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Dead and Dying computers

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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*

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