Grrr. Dumb computer · 1:41pm Jul 23rd, 2017
In the ever continuing saga of fate kneecapping me whenever she gets an opportunity, my PC crashed last night.
It's a Windows 8.1 machine, and when it bluescreened, it had a memory management error. The internet says that my RAM might be bad, which isn't the end of the world.
I've tried to restart multiple times, and when it got the furthest, it actually loaded the desktop, bluescreened again, and then said critical process ... (the last word was cut off because my computer can never remember the monitor resolution).
That's probably not a good sign.
The good news is that I have a backup laptop that ought to work, and if it doesn't, I also have a second backup as well.
The even more good news (for you guys, at least) is all my currently in-progress stories are on the cloud, so nothing was lost there.
But it's still pretty annoying.
Update: Well, it turns out it's not all bad news. The laptop not only booted up, but now the screen is working again, which is nice. I feel kind of silly with a second monitor next to it.
And the desktop seems to have come back online as well,
although I don't trust it for a second.but all you can do is move the mouse around. You can't click on anything.Boot into the BIOS and run diagnostics, specifically on the RAM?
4609858
Well, now it sounds like a software issue. Unless the mouse is broken?
4609870
4609863
I'm not sure how to do that.
I think the smart thing to do might be get more RAM for it, stick it in the case, and then re-start and see what happens. It probably wouldn't hurt to get the case off and dust it, anyways.
As for the mouse, it ought to be working. I can move it around just fine, and I have a hard time imagining that both buttons on mouse failed simultaneously (although I suppose it could have).
4609876
Unless you or a friend have some extra about and are willing to risk the slots on the motherboard being bad and frying a good stick, you'll have to sink money into buying RAM to test it, so it's better to just boot up into the BIOS and run the diagnostics first.
Just Google how to boot into BIOS. It varies a little bit depending on your platform, but it's easy. You just Spam a certain key, like F4, while it's booting up. Try the suggestions online until 1 works.
EDIT: You also might need to reinstall drivers for your mouse. Plus check for viruses.
BURN IT!!! Then BURN THE ASHES!
As you might gather I despised Windows 8. Hell I still like Windows 7 more than 10.
Another thing, if you have everything already backed up, it might be easier to just reinstall Windows all together.
4609892
Amen.
4609863
To my knowledge not all motherboards/BIOS have this ability. I think most if not all HP computers can do it (F10, Del, Tab, F1 or F2 to get into BIOS usually), but I don't recall any of my ASUS or Gigabyte boards ever having the option in there.
4609876
What type of RAM does the computer use? I can search around my stuff and see if I have a stick or two laying around maybe.
Alright; I'll give that a go when I have a chance. I'm not totally opposed to cooking some RAM; sometimes the best tests are to stick a known-good part on and then see what happens.
I don't have everything backed up . . . I wish I did. I have most of the really important stuff backed up, but there's a lot of downloaded pictures (mostly pony) and cell phone pictures that I'd rather not lose, if possible. I'm wondering if worst comes to worst and the motherboard or OS on the hard drive are toast, if I'd be able to get a different computer and then get everything off this HDD . . . seems like it should be possible.
4609892
I was never a huge fan of it, either; on the other hand, since most of what I do is word processing and interneting, the fundamental OS isn't that big of a deal to me. Plus, at least you could put it in traditional desktop mode instead of the stupid giant cell phone app panel.
I have no idea what kind of RAM is in the thing, or what size for that matter. I've never opened the case.
I had a full system failiure a couple months back, put a new hard drive in, did a full install off the live DVD, did the 650 meg update, noproblem.
Rebooted.
Deader than before.
turned out it was the Graphics Card that had failed. It uses a BIOS overlay patch so the GPU boots up during the BIOS initilisation.
If you dont play anything from the last 6 years on it, get a $10 Nvidia 210 or something. Basically if its bottom end and has hardware video acceleration, youre good.
Dont use Google Docs.
EDIT:
And yes, I have left various cables out while trying to get the thing working.
4609901
Not having that would be very poor design though, honestly.
I've used Gigabyte and ASUS and they always had the option, but since he has Windows 8.1, I guess we can't expect too much.
