New Desktop Computer

[Grey Fox]

Connect to the internet, try again until it works.

[viper37]

Any ideas how to fix this? 
I still love Microsoft though.

That's your problem, right there. 

Long story short, it is done.  I have a new computer, but I am totally exhausted from the logistics operation.  Lesson learned: next time, wear gloves.

Major problem though.  I have not changed my boot HDD, but Windows has sent an ultimatum to me.  Something like register within 72 hours, or your computer will stop working.  The Windows 7 is real, not pirated, so I don't quite understand.  When I click the button that says register or something, an error popped up.  0xC004B100.

The Windows activation has detected a change in your hardware and requests a re-register.
Try rebooting, try again, see if it works.

Do you get to a point where you can chose activation by phone?  If so, pick that one and call the toll free number.
You'll likely have an automated voice asking you some simple questions, like provide the code on screen and how many computers do you have this Windows installed on.  Answer "1" to the last question, they'll provide you a code to type on screen.

From what I see online, 0xC004B100 refers to a multiple activation key problem (MAK) where they key is already in use somewhere.  Likely, you computer shop installed a bunch of Windows with similar activation keys, didn't bother to check them individually because it was a waste of time.

If you still have a problem, might be worth calling them.

[Monoriu]

The biggest surprise to me was the liquid cooler.  The shop told me that the cooler had "dried up".  Two thoughts: (a) these things aren't perpetual?!?!?!  Maybe, as my computer is on 6 days a week, 24 hours a day. (b) Maybe they aren't lying to get more business, as my computer had become very noisy in recent months.  So I bought a new liquid cooler.  But the new cooler was too big to fit the original case, so I had to buy a bigger case. 

The verdict: the new computer is a lot more quiet than my old one

The bigger case couldn't fit the biggest suitcase that I have.  That meant that I had to drag both an empty suitcase and a huge case back home.  My arms still hurt the next day.  That also means it will be a lot more difficult to take the computer to the shop next time.  Deep down, I know viper is right.  No video card today can last four years, and it seems the liquid cooler won't last four years either, especially if I only turn it off once a week.  So that means I'll likely have to replace the video card and cooler in like two years.  But I really, really don't want to drag the computer there, especially if I can't put it in a suitcase. 

One possibility is to pay someone to come to my home to install the components in two years.  There are technicians who are willing to do this for US$30.  Maybe that's a solution. 

Other thoughts:

- I have rebooted the computer a few times but I no longer see Window's ultimatum.  Just can't find it anywhere anymore.  Magically disappeared. 

- at the risk of stating the obvious, the new computer is faster than the old one.  Everything is faster.  But it isn't a quantum leap. 

- the lag in playing large video files is still here, but the problem has improved somewhat.  Next time I'm going to get a video card with a lot of memory.

- there is still substantial time needed in booting up the computer.  They say x-99 boards are like that

- I need to turn the computer off more often, so that the cooler and power supply will last longer. 

- The shop makes certain I am aware that the new motherboard has USB 3.1 slots.  I have never even heard of USB 3.1 devices. 

- The real test will come when I buy Fallout 4.

[DontSayBanana]

The biggest surprise to me was the liquid cooler.  The shop told me that the cooler had "dried up".  Two thoughts: (a) these things aren't perpetual?!?!?!  Maybe, as my computer is on 6 days a week, 24 hours a day. (b) Maybe they aren't lying to get more business, as my computer had become very noisy in recent months.  So I bought a new liquid cooler.  But the new cooler was too big to fit the original case, so I had to buy a bigger case. 

The verdict: the new computer is a lot more quiet than my old one

The bigger case couldn't fit the biggest suitcase that I have.  That meant that I had to drag both an empty suitcase and a huge case back home.  My arms still hurt the next day.  That also means it will be a lot more difficult to take the computer to the shop next time.  Deep down, I know viper is right.  No video card today can last four years, and it seems the liquid cooler won't last four years either, especially if I only turn it off once a week.  So that means I'll likely have to replace the video card and cooler in like two years.  But I really, really don't want to drag the computer there, especially if I can't put it in a suitcase. 

