A dog & canine forum. DogBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » DogBanter forum » Dog forums » Dog behavior
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

[OT] - Ping techy folks - Is my HD dead??



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #41  
Old November 4th 08, 01:27 AM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 324
Default [OT] - Ping techy folks - Might not be my Hard drive


I just tried booting it up with both CD/DVD drives completely disconnected
(all cables), and there was no change. It still went just as far in the
boot-up sequence, and then crashed to the same screen as before.


Have you confirmed that the CD you're using is in fact bootable? (I know it
seems silly, but I've been caught out on that one before).

Dale


  #42  
Old November 4th 08, 01:52 AM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 324
Default - Ping techy folks - Is my HD dead??

The correct answer to nearly every technical question is "It
depends,"


Just wanted to comment on this a little more in the light of recent
conversations. Of course "It depends". With every interconnected system, be
it mechanical, electrical, or biological, any problem can manifest itself in
anyone of about a million ways. *But* there are typical ways different
problems will show up. Its far more useful to the person with the problem to
address the *typical* issues first, and then move on to the more unusual
manifestations.

Bad hard drive - Typical manifestation - gradual loss of function, increase
in access time over time, generally associated with a 'clicking' noise.
Catastrophic failure typically manifests with the hard drive simply no
longer being recognized

Bad RAM - Typical manifestation - Random lockups, even with a clean OS load.
Often frequent lockups even loading the OS.

Bad CPU - No life

Bad Fan - Bad fan will cause overheating (and change in noise). Typically
the system will run for a while, and then shut down. Immediate attempts to
reboot will cause the system to lock up again very quickly. Waiting for the
system to cool will cause the system to function properly for a while again.

Bad/insufficient Power supply - I've mostly seen these manifest as simple
'freezes'. Nothing on the screen changes, it just stops responding.

Missing RAM - No life.

There are (of course) exceptions to any of the above, and anyone who wants
to look smart can of course point them out, but a very high percentage of
time, this will be how these problems show up in practice. My experience
with IT people is a lot of them will take the approach that people complain
about vets taking. They will test randomly until they find something that
doesn't work. They don't use any kind of reasoning behind what they do, but
they can justify any test they want to do because 'it sometimes shows up
like this'. Quite frankly, that's a useless approach, and any idiot can
learn to do it in very short order (you just have to be able to 'talk the
talk').

Dale


  #43  
Old November 4th 08, 03:26 AM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 703
Default [OT] - Ping techy folks - Is my HD dead??

More updates

I removed and re-seated the RAM, that had no effect. I removed both of
the optical drives, tried it with none, one and both installed, no
effect.

It turns out to be not as simple as I originally thought, but I am
getting a lot closer to tracking down what is going on.

I have two harddrives, a 40 GB HD and a 120 GB HD. For whatever reason,
my Windows installation is on my 120 GB HD, and not on my 40 GB HD like I
previously thought. (BOO me!!)

If I set it to start with only the 120 GB HD connected, I get the
following at startup:

Pri Master:WDC W1200JB-00EVA0 15.05R15
Ultra DMA Mode-5, S.M.A.R.T. Capable and Status BAD

And then info on my optical drives.

A bit farther down, it says:
Pri Master Hard Disk :S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD, backup and replace
Press F1 to Continue

If I carry on, it loads the Windows installation program (Extremely
slow), and I am given the choice to install/repair/quit. Choosing install
ends up with the software finding a previous version of windows on my HD
(the one that was running before) and it now giving me the option to
repair it. I select yes, and it is now in the process of
installing/repairing my version of windows.

I will give an update of what happens after it is done installing, and I
re-connect back up my older 40 GB HD.

In any case, I think that it is time for me to replace my 120GB HD, which
is weird, as it is only 5 years old. My 40 GB HD is about twice that.


--
Marcel and Moogli
  #44  
Old November 4th 08, 04:14 AM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 703
Default [OT] - Ping techy folks - Is my HD dead??

Marcel Beaudoin wrote
in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

Update


I will give an update of what happens after it is done installing, and
I re-connect back up my older 40 GB HD.


There is definitely a problem with the HD. It never actually finishes the
installation, and regularly crashes during the process.

So I will remove it from the boot-up list and find someplace that can, when
I purchase a new HD, transfer the data to it.

Any recommendations??

Also, what I wouldn't mind doing is set up my new HD to be able to boot
into Windows, and another partition to boot into a flavour of Linux.

Any recommendations for that??

Thanks for all the help folks!!


--
Marcel and Moogli
  #46  
Old November 4th 08, 12:33 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 7,732
Default [OT] - Ping techy folks - Might not be my Hard drive

In article ,
Rocky wrote:
Whatever happened to generic computers? I used to be able to
swap HDs between all sorts of PCs. Was is a Dell thing I ran
into?


I guess Apple's proved you don't need to have open hardware
to be successful.

Vanilla hardware is important to me because I run lots of
Unix (*BSD) at home, some of the funkier chipsets aren't
supported, and I'm well past the age where I would find it
edifying or interesting to port an OS to new hardware
myself. For the past 5 years or so I've been buying cheap,
low-end eMachines from BestBuy and they're about as ordinary
and generic as you can get. I swap drives, video and sound
cards, even video acquisition cards (bt848) around without
problems.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community
  #47  
Old November 4th 08, 12:36 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,155
Default [OT] - Ping techy folks - Might not be my Hard drive


"Rocky" wrote in message
...

Whatever happened to generic computers? I used to be able to
swap HDs between all sorts of PCs. Was is a Dell thing I ran
into?


Dell had a model a few years ago that was *very* proprietary. The
components were consistently crap, too. We had hard disks, video cards,
fans, and power supplies fail at an unacceptable rate. The DVD/CD
drives sounded like they were getting ready for take-off, and the floppy
drives rumbled. Ugh. They were awful. We get new computers every
couple of years, and even though the ones we just got are Vista
machines, they're a ginormous improvement over the old ones. The new
hardware is pretty great.

I don't know what model of Dell you've got, but if it was a used
machine, it could well be from the same crappy generation.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

  #48  
Old November 8th 08, 03:30 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 382
Default [OT] - Ping techy folks - Is my HD dead??

Marcel, at this point we seem to just be shotgunning this - but
are ALL your fans spinning? Even the chipset fan?

The vibrating optical drive seems to me to be a blind alley.

(Yeah, I know - troubleshooting by newsgroup articles, and on
feel, is silly. But I'm just thinkin'.)

ObDogs: a milestone of sorts. During agility class the other
night, Baron started offering partial weaves to me without
waiting for the command. I think he's starting to get the idea
about those silly poles.

--
Mark Shaw (And Baron) moc TOD liamg TA wahsnm
================================================== =======================
"If your dog is fat, you aren't getting enough exercise." - Unknown
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Ping BethGSD and other Mid-Atlantic agility folks again :-) Sionnach Dog behavior 40 December 21st 03 08:10 PM
Ping BethGSD and other Mid-Atlantic agility folks again :-) Sionnach Dog behavior 0 December 19th 03 03:53 PM
Ping BethGSD and other Mid-Atlantic agility folks again :-) Sionnach Dog behavior 0 December 19th 03 03:53 PM
Ping BethGSD and other Mid-Atlantic agility folks again :-) Sionnach Dog behavior 0 December 19th 03 03:53 PM
Ping Bethgsd (& other Mid-Atlantic agility folks) NADAC in VA in Feb. Sionnach Dog behavior 0 December 6th 03 10:12 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:57 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.2.0 (Unauthorized Upgrade)
Copyright ©2004-2024 DogBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.