Hardware

[filkertom]

Ohhhhh, I do not need this. Not now.

Desk computer is giving me problems which seem to indicate either the power supply or the graphics card, I think the former. The main hard drive is also making little chirping noises, that sound like some kind of lubrication problem. FSM save me if it's contact. The drive is still reading, so I'm currently backing it up completely.

It's a few days before Dragon*Con and I have to burn CD-Rs, I'm trying to finish a commission job, and I'm working on a special project with OVFF, along with all the other stuff. I do not need this.

How's your computer behaving lately?

Comments

[timewalker.livejournal.com]

It's funny you should ask. I just get finished building a new server to replace an ancient Dell to house my media files, and my main desktop PC decides to screw with me. All of my desktop icons disappear and when I move the mouse to the start menu, it turns into an hourglass. Searches bring the closest problem someone else was having as being a corrupt explorer.exe file. So I copy a clean version in safe mode from another PC, and everything boots up fine. Then I reboot and it comes back.
Anti-virus comes up clean. Malware scan comes up clean.
So I go so far as to repair the XP install. Hey, everything works fine, but my HP Printer software decides it needs to be updated and catches me in a never-ending loop.
Finally get it to stop asking for status.msi, reboot, and the original problem is back.
I give up. I'm formatting the hard drive and starting over.
Maybe Linux.

[sillyfox.livejournal.com]

I had a hard drive blow up on me last week (not literally, but it did make an agonizing, prolonged clickitty-clackitty death rattle). Thankfully it was a secondary drive, and I managed to pull off the most important files before it went.

I wonder if summer weather is what's killing electronics. It seems I always have some computer bit decide to stop working this time of year.

[kyril.livejournal.com]

It's usually the heat. This is normally the hottest part of the year.

Especially if you don't have (enough) air conditioning, parts that normally run OK will go over the edge...and may get better when it's cooler.

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

The new desktop has been behaving very badly. 2 factory-level re-installs later I still haven't figured out what the heck it's problem is. Wait, it's running vista... :P

The old desktop miraculously started up again a few weeks ago, so that makes me happy. I still plan on eventually making that my first foray into linux. We'll see.

The laptop is running too hot, especially if I try to run guild wars on it. Considering that this was my gaming machine for a year before I "upgraded" the desktop, this is strange to me, to say the least.

I can't afford to replace/repair anything, and the fact that the screen is falling apart on the laptop worries me a great deal. It is sporting electrical tape around the bottom 2 corners. Yay.

Good luck with your hd etc., Tom.


Edited to note that you should stop by Cinci on your way to Atlanta for hugs :)

[hms42]

Mine - OK except for the macbook pro which is getting a wipe and rebuild for the 10.6 upgrade (released Friday). Its having a DVD burning issue that I hope is software based.

My mother's new computer... Out of box defective on the motherboard. I get to have fun with Intel over it tomorrow at some point.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

The relatively new laptop is back at Best Buy, having the wireless antennas hooked back up (they had apparently been disconnected in the process of replacing the broken hinge). This is still on their dime, as the prior owner had bought a service contract, but that contract will expire around the time of their projected delivery date, September 9.

Knock on wood, everything else is so far, so good.

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

The computer's fine, but I managed to kill yet another router. I don't know why, but about every other year my router will slowly start acting up. Only on the WAN/internet interface, not the internally switched side. I'll start losing connectivity, which can be fixed by rebooting the router. It will happen more and more often, and then finally one day it will refuse to acquire an IP address. I'm just glad they're so much cheaper these days. I can get one for $49 at Target, instead of the $200 or so they were when I first bought one.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

I have the exact same problem, PCs can talk to each other but not the internet. Except for me it happens every 6-9 months, not every other year. I have no idea what causes it, VERY annoying. No place left local to get a new router when my current one dies, will have to order online.

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

If I were in that situation I'd order another one identical to the one I have now, go ahead and configure it and put it back in the box.

[druidsfire.livejournal.com]

I'm saying absolutely nothing for superstitious reasons. Well, other than I have a copy of Snow Leopard sitting on my desk patiently waiting for me to finish my damned sewing projects for Dragon. ;)

Speaking of, when's your vague ballpark estimate ETA?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Most likely around lunchtime Thursday. I seem to be at the Hyatt.

[brmj.livejournal.com]

My new desktop is behaving wonderfully. I just wish they'd hurry up and finish updating the Free Software video drivers to do 3d. The laptop is doing great, and I haven't set up the ancient desktop yet; I arrived in my dorm this morning.

