Jul -- General Chat: Let's computing! Diary of fixing another broken computer

Green Birdo
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Posted on 09-14-07 07:14:04 PM

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Luckily, none of your family knows anything about computers. Mine doesn't but I know somoene who's does and they can't do shit on the computer because it's all locked out and time restricted at the router, which I imagine is a PC based one.

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Posted on 09-14-07 10:41:05 PM

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Daily Cycle II ~ 2991

Originally posted by paulguy
Luckily, none of your family knows anything about computers. Mine doesn't but I know somoene who's does and they can't do shit on the computer because it's all locked out and time restricted at the router, which I imagine is a PC based one.

Yeah, that's the thing... even if they did, I know more. My mom tried to put a restriction on my AOL account years ago, for example... all I had to do was use a keylogger on my grandparents account and use that instead

(Some genius upgrading my dad's computer years set a BIOS/CMOS password so only he could update it... yeah, fuck you. *remove battery*)

Aside for that, this computer's fixed. I just got AVG, and I'm planning on removing my old files (drivers, that kind of thing) since they're not needed. Everything's updated, installed, and automatic; AVG updates at 12 AM, scans at 2 AM, and Windows Update runs at 4 AM... but since this is Windows 2000, I'm highly doubting they'll ever get an update.

All I've really got to do is just install AOL (sigh) and some other things for them and I'm done.

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Tiden
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Posted on 09-14-07 11:13:08 PM

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Originally posted by paulguy
Luckily, none of your family knows anything about computers. Mine doesn't but I know somoene who's does and they can't do shit on the computer because it's all locked out and time restricted at the router, which I imagine is a PC based one.

Actually my dad likes to pull the "I'm older therefore I know more than you" card on me far too often. Of course, now that he's out of the house (oh thank God

), I don't have to put up with that... save for when my mother does (and probably will, intentionally) fuck something up.

I also hate sharing systems (which is what I'm stuck doing now) for that exact reason.

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Posted on 09-15-07 12:07:16 AM

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Daily Cycle II ~ 2992

And so I get down here... sure enough, Lexmark X125's drivers are offline. Hooray, just what I needed.

Cue headache.

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Kles

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Posted on 09-15-07 12:43:29 AM

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	Printer drivers are the most fun of all. ____________________ ( ﾟ³ﾟ)三№♥

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Posted on 09-15-07 04:26:47 AM

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Daily Cycle II ~ 2993

So instead we instal the HP printer they'd been sitting on for, oh, months.

sigh.

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Kles

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Posted on 09-15-07 05:02:52 AM

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	Literally, sitting on? ____________________ ( ﾟ³ﾟ)三№♥

Rena
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Posted on 09-15-07 07:38:20 AM

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JL2 - Post #963 - 09-15-07 02:38:20 AM

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I love knowing more about computers than anyone else in the house, but not being trusted to fix them.

If someone were to, for example, try to lock me out of the Internet connection, I could just go wireless and break the WEP key (or change it, I doubt they even know how to change the router's default password), or use my neighbour's wifi, etc. And trying to mess with my computer? They'd need to figure out how the hell to work it first.

Originally posted by Kles
Sound drivers are the most fun of all.

Fixed. Printer drivers may crap all over your system (I don't need 200MB of junkware to print kthx), but at least they generally A) exist B) don't crash the OS and C) work.

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Posted on 09-15-07 08:49:21 PM

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Daily Cycle II ~ 2995

Originally posted by Kles
Literally, sitting on?

sitting on; to hoard; to store, usually without knowing; e.g., he was sitting on a gold mine

I got paid $100 for it. So far, that went to:

1. Fausto's omlette burrito (oh god yes

~)
2. Power cable
3. VGA adaptor
4. NexStar 3 external SATA-USB2.0 enclosure
5. 2x 1GB sticks of RAM for the laptop

I ams happy.

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Posted on 09-18-07 02:58:24 AM

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Daily Cycle II ~ 3016

SuperPinto II (the new one that I just fixed for them that needed a complete reinstall, not SuperPinto 1 that I have home right now with Slayers) is haunted.

Let's review:

* Rebooting the machine with my USB drive in it results in a blank screen; removing it instantly makes Windows 2000 start booting as if nothing happened (literally, instantly)
* Rebooting has a roughly 33% chance of making the printer work, otherwise it is "disconnected"; the other 66% of the time the USB device "failed to start", or it's listed as a removable drive
* Trying to insert my USB drive rarely results in an actual drive, more often than not it does nothing at all
* There's a mysterious "Unknown" device that I can't match to any installed hardware, nor does it have a Windows Update driver
* Bootup is unusually slow, even though it's Win2k and on a much faster computer than my 800MHz

The printer oddity might be the result of a faulty cable, but when it does work, it works flawlessly (tried printing two test pages on different, working boots)... the oddness in itself is nothing new, either, as another printer by an entirely different company (the Lexmark vs. a new HP) experienced the same inexplicable problems.

Needless to say, I am completely and incredibly confused.

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DigitalBasic
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Posted on 09-18-07 03:02:04 AM

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...that's a fucked up computer then.

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Posted on 09-18-07 03:05:25 AM

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Daily Cycle II ~ 3017

Originally posted by cpubasic13
...that's a fucked up computer then.

Yeah, it's weird. For example... moving the mouse during a clean Memtest86+ test would crash it. No explanation, no nothing -- it'd just unexpectedly reboot.

