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View Full Version : Rules and reg's for forum. New request regarding sigs/spec.



GN
06-12-2006, 12:29 PM
Right that’s it, I’m fed up with asking people what there spec of there pc is.

Please can we add this into the main body of the forum as a rule. As you may see i have basically copied this from the DFI forums, (as I’m lazy) though I will update this to look like its come from our own. I will mod the text so that dummies cant read it and also so that our admin crew can also read it just in case its to technical for them to understand. I will also redo all the images here as I have only put them here for the time being just for an example.

I will host the images on my sites space, though Novatech will need to upload these to there own space or else...





Signatures.

If you require any Technical Help with your system, it is most grateful if you have a signature with the current or problem spec of the machine at hand. Then this way our Support Team and our Advisers may be able to help you more.

Example of a good signature:

DFI LanParty NF4 Ultra-D
Bios 6/23/2005-3 (date code is more important than the actual bios file name)
Athlon64 3200+ Venice
2x512MB OCZ PC3200 BH-5 UTT (OCZ4001024ELDCGE-K)
2x 80GB Hitachi SATA II hdd
NEC 3540A DVD-RW
Pioneer 16X DVDrom
Sapphire ATI X850XT Platinum Edition
OCZ Powerstream 520w power supply
Audigy II ZS sound card
Windows XP Pro SP 2

to check your bios date code, either use CPU-Z (http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php)

or check your POST screen during boot:


http://www.angrygames.com/images/nf3/nf3_bios10.jpg




Signature Images: Signatures may contain images no larger 60kb in size, and be 650x230 pixels.

If you have an image that is 650x230, you may not add any text above or below that will make your sig more than a total area of 650x230.

Below is an example sig of 650x230, 50kb:

http://www.n-computers.co.uk/other/novatech%20images/novasig.gif

Signatures may not contain offensive material. If you are not sure if something is offensive, it probably is. This is a place for customers to come for help, not to show off their latest bikini-babe pictures etc.

Signatures may not link to sites containing pornography, warez, anything illegal or deemed offensive. No links of any kind may link to any of the above-mentioned places. Failure to heed this rule will result in an automatic permanent ban, and can lead to us reporting you to authorities if necessary.



=========================

If you are reporting a problem or have some questions, please, please, go into your user control panel here at the forums and add your system's specs to your signature.

This is essential so that I nor anyone else that answers doesn't have to constantly ask (or re-read by scrolling back up or a page back a hundred times) what RAM or video card you have.

It doesn't have to be pretty...it just needs to be listed.

Should include most of the below:

Which make and model of motherboard.
Which BIOS version if necessary to issue.
CPU Type, and speed and how you cool it.
RAM make and specs, 2x256 or 1x512 so we know =) (chip type like Winbond or Samsung or Hynix etc is preferrable too but not necessary)
Video card model (radeon 9600XT or FX5950 Ultra etc)
Hard drives, either PATA or SATA or both, sizes/models, if you have them in RAID array
Sound card or onboard sound. If you are having a problem with onboard or PCI sound audio, list driver version also

You might want or need listed more due to the issue involved.

In order to add Text or an Image to your Sig line please Do as follows.

1. Once you have logged in to your User account. Please Click the Profile link at the very top of the forum as shown here in the image.


http://www.n-computers.co.uk/other/novatech%20images/usercp1.jpg

===============================================

2. Then scroll down the page until you see a large text box in the Profile information section of the profile. This should have the title Signature to the left of this. Please enter your Text or your image.

To enter an image you may have to link this to a remote website to which the image is hosted on. To do this please uses the following script.

Please%20insert%20link%20to%20image%20here


http://www.n-computers.co.uk/other/novatech%20images/usercp2.jpg

===============================================

3. Once you have entered your information you will need to save this. Please scroll to the bottom of the page and click the button named “Submit” as shown in the image below.


http://www.n-computers.co.uk/other/novatech%20images/usercp3.jpg

===============================================

My point is...there are many many many friendly and knowledgable people here. I'm around a lot but not 100% of the time, and besides, if you only would listen to things that I alone told you, you would scare me LOL. Getting verification from me on something PLUS 10 other users giving their thoughts, opinions, experiences is much much better. I can do a lot of things that a lot of you cannot do on these boards...simply by experience and sometimes intimate knowledge. There are things I learn from you guys every day just by reading the communication back and forth between everyone. (I just dont admit i learning from you guys as well cuz it makes me look cheesier heh).

