# old pc,  W10 help



## hoshin1600

i know we have some knowledgeable people here on computers.  i am not a tech person. back in the 90's i did some frankenstein work on some computers changing sound cards, video cards and Ram stuff like that but since then ,i havnt done anything so ive been pretty much left behind the technology curve.

problem is......
 i was recently given a Dell Optiplex 3010.  it had a bootleg version of windows 7 on it.   
stats;
Intel core i5-3450 
3.10 GHZ
RAM 4. GB
64 bit

i tried to download windows 10 on it.  at first the display screen had a large black stripe down the middle of the monitor with half the screen was on the right and half on the left.  tired to adjust the monitor and resolution and that didnt work.  then the screen went black.  the monitor works fine and the windows icon shows fine at start up but then goes black.
i am thinking its the video/ graphics card.

i wanted this computer so that i could begin making and posting martial arts related YouTube videos.  but im already into it $50 for a Wifi adaptor and $150 for the W10 download. now it looks like another $100 for a video card which may or may not be the problem (or the only problem)  is this PC worth my trouble or should i cut my losses?   any help would be appreciated but keep in mind im not a computer geek so laymans terms would be great.


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## now disabled

hoshin1600 said:


> i know we have some knowledgeable people here on computers.  i am not a tech person. back in the 90's i did some frankenstein work on some computers changing sound cards, video cards and Ram stuff like that but since then ,i havnt done anything so ive been pretty much left behind the technology curve.
> 
> problem is......
> i was recently given a Dell Optiplex 3010.  it had a bootleg version of windows 7 on it.
> stats;
> Intel core i5-3450
> 3.10 GHZ
> RAM 4. GB
> 64 bit
> 
> i tried to download windows 10 on it.  at first the display screen had a large black stripe down the middle of the monitor with half the screen was on the right and half on the left.  tired to adjust the monitor and resolution and that didnt work.  then the screen went black.  the monitor works fine and the windows icon shows fine at start up but then goes black.
> i am thinking its the video/ graphics card.
> 
> i wanted this computer so that i could begin making and posting martial arts related YouTube videos.  but im already into it $50 for a Wifi adaptor and $150 for the W10 download. now it looks like another $100 for a video card which may or may not be the problem (or the only problem)  is this PC worth my trouble or should i cut my losses?   any help would be appreciated but keep in mind im not a computer geek so laymans terms would be great.




Is the hd ok they were known for that failing and yup it might be the graphics card ...not being funny but the graphics card does have the right driver for W10 .... 

I assume before you installed windows 10 you ran the tool to see if it was compatible first? ...It should be on the specs you gave if all is working properly try poss maybe a reinstall of 7 and if that works then I'd say it is the graphics card either not working or needs upgrade or driver


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## MetalBoar

I'd start by following either #6 or #7 in this article: 7 ways to boot into Safe Mode in Windows 10 | Digital Citizen

Safe mode loads windows in as minimal a configuration as it can. If you can get into Windows in safe mode it can give you some idea whether it's a software or hardware problem and let you do more troubleshooting. If you let me know what happens after a safe mode boot I'm happy to help figure out the next step.


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## jobo

hoshin1600 said:


> i know we have some knowledgeable people here on computers.  i am not a tech person. back in the 90's i did some frankenstein work on some computers changing sound cards, video cards and Ram stuff like that but since then ,i havnt done anything so ive been pretty much left behind the technology curve.
> 
> problem is......
> i was recently given a Dell Optiplex 3010.  it had a bootleg version of windows 7 on it.
> stats;
> Intel core i5-3450
> 3.10 GHZ
> RAM 4. GB
> 64 bit
> 
> i tried to download windows 10 on it.  at first the display screen had a large black stripe down the middle of the monitor with half the screen was on the right and half on the left.  tired to adjust the monitor and resolution and that didnt work.  then the screen went black.  the monitor works fine and the windows icon shows fine at start up but then goes black.
> i am thinking its the video/ graphics card.
> 
> i wanted this computer so that i could begin making and posting martial arts related YouTube videos.  but im already into it $50 for a Wifi adaptor and $150 for the W10 download. now it looks like another $100 for a video card which may or may not be the problem (or the only problem)  is this PC worth my trouble or should i cut my losses?   any help would be appreciated but keep in mind im not a computer geek so laymans terms would be great.


