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New Message Board Archives >> 2005 General Board Posts >> Smoking Computer
(Message started by: marty on Oct 26th, 2005, 7:30am)

Title: Smoking Computer
Post by marty on Oct 26th, 2005, 7:30am
Hi Y'all

Just a tip: If you see smoke coming out of your computer, unplug it as quickly as you can! (Ctrl-Alt-Delete will not fix it).

Seems like I had a short in my power supply and that resulted in a burned Mother-Board connector, two HDD's that contained about 40 Gigs of data lost- could have been a strong power surge.

Now running a laptop with Mandrake Linux (thanks Paul) until I can afford to build a new computer.

By the way, I did not use the Ctrl-Alt-Delete  ;;D

Marty

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by ghost62 on Oct 26th, 2005, 7:37am
And I was going to ask which end to light and which end to suck? ;;D :o [smiley=laugh.gif]

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by zanychef on Oct 26th, 2005, 8:42am
do you have to copy Svenn he burnt his motherboeard out at the weekend lol

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Bob P on Oct 26th, 2005, 8:49am
Problem I ran into with the new pooter I built.  I used a new Intel 915 motherboard.  It has onboard 7:1 HD Audio.  Seems a lot of the software that deals with audio, like my video capture (Turtle Beach Video Advantage bundle), won't work with the onboard audio.  Had to disable the onboard and install an audio card.  The 915 also has PCI Express and the video capture didn't work well either.

Guess the "new" technology outran the existing software.

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Gator on Oct 26th, 2005, 8:58am
Didn't you know computers run on smoke?  If you let the smoke out of the wires, it won't work anymore! ;;D

Sorry to hear about your 'puter, dude.  It's a pain replacing the system, but losing the data really bites.  


(((Ghost)))  LMAO


Just a tip for those who haven't considered this:

Most people think to surge protect their power plug, but don't think about other outside avenues for surge damage.  Lightning strikes a telephone pole or phone junction box and the surge follows the wires wherever they may lead.  As a computer technician, I saw lots of computers fried via their phone line and modem.  

Another thing most people don't know is that brown outs, a lowering of power into the system, can cause nearly as much damage to electrical components as a surge over time.

I highly recommend not a surge protector, but an Uninterruptible Power Supply(battery back up).  I personally use an APC brand, but there are others.  The UPS levels out the power going to the computer.  In case of a major surge, the UPS takes the hit and saves the computer.  In case of a power loss, it powers the system long enough to save your data and properly shut down the system.  It also has surge protection for the telephone line.  These things are a must for people like me who live where the power is less than reliable.  We have short power losses daily where I live.  I have never had a computer on a UPS damaged by a power related event.

Regardless of whether you use a surge protector or a UPS, something just as important as the amount of power it will absorb (maybe moreso) is the Clamping Speed.  This determines how fast the unit reacts to a surge.  

This concludes your Geek Moment for today.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled message.


Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Opus on Oct 26th, 2005, 9:12am
I'm with Gator, UPSes for each group of computers, even if they don't have to power to run long with the power off, you still have that surge/lightning protection.

Marty,
 Know you know that once you let the magic smoke out, you can never get it back in.
Don't toss those hard drives, until you test on another motherboard.

Opus/Paul

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by kimmiedawn81 on Oct 26th, 2005, 9:14am
Ehhhhhhhhhh.......computer talk.  :P

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by ExplodingEyeBall on Oct 26th, 2005, 9:40am
Backup, backup, backup.......... Repeat if needed.

All important files on my computers get backed up daily.

I also have two hard drives and keep my data on the second one. Hose the OS or trash your root drive and you still have your data. I also archive to a DVD once a month.

One other alternative to a UPS (if you are hard up for cash) is a line conditioner. It's not a UPS and doesn't have a battery in it for total power loss protection but it has a pretty powerful capacitor that will keep a full load going to your system when the voltage drops and also protect from spikes when there is a surge.

The brownouts are not very good for your system. I fried two power supplies at home before I got something to protect my system.

Overall, the UPS is the best protection. Spend a few extra bucks and get it if you can.

