back online again from home (I hate computers)

woodstock

woodstock

Final Approach
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welp, back up again and I get to recreate my stuff. lovely.

update on the toasted drive - I finally convinced my friend to freeze it. Prior to freezing it, no way no how was it even recgonized as existing. it was a brick.

post freezing, it actually showed up as existing when he tried to sort it out but still no way to access the stuff.

I'm going to give it to my IT guy and ask him to try. it's worth a shot.

$%&*&)^(
 
ooooh, this brand new one is doing exactly the same thing the old one was doing right before it crashed and burned. randomly shutting itself off, freezing for no apparent reason (4 times now this afternoon).

could it be a faulty power supply?
 
IIRC power supply problem from a while back?

What was the original symptoms? Same as the new symptoms? Was it working just fine before all this started? Lightning strike?

Your only hard drive ate itself? Then you put a new one in and it ate itself the same way? Is it shutting down not long after turning the computer on? Or just randomly giving you grief?

If it's shutting down, it could be several things things. It could be the CPU overheating which can cause some really weird functions. Overtemp self protection will shut the power supply off then after a while you can turn it back on and the symptoms will repeat when it warms up again.

What specifically is it doing?
 
Last edited:
Hi

the last hard drive was partitioned into two - supposedly to protect the second drive. that was where I kept my important stuff - photos and music. it is toast.

it ate itself when I got back from Vancouver. I had it off during the whole trip, did not leave it on, although when I am home it's on 100% of the time (except when it isn't, haha)

this new one (just got it back yesterday - one day old) is now appearing to do the same thing as the last one. random shut downs and freezing up. the only thing I can do when it freezes is to flip the power switch at the source - i.e. power strip.

it has not killed itself (yet?).

so far turning it back on again seems to do the trick. it does seem to freeze when I am asking it to do a few "heavy" tasks (i.e. I was running a fill Avast scan and also checked my email, a friend had sent a HUGE email file and in trying to open it it all shut down.

there is a TON of memory in this thing, so it should be lightning fast.

my friend wonders if someone has figured out how to hack into my computer and it's just under attack? it's a cable modem. I have avast on it currently, the last one had that and also adaware. I am going to get trendmicro as soon as I can get this thing to stabilize.

he also said 'beware active control x" but the only time that has come up on THS hard drive was to install msn Im and yahoo IM. I haven't added anything else but google earth (and how cool is that???)
 
woodstock said:
Hi

the last hard drive was partitioned into two - supposedly to protect the second drive. that was where I kept my important stuff - photos and music. it is toast.

it ate itself when I got back from Vancouver. I had it off during the whole trip, did not leave it on, although when I am home it's on 100% of the time (except when it isn't, haha)

this new one (just got it back yesterday - one day old) is now appearing to do the same thing as the last one. random shut downs and freezing up. the only thing I can do when it freezes is to flip the power switch at the source - i.e. power strip.

it has not killed itself (yet?).

so far turning it back on again seems to do the trick. it does seem to freeze when I am asking it to do a few "heavy" tasks (i.e. I was running a fill Avast scan and also checked my email, a friend had sent a HUGE email file and in trying to open it it all shut down.

there is a TON of memory in this thing, so it should be lightning fast.

my friend wonders if someone has figured out how to hack into my computer and it's just under attack? it's a cable modem. I have avast on it currently, the last one had that and also adaware. I am going to get trendmicro as soon as I can get this thing to stabilize.

he also said 'beware active control x" but the only time that has come up on THS hard drive was to install msn Im and yahoo IM. I haven't added anything else but google earth (and how cool is that???)
Click to expand...
Get the cable modem behind a router, so that the outside world doesn't see your computer. Are you virus software current?

Mike A. will chime in here but if there is anything resembling Instant Messinger, or AOL/Compuserve software on there, get it OFF.

Take the side cover off. Do you hear the power supply fan and/or the CPU fan running?

Sigh.
 
