Computers

[Tropod 144]

No, this is not SC4 related at all so there should be no need to move it . And no, I am not seeking a solution , though I guess an explanation wouldn't go astray.

I thought I had seen/experienced just about everything when it came to computers crashing, rebooting etc. But recently I was a little dumbstruck & so thought I would share this.

Not to long ago we had some pretty strong storms here; heavy raining & lightening & one or two quick/short (like 1-2 seconds) loss of power. Whether this had anything to do with it or not, I don't know (possibly). It did get to a point where I turned everything off. So....

Couple of days later after this my computer starts to play up. Starts rebooting on its own. No BSOD, just turning off &/or rebooting by itself. I thought it may of been because of some recent software changes, but alas no. It did do this once while playing SC4, but it wasn't exclusive to this (which is why I've posted this here).

So with the recent heat we'd been getting, I thought perhaps the computer had been overheating. So I got some compressed air & cleaned the inside of the pc as best I could. No good, it was still rebooting.

So at my wits end, I went into the BIOS at boot-up & had a look to see if anything there was a-miss. Nothing stuck out, but thought I would reset the BIOS just the same. Now, no more problems. No more crashing, rebooting or shutting down by itself.

I had not made any changes in the BIOS prior to this (not recent anyway). So I can not imagine why resetting the BIOS would resolve the issue (I can, but considering no changes were made in the first place, well).

So yeah, just thought I would share this. Because I have even stated before myself, that something like crashing is usually because of a hardware or software issue; the BIOS isn't normally something I would have thought to be a possible issue considering how long everything has been working fine.

[Duke87 1,070]

My sister's old computer had something like that. You'd boot it up, and within a few minutes it would spontaneously reboot. We thought it might have been a virus, but though we eliminated that as a possibility, we never did figure out what the problem was and just ended up getting her a new computer. It was a 3 year old computer. It was also a Sony Vaio, which we had had mixed experiences with, and thus were rather happy to get rid of.

Additional specs:

-Windows XP+SP2

-Pentium 4

-512 MB RAM

-80 GB hard drive (partitioned into 13 GB C: and 67 GB D: at the factory, that partition was something we always hated and never understood the point of)

What kind of computer are you talking about here?

[Rymac91 15]

I had a problem sorta like that, only when my mum's computer did it, it would happen when you're in the My Pictures folder...and the computer would just randomly reboot. So I eventuallly changed the way the BSOD showed(I disabled the automatic restart which apparently on some computers is too fast to know you had a BSOD) and when I attempted the error again, I discovered it was a BSOD issue...apparently, the driver had a bug that meant that if it loaded those thumbnails(a decent amount too), then the computer would have a conflict with showing them and basicly collapse.

@Duke87, Usually a paritioning setup like that would be so you store system files on the C and programs and other files on the D, But it's usually a 10GB/70GB split, or the D partition is simply a backup partition, where the split is 75GB/5GB.

[Tropod 144]

Well my current specs;

AMD Athlon 2000

WindowsXP+SP2

1GB Ram

VR 4250MB (on 2 different drives)

2 x 80GB hard drives. One is empty (backup), the other is partitioned-this is something I've done personally.

Geforce4 Ti 4800 128MB card.

BIOS (Name) Phoenix-Award BIOS v6.00PG

BIOS (ID) nVidia nforce

Motherboard NF7-S/NF7,NF7-V (nVidia-nForce2)

EDIT: The pc is on 2 Surge protectors. End Edit.

The only thing I could possibly think of, if the storm didn't have anything to do with it, was my Firewall/Antivirus software did something it shouldn't have, or shouldn't have been able to, or there was something conflicting with this and something in the BIOS. Which I'm not sure how that would be possible. But yeah, resetting my BIOS to the Fail-Safe Settings did appear to resolve the issue.

[coolotter88 2]

definitely the storm, although, if anyone's been vacuum cleaning near your computer, damage might have happened if they hit a plug.

[amal81 3]

I have had this kind of problem on my older PC. The problem might be with the SMPS or the power box in the rear of the computer. The 'fan box' which controls power supply could have suffered damage due to the surge in Voltage/Amps. Replacing it might solve the problem, I am saying it because it worked for me.