Side story, one of my Gigabyte boards was zapped with lightning twice before it failed. The moral is to always surge-protect your data lines, not just the power.
4609911
Yeah, you can plug it into another computer and browse the files. However, if it has a virus, you risk infecting the good computer, so be careful and virus scan the whole thing with the new PC before you go poking around in it.
4609918
Hmm, I just checked my old computer (sucks that the hard drive in it recently died) with an ASUS Sabertooth X58 motherboard and did not see any option in there to test the RAM. Lots of difference things to configure with RAM, but no testing. If its there its hidden pretty well.
4609985
What about Windows Safe Mode? Is that a thing in 8.1?
4609998
It is, but that didn't work. Already tried it--it booted and then crashed again.
derpicdn.net/img/2013/10/30/460473/medium.gif
sounds like a HD with a bade sector or a MOBO lost a driver.
unplug the HD and see if it will hit the bios that is a place to start.
4609998
Booting into Windows Safe mode is completely different, and every Windows version has that option going back to at least Win95, cannot remember is Window 3.1 had it, though.
If its a bad stick of ram. If your computer has multiple sticks of ram... you could try removing one of them-> boot -> see if it works -> if it fails, reinsert the one you removed and remove the next one -> repeat until you find out if one of the ram sticks have gone bad.
If its a hard drive going bad, I suggest removing the hard-drive and using a hard drive enclosure to read the data off onto another computer. ASAP. You can get one's for laptop drives for only $9 on Amazon.
Another option is to use a linux live boot cd (or usb drive). If a live boot cd works, you know the graphic card/etc are working and that the Windows install is corrupted. You can also use a live boot cd to copy files from the hard drive to a usb drive/thumbstick/external hard drive/etc. Some bios won't let you boot from a live CD that though. :-(.
4610018
This is why I like doing my own builds. You can avoid crappy BIOS' like that, among other things.
4609911
The hard drive sounds like it is okay, just get something like this (pardon the tackiness of posting an amazon link, but I use this exact model and it works great) https://www.amazon.com/Vantec-CB-ISATAU2-Supports-2-5-Inch-5-25-Inch/dp/B000J01I1G/
All you would need to do is take open the case unplug and unscrew the hard drive and connect it to your other computer, navigate to where you want and copy and paste.
If the OS on the hdd is toast try getting a windows 8.1 disk and reloading from a system image if you have one and you could fix the OS that way if needed (note you don't actually need a license key to reload from a system image so in theory it could be a used, and thus nearly worthless disk).
4610011
...or, if you can boot off a CD/DVD/Thumbdrive and can borrow someone else's PC to create one, you could use a tool like Memtest86 to check the RAM. (Both whether it's the RAM to begin with and whether you pulled the right stick(s).)
A lot of Linux LiveCD/DVD/USB images include a "Test Memory" option in the boot menu, so you can get that and the ability to boot into a desktop and copy your files to thumdrive from the same disc/thumbdrive.
4610004
Windows 3.1 didn't have Safe Mode because it was an enhancement for MS-DOS rather than an OS in its own right. You were expected to know how to recover your system without a GUI.
During that era, it was MS-DOS's responsibility to provide a precursor to "safe mode" (starting with MS-DOS 5.0) and it causes the DOS boot process to ask Y/N for each line in CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT" so you can omit whatever is causing a problem while still keeping as many of the remaining hardware drivers as you want.
Prior to MS-DOS 5.0, you were expected to keep an emergency boot floppy handy, such as the MS-DOS disc #1 from the set of reinstall floppies that came with your PC. (Unless the machine was old enough to have no hard drive. Then, the boot floppy would normally have a write-protect notch and it was your responsibility to make a writable copy to customize.)
4609918
That reminds me of how much of a unicorn Ethernet surge protectors are. I've had to settle for making my LAN like a lobster. Soft on the inside, but protected around the entire exterior surface. (eg. the DSL modem connects to the telephone line through a surge protector, and all non-bus-powered peripherals get their power through surge-protectors.)