I'm beginning to think that their little power setup (about 4 6-outlet splitters in one outlet) is doing serious harm. A fan they had plugged in recently quit working, and a few other things... hell, I think the other computer I have here suffered some damage (I suspected it was the original cause of the massive hard drive failure it experienced)

Of interest, at least, is that as long as it was allowed to run untouched, memtest86+ worked fine.

*Biospark shakes head

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Rena
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Posted on 09-18-07 03:45:56 AM

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JL2 - Post #1018 - 09-17-07 10:45:56 PM

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If not that, I'd suspect a corrupt BIOS or faulty motherboard. Or of course, power problems broke the BIOS and/or motherboard.

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Drag
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Posted on 09-18-07 03:58:13 AM

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Drag's Post #224

Yeah, at this point, it's most likely a hardware issue. The issue with your USB drive being plugged in at boot, that could be something as simple as the computer trying to boot from your USB drive. You should be able to disable that (or change its priority) in the bios settings.

And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised that their multitude of splitters possibly caused damage. That certainly needs to be straightened out...

I'm assuming the computer was plugged into it?

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Posted on 09-18-07 05:04:49 AM

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Originally posted by Biospark
SuperPinto II is haunted.

Pff, that's nothing.

Every computer I've tried to turn into a server (except ones done for others

) has had some form of hardware malfunction. There was the dead BIOS in one, a broken RAM slot in another, and the mysterious disappearing onboard video in a third. Most recently, a PCI slot in my computer died when I installed another network adapter to try and set up a server. All things considered, I should be glad this computer still works at all.

But enough about my curse. Xk, the "unknown" thingy is a bad registry entry. Nothing regedit couldn't fix. Also, the USB boot problem isn't incorrect boot order. That strange phenomenon is caused by too much current draw through the USB ports. Come to think of it, that's 3 out of 5 problems (USB-related) narrowed down to the power setup right there. And my money goes on power being to blame for the slow boot, too.

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Rachel Mae

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Posted on 09-18-07 05:12:18 AM

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Let's review your review:

- My computer acts similarly weird if a USB drive is plugged in, although this is at the POST screen, not right before Win2K boots. It's just trying to find a boot record on the drive, most likely.
- Same issue, but with my Acer scanner. About half the time I reboot, something screws up, the power light goes off, and Windows gives me the "device failed to start" message. It is an older USB device, so something in its USB implementation might be slightly off-kilter.
- I get that with my Win98 machine, but 9x's USB storage support is flaky at best (most/all storage devices require a third-party driver).
- Had that problem a couple times in the past. Usually turned out to be some mystery part on the motherboard that apparently wasn't necessary for normal operation...

- Dunno about this one. My parents' Win2K machine (with a relatively new Celeron) just started booting reeeeeeeeally slowly one day, for no reason. Did a virus/spyware scan, Windows update, disk check/defragment...nothing.

To summarize, I think it's Windows 2000 that's haunted, and not the computer.

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Rena
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Posted on 09-18-07 05:33:57 AM

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JL2 - Post #1020 - 09-18-07 12:33:57 AM

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Heh, mine used to BSOD if I plug in or unplug a joystick while Windows was booting. I haven't tested to see if it still does.

It'd say INTERNAL_POWER_ERROR or something like that.

Originally posted by Joe
Every computer I've tried to turn into a server (except ones done for others ) has had some form of hardware malfunction.

Come to think of it, me too. I only tried with 2 systems, but the results were weird as hell.

#1: Worked just fine when I put it away. When I dug it up again, it wouldn't do anything. Powers on, but doesn't beep, display an image, blink any LEDs, etc.

#2: Was working just fine, but I needed to install something from a CD, so I went into the BIOS settings to change the boot order. When I exited that menu, it never successfully booted again (same issue as #1).

My best guess is #1 had/still has dust shorting out some piece on the motherboard and #2 managed to corrupt its BIOS trying to save the settings. I haven't really examined them since.

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Posted on 09-18-07 07:50:11 AM; last edit by Biospark on 09-18-07 07:53 AM

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Daily Cycle II ~ 3019

Yeah, I've been meaning to get them to fix their outlet problem fixed... here's a quick rundown of how things are plugged in (I think), actual use may vary:

OUTLET -- SPLITTER ---- SPLITTER etc. Splitter 1 -- Router -- Cable modem -- ??? -- ??? -- ??? -- ??? Splitter 2 -- TV -- TV 2 -- Lamp 1 -- Lamp 2 -- ??? -- Splitter 3 ---- Printer (?) ---- ??? ---- ??? ---- ??? ---- ??? ---- Splitter 4 ------ Desk lamp ------ Fan ------ Printer ------ Monitor ------ System ------ Cell phone charger ------ Walkietalkie charger ------ Phone ------ (more?)

This is an approximation of what's plugged in and how, but I'm sure it's wrong somehow -- it's entirely by memory.

For a comparison of how mine is:
Splitter 1 -- Speakers -- Alarm clock -- Computer -- Computer 2 -- Television/monitor -- Laptop -- PSP charger -- Phone charger Splitter 2 -- Light -- ??? -- ??? -- ??? -- ??? -- ???

(not from memory; it's actually across the room)

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Hiryuu

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Posted on 09-18-07 10:19:56 AM

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Simplicity v1.1

The fact that the USB's fucking with your boot throws up the red flag for faulty BIOS, either in settings or install or bad mobo. Makes me wonder if it's sending out a short to a power fault or something.

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