I think this PC is getting sick. :(
It wound up perfectly, first time this morning....Then I had to restart it, 'cos a particular program was having its oft occurring hissy-fit. (Restarting the PC cures this every time.)
After that, the PC didn't want to play....it would start winding up, and then go to blank, black screen, instead of the screen that asks for a password....and just sit there doing nothing.
Had it running diagnostics, for over an hour...It didn't SAY it had found anything, but then it asked if I wanted to 'restart'.....(I'd already tried this half a dozen times, this morning)...and this time it seems to be happier......with the emphasis on the ER.......Whether it's actually happy now, I've no idea.
At least I've got the tablet, as a back up now.......But I'll be hornswoggled if I'm going to type out many replies on that.....I have an awful lot of 'mistrypes' if I try and plonk things out on that ! ;D ;D
I'll be worried about shutting this wretched thing down, from now on ! =)
Cheers - Phil
Sounds like one of two things: Hardware on the way out :-( or something happening in the wrong order during start-up.
If hardware, I'd expect some sort of clue during the restart process.
If not, find out how to check the system logs and watch out for hardware warnings.
Order of start conditions often occur after a system update has installed some new code.
I've found that doing a couple of consecutive restarts often resolves whatever gremlin had infiltrated your system.
- ie get logged in, don't start anything (Apols Dennis Waterman - Minder) give it 5 minutes (Apols Sid James - Carry on at your convenience) then do a restart. Repeat.
Clear your cookies Phil. They take up cache memory and CPU space, so slow down the system. It's easy, find the settings menu on your prefered browser (on mine its three vertical dots on the extreme right) click on it and look for Clear Browsing Data - which is under a sub menu (pop out in my case) and select clear cookies. This will log you out of all the programs you were running. And if you are still running win7 you may need to "defrag" the hard drive, should be in the start up section.
Thanks, Both.
As far as I'm aware, Firefox chucks all the cookies out and clears the history every time I log off the net.
(Whenever I look at the history tab, it tells me I have no history. )
Seeing as I don't trust it, I clean everything a couple of times a day, anyway.....I assume Firefox IS doing 'its business', as I never recover much in the way of Disc Space.....Usually 25 odd Mb.
I'm not going to switch the PC off tonight.....I'm going to back everything up on the two external hard drives overnight. (Haven't done that for MONTHS !)
There's nothing on here that I'd be gutted about losing, apart from all the photos....(95% of those ARE backed up already)..Though I wouldn't want to spend time re-inputting all the songs on iTunes. X_X ;D ;D ;D ;D
Thanks again.
Cheers - Phil :)
Subscribe to one of the cloud storage facilities Phil. I use dropbox, but there are others available. Also put your stuff on flash drives.
I copied them all onto two external hard drives, last night, Ian.....So they should hopefully be safe for now ! :)...I really must try and remember to do that more often.
(We used to have three flash drives.....But where two of those are now, is anyone's guess !.....They'll turn up when we're not looking for them. =))
Cheers - Phil
Good grief.....
I'm not having much joy with computery stuff, at the mo !
Thought I'd got a problem with the USB cable for the tablet.....Battery was charging, but the PC wouldn't recognise the tablet, at all. (I was trying to put some more piccies on it !)
Probably would have helped if I used the correct frigging USB cable !!! X_X :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[
Cheers - A Muppet !! (At least I was quick enough to cancel the order for a new cable !!) :D
(What's the third thing going to be ?) =)
Quote from: Techno on 12 February 2020, 11:58:44 AM
Good grief.....
I'm not having much joy with computery stuff, at the mo !
Thought I'd got a problem with the USB cable for the tablet.....Battery was charging, but the PC wouldn't recognise the tablet, at all. (I was trying to put some more piccies on it !)
Probably would have helped if I used the correct frigging USB cable !!! X_X :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[
Cheers - A Muppet !! (At least I was quick enough to cancel the order for a new cable !!) :D
(What's the third thing going to be ?) =)
Acronym time - MUDL - Massive unrecoverable data loss.
OI !!! I'm the only Muppet round ere....and I can better it. Back in the day I had a nice new colour printer I could not get to print - mainly cause the cable which was supposed to connect it was under the printer but not plugged in... :o :o
I'm glad some folk do things as daft as me. ;)
Cheers - Phil
Oh there are plenty dafter ;)
I remember talking a Police officer through a problem they were having with their computer...
after several checks I asked them to look under the desk to check it was plugged in
he commented that it was very dark under the desk and he couldn't see
I suggested he turn on another light or move a desk lamp
He mentioned, for the first time, that none of the lights on that floor were working
I politely suggested he go and use the computer in the watch house as that was on UPS and would be working when the rest of that station didn't have power
"Well, smartass, if the computer is down because of a power cut, how come the phones are working? Huh?"
"No, when I say click the button with the mouse I don't mean tap the monitor with it ...."
"Yes, I know, it's a very old model. We have unit 002, the one after the prototype ..... well, could you get the spares back out of the skip?"
"Yes, ma'am, I understand that sticking the floppy to the filing cabinet with a big magnet makes it easy to find but that's why your weekly backup is always scrambled ...!"