Perhaps ironically, I do actually have Ethernet surge protection somewhere... it's just in the spot that's the least helpful, given I already surge-protect my DSL modem. (While I don't have a Gigabit surge protector to surge-isolate my segment of the LAN from the rest of the family's, my router's four 100MBit ports have built-in surge suppression with a listed rating of 700W/40A.)
I just have to hope that, if other family members connect some wall-powered USB device and neglect to plug it into their surge protectors and forget to tell me, it'll be sufficiently blunted by passing through their PC and three $30 gigabit switches on the way from them to me. (Our LAN is wired up as a two-tiered star with all switches being plugged into surge-protectors.)
Wow. Between this and your posts about PCMs in cars, it seems to be a bad time for computers. I just had one go this week. My work computer.
We're in the death-march phase of one of my projects, and I've got a mathematical model that me and another engineer have been working on for a few months. It requires a special software package that took like three weeks to get installed by our IT department. The model was due to the economist on Friday, or it's going to blow up the project timeline. I'm working on it on Thursday, and have to go to a meeting about getting a new survey done for another project. When I get back to my desk, I've got black screens. (I'm using a laptop on a docking station, so normally I'm looking at two monitors and the laptop is off in the corner with the lid closed.)
I move the mouse to try to wake the computer. Nothing. Go to the docking station, and notice the power light isn't on, so push that. Nothing. Hmmm. Open the computer lid, and push the power button there--still nothing. OK, check to see if anything is getting power. Realize that the cable from the power brick has an LED on it, which is not powered on. The monitors are still powered on, however, they're plugged into a different outlet than the computer, but I believe those outlets are on the same circuit. So time to crawl under the desk. The LED on the brick itself is out, but maybe the outlet is bad. Unplug it and plug it back in, and the brick LED comes back on. So the overcurrent protection in the brick has been tripped, which is...concerning.
With the brick providing power, try to power on the computer. Nothing, and now the LED on the brick is dead again. Fuck. Reset the brick, and take the computer off the docking station, praying that it's the docking station that's the problem. Nope. The computer does the same thing with the brick plugged directly into it, and no external devices connected. My last hope is that the brick itself is bad, so run the computer down to the IT section to try it on another brick. Same thing. Me and the IT guys came to the same conclusion: the laptop's power supply has failed.
Now, our IT guys are actually really good. However, the IT system, as a whole, is a fucking garbage fire. Our IT guys can't work on anything without a work ticket, which only comes from a centrally-managed nationwide help desk. Things get generated by the help desk, and often end up sitting in a queue for a couple weeks before anybody gets to work on them. Once they hit our IT department, the issue is usually fixed really quickly.
I'm already there, with a dead computer and a sad look on my face, so I asked our local IT chief about the way ahead. I'm lucky because I was on the list for a new computer. I'm unlucky in that we've had the new computer sitting on a shelf for six months, waiting for my number to come up for them to install the Government-approved image on it. He tells me that because I've got a dead computer, I can probably get pushed to the front of the line, but I'll have to (sigh) submit a ticket to the national help desk, go figure out the serial number for my new assigned computer (well, barcode that we tag for inventory purposes), physically locate my new computer, and get it off the shelf where it's been stored until my turn came up. (Each section has been storing their computers until the IT department calls for them.)
It's been six months since my computer was put on the shelf, so I can't recall the barcode number. I have to chase that down with our branch secretary. That number in hand, I go to the storage location...and can't find my computer. My section chief, who was managing the storage, is off camping on a long weekend. Shit. Our "IT coordinator"--the engineer who handles all kinds of little IT crap for our section--is at training out in Denver, so give him a call. He doesn't know what's going on with it, either, since IT keeps changing things on him and not telling him.
Out of desperation, go back to the IT section and go to the cube of the guy who's been handling the refresh. And written on his whiteboard is the number of my computer. I talk to him, and find out that my computer was in progress at that moment. So, for the first time I think it at least our branch's history, I have a dead computer that gets resolved in two and a half hours.
I'm still waiting for the install of that special software, but I was luckily able to figure out how to limp across the finish line in its absence.
http://www.memtest.org/
I showed up late to this party, and the others here have already covered the most likely tests and diagnostics.
So, wild guess time--watch me throw something at the wall to see if it sticks!