Not all computers, will run Windows 10, it must be at least 5 years old, out Windows 7 back on, if it works leave it alone,

Nb, you have downloaded a 64 bit version of Windows 10 ???


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## pdg

Firstly, there's no point running the compatibility checker - I can tell you right now it'll run it fine (as long as your HDD is at least 40GB...)

Does the monitor work on another computer?

This really doesn't sound like a software issue at all to me - and I'd put money against it being a failing HDD too...

Oh, just to make it look like I might know what I'm talking about - here's my dining table right now:




 

Building an old/new pc, haven't got the right psu, guess I'll mod one...


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## pdg

jobo said:


> Not all computers, will run Windows 10, it must be at least 5 years old, out Windows 7 back on, if it works leave it alone,
> 
> Nb, you have downloaded a 64 bit version of Windows 10 ???



A core i5 3450 will walk 10.


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## jobo

pdg said:


> A core i5 3450 will walk 10.


But yet it ( presumably) worked with Windows 7 but not with Windows 10,  so either it won't run w10, or he hasn't down loaded a 64bit version, or he is wrong about it being a 64bit machine or he has done something wrong some where, I wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion it's hard ware, till those had been explored and eliminated,

And cheesiest way to eliminate most of them is stick w7 back on and see if that works,

nb,any one can take them apart,


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## pdg

jobo said:


> But yet it ( presumably) worked with Windows 7 but not with Windows 10,  so either it won't run w10, or he hasn't down loaded a 64bit version, or he is wrong about it being a 64bit machine or he has done something wrong some where, I wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion it's hard ware, till those had been explored and eliminated,



Read the progression of symptoms - if something won't run 10 it won't run it. 

What it also won't do is run 2/3 of it for a bit and then stop running it altogether.


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## pdg

Oh, and if the optiplex 3010 couldn't cope with win10 it's hugely unlikely that Dell would publish a 10 driver pack for that machine.


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## jobo

pdg said:


> Oh, and if the optiplex 3010 couldn't cope with win10 it's hugely unlikely that Dell would publish a 10 driver pack for that machine.


But it worked with Windows 7,,, see above


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## jobo

pdg said:


> Read the progression of symptoms - if something won't run 10 it won't run it.
> 
> What it also won't do is run 2/3 of it for a bit and then stop running it altogether.


I've read the symtoms, it used to work,he changed something, now it doesnt, diagnosis, he has cocked something up some where


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## jobo

No wonder you have a number of computers in bits, if you go for the most complex solution first,


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## pdg

jobo said:


> No wonder you have a number of computers in bits, if you go for the most complex solution first,



Yeah, because obviously the best way to get a 6 pin pci-e supply from a psu that doesn't have one is to not take it apart and download one instead...

Twat.


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## MetalBoar

The Optiplex 3010 will run Windows 10 with no problem as long as it's doesn't have a much smaller than original hard drive. I've got a machine at home with exactly the same processor and a video card from the same family but a little higher end. It runs W10 just fine and the minimum requirements for W10 are MUCH lower. It's a 64bit proc which will happily run either 32 or 64 bit OS's. If he installed a 32 bit version of Windows (which I don't think the installer will even do on 64 bit systems now without a lot of work) the only problem that should create is to reduce the amount of RAM the system could take advantage of and restrict him to 32 bit applications.

Unless I'm misunderstanding this part:



hoshin1600 said:


> the monitor works fine and *the windows icon shows fine at start up but then goes black.*



We know the monitor at least sort of works because he gets to the windows splash screen before it chokes. We know the video card at least sort of works because he gets the windows splash screen before it chokes. Plus I assume from the limited info we have that both were working in Windows 7. As long as he hasn't dropped the machine or poked around inside the case I think there's a good chance that they at least mostly work.

