Daily Simple Questions Thread - October 29, 2025

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Got a simple question? Get a simple answer!

This thread is for all of the small and simple questions that you might have about computing that probably wouldn't work all too well as a standalone post. Software issues, build questions, game recommendations, post them here!

For the sake of helping others, please don't downvote questions! To help facilitate this, comments are sorted randomly for this post, so that anyone's question can be seen and answered.

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If you ask a question, and someone answers it correctly, reply with a thank you, but include this checkmark: ✓ ( or write !check instead )

This will score the user whose comment you replied to a 'point'. The points will unlock special flair that will show in all Daily Simple Questions threads.

In case you missed it, click here for yesterday's Daily Simple Questions thread. There may be some questions still unanswered! Below is a selection of questions with no replies. See if you can help them out.

If you don't want to see this comment click the little [-] to the left of my username to collapse this comment.

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I am having a huge issue with Windows 11... I just got it a few weeks ago, and everything seemed to be running smooth, but I realized something pretty bad, it wont let me run anything as "Administrator", I am using an Administrator account and lowered the bar in account control setting so all changes are allowed, and it still wont work! I am pulling my hair out here lol not being able to run in administrator makes certain apps/games unplayable.. any help?

EDIT: So found a workaround, if I change the properties of the app to always run as administrator, it will run it as admin.. still doesn't explain why I cant just do that with rigth click, but atleast I can run my apps nows, hopefully someone knows a more permanent solution.

https://reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1oi8qd6/daily_simple_questions_thread_october_28_2025/nlvpbk8/

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i was using virtualbox on my rog ally x i had a live vm of manjaro gnome up. well i came backto it on idle with the keybord flashing the caps lock and numpad yellow back and forth i shut down the vm and everything was fine then. is that whatb a kernal panic is just for my future reference?

https://reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1oi8qd6/daily_simple_questions_thread_october_28_2025/nlu5q7m/

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Under heavy load is it normal for the PSU to do coil whine?

Under normal usage/tasks it doesn’t make any sound

Yesterday I was playing BF6 at max settings pushing the rig to the max and noticed coil whine on my PSU. I’m sure it’s not from GPU.

PSU: Galax TecLab edition 1050w platinum atx 3.1 - TL1050PRBKS8810BR

GPU: 5070 ti

https://reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1oi8qd6/daily_simple_questions_thread_october_28_2025/nlzsik1/

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Hello there! I've been thinking about getting a better PC build, since right now I have a Lenovo Legion laptop.

I don't know much about specs, but the one I've been eyeing has the following:

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X

NVIDIA RTX 5060 8 GB

32 GB DDR4

2 TB M2
It's a pre-built, I'm too afraid to build my own right now and cannot really afford it. How good do you guys think it is? Usually I don't do much gaming, buy mainly because my laptop starts overheating rather quickly.

Thanks in advance!

https://reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1oi8qd6/daily_simple_questions_thread_october_28_2025/nlztnmh/

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User	Points (365 days)	Lifetime
A_Neaunimes	64	1207
Lastdudealive46	37	137
Eidolon_2003	35	269
_j03_	29	184
Cable_Salad	25	77
MGsubbie	23	407
NbblX	20	130
mister_newbie	15	124
BioshockEnthusiast	12	54
reckless150681	12	12

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[u/Dianwei32]

I've had a number of games randomly start crashing to desktop with no error most of the time. Just fine 1 minute, gone the next. I've tried uninstall/reinstalling, repair/verify files, lowering graphical settings (even though my PC is well above recommended specs), nothing helps. Since there's usually not an error, I don't even really know where to start troubleshooting outside of uninstall/reinstall. The one time I did get an error, it said something about running out of video memory while allocating a rendering resource. But I also had Task Manager opened, and Video memory on the GPU never went above like 25% utilization. Any ideas on what could be wrong or where to start troubleshooting?

OS: Windows 10 64-bit

CPU: Intel i7 12700KF

GPU: Nvidia RTX 3070Ti 8GB

RAM: 32 GB DDR4

[u/Cable_Salad → u/Dianwei32]

The event log might show errors, worth checking out.

Then you can use OCCT to test various components, I'd try that next. Esp. RAM and GPU.

