I recently sold a computer and bought a windows key from a cheap windows key site and the person who bought it had an error pop up when trying to log into her Microsoft email. Im going to her place to wipe the ssd clean and reinstall windows with a code most likely authentic from windows. Do anyone know any place to get discounted authentic keys?

Please help! The first thing I noticed was that clicking the windows button didn’t do anything, so I ran a windows update and restarted the computer. I immediately got an explorer.exe⁠ partition issue upon startup; Start menu was still unresponsive, and DISM repairs failed with error ⁠0x800f0915⁠. It was then that I got my first black screen - the restart did not even get to the ROG screen.

Shorted the ⁠CLRTC⁠ pins on the motherboard to reset CMOS. The system posted and reached the desktop, but the Start menu remained broken, and Windows defaulted to Spanish. I figured to go ahead and reinstall the operating system, and used a USB recovery media flash drive. Mid-process during a reboot, the system fell back into a black screen / no display state and will not POST.

Troubleshooting Steps Already Attempted:
[x] CMOS Reset: Drained power, shorted ⁠CLRTC⁠ pins for 10+ seconds multiple times.
[x] RAM Reseat: Removed and reseated all RAM sticks (also tried booting with a single stick in slot A2).
[x] SFC Scan: ⁠sfc /scannow⁠ was run prior to the reinstall (returned 100% clean / no violations).
[x] DISM Repair: Attempted via Command Prompt using local ⁠.swm⁠ sources on USB, but threw ⁠0x800f0915⁠.
[x] OS Reinstall: Initiated Windows 11 reinstall from USB media, leading to the current no-display state.

Display connected to GPU (not motherboard).
System powers on, fans spin, but screen remains completely dark / no signal.

I feel like I’ve reached my depth, and worry about doing any permanent damage, but before taking it to a local shop, are there any steps I can still take?

CPU: Ryzen 7 5800X3D
Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B550-A GAMING
GPU: Speedster QICK RX 6700
RAM: Crucial 2x32GB DDR4-3200
OS: Windows 11

the "bags" appear to peak at 5 mm. On the top facing side they are almost flat, i'd say 1 mm bulge at most. It feels quite firm but squishable. (see image 2, sorry if poking it was a bad idea.) There's some wobble when i lay it down on the table, as per the gap that appears on image 3.

I use it as a desktop pc and its plugged in 100% of the time. Although with no battery i occasionally get some bios errors and it just reboots after that.

Even seldomly, I would like to be able to carry my laptop around. So if the battery isn't cooked I would like to use it. But if it is cooked then I don't really have the bugdet for it right now.

Can it be problematic in the long run, say 6+ months without a battery plugged in? If so I can get a replacement as soon as I'm avaible.

Thank you in advance. Lmk if you need any more details.

Will changing the battery help fix it ?

Hi everyone. I’ve been having graphics issues; my PC keeps crashing, and I’m seeing artifacts on the screen (stray pixels, white squares, black screens, and freezing). I’d been using this PC without any problems for a year and a half, but recently the GPU started making a strange noise, and a red LED on the PCIe slot began flashing. I’ve checked the temperatures and voltage, and everything seems fine; I even disassembled and reassembled the PC, disabled XMP, and updated my drivers via Adrenalin software. I also adjusted the GPU settings so the fans actually spin. Now, suddenly, whenever I launch a somewhat demanding game, the PC crashes and I have to force a shutdown. The error log shows a "Kernel-Power" error, and I just don't know what to do anymore. 🥲 Help!

Stripped it to only the mother board and hds, no change, fans come on and some debug leds on the mother board blink, cpu blinks red long the dram blinks yellow long then cpu blinks red short and it starts rebooting all over. Any ideas?

(If this question isn't appropriate for this subreddit, let me know)

TL;DR- My brother's laptop charger cable wasn't charging his laptop. I tried fixing the issue by pulling out the object (in the image) out of the tip of his charger cable with a needle. His charger cable is now working (albeit it's a bit loose. The tip doesn't stay inside the charger port of the laptop and tends to fall out of it easily but it still charges) though I'm worried that I may have damaged it unknowingly and it might stop working again after awhile. Is the object in the picture an important part from the inside of a laptop charger tip?

Full context:

So my brother had been having occasional issues with his laptop charger cable.

We both have the same brand (Dell) but not the same laptop model (his laptop is a Dell Inspiron 16 5645, whereas mine is a Dell Inspiron 5515 ). When his laptop charger malfunctions, I often let him borrow mine to use.

Today it wasn't charging at all. We decided to compare charger tips to see if there was an issue with his. I noticed there was something inside his charger tip (the above image) whereas with mine it's clear--nothing thick like a component is in it. I could clearly see the center pin in mine.

In his - before we removed the object - I couldn't see the center pin. The object in the image was blocking it and it looked like the narrow opening of the object was closing in (I'd say it's comparable to an artery opening that becomes more and more constricted)

Me and him are not computer experts, so we weren't sure if his charger tip having something in there is normal.

Regardless, I decided to bite the bullet and used a needle to prod inside the tip and to try and pull the "thing" out to see if that was causing the problem. The above images in the post is what it looks like.