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by cootie on Oct 26th, 2005, 11:29am
Dam I live in brown out city !!! We live in a valley surrounded by trees but some of the power lines go thru the trees out here and they have a narrow patch cut under them all they try to keep maintain'd but the trees are so tall they bend and touch them or branches blow off and hang.......the power co wanted to move them ALL along the roads to check easier when power is out and to be able to maintain easier also but guess it got voted out to do so. So lines run over my house in two places......my phone HUMS cuz of them and the phone co guy was tryin to help me with DSL came out and checked lines and even told me it to be the cause of the loud hum and so did the DSL tech support cuz they cold hear it testing lines !! So when it storms out here, high winds or ice storms we get alot of brown outs cuz of trees falling over or bending over hittin lines and sitting there or tapping them or laying on them.....sumtimes burning thru which happen'd here not long ago. For a while we had brown outs every single day at 10:30 am and the power co was BAFFLED !!!! It would last about 10 to 15 minutes and was enuff to make clocks flash ect ect and stuff shut off. They had a new cement mixing plant go online and THOUGHT that could be it but they could not find the plant doing anything at that time to cause it. Really strange. Doesn't do that anymore but still does occationally and I always at first think a bulb is going bad till I notice it thruout the house. Power co told us the other day they are doing massive widening under the lines next spring......we will loose alot of woods but at least I won't be AS scared about these 4 BIG lines OVER the house up on the hill !!! I had one of the battery operated protector things on my computer a few years ago and it started shutting my computer DOWN every 3 minutes and could NOT get into the program fast enuff to disable it or go thru settings !!!! I fineally unhooked it and said ta hell with that irritation. I tried to check settings lightening fast before shutdown to find the problem but couldn't. Once I got it disabled I "tried" to go thru settings and could NOT find the problem cuz it was NOT set to do that. So I gave up. Guess I need to go that route again huh guys......haveing a good brand name to go check out or ask about will help. Where's the best place to look and get GOOD sales people not teen dummbies Pam

Sorry I am long winded this morning.......winter bluez set in EARLY..............

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Svenn on Oct 26th, 2005, 11:38am

on 10/26/05 at 08:42:14, zanychef wrote:
do you have to copy Svenn he burnt his motherboeard out at the weekend lol



Going to get you for this you damn bigmouth   :)

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by sandie99 on Oct 26th, 2005, 1:21pm
Computers... ::)
Mine has done pretty much everything else but caught on fire.


Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Kirk on Oct 26th, 2005, 9:13pm
Don't throw those burnt HDDs away. They may not be as burnt as you think.
[smiley=smokin.gif]
Or you could donate them to me.  [smiley=laugh.gif]

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Donna_D. on Oct 27th, 2005, 1:42am
01001001 00100000 01000111 01101111 00100000 01000110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01000111 01100101 01100101 01101011 01110011 00100001 00100001 00100001 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 01001001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100101 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101111 01101111 00100000 01101100 01101111 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110011 01101001 01101110 01100011 01100101 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01100100 01101001 01100100 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101001 01110010 01110010 01101001 01110100 01100001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01100101 01101111 01110000 01101100 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01101000 01101111 01110111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01100101 01111000 01110100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110100 01100101 01110010 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101110 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 00111010 01010000 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 01000100 01000100



:-*

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by marty on Oct 27th, 2005, 7:18am
I do have back up on most - only spread out on about 50 different CD's that I was to lazy to mark as to what they contain [smiley=laugh.gif]

Anyway, the main HDD have an initializing error so once I hook it up as a slave on a second computer, I should be able to access data files for transfer.

I have an old server with RAID and I am actually thinking about using it on the network as a back-up collecting machine - I can't use it as a primary server since it is a dual 400Mhz processor machine and it is really not fast enough so I have to configure it as such. Paul, since I am new to Linux, is this a complicated thing to do; to set up a non-primary machine to automatically back up all information from two other units? I can't seem to find the network setup program on Mandrake and I am having a hard time setting it up on Suse 9.1.

I have the 2000 server program but I am a little bit leary about using it since it is a so called "un-official copy" and I am not sure if windows will recognize two processors.

I have never heard of a "brown out" before - interesting.

Donna_D: I agree with you 100%

Marty

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Opus on Oct 27th, 2005, 7:23am
PEBKAC

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by marty on Oct 27th, 2005, 7:32am
Opus..

Your configuration set-up is wrong - read Donna_D's post.. I think that she's got it right ;;D

Marty

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Opus on Oct 27th, 2005, 7:59am
Marty,
  A 400MHz dual is actually over kill for what you want to do. I have a 500 MHz celeron box as a server. All you need to do is set up a user and make their home file read/writable with nfs and samba so that Windows and Linux boxes can back up to it. I would use SUSE, do a server install, but shut off Apache, sendmail, bind, and other server programs but leave samba and nfs running. If you want to you can keep the server headless and administer with Yast through ssh from another box. I did mine the hard way using Slackware but that is me.

As for automatic backups, that is best done on the box with the data. I have not been successful with that, the only free program that ever worked right for me is for windows and doesn't work on NT (2K, xp). Right now I just copy my /home directory to a USB drive. Remember if you can download it for free, you don't need to back it up. I want to do daily backups of my ./thunderbird and my ./mozilla/firefox/bookmarks.html files because they change daily. I have several programs but have yet to set them up. If I find an easy one I will let you know.

Personally I would use the dual processor for a workstation, or even better as a terminal server. Win2K will do the duals, but you will have to use samba to access with Linux.


