So, my netbook's just gone tits up.

[scarletpeaches]

I was just playing music through windows media player on my netbook and the music jammed, as in, got stuck on one note, like a record player with the needle stuck.

Nothing would move the cursor; the machine had utterly frozen, so I hit the off button, waited a few moments, and switched the netbook on again, hoping windows would restart.

It began to, then I got a blue screen with an error message on it but as it flashes up so quickly I can't read it.

The screen then shows the usual "We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully..." screen.

It asks if I want to start with safe mode, safe mode with networking, last known good configuration, or start windows normally.

Whichever option I go for, it starts to boot windows, then goes back to the blue screen flashing for a split second, and the whole thing starts again.

Sound like a 'take it into the shop' job to yous guys?

I can't reinstall windows as I don't have the boot disk and remember - it's a netbook, so no disk drive anyway. In fact, I can't seem to do anything with it as the Operating System (XP) doesn't even start properly.

[MissMacchiato]

if you turn it upside down, you should be able to slide the battery out. The whole bottom panel should come off. Try sliding that off, leaving it for a few minutes, and then putting it back and restarting.

It's my non-tech solution that sometimes works!

[scarletpeaches]

Done it.

Doesn't work.

[MissMacchiato]

tapped the keyboard to see if there's dust caught in it?

[Ink-Pen-Paper]

Sounds like your hard drive bit the dust. You can buy a new drive and an external drive adaptor and try to copy files over to the new drive. A techi person can do this if you do not want to do it.

[Medievalist]

Take it in to the shop Scarlet. Might be a bad sector on the drive, or bad RAM--or various other smaller things.

[scarletpeaches]

Already done, sweet thing. (Ooh err!)

Computer Nerd Guy said it was likely down to me switching it off while it was backing up system files which screwed Windows.

Windows Media Player jammed mid-song, and I thought, "Turn it off!" Apparently I should have waited for the computer to 'un-freeze' itself.

Oh well. Lesson learned. I should get a phone call in a day or two to tell me to come pick it up.

And pay some money for the privilege. :rolleyes:

[Kitty Pryde]

My netbook does that freeze on one note thing too. It's super annoying! And I don't think it ever resolves itself. It does it when I try to run too many programs at once--say, Word, Firefox, and iTunes or something. Hope you get it fixed soon!

[Kaiser-Kun]

Buy your netbook a bra.

[scarletpeaches]

My netbook does that freeze on one note thing too. It's super annoying! And I don't think it ever resolves itself. It does it when I try to run too many programs at once--say, Word, Firefox, and iTunes or something. Hope you get it fixed soon!Do you switch off when that happens, or wait for it to pass?

[Wayne K]

:Hammer:

[Kitty Pryde]

Do you switch off when that happens, or wait for it to pass?

I hold down the power button and force a shut down, because the sound is so hideous. BUT I realize that's not good for the computer, so lately I have been trying not to overtask the poor little thing so it hasn't been freezing up.

[scarletpeaches]

That's exactly what I did, and what caused this problem. I've done it once before, I think, when mediaplayer goes loopy. Must have been a case of 'getting away with it'.

I just hope it doesn't screw up my ability to use MS Office 2007. No disk drive means I'll have to reinstall it online. Oh, and my printer software. Bah.

Well, we'll just wait and see what happens. Should have it back around Friday.

[amyashley]

I was going to hop in and say that you should use it as an excuse to follow Tifferbugz example and buy a Macbook Air!


-Amy, who loves her Mac forever because her children (*read her*) cannot kill it as easily as they do all Microsoft related items in the house.

[Margarita Skies]

Every time my computer freezes (which has happened like 4 times in the 11 mos. I've had it) I use the task manager to close the program that's not responding and the computer goes back to normal. I have never turned it off incorrectly.

[scarletpeaches]

When I say the screen froze, I mean it. Froze. Couldn't move the cursor, delete files, nothing. Like a video that had been paused.

