Confession Time
I read the following message in a Paint Shop Pro forum from a person in the US - 23 July 2005. TrevorF.
Note that the real US mains voltage is 112V. Also July is summer in the US.
In the order below.....
Very hot days - exaggerated temperatures. Room temperature likely 83 to 85 deg F. Floor Fan blowing across towards computer.
Only PSP9 open and a few things in the systray. Computer was on most of the day
While processing a RebelXt digital image which is approx. 2.5 to 3Mb ... SNAP .... everything quit.
No sounds, no words, no delay .... QUIT!
First occurrence was the first week of heat...
Moved computer out further from filing cabinet and rear wall. Fan on floor really directed at computer.
Three weeks went by and it happened again. The computer would not turn on.
Took the computer to the repair shop in an air conditioned vehicle. The computer started up without a hiccup. Repair guy said, "Some computers just want to go for a ride now and then."
Moved computer to top of desk.
Three days later it happened again. I wasn't interested in taking it for a drive so I took the side off and used the canned air and blew around. This has been done regularly so there wasn't any dust bunnies to remove. With that small time frame it started up when the button was pushed.
Yesterday it happened again and it wasn't humid, evening hours so temp had cooled down actually. Really getting to be annoying for I'm about half way through an edit....GONE. The top of the case would be VERY hot when normally the heat isn't discernible.
Xpsp2 Amd Athlon xp2400+ mmx 2Ghz 572 Ram....and it looks like the power supply thing is in the 350 volts range (of course she meant watts, not volts). Nvidia Geforce4 MX4000 128RAM... Two hard drives Programs OS on Drive C (size 30 free 20) and storage on NTFS drive F size 40 (free 35)
CPU Fan is working and air comes out the power supply section. (Aida32 reports a temp of 53'C(127'F) and motherboard 42'C(108'F).
Unfortunately I didn't have that temp info when PSP was on, and at work.
Started watching the available Physical Memory [Total is 523760 and available will be about half that and the system cache about half the available] CPU usage has graph lines that shoot up and all over the place. Now it's running with the side case wall off.
Turned the video accelerator down and Paint Shop Pro brushes moved like it was in slow motion ... so moved it back up to maximum.
It's virus free/spy free. I'm on a D-Link with satellite internet.ZAlarm firewall and all the stuff for spyware. Temp file kept empty and hard drive has Diskkeeper so it's not fragmented. No errors reported running DXDIAG. No errors in the System events report.
MY QUESTION IS ... before I take it to the repair shop again...
- Do I consider upping the RAM?
- Should I ask for the CPU/heat sink contact to be checked?
- Is the power supply of high enough wattage?
Its likely a coincidence that this power quit situation happens and only PSP is open but would this software be drawing on something very heartily to create overheating and something isn't up to the task?
Of course, this business started after the last Microsoft July security updates <LOL> wouldn't it be human to point fingers at that source <LOL> AND I began dealing with huge digital images having purchased the Rebel.
ANY input would be appreciated. XX_W
Discussion ensued, even about the merits of defragging the computer -- Trevor.
Now I don't have need to read fictitious humour on Usenet. There are real humour articles in the magazine this month.
Backup Strategy
Mike Boesen has updated his excellent article re backup strategy.
http://www.pcug.org.au/~boesen/Backups/backups.htm
Last update was 12th August 2006
Terry Bibo's February 2004 article is here: Backups (Feb 04)
It's well worthwhile looking at all articles from these two authors each month.
Trevor
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