"Sir, the reason you can't get that PC to boot up is ... that it's a microfiche reader"
"Gasometer goes up, signal goes down. Gasometer goes down, signal goes up. I realise putting the microwave unit on a mast is expensive but I'm pretty sure it's a damn sight cheaper than moving a gasometer!"
Tales from the Helldesk :)
As a friend of mine once had to deal with "the drinks tray has snapped"
Oh, you mean the CDrom drive...
Quote from: Techno on 11 February 2020, 08:55:15 AMI'll be worried about shutting this wretched thing down, from now on !
There is, of course, no serious downside to leaving it running (just turn the monitor off). In the days of torrenting my PC would not be turned off for months at a time!
Quote from: Ithoriel on 12 February 2020, 09:12:35 PM
"Gasometer goes up, signal goes down. Gasometer goes down, signal goes up. I realise putting the microwave unit on a mast is expensive but I'm pretty sure it's a damn sight cheaper than moving a gasometer!"
To make way for the new national museum they had to move a hotel on railway tracks, http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/9054381/Training-all-eyes-on-shifting-a-hotel (http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/9054381/Training-all-eyes-on-shifting-a-hotel) :o
It moved partly through one of out microwave paths, fortunately the automatic gain control (AGC) was able to raise the power on the radios enogh to keep the link up #:-S
Quote from: Scorpio_Rocks on 12 February 2020, 11:48:11 PM
There is, of course, no serious downside to leaving it running (just turn the monitor off). In the days of torrenting my PC would not be turned off for months at a time!
Thanks....I've started doing that, Scorpio :)....I can remember being told by an old colleague that HE never bothers to power down his PC.
Quote from: Ithoriel on 12 February 2020, 09:12:35 PM
"Well, smartass, if the computer is down because of a power cut, how come the phones are working? Huh?"
If Matey had been quick, he could have pretended that his call hadn't come through a switchboard. ;)
Cheers - Phil
Quote from: paulr on 13 February 2020, 12:14:25 AM
To make way for the new national museum they had to move a hotel on railway tracks, http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/9054381/Training-all-eyes-on-shifting-a-hotel (http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/9054381/Training-all-eyes-on-shifting-a-hotel) :o
It moved partly through one of out microwave paths, fortunately the automatic gain control (AGC) was able to raise the power on the radios enogh to keep the link up #:-S
As the sign in the Helldesk area said - "Cheap, Fast, Good - pick two!"
Quote from: Ithoriel on 13 February 2020, 11:02:58 AM
As the sign in the Helldesk area said - "Cheap, Fast, Good - pick two!"
To be fair, the sign on the opposite wall said, "The beatings will continue until morale improves" :)
Quote from: paulr on 13 February 2020, 12:14:25 AM
To make way for the new national museum they had to move a hotel on railway tracks, http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/9054381/Training-all-eyes-on-shifting-a-hotel (http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/9054381/Training-all-eyes-on-shifting-a-hotel) :o
It moved partly through one of out microwave paths, fortunately the automatic gain control (AGC) was able to raise the power on the radios enogh to keep the link up #:-S
Fascinating story.
Phil, are you still having problems during startup?
Some things to try if the problems persist.
Plug the power cord off for 30 seconds and and shut down the power button behind the PC. After 30 seconds try startup again.
Try startup with all the usb cables unplugged from the computer, including mouse and keyboard. It could be a faulty external device causing the problems aswell.
You could also try vacuuming some of the dust inside/outside the computer that might be blocking some of the cooling fans. Overheating components will result in many problems but the computer should however give you a BlueScreen error from overheating problems.
Hi, Atte. :)
Thanks for asking, but the PC seems to be behaving itself now*....No more problems since that 'episode'.....(I must admit I wouldn't switch it off, at all, for a few days.....But we then had a couple of quite violent thunderstorms close by.....So I unplugged everything. It worked fine after that....And I switch it off every evening now....Having backed up everything important onto a couple of external hard drives. )
Cheers - Phil (* Fingers crossed !)
I hate the bloody things.
I have built my last 3 PCs over 15 years. The current one periodically stops for no reason and restarts. This will go on for a few times in a day and then not happen again fr weeks. Just long enough for me to think it really has gone this time.
Occasionally it will get itself into such a panic after restarting numerous times in 10 mins that Windows takes over and goes into its (useless) recovery mode. If I can just get it to boot then immediately shut down that usually deals with the issue for a little while.
Meanwhile life goes on.
Richard
Richard,
Would you be able to open the Windows Event Viewer, you can do this by typing "Event Viewer" to the search bar if using windows10.
If you remember the approximate day this restart occured you could post the critical error codes and events here. And we could try to narrow down what might be causing this.
Edit1: Could it be malfunctioning power/restart button configuration?
Quote from: Techno on 09 March 2020, 10:08:50 AM
(...)Having backed up everything important onto a couple of external hard drives. )
Cheers - Phil (* Fingers crossed !)
ALWAYS DO BACKUPS !
It's not "in case of a crash" but "
when I'll have a crash .."
A realistic pesimist.