graphics card, and it worked great for two years. Now, the same problem started again this week. I can't play a game for longer than four minutes; even watching a movie for over an hour caused it. I'm beyond warranty now.
So my request is this: could someone look at my specs and tell me if there's a problem in my setup? I planned on just getting a new and improved graphics card, but if someone can spot a weak link in my setup, that would be much appreciated. I'd hate to spend a ton of money on one deluxe component only to find out that the rest of my system is junk or subpar. Also, I don't want to go nuts on a video card upgrade. If you have any recommendations for a high quality video card, but still inexpensive and not overkill, I'll take them. I'm a beginner, if you couldn't already tell.
Specs:
HP Pavilion HPE h8t
Model #: h8-1110t
OS: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium [64- bit]
CPU: Intel(R) Core( TM) i5-2320 quad- core processor [3.0GHz, 6MB Shared Cache]
Memory: 8GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM [4 DIMMs]
Video Card: 1GB DDR3 Radeon HD 6670 [DVI, HDMI, DP, VGA]
Hard Drive: 1TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
Power supply: 460W
The games' websites and canyourunit.com both say that my machine exceeds the recommended hardware.
I thought it may be overheating, so I vacuumed out the dust this week. Still the same problem.
Previous troubleshooting from 2011:
(None of these have helped noticeably):
Windows update
HP update
Updated Drivers
Uninstalled/re-installed video card drivers
Ran both games on "low quality" (StarCraft II and Arkham games) meaning low detail and/or low resolution
Gave the computer a 16-hour break while shut down
Increased Virtual Memory (paging file size) to 90 000 MB initial and 200 000 MB maximum--that seemed to help, but not solve the issue
Checked for viruses
The computer's fans are not blocked and the machine is always cool to the touch.
Tried to "window" the games instead of using fullscreen--same problem still happened.
The games it freezes on:
Starcraft II
Arkham series (Batman)
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Team Fortress II (this game actually is what precipitated the problem the second time around)
some movies
UPDATE: I ran Speccy, My graphics temp was 46 deg Celsius without doing much. I turned on my game, and it climbed to 103 deg Celsius. I'm assuming that's a big part of the problem, I guess?
So, I worked this out with HP support back in Jan 2012. Their final solution was to replace the video card (I did some driver updating and re-installing, along with some diagnostic tests, to no avail, before that). So HP replaced the graphics card, and it worked great for two years. Now, the same problem started again this week. I can't play a game for longer than four minutes; even watching a movie for over an hour caused it. I'm beyond warranty now.
So my request is this: could someone look at my specs and tell me if there's a problem in my setup? I planned on just getting a new and improved graphics card, but if someone can spot a weak link in my setup, that would be much appreciated. I'd hate to spend a ton of money on one deluxe component only to find out that the rest of my system is junk or subpar. Also, I don't want to go nuts on a video card upgrade. If you have any recommendations for a high quality video card, but still inexpensive and not overkill, I'll take them. I'm a beginner, if you couldn't already tell.
Specs:
HP Pavilion HPE h8t
Model #: h8-1110t
OS: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium [64- bit]
CPU: Intel(R) Core( TM) i5-2320 quad- core processor [3.0GHz, 6MB Shared Cache]
Memory: 8GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM [4 DIMMs]
Video Card: 1GB DDR3 Radeon HD 6670 [DVI, HDMI, DP, VGA]
Hard Drive: 1TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
Power supply: 460W
The games' websites and canyourunit.com both say that my machine exceeds the recommended hardware.
I thought it may be overheating, so I vacuumed out the dust this week. Still the same problem.
Previous troubleshooting from 2011:
(None of these have helped noticeably):
Windows update
HP update
Updated Drivers
Uninstalled/re-installed video card drivers
Ran both games on "low quality" (StarCraft II and Arkham games) meaning low detail and/or low resolution
Gave the computer a 16-hour break while shut down
Increased Virtual Memory (paging file size) to 90 000 MB initial and 200 000 MB maximum--that seemed to help, but not solve the issue
Checked for viruses
The computer's fans are not blocked and the machine is always cool to the touch.
Tried to "window" the games instead of using fullscreen--same problem still happened.
The games it freezes on:
Starcraft II
Arkham series (Batman)
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Team Fortress II (this game actually is what precipitated the problem the second time around)
some movies
UPDATE: I ran Speccy, My graphics temp was 46 deg Celsius without doing much. I turned on my game, and it climbed to 103 deg Celsius. I'm assuming that's a big part of the problem, I guess?
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