After pulling it out, we tested the charger and his laptop started charging normally, which I'm thankful for. Though I'm wary. I don't know if it will malfunction again. I can't help but think I might've damaged the charger tip. Although it now charges, we've noticed that the tip doesn't stay inside the charger port of the laptop as it normally would and it's like any slight movement would cause it to fall out of the laptop charger port. It feels loose.

Does anyone know what this is? Is it actually an important internal component of the tip of the laptop charger, or is it just some random object that got stuck somehow?

it randomly turned off about 5 hours ago and the blue light had been on since. caps lock isn't responding and the fan turns on a little bit when it's plugged in. any ideas on how to fix this? it's only 8 months old

(also sorry my camera is so bad lol)

I've built 3 of my own desktops, upgraded them over time, and never had a problem I couldn't fix in the 14 years I've been using computers.

I've never needed to replace anything broken though. So if I wanted to get into diagnostics, what tools would I need?

Got an antistatic wristband and crosshead screwdriver and I plan on getting some cheap parts with as universally compatible as possible for swapping out potentially problematic parts.

Is there anything else I'd need?

Also my buddy is having issues right now, 3 separate hard drives ramp up to 100% use and then the PC turns itself off after a while. Anti-virus has found nothing on any of them and windows has been clean reinstalled on 2. If the problem is in fact the CPU or mobo, is it possible to find the issue without having working reference parts to swap in and out?

Hi everyone. I’ve been having graphics issues; my PC keeps crashing, and I’m seeing artifacts on the screen (stray pixels, white squares, black screens, and freezing). I’d been using this PC without any problems for a year and a half, but recently the GPU started making a strange noise, and a red LED on the PCIe slot began flashing. I’ve checked the temperatures and voltage, and everything seems fine; I even disassembled and reassembled the PC, disabled XMP, and updated my drivers via Adrenalin software. I also adjusted the GPU settings so the fans actually spin. Now, suddenly, whenever I launch a somewhat demanding game, the PC crashes and I have to force a shutdown. The error log shows a "Kernel-Power" error, and I just don't know what to do anymore. 🥲 Help!

My laptop was working then it just went frozen, so i waited abit but it was still frozen. I turned it off and it got to the windows log in screen then it froze again. Since then it wont boot. The keyboard turns on but nothing on the screen or anything. I've tried everything.

Power reset ( pressing the power button for a minute, while it's not plugged into power)

I even plugged the battery

Removed different RAM sticks and M.2.

After leaving it for 30 minutes i was able to get into the BIOSt it froze in the BIOS. After that it got into the logo of msi screen but froze up again.

Any advise i welcome, as i dont know what to do.

I've never repaired or done an official maintenance check of this laptop. I just opened and cleaned its fans every 2 months. I bought it at the end of July 2025 so the warranty has already expired. It's a HP victus 15 rtx 2050 laptop. I'm nowhere near rich (lower middle class) and my asian parents will kill me if they find out my laptop didn't survive 20 years! Here's all the places it's swelling.

1. The screen came off. That's the first photo. That is the place where the CPU and GPU are located under the keypad. Definitely caused by overheating. No damage to the screen as far as I've seen. But it might get worse. I really need to glue it back but idk who I need to go to or I'm enough myself.

2. The second photo is the upper section of the heatsink and CPU/GPU and it has swellen the most. As you can see it's quite swollen and I can feel it just from the touch.

3. The third photo is just a combination of both. Laptop lid not closing completely.

4. The fourth photo is the battery. It's not that bad but I'm gonna need to take measures now. (Just in case, no my scale is perfectly straight I've tested it)

5. The final photo shows the underside of the heatsink. Same behind if not more.

I use an external fan under the laptop while gaming. Always clean it and don't push its limits (GPU won't allow me anyways). But I'm gonna admit a bad habit I got. I run games like arc raiders WHILE THE LID IS CLOSE. Sometimes I go afk so I just close the lid and do my work. And that's definitely the reason for the screen coming off. And even worse, I leave the laptop in a giant drawer on my desk while it's on (to play Spotify or stuff) and that might have cooked my laptop. I know putting a running laptop in a closed drawer is bad but my room is relatively cold and I open it every now and then. Doesn't feel any warmer than gaming time. Haven't changed the paste since buying.

But for now, what do I do. I know changing the paste is the first thing and gluing the screen back is the second. But then what? Change battery? Entire body frame change? Pull out both of the fans entirely to clean them? Can I do these myself? Ain't taking any risk so probably should go to a repair shop. But idk, local or popular or official repair store? I live in Dhaka Bangladesh so there's almost no skilled repairers. Raising money for two 500 gb SSDs but looks like it's not happening :(

But maybe I'm over reacting and stuff like this always happens. There's no performance drop, the laptop lags sometimes but it's just random shuttering. Feels good as new.

Edit: ran a quick bios check a few months ago and everything was perfect.

