Read this before posting HELP FOR OTHERS in the computer forums...

OK, so you have this person's answer, and even have the box of M-80s sitting under your bed.

Stop, look at the screen, and ask yourself-do you really wanna solve very problem with dynamite?

I am a full-time system builder and computer technician. More passes through my hands in a week than some people could use in a lifetime. There's a dual core in the house, all my PCs are PCI-E, I have watercooling, I'm building a phase-change rig in the back yard and I design custom cases.

Even further down that road, I test and develop some of the very parts that you guys use, so I know the technical specifications inside and out. I have my own ATI, AMD and MicroSoft representative.

I want to say scrap it and start over sometimes. Sometimes, that is the only way. But, remember, some people aren't out to beat everyone else at FPS and don't even know what an AGP card is.

The box turns on. THere are people in the box I play games with. I think there's a monkey in the monitor that draws the screen. I'm not sure.

If that's all they know, don't overwhelm them. Simple questions. Use pictures if they don't understand. This is not said to offend, but to help people whose job is not PCs to understand how to fix their problem. Are you a technician? Then you know that some people are just not technically inclined and panic when something goes wrong.

If someone posts a system spec-DO NOT BASH IT! If you differ in opinion, STATE WHY YOU DO and BE READY TO BACK THAT UP WITH REASONS or you're flaming. THere's a lot of subtle flaming, and a few trolls that have popped up that basically spam you need **** item to play well, when it may or may not be true, but your posterior speaks in loud farty tones when you don't give reasons as to why you say that. It's offensive to just bash with no help given alongside.

Overclocking may or may not be the answer-but don't tell that to a n00b. Do I overclock? Dang skippy I do, and I've got mine overclocked right now. Do I send machines out the door that way? Hell no, not unless I know them personally and know they won't call me at 3 AM just to figure out why it's not acting like it was.

Folks, if you have a car, do you know all about how it runs? If not, do you take it to a mechanic? Would you go back to that mechanic if he clled you a l4m3r and a n00bc4k3 and said go blow up your car cause it's not a Corvette?

Extend to each other all the courtesy that you want for yourselves.

Or as Bill and Ted said, be excellent to each other.

truth

when i was working for buick way back when an executive came in.

very competent person in her field.

her.........i want a part for a car

me..........what car (expects make/model)

her..........a buick

me.........what kind of a buick (expexts make/model)

her.........a big one

me.........what kind of a big buick

her..........a red one

me..........lets take a look at it (it was a marker bezel)

put me in her office and i would probably put on just as good a show for her

Nicely said. Everyone always "thinks" they are a tech, I work in hardware myself and I still have some learning to do.
I have a wired LAN at my house 4 desktops. Windows and Linux.

There is always some more learning to do in the Information Technology field. It is said that a car decreases in value the very minute you drive it off the lot, the same can be applied to computers. Today we have something new in some aspect of IT, tomorrow it'll be improved to version 2.0

Also even among those qualified to call themselves "Computer Technicians" there will always be personal opinion of what works best. Everyone has their favorite brand of something, their favorite review site and of course their favorite retailer. One person may have had an issue with a particular brand for example and wouldn't go near it again, where someone else would swear their (compter's) life by it. It's just the way it is.

It's a public forum... a public forum dedicated to a game. People should not come here to seek the 'best' hardware advice, check out review sites and eventually you too will have found a "Favorite review site".

That's my views. I may not have water cooled towers, and I don't overclock... seriously I don't see the point of that as it just leads to problems more often than not. I doubt I'll notice the 10fps jump (from OC'ing) from 110fps to 120fps when I'm playing CS:S on my current setup. But since everyone else is giving out credentials, I am a Network Administrator with a Bachelor of Applied Information Systems Technology degree. (not that it matters here)

back when i got all the way fron 9 fps to 14 fps by overclocking it made the difference between playing and a slide show

ahhh the days of pre pentium

today i value the warranty and it is fast enough to do what i want so why push it.

stability is my watchword

TekLord and Loviatar are my "friends". I never see the use of overclocking today. Computers are fast enough...no matter what processor you have.

People trash talk my Dell...but it is stable and quiet.

