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computer issues continue
14 years ago
//EDIT// i have enough people for the 5$ arts thing, so that's closed now :B
anyway.
so those who've been following my exploits elsewhere already know my laptop's been having some...issues. namely every so often, for no apparent reason, it just freezes and refuses to unfreeze. it's 4+ years old, australian, and has travelled a LOT.
i already replaced the HD, which didn't seem to help much. it ran fine for a day or so and then froze again. most of the time, the freezing takes place at night - when it's shut, not in use, but still running. so i thought it was perhaps when the drives went into power saving mode.
but it also sometimes freezes when i'm using it during the day at random intervals. i'd say it freezes about twice a day, on average. the time between the freezes varies. there's no one particular program it freezes up on/after.
so if it's not the HD, it must be either the mobo or the memory. if it's the mobo (motherboard, for you non computery types) then i'm just fucked and need a new computer. i doubt i'll be able to afford one so i'll probably just be without any way to get art online for an indeterminate time.
if it's the memory, which i hope it is, i can just buy new memory and replace it.
so now i'm testing the memory. i've swapped the old stick (a 2gig) out for some old smaller sticks (512mb) and am just seeing how it goes. it runs slower now but that's expected. if it manages to go about three days without a freeze, i'll try to raise some money at the tail end of this month to purchase new RAM.
but until i know if it's going to freeze again or not, i'm just kind of gimping along on what, to the computer, is equivolent of driving your car on the donut.
blarf darf.
anyway.
so those who've been following my exploits elsewhere already know my laptop's been having some...issues. namely every so often, for no apparent reason, it just freezes and refuses to unfreeze. it's 4+ years old, australian, and has travelled a LOT.
i already replaced the HD, which didn't seem to help much. it ran fine for a day or so and then froze again. most of the time, the freezing takes place at night - when it's shut, not in use, but still running. so i thought it was perhaps when the drives went into power saving mode.
but it also sometimes freezes when i'm using it during the day at random intervals. i'd say it freezes about twice a day, on average. the time between the freezes varies. there's no one particular program it freezes up on/after.
so if it's not the HD, it must be either the mobo or the memory. if it's the mobo (motherboard, for you non computery types) then i'm just fucked and need a new computer. i doubt i'll be able to afford one so i'll probably just be without any way to get art online for an indeterminate time.
if it's the memory, which i hope it is, i can just buy new memory and replace it.
so now i'm testing the memory. i've swapped the old stick (a 2gig) out for some old smaller sticks (512mb) and am just seeing how it goes. it runs slower now but that's expected. if it manages to go about three days without a freeze, i'll try to raise some money at the tail end of this month to purchase new RAM.
but until i know if it's going to freeze again or not, i'm just kind of gimping along on what, to the computer, is equivolent of driving your car on the donut.
blarf darf.
I've also heard that letting a laptop run while the lid is closed is not good because it has a possibility of overheating real bad. I'm not a tech wiz, though, so no one jump on me going "OMG that's totally wrong you are stupid!" please.
Oh yeah, I have $5 I can send you now, just need to figure out what I'd like from ya. :v
then i had one gateway that was horrid! it'd overheat on top of the best cooling pad there was, with the case off, freshly cleaned. it'd literally HURT to touch because it got so hot. i sent it in for repairs TWICE because i was positive that they hadn't put enough thermal paste on or something, and both times it came back still doing the same thing.
and then i got this asus. it's been seriously solid. it's stood the heat of the tropic of capricorn, and LA without overheating.
most of it has to do with how their heat exhaust vents are positioned. this one's point out the back and bottom (and it's propped up on something so the bottom can 'breathe') so it stays fairly cool. i occassionally run a little program called Laptop Hardware Control to see how warm it gets inside. it stays pretty nominal...
that massive old old gateway i mentioned survived someone straight up leaning against it on a train ride.
unless it's a toughbook
ohhhh how i've dreamed of a toughbook
Ended up selling it -- too big, too heavy, and too slow. Also near impossible to get parts for -- you basically had to buy another machine (typically a 'breaker' or a 'parts mule') and strip it for parts. By the time I'd finished, my machine consisted of the parts of three different machines (mostly it was the drive bay and slot covers which broke, talk about irony!).
Never had a hard drive, RAM or power connector failure though. At least the electronics were built to last.