It's suspicious that your Win8.1 desktop manages to boot to the desktop before failing. In my experience, a RAM failure usually prevents it getting that far. Had there been any software updates or installations immediately prior to the problem appearing? A corrupted driver might produce a memory management error.
It might help to know the make and model of your desktop. Some of them have test utilities built into their ROM.
Welp.
For the longest while I've had to deal with a Vista Desktop that would randomly run into memory problems. The whole screen would glitch out and it'd blackscreen, then refuse to start until I either A) let it cool down, or B) remove and reinsert the ram.
Only thing I would recommend is try cleaning the box, and checking that there isn't any dust on the ram's contacts. Then maybe test it in another machine to make sure it isn't software-related?
Strangely, my Desktop was fine after a clean install of windows when I was getting rid of it. (Sending it for cleaning and repairs never seemed to work, but a clean install did? o_O)
4610258
Last Friday, since business is slow during the summer, me and a coworker were shooting rubber bans at the wall in our shared office and one randomly managed to bounce a couple times and stick sideways to the wallpaper. Weirdest thing.
go download Memtest86 and write it to a USB drive or burn it on a CD. Then boot your desktop off that, and let it run for several hours - or possibly overnight.
If it is a HD issue, then maybe i can bring my laptop and an external drive bay to the con, and help you pull the data off of it.
4609892
Windows 8.1 isn't an operating system. It's penance. And I am that freakish Linux user who also likes Windows, mind, but seriously WTF, Microsoft?
'Windows 8.1' is how you say 'Screw you and the bus you rode in on' in Computer. True story.
A good method for helping determine if you have a bad memory module is to remove all but one, boot the system, see if it works. If it doesn't turn it off, swap the module out for the next one and do it again. Wash (not literally), rinse (please don't douse your computer in water), and repeat.
My computer started doing that two months ago. Try running memtest.
Don't feel bad, Admiral. My hard drive took a shit a few weeks ago. Thankfully Windows 7 is smart enough to give you a message about like so: 'hey buddy, your shit's about to catch on fire, backup your
pornfanfictions.'So I did. But now I'm on my backup potato. It's not a bad rig, but this windows 10 is getting under my skin. It's not the interface or any of the things people normally bitch about, it's that it just doesn't want to cooperate with me. Last night, no matter what I did, I couldn't open the calculator. Just outright refused, does that with a lot of different things, randomly. And it likes to briefly interrupt my headphones every 10 minutes or so, which breaks teamspeak, youtube, or anything else audio-related that I'm in. And it can't decide whether it wants to open new tabs in a new tab or a new window when I click middle mouse.
Sigh.
I'm not an expert, but your computer might be smoking marijuana, since this is your 420th blog post.
4610626
My XP machine did that, too, which was really nice of it. Gave me a chance to back up everything while it still worked. Theoretically, I could put a new hard drive in it and get it back in service, but it was old and slow.
I'm currently using my old Toshiba laptop. Funny thing is, I stopped using it because the screen was broken. Bought a new external monitor for it and I was going to use it that way, but I never wound up setting it up, and it sat for a year or more. Fired it up today . . . and the screen's working fine. Go figure.
Getting used to the mush keys and touch pad after Das Keyboard and a trackball is kinda weird, though.
4610338
The commercialized knockoff fork? No.
Stick to the genuine open version that's been in use and improved since I was in training on W98 and W2k and OpenSuse.
Of course, everyone should have http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ lying around just in case.
Ok, apologies if someone else posted this, but How To Test RAM:
1. Go get a USB stick. Download and install Memtest86+ on it This should tell you how to mount it on a USB
2. Open your computer case, locate your RAM, pop it out, and then carefully reseat it to make sure it hasn't come loose.
3. Boot off the USB stick and let memtest86+ load. Do the 'Full diagnostic' or whatever option it gives you and basically just let it run and run and run - for like 12+ hours. You want ideally at least 3 passes (This will catch like 99.999% of errors at that point or something super high).
If you see 0 errors at the end, then congrats, your RAM & processor are probably good and something else is fucked (Likely your hard drive).
If you do see errors, then RAM, Processor, or motherboard is having issues and if replacing the RAM doesn't fix it, if the computer is old it's probably better to just upgrade your box than deal with the hassle of trying to determine if processor or motherboard is bad.