Beth,

As Bruce says, make sure you have current anti-virus software. Run a good spyware checker (like Webroot's stuff). Put in a hardware firewall between your machine and the DSL/Cable modem, and use a software firewall like Zonealarm (they do have a "free" version). Microsoft's firewall is just not good enough. And run Windows Update to make sure the software is current.

There are stats that say it takes about 10 minutes on average for a miscreant to find an unprotected Windows computer on a bare broadband line and infect it with something.

Also, if you don't have it already, put a UPS with surge suppressor on the power line.

Also run a good memory checker and make sure the memory is good and the machine is not overheating.
 
woodstock said:
welp, back up again and I get to recreate my stuff. lovely.

update on the toasted drive - I finally convinced my friend to freeze it. Prior to freezing it, no way no how was it even recgonized as existing. it was a brick.

post freezing, it actually showed up as existing when he tried to sort it out but still no way to access the stuff.

I'm going to give it to my IT guy and ask him to try. it's worth a shot.

$%&*&)^(
Click to expand...

After freezing the drive do not put it back into the non working computer. Place the drive in a very cold freezer, take the drive out and quickly place the drive into an external usb case, and attach it to a working computer with enough room to immediately take the important data off (pics etc). The freeze process will only work a few times if at all...don't press your luck.

If the new drive is doing the same thing on your computer you have a hardware problem. Like was stated before check your processor cooling (run your computer with the cover off for a few mins and make sure the fan is spinning properly) and make sure it is not caked with dust.

What kind of power supply do you have? I have seen cheap units slowly fail and give power supply problems. If you want to do some more trouble shooting take everything out of the computer like LAN card, modem, sound card, etc and try to get the computer working. Slowly add the components until the computer stops working again.

BUT if it was me...I would buy a dell with a 19" lcd for ~400 sell the display on ebay for 200+ and have a good new computer for $150-200.
 
Iceman said:
BUT if it was me...I would buy a dell with a 19" lcd for ~400 sell the display on ebay for 200+ and have a good new computer for $150-200.
Click to expand...
Ditto. Once upon a time, custom PC's were the way to go. Nowadays, it just isn't worth the aggravation, time or cost.
 
Brian Austin said:
Ditto. Once upon a time, custom PC's were the way to go. Nowadays, it just isn't worth the aggravation, time or cost.
Click to expand...

You took the words right out of my mouth!

I put together over 15 computers during 97-02 and learned a lot doing it. However, I'm too busy now to spend the time matching the perfect motherboard with a perfect video card and processor.

The FIRST thing I do when I get a new computer is format the hard drive and load win xp the way I want it. Most of the companies are putting out good hardware but the software they install and the way they install it is crap.
 
woodstock said:
the last hard drive was partitioned into two - supposedly to protect the second drive. that was where I kept my important stuff - photos and music. it is toast.
Click to expand...

If it's a software crash at the right time, the second partition may be ok. If it's a hardware crash or data corruption (processor overtemp for instance), you're likely done. If you want to protect data, bring out the CDRW and make backups or at least put in a second physical hard drive and use it as backup. I would actually go as far as removing the backup drive from the system when not doing backups. Anything less is piano wire seatbelts while weaving bridge pilings at 200mph on bald tires and wet pavement.

woodstock said:
although when I am home it's on 100% of the time
Click to expand...

I won't go there right now but would you leave your car running 24/7? People laugh at me for turning everything off when done playing but they also go through monitors, power supplies and hardware about 15 times faster than I do. (And I'm near totally lightning strike proof my way)

woodstock said:
is now appearing to do the same thing as the last one. random shut downs and freezing up. the only thing I can do when it freezes is to flip the power switch at the source - i.e. power strip.

so far turning it back on again seems to do the trick. it does seem to freeze when I am asking it to do a few "heavy" tasks
Click to expand...

So a restart after a few mintues works fine...also if you load the processor up (get it hot) it gets stupid and shuts down.

