Plagued With Problems
BaconTheory
Join Date: 2003-09-06 Member: 20615Members
Join Date: 2003-09-06 Member: 20615Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">help needed</div> In the oast week it seems like I've run into a streak of bad luck when it comes to computers. I have 3 problems that I need help with, and I'm hoping I can get some assistance here.
The first incident happened a couple days a go when I had to go on my computer for a little bit to burn a CD. I had just logged into Windows when the power went out. So I thought to myself, "OK, no big deal, I'll just try later". Pift. How wrong I was. What was supposed to take about 2 minutes, winded up taking me 45 minutes and causing me all sorts of problems. When the power came back on, I went downstairs to my comp and started it up. And what did I get greeted by but a very rare Winodws XP Blue Screen, saying something along the lines of:
ERROR 000000000xx00 IN
BOOT_PARTITION_ONE
That wasn't the exact message, but it said something close to it. Safe Mode should do the trick, right? Wrong. No safe mode. Knoppix would not boot. I was screwed, and the only way out was a reformat. I reformatted my computer and got XP installed, and everything like that went pretty much smoothly, until I got to the Windows Activation screen. It rejected 2 serial keys I provided, and when I called Microsoft and asked them to fix it, Hugajubba from India told me that using a Winodws reinstallation CD (which had come with my dad's Dell) was in violation of their EULA and I needed to buy a new license. Can I fix this without buying a new license? My friend said hey <i>may</i> be able to hook me up with a copy of XP Pro on a corportate license, but he told me that he couldn't make any promises. Can I set this straight without buying a new serial key? Now we arrive at our final problem, my finicky DSL. After the power outage, I noticed that all of the phones in my house were filled with static and that my internet was awfully slow, as in 10kbps-on-downloads slow. I checked the router, and no settings had changed. I did a soft reset, hoping that would solve the problem. Nope. Then I tried a hard reset to fix it. Still nothing. I unplugged the network cable from the router and plugged in my other computer directly to the DSL modem. Well now the internet works again, but its still REALLY slow. I've reset the modem, I've reset and tweaked just about everything I can think of, and to no avail. At this point, I'm thinking that the problem with my DSL is either related to the actual phone lines in my house, or to the Verizon center down the road. This is driving me absolutely nuts. Someone help me lest I throw all of my technological components out of the window.
The first incident happened a couple days a go when I had to go on my computer for a little bit to burn a CD. I had just logged into Windows when the power went out. So I thought to myself, "OK, no big deal, I'll just try later". Pift. How wrong I was. What was supposed to take about 2 minutes, winded up taking me 45 minutes and causing me all sorts of problems. When the power came back on, I went downstairs to my comp and started it up. And what did I get greeted by but a very rare Winodws XP Blue Screen, saying something along the lines of:
ERROR 000000000xx00 IN
BOOT_PARTITION_ONE
That wasn't the exact message, but it said something close to it. Safe Mode should do the trick, right? Wrong. No safe mode. Knoppix would not boot. I was screwed, and the only way out was a reformat. I reformatted my computer and got XP installed, and everything like that went pretty much smoothly, until I got to the Windows Activation screen. It rejected 2 serial keys I provided, and when I called Microsoft and asked them to fix it, Hugajubba from India told me that using a Winodws reinstallation CD (which had come with my dad's Dell) was in violation of their EULA and I needed to buy a new license. Can I fix this without buying a new license? My friend said hey <i>may</i> be able to hook me up with a copy of XP Pro on a corportate license, but he told me that he couldn't make any promises. Can I set this straight without buying a new serial key? Now we arrive at our final problem, my finicky DSL. After the power outage, I noticed that all of the phones in my house were filled with static and that my internet was awfully slow, as in 10kbps-on-downloads slow. I checked the router, and no settings had changed. I did a soft reset, hoping that would solve the problem. Nope. Then I tried a hard reset to fix it. Still nothing. I unplugged the network cable from the router and plugged in my other computer directly to the DSL modem. Well now the internet works again, but its still REALLY slow. I've reset the modem, I've reset and tweaked just about everything I can think of, and to no avail. At this point, I'm thinking that the problem with my DSL is either related to the actual phone lines in my house, or to the Verizon center down the road. This is driving me absolutely nuts. Someone help me lest I throw all of my technological components out of the window.
Comments
Looks like you might be needing a new hard drive m'laddio.
What brand of HDD have you got? You might be able to get a manufacturer's swapout if you've got a Maxtor, but only if you've got a floppy drive...
Who said he was using one?
You need a UPS for that, basically a big battery in a box...
For those who were wondering, the heads in a hard drive are electromagnetically separated from each other, in order to fit over the platter. When the platter comes between the two, the magnetic field is reduced, so the heads come within pickup distance, which is roughly 1/4 the size of a speck of dust (which is why a hard drive is effectively knackered once it is opened outside of a clean room). When the power gets cut, so does the electromagnetic field that is separating the heads, cuasing them to crash down on which ever is there at the time.
Should the drive be spinning at the time, the heads will act as a small brake pad on the rapidly spinning drive platter (5400rpm drives spin at something like 60MPH at maximum speed), causing mild damage to the drive platter, and minor damage to the head.
If the drive was in it's "Park" position, the head will crash into each other, damaging both heads more drastically than if they hit the platter.
Technical lesson over, today's moral?
BUY A UPS!!!
Who said he was using one? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Why wasn't he? I mean, that seems standard issue to me, if only to increase the number of outlets you have.