4611276
Add to that, use a ground strap before reaching in to fiddle with the modules.
4611441
Depends what surface you are working on. I rarely use grounding straps but make sure to de-static myself and work on non-static surfaces to not worry about it.
But it's definitely me taking a conscious risk and if you want to avoid a chance of accidentally frying components then yep, ground strap is smart.
Oh, *deleted expletive*
http://www.pcgamer.com/sad-news-everyone-ms-paint-might-get-bumped-off/
Windows 8.1 machine.....
4609916
That just happened to me today fixing a car. Got the new part put in and it still doesn't work. Now I've got to diagnose it again and find out if the new part is bad, or if there's something else wrong with the car. Bah.
I'm going to blame you for the fact that gDocs isn't working for me right now, and I've got over 10k of Onto the Pony Planet currently uneditable. I was hoping to get it to my pre-readers Friday night, too.
Obviously, they were extras.
4610096
I don't know squat about newer computers, so if I tried my own build, odds are all that I would have is an expensive smoke machine.
4610133
The hope is that it's just the memory, and I can get a couple of sticks of DDR3 and she'll boot up again. Or clean the squirrels out of the case; that might be the problem. I think the hard drive still works okay; it'll boot to the desktop (in safe mode), but once it gets there it can't do anything else.
I'm planning on going to a friend's house over the weekend and playing with the computer and seeing what we can make happen. Worst case, I've got to buy a new tower, which isn't the end of the world. Or maybe my friend can help me get the right parts to resurrect this one--I'm not really much of a computer guy.
4610232
Oh, that really sucks when that happens. We don't have to go through all the hoops for ours, thank heavens, but when it's down there isn't a lot we can do in the shop. We can't look up parts, or labor; we can't bill out orders. Sometimes we can't even call customers, because all our contact information for them is in the computer.
Now our alignment machine . . . that one, we have to have a licensed expert come out and fix. And he ain't cheap, and usually it takes a while for him to get to our shop. I had to meet him there one time four hours after we closed, because it was the only time he could come by.
The worst part, is the reason it fails most often is power surges knock out the propitiatory license plugs (they look, and unfortunately act, much like screw-in fuses, and the machine needs them to run). More than once, he's said that we need a proper surge protector, but the boss is stupid cheap sometimes, so the machine's plugged into a $1.99 'surge protector.'
Given that he charges $90/visit + parts and labor on top of that, we could have had a really nice surge protector for the three times he's come out to fix it after a power surge. A real nice one.
4610258
The important bits: DX4870-UB318, 1TB hard drive, intel i5 procedssor 330, 8 GB of DDR RAM. That's what the sticker on the side of the tower says, and what I assume is inside.
4610308
Cleaning the box can't hurt. I don't know if it'll help, but it won't hurt anything.
I'm probably going to get some memory sticks this weekend and see what they do; if they don't fix it, I'll just get a new tower.
4610310
One of my idiot former coworkers threw a torque stick through a toilet once. I know that toilets aren't all that strong, nor are they designed to take that kind of impact damage, but it was still pretty impressive; he got it from 20 feet away.
4610338
I appreciate the offer, but you don't have to bother. I've got two friends in IT, and another friend who's willing to help me this weekend. It's something I can get done locally if I have to--i'd have already asked one of my IT friends to do it, but I hate to bother them with it unless I run out of other options (plus, they make fun of me when I bring them a broken computer).
4613933
Actually, it's easier than ever to put your own together. PC building is almost like putting Legos together, and most mainstream software is easy to deal with.
4610378
It's not their worst OS, thought. Not by a long shot.
Honestly, the fact that you could turn off the dumb 'cellphone' view and get a legit desktop was really nice.
4610459
I might try that this weekend.
One of my friends once put a bunch of grungy old keyboards in a dishwasher as a last ditch attempt to clean them up. About half worked when he was done, which he thought was pretty good.
The Lenovo I'm currently typing on once got a shower, thanks to an idiot coworker. It managed to survive reasonably well, although some of the keys on the left side of the keyboard are a little bit wonky now. Mostly the shift key.