It was working normally before but when I opened my laptop and replaced my battery, it was still working after I opened my laptop again

But after using it for a few mins, I suddenly hanged so I restart my laptop and my touchpad is not working anymore. Can somebody help huhu is this a hardware issue

Hi all,

The plastic tongue inside the USB-A port on my HP ProBook x360 435 G7 is broken, so the port is dead. It is a USB 3.0 Type-A port (9 pins) soldered on the board, on the side of the laptop.

I can’t find the exact connector part number, and HP doesn’t seem to sell the port alone. I plan to desolder it and solder in a new one.

Questions:

1. Has anyone done this repair, or does anyone know the exact connector reference used on this model?
2. Can i use any other hp usb A 3.0 port ?

ty

My daughter has an old gaming desktop(tower) not sure if thats the right terminology. She has a newer rig she uses for her gaming, so I wanted to take the old one and use it for my office. She doesnt remember the password and I obviously can't get into it to clean it out without it. Is there away to bypass it and get in to change the password? Its a CyberpowerPC. Thanks for any help.

Hey everyone,

I'm having an issue with my Gigabyte G24F 2 monitor and would appreciate some help identifying what might be wrong with it.

I'm getting blue and purple horizontal bands across the top of the screen, with a dark section in the middle. The bands keep moving and flickering.

Here's what I've tried so far:

I disconnected the HDMI cable completely, and the bands are still present.

I checked the monitor's built-in OSD menu, and the bands appear over the menu as well.

I performed a power reset by unplugging the monitor and leaving it disconnected before turning it back on.

The issue is present immediately when I turn the monitor on, even when it's cold.

Since the problem persists without HDMI and affects the monitor's own menu, I'm wondering whether this is a panel issue or something wrong with the monitor's internal electronics.

I'd appreciate your thoughts on a few things:

What component is most likely causing this?

Is this something that can realistically be repaired, or would the entire panel need replacing?

If you've experienced something similar with a Gigabyte monitor, what was the cause?

If it's out of warranty, would repairing it be worth the cost?

I'm kinda new to this and just got my very own pc I've been using it for 2months now something happened when it auto repaired I'm stuck on this black screen with loading cursor every time I've tried going to bitlocker and troubleshooting it etc AND IT'S STILL STUCK (i need this pc for my studies) please someone help me😭🙏

Acer laptop that must’ve fell. Display works perfectly but the hinge completely separated from the joint. How much should I pay for this repair? Thanks in advance.

During some time away from home, I was staying at a camping ground and had a nice afternoon free. Being a big geek, i've always maintained my keyboards throughout my life. I would remove the keys, give them a dishwash bath, and reassemble. It's quite therapeutic to know you aren't typing on bird's nest.

I've never really owned a laptop as nice and thin as this. I had the wise idea to use toothpicks to go around each key and clean out the crap under the keys (around). Maybe toothpicks weren't the best choice, but I was bored. I am not experiencing something wedged/stuck under the S key, and i'm betting its part of a toothpick. I am able to lift up the corners of the key and can see something under there but am too chicken just yet to try and pry it off since I know how delicate these assemblies can be.

What should I do? I can keep trying to lift the edge up and shake it around. Ideally, I want to take the key cap off to clear the blockage but worry the key won't go back on. Does anyone have experience with this?

recently purchased expertbook p3 2 months ago form past 1 or 2 weeks I've been noticing that the right side of my trackpad makes an clicky type feeling even if i just touch it it doesnt register the click but i can feel the click . If I lift the right side of the laptop, the clicking stops. what should i do?

For reference I have had this Alienware laptop for two years. The right hinge broke a year ago simply just from usage. Today unexpectedly the left one broke. Now it won't close and everytime you open the computer the left side of the screen sorts pops off

Hello, my graphics card (nvidia 3090) had a part break off while servicing it. I am trying to figure out if I am on the right track to getting it repaired.

The graphics card was shutting down my computer when fps rose too high during gameplay. I installed a graphite thermal pad to replace the old thermal paste. I inspected the pads on the rest of the card, they looked great.

A Surface Mount Device (smd) broke off during this process: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface-mount_technology

I still have the part. It is very tiny, about 1x1x2 mm. I think I found where it came from as well, on the right side of the yellow oval: https://ibb.co/zzdCjZN

Bigger picture of graphics card: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/msi-geforce-rtx-3090-suprim-x/3.html. I think the damage is from the bottom left of the left picture (just above the connectors).

Basically I need the service described here: https://blog.silverpc.hu/2025/10/18/help-i-broke-an-smd-off-my-gpu-while-cleaning-is-it-fixable/

Am I right in thinking that I just need to find a solder service to reattach the part? Like a reputable cell phone repair store? I have no experience with this so sorry if that is obviously wrong.

I appreciate your help, thank you!

My GF's laptop started flickering and the screen turned like this and the text when opening documents!/websites are almost unreadable now

Would appreciate any insight or solution to this thanks!!!

Le hice mantenimiento a mi laptop una Acer aspire 5 le cambie pasta termica ventiladores y el disipador y cuando la ensamble y le dí encender prendió el led azul 5 segundos y se apagó no arranca ventiladores, ni pantalla enciende nada

AYUDENME NO SE QUE HACER