ITT: Tales of PC woe. Or why I hate MS (sometimes)!

[TrunKated]

Why, oh, why, doesn't microsoft (or some other part of my PC) give me a better error?

A couple of years ago, I started having problems with my old HD on my "main PC" because the HD was mounted on its side with only one loose screw. It would randomly make a racket and then the PC would freeze. I was able to replace the HD and secure it better.

Then months later I began to get problems with the new HD. Or so it seemed. Let me make a long story short. It now seems to be a memory error with the cheap upgrade memory I had bought a while back. But I only saw disk or file errors seemingly randomly but with increasing frequency. Like "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys " It recommending repairing the file via Recovery Console. Well, guess, what. It was the bad memory not a file problem. I found the error on a discussion board and replacing or removing or reseating the memory was the remedy. So far the PC is working like a charm.

Lets hope it keeps doing so.

But, couldn't it have said something about the memory?

[PrBlahBlahtson]

You turn your computer on. Some time, usually within the first 5 minutes, the computer completely freezes and either restarts itself or has to be restarted via the ACPI buttons. What is the cause?

Not the processor, not the memory, not Windows (happens in the BIOS and Ubuntu install), not the power supply (tried both I have on hand.)

At least you get error messages

[OhZone]

Is this a Linux problem you've been having?

[PrBlahBlahtson]

Originally Posted by OhZone

Is this a Linux problem you've been having?

General hardware. Oh, and for what it's worth, I'm fairly sure that the problem is the video card isn't getting enough juice at startup to power the cooler on it. For some reason, ATI left the seperate power line off the x1600 spec, and the 939 chipset has a notorious problem for putting out enough on the PCI-E bridge. But I don't have the money right now to flip the BIOS switch that says "increase voltage to video card."

[TrunKated]

LOL! You know what's funny.


When I was a kid, the store where my Mom bought a 13" TV for me, got mad because I tied to adjust the vertical height myself.

Now, we're expected to service and rebuild PC's by ourselves.




Well, anyway, I now have three hard drives that work in my "main" so if the damn thing crashes I can just pop in a replacement, although the original one would probably still lock up occasionally.

[PrBlahBlahtson]

Might try checking in the System error logs for any bad sectors being located by Windows XP. Be aware that it's not necessarily going to label the drives correctly. I encountered those claiming that "D" was bad, when it was in fact the "F" drive that crapped out.

Alternatively, try SpeedFan. It monitors fan speeds and computer temperatures, but it also lets you view the SMART statistics logged by pretty much any hard drive from the last ten years. You'll find a failing drive real fast that way.

[TrunKated]

OK, I'll try speed fan, but then again, this DID turn out to be a problem with the memory not the HD as indicated by the errors I saw. Scan disks did not find problems with the HDs not even the one that still acts weird sometimes.

[TrunKated]

UGH, trying to copy data from an XP to a Vista machine. Keep getting permission errors and the estimated time says something like 34597 days and 11 hours remaining.

[PrBlahBlahtson]

The estimated time is derived by averaging the file size and the number of files. So when it gets to a block of 300 MB files, it assumes all 25000 files are 300 MB. It's one of those things that eventually straightens itself out.

As far as permission errors, you might want to make sure you're logged in with the highest permissions you can manage (i.e., Administrator) in order to avoid those.