Mandriva and SUSE have easy to use networking tools. In Mandriva it is in the same program that does everything else. In SUSE it is Yast. Keep looking you will find it. BTW the server will need to have a static IP address, your Router manual will tell you what range it needs to be in.

Opus/Paul [smiley=smokin.gif]

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Donna_D. on Oct 27th, 2005, 8:26am
Paul,

01101000 01110100 01110100 01110000 00111010 00101111 00101111 01110011 01101110 01100001 01110010 01101011 01101100 01100101 01110011 00101110 01101110 01100101 01110100 00101111 01110011 01100011 01110010 01101001 01110000 01110100 01110011 00101111 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00101111 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00101110 01110000 01101000 01110000 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 01010100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01110011 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101001 01101101 01100101 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 00111010 01010000 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 01000100 01000100

DD

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by TomM on Oct 27th, 2005, 8:49am
How do you get all the pieces into your bowl?  [smiley=smokin.gif]

;)

TomM  

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by marty on Oct 27th, 2005, 1:42pm
Thanks Paul, I'll give it a shot..

I know that I should not ask this... but I will: What the heck is PEBKAC   [smiley=huh.gif]

Marty

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Donna_D. on Oct 27th, 2005, 1:54pm

on 10/27/05 at 07:23:51, Opus wrote:
PEBKAC




ROFLMAO!!!


DD

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Opus on Oct 27th, 2005, 1:57pm
Donna,
 Thanks ;)

Marty,

Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair

Opus/Paul

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by ExplodingEyeBall on Oct 27th, 2005, 2:02pm

on 10/27/05 at 07:23:51, Opus wrote:
PEBKAC

[smiley=spit.gif] [smiley=spit.gif]  [smiley=spit.gif] [smiley=spit.gif]

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Gator on Oct 27th, 2005, 2:13pm

on 10/27/05 at 01:42:16, Donna_D. wrote:
01001001 00100000 01000111 01101111 00100000 01000110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01000111 01100101 01100101 01101011 01110011 00100001 00100001 00100001 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 01001001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100101 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101111 01101111 00100000 01101100 01101111 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110011 01101001 01101110 01100011 01100101 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01100100 01101001 01100100 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101001 01110010 01110010 01101001 01110100 01100001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01100101 01101111 01110000 01101100 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01101000 01101111 01110111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01100101 01111000 01110100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110100 01100101 01110010 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101110 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 00111010 01010000 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 01000100 01000100



:-*


01000001 01110011 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101110 01111001 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110011 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01101000 01100001 01100100 00101100 00100000 01000100 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00101100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101110 01101111 01101110 00101101 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01101110 00100000 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100110 01101111 01110010 01100101 00101110 00100000 00100000 01001001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100110 01110101 01101110 00101100 YnV0IGl0IGlzIGEgcGFpbiBpbiB0aGUgYXNzIHdoZW4gc29tZW9uZSBzd2l0Y2hlcyB0byBhIGRpZmZlcmVudCBlbmNvZGluZyBtaWQgbWVzc2FnZS4gIExNQU8NCg==


Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Donna_D. on Oct 27th, 2005, 4:30pm

on 10/27/05 at 14:13:01, Gator wrote:
YnV0IGl0IGlzIGEgcGFpbiBpbiB0aGUgYXNzIHdoZW4gc29tZW9uZSBzd2l0Y2hlcyB0byBhIGRpZmZlcmVudCBlbmNvZGluZyBtaWQgbWVzc2FnZS4gIExNQU8NCg==



RXNwZWNpYWxseSB3aGVuIHlvdSBsZWF2ZSB5b3VyIGRlY29kZXIgcmluZyBhdCBob21lISEgICANCg0KREQ=

V29uZGVyIGlmIHRoaXMgd2lsbCBicmluZyBKb2huIEQgb3V0IG9mIHRoZSB3b29kd29yaz8NCg0K

DD

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by marty on Oct 27th, 2005, 4:54pm
I knew that I should not have asked... >:( >:( >:(

I am such a VICTIM!

Marty

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Gator on Oct 27th, 2005, 6:03pm

on 10/27/05 at 16:54:19, marty wrote:
I knew that I should not have asked... >:( >:( >:(

I am such a VICTIM!

Marty


Don't feel bad, Marty.  It was just your turn.


Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Opus on Oct 28th, 2005, 7:31am

on 10/27/05 at 16:54:19, marty wrote:
I knew that I should not have asked... >:( >:( >:(

I am such a VICTIM!

Marty


Marty,
 I am the PEBKAC becouse I messed up the ASCII message.

And now for something completly diffrent.....


Opus/Paul

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by Redd_baby_girl on Oct 28th, 2005, 10:59am
you people have way too much free time on your hands to make those 10001010 1010011101 things.

Megi

Title: Re: Smoking Computer
Post by marty on Oct 28th, 2005, 11:02am
Megi....

are you telling us that you don't speak computerish..??

Marty



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