Anyway, not an issue now. Just have to wait for the guy to call and tell me what the problem was.

[kuwisdelu]

Take it in to the shop Scarlet. Might be a bad sector on the drive, or bad RAM--or various other smaller things.

My netbook does that freeze on one note thing too. It's super annoying! And I don't think it ever resolves itself. It does it when I try to run too many programs at once--say, Word, Firefox, and iTunes or something. Hope you get it fixed soon!

Sounds like it hit something bad when trying to swap memory.

That's exactly what I did, and what caused this problem. I've done it once before, I think, when mediaplayer goes loopy. Must have been a case of 'getting away with it'.

I just hope it doesn't screw up my ability to use MS Office 2007. No disk drive means I'll have to reinstall it online. Oh, and my printer software. Bah.

Well, we'll just wait and see what happens. Should have it back around Friday.

Keep a backup of the installers of your vital software on a USB thumb drive so you don't have to re-download them next time.

[scarletpeaches]

I just hope there ISN'T a next time...

[thothguard51]

Personally, I just love the title of this thread. I see nothing wrong with going tits up versus tits down...

I have nothing else to add...

[Tifferbugz]

I was going to hop in and say that you should use it as an excuse to follow Tifferbugz example and buy a Macbook Air!


-Amy, who loves her Mac forever because her children (*read her*) cannot kill it as easily as they do all Microsoft related items in the house.

I understand your feelings now. I have an unhealthy love for that little notebook that is bordering on inappropriate! ;)

Although I could be talked out of it by Scarletpeaches' avatar. *Drool~

[backslashbaby]

There's a BIOS setting change you can do to reboot onto a device via USB (sometimes you need a little free program on there, depending on your BIOS), and if you have a copy of the operating system, you just run through the install process. It's not hard (at all) if you are prepared. Not saying it's normal to be that nerdy-prepared!

I am saying it saves a ton of $$. Feel free to PM me, anyone, if y'all ever need help like that. I can't promise I'll have time, but a lot of times I do.

If you have a cd or dvd drive installed (not through USB), it's even easier. The OS disc is what most folks don't have on hand.

[AlexPiper]

I just hope it doesn't screw up my ability to use MS Office 2007. No disk drive means I'll have to reinstall it online. Oh, and my printer software. Bah.

Copy the software off of the discs and onto a USB thumbdrive, then install from that. :)

(It's actually possible to make bootable Windows install images on a USB thumbdrive, which is VERY USEFUL if you have a netbook. I HIGHLY recommend doing so for any netbook user, as that would've allowed you to boot into the normal recovery mode without going to a tech.)

[JimmyB27]

When I say the screen froze, I mean it. Froze. Couldn't move the cursor, delete files, nothing. Like a video that had been paused.

Anyway, not an issue now. Just have to wait for the guy to call and tell me what the problem was.
ctrl+alt+del?

[scarletpeaches]

I don't think people understand what 'froze' means.

It means the computer. Wasn't. Responding.

Not to CTRL-ALT-DEL. Not to any attempt to copy software. Nothing.

[Tifferbugz]

I don't think people understand what 'froze' means.

It means the computer. Wasn't. Responding.

Not to CTRL-ALT-DEL. Not to any attempt to copy software. Nothing.

My Dell netbook does this every so often too. I've always done what you mentioned (hit the power button). I've probably lucked out I haven't killed it yet. :( It's hard to have enough patience to let it work out it's issues while you start at it, never sure if it's doing something or not.

Ctrl+Alt+Del does not work when it totally freezes, as you said.

[kuwisdelu]

Yeah, a ctrl-alt-dlt will only help if it was only a program that crashed, not the whole OS and desktop environment.

Copy the software off of the discs and onto a USB thumbdrive, then install from that. :)

(It's actually possible to make bootable Windows install images on a USB thumbdrive, which is VERY USEFUL if you have a netbook. I HIGHLY recommend doing so for any netbook user, as that would've allowed you to boot into the normal recovery mode without going to a tech.)