The Windows 10 install may have selected the wrong video drivers - the transition from splash screen to login screen is when Windows is loading all of the specific drivers for your system, before that it's running on generic drivers so sometimes it'll get that far and then choke just like this. It's also possible that something went wrong during the install and some critical system file was corrupted or didn't install properly. It's also possible that as an older machine something just crapped out with the extra load that an install creates but I wouldn't jump on that yet. Another (unlikely) possibility is over heating of the video card or some other component. It's summer time and this is an old computer. If a fan died or a fan/heat sink is clogged with dust and the computer is in a hot room it might get part way through loading and then choke like this.

Trying to boot in to Safe Mode (as I described above) is the simplest first step to troubleshooting this problem. It will load on the generic set of drivers that should work with most every computer. It won't load much of anything beyond the basics to get the desk top up and running. If you can boot in to safe mode then you can be pretty sure that your hardware is mostly working and you have a lot more tools to troubleshoot with. If you can't boot in to Safe Mode then your only (free) option if you don't have spare parts and or another computer around is to either try re-installing Windows 10, try re-install Windows 7 or try installing something completely different like Linux and see if things work there. There are pro's and con's to any of those 3 choices and since he said it was bootlegged Win 7 then he may not have install media for that which eliminates one of those choices.

If you do go the re-install route and assuming that you don't have any files on the computer that you care about, you should do a clean install that completely formats the hard drive and not do some sort of repair or upgrade. It will reduce the number of things that can go wrong and generally creates a cleaner install than the other way. I do want to re-iterate that you only want to do this if there isn't anything on the machine you want to keep because all data will be lost.

And a link to the technical manual in case it's useful:
https://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/optiplex_3010_technical_guidebook.pdf

One more thing; It's a downloaded copy of Win10 - things this big don't always download cleanly. If you didn't verify the checksum (most people don't) after the download you might not have gotten a clean copy. If you do reinstall I'd verify that you have a clean download before trying again.


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## Martial D

hoshin1600 said:


> i know we have some knowledgeable people here on computers.  i am not a tech person. back in the 90's i did some frankenstein work on some computers changing sound cards, video cards and Ram stuff like that but since then ,i havnt done anything so ive been pretty much left behind the technology curve.
> 
> problem is......
> i was recently given a Dell Optiplex 3010.  it had a bootleg version of windows 7 on it.
> stats;
> Intel core i5-3450
> 3.10 GHZ
> RAM 4. GB
> 64 bit
> 
> i tried to download windows 10 on it.  at first the display screen had a large black stripe down the middle of the monitor with half the screen was on the right and half on the left.  tired to adjust the monitor and resolution and that didnt work.  then the screen went black.  the monitor works fine and the windows icon shows fine at start up but then goes black.
> i am thinking its the video/ graphics card.
> 
> i wanted this computer so that i could begin making and posting martial arts related YouTube videos.  but im already into it $50 for a Wifi adaptor and $150 for the W10 download. now it looks like another $100 for a video card which may or may not be the problem (or the only problem)  is this PC worth my trouble or should i cut my losses?   any help would be appreciated but keep in mind im not a computer geek so laymans terms would be great.



Is the monitor an Acer by any chance?

Also, hat video card do you have installed. Is it a card you can remove or is it the onboard one?


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## Martial D

hoshin1600 said:


> i wanted this computer so that i could begin making and posting martial arts related YouTube videos.



In the mean time, what sort of smartphone do you have? Honestly most of them have better cameras than laptops do these days anyway.


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## jobo

pdg said:


> Yeah, because obviously the best way to get a 6 pin pci-e supply from a psu that doesn't have one is to not take it apart and download one instead...
> 
> Twat.


If the computer doesn't have one, it doesn't need one ??? And anyway you don't have to take EVERYTHING to bits, that's just passing time on a wet sunday,


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## jobo

pdg said:


> Oh, and if the optiplex 3010 couldn't cope with win10 it's hugely unlikely that Dell would publish a 10 driver pack for that machine.


