Your questions answered
Expert solutions for everday problems.
Random Freezes
I have a slim form factor build: AMD Ryzen 2700, 8GB Team T-Force Delta RGB 3,000MHz RAM, a single PNY factory overclocked XLR8 RTX 2060, 250GB Samsung 860 EVO SSD, and 2TB Hitachi hard drive. They’re connected to an
Asus ROG STRIX B450-F motherboard, which is stuffed in a Thermaltake Core G3 and connected to a Dell P1914S.
Recently my PC started acting up. Sometimes if I leave it on, the entire thing freezes – mouse, keyboard, and even the power switch become non-responsive. The only solution is to switch the power supply off and on, then reboot. It may be the drivers, but I have an issue installing them – what do I do with the compressed folder that was downloaded? How do I get my other drivers?
I also tried resetting my motherboard settings, but that brings the RAM speed down to 2,400MHz. I’ve not had any BSODs, nor has WebDiscover invaded my PC, although it got onto my family’s devices (all fixed, however). Could it be the temps? Rector-Stingray
TechLife responds: The random, unexplained computer freeze is our worst nightmare when it comes to troubleshooting. Where do we start with this? Let’s open with a question about your PSU, which you didn’t include in your spec. What wattage is it? Anything 500W or less isn’t sufficient to power your PC’s spec, so if you’ve tried to get by with a lowerwattage PSU you should upgrade to 600W as a comfortable minimum, or 750W+ if you can afford the premium that goes with the small form factor PSU your case demands.
Second, could the small size of your case be a factor in random freezes if it’s caused by temperature spikes? Use a tool like Open Hardware Monitor ( https:// openhardwaremonitor.org) to monitor your voltage and temperature over an extended period. Select “Options > Logging” to start recording the figures every second, then after your next freeze, reboot and open the “OpenHardwareMonitor” folder. You’ll find a CSV file that you can open in Excel or LibreOffice Calc.
Sudden freezes linked to temperature spikes should be addressed by investigating the interior of your case – check there’s adequate ventilation into and out of the case, and around its components by tidying your cables, and ensure that all the fans are spinning when you power up. Check that your CPU heatsink is securely attached and has adequate thermal paste.
If you notice voltage changes – typically in the CPU VCore setting – enable the “High performance” power plan in Windows and it should smooth out. If, however, the voltage continues to fluctuate wildly – particularly just before a freeze – turn your attention back to the PSU and the possibility it may need replacing, even if it offers sufficient power.
Corrupt RAM may also be the cause. Search for “memory” and open Windows Memory Diagnostic. Choose to run the test now or when you next restart your PC, and press F1 when it starts to select the “Extended” test, before pressing F10 and waiting for the tests to complete (this may take several hours). Windows will display the results after rebooting – if there are errors, your RAM will need replacing.
Finally, check that you’re running the latest BIOS version for your board (version 3003 as of May 2020) and that your drivers are up to date – use the Asus Armoury Crate tool (after installation, go to “Settings > Update Center” to see what’s available) if you’re struggling to update your key drivers.
Compatible batteries
I’m in a pickle. Two years ago, I bought a Realtree Xtra camo-style HP laptop with an Intel Pentium chip. The problem is that my battery is basically dead, and the laptop now only works if I keep it plugged in. I’ve had major problems tracking down the right battery and bought and returned at least three different ones. What’s particularly frustrating is that sourcing batteries for my old HP Pavilion dv7 laptop is much easier – needless to say I’m quite grumpy!
Do you know what battery I need? If so, I would really be grateful.
Jon Shimamoto
TechLife responds: An exact laptop model number stamped on the underside of the laptop would have gone some way to helping us target a
specific battery (as would telling us the batteries you’d already tried). That said, there appears to be only one HP model matching your description, the HP 15-ay070wm. Searching for that plus the word “battery” gives several matches, including this from Reliable Laptop Parts ( https://bit.ly/MPCaugbattery) for $39.99.
