System Hardware: PC | MOBO | RAM | CPU | HDD | SSD | PSU etc

I was hit by lightning! I posted this on our XP11 forum and received some good input -which again raised a couple of technical issues where I would appreciate any comments you guys can provide.Would appreciate if somebody could provide some technical input regarding the below scenarios. I was literally hit by lightning which blew out my ASUS TUF z370 motherboard and power supply. (There may be more damage but this is what my tech guy tells me is the probable damage ). The lightning impulse came via my Internet supplier's coax cable - through their router and then via the cable to my mesh router and my PC which were the only units cabled. I don't think this…

Had the typical booting to BIOS not windows issue. Windows clock reading wrong time too. Not the first time I've had this so knew what the likely issues was. Namely the CMOS battery, the little button cell on the motherboard. Usually a CR 2032. So this is is just a reminder for those of you that encounter this issue. The batteries usually only last from 3 to 5 years Ive found, with modern boards. So if you encounter the issue you know what to try first. Usually easy to change as long as your board manufacturer hasn't designed the board with all manner of fancy shrouds and covers on the board. My Asus Maximus X Code required the removal of the heatsink on…

Hello Simmers, I have been out of flight simming for many years now but at a point in my life that I am seriously thinking about jumping back in. To give you all an idea of how long it has been, my last simulator was FS9. I bought FSX Gold but didn't have the hardware to run it so it is probably still in it original packaging somewhere in a box. My last operating system was Windows XP. I can't even recall what my hardware setup was at the time because we are talking the better part of a decade since I have flown virtually. I have built a few simming rigs over the years and would like to either build or buy another one but am woefully word not allowed of the ne…

But it can be fixed. Unfixed means somebody can read your computer data. Passwords, credit card numbers at online stores. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-chipset-vulnerability-leaks-passwords It is easy using Windows Device Manager to check if you have the new MB chipset driver late enough to cure the issue. You can get to Device Manager from Settings or from Control Panel. Device Manager, Security Devices, AMD PSP, Properties, Driver. Driver Version. It needs to be 5.17.0.0 or higher to plug the leaks. Ryzen chipsets are all socket AM4, you put AM4 in the drop down box on the AMD website, and then your MB type (like B450 or whatever). MB ty…

I had a Cool-Master CPU cooler that started to go bad and give me a BIOS (CPU Fan error) on boot-up, so I had the fan replaced with a nice Dark Rock Pro4 which seems to work great, however I still get the BIOS error message whenever I boot my PC? I have gone into the BIOS and looked around but didn't see anything that might be causing this error? Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions? Cheers Martin

Hello ALL, It's been like 3 times already over the last months, temperature in the room is good (cold enough) since we're in the winter down here, thus I suspect it's a PSU issue. What happens is that the PC simply turns itself OFF abruptly during climb when the weather is stormy (in the simulator session of course) with CBs and lightning all around. It's not every stormy situation that it will happen, since I've had successful flights in these conditions, but each time that the issue occurred it was during this kind of scenario. Then I have to hold pressed the ON/OFF button to "reset" and turn on the PC again. It starts up normally and when I check Event Viewer it h…

Hi, It's the first time i need to replace toner for my HP Color Laserjet MFP M277dw. I bought a set of the 4 color cartridges because of the fairly fair price however only the Cyan and Yellow colors are 0%. Black and Magenta are respectively still at 40% and 30%. What i would like to know is, do i replace only the Cyan and Yellow cartridges from the 4 color set and keep the Black- and Magenta cartridges for later use ? Or would it be better to replace all 4 cartridges all at once ?.... Thanks very much for and hints/tips !

Good day simmers, I currently have a set of speakers but looking to change them out. I’m not looking for something top of the line, more so looking for anyone that’s had a good experience with say Speakers found on Amazon etc. The only must have requirement I would be looking for is that they are a USB connection, and would also be nice to have a volume control wheel on the speakers themselves (but not necessary). Just looking for recommendations and what are you using for sound speakers?

Ok, my (fairly) recently built supercomputer apparently can’t run windows 11, the first time ever I have not been eligable for the beta of a new MS operating system. Whuts’ the problem? Well you see, my computer has no built-in Trusted Computing Module, a thingy that MS in all its wisdom seems intent on forcing upon all potential users of its new OS. Oh! But wait! My motherboard has a header for me to plug one right in, and it seems that they are fairly chea… Oh. Well. The scalpers have arrived, retailers everywhere are abruptly out of stock, and now these previously $25 (maximum) cards are going for $100 or more on Ebay. Of course. Thanks Mi…

Booted up my PC to an error message https://neosmart.net/wiki/reboot-and-select-proper-boot-device/ Boot order in the BIOS is correct I have removed and unplugged all USB devices still doesn’t boot I have taken my SSD out the cage unplugged it and reseated still doesn’t boot. Think I need a new HD and reinstall of windows - gutted.