Wouldn't that nugget of information suggest you should ask him if he has installed the Windows 10 driver pack?


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## MetalBoar

jobo said:


> Wouldn't that nugget of information suggest you should ask him if he has installed the Windows 10 driver pack?


Unfortunately, there's no easy way for him to install the driver pack until he can get in to the desktop. I think there is a very good chance that installing the driver pack will fix the problem, but he can't do it with the machine in this state.


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## pdg

jobo said:


> If the computer doesn't have one, it doesn't need one ??? And anyway you don't have to take EVERYTHING to bits, that's just passing time on a wet sunday,



Well, that speaks volumes as to your level of comprehension.

I put a graphics card in which needs a supplementary supply, which the PSU doesn't have.

Ergo, it now needs one, but doesn't have one.

Not everyone treats a computer like a kitchen appliance.


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## pdg

Martial D said:


> In the mean time, what sort of smartphone do you have? Honestly most of them have better cameras than laptops do these days anyway.



The computer isn't a laptop, it's a desktop so has no camera built in.

Editing video on a phone is an exercise in frustration.

Even if I shot a video with my phone, I'd export it to a real computer for editing.


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## pdg

MetalBoar said:


> Unfortunately, there's no easy way for him to install the driver pack until he can get in to the desktop. I think there is a very good chance that installing the driver pack will fix the problem, but he can't do it with the machine in this state.



I pretty much assumed he'd have installed the drivers as part of stage one of OS install.

I'm probably wrong about that in hindsight...


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## hoshin1600

update:

here is some more details 
its a dell monitor model # 2001FP  if that means anything to anyone.

so i hooked up the monitor to my lap top that has Vista on it.  the screen is not split in half like the PC but the resolution is not great.  the monitor works fine for 2 to 5 seconds then goes black.  if you power down the monitor then back up you get a few seconds of display before it goes black.  if i unplug the monitor from the laptop and/ or the PC you get this screen saver icon that moves around.





this seems to work fine. it doesnt go black.   at one point of powering up and down and pressing buttons at random   i got a small pop up window saying something about power saver mode.  so i am now wondering if the monitor itself is going to a black screen saver type mode after a few seconds.  within those few precious seconds i was able to access the monitor adjustment screen and press the return to factory settings button but it didnt change anything.
so it seems there are two issues going on at the moment one is the black screen of the monitor and the second is the Windows 10 creating a spit screen image.  if i can get another monitor i will try hooking it up to the PC and see what happens.


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## MetalBoar

hoshin1600 said:


> update:
> 
> here is some more details
> its a dell monitor model # 2001FP  if that means anything to anyone.
> 
> so i hooked up the monitor to my lap top that has Vista on it.  the screen is not split in half like the PC but the resolution is not great.  the monitor works fine for 2 to 5 seconds then goes black.  if you power down the monitor then back up you get a few seconds of display before it goes black.  if i unplug the monitor from the laptop and/ or the PC you get this screen saver icon that moves around.
> View attachment 21733
> 
> this seems to work fine. it doesnt go black.   at one point of powering up and down and pressing buttons at random   i got a small pop up window saying something about power saver mode.  so i am now wondering if the monitor itself is going to a black screen saver type mode after a few seconds.  within those few precious seconds i was able to access the monitor adjustment screen and press the return to factory settings button but it didnt change anything.
> so it seems there are two issues going on at the moment one is the black screen of the monitor and the second is the Windows 10 creating a spit screen image.  if i can get another monitor i will try hooking it up to the PC and see what happens.


Yep, sounds like the monitor has problems. It is interesting that it lasted long enough to get through an install and then died, but that does sound like the symptoms of a bad monitor and heat can easily kill and LCD monitor so maybe not super surprising. Unless you like to solder and are a handy electronics bench tech it's probably toast. There are worse things to have go out, but obviously you can't do much without one.