And those people are like me, not psychic. We need as much information about your machine as you can give us. The more the better. Trust me when I say i've seen new forum users post a problem and had his complete specs in his sig and 10 guys jumped in and gave him the right answer right away, with about 3 different variations of how to do it right =). Just because they saw instantly something they have seen themselves and knew right away what to check for!!!

I know I harp on this sig thing alot. But its very important. I want to give you good service, and you want to give good service. You have to give me a little work in the short-run to get a lot of work in the long run I will always answer your questions even if you don't put your specs in your sig. But my answers will seem redundant a lot if I have no clue what is in your machine. It is aggravating to have to exchange up to 5 or more emails just to establish what motherboard model a customer has sometimes!

I don't care if you list it in a colum or separated by // or :: or in a graphic sig...as long as the info is there. Regulars here know that after time, and you learn your rig by heart, you can cut down the sig a little or a lot or such. But at first, or when you have a problem, be as complete as you can!!

You let me know what you got, and me along with everyone else here will always do our best to fix your issues, offer advice, help out in any way.

argh I hate speeches too. Hope everyone reads this, both new users all the way down to the oldest DFI vets

=========================

Danno
06-12-2006, 02:01 PM
this is a good idea and would be helpful however there could be a few problems.

a lot of the customers that come on here have pre-built systems or bundles and will not know exactly what is installed in the pc.

if they have a laptop they may give the novatech name or nnb- stock code. this is ok for the novatech staff on the forum but it would mean nothing to everyone else.

it would be good requesting this information if the forum user has a system they have built them self and know exactly whats installed. if its a novatech system if they give the below information this would be a good start.


in the pc, laptop bundle and server sections of the forum there is an announcement at the top of the page asking for the following but its quite rare that this information is provided.


If you need any help with or advice on a Novatech PC, Laptop, Server or Bundle please can you include the following information.

Sales Order Number, this will be printed on the invoice. It starts SO\ and is 7 digits long. SO\*******

Stock code, This will be in the invoice, it will also be on the back of the PC or server, bottom of the laptop or the box the bundle came in.

Examples of stock codes,

PC
PC-****T
PC-****TH
PC-****TP

Server
SR-****T
SR-****TB

Laptop
NNB-***
NNB-***H
NNB-***P

Bundle / Barebones
MBB-******
BB-******



Serial Number (pc, server or laptop), Serial numbers are found on a small sticker on the back our PC's and the bottom of our laptops. There are 7 digits followed by 3 digits. *******-***

Tracking number (bundle), The tracking number for the bundle will be in the box next to the stock code. Tracking numbers are 7 digits long.

if you dont mind having a play with the pics and text when its all done if you let me know i will start a new post in the general information section to see how it goes. i will also upload the pics onto our server.

i cant add it to the forum rules or force it on customers to use but i will put it in the general information section and hopefully people will give the information needed to help.



i don't like this bit that they have on there forum.

As of today, December 6th, 2006, EVERYONE that signs up at this forum and posts here MUST put together a signature with detailed system specifications. There is to be no argument about this anymore.

If you sign up here, you MUST have a signature, or your posts WILL BE DELETED without question.

If you fail to make a sig and continue creating new threads asking support questions, you WILL be given a 3 day vacation.

Second offense = Permanent Ban


everything up to the last picture looks ok, i am not sure about the next bit.


===============================================

Other: If you are having a specific problem, edit your sig for the time being to reflect this. For instance, if you are having a problem with the Soundstorm onboard audio, edit your sig a bit and leave the driver version you are using next to it.

Or say an overclock problem...then list your fastest stable overclock. For instance if you can easily do 230, but need help trying to get to 235 or such, listing your best overclock that is stable enables us to see what settings you have going and can better suggest our opinions in return.