Question: Has anyone taken the heat sink off the processor in the recent past? Is the fan on the processor working? Is it clogged up with dust? How about the case vents? Do you have a setting in BIOS or software to show the CPU and/or motherboard temp?

The reason I ask is that this sounds a LOT like another computer I fixed a while back. It had the same basic symptoms you're describing (scatty behavior then auto shutdown) and would shut down within 10 minutes. Let it cool off and it'd run for a while then shut down again when it loaded up. Turned out the heatsink was put on backward and there was just a teeny little bump on the backside that lifted the heatsink surface off the processor just a smidgen. I turned the heatsink 180° and redid the heatsink gunk and the problem vanished forever or at least for the last 3+ years now.

I may be barking up the wrong tree but it's a possibility.

woodstock said:
my friend wonders if someone has figured out how to hack into my computer and it's just under attack?
Click to expand...

Hacking doesn't tend to shut computers down like you're describing. I'm thinking this is a hardware problem. Physically yank the cable out of the wall and run it by itself for a while. Load it up and see what happens. Do a clean partition and format and see if it's doing the same thing when not talking to the outside world.
 
I feel a great disturbance in the net, as if a million computers were suddenly all rebooted at once!

What ARE you doing to your machines!?!

Seriously - this sounds like heat to me. Are all the fans working? Are the heatsinks properly sunk?

Don't make me call PETC (People for the Ethical Treatment of Computers)!
 
Iceman said:
After freezing the drive do not put it back into the non working computer. Place the drive in a very cold freezer, take the drive out and quickly place the drive into an external usb case, and attach it to a working computer with enough room to immediately take the important data off (pics etc). The freeze process will only work a few times if at all...don't press your luck.

If the new drive is doing the same thing on your computer you have a hardware problem. Like was stated before check your processor cooling (run your computer with the cover off for a few mins and make sure the fan is spinning properly) and make sure it is not caked with dust.

What kind of power supply do you have? I have seen cheap units slowly fail and give power supply problems. If you want to do some more trouble shooting take everything out of the computer like LAN card, modem, sound card, etc and try to get the computer working. Slowly add the components until the computer stops working again.

BUT if it was me...I would buy a dell with a 19" lcd for ~400 sell the display on ebay for 200+ and have a good new computer for $150-200.
Click to expand...


Hi,

no dust. I keep the office closed at all times unless I'm in there so the cats don't play there. Mark confirmed it was fine when he took it apart.

the power supply was replaced this spring - my IT guy here at work replaced it and I'm becoming convinced he just threw something in he had lying around. Mark said it was an el cheapo though - Duro something? I wish I had asked him to replace it yet again when he had it, but since the "new" one is less than 6 mos old (less than 3 I bet?) I didn't think of it.

I've decided to get a new desktop, with good "bones" and strip the new harddrive (120 gigs), the memory (1 gig), and my new DVD burner/writer and put it in the new one. I had NO idea the new desktops were that dirt cheap, why go out and spend maybe 80-100 bucks on a new power supply when I could get a whole new computer for what - 400 you say? and then build it up more with stuff I already have.

and a laptop. I had considered just getting the laptop and throwing this one out the window but my home office is only on the third floor and it may not have an effective result. Mark convinced me to keep the current one even if just for parts.
 
Greebo said:
I feel a great disturbance in the net, as if a million computers were suddenly all rebooted at once!

What ARE you doing to your machines!?!

Seriously - this sounds like heat to me. Are all the fans working? Are the heatsinks properly sunk?

Don't make me call PETC (People for the Ethical Treatment of Computers)!
Click to expand...


fans are fine, don't know what a heatsink is so not sure.
 
fgcason said:
If it's a software crash at the right time, the second partition may be ok. If it's a hardware crash or data corruption (processor overtemp for instance), you're likely done. If you want to protect data, bring out the CDRW and make backups or at least put in a second physical hard drive and use it as backup. I would actually go as far as removing the backup drive from the system when not doing backups. Anything less is piano wire seatbelts while weaving bridge pilings at 200mph on bald tires and wet pavement.



