Impending computer failure?

Framar

WOW Framer
Joined
Jul 24, 2001
Posts
26,420
Loc
Buffalo, New York, USA/Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada
I have lately noticed that my computer seems to be blinking its little yellow light more and more and things run more slowly than usual. I did a defrag, even though it always sez I don't need to. I have about 4 gigabytes of space to spare on the hard drive.

I turn my computer off when I leave home or when there is a thunderstorm brewing. I noticed last week that the on button was getting sticky - have to be sure to really PRESS it to get things going.

Tonight I nearly had a coronary because after a whole long yellow-blinking-light-furiously time the desktop with the task bar appeared and NOTHING ELSE!!! No icons!!!

The light continued to blink furiously but nothing else was happening so (after about 10 minutes) I reached for the sticky button to turn it off manually and try again.

Nothing happened.

So I noticed a smaller button and pressed it.

Instantly the screen went dark, it began the usual routine (rebooting?) and then a message came on in purple letters on a black screen that said Windows thought there was a problem with disc configuration (?)and it analyzed things and then very slowly, eventually, my desktop returned to normal and the icons appeared.

I have an AMD Duron whatever, running XP - do I have a big problem in my future? I won't turn off the computer again - just in case - but if the power goes out, as it does frequently - YIKES!

What, dear techies, should I do? Is there any diagnostic I can run myself???

Bless your hearts!
 
The small button is the RESET button, and the blue screen that came up afterwards was just a self diagnostic. This was triggered by the abnormal shutdown (reset).

As far as the slowdown and increased disk activity, I would suspect some type of spyware or adware as a culprit. You can grab ad-aware from www.download.com to do a quick/free scan and diagnosis. There are many other programs capable of doing this as well.

It also wouldn't hurt to go to internet explorer -> tools -> internet options -> and delete all temporary files. Because of a bug, this doesn't always happen as it should. It can slow things down.

How much ram/memory does the unit have? How fast is the cpu? Right click on MY COMPUTER and pick PROPERTIES for these answers. If the memory is less than 384, more will help. Then the question is, how old is the computer - and is it cheaper just to replace it with a new Dell for $400? Computers.. don't you love em?


Have a great night
Mike
 
Mike, dear boy! What would I ever do without you!!! Thank you for finally talking me into downloading AdAware!

The program quarantined 245 New Critical Objects and 47 Negligible Objects for a total of 863 objects! (?)

I would like to know how they do their math! LOL!

Anyhoo, we shall see if things run any more smoothly now - oh, and I looked up the computer's info and it listed 1.3 GHz and 368 MB of RAM. Computer is 2.5 years old.

Thank you again Mike!
 
Here's a question:

Whenever I have to download anything the first screen that comes up asks me if I want to "Run" or "Save" the download.

It is only AFTER the item has been downloaded and run do they tell you how to download it and they say click "Save."

Well...I clicked "Run" and it "Saved" it anyways!

Go figure.
 
They're asking you if you want to run it from the hosts website, or download a copy first and then run it from your own.

In most cases, you'll want to save it first.

So the big question: Is it any faster today? 1.3ghz is slow by today's standards, but should be sufficient for web use. The ~384 memory should be fine.

Mike
 
Mike, et al--about 2wks ago I loaded a program called "ewdio"-a spyware freebe that I've been running AFTER ad-aware and it always turnsup many more little dirt-grubbers...its a 'trial' and expires after ???-weeks, but I'm thinkin about springing for the install
 
Ewido is well respected. Ad-aware is considered better for adware/spyware, Ewido is considered better for trojans.

Mike
 
Mike - seems to be running faster but I am afraid to turn it off! The only reason I turn it off when I leave the house is the frequent power outages in my area - hydro company never seems to have any explanation for them!
 
Mar, you may want to invest in an Uninterruptable Power System (UPS). They are available for $50 to $100 from most stores that sell computers and peripherals.

A UPS is basically a battery backup, with some sophisticated circuitry that automatically maintains power to your computer when the line power goes out. They are trouble free and maintenance free -- plug it in and forget it. Most of them also work effectively as surge protectors.

The more watt-hour capacity you buy, the more time you will have before the UPS battery runs down. I have 900 watt-hour UPSs on my critical computers, which are strong enough to also keep the monitors going for about 15 minutes. That allows plenty of time to save work in process, close all programs and have an orderly shutdown until the power comes back. If you want more or less battery time, buy more or less watt-hours.

Of course, the more you plug into the UPS, the faster it will run down. So, I suggest limiting their use to only the computer and monitor, and leaving off peripherals such as printers, cameras, scanners.

We occasionally have power "blinks", when the power goes off for only a few seconds. When that happens, the computers don't even know it.
 
Thanks for the tip, Jim - I will look into this UPS back-up idea. Won't do me much good when I'm away but then again, I won't be working on anything and programs will be shut down - so if the computer does go off for more than 15 minutes, all that will happen is that snarky little message about Windows being "shut down incorrectly."
 
Many of the UPS systems have a cable that goes to the PC and tells is when to shut down automatically. (say after 5 or 10 mins without power) Shutting off a pc suddenly and without a normal shutdown process, will cause a loss of data and/or corruption. This is especially dangerous with a POS system or similar database. (QuickBooks, etc)

APC (Based here in Rhode Island) makes a good quality UPS product. We use them at home and at the shop.

Mike
 
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