Computer expert [Can i have it?]

[Effedup]

Re: Computer expert [Can i have it?]

Power supply problems can be hell. I've had two go bad and the irrational behavior of the machine (random shutdowns mostly) can look like software when they aren't. I've seen a couple of bad memory sticks--iirc you end up with application crashes especially during heavy usage (e.g. games) depending on what's going on with the stick. Never done a processor failure, but hard drive failure appears to be ever increasingly common among the cheapo line of hard drives (refer to my previous rant against the Western Digital "Caviar" drive I used to have). Most hard drive problems show as "slowness" especially at ROM check and during boot sequences (occasional failure to boot). S.M.A.R.T. errors at startup are common, and, of course, the ubiquitous random crashes that seem to accompany most hardware problems.

I second you on the power supply problems...I've had that happen to me twice (Because I'm cheap and tried to recycle OEM PSU's in both instances). The first time I went through complete hell trying to debug my machine wondering why I was having so many strange hardware problems, completely tearing down and re-building piece by piece, only to discover it was the crappy PSU all along. Second time I drop-kicked the crappy PSU and bought a new one. That's how I learned that all PSU's, regardless of wattage, are NOT created equal.

I'm definitely of the "nuke it from orbit" school myself...I actually make it a point to do that every year or so anyways to FORCE myself to get rid of useless crap programs that I always seem to accumulate. Just before my last computer crisis, when my boot disk started going, I went through and made my list of programs to redownload and discovered I had five video converters. Yes, five. All fulfilling the same function. I don't know why the hell I had so much, more drunken downloading again I guess ^^

It's just nice starting over. It's amazing how stupid quick Windows XP can actually be when you don't have 650 gajillion things running at all times...

[Macht]

Re: Computer expert [Can i have it?]

It's amazing how stupid quick Windows XP can actually be when you don't have 650 gajillion things running at all times...

That's why I've made it a habit to pull a Process List telling me everything that's running. I clean it every month or two, so I haven't seen any delay. Some are obvious what they are like McAfee.exe, WMP52GB_1.exe, soffice.exe. Then I check on processes in regedit that I'm suspicious of like mcmcsu.exe (This one turned out to be a backdoor that seemed to come from a trojan program, system was telling me that a program was trying to gain internet access that I didn't give to it).

When I do finally decide to nuke my system it'll probably be because I've upgraded it so much or added and removed so many devices that I just want to set as clean a list of drivers as I can possibly do. I'll probably consolidate my programs like Quicktime, Realplayer, Media Player, and which others I have down to the one I've liked VLC. That player has run every video format I've thrown at it and better then the others could.