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## jobo

pdg said:


> Well, that speaks volumes as to your level of comprehension.
> 
> I put a graphics card in which needs a supplementary supply, which the PSU doesn't have.
> 
> Ergo, it now needs one, but doesn't have one.
> 
> Not everyone treats a computer like a kitchen appliance.


Well you should have fitted the correct card or even better just left it alone


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## jobo

hoshin1600 said:


> update:
> 
> here is some more details
> its a dell monitor model # 2001FP  if that means anything to anyone.
> 
> so i hooked up the monitor to my lap top that has Vista on it.  the screen is not split in half like the PC but the resolution is not great.  the monitor works fine for 2 to 5 seconds then goes black.  if you power down the monitor then back up you get a few seconds of display before it goes black.  if i unplug the monitor from the laptop and/ or the PC you get this screen saver icon that moves around.
> View attachment 21733
> 
> this seems to work fine. it doesnt go black.   at one point of powering up and down and pressing buttons at random   i got a small pop up window saying something about power saver mode.  so i am now wondering if the monitor itself is going to a black screen saver type mode after a few seconds.  within those few precious seconds i was able to access the monitor adjustment screen and press the return to factory settings button but it didnt change anything.
> so it seems there are two issues going on at the moment one is the black screen of the monitor and the second is the Windows 10 creating a spit screen image.  if i can get another monitor i will try hooking it up to the PC and see what happens.


Plug it into your telly ?


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## hoshin1600

MetalBoar said:


> Yep, sounds like the monitor has problems. It is interesting that it lasted long enough to get through an install and then died, but that does sound like the symptoms of a bad monitor and heat can easily kill and LCD monitor so maybe not super surprising. Unless you like to solder and are a handy electronics bench tech it's probably toast. There are worse things to have go out, but obviously you can't do much without one.


What makes you think the monitor is bad?  When nothing is plugged in the test screen screen saver that I posted doesn’t cause the black screen and the initial dell logo at power up also works fine.


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## MetalBoar

Normally, when a monitor shuts off after just a couple of seconds it means that its gone bad, especially if it does the same thing on 2 different computers and you were able to do a factory reset.

I missed the part where it gives you the screen saver/test pattern without shutting down if it's unplugged. It's still troubling that you get the same behavior both places, but my first reaction to this would be to check the monitor cable on both ends to make sure there aren't any bent pins or lint or anything in ends and then make sure you really get both ends of the monitor cable seated fully when you plug it back in. If that doesn't help I'd see if you have or know someone who'd loan you another cable and test it with that.


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## pdg

jobo said:


> Well you should have fitted the correct card or even better just left it alone



And again, lack of comprehension.

There's no such thing as "the correct card", and leaving it alone would mean a pile of components.

This is what I mean about treating a computer like a kitchen appliance...

If you buy a toaster you get a complete appliance.

If you buy a laptop or a pc from pcworld you get a complete appliance.

On the other hand, you can get a motherboard, ram, a graphics card, a sound card, a case, a psu, a cooling solution, a drive or two - then put it together to make an appliance.

The latter is what I'm doing with parts I have on hand or obtained second hand, and I'd rather spend a few hours here and there doing that over buying an internet toaster.


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## pdg

hoshin1600 said:


> What makes you think the monitor is bad?  When nothing is plugged in the test screen screen saver that I posted doesn’t cause the black screen and the initial dell logo at power up also works fine.



The monitor self test isn't the same as feeding it a video signal...

The fact it's doing the same thing with a functioning laptop is something of a clue. The monitor itself doesn't need drivers, but the card does. The laptop should have this sorted if it's working.

The split screen thing - you said black vertical line - was that like a narrow band or a third of the screen? Either way, that can be a driver issue.

One of my monitors goes into power saver between the splash screen and the login screen, but it wakes up for login and stays awake...

Just going black, unless you're getting the power saver message that's something else.


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## pdg

Oh, @hoshin1600 - have you tried booting in safe mode yet?

And how are you connecting it - hd15 / DVI?


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## Gerry Seymour

jobo said:


> But it worked with Windows 7,,, see above


To me, that implies an issue with either the video driver in Win10, or an issue with the video card that isn't (at least often) hit upon by the way Win7 uses the card. There may be a different instruction being used by Win10 that hits the problem area.


