We all love them and hate them, yet computers are slowly becoming the center of the known universe.
We all love them and hate them, yet computers are slowly becoming the center of the known universe.
No doubt most of us use a computer as the central nervous system of our part 15 operations. It can be a real pain when they give us trouble as this has been outlined by Neil – Radio8z http://part15.us/node/2253
it is very important to back up everything up.
Thankfully I did back-up most of the files needed to keep my station running smooth.
Until now:
I have encountered a major computer failure with my station computer.
A Dell 280 with Windows Professional and Zararadio software for play out.
Recently this computer had shown signs there was a problem.
In my efforts to track down the problem the computer started to really take a turn for the worse.
Restarts were slow, occasionally it would freeze up for become slow.
I decided to wipe the hard drive clean and install Unbuntu Linux since I was not able to find the Win XP Pro disc.
This was a big mistake, now the computer will partially load Linux, but by the time i get to the log in screen it soon forgets what to do after i have entered the username and password.
To confirm the software installed onto the hard drive i pull it out of the Dell 280 and placed it into another computer I knew was working.
Sure enough, Linux was running perfectly.
So my question is, why won’t the Dell 280 load Linux completely?
Am I missing something important? I have Unbuntu on another Dell and it runs great, i think it even runs faster than Windows.
I checked the battery and memory sticks, the only other thing I didn’t cover was the hard drive but since it loads fine on another computer I don’t think that is the trouble.
Help! lol
Oh yeah!! Happy Mothers Day to all the mom’s out there.
Computer Trouble
Barry,
Often problems such as you describe are caused by hardware trouble which is not severe enough to halt the machine but will cause slow response and data corruption.
You mentioned that you checked the memory sticks. How? I had a bad stick in high memory and didn’t know it until I noticed my video captures had some pixel noise. This went on for months then the computer OS suddenly crashed. I used a dos bootable program called Memtest (free on the Web) and it went crazy when it hit the bad memory addresses.
Another insidious problem is the power supply going out of spec. This happened to both mine and my wife’s computers. Symptoms just as you described. The best bet is to replace the PS with a higher wattage unit if it will fit.
If your hard drive is SMART enabled get a program which reads the data. I use AIDA which is no longer supported but it works. Another nice system utility is SIW available free on the net but I don’t know if it reads the SMART stuff. The SMART system keeps track of the disc physical operation and alerts when something is out of spec. with the intent being that you can retire the drive before it crashes. It saved my system once.
The problem is that the computer systems can limp along and still function but a crash in certain sooner or later with hardware failures.
I have heard that if you lose your Windows disc and if you have a legitimate copy of Windows as evidenced by the validation sticker with a good product key that Microsoft can provide you with a replacement disc. Might be worth checking into.
Good luck.
Neil
Do Not Stick the Stick in Here!
Similar problems as described here where the PC was eratic. It gave all appearances of some type of trojan or virus. Multiple drive reformats, replacing the drive, several different antivirus and spyware utilities later it still had the same problem.
It was decided to replace the RAM sticks as maybe there’s a bad stick. Same problem, eratic.
Quite by chance in the process of swapping and moving RAM sticks it was found that whenever a stick was in slot two we had a problem. No stick in slot two, no problems.
Replaced two 1 gb sticks with one 2 gb stick.
I guess the motherboard (less than two years old) has a bad socket as its been running great for almost 6 months with no problems.
Clarifying without a clarifier
He He,
I guess I should have been more specific about how i checked the memory sticks. I basically made sure they were seated properly.
I read the responses last night before going to bed and it occurred to me that perhaps we have a bigger problem here.
My wife swapped out her power supply for a much smaller one as the original had been acting strange lately then finally just quit working.
(she has a dell 3000 series like the one i am using here)
A week or two after that the girls Sony Vio was turned off just before they went to bed, the next day they tried to fire it up and got nothing.
Now the station computer, same symptoms as the rest.
I am beginning to wonder if the computers here are starving for power from the wall sockets in our mobile home.
I can’t keep lightbulbs in lamps for long before they blow out and we all know most mobile homes are wired with the cheapest wire they could find.
What if this is the problem? All of our computers on surge protector power strips but they do not offer any line conditioning.
I am assuming line conditioning provides a more stable supply of AC to the appliances?
I don’t know. I am going to try the memory sticks and check the power supply again. But as I said on my Facebook page, Analog gear is looking really good right now.
Thanks for the input.
Computers and Power Line Problems
Short of replacing the power supply and memory sticks with new ones you need a systematic troubleshooting method. I don’t know of a reliable way to test a PC power supply short of replacement since the voltages cannot be measured with no load and even if measured under load the readings will not necessarily detect noise problems. It will detect gross problems so it is worth a try.
Search the net for a memory test program. Dell has test utilities available but a crippled system with a compromised operating system may need self bootable from a floppy testing programs such as Memtest.
I have experience with power line problems and have published about this topic. There are at least three things involved: voltage level, stability, and waveform purity. Be wary of “conditioners” since not all of them provide a good sine wave. The best way to proceed if you suspect power line problems, as you apparently do, is to ask the power company to install a power line monitoring recorder. This should be plugged in at your home for about a week in order to catch fluctuations in the quality of the power. They will probably be reluctant and you may have to be persistent with them but this is the best way to find power problems. Do this in addition to checking the computer itself.
Systems with switching power supplies should tolerate a swing in voltage of +/- 10 % from nominal 120 volts. Frequent light bulb burn outs would indicate high voltage or voltage surges.
Neil