So the power gets interrupted tonight. I have a battery back up so I power down my computer and wait for it to be restored. Power comes on a few minutes later so I try and reboot my computer.
Boot disc error. WTF is that? So I cold stop and restart.
Drive read error, boot disc error, boot from start disc and a bunch of other crap that makes zero sense to me. What do I understand? My computer has become disabled simply by being turned off for 15 minutes.
By contrast I have a Colt 1911 that is going on 100 years and it still works. And if something goes wrong, it will be a simple matter to determine what needs fixing, except nothing has broken on it yet and it’s older than my grandfather.
Eventually I realize that one of the stupid display lights on one of the DVD drives is not lighting up during the start up sequence. So I power down the computer, pop the panel and give each ribbon and power supply connection a wiggle and PRESTO suddenly my computer knows how to boot up without a stupid start disc.
Really damn happy I didn’t insert a start disc and start diagnosing the problem based upon what my computer is telling me to do simply because denying it power for 15 minutes made it unable to read a ribbon or power connection to one of the DVD drives.
So basically I got lucky. Would have been really easy to miss and quite honestly this kind of crap is unacceptable in terms of requisite knowledge base and maintenance.
But of course our entire lives now revolve around them. And more and more people want to require the involvement of your computer to pay your bills, operate a business or just rent a damn movie. And it’s a damn fallible thing to revolve your life around. Damn things were a lot more tolerable when all they did were save text and play games.
I really wish I could shoot the computer with my 1911.
LOL! What a timely thread! I sat here and watched Glenn Beck’s website lock up my browser until I had to shut the internet down with Ctrl+Alt+Del about four different times. Since his website is the only one that does it I’m tempted to e-mail him and ask WTF, Over?
I seriously came close to putting my boot through the tower more than once.
One day, the sun is going to rise on me not needing a cell phone, a computer, a land line, and maybe not even a TV or radio.
Without computers, you wouldn’t have the ability to share your hatred with us all
Shit, this computer I’ve built has been running non-stop (except for power outages and accursed Windows update restarts) for over four years on a water cooling system without major issues and minor upgrades. Four years for a computer is almost equivalent to 100 years for a firearm.
No…it isn’t. But that is the kind of horseshit computer people try and sell you. Some things last and some things are extremely fragile pieces of crap that will be useless in the time it takes to to think about a new President.
But for some reason we build our lives around such fallible things. Of course we also elect crappy Presidents so there is that too. I just think if we are going to make something such a major component of our lives, like we have with computers, it should be as reliable and rugged as the things we “might need” like firearms.
My newest Mac is about 3 1/4 years old and my oldest is around 4 1/2 to 5 years old. These are all currently used and running machines and I expect to use them all another several years. When they get retired, it will not be because they don’t work any more, but rather because the state of the art is advanced so far that I decide I want a new one My main one I am typing on right now will be 4 years old in a couple months. My notebook (Macbook) is the youngest at 3 1/4 and is one I got new in a trade for a complete DD upper and parts right after the election of 08 (Nov 08).
Not trying to start a PC vs Mac war here. Rather, to point out differences in business model. There are PC companies who build their stuff to a higher standard, but they also charge more for their computers. Because most PCs are basically identical (for better or worse), they compete on price and in order to get the lowest price, they buy the cheapest components, which comes with a cost in longevity of the component. Basically a race to the bottom.
You can probably find parallels in the firearms industry. Some manufacturers use top quality parts. Others cut corners and compete on price alone and have a race to the bottom…
The durability of a clump of metal parts versus a piece of equipment with millions of sub-micron circuits…its silly to expect one last as long as the other. Folks use their computers for hours 5+ days a week. It’s an electromehanical device. It’ll probably break now and then. If folks are going to run their guns 40 hours a week, you’ll be damned sure stuff will eventually break or wear out. An heirloom gun in the safe that gets some rounds down the pipe now and then isn’t going to be worn out like someone running theirs through competitions once a week.
A gun needs to put a hole where you point it. That’s the only purpose and you can only do so much innovation with that. I don’t know what computer salesmen tell folks but computer parts sold in the consumer market aren’t the same as those sold in the enterprise market. Most folks buying a computer are getting a DPMS. Certain computer parts are incredibly rugged and available for purchase. Are you willing to pay $300 for a 16gb jump drive?
…but isn’t that the entire point of data redundancy? Folks should be backing up their data on-site if its important to them. Folks can run off-site data backup (or,“cloud”,if you want to sound iTrendy). Folks can run RAID systems. The reality is computers are being asked to do more things and to do them faster and our ability to advance the technology isn’t showing signs of slowing. It is an incredibly complex piece of technology requiring incredibly complex technology to manufacture.