I have no credentials...I am what use to be coined a "hobbiest" back in the day. I have actually forgotten more then I remember. hehe My knowledge (if you want to call it that) is from allot of trial and error....lots of errors...*sigh*

However, I will bring people back to basics while trouble-shooting. We tend to over think allot of problems.

Like others have posted above, you make good points.

I like possibly a few on here, have experience and the recognised qualifications in this field, but thats irellevant and I leave for others to take on board what I advise. Been doing this for 20 years now, and if no-one listens to me now, they never will.

And Old Dood, I may joke about your Dell, but I bet it's alot quieter than mine

That's cool Cannonfodder. It was allot quieter when I first got it and realized the X600 card in it was one with NO fan...hehe...I gave it away and bought a X800XL instead. It is quiet..but, will make some noise in Guild Wars...the fan kicks in then.

I bought the fastest processor that this Dim 5100 would allow. The 3.4Ghz 650 chipset w/ 2Gb Level 2 cache. Seems plenty fast for me. I would have got the Dual Core if it was available.

You are talking about every vid card with a fan. :P

Yeah I know....still "bugs" me though....

Nice post, i totally agree...

Lots of people think theyre technicians...but their knowledge barely steps outside of windows, be a help to others or keep your mouth shut

Yea... I learned alot in the past month. Good thing I had an uber-pro helpin' me or I probably would of "Steven Segal-ed" my motherboard...

I know alot about computers, mainly software and I have the know-how of being able to put a computer together... As I recently found out, I can't troubleshoot worth a motherRED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOer...

I too hate this

Users - I have issue with .....
n00b response - Your X sucks get a new one....
The helps, really

I'm actually was a pc tech, I do have A+ certification and now work in phone computer tech support. I built my computer via mail order and put the parts together.

I do admit I use all the "tech" terms way too often which is something I try avoid but slip due to the faimiliar use of them. Feel free to go "hey cool, but what does that mean". I won't think less of you for it.

Well...I have always stated that I am not any kind of a Tech. I am a Hobbiest for lack of a better term. My Limited knowledge comes from reading and many many errors....then infusing common sense into the mix.

EDIT: Good Lord I am getting OLD...I already said most of this in this thread already...Geeesh!

excellent points apart from bragging about how good you are. i dont know you so i am in no way trying to be offensive so please take this as a critique and not flaming. Your 3rd and 4th paragraphs add nothing to your post and only serve to make you look like an arrogant "im better than you" bastard." your post says everything that needs to be said with those paragraphs so i wonder why they are there?

thats my opinion anyway and may or may not have any relation to fact

There's a difference between bragging and stating simple facts. Bragging tends to be caused by either extremely bloated or insecure egos and many times is exaggerated whereas simply stating actual facts (regardless of if they're impressive or not) is intended to serve no purpose other than be informative. Besides, it's important for a moderator of this section to have their computer prowness established and known so that people know they can come to them for help.

true but his technical knowlaedge was not a pivotal part of his post.
the bulk of the post was not technical in nature he was just requesting people be respectful and adhere to good forum conduct. therefore his technical knowledge is totally irrelevant to his post.

so again i wonder why he included it if not for egotistic reasons

Great post Serafita, and is always a confidence booster knowing the Mod, knows what he's talking about.

Agreed. Don't tell everyone to start over, or that their E-Machines is garbage. A quick and cheap upgrade fix may not make it crush Doom 3, but it might make the computer run GW on medium settings eh?

Think back to when you had troubles with your computer, you panicked right? I know I did. That said, saying that the person forgot to use thermal compound and the processor is dead isn't necessarily true, and it definitely isn't going to make whoever you are helping feel better.

My old Dell, which ran Guild Wars on max settings:
Intel Pentium 4 1.7ghz
nVidia GeForce 2 MX 400
256mb of ram

Guess what, it ran it.

So when people post, is my computer going to run it? They don't need top hardware to run it.

Currently I am running my powerful:
AMD Athlon X2 4400+
GeForce 7800GT
2 gigs of OCZ RAM
all overclocked, with a 420watt generic PSU that came in my case. Is it stupid? Yes. I am constantly thinking it is gonna blow when I power up. But guess what? You don't always need the OCZ 600watt PSU to run your all powerful rig, etc. (and watts doesn't mean crap, but lets not get started)

Anyway, most of the computer illiterate people don't know that, so tell it to them in a kind way, and the first option isn't always revamp the system.