[laura47.livejournal.com]

You have no idea. I am moving from san francisco to boston via dragon*on, and my much abused laptop fell off the table, and inappropriate bits are exposed, and it won't close the lid, without making horrible noises so I haven't tried to close it all the way, so.... I have no idea if I can take my laptop on the plane, and I can't ship it like this, and I can't afford a new one, so I'm just miserable. :-(

[alverant.livejournal.com]

My home and work computer have been acting fine lately. I'm still trying to decide if I want to build a new system when Windows 7 comes out or have a pre-built one. My current one is over 4 years old now and the case has lasted me more than twice as long. I'm thinking maybe it's time to upgrade. On the other hand, why fix what ain't broke? So I'm still on the fence. One thing I know I do want is a dual monitory system. I have it at work and it is very useful and I can think of just as many uses for it at home too if I just have the desk space.

Good luck with your hardware problems.

[lariss.livejournal.com]

Doing tolerably well.
almost 7 years old and slow as molasses, but - for its age -doing pretty darn well.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Funny you should ask. Mac Mini had a complete meltdown after 3 years of faithful service and I lost everything on the hard drive. Most of my original writing and stuff was on the external hard drive [whew] but my iTunes library and personal phone book were toast. Have rebuilt the iTunes from my iPod [Thank you, Little Apps Company and your fine iPod Rip application] including the Tom Smith corpus. And what the heck, Con-Chord is only 2 weeks away, I can buy anything I'm missing there.

I'm not entirely sure that the warrantee was actually still good. The nice boy at the Mac Genius counter didn't actually give dates, but smiled in a sweet way and said it was covered. So I didn't persue the matter. :-) Now Doctor T is back with new insides, no charge. Little blessings along the way.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

I think my Ubuntu powered laptop has suffered a rejection problem..it did, at first, handle flash files reasonably well...but of late they are badly corrupted and cause the browser to crash. Also everything except the native Movie Player fails to work, with corrupted video and no audio.

I suspect a bad codec somewhere, but given that I've wiped & reinstalled everything... twice, and it's still doing it. I'm at a loss. I mean, if it was a hardware fault, wouldn't it affect everything video related?

Meh, either way. The 'new' monitor for my desktop is on it's way...and I know that Tiamat can handle video stuff just fine. I'll do a complete reinstall on Draco, and if that doesn't fix it, I'll install flash block and use my little laptop for just writing!

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

I share your pain, Tom. we've got two massive orders to prep and our main production machine (barely 8 months old) caught the pip from a vista update & went into endless reboot land.

we've spent the weekend rebuilding it. *sigh*

Thanks be to all the deities though, my husband had JUST finished a backup.
Said data is now loaded on two other machines as well as back onto the production machine.

Oh, and the backup drive that saved us? It just happens to have been jannyblue 's birthday present to me!

Let's hear it for good friends!

[poltr1]

Well, my 9-year-old desktop (named "orac") gave me a Blue Screen Of Death while I was browsing Facebook last night. It does that once in a while, and I haven't been able to figure out why. Other than that, the computers are behaving fine.

[ipslore.livejournal.com]

Not really a problem as such, but my hard drive's getting uncomfortably full. Not in any real danger of actually running out of space, but I'm down low enough that I can't install Team Fortress 2. I'm planning on just getting a new box and shipping all my data over, but I want to wait until Windows 7 so I don't have to deal with Vista.

[catlin.livejournal.com]

My house computer spent all of gencon turned off til I could get home and reinstall windows after a virus attack off facebook ads. I am Slowly getting her rebuilt, but I lost a ton of things I really cared about.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

So sorry to hear about your computer. I hope you can recover what you lost.

That reminds me, I need to make an update to my computer too.

[malada.livejournal.com]

After my machine decided not to read the CD drive and refused to hook up to the network, I decided it was time to do a clean install. I think I had some hardware conflicts and possibly a dead network card.

Most of my hardware is low end and over five years old. I've got IDE drives and AGP video. I'll be looking to buy a new system in another year or so.

Back up, back up, back up!

-m

[mishboi.livejournal.com]

Old and crotchety, but after 10 minutes of groaning through start up it's still a power horse...just slower.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

Quite well, actually.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

I discovered last night that if I try to transfer files between my two PCs both connected to the router BOTH PCs loose their network connectivity for a minute or two, both completely dropping. I seam to need a new router every six months, this is getting more than annoying.