The price of technology is that items are generally consumable. Today, they aren’t even worth fixing. When is the last time you saw a radio and television repair shop? Besides, computers have finite lives even if you keep them in a vault. The electrolyte in electrolytic capacitors in the motherboards eventually dry up and become useless. That’s the reality of it. Collector cars have their rubber parts crack. Old guns have their wood stocks swell.
I actually do get that, I’m just venting and noting the folly of centering our lives around something so vulnerable.
The 1911 in question has seen three wars; WWI, WWII and Korea and is still running strong. I realize mechanical things are more reliable, for example well built Night Vision from the late 70s can hardly be expected to still work.
So I’m really not missing that point, I just find computers grossly unreliable.
I didn’t lose any data. I actually keep 5 different drives for redundant backups. If you reread the OP, my problem was not related to data loss or any kind of drive failure.
To be fair, if you actually used your nearly century old 1911 with the kind of regularity as you do your computer, it likely wouldn’t last 4 years. Actually, it would probably last only a few months before needing to replace basically everything. After four years the relatively soft steel that was used in those old 1911s will mean that the slide will likely be toast too.
My computer stays on almost all the time, and I use it for something on the order of 4-5 hours a day. Based on your post count, I suspect you probably spend more time on your computer than I do.
The cable didn’t come loose. Like I noted, the change occurred in the 15 minutes or so that we were without power. For whatever reason, the connection wasn’t being made.
I don’t think it is a brand issue or a build issue. I think it is just a matter of sensitive and complex electronics which are easily befuddled, and that was the point I was making.
There is a lot going on in a computer you’re always going to have a greater chance of something going wrong simply because it’s doing billions of calculations every second and sending an endless stream of 0’s and 1’s on microscopic circuits miles long. Truthfully, it is amazing the damn things work at all given how incredibly complex they are, how there is so much room for Murphy to worm in, and how we can mass produce them like locusts at a price where most anyone can afford some sort of computer. It seems like software ends up being a bigger problem in most computer issues than hardware.
And unfortunately, it’s just going to keep going that way as our technology becomes increasingly advanced. There used to be a time where you’d break out the tool kit so you could change out the tubes in your radio or TV and bias them. I still do that (have a soft spot for tube amplifiers). All our electronics nowadays are disposable. You don’t even see the TV & Radio Repair shops around anymore. I can’t even work on the car without an OBDII scanner. I guess what it boils down to is you’re right…society is increasingly fragile. We depend a lot on our gadgets, and while it makes us vulnerable, it also improves our lives in about every measurable way. If you’re backing up all your data so if things go south, you’re still in better shape than 99% of folks who put all their eggs in one basket.
Hell, if the worst thing that happens in my day is the computer goes down, that seems very much a first-world problem. Sucks ass but it’s small peanuts. At least you traced the problem back to a stupid 50-cent piece of cable before having to take more extreme measures.
However it happened, it sounds like the cable [disk or PS] or something had come slightly loose or otherwise the connection was slightly flaky. Maybe with the power out, and no juice flowing through it, the slightly loose cable oxidized or something, or without juice, whatever electromagnetic forces were keeping things close enough to work, stopped being a factor. Or it cooled down and something contracted. Or maybe the cable has a bad wire in it and when it cooled down it contracted and when you touched them to wiggle or push them in it was enough to establish contact.
Like I noted, the change occurred in the 15 minutes or so that we were without power. For whatever reason, the connection wasn’t being made.
I don’t think it is a brand issue or a build issue. I think it is just a matter of sensitive and complex electronics which are easily befuddled, and that was the point I was making.
I don’t think the electronics were befuddled in this case. (Not that that doesn’t happen. I build my own servers and have seen enough marginal main boards or other pieces that just flake out)
Anyway, stop playing around with the DPMS or Olympic arms of computers and you will have fewer episodes of “befuddlement”!
Oh. my .God. Do not get me started on the computer rant.
Ah, to late- I to am literally about to take my tower, hurl it out the back door and riddle it with many bullets.
The grand irony of that is it’s a desktop I put together myself to “save money” while still getting high level performance from better-than-average parts, and it has been no end of trouble. Bad video card straight off the bat, multiple bad hard drives, and a hot case + hot CPU makes for a fun combo…:mad:
I can safely say, after this I will never build another computer again. I am going to buy the “DPMS” computer from wally world, invest in back-up hardware, and throw it out when it doesn’t work anymore.
This from a guy who thought a degree in IST was a good idea (and hated it the farther I got along).:rolleyes:
My main one I am typing on right now will be 4 years old in a couple months. My notebook (Macbook) is the youngest at 3 1/4 and is one I got new in a trade for a complete DD upper and parts right after the election of 08 (Nov 08).
