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[celticgeek]

In light of the initial discussion in WCDT, I have decided to start
a "dead and dying computers" thread. 

My own computer (a custom built rig from a local supplier) is acting
strange.  The screen freezes up, and the computer does not respond
either to the mouse or to keystrokes.  I usually attribute this behavior
to hardware, since GNU/Linux does not normally have this problem. 

On the theory that this was an overheating problem caused by dust,
I did take the computer out and clean it out with a can of compressed
air, but this did not help. 

I figure it could also be the video card going bad. 

The freezing recurs either every 20 to 30 hours, or every 30 to 60
minutes. 

I finally decided to rectify the situation by buying a new computer,
and it will be ready in a week or so. 

I have talked to my supplier, who (without having the computer in hand)
figures that it might be the processor, or possibly the power supply. 
He will do a free diagnostic check (the thing is essentially still under
warranty) for me.  I have decided to keep on using this computer until
the new one arrives, and I have backed everything up as of a few days
ago. 

[jwhouk]

What this thing was doing - and I believe the recent heat wave we had that made things ungodly hot and humid (Relative humidity over 60% and temps around 80-85 F, or 26-30 C) had a hand in this - was that suddenly the picture would turn "pixellated", like the screen had been split into small 8-bit strips and shifted. The cursor would occasionally be in front of it, and (if I was lucky) I could shut the thing down. More often than not, I couldn't.

Then, two nights ago, it stopped doing a "software restart" - one where you've had the computer on, and you click "Start->Shutdown->Restart", and instead of restarting it shut down, then the light for the computer never came back on.

A power-user on another forum I frequent suggested unplugging USB devices from the machine, which I did - and that was when the "no nothing" happened. The fan kicked in, and the HDD booted - but the power light never went on.

I let the rig sit idle for a while, thinking I was going to have to bring it in to the local repair shop. Then, just on a lark, I pushed the on button - and it lit up, and everything started up fine.

There is one thing that I do think might be the trouble - every time I've tried to do a dust inside the rig with C/A, the machine has started up funny the next few times.

The computer is now attached to another monitor (which happens to be my office TV), and I'm just keeping an eye out for possible issues.

[jwhouk]

The problem has been solved.

I'm typing this on my new Gateway DX4870, running Win7.

[celticgeek]

Congratulations.  New computers are always fun, especially if you are running a new operating system. 

My new computer should be here Monday.  My old one is still freezing every now and again (every two to twenty hours). 

[LTK]

That looks like an excellent PC, jwhouk, good luck with it.

A year ago I was fairly certain that this laptop of mine would kick the bucket soon. The hard drive was making weird clicky noises periodically, and it would sometimes fail to come out of standby when the power button was pressed. When this happens, you can hear the fan, hard drive, and disk drive all resume operation like theu normally would, but the screen remains a powerless black. Luckily, it always works fine after shutting down and restarting. Some hard freezes are so drastic that holding down the power button doesn't even power it off, and you have to resort to pulling out the battery. Thankfully, I haven't had any of those in a very long time.

There are still some things that don't bode well, though. I've been getting a very short-lived purple screen when taking the computer out of stand-by, which occurs just before the 'enter password' screen appears. Lately, it has been lasting a bit longer on some occasions, more than half a second. And very recently, it sometimes shows up as red instead of purple. There's no text on it or anything, just a uniform purple or red filling the entire screen for a fraction of a second. It's quite weird. I have no idea what that means for its operation.

Oh look, post #2000. *streamers*

[Sorflakne]

Laptop is three years old, and other than my mouse randomly performing a double-click action when I single-click sometimes, it's running fine. 

Then again, I've only noticed it with my non-laptop mouse, so it might just be that.  Which means I'd have to replace an $80 mouse 

[LTK]

That would be unfortunate. What kind of mouse is that? Might be the same €85 that I have.

[idontunderstand]

I spilled water over my old laptop. I had been punching the bag too hard and my arms were acting all goofy. I managed to save the hard drive and wonder if I'll ever try to bring the things back to life.. anyone with experience on that? It's a sad piece of plastic without a soul now.

[Sorflakne]

That would be unfortunate. What kind of mouse is that? Might be the same €85 that I have.

This one, a Naga Razor:



The numberpad on the side took a lot of getting used to, and even today I typically only use 1-3, but even just those three buttons adds a lot of functionality.

[Welu]

My laptop has taken to having white horizontal lines streak across it covering the display. It's been slowly dying for a while, getting slower, overheating, crashing, etc. It's been doing this once in a while for a couple of weeks but it's been doing it more often and even covered the whole screen and last for up to fifteen seconds. Also it's even started with vertical lines.

Acer. (Ugh...) Had it just over three years. My external harddrive is also on its last legs but it has a fairly recent back up. It'll have to do since I won't have enough for a new one till my next wages.

[LTK]

Do you clean out the heat sink once in a while? When my mom's laptop was starting to get really hot and noisy, I cracked it open and found a centimeter-thick strip of dust and hair just behind the exhaust. After pulling that out it was right as rain. I can't say it'll solve all your problems by doing the same, but one's better than none.

That would be unfortunate. What kind of mouse is that? Might be the same €85 that I have.

This one, a Naga Razor:



The numberpad on the side took a lot of getting used to, and even today I typically only use 1-3, but even just those three buttons adds a lot of functionality.

Oh, I've seen that one. Razer makes some interesting stuff but I never got the impression they make quality products. I'd say that they're mostly gimmicky, but that would be a bit hypocritical given that my own mouse is a Logitech Darkfield, which is a laser mouse that's advertised to work even on transparent and reflective surfaces. It really does, but there are only a handful of occasions where I've had the opportunity to try it out. I mean, how many glass tables do you work on every day?

