Computer help

Hardware, not software-related, but any suggestions for getting the CD drawer to open up? It goes "thunk" when I push the button, but won't open. I don't think that there's a disc in it, currently, if that makes any difference...

There should be a really small hole in the front that you can press with a bent paper clip. It should be right next to the eject button. If that doesn't work, I recommend pliers.

^ Or a good bash. At least doing that makes you feel better if it doesn't wedge it open.

I agree to the bashing it idea.

Oh yeah the thing magically decided to work again. I'm confused too.

It's started working again? Back up. Nao.

Your story reminded me of my system using Vista. One day it just decided to work, and still is now.

So Vista just likes to crap out then work again? Good to know.

Guess what it's doing again!?

I'm still thinking about HDD failure. Did you check your HDD(s)?

OK, quick question: my laptop HDD crapped itself and started displaying six colors of bullshit when analyzed in Ubuntu (SMART parameters went mental). Then, the same happened to a replacement drive which then mysteriously un-crapped itself. This was caused by loose connection between HDD and mainboard. What's the chance that the old drive un-craps itself if connected to an USB enclosure?

edited 3rd Feb '11 12:19:41 PM by NotSoBadassLongcoat

There's at least a chance of it.

However, frequently the SMART status simply doesn't get communicated by the enclosure to the host computer, so you MIGHT just be hiding a problem.

Doesn't hurt to try, though. To get data off at least.

No, no, I mean that the SMART data were pulled completely out of the ass, from capacity, through usage data like temperature, to amount of bad sectors and stuff like that.

Ah, if they were that random, I'd ignore them and definitely try it in an enclosure. Probably was the cabling or something.

Yes, it was. The HDD wasn't screwed tightly into one place and finally worked itself loose. Of course nobody told me that before it was too late (read, the new HDD installed and pulling exactly the same kind of shit on me).

Sorry to jump in late, but the random lockups problem sounds suspiciously like overheating, either on the mainboard/CPU or video. Check all the system fans to make sure they're turning when your machine is powered up. Try running things with a desk fan blowing into the open case. Make sure all fan power cables are properly seated on the motherboard.

Other possibilities include transient hard drive failure, bad memory (this will bork a system bigtime), or bad incoming power such as a faulty PSU or unreliable household current. Try removing and reseating your expansion cards, drive cables, and/or memory.

Fun fact: my new HDD stopped booting. I replaced it with the old, supposedly fucked one. Booted right away (well, not right away, but Ubuntu saw it as intact, so I tried to boot and it worked). Now I'm wondering what the fuck is this thing doing. Possessed or something? The new HDD worked yesterday!

...unless it's some kind of fuck-your-system-up windows update. But then, it should work after a system wipe, but it didn't.

Well I got my issue. Something decided to eat the hard drive. Don't know how but it did.

So... I have Adblock Plus, and... how do I get this◊ to not happen?

Your installation of Adblock Plus doesn't look like Adblock Plus, or you have been hit with a virus. I have never seen those messages on any browser using Adblock that I have used.

Try right clicking the drive in Windows Explorer and select Eject, and see if that works reliably. It's weird as fuck, but when I send the eject command instead of pushing the button on a shit drive, it seems to work way more often.

@Fusion

Is this a laptop or a desktop? Do you have any sort of cooling solution? If it's a desktop, do you know you have a heatsink on your CPU? If it's a laptop, what type of surface is it on and is it dusty?

Also seconding Vista sucks. I work in IT and deal with it frequently. When it freezes, can you move the mouse? No ability to move the mouse during a freeze means it's probably a hardware side problem. Being able to move the mouse pretty much means it's most likely on the software end and that you need to try and ctrl+alt+del and look at your task manager and what process is eating up all your resources.

I have a little routine I go through on user computers to destroy most viruses.

Download CCleaner

Download Super Anti Spyware

Download Malware Bytes

1. Download and install all 3 of those.
2. Update them all the way.
3. Run C Cleaner first as a cleaner, and remove everything
4. Run registry cleaner, remove everything
5. Run Super Anti Spyware on a "Complete" scan, kill everything
6. Run Malware Bytes on a "Full" scan, kill everything
7. Run C Cleaner again to clean up any registry hooks that are left over and trash files

If you still have shit after that, you've either got a very nasty rootkit, or a relatively small handful of browser hijackers, not a whole lot survives that. However, a rootkit usually leaves a lot of incidental damage to your machine, so you could kill the problem and still have issues and need to repair your windows installation.

That's essentially my biggest proficiency at my job, is virii, trojans, rootkits, browser hijackers, et cetera. If the above doesn't work, run it through Spybot S&D, then after that you need to get your hands dirty and start using Hijack This/Hitman Pro/Spyhunter and start manually finding and deleting malicious code.

edited 11th Dec '12 5:35:50 PM by Barkey

Super Anti Spyware is new to me. I'm still using Spybot.

Spybot is ok, just sort of antiquated.

Malware Bytes is probably the most wide catching freeware out there, as it even gets many instances of the FBI virus. The thing is it takes fucking forever to do thorough scans. Super Anti Spyware scans pretty fast and is good at finding stuff. It's just that the GUI is so fucking ugly that it looks like it is spyware.

Yeah, I had an odd problem yesterday: Two lockups in one day. They both occurred while I was playing the same game, and in fact occurred under the same conditions; me accidentally kicking the enclosure while in the VAB screen. First time it happened the screen turned solid grey and sound stopped playing, and the system just kept rebooting itself until I pulled the PSU's cord. After opening it up, disconnecting and reconnecting a few of the external and pressing down on the RAM it started with no error on Dr Debug. The second time it happened, the sound stopped but the last image before the freeze stayed.

Come to think of it, that second time it froze, I didn't even attempt to force quit the program, and I can't remember if the sound cut out. It also rebooted just fine after the freeze. Should I be worried?

Maybe I can get some help here. I have a wifi extender (WN3000RP from Netgear) for my desktop computer with Windows 8.1, we got a new router on April 1st, the router is in another room, but I think I pushed the wrong button somewhere on the Internet (maybe something about access point on mywifiext.com), now I can't use the network NETGEAR48_EXT even though the computer still "remembers" that network. Sometimes using the network of the router works but for the most part it doesn't, the Internet on my computer worked fine in the morning, but not at the end of that date. How do I make NETGEAR48_EXT the "default" network again?

Edited by Grey-ghost on Apr 8th 2024 at 7:38:23 PM