I won't go there right now but would you leave your car running 24/7? People laugh at me for turning everything off when done playing but they also go through monitors, power supplies and hardware about 15 times faster than I do. (And I'm near totally lightning strike proof my way)



So a restart after a few mintues works fine...also if you load the processor up (get it hot) it gets stupid and shuts down.

Question: Has anyone taken the heat sink off the processor in the recent past? Is the fan on the processor working? Is it clogged up with dust? How about the case vents? Do you have a setting in BIOS or software to show the CPU and/or motherboard temp?

The reason I ask is that this sounds a LOT like another computer I fixed a while back. It had the same basic symptoms you're describing (scatty behavior then auto shutdown) and would shut down within 10 minutes. Let it cool off and it'd run for a while then shut down again when it loaded up. Turned out the heatsink was put on backward and there was just a teeny little bump on the backside that lifted the heatsink surface off the processor just a smidgen. I turned the heatsink 180° and redid the heatsink gunk and the problem vanished forever or at least for the last 3+ years now.

I may be barking up the wrong tree but it's a possibility.



Hacking doesn't tend to shut computers down like you're describing. I'm thinking this is a hardware problem. Physically yank the cable out of the wall and run it by itself for a while. Load it up and see what happens. Do a clean partition and format and see if it's doing the same thing when not talking to the outside world.
Click to expand...


thanks Frank. not sure what a heatsink is but I will ask my friend what he saw.

I still think the smartest thing to do is get a brand new one, put my new fast parts on it and be done with it. given that buying parts piecemeal is just as expensive I may as well have something new, right?
 
Brian Austin said:
Ditto. Once upon a time, custom PC's were the way to go. Nowadays, it just isn't worth the aggravation, time or cost.
Click to expand...

yup. have had it. and I'm sure Mark isn't too thrilled either. we live about 35+ miles apart, which depending on traffic can be 35 minutes or.... more.
 
woodstock said:
fans are fine, don't know what a heatsink is so not sure.
Click to expand...
A heatsink is a hunk of aluminum, usually with a flat side to make good contact with the processor and absorb the heat. The other side has fins on it like a radiator (or the cylinder head of your plane's engine) to dissipate the heat into the air.

http://www.computerhope.com/help/heat.htm

-Skip
 
woodstock said:
fans are fine, don't know what a heatsink is so not sure.
Click to expand...

Are the fans installed in the right direction? As others have said, heat is a bad problem, and my brother's computer had the same issue--would shut down (or lock up) every 5 or 10 minutes. Turns out there were two contributing factors:

1) His case had two fans in it. They were installed so they were pressurizing the case and holding the heat IN (both were blowing air INTO the case, which is WRONG). Put your hand on the outside of the case (or use a piece of tissue paper on the outside to check airflow) and make sure that the fan on the back is blowing air OUT of the case, and IF there is a fan on the front of the case, that it is pulling air INTO the case... you're trying to get air to be pulled THROUGH the case, across the processor/CPU. If you only have ONE case fan (in the back), then consider installing another in the front of the case, if your case has a place for one. This will do wonders for the longevity of your machine.

NOTE: When I say "Fan", I'm talking about one bolted (screwed, actually) to the case, by all those little holes... I'm not talking about the little 2" square one on the CPU, or the fan in the power supply (if any). This should be a 4" box fan on the case to move air across the motherboard.

NOTE 2: SPEND the extra money to get a GOOD fan... you don't want to have to listen to your computer sound like a 747 at takeoff!

2) RAM. You could have a bad memory chip. You can download some RAM software checkers for free. Look for one that boots and runs off a floppy or CD, without loading the normal operating system. OR (better) take it into a computer store that has a repair department and get your RAM checked in one of their stand-alone checkers.