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## Gerry Seymour

gpseymour said:


> To me, that implies an issue with either the video driver in Win10, or an issue with the video card that isn't (at least often) hit upon by the way Win7 uses the card. There may be a different instruction being used by Win10 that hits the problem area.


With the additional information of the monitor not working on the laptop, either, I suspect - as others have said - there's an issue with the monitor. As Click and Clack (Car Talk) often reminded us, sometimes things just go wrong coincident with a new event, without the new event being particularly at fault. The Win10 installation both stressed the monitor differently, and introduced a new driver. Either of those could trigger an existing problem in the monitor.


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## hoshin1600

Update:
I borrowed a newer monitor and Abracadabra everything works fine.
One problem down. Now I need a new monitor.
Since I am looking to edit and create video content, any suggestions on a monitor?


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## Martial D

hoshin1600 said:


> Update:
> I borrowed a newer monitor and Abracadabra everything works fine.
> One problem down. Now I need a new monitor.
> Since I am looking to edit and create video content, any suggestions on a monitor?


My last 3 have been BENQ LED monitors. Never had an issue, great quality.


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## pdg

hoshin1600 said:


> Update:
> I borrowed a newer monitor and Abracadabra everything works fine.
> One problem down. Now I need a new monitor.
> Since I am looking to edit and create video content, any suggestions on a monitor?



Something big.

Decent resolution.

Preferably 2 of them...

Second can be smaller, but it's unbelievably nice to have the toolbars on the smaller screen so you're not covering parts of the image with them.

Apart from that, the badge doesn't make a huge difference (mainly, there is still crap about).

I'd look used, the one you had fail is honestly an anomaly these days.


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## dvcochran

jobo said:


> Not all computers, will run Windows 10, it must be at least 5 years old, out Windows 7 back on, if it works leave it alone,
> 
> Nb, you have downloaded a 64 bit version of Windows 10 ???


@jobo could be on to something. Check to see which version your PC is. Windows will let you load both 32 and 64 bit versions on the same PC so you can have two hard drive partitions running different versions. You got soaked paying $150 for the 10 download. Sorry. 
Did you do a clean install or an upgrade? If you paid $150 you should have the full version. Try a clean (destructive) install and maybe that will snap things pack in order. It is a long shot but if the monitor is using a USB port, try another one to see if the one you are using is bad. Or, if you have a USB monitor, try it.


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## pdg

dvcochran said:


> @jobo could be on to something. Check to see which version your PC is. Windows will let you load both 32 and 64 bit versions on the same PC so you can have two hard drive partitions running different versions. You got soaked paying $150 for the 10 download. Sorry.
> Did you do a clean install or an upgrade? If you paid $150 you should have the full version. Try a clean (destructive) install and maybe that will snap things pack in order. It is a long shot but if the monitor is using a USB port, try another one to see if the one you are using is bad. Or, if you have a USB monitor, try it.



Read above, a different monitor works fine and the original one doesn't work on anything...



(Oh, and for win10 I would have downloaded the iso free from the ms site and either lived with the "not activated" message or got a key from a scrap machine... But it's been spent now and at least it's (probably) fully legit.)


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## Gerry Seymour

hoshin1600 said:


> Update:
> I borrowed a newer monitor and Abracadabra everything works fine.
> One problem down. Now I need a new monitor.
> Since I am looking to edit and create video content, any suggestions on a monitor?


Something with HDMI (or DVI - same signal, just need an adapter) so you can easily use it with other PC's and laptops. If you're trying to get the best possible quality on your videos, you'll want a high-resolution monitor to work with. If (like me) you just want acceptable videos for YouTube and such, a mediocre monitor will probably suffice. For most other uses, bigger is definitely better. You can get a 24"-ish model for pretty cheap, so I'd be reluctant to go smaller than that for desktop use. I prefer they not have a glossy surface (some still do), as this creates glare which not only makes it harder to see, but increases eye strain.


