Read this before asking for help!

[Mussels]

Below are some steps you should follow before asking for help, in order to get you the best help possible.

here are some basic suggestions that apply to the ENTIRE forum when asking for help

• Come up with a proper thread title. "help!" "i broke it" and so on are no good. People will not click the thread link without knowing what its about.
• Use proper spelling and grammar. If english is not your first language, get someone better than you to proof read it. We cannot help you if we cant understand you.
• Fill out your user specifications here. Make sure you change the drop down box to "yes"
• Wait for a response. Dont add needless posts asking for help such as "is anybody there?". It merely annoys people, so they wont bother to help you.
• If you have more information to add, use the edit button and edit the first post. New people to the thread read the first post and may offer help not realising you've added more details further on.
• List your problem in a clear and concise manner. See below for a good example and a bad example
• Search for other people with the same problem in google. There could be an easy fix that has already been stated somewhere.
• If you find another thread here on TPU with a similar problem, but NOT the same do not post your issue there. Start a new thread. Simply because it has something in common, does not mean its the same problem, nor does it mean it will have the same solution.
• Be polite. no ones going to help you if you arent nice to them. If people arent nice to YOU, ignore them and hit the "report post" button underneath their name.

Good example:
Hello, when i play 3D games my computer restarts. my PSU is a 400W Bestec that came with the case and my video card is a radeon 2600XT. What can i do to find out why its restarting?
I'm running windows XP service pack 1 and catalyst 8.12 drivers from the AMD website.
The problem has been happening for months, but i never got around to fixing it.

Bad example:
my stupid comp is crashn n stuff. tell me how to fix it before i smash the darn thing.



Here are some suggestions specific to the overclocking and cooling sections of the forum.
(IN PROGRESS)

• Gather every shred of information you can. Memory timings, default voltages, idle temperatures and load temperatures. EVERYTHING.
• Google your problem. If you find something half related - link us. it may have answers we need.
• Make sure you test the system properly with some like OCCT's LINPACK test. Run it for a few hours. Make sure you're stable at stock speeds before bothering with OCing, you could have faulty hardware or inferior even before you overclock.
• Let us know clearly what you want to achieve, and whats stopping you. People will offer lots of solutions and advice, but its no use solving the wrong problem.