strange problem

Bill Crook · Post by **Bill Crook** » 24 May 2001 11:33 pm

Bad Memory module ??????

(It happened to me, was bad memory)

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 25 May 2001 2:58 am

The video problems could either be the driver or the video card. When it first boots up and is still in the DOS mode the video is in one mode, when Windows initializes the video is switched to a different mode and apparently that is where the problems are.

Then again, with the power on/off problems it could be the video card is bad???

If you hve a different video board, try it to see if the symptoms change - or get corrected. It doesn't have to be the type of board you actually want in the PC, just one that you can use to test and see if your original one is causing all the problems.

Video loads drivers, etc into memory but usually memory does not cause power problems. If it did, you would be getting memory errors along with everything else.

There are many possibilites - something else on the expansion buss that is interferring with the video. Causing the problem but making it look like there is a video problem, etc. If you have other plug in cards (such as a modem, audio board, etc) remove them temporarily and see if the video and or power problem symptoms change or go away. If you get lucky and everything else works then one of the cards you removed is the culprit.

When Troubleshooting a PC, sometimes breaking it down to the minimum components is necessary to find the problem. I keep some cards (audio, video and modem) that were removed from other PC's just for troubleshooting, if I get a hardware type problem call.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 25 May 2001 1:27 pm

Mike, that's strange about Adaptec. Adaptec seems to be the defacto standard. Everybody seems to compare their burning software to Adaptec.

I've tried several that were available as trial versions and none were as user friendly as Adaptec and some couldn't even find my Hewlett Packard burner.

David Pennybaker · Post by **David Pennybaker** » 25 May 2001 7:25 pm

When you find a forum that thinks EZ CD Creator is bad (and they refer to it as "EZ Coaster") you can bet it's for ONE reason only:

They're pirating software (er, I mean "backing it up").

Adaptec isn't good at that at all.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 26 May 2001 2:53 am

I've made several "working copies" of my S/W CD's without problems with Adaptec. Anything I have that requires a CD be loaded for the program to run, I make a "working copy" and store the original. If something would happen to a "working copy" CD, I've still got the original.

This may be overkill but after seeing what happens on a daily basis, working at a help desk, backups are a must.

David Pennybaker · Post by **David Pennybaker** » 26 May 2001 8:29 am

It's games, primarily, that are software-protected to the point where Adaptect won't work properly. You really need a software package (and a CD-R) that will support writing the CD contents bit-by-bit (sector-by-sector?) without regards as to whether the data is "correct" or not.

Even some of the MS products are "protected" -- but you can get around those, usually, by copying the contents to HardDrive first, then performing the copy.

CD to CD-R doesn't work, because there are files on there that report themselve to be much bigger than they are, and the software thinks it can't make CD with that much space. Somehow, copying to Hard-Drive restores the correct "indicated" file-size to the files

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 28 May 2001 7:11 am

Hmmmmmm....strange. I had always read that the "click of death" was associated with Zip drives. I have used W-D HD's for the past 12 years, and have never even had one go bad! My PC guru swears by 'em.

One thing I do is to disable all those "green" (power saving) features. They cause more problems than they're worth. With many computers, they're built-in. This is why I stay away from name-brand computers (and their quirky proprietary bios').

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 28 May 2001 8:15 am

Donny, it's hard to tell what his problem really is/was. I see a comment about modifying the CPU for a different speed, etc. Anytime I see anything like that I cringe as most really do not know what they are doing or what other side affects that will cause.

I've been in computers since the 60's and the first thing I know, I'm not a design engineer, but I've worked as a tech and as a programmer. I've found that the design engineers know more than I do and I don't try to redesign something.

If someone wants to modify their machine, it's theirs they can do what they want with it, but don't start asking for help with a problem and then find out it could have been modified and who knows what problems the modification potentially did.

When I was doing amp repair I would turn away anything that I found had been modified. If it wasn't "stock" I wouldn't work on it.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 28 May 2001 6:16 pm

I know just what you mean, Jack! When I read about overclocking from 500 to 523 mhz, I just shook my head. Most people don't realize that the CPU speed is just a small factor in the overall speed of the computer! To get a really significant speed increase (in a game, for instance) you'd have to increase the clock rate by 40%-50%. In reality, and with all other things being equal, a 600 mhz computer is only about 10% faster than a 450 mhz. And a 1000 mhz is probably less than 25% faster than the 600mhz.

Still, some people are willing to pay additional hundreds of dollars for that almost meaningless gain.