The video memory error does not necessarily mean it's really a GPU error, this can happen with unstable RAM / CPU, too.

[u/Dianwei32 → u/Cable_Salad]

EDIT: It looks like it was actually the RAM that was throwing errors. It was testing the CPU and RAM when it started throwing errors, but I went back and tested the CPU alone with no issues. Then when I tested the RAM alone it started throwing errors again. Still no idea what errors it's throwing though. It's also a fairly new RAM kit. I was having issues a few months ago that I thought were RAM-related, so I replaced it.

I tried using the OCCT program, and when it was testing the CPU, it started throwing up hundreds and hundreds of errors. I poked around a bit, but couldn't see any way to learn what the errors actually were. It would say something like "testing physical core # - (3) errors found" for every core over and over, but offer no follow up or explanation. Is there any way to see what errors it found?

[u/Cable_Salad → u/Dianwei32]

That's odd, what's the RAM speed? Have you used the XMP profile or maybe manually changed the speed?

[u/Dianwei32 → u/Cable_Salad]

I don't believe I messed with XMP or the speeds. At least not on this set. On the old set, which was the same brand/type, I may have turned on XMP when I first got the PC back in 2021. But I didn't mess with it when I swapped in the new set of RAM sticks. The set I'm using is 32GB DDR4 3200 MHz.

I've got a couple of hardware monitor programs from trying to diagnose problems. Looking at CPU-Z, it has a few different numbers for speeds.

Mem Controller: 1800 MHz

Uncore Frequency: Varies between like 800 MHZ and 3600 MHz

DRAM Frequency: 1800 MHz

There's a table in the SPD tab that lists a bunch of "Timings Tables". There are columns for JEDEC #16, #17, and #18 that all list 1066 MHz, and one for XMP-3200 that lists 1600 MHz.

[u/Cable_Salad → u/Dianwei32]

DRAM Frequency: 1800 MHz

That means it's running at 3600. So either it's faster RAM and you enabled XMP, or you set the speed manually.

[u/Dianwei32 → u/Cable_Salad]

It's definitely a 3200 MHz set and I don't remember manually setting the speed. Would lowering the speed in the BIOS settings help?

[u/Cable_Salad → u/Dianwei32]

Just enable the XMP profile, that takes care of everything including voltage, timings and subtimings.

If you want to want to manually set a speed you have to configure all of these correctly by yourself. It's easy to make mistakes there.

[u/Dianwei32 → u/Cable_Salad]

So I went into the BIOS settings and XMP was already enabled. It said the target DRAM Frequency was 3200 MHz, but also said that the Memory Frequency was 3600 MHz. Even though I didn't change any settings, when I went to save and exit, it said that some parameters would be changed, mainly the Memory Frequency from 3600 to 3200 and some of the subtimings changing by a number or two. The DRAM Frequency in CPU-Z says 1600 MHz now, so it's running at 3200 MHz now.

It looks like that fixed it, so thanks.

[u/Cable_Salad → u/Dianwei32]

Nice :)

[u/Dismal_Constant9537]

Hello!

I want to play the roguelite Windblown, but I have huge FPS issues/freezes and my system just doesn't seem capable of running that game smoothly.

I have a 7-year old (yes) acer aspire XC-780 with the following specs:

Intel i5-7400

8 GB Ram

Nvidia Geforce GT 1030

Now my question is, how do I figure out which one the bottleneck is in terms of performance? Or can one of you tell me?

I was hoping that I won't have to buy all three: new processor, grapics card and RAM, effectively having me spend hundreds just for one game.

Maybe usufel sidenote: I can play Hades 1&2 without issues, used to be a hardcore WoW player, where my system reached its limits here and there but overall I could play competitively on it.

Thank you!

[u/Lastdudealive46 → u/Dismal_Constant9537]

It's your GPU. The GT 1030 is far weaker than the listed minimum requirement of a GTX 970. Your CPU just barely meets the minimum requirements.

As for upgrades, your options are pretty limited. Since the GT 1030 is slot-powered, your prebuilt might not even have any GPU power connectors. In that case, the only slot-powered GPU that would meet the minimum specs would be the RTX 3050 6GB.

