Topic: Computer Maintenance Blues

[frankcapri]

^That's the one.  It works well for mean pranks on geek-wise friends as well 

...but occasionally it would 'go to 11' so to speak and the character would go totally apeshit. And when that terrified, one of the things that the game does as it distorts itself is to flash the BSOD.

That game sounds awesome 

[JackFrost]

^That's the one.  It works well for mean pranks on geek-wise friends as well 

That game sounds awesome 

It was, the story spanned centuries and you played characters from multiple eras from ancient Rome to modern-day Massachusetts each person providing a piece of the prophecy that calls some ancient evil that you have to defeat. It's pretty cool... 

[Methiah]

I used to have a BSOD screen saver on my computer, and it never ceased to scare the crap out of me

Yes I used to use one of them back in the University's common computer room. I went to the toilet one time and when I came back there was an administrator hanging over it after just rebooting the damn thing.

[smokester]

^ That'll learn ya.

[dweez]

This site used to be great before the days of pop-up blockers and tabbed browsing.

http://www.turnofftheinternet.com/

I had people cold rebooting their computers because the page it went to was a full screen with no frames (looked just like the "It is now safe to turn off your computer" screen from early Windows 95.  I'd chuckle when they'd tell me and I'd then introduce them to Alt+F4.

[goldshirt*9]

anyone know a decent prog to test your ram out.
 i've a suspicion mine is on its way out.
 pc very slow in multi tasking especially in photo prog's

[smokester]

anyone know a decent prog to test your ram out.
 i've a suspicion mine is on its way out.
 pc very slow in multi tasking especially in photo prog's

Memtest was the free software that I used to use to test out possible faulty RAM. I googled it and there are still free versions although there is a pro version that does cost. 

This is probably the best return that google found for your needs:
http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

[goldshirt*9]

many thanks. will give it a go.

[dweez]

Hiren's Boot Disk should have memtest+ on it.

[goldshirt*9]

i've a copy of that .
have run this and all ok.
will have another look to see if i have  an option for ram only

[frankcapri]

Holy crap. My workhorse PC has recently started to reboot for no reason
and pop up that stupid BSOD.  I just hope my new drive comes in time for
me to clone the failing drive and save all my installed programs   

[dweez]

Is it a failing hdd?  Do you hear a clicking noise coming from the hdd?  That's usually what happens when the hdd starts failing.

[frankcapri]

I've gotten into the habit of using 1 smaller drive for my OS and installed programs. 
The one on that computer is 20 GB and nearly 7 years old.  It hasn't been clicking,
but it has been making more noise recently then it usually has. 

I just assume it's the drive 

[dweez]

I had another drive that, right before it started to crap out, would every know and then spin even faster and made this high-pitched ascending tone.  It was still under warranty so I called it in.  It was a madam trying to explain to the tech guy what it was doing.

[frankcapri]

My new drive arrived today (damn New Egg is quick, less than 24 hour delivery) 

I have successfully cloned my primary drive and my computer is running swell