Also advisable is to use a UPS with battery backup and surge protection. It is most useful when there is a black out or a fluctuation in the power supply.

[screamingman12 30]

The BIOS is mostlikely contained in an EEPROM (electronically eraseable programable read-only memory) chip. It is possible that had your PC been on during this storm, a small power surge could have supplied enough power to wipe and mess with the BIOS.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Thanks very much.  The last thing on earth one would think of.  Now added to my kit bag of wonder fixes.

[Duke87 1,070]

Something else: if you keep your computer on a surge protector, you don't need to unplug it (or even turn it off) during a thunderstorm, since it's protected.

And, well, since I'm on a laptop, a 1-2 second power loss (or even power flicker) won't cause me to lose anything since the battery can fill in.

There's an interesting idea: why not put back up batteries in desktop computers? Nothing major, just enough to store 5-10 minutes worth of juice. This way if the power fails you can go and shut it down properly as opposed to having it suddenly cut out (which depending on what the computer is doing at the time can be a bad thing). Solves the flicker problem, too.

[BurroDiablo 222]

My bro has a 2 year old Average Spec computer, he spent

[hamsterTK 93]

I've had my PC for a Year now, cost me £500 ($1000) and i've never defragged... not once. For the first 4 months I had no Virus protection and the only problems I've had with this PC is the Windows Update crap crashing my PC on startup... so I never Update either. I never have random crashes, or Bsods... my PC is the most trustworthy PC i've come across and it cost me next to nothing from a bottom end German owned Supermarket [Aldi]...

quote>

I'm in the same situation

this laptop is 2 years old and it's working perfectly. Only thing is that the keys are falling off the keyboard now. I don't know how to fix that, I guess maybe a PC place can order a new keypad?

I don't know if I want a new computer any time soon, because I am afraid it will be a unreliable vista piece of crap. Also, my parents bought me this PC and it wasn't cheap so I kind of feel attached to it.

shouldn't of said all that, don't wanna jinx it

[Duke87 1,070]

Okay, something I'm really curious about here. What exactly is the point of partitioning a hard drive? I can think of no benefits to it, but a few clear downsides:

-software tends to install on C: by default. Some programs do so automatically and never even give you the option to install to another drive. So a hard drive that's not on C: is disadvantageous for that reason.

-folders and files cannot be stored across a partition. This causes an organizational problem since you have to decide which hard drive to put any given thing on, instead of it all just being one. Like having two smaller file cabinets instead of one big one. It's inefficient use of space, and makes finding something you're looking for potentially trickier.

-anything not on the same drive as Windows potentially encounters access issues, since it may not be designed to look for such things on any drive other than the one it's installed on, and it thus may find itself unable to find necessary stuff.

[Tropod 144]

Originally posted by: Duke87 Something else: if you keep your computer on a surge protector, you don't need to unplug it (or even turn it off) during a thunderstorm, since it's protected.quote>

Something else I should add to my post; my pc is on a surge protector, two actually. And I have always had it set up like this. From time to time they are replaced, as I'm quite aware they do wear or have a higher failure rate the older they get.

[screamingman12 30]

Originally posted by: Duke87 Okay, something I'm really curious about here. What exactly is the point of partitioning a hard drive? I can think of no benefits to it, but a few clear downsides:

-software tends to install on C: by default. Some programs do so automatically and never even give you the option to install to another drive. So a hard drive that's not on C: is disadvantageous for that reason.

-folders and files cannot be stored across a partition. This causes an organizational problem since you have to decide which hard drive to put any given thing on, instead of it all just being one. Like having two smaller file cabinets instead of one big one. It's inefficient use of space, and makes finding something you're looking for potentially trickier.

-anything not on the same drive as Windows potentially encounters access issues, since it may not be designed to look for such things on any drive other than the one it's installed on, and it thus may find itself unable to find necessary stuff.quote>

One of the main reasons to partition a drive is for a dual boot system, also for recovery software.