What is the kind of specification that I should be looking for in an office PC these days? I will want an Office 365 package that includes Outlook, as the current email storage that I have with Outlook Web is a pathetic 1GB. I would prefer to have something like 50GB, so I do not need to worry about it! With respect to the PC specification itself, I assume that 8GB is probably the sensible minimum for RAM when using Windows 10? What about graphics? Do I need a dedicated card, or is that onboard rubbish good enough for office use (including online video footage)? What about the processor? I guess that a quad core i3 will be fine, but which one is the best value for money? …

1) This is for when you have nav charts or instrument readouts on an iPad app, and also have mounted your iPad device so as to not be able to tilt it. You normally tilt the device in order to change the screen orientation between portrait and landscape. Settings, General, Accessibility, Assistive Touch (turn ON). A transparent gray square now overlays all views on the device. It appears / disappears when you turn the above OFF or ON. 2) Now you can touch the screen to rotate the view without tilting the device like this: Touch the gray square overlay, touch the Device icon, touch the Rotate Screen icon, touch one of the orientation icons. Lock the…

im running with 32GB 3600 ram and was wondering if you had noticed a difference going over 32GB ??? i had tryed 128 but dont want to go that hight again .

Hello, I have an ASUS PRIME Z390-P motherboard and have installed BIOS ver. 3004 but there is a problem only if HT is active. I have a CPU i9 9900K 8 cores 5 Ghz and with HT DISABLED in the BIOS I have verified with CPU-Z that there are regularly 8 cores and 8 threads with a core speed at 5 Ghz instead if I put HT ENABLED, CPU-Z tells me that there are only 4 cores and 8 active threads instead of 8 cores and 16 threads and also instead of having a core speed of 5 Ghz the cores work at the base frequency of the CPU of 3.6 Mhz. Thanks in advance for those who want to give me solutions to my problem. Roberto.

Okay, exploding is an exaggeration but they are certainly going pop and making lots of sparks. 50% of them failed in testing and one took out a graphics card. If you have this model, watch out!

So I built a PC back in June of 18 and it's showing its age. Here's what I have: CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K (3.70 Ghz) RAM: 32 GB RAM 4X8FG DDR4 3200 GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti MOBO: ASUS MAXIMUS X HERO PSU: EVGA SUPERNOVA 1000W G3 I can run 4K ULTRA on MSFS and get 14-30 fps depending, with 24 avg, with SU5. I'm limited by main-thread so I want to start there. (I've given up hope on ever updating my GPU) I don't know if I can upgrade my CPU without needing to upgrade my MOBO, and if I have to upgrade that do I need to update my RAM as well? I guess what I'm asking is, now that I'm out of the loop, what would you do to get those juicy frames in MSFS 2020? M…

Running MSFS 2020 SU5, I recently gave my overclocked i7 10700 a close look running a stressing location, a 6k' flight from KBUR to KSNA, using LOD 300/300 and 30 fps vsync (see my computer specs in my signature). I originally tried using LOD 600/600 for this test but decided that such settings are impractical for my computer. For this LOD 300/300 test I stepped back my 5.0 Ghz OC to 4.9, primarily to reduce the load voltage by about .1v (though I lost 2% of the effective OC in the process). What I saw was surprising: about half of my physical cores had max temps from 84c and 86c! The average was around 63c. Though I can't tell for sure, it looks that those high tem…

G'day fellow members. I've been away from flight simming for a while thinking I would return when I got a new graphics card which I just did. Upgraded from a 2060 Super to a 2080 Super. All is well except there is NO FPS increase at all. I can only put this down to a bottleneck with the CPU or motherboard. The CPU is a 6700K with 24GB RAM and Gigabyte GA Z710 hd3 motherboard. FS running off of an NVME SSD. The max I get on the ground is around 13-15FPS at a well detailed airports and only get up to about 29-30fps when high up looking at plain Oceans, as soon as I look at some dense trees or building it drop to 10-19fps and get stutters. I THINK t…

Hello i am planning to get new laptop. Can someone please explain why older cpu has CPU boost up to 5ghz but the new 11th gen has only 4.6. I thought to run P3D best, you need great single core performance and best clock speed. But 11th gen intel cpus are Lower in clock speeds but faster in performance compared to 10th gen CPU’s. How does that work? Cheers Nikita

So when I fly in P3D I usually use headphones. I didn't have a problem until recently where it seems that if I don't have my headphone plugged in before I start the sim they won't be recognized, so I might be missing some sounds in 3rd party aircraft. It seemed like before I could plug in my headphones after I loaded everything up and still get sound. So, any suggestions on what I should check.? I just have the generic Real Tek audio device and have a port on the front of the computer where I plug the headphones in. Thanks

I was wondering playing at 1080p on newer GPU's is actually making the CPU work harder ?

This really has me baffled. P3Dv5.2HF1. UK2000 Gatwick for P3Dv5 and PMDG737NGXu. My monitor is set at 30Hz and I have VSync enabled. Core 0 is not at 100% when it should be if 30fps is the target. But it's stuck around 28 and only if I terminate ASP3D resulting in clear skies will it hit 30. How on earth is this possible. First time I've had this problem and it's stumped me. Nvidia drivers are 471.11.

Hi All, I am self professed loser when it comes to PC spec's/knowledge so my apologies. If you need to know about astronomy though I'm your man! I've been in touch with Chillblast (just around the corner from me actually) and had a chat about a setup that may suit my budget (around £2,500 or just a shade over for the PC and no peripherals). They have sent me the below spec but I would like anyone's opinion on the below and whether you might change anything? As said, I just don't know enough about PC's and my brain is too full with other stuff to learn anything else and I fear if I do, it may start to push the other stuff out so I'm very sorry for the lazi…

I Wonder if i7 11700k how performs in p3d V5.2. Better than i9 9900k or the same?