You don’t mention if you’ve followed HP’s own support services, so we recommends you go down that path. Start by visiting https://support.hp.com/us-en/ document/c04700771 for some guides and tools to test the health of your current battery. If the tools suggest that the problem isn’t with your battery, you might get lucky opening Device Manager, expanding “Batteries” and then uninstalling any ACPI options, before rebooting to allow it to start recharging properly again.
If your battery has definitely reached the end of its life, then the support pages also help you determine what info you need to source a replacement, and provide you with a link to the HP Parts Store – see https://support.hp. com/us-en/document/c00821572 for the info you need if you want to stay on the official path.
Two sticks or four?
Two questions if I may. First, I built a new system mainly for gaming. I chose to populate the board with four 8GB G.SKILL F4-2800C158GVR RAM sticks, but after going through the manual discovered the board (Asus Maximus Hero XI) uses a dual-channel memory architecture. Performance-wise, did I make a mistake filling the four slots – would I have been better off using just two 16GBssticks? Also, would higher spec’d memory provide any performance benefit?
Second, I reused my Corsair H100i AIO from my old system. In this system, either the fans or the pump – can’t be sure – pulsates, particularly in performance mode. I’ve checked the Corsair Link utility while it’s pulsating but don’t see anything unusual: CPUs are a steady 32 C. Would this indicate something is failing – I bought this cooler in July 2014?
Steve Vanetti
TechLife responds: There’s virtually no difference in performance between four sticks of 8GB or two sticks of 16GB, just as there’s little difference between running 2666, 3000, or 3200 RAM (outside of Ryzen). The main advantage of choosing two sticks of 16GB is that you’d leave two slots spare for future upgrades, but given you’ve got 32GB that’s not going to be an issue for some time.
As for your second question: Despite its age, we suspect the pulsating is caused by the placement of the cooling pump in your new system and the flow of air around it. Google “Corsair
H100i AIO pulsating” and you’ll see some videos and forum posts that will provide plenty of potential help and advice to steer you towards isolating the likely cause, and the best way to reconfigure the pump to minimise the problem.
I have a problem. Call of Duty: Warzone crashes without any error info. Basically, it closes like I hit exit after 5-10 minutes of play – on any battle or practice mode. I’ve tried updating everything, even switched back to Windows 10 1903 and went online trying every fix through settings I could find – such as making sure all the shaders are fully downloaded in the game before starting. No dice.
Yet one piece of advice I’ve found that does work is to sit on the menu screen for 10 minutes before running. Why would that fix things? Seems like the old Nintendo “blow in the cartridge” fix.
Joshua Giacchino
Techlife responds: It looks like a common problem, judging by the comments on one Reddit post ( https://bit.ly/MPCaugreddit). Scroll through this to reveal several different workarounds to try. The first one covers some of the steps you’ve mentioned following, but others involve creating a special BAT file to launch the game with, renaming “ModernWarfare.exe” as “ModernWarefare.exe1” each time, and removing the player folder in your documents, running a series of commands (make this a BAT script to save time), restarting your PC, and then renaming the program executables.
Long story short? The game is bugged to hell, and until the devs get a fix on the problem you’ve two choices: Accept the 10-minute wait before playing each time, or find a more stable alternative.
Can’t enable sandbox
I would like to use a sandbox, but cannot access it from Windows Features, as the option is greyed out. When I put the cursor over it, it read “Sandbox cannot be installed: virtualization support is disabled in the Firmware.” When I went into my Asus Prime A270-A motherboard’s BIOS, I found nothing there that would apply to Sandbox. What am I missing? My processor is an Intel i7-7700K, so it should be compatible.
Ken Payne
Techlife responds: You’re looking for the hardware virtualisation feature, which is usually buried deep inside the BIOS/UEFI settings. In your specific case, you need to navigate to “Advanced > CPU Configuration,” where you’ll find the “Intel Virtualization Technology” setting – switch this to “Enabled,” save your changes, and you should be able to make use of Sandbox.