I second this motion.

[scarletpeaches]

My next machine is a Mac.

[scarletpeaches]

I didn't mean Buster.

[amyashley]

I feel your pain. I know nothing about tech stuff, and have killed 4 PC's to date. Two froze like yours. One, in the space of 5 minutes, was dropped onto a ceramic tile floor twice, had 3 DVD's shoved into the drive simultaneously, and had coffee spilled all over it...NOT by me.

The machine I pulled out of the garage to hold me over while I awaited my new Mac to arrive (I was never going back to a PC at that point, no matter how cheap) was my old Mac book with half the keys missing, a totally cracked and bleeding screen, the corners chewed up from a foster dog who had drug it through the yard, and a broken and taped together power cord.

It still worked. I had to jiggle the cord to get a charge, and the screen was irritating, but it worked.

If you do buy one you won't regret it, I don't think you can kill them.

I hope your netbook lives a long life after this hospital stay and does NOT freeze again. I DIE when my computers go kaput. I do everything online.

[scarletpeaches]

I still have the laptop but I get jittery when I'm down to one machine as they act as back-up for each other and especially now I'm published I need to get online. You sometimes get computer techs acting like it's no big deal, you're a girl, you'll just have to quit shoe-shopping online 'til you get the laptop back.

In such instances I enjoy hitting them with, "Um, no. I'm expecting an email from my editor."

[Wayne K]

So, you'll let us know when it's tits down again?

[Medievalist]

My next machine is a Mac.

I've got Macs that are more than ten years old, and that still work as well as ever.

You need to shop a bit, but let the cult members know when you're ready and we'll help.

[Margarita Skies]

Scarlet, I hope your problem is solved soon because I really like you as a board member and I think you're a great person. Your comments always make me literally :ROFL: and I admire you a lot. When I have a little more money I will buy your works. I know what it feels to have your life interrupted like that, but hey, storms always pass.I will get a Mac as soon as I start working and make my own money to spend freely, but in the meantime I will keep putting up with a computer I know in the long run will turn out to be much weaker compared to a Mac. The PC that I had for the longest time lasted me three years. 1998-2001. It was a Packard Bell and I thought that Packard Bell was crappy. You guys might laugh at me when I tell you the reason why it went 'tits up'. I tried to format the hard drive and reinstall windows...with an empty file in that CD ROM. Yeah. It kept saying "File Cannot Make a Copy of Itself" I turned it off incorrectly, thinking it would stop, no shutdown obviously, and when I turned it back on, all that was showing was the desktop wallpaper. I had a technician examine it and he said that repairing it was going to be a lot more expensive than getting a new one, so my grandma got me a new one. Almost $800. After that, my PC's would last me two years. The next two PC's, Compaq Presarios, they had a power failure from us, unknowingly, plugging things in the computer multi-plug that didn't have anything to do with the computer. We didn't think that would do the computer any harm and what it did was basically suck the life out of the computer. Of the two computers I mean. Two. Go figure. And we never think we'll make the same mistake twice.


My next desktop, fourth one, I had a new hard drive installed on it after its first hard drive failed, and then like six months later my grandma got me my first laptop. I gave it away and the new owner was the one to destroy it. I think that if I hadn't gotten a laptop I would still have that almost-six-year-old-desktop with me, wherever it is now. My first laptop, I decided I needed more advanced hardware and I got this one I have now and gave that one away.


So that's my story with PC's. Even when I get a Mac, I will keep this one because it was the computer I wrote most of my books with and even if it doesn't work by that time, I will still have those memories, so I will still have it lying around somewhere, probably in a closet. But if it still works when I get my Mac, which most likely it will, I am going to use both computers, but this one I am going to use for surfing the internet, no files of my own on the hard drive at all, and the other one I will use to download and create files and write.

