Computer failures - Post your woes!

[Big Grizzle]

I just blew up my 3rd laptop charger. 0_o

Having to use my old Ubuntu box. A P4 with only 512MB of RAM......ugh!

Short of stripping my HDD out of my laptop I have no access to all the code I wrote in the last couple of months and since I haven't used this machine in ages it has a billion updates to download. It is also missing key software I need to get going again. Key software which I can't DL until the bloody updates have finished. This is gonna take a while as I am using a USB dongle.

When was the last time your PC/Laptop gave you the middle finger salute and what did you do to ease your woes?

[programmerinprogress]

I just blew up my 3rd laptop charger. 0_o

Having to use my old Ubuntu box. A P4 with only 512MB of RAM......ugh!

Short of stripping my HDD out of my laptop I have no access to all the code I wrote in the last couple of months and since I haven't used this machine in ages it has a billion updates to download. It is also missing key software I need to get going again. Key software which I can't DL until the bloody updates have finished. This is gonna take a while as I am using a USB dongle.

When was the last time your PC/Laptop gave you the middle finger salute and what did you do to ease your woes?

when a piece of hardware (presumably the processor, the motherboard or both together) failed in one of my computers, the computer would start up and then cut out after a few seconds.

In a vain attempt to save my computer (and because I genuinley thought I knew the cause of the problem after replacing the power supply and having no luck) I bought a new processor, I switch on the computer and, bam! it doesn't work.

I then buy a new motherboard, and then insert the new processor into that, the same problem persists, could it be that I've transferred the problem over to the new hardware? very likely, as I was testing this out on a mere skeleton of a computer, everything plugged into the board was new, bar the processor.

Eventually I said "screw it, i'm not destroying anymore components, let's build a brand new computer", it was the best decision I ever made, it cost me just under £150, and it's very upgradable when I have the funds to do so, so now i'm happy

* I was however desktop-free for a year, it was a pain.

[Big Grizzle]

You just gave me an idea. Buy some more RAM for this aging piece of junk....I mean solid and reliable super computing powerhouse!

PLEASE DON'T DIE ON ME!!!

[avansc]

never knew shredder used computers..

[XianForce]

never knew shredder used computers..

[Big Grizzle]

LOL!!

When choosing my avatar it was between tin foil shredder or the one of my giving a thumbs up whilst sitting on the bog.

[zNelson24]

When I built my first computer, I never used spacers when installing the motherboard. The motherboard was grounded and the computer wouldn't boot. Had to take it to a shop to tell me what I did wrong.

You just gave me an idea. Buy some more RAM for this aging piece of junk....I mean solid and reliable super computing powerhouse!

PLEASE DON'T DIE ON ME!!!

Windows and the many games you play on it pretty much take a crap load of RAM nowadays.

[Bakkon]

Windows and the many games you play on it pretty much take a crap load of RAM nowadays.

Sounds like a Vista problem. Windows 7 does extremely well on just 1gb of RAM.

[zNelson24]

Windows and the many games you play on it pretty much take a crap load of RAM nowadays.

Sounds like a Vista problem. Windows 7 does extremely well on just 1gb of RAM.

Thats pretty much my beef with Vista. It's running smoothly, but its a resource piggy. I feared Windows 7 would be a repeat of Microsoft's mistakes with Vista when I just stared at it's system requirements. Thankfully, that dosen't seem to be an issue (as far as I know).

I miss the good'ol days, when Windows only needed a few MBs of the stuff.

[hurstshifter]

Windows and the many games you play on it pretty much take a crap load of RAM nowadays.

Sounds like a Vista problem. Windows 7 does extremely well on just 1gb of RAM.

Thats pretty much my beef with Vista. It's running smoothly, but its a resource piggy. I feared Windows 7 would be a repeat of Microsoft's mistakes with Vista when I just stared at it's system requirements. Thankfully, that dosen't seem to be an issue (as far as I know).

I miss the good'ol days, when Windows only needed a few MBs of the stuff.

Protip: Run XP. I don't really understand the flamewars over Vista and Windows 7. If you don't like it, don't upgrade. I have no intentions of leaving XP for my Windows based activities. At least until a really kick-ass game comes out that requires DX10.

[davidthefat]

I dual boot xp and ubuntu on a 700 mb machine...

[Ginto8]

@grizzle: don't use ubuntu for limited machines like that -- a usb drive with Slax on it is extremely useful, with a very small RAM footprint. Or you could try Damn Small or any number of Linux flavors designed for limited RAM systems.

[Big Grizzle]

Really?

The old Ubuntu box
OS - Hardy Heron LTS
CPU - P4 2.8Ghz
RAM - 512MB
HDD - 40GB Partition

The rccomended specs are...
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Insta ... quirements

My woe came from having been using my laptop with 2GB of RAM with a Dual Core CPU, and a Nvidia Geforce 7400 and noticing a massive difference in performance when I had to use the old box. Ubuntu actually runs great on that machine. No whizzy compiz eye candy effects but very solid and responsive. I also hadn't used it in a while so while it was updating I was unable to use Synaptic to install a couple of the programs I needed.

BTW I've tried DamnSmall linux. It's good, but I wouldn't use it as a primary OS. I still have the bootable USB just for emergencies though.

[Joeyotrevor]

A couple of months ago my seagate hard drive failed on me, and I lost nearly all my projects except for the few things I had on a USB stick. I buy a new WD hard drive and send in the seagate one to be replaced. I decide to use the seagate one as a back up drive, hoping to prevent this from happening again. One month later, the seagate drive dies AGAIN and my USB drive dies, so I lose all of my old projects again. My WD drive is still working beautifully. I'm never buying seagate again.

[Ginto8]

Really?

The old Ubuntu box
OS - Hardy Heron LTS
CPU - P4 2.8Ghz
RAM - 512MB
HDD - 40GB Partition

Oh then never mind. Ubuntu should run fairly well with 512 MB ram. I thought you were talking old like some of the computers my family has in the garage (The newer of the two has 256 MB RAM, but some is corrupt so it comes out to ~160 in actuality ).

Though that's not to say you shouldn't try other distros to see if they run better .