P.S.--I agree 100% with the "buy something pre-made" advice. I used to build my own computers, even had a custom computer company and built and sold machines to others. It USED to be cheaper to do it that way, not anymore!! Check out Dell's refurbished site if you don't need the latest greatest "just released this week" systems. When they refurbish them, you wouldn't know they weren't new--they come in a new box, new manuals, everything. http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/promo.aspx/promocompare?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh
 
Troy Whistman said:
Are the fans installed in the right direction? As others have said, heat is a bad problem, and my brother's computer had the same issue--would shut down (or lock up) every 5 or 10 minutes. Turns out there were two contributing factors:

1) His case had two fans in it. They were installed so they were pressurizing the case and holding the heat IN (both were blowing air INTO the case, which is WRONG). Put your hand on the outside of the case (or use a piece of tissue paper on the outside to check airflow) and make sure that the fan on the back is blowing air OUT of the case, and IF there is a fan on the front of the case, that it is pulling air INTO the case... you're trying to get air to be pulled THROUGH the case, across the processor/CPU. If you only have ONE case fan (in the back), then consider installing another in the front of the case, if your case has a place for one. This will do wonders for the longevity of your machine.

NOTE: When I say "Fan", I'm talking about one bolted (screwed, actually) to the case, by all those little holes... I'm not talking about the little 2" square one on the CPU, or the fan in the power supply (if any). This should be a 4" box fan on the case to move air across the motherboard.

NOTE 2: SPEND the extra money to get a GOOD fan... you don't want to have to listen to your computer sound like a 747 at takeoff!

2) RAM. You could have a bad memory chip. You can download some RAM software checkers for free. Look for one that boots and runs off a floppy or CD, without loading the normal operating system. OR (better) take it into a computer store that has a repair department and get your RAM checked in one of their stand-alone checkers.

P.S.--I agree 100% with the "buy something pre-made" advice. I used to build my own computers, even had a custom computer company and built and sold machines to others. It USED to be cheaper to do it that way, not anymore!! Check out Dell's refurbished site if you don't need the latest greatest "just released this week" systems. When they refurbish them, you wouldn't know they weren't new--they come in a new box, new manuals, everything. http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/promo.aspx/promocompare?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh
Click to expand...


Hi, thanks!

don't know about the fans a-tall.

however, he put in a new 512 chip I'd say about 6 weeks ago or so, so now it's a gig of memory. could the memory chip actually cause all this, including a toasty hard drive?

I'm convinced - new computer out of the box. I've had it with this one. I was thinking of just doing a laptop and nothing else, but I guess it's nice to have a desktop too anyway. (or does it matter? all I do is email, photos, and a little web surfing - that is IT. maybe I should really just ditch the desktop completely and thereby also reduce office clutter.)
 
fgcason said:
I won't go there right now but would you leave your car running 24/7? People laugh at me for turning everything off when done playing but they also go through monitors, power supplies and hardware about 15 times faster than I do. (And I'm near totally lightning strike proof my way)
Click to expand...
The car analogy isn't even close to apples to apples here.

I've got about 70 computers in my network right now. At least 40 of those are always on workstations at people's desks. Some have been running for three years straight with minimal maintenance. Each are rebooted weekly after updates are pushed out from my servers.

If cooling is set up correctly and the box is kept relatively clean (and I've got some dirty environmental conditions here), it will be fine.
 
woodstock said:
I was thinking of just doing a laptop and nothing else, but I guess it's nice to have a desktop too anyway. (or does it matter? all I do is email, photos, and a little web surfing - that is IT. maybe I should really just ditch the desktop completely and thereby also reduce office clutter.)
Click to expand...
That's what I did. Couldn't be happier. I used my original flatscreen monitor as a second monitor on the laptop to extend my desktop. Cool stuff.
 
Just to give you an example...this is NOT a good deal...ok to marginal...


