Purpose of this section
As the section name might hint, this specific subsection of Suggestions, Requests & Help relates to computer-related support, both for hardware and software. This section is
not intended for sharing warez or any other form of pirated software nor will any help be given on the public boards.
Hardware support
Buying/building a PC
Many of you come here (or are directed here) when searching for a PC to buy or build. Although not necessary, it's kinda awesome if you at least mention the following things when creating a topic, as they
greatly assist members in helping determine an appropriate computer or good choice of computer parts for you:
- Budget (e.g. 900USD)
- Purpose (e.g. hardcore gaming, office work, htpc...)
- Country (e.g. US, Germany... - it's relatively important to know where you'll be buying the parts or PC, although most of us know of sites such as Newegg, it's great to mention any sites we may not know)
- Special preferences (e.g. "Nvidia GFX card" or "Intel CPU" - this is very important to mention first - not everything is interswitchable and compatible, such requirements need to be known before we start suggesting builds or PCs)
Specific component support
If you're looking for help choosing, comparing or solving issues with a specific computer part, you most likely already have a vague idea of what's good to include in your thread. If you don't, here's a few things nobody would mind seeing:
- If you're looking for help:
- Which computer part is it? (e.g. "RAM", "HDD",...)
- Which manufactor and model (e.g. "WD Caviar Blue 500GB" and not "500GB HDD")
- What seems to be wrong (e.g. "weird clicking noises and nothing boots")
- What have you ruled out or determined (e.g. "it works with X settings, so Y must be the problem")
- If you're looking for a comparison/suggestion:
- Budget (e.g. 150USD)
- Which computer part is it? (e.g. "RAM", "HDD",...)
- Purpose (e.g. hardcore gaming, office work, htpc...)
- Country (e.g. US, Germany... - it's relatively important to know where you'll be buying the parts or PC, although most of us know of sites such as Newegg, it's great to mention any sites we may not know)
- Any preferences, choices (e.g. "WD or Seagate, definitely not Hitachi")
General PC support
For whatever reason it may be, you might not be be able to determine what's wrong with your PC, but you just know something is. In that case try to be as informative as possible and
really try to at least supply the following information:
- What seems to be wrong (e.g. "BSOD with error XYZ")
- What kind of computer you have (e.g. "Dell XYZ" or, if it's a custom built one, the components)
- What happened to cause the problem (e.g. "I hit my PC with a hammer")
- Anything else you can think of (software changes, driver and other updates, recently downloaded files etc.)
Software support
Although not as common as hardware support (mainly because pretty much each program you use has some sort of online support somewhere else and, if it does, make sure to consult it first), we are always ready to help, even with your software issues. Just make sure to tell us what program / software issues you have, the program or software that could be responsible and what version you have etc. Simply put, the more information you can give us, the better and faster we can solve your problems.