The WORST thing about having your computer fritz out on you

[GirlinContempt]

(at least for me since it was mostly backed up), is the friggin updates.
First, I have to use an old NIC cause my newer one won't get picked up (very bizarre), and it bottlenecks SO badly. Then, I have to go through and check for a bunch of drivers online which takes forEVER. Then, I get to switch nics and download a HUGE MASSIVE update that is slow as hell and takes FOREVER. THEN download IE6 so I can do windows update. THEN run windows update like 6+ times. I'm on my 3rd and it's grabbing 29 updates. Oh, and my mouse screws up like crazy. Tres strange.

Not that I've done this a couple of times recently or anything. :P

All I can say is thank god my room looks like a used parts store, I don't have to go running around for spare hard drives and crap while I figure this thing out. (I think it was actually my main hard drive that was the problem)

Right. Ok. Back to updates.

[billyskank]

1. Reinstalling Windows sucks

x(

:hi:

[GirlinContempt]

2. Oh god do I ever hate it

At least my mouse is normalizing.
It's the weirdest thing.

[billyskank]

5. My brother does it regularly

He hates it too, and he has described it to me. It sounds like the biggest pain in the ass.

I reinstall my PC quite regularly too, but Linux is only a 30 minute job.

[GirlinContempt]

3. teehee

I hit up your computer thread too ;) :hi:

[billyskank]

4. Ack! My computer problem sucks

Because I don't know what the actual problem is, and I don't know how to troubleshoot it. x(

[GirlinContempt]

6. You mentioned sound with yours

DOes it only happen when playing music?

[billyskank]

7. No, it happens any time

The fact that keypresses (and mouse movements) still get registered while it is frozen indicates that interrupts are still being processed, therefore the CPU is still active.

The thing with sound is strange though, because it goes silent until it unfreezes again. Usually if something holds the computer up to cause a buffer underrun, what you hear is a horrible noise as the sound buffer contents simply get looped over and over again until the computer is freed. But when my PC is frozen I hear nothing.

I wonder too if my hard drive is on the fritz.

[GirlinContempt]

8. I don't know

that doesn't sound like a hard drive issue to me. I'd be tempted to put my money on some software/kernel inconsistencies, but hey, what do I know ;)

What distro/build are you running?

Oh, also, power supply issues USUALLY cause total shutdowns, and my experience with memory issues is that they cause complete freezes, though memory is always a good thing to check out.

[billyskank]

9. Slackware 10.2

Standard 2.4.31 kernel. I compiled the 2.6.13 kernel from the install disc, but immediately found the same problem with that too.

[GirlinContempt]

10. sounds like locking semaphore

[GirlinContempt]

11. This is about the only thing I found that might be

even remotely helpful
http://pcburn.com/article.php?sid=901

[billyskank]

12. Whether it helps or not, thanks!

:)

[GirlinContempt]

16. Anytime

I'm not 100% up on my linux skills

[bridgit]

13. i wish our last event was as easy as reinstalling even 3-4 hrs worth...

of disks, program software, and security gates that would be lovely & preferable; but the freaking HD busted & stopped reading altogether, and so we lost (cause we use two sides of the same puter) everything compiled over the last 9 months. hubby has intellimover, and still has the old stack; so that stuff was right there. but everything from there to here was gone forever.

and please...no lectures as to disk backup. yes, it may seem weak, but one, at least not this one; generally does not expect an HD failure in the 1st 9 months of a new puter x(

[GirlinContempt]

17. Well my computer crashed not even a month ago

and I lost everything. Work stuff. Took me many sleepless nights to redo all of that work. I lost everything. It was a nightmare. So thats why this crash wasn't as bad.

[ghostsofgiants]

14. Dag, yo!

That sucks.

[GirlinContempt]

18. Yar

[ET Awful]

15. What you need to do, with NO procrastination, is put all those drivers

and updates you download into a single folder, then burn that folder to a CD/DVD, label it prominently and store it safely.

THEN, get the hence to your local software vendor and purchase a copy of Norton Ghost (or similar program from other manufacturer), create a Ghost image of your basic Windows install with all drivers (software is secondary, you want this Ghost image to remain small so it can go on one CD). Burn that Ghost image to CD, label it and store it with your driver CD (yes, the Ghost image has drivers too, but you may need the drivers alone, without the whole Windows install).

Those two disks will save your ass some day, I guarantee it.

[GirlinContempt]

20. The problem with doing that

is the updates change all the time. For the huge SP install, I'd probably end up doing it twice, once for whatever I had burned, and then again for whatever was newer.

I don't like ghosting drives. I have spare hard drives with stuff backed up. If MY computer goes down, there is a damn good reason for it and I wanna get to the bottom of it. Ghosting has giving me nothing but trouble, solved nothing, and been more time consuming than hard backups.

[ET Awful]

24. That's why I said an image with all the drivers, etc. installed

It will still save you hours of time.

With my personal machine, if it goes down, odds are it's hardware related (last time a hard drive failed). It took me 1/2 hour or so to be functional again, and probably 3 hours to be back at 100% (after service pack installs, new software that wasn't included in my ghost image, etc.). I'd say doing it that way cut the re-build time in half (at least).

One thing you can do, if you really wish to re-install the whole works if something like that happens, is create a Windows install CD that has all the current service packs already integrated into it. I don't have the link handy, but there is a how-to in Microsoft's knowledge base on slipstreaming the service packs into the install so you don't have to download them each time.

[TrogL]

19. Have you considered a proper operating system?

Like Open Solaris (www.opensolaris.org)

[GirlinContempt]

21. I actually need to run Windows

:eyes:

[Crazy Dave]

22. I repair my own but if you send yours out for repairs beware

I know people in the PC repair business who say they know OTHER people in the PC repair business who go through your hard drive contents to see if you have any personal pictures, banking information, etc.
But it's always somebody else they know, not them.

Wink, wink, knudge, knudge.

[GirlinContempt]

23. As a former tech

I do it myself ;)

[Crazy Dave]

27. And as a former tech...

...did you ever create an image of a customer's hard drive to see if it had naughty pictures of their spouses or bank information? Oooops! I meant do you know anybody that used to ;)

[Kellanved]

25. "Fritz"?

:P . "Fritz" is a brand for (top-notch) ADSL and ISDN modems.

[Deja Q]

26. It's also the name of a chip that Senator Hollings...

A chip that works with DRM technologies.

Hollings was a big sellout for the DMCA... His own age (born in 1922) combined with the fact most people his age don't give a frig about technology, shows he shouldn't be in a position to make decisions. He should be retired in 1998, whining about the crappy state of society instead of making it crappier...