Dimension 3000 2.8Ghz P4, 256MB, 40GB, 17" LCD Monitor
$728 $379 AR
Click on Customize It under Dimension 3000 for $379. Price is $379 after a $100 mail in rebate.

If I needed a cheap system I would sell the LCD for around 180 on ebay and buy some more memory/use what you have if it's the same kind and end up with a complete system for around $230. Its not that good of a system but the processor alone from the cheapest reliable source is $160 so you can't expect much.

I have purchased lots of dell laptops in the past few years and no longer use a desktop. My latest laptop is perfect for me (Pic's etc) and did not set me back that much.

If your interested how much it takes to buy a good laptop I have a Dell 9300 that when I get done with it soon will have an upgraded battery 3.5-4 hours, 2 gigs of ddr memory, DL DVD burner, 17 inch screen WOW it's sooo nice, 80 gig 5400 hard drive etc etc for around $1000. I would say $750-1000 is all it takes to buy a really good laptop.

For an example an apple powerbook 4 with 17" screen and ...

  • 2GB DDR333 SDRAM - 2 SO-DIMMs
  • • 80GB Ultra ATA drive @ 5400rpm
  • • 8x SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
  • • AirPort Extreme Card
  • • Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
  • • 1.67GHz PowerPC G4
  • • ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (128MB DDR)
  • • 17-inch TFT Display
spacer.gif
Estimated Ship:
1-3 business days
Free Shipping

Subtotal $3,449.00 Click "Update Details" to reflect changes to system price and shipping.
I know it's not fair having apple include the memory but it makes me feel better :D.

Good luck!!!
 
Iceman said:
I have purchased lots of dell laptops in the past few years and no longer use a desktop. My latest laptop is perfect for me (Pic's etc) and did not set me back that much.

If your interested how much it takes to buy a good laptop I have a Dell 9300 that when I get done with it soon will have an upgraded battery 3.5-4 hours, 2 gigs of ddr memory, DL DVD burner, 17 inch screen WOW it's sooo nice, 80 gig 5400 hard drive etc etc for around $1000. I would say $750-1000 is all it takes to buy a really good laptop.

Good luck!!!
Click to expand...


thanks Chris. your laptop for a grand intrigues me. we priced out a Compaq (Hp?) for about 1150 which seems to have what you described above, actually maybe 60 gigs (at 5400). only 15.4 in screen. how much does yours weigh? the one I looked at was 6.5 pounds.

I'm back to thinking I should ditch the desktop entirely, again. not keep it as a "spare". I'm not a computer geek like my friend Mark is, he has tons of computers and a few laptops on top of it.
 
woodstock said:
I did consider this, for the laptop...
Click to expand...


Actually, I no longer have separate desktop and laptop computers. Laptops are so powerful now that I didn't see the point. I have two laptops, one for home and one for work. Either way, I can take whatever I need on the road without having to transfer files. At work, I have my laptop hooked up to a large flat-screen monitor, keyboard, and mouse, but at home I just have it hooked up to a mouse.

I suppose if you do MAJOR number crunching, this won't work, but I do a lot of graphics stuff, and have never found myself hurting for processing power. About the only problem I have run into is that my home laptop is a few years old and I starting running out of hard disk space when I starting using iTunes seriously--music files are big. I already had an external hard drive for backups, so I moved the music files to it--problem solved.

I say "backups" but I have owned Macs for nearly 20 years, and only three times have I needed the backup files. Twice I actually did experience a crash. Once, I lost only three files. The other time I didn't lose anything, actually (so, really, I didn't even need the backups for that crash). The third time was when I switched from OS9 to OSX; because I didn't know what I was doing, I ended up completely reformatting, so I needed to store my datafiles somewhere until I got it installed.

Only once in all that time, about 8-9 years ago, have I gotten a virus and it was completely benign.

Judy
 
woodstock said:
not sure what a heatsink is but I will ask my friend what he saw.