Aside from that, it also has two side buttons that are really handy for web browsing. I feel handicapped whenever I use a mouse that hasn't got a Back button. Aside from that, I wouldn't really know what to do with extra thumb buttons in non-gaming related situations.

[pwhodges]

I mean, how many glass tables do you work on every day?

My wife's work table has a glass top with a ground underside (it's from Ikea).

[celticgeek]

My "dying" computer has not frozen for 72 hours, which is good.  I also know that while I am typing this, it will probably freeze in the middle of this post. 

Had a problem with the delivery of my new computer.  It should be here tomorrow morning.  Delivery problem was that the delivery tech and I could
nor get together on a time before tomorrow (several appointments on my part, which were at odds with his schedule).  I am looking forward to having a new computer. 

[Redball]

I mean, how many glass tables do you work on every day?

My wife's work table has a glass top with a ground underside (it's from Ikea).

Is it a light table?

[pwhodges]

No, just a table whose top is glass.

[Carl-E]

Which would make it pretty hefty...

 

[pwhodges]

Not as hefty as you'd think.  There's no frame: just two (stylised) trestles which the sheet of glass sits on; it's no heavier than a solid wooden top (though a chipboard one might be lighter).

[Redball]

I think I've seen that in an IKEA store. Handsome, as I recall.

[Welu]

Do you clean out the heat sink once in a while? When my mom's laptop was starting to get really hot and noisy, I cracked it open and found a centimeter-thick strip of dust and hair just behind the exhaust. After pulling that out it was right as rain. I can't say it'll solve all your problems by doing the same, but one's better than none.

Never done it myself before till today. Yep, a good solid thick strip of dust. Hasn't been running long enough to see a difference but the fan sounds wonderful, in that I can barely hear it in a silent room.

[Carl-E]

OK, so in the last three months three laptops in my household have died.  IN the case of my wife's, it was the power jack, which I jury rigged until I couldn't, ordered a new one, tried to solder it in place, and it doesn't work.  I need to remove it and try resoldering it more carefully, I think, and I just hope in the repeated disassembly/reassembly process that I haven't damaged anything (I hadn't in several tries before...). 

My daughter's just quit, won't even power up.  There's a slight dark flash of the screen, then nothing.  I fear for her hard drive, though to be honest, her power jack's in pretty rough shape too so the thing might just not be getting the current it needs. 

Then, two weeks ago, mine went.  No lights, won't charge/power up.  The charger's fine, and the jack seems OK, even from the inside.  This happened once before when it was another person's - then, one afternoon I blew all the dust out of the fan ports (literally, just blew on the outlet and watched a cloud come out the intakes... the former owner was a smoker), and it started right up.  No problems for three years.  Now, this...

I'm working with a friend's spare laptop.  It's a bitch (the F and V keys are missing, but the little buttons still respond), and none of my stuff's there.  I wanna get a hard drive cable and just pull everything off all three and put them on a new machine... my wife bought a beauty for a song from the online yard sale she frequents.  If I could get her old stuff onto the new one she'd be happy, but now my "fix-it" prowess is on the line with her old one. 


Was this thread just for venting, or does anyone have any suggestions/recommendations? 

[jwhouk]

With that many power issues, have you checked your outlets or power strips to see if they're grounded correctly?

[Redball]

Safe to assume none are Mac laptops? I've had pretty good success with repair/replacement of parts on Macs.

[pwhodges]

Have you tried powering them up with no battery in place?  Sometimes a dead battery can prevent them from running even with mains power; though sometimes they won't start up without a battery in place - I've met both scenarios.  Either way, a battery that's given out is a pretty likely cause of sudden death.

[Carl-E]

With that many power issues, have you checked your outlets or power strips to see if they're grounded correctly?

Most of the chargers are two-pronged.  Doesn't mean grounding isn't an issue, though...  all the grounded outlets in the house were installed myself, and the rest are case-grounded (romex). 

Safe to assume none are Mac laptops? I've had pretty good success with repair/replacement of parts on Macs.

Nope, we're talking a Dell, an HP and an old Lenovo.  Never really liked Macs, myself.  Would love a Linux box (I worked with some NeXT computers in grad school), but never had the patience for it. 

Have you tried powering them up with no battery in place?  Sometimes a dead battery can prevent them from running even with mains power; though sometimes they won't start up without a battery in place - I've met both scenarios.  Either way, a battery that's given out is a pretty likely cause of sudden death.

I did with my wife's, and it was pretty clearly the charred remains of the jack that were the problem (a 19 volt charger!).  I'll have to check my daughter's again (it's been a while since I looked at it, it's the Dell), and I didn't even think of that on mine (the Lenovo).  I'm just a little distressed as to what kind of soldering mistake I've made on my wife's HP.  I used a low-wattage iron, but I'm afraid I may have damaged some of the board where it attaches.  I really don't have the proper equipment to check continuity, either. 

Well, back to it - soon. 

[jwhouk]

All right, I'm pretty much acclimatized to this new Gateway. By the way: even though Acer bought the company years ago, this is my third product from cow country; my first was a 300S, which was replaced by the GT4010 that just died.

Now, one of the things I'd planned on doing was lifting the old hard drive from the GT's chassis, for possible use as an external drive with my new computer. On the surface, this looked doable, as the hard drive is in its own bay and wasn't fused down to the chassis or anything. However, I noticed a major issue almost immediately: the one screw securing the drive to the bay at the bottom of the chassis is right next to the bottom edge of the motherboard. To get any sort of torque to get the screw/nut out so I could remove the drive from the bay, I'd basically have to remove the mobo.

I think I'm going to be taking the thing into the local computer shop to see if they can get the thing out. And, maybe, see if it's salvageable.