One possibility is to pay someone to come to my home to install the components in two years.  There are technicians who are willing to do this for US$30.  Maybe that's a solution. 

Other thoughts:

- I have rebooted the computer a few times but I no longer see Window's ultimatum.  Just can't find it anywhere anymore.  Magically disappeared. 

- at the risk of stating the obvious, the new computer is faster than the old one.  Everything is faster.  But it isn't a quantum leap. 

- the lag in playing large video files is still here, but the problem has improved somewhat.  Next time I'm going to get a video card with a lot of memory.

- there is still substantial time needed in booting up the computer.  They say x-99 boards are like that

- I need to turn the computer off more often, so that the cooler and power supply will last longer. 

- The shop makes certain I am aware that the new motherboard has USB 3.1 slots.  I have never even heard of USB 3.1 devices. 

- The real test will come when I buy Fallout 4.

ASUS boards can usually have their boot times significantly shortened through a combination of tweaks, but it's not something you want to mess with if you don't know what you're doing (disabling legacy USB support, for example- don't do it if you still have USB 1.1 devices, which is a possibility with all your external drives).  Both of my computers are ASUS boards with traditional HDDs and boot in around 40 seconds.

[Monoriu]

For my own future reference:

CPU i7-5820k
Motherboard Asus X99-A 8 Ram Slot
Ram DDR4 2400 32G(8Gx4)
Hardrives: 500GB SSD + 128GB SSD + 2TB + WD 6TB Red x2
BD RW
Case Corsair 760T
Powersupply Cooler Master V850
Cooler H100i GTX
Video Card Inno3D GTX970

[Grey Fox]

Turning your computer off will NOT make your power supply last longer.

[Monoriu]

Turning your computer off will NOT make your power supply last longer.

[Monoriu]

ASUS boards can usually have their boot times significantly shortened through a combination of tweaks, but it's not something you want to mess with if you don't know what you're doing (disabling legacy USB support, for example- don't do it if you still have USB 1.1 devices, which is a possibility with all your external drives).  Both of my computers are ASUS boards with traditional HDDs and boot in around 40 seconds.

I have SSD and my boot up time is two minutes

[DontSayBanana]

Turning your computer off will NOT make your power supply last longer.

Technically, it would help with system stability, but with that much RAM, it'd be a couple months of uptime before weird things start happening.

[viper37]

The biggest surprise to me was the liquid cooler.  The shop told me that the cooler had "dried up".  Two thoughts: (a) these things aren't perpetual?!?!?!  Maybe, as my computer is on 6 days a week, 24 hours a day. (b) Maybe they aren't lying to get more business, as my computer had become very noisy in recent months.  So I bought a new liquid cooler.  But the new cooler was too big to fit the original case, so I had to buy a bigger case. 

there is liquid wich you might need to replenish.  I suppose some of it will evaporate over time.  Kinda like a radiator for car, after many years, it is possible the fluid will dry up.

But I really, really don't want to drag the computer there, especially if I can't put it in a suitcase. 

I'm not very knowledgeable in liquid coolers since I never used one, but, I figure there's got to be a way to replenish the liquid coolant after a year.

Oh, and get to the gym if you can't carry a computer case!

One possibility is to pay someone to come to my home to install the components in two years.  There are technicians who are willing to do this for US$30.  Maybe that's a solution. 

In your situation, most likely, yeah.

- I have rebooted the computer a few times but I no longer see Window's ultimatum.  Just can't find it anywhere anymore.  Magically disappeared. 

It might just come back when you least expect it.  Windows 7 is like that.

- at the risk of stating the obvious, the new computer is faster than the old one.  Everything is faster.  But it isn't a quantum leap. 

It shouldn't be, you had a pretty decent system before.

- the lag in playing large video files is still here, but the problem has improved somewhat.  Next time I'm going to get a video card with a lot of memory.

That lag is most likely due to your USB 2.0 external hdds.  Use your internal storage for the files you are most likely to watch in the next year, and shuffle files back&forth between the HDD and Ext. HDD if you run out of space.