I still think the smartest thing to do is get a brand new one, put my new fast parts on it and be done with it. given that buying parts piecemeal is just as expensive I may as well have something new, right?
Click to expand...

Well, that would solve the problem instantly. Very expensive fix if it's just a heat issue which hasn't been verified yet. It's really about isolating the actual cause of the problem. It's entirely possible that the fix you need is $0.00 and 30 minutes of attention to detail labor. For that matter, your old hard drive is likely to be perfectly ok too unless it burned your fingerprints off when you touched it. An overtemp CPU can easily corrupt the file allocation tables and/or data on a HD or scramble memory while running to give the same impression.

CPU's have a very tiny surface area (around 1/2" square IIRC) and generate a lot of heat that it can't handle. The heatsink physically sits right on top of the CPU and carrys the heat away. Older computers didn't need them. Today's machines overtemp real easy without them.

I'm not at home so I can't post the picture of my heatsink but this is something very similar (it's a monster but works really well):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835106035

Basically it's a block of aluminum with fins that increase the surface area to dissipate heat into the surrounding air. It's very much like the radiator in your car or floor register heaters. Put a standard size fan on the top of the heatsink blowing directly down on it and you dump heat much more efficiently. If that fan is on upside down, and way less efficient. If the heatsink is even the least bit very slightly lifted off the CPU, it's near useless until it's seated properly. (Someone messing around inside the case can bump some cheaper heatsinks and move them just enough to cause problems - BTDT)

On your case: Orient the fans to blow in desired directions to dump the heat overboard. If it's a tower, remember heat rises. Intake air at the bottom, exhaust air at the top. If it's a horizontal case, suck air in one side and blow it out the other (usually front to rear). Don't pressurize the case. Don't create a vacuum. More airflow = better. Regularly cleaned thin air filters are your best thermal friend.

Might help, might not. I'm a if it's broke, fix it and if it doesn't work then spend $$ type but you may not have the same mental illness I have.
 
woodstock said:
Hi

the last hard drive was partitioned into two - supposedly to protect the second drive. that was where I kept my important stuff - photos and music. it is toast.

it ate itself when I got back from Vancouver. I had it off during the whole trip, did not leave it on, although when I am home it's on 100% of the time (except when it isn't, haha)

this new one (just got it back yesterday - one day old) is now appearing to do the same thing as the last one. random shut downs and freezing up. the only thing I can do when it freezes is to flip the power switch at the source - i.e. power strip.

it has not killed itself (yet?).

so far turning it back on again seems to do the trick. it does seem to freeze when I am asking it to do a few "heavy" tasks (i.e. I was running a fill Avast scan and also checked my email, a friend had sent a HUGE email file and in trying to open it it all shut down.
Click to expand...

Shut downs? As in "Your computer is shutting down...please standby..." or as in "All the lights just went off?"

The first kind is caused by a worm or one attempting to get in over the network when you don't have a firewall. The second kind is a hardware issue.

As a hardware issue - it just turns off - DO NOT attempt to run without the heat sink on the processor. It will burst into flames in seconds. I would look at it and maybe replace it. New heat sinks with fan can be as cheap as $10-$20. It's very important to apply a thin layer of the compound that comes with it.

Other than that I would blame crapware. What happens if you boot into safe mode? Does it stay up longer?

DO NOT USE INTERNET EXPLORER.
 
mikea said:
Shut downs? As in "Your computer is shutting down...please standby..." or as in "All the lights just went off?"

The first kind is caused by a worm or one attempting to get in over the network when you don't have a firewall. The second kind is a hardware issue.

As a hardware issue - it just turns off - DO NOT attempt to run without the heat sink on the processor. It will burst into flames in seconds. I would look at it and maybe replace it. New heat sinks with fan can be as cheap as $10-$20. It's very important to apply a thin layer of the compound that comes with it.

Other than that I would blame crapware. What happens if you boot into safe mode? Does it stay up longer?