[kuwisdelu]

My next machine is a Mac.

One of the coolest things about the new MacBook Airs, besides having SSD's as standard now (flash-based drives instead of spinning hard disk platters), is that they come with this:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/143553/Apple/AirInstall1.jpg

I'm kind of surprised netbooks don't come with something similar to reinstall Windows via USB drive. You can make one on your own of course, but most people don't think about it until it's too late. I should probably make one from my Snow Leopard DVD...

Things can go wrong with a Mac, too, of course, but for me at least, they've been easier to troubleshoot.

[backslashbaby]

I second this motion.

Well, you'd be thirding it, really ;)

[kuwisdelu]

Well, you'd be thirding it, really ;)

Actually, I recommended it way back in the Bordello before Scarlett even made this thread, so if anything, ya'll are seconding and thirding me, not that you'd have any way of knowing... ;)

[backslashbaby]

:ROFL: Well, I'll fourth myself and fifth (and second) you, then :D

[Tirjasdyn]

If you do buy one you won't regret it, I don't think you can kill them.

I hope your netbook lives a long life after this hospital stay and does NOT freeze again. I DIE when my computers go kaput. I do everything online.

You can kill a Mac just as easily as you can kill PC. I've hauled enough company macs to the genius bar to know. My daughter has killed hers twice in the year she's had it.

[Susan Littlefield]

I don't think people understand what 'froze' means.

It means the computer. Wasn't. Responding.

Not to CTRL-ALT-DEL. Not to any attempt to copy software. Nothing.

I understand, because I've had my computer freeze. Control/Alt/Delete doesn't work. The only thing that works is a hard boot (on/off button)..but, in this case it sounds like it did not work for you.

Glad you took it to the shop. Hope all turns out well. :D

[scarletpeaches]

Still waiting on the call. But with the bad weather lately, the computer techs probably aren't all getting in to work, so the boss guy is having to deal with everything himself. So I won't worry yet. :)

I'm a friend of the family so I don't think he'll rip me off! He's been really good before, when my laptop did the dance of death. Now it runs faster than it did straight from the factory!

[AlexPiper]

You can kill a Mac just as easily as you can kill PC. I've hauled enough company macs to the genius bar to know. My daughter has killed hers twice in the year she's had it.

However, you have the option of the Genius Bar which, right there, is already a step above the support you'll get on most machines.

No platform/OS is perfect, however.

[whacko]

A hammer.

It doesn't solve the issue. But you feel so much better later.

[Matera the Mad]

@thothguard51 If you have big enough tits, your dead bod will most likely float tits up.

If you don't have enough RAM, your computer will get its tits in a knot when you do several things at once and play music at the same time. It's one of the laws of the universe.

[Tepelus]

Must be the season for blue screens of death, because just tonight mine gave me the BSOD for like three seconds, and then it went black, and when I tried to restart, it makes horrendous noises, and never starts up.

[Tirjasdyn]

However, you have the option of the Genius Bar which, right there, is already a step above the support you'll get on most machines.

No platform/OS is perfect, however.

YMMV Not every person behind the genius bar is one and it's about on par with PC support. So the guy who will lie to you get you to go away at the other end of PC support...they're behind the genius bar too.

Just trying to keep you people in reality. :D

[scarletpeaches]

TITS DOWN EVERYBODY.

[maestrowork]

Every time my computer freezes (which has happened like 4 times in the 11 mos. I've had it) I use the task manager to close the program that's not responding and the computer goes back to normal. I have never turned it off incorrectly.


Often you can't even get to the task manager or anything else, and you have to force a power off. I've done that many times and often the power off screwed things up because Windows needed to do a proper shutdown. That's one reason why I hated that POS. Plus it started to take 10 minutes just to boot up or shut down. OK, I promise I'm not going to gripe about the OS, but that's one reason why I'm not using my netbook that much. That and the small screen and keys.


I've got Macs that are more than ten years old, and that still work