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.

 

[now disabled]

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

 

[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.

 

[jobo]

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 ???

 

[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...

 

[pdg]

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.

 

[jobo]

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,

 

[pdg]

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.

 

[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.

 

[jobo]

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

 

[jobo]

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

 

[jobo]

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

 

[pdg]

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.

 

[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:

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.

 

[Martial D]

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?

 

[Martial D]

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.

 

[jobo]

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,

 

[jobo]

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?

 

[MetalBoar]

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.

 

[pdg]

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.