DO NOT USE INTERNET EXPLORER.
Click to expand...


hi - shuts down means "freezes". the cursor sits in one spot and won't move, pounding on the keyboard doesn't work, etc.

I NOW have mozilla firefox. sigh.
 
Bah - I use IE all the time for significant web browsing and have no spyware or virus issues. I set up myself and my clients with free spyware and virus protection and seldom have any issues.
 
Speed said:
So what do you use? I use Firefox most of the time, but it won't load some pages properly or at all. Company online schedule is the worst. It comes out looking like this (below) in Firefox, when the trip numbers are neatly aligned over date/days in IE. To give you an idea, trip #930 should be over the GEGOMADEN trip, which started on FRI 20th. Totally messed up.

C C C 028901 930 TG 915
DENABQGEGLITDEN GEGOMADEN TULLITDEN TULBOILITDEN O TUL
08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
SU MO TU WE TH FR SA SU MO TU WE TH FR SA SU MO TU WE TH
Click to expand...

So when you have to read pages done by groups that don't follow standards use Maxthon for that page only.

There have been some cases where some (Microsoft) sites detected the browser and deliberately sent the page with a style sheet that trashed how it looked. When you spoofed the browser ID to be IE the page looked looked fine in the other browser. Opera sued and won damages on that.
 
update: going laptop only. giving the computer to my friend Mark, lock stock and barrel. he's helped me out a TON over the years with it. constant upgrades and so on - but I've had it. laptop for me, and if I miss a desktop I will just go buy one later.
 
woodstock said:
update: going laptop only. giving the computer to my friend Mark, lock stock and barrel. he's helped me out a TON over the years with it. constant upgrades and so on - but I've had it. laptop for me, and if I miss a desktop I will just go buy one later.
Click to expand...

Beating da horse: Hang on. Apple is going to announce a new iBook any day now.
 
mikea said:
Beating da horse: Hang on. Apple is going to announce a new iBook any day now.
Click to expand...
Whatever. There is ALWAYS something new around the corner. If you're always waiting for the biggest, baddest, fastest, you'll never end up getting one.
 
I've already got it picked out. ya'll will likely laugh at me, but I'm pretty happy with the package and it's under 1200 bucks. all I do is email and websurf and my photo stuff - and even that isn't hugely involved.

it's a compaq presario R4000 with a bunch of bells and whistles on it.
 
hmmm...

Of all the package brands out there, the one I DON'T recommend is Compaq...

Sorry. :( I don't like how they do business and I don't like how they bundle their computers.

Dell or Gateway now -- or Alien - good companies. :)
 
this one is customizable - when I get done with the package I'm requesting it should be pretty spiffy.
 
The reason I don't like Compaq is that for years they built computers that can only be upgraded with Compaq parts. I don't know if they STILL do it that way, but they used to, and it was overpriced and annoying enough to swear me off of them for a long time...
 
Greebo said:
The reason I don't like Compaq is that for years they built computers that can only be upgraded with Compaq parts. I don't know if they STILL do it that way, but they used to, and it was overpriced and annoying enough to swear me off of them for a long time...
Click to expand...

You mean there's a company that makes laptops that can use someone else's parts? Which one?

I find laptops to be much more proprietary than desktops. And yes, I share your concern about Compaq.

I'm using an HP laptop as we spe <er> type. Memory and hard drive are off-the-shelf. Pretty much everything else is built in. Battery comes from HP/CPQ or third-party.
 
Brian Austin said:
mikea said:
Beating da horse: Hang on. Apple is going to announce a new iBook any day now.
Click to expand...
Whatever. There is ALWAYS something new around the corner. If you're always waiting for the biggest, baddest, fastest, you'll never end up getting one.
Click to expand...

Uh, huh. It turned out that "any day now" is TODAY.

Except with Steve Jobs, when Apple announces a new product you can order it as soon as he mentions it. As in NOW for the new iBooks and Mac Minis.
 
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