Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Family Computer is Reborn
Last week, during normal operation our family computer gave a dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). Sometimes a simple reboot solves the problem, but no such luck this time. I tried various diagnostic techniques over the next few days, but with no luck.
Jumping to the end of the story, the problem turned out to be a memory module that went bad. I have no idea why, but the diagnosis is 100% certain. Unfortunately, I believed that the problem was related to the hard drive before the real problem was determined. I reformatted the drive and re-installed the operating system before determining the real problem.
Even with a good data backup, it will take a long time to recover everything on that computer. Hayley has been helping me with cleaning out the dust and getting everything plugged back in again. Wow was there a lot of dust - maybe part of the explanation of the memory failure? If nothing else, it was a good exploration into the guts of a computer for Hayley and a good memory upgrade for the computer that should extend its useful life.
Jumping to the end of the story, the problem turned out to be a memory module that went bad. I have no idea why, but the diagnosis is 100% certain. Unfortunately, I believed that the problem was related to the hard drive before the real problem was determined. I reformatted the drive and re-installed the operating system before determining the real problem.
Even with a good data backup, it will take a long time to recover everything on that computer. Hayley has been helping me with cleaning out the dust and getting everything plugged back in again. Wow was there a lot of dust - maybe part of the explanation of the memory failure? If nothing else, it was a good exploration into the guts of a computer for Hayley and a good memory upgrade for the computer that should extend its useful life.
# posted by - Rob @ 9:52 AM 
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Dust bunnies can conduct. Also Ram chips without air flow can overheat, then again there is good ol' fashion wear and tear.
More then likely there was some minor flaw in the memory chip that just finally gave up the ghost. I'm fairly certain there is no real reason to have some electrical engineer figure out exactly what happened.
Glad you got back up and running.
More then likely there was some minor flaw in the memory chip that just finally gave up the ghost. I'm fairly certain there is no real reason to have some electrical engineer figure out exactly what happened.
Glad you got back up and running.
Conversation with Mike Friese--- "why do you have a computer?"
"To keep in touch with people and up on the latest technologies"
"What people? What technologies?"
"Computer people. Computer technologies."
"To keep in touch with people and up on the latest technologies"
"What people? What technologies?"
"Computer people. Computer technologies."
Lee - I forgot to mention your invaluable advice during the process. You reminded me of some good troubleshooting techniques and pointed me in the right direction for the recovery. Thanks!
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