I still contend that students are the only people who can break Toughbooks :)
Though old age does tend to hit a computer hard it seems. Maybe it could use a cleaning, I've heard heat caused by dust build up can cause problems.
all i can do to help is take one of the art spaces D':
and if you took one of the slots i'd only need one more :o
do you think it could be a virus? theres a good site called doctor web that fixed my pc when it was loaded with them ( believe this is it http://www.freedrweb.com/cureit/?lng=en) but i cant say if it'll help :C
sure sure! i could take them both as im at it XD
OKAY IF YOU WANT THE SLOTS YOU MUST FOLLOW THE RULES ON HOW TO GET OOOOONE my 5$ arts have different rules for No Real Reason.
nuuuu i hate rules! D':
but i shall follow them!
came up clean. no viruses. not too shocked, i don't open strange files/visit porn sites/download stuff without checking it first. i also don't use IE or outlook.
ya but theres always evil emails! but it does sound like its something else...i hope its nothing to bad ie can be fixed |C
memory though is fairly cheap and easy to secure. if it was just bad memory or memory on the verge of going bad, i can fix it for a measly 50$ or so. and the computer would run faster as an end result.
that could be it and i do hope it is coz it sounds so easy to fix compared to other things...do you think you'll get more memory for it before tring anything else?
-i know it's not a virus
-i know it's not overheating
-i know it's not a power supply issue
-i know it's not the hard drive
-i know it's not a dust issue
that just leaves memory and mobo. if it's not the memory, must be the mobo...
well as i've said i've put in some 512 memory just to test it. this is memory that would have been fast probably eight years ago, BUT that this operating system was designed to run on. so things are fine the way it is...just a little slow. this is perfect for allowing the computer to sort of hang on for the next few days and see what happens. if this gimpy old replacement RAM prevents it from freezing, then bravo, solution found.
i'd only buy new RAM then. no sense wasting money on it until i know it's what i need. i can tolerate slow load times/boot ups. i've been suffering through them already since this nonsense began...
hears hopping to that fixing it! and i hope you dont need to pay any more to fix it...its not even that old
I am assuming:
-you've scanned for viruses and malware
-you are not running too many applications at the same time
-you defragment the drive regularly
You didn't mention if it's overheating. If the 2G RAM was not the original stick, it's possible it is too fast for that laptop model. If you have no further freeze ups running the 512 MB stick, this is probably the cause.
Based on what little I know, I'm guessing it's a driver or registry issue.
To see if you're running the best driver, do this:
Be connected to the Net >Open Device Manager >Select and expand a Device > Right-click a device in that expanded view > Select "Update Driver Software"
Some blogs have recommended downloading registry tests and registry repair apps, but I encourage you to avoid these. If you have reason to believe it's a registry issue, then you should purchase a Register Repair Utility so that you might have some recourse if this fails.
At this point I'm going to stop and recommend you google "laptop freezes", and do some research.
i would not DARE toy with the drivers on this thing, because it's already running a rather...unique set of drivers. see, this model was meant to run 7. i downgraded it to XP, much to its frustration. for about a month there, the sound card wasn't working until i finally found a driver for it.
but this was years ago. it's been running solidly on those drivers ever since.
i've already done the registry clean etc etc. all the conventional software related attempts to fix the freeze have already been done, to no avail.
and yeah thanks CAUSE I NEVER THOUGHT TO GOOGLE IT :P the problem is the symptoms are SO general that it could be, as i said, ONE OF THREE THINGS. the HD, the memory or the mobo. it's not the HD, so it's either the memory or the mobo. again - as i said already.
i DO know my ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to PCs. i'm no network admin, but i don't have to pay best buy to replace my drives if you get my drift :\
I do know that you can't upgrade from XP to 7. There may be an inference there.
BestBuy should pay US to replace our drives.
that's baloney, you can totally upgrade from XP to 7 if your computer's specs can handle 7. like an OLD xp computer, no way. but a newer custom built machine with specs that could handle 7 without breaking a sweat? there's no reason why it wouldn't work.
the downgrading is a little messier because 7 has a totally new and different way of handling sound, which is why i lost it for so long. i also had to fiddle around a lot with getting the video running right, but that wasn't nearly as hard.
some things i can't run in XP because the drivers for them just do not exist. like the fingerprint ID sensor. but that's hardly necessary to the functionality of the computer so i doooooon't even care.
I had a bad experience with a Windows Upgrade. I carefully read the requirements on the box to make sure that my then-current pc could handle it. The box lied, and it was too late because I had opened it and attempted installation (This was before XP).
Now my strategy is to perform only full-installations and skip every-other new Windows OS. In that time frame, I have to get new hardware anyway or else I'm "pouring new wine into an old wineskin".
I'm not a gamer, but the only reason I miss Windows XP is because of that stupid bundled pinball game Space Cadet.
Come Spring Break, I'm going to install XP as a virtual machine so I can play it again.