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## Gerry Seymour

pdg said:


> Read above, a different monitor works fine and the original one doesn't work on anything...
> 
> 
> 
> (Oh, and for win10 I would have downloaded the iso free from the ms site and either lived with the "not activated" message or got a key from a scrap machine... But it's been spent now and at least it's (probably) fully legit.)


I buy from resellers for my virtual machines (to run other versions of MS Office for training), and pay ~$30 a copy, I think. It's _probably_ mostly legit - they claim to be an authorized MS reseller (badge and all), and haven't been shut down in the year or so I've been buying from them.


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## pdg

By the way...



hoshin1600 said:


> Intel core i5-3450
> 3.10 GHZ
> RAM 4. GB
> 64 bit



Old?






 

Oh, and the win10 compatibility tool says no, uhnuh, no way - not supported because graphics card.

Yeah right, I showed it. I showed it good


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## hoshin1600

pdg said:


> By the way...
> 
> 
> 
> Old?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Oh, and the win10 compatibility tool says no, uhnuh, no way - not supported because graphics card.
> 
> Yeah right, I showed it. I showed it good



You lost me about the video card.  I did read the specs required for win10.  Everything looked good except the video card. I don't know what this PC has or how to compare them.


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## pdg

hoshin1600 said:


> You lost me about the video card.  I did read the specs required for win10.  Everything looked good except the video card. I don't know what this PC has or how to compare them.



The one I pictured has a video card built in (being a laptop it can't be changed) that doesn't have drivers available for windows 10 - the newest supported is vista. 

So I made them work instead...

You have an advantage with yours though, it's newer 

If you go to the dell site there's a driver pack available for your machine for win10 - I recommend installing that if you haven't already.


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## MetalBoar

hoshin1600 said:


> Everything looked good except the video card. I don't know what this PC has or how to compare them.



According to your manual, assuming no one changed anything, you are running one of the following:

Intel® HD Graphics 2500 - integrated with the CPU
1GB AMD RADEON HD7570 - dedicated graphics card
1GB AMD RADEON HD7470 - dedicated graphics card
You can tell if it's a dedicated card or integrated graphics just by looking at where the monitor cable plugs in, if it's a dedicated card it'll be in it's own card slot and if it's integrated it'll be plugged into the main board probably close to and above (assuming its a mini-tower case like the picture I saw of your model) the USB and network ports. If you take a look at the manual I linked to in an earlier post there's a picture of the back of your PC with labels for all the ports.

There's not much difference between the 2 dedicated cards, they're both old-ish and middle to low end of the line for their time. The integrated graphics are probably pretty slow and use system RAM so if you feel like your computer is running out of memory or too slow for video editing work this is one of the first thing I'd check. Probably even if you've got a dedicated card you could improve performance by getting something new that's good for video editing even if it's a mid range card. Video editing is not my specialty so I can't say much more than this.

If you want to know exactly what card Windows thinks you have I can give you directions about where to look.



pdg said:


> If you go to the dell site there's a driver pack available for your machine for win10 - I recommend installing that if you haven't already.



And I heartily agree with this ^^^.


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## pdg

The GPU isn't of paramount importance for video (or photo) editing - some programmes use it more than others if available, but as long as it'll run full HD nicely it'll be fine for a start.

That might change as you get more into it, I believe stuff like premiere shifts a lot (in comparison) of the processing to the GPU so a lack of power then could cause big slow downs...

I currently use a geforce 8800-380 with no problems, which isn't exactly that modern or top end.

System ram is always worth having a look at though, 4GB will do for photos (as long as you aren't getting too many layers in with raw files) but 8 would be better.

For video, it again depends on the level of editing you're looking at and how long the videos are - 4GB will start looking borderline really quickly and waiting for parts of the file to be moved in and out of swap is painful.


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## hoshin1600

my initial thought was to add some more RAM and a new video card.  but i will be looking into Adobe premere elements for a start, not sure what that requires yet. ill see how that goes and as money is available i will grow the system as i need it.


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