- there is still substantial time needed in booting up the computer.  They say x-99 boards are like that

That ain't normal. As DSB said, it's most likely some bios setting, or an out of date bios doing that.
That 30$ you mentionned earlier, it might be worth it.

- I need to turn the computer off more often, so that the cooler and power supply will last longer. 

no, not really.

But I was curious and started searching, so I found this:
No maintenance needed, only requires you to blow compressed air through the rad fins and do the usual cleaning job. Since its a sealed loop, you can't tear it down. The latter would defeat the purpose of it being a sealed all-in-one unit. However, you could remove the cooling plate and change/replace the TIM on the CPU to something like an Arctic Silver 5 , Timtronics or Arctic cooling's MX lineup.

That is for the sealed one.  If it's unsealed, with a reservoir, you need this;
Link: Water cooling cons

- The shop makes certain I am aware that the new motherboard has USB 3.1 slots.  I have never even heard of USB 3.1 devices. 

There aren't that many yet.
And there's only a benefit if you use USB 3.1 devices.  A USB 2.0 drive does not ran faster on a USB 3.1 port.

- The real test will come when I buy Fallout 4.

You will have no problem with that.  Games are designed to be compatible with consoles which are antiquated hardware with a video card half as powerful as you have, 8gb ram and a CPU that's 10% of yours.  You get slightly better graphics on a PC, but most games really don't take advantage of all the horsepower.

[Monoriu]

Computer acting in funny ways.  Most notable problem is that sometimes, all videos stop playing within IE.  When I try to load a video in Youtube, I only get an error sign.  A grey exclamation mark.  When I load the Yahoo homepage, the page loads fine, except the boxes where video advertisements should appear.  Grey exclamation marks.  Closing all IE windows sometimes helps.  Sometimes a reboot is necessary.  Last night IE totally crashed and the computer tried to sort of restore itself to an earlier save. 

I have IE 11 already.

[DontSayBanana]

Computer acting in funny ways.  Most notable problem is that sometimes, all videos stop playing within IE.  When I try to load a video in Youtube, I only get an error sign.  A grey exclamation mark.  When I load the Yahoo homepage, the page loads fine, except the boxes where video advertisements should appear.  Grey exclamation marks.  Closing all IE windows sometimes helps.  Sometimes a reboot is necessary.  Last night IE totally crashed and the computer tried to sort of restore itself to an earlier save. 

I have IE 11 already.

I suspect IE's notoriously bad implementation of current HTML standards (YouTube switched from Flash to a pure HTML5 player fairly recently).  On the other hand, a bizarre interaction I've seen that can cause that: you're not using Avast! antivirus, are you?

[Monoriu]

I suspect IE's notoriously bad implementation of current HTML standards (YouTube switched from Flash to a pure HTML5 player fairly recently).  On the other hand, a bizarre interaction I've seen that can cause that: you're not using Avast! antivirus, are you?

I'm using Mcafee antivirus, I think. 

The problem happens randomly.  Sometimes I can watch Youtube videos for hours, then suddenly it stops working and a reboot is needed.  Found this on the internet and I may play around with the settings tonight.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2532294

Oh and, Microsoft is still the best company in the world 

[DontSayBanana]

Dude, stop using broken crap because Microsoft.  Get a real browser with proper HTML5 support.  Firefox has it, Chrome has it, hell- even Opera has it, if you don't mind waiting until the next century for pages to be fully drawn.

Also, a video about McAfee antivirus, for your viewing pleasure, by none other than John McAfee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgf5PaBzyg

EDIT: just in case you haven't heard of this video, it's NSFW and not totally serious (although the sentiment is spot-on ).

[Monoriu]

Dude, stop using broken crap because Microsoft.  Get a real browser with proper HTML5 support.  Firefox has it, Chrome has it, hell- even Opera has it, if you don't mind waiting until the next century for pages to be fully drawn.

I assume the problem is me, not IE.  I just changed the computer hardware, so chances are, some of the settings are screwed.  I use IE 11 at work and there are no issues.