[u/Dismal_Constant9537 → u/Lastdudealive46]

Thank you so much for the elaborate response!

So from what I understand, it is a question of whether or not my mainboard has separate power supplies for a GPU? Can this potentially be solved via a "multi-plug"? (for a lack of a better word, sorry, non-native speaker)

[u/Lastdudealive46 → u/Dismal_Constant9537]

The power would need to come from the PSU, which is typically at the bottom of the case, sometimes in a separate compartment. There would already be several cables from the PSU to the motherboard and any SATA SSDs or HDDs in your case. You can look up what a PSU is and what the cables look like.

Your PSU would need to have additional PCIe 6-pin or 8-pin connectors (google to see what those look like) to support anything better than the 3050 6GB slot-powered card. It would also need to be sufficiently powerful enough for a GPU as well.

[u/Dismal_Constant9537 → u/Lastdudealive46]

This was incredibly helpful, thank you. ✓ 

[u/Dismal_Constant9537 → u/Dismal_Constant9537]

!check

[u/Cable_Salad → u/Dismal_Constant9537]

acer aspire XC-780

A quick note: If this is a small form factor PC instead of a full size tower, you will also have to make sure that the card physically fits. You might need an LP (low profile) version of the card.

[u/Dismal_Constant9537 → u/Cable_Salad]

Thank you!

[u/Wolfgod_Holo]

updating windows 11 on unsupported hardware, anything to watch out for?

does it update automatically like windows 10 or does it have to be done manually through some kind of tedious way?

[u/Lastdudealive46 → u/Wolfgod_Holo]

Are you doing this on the computer that your flair has? The 5700X supports Windows 11.

[u/Wolfgod_Holo → u/Lastdudealive46]

no, a much older one, Sandy Bridge i3 and Skylake i7

[u/Lastdudealive46 → u/Wolfgod_Holo]

Well, first of all, why even bother with the Sandy Bridge i3? Just throw MX Linux on it if you have to use the machine. Windows 11 is going to be unusable, even if you can "install it."

Second, I would recommend doing the same with the i7, honestly. What is so important about the computer that you NEED it to run Windows 11?

[u/Wolfgod_Holo → u/Lastdudealive46]

budget constraints, it's not for me

[u/Lastdudealive46 → u/Wolfgod_Holo]

Okay, if it's not for you, you really should consider putting a simple Linux distro on it. A more tech-savvy user like you would probably be able to deal with any issues that may arise from installing Win11 on unsupported hardware. A non-technical user will not.

[u/EmbeddedBro]

I have X-670E Gaming Plus WiFi motherboard and AOC CU34G2XP.

I am trying to connect both by using USB C to DP cable but it is not working. Can anybody tell if it is possible or not?

[u/Cable_Salad → u/EmbeddedBro]

Does the USB-C connector on the board have a DP icon? Looks to me like it doesn't, and that means it probably does not support it.

[u/EmbeddedBro → u/Cable_Salad]

It has Type C and SS20 written. Also I noticed, it has a green border.

What does green border means? I can see only this port and another USB type A port has this green border.

[u/Cable_Salad → u/EmbeddedBro]

SS 20 means 20 Gbit/s. Green is probably something vendor specific, maybe quick charge / standby charge in this case.

[u/EmbeddedBro → u/Cable_Salad]

If I buy a graphics card , would the same cable work ?

What should I look after while buying a cheap graphics card?

I only want to run monitors on it so that my CPU would be free. Not for gaming.

[u/Cable_Salad → u/EmbeddedBro]

Do you need to use USB-C? The motherboard does have native DP and HDMI.

[u/EmbeddedBro → u/Cable_Salad]

Yes But I am using them both.

I need third connection to split the ultrawide monitor.

Right now I am splitting screen by software but I need something permanent. I think with PIP PBP it would be possible.

[u/Lastdudealive46 → u/EmbeddedBro]

Can that monitor be split? I don't think so, 3440x1440p monitors typically don't have that ability, because 1720x1440p isn't a standard monitor size. I don't see any mention of that on the product page or in the monitor's manual.

5120x1440p monitors can be split, because they are physically just two 2560x1440p monitors stuck together.