Voltages are good to list to for overclocking problems. If you come and tell us you can hit 200 but not 205, and don't list any voltages or RAM settings, it could be a [CENSORED] as to what the reason you can't get higher is.

=========================

its ok if you only need to ask one question but if you ask a few you could be including driver / version numbers for everything and constantly changing the sig. if your changing the sig all the time other people that have the same problems will not be able to see what versions of software you were having problems with.

i think all this information should be included in the first post for help.

djgandy
06-12-2006, 04:31 PM
Yeah they are "over elitist". The word pretentious springs to mind. :) I mean why bother with posts at all, just change your sig whenever you want to convey a message.

GN
06-12-2006, 04:38 PM
Well as i said, i copied that from the DFI street forum. As long as most users who have PC issues do this then it would help everyone out alot. So far I have asked about 3 people repededly the same question, whats your spec. Also we could add a little more into how to get a sys overview.

Taxation
06-12-2006, 08:44 PM
i prefer to do it the annoying and time wasting way :D

GN
06-12-2006, 08:45 PM
you better be online, then I can anoy you for saying that.

GN
07-12-2006, 12:28 PM
a lot of the customers that come on here have pre-built systems or bundles and will not know exactly what is installed in the pc.

if they have a laptop they may give the novatech name or nnb- stock code. this is ok for the novatech staff on the forum but it would mean nothing to everyone else.



Ok, well that is easy to over come. What we do is the following. Every new system or old system that you have gets loged into the forum. This includes the servers, laptops, and systems.

You post the entire spec of that system in a catagory and you have for the topic (title) the novatech order number.

So we would have an entire catagory dedicated to this. When the user comes onto the forum (if they have any comon sence.) They will read the Start Here Post at the top. Then in there it will have the T's & C's and the Rules etc... Now It will say there that if you need support for a prebuilt system or a laptop and so on, then please get the novatech ordernumber or something and match it upto the the ones in the long list. Then When they find the one that is theres, they copy the "cut here for spec" line (we make a predone sig spec with link for them) and then they put it in there sig. Then when they post there issue, we can all see exactly what they have/did have and we can carry on from there. Otherwise with out this process we will never idealy get to people isses. Remember that people who are noobs with computers find this very hard and are gullibal to anything you say. They also sometimes chicken out easy and say its to technical and hard so i wont do it, even though all they have to do is find out the system spec. My dad only just found out what a C2D actualy does (I told him, it took about 20min though.)

Danno
07-12-2006, 01:45 PM
Ok, well that is easy to over come. What we do is the following. Every new system or old system that you have gets loged into the forum. This includes the servers, laptops, and systems.

this is easier said than done.

at the moment we are up to PC-0983, this is 983 different model PC's over the years, this is not including special builds, blueprints and all the pc's we sold before we started using the PC-0*** codes. sometimes the boards that are used in PC's are changed but the stock code is not. if we run low on stock and there is another board same spec different manufacturer sometimes production will change the build without changing the stock code.

then there is the bundles we stock, we have sold thousands of different bundles all with different configurations. the same as with pc's sometimes the boards change but the codes do not.


at the moment i think i am the only one here that spends time on the forum and its getting busier and busier coming up to christmas i am getting less and less time on the forum. i have enough time to delete any spam posts and maybe answer a few posts but thats about it.

one thing i will try a do soon is a new post in the general information section asking people to include more system information in there first post.

GN
07-12-2006, 02:54 PM
In that case. If I were in your position, I would look on the forum and see who would be worthy of being Moderators for topics and then in the future Super/Globle Moderators. Then this would save you time as these people would delete spam, moderat the forum and tempory ban dad users, and also be able to maintain the forum by adding and removing stickys and so on etc..

I will in the mean time think of an app that auto makes a sig. The info from WMI should provide this as we only need the mobotype, CPU and memory and HD.

Danno
07-12-2006, 06:42 PM
the admin of the forum is not a problem, there are a few people that do that as well as me.

after christmas normally things start to ease up a bit so i should have a bit more time to spend on the forum.

GN
07-12-2006, 09:07 PM
Are you sure about this? We dont want you to get stressed out from work now do we :D

I will look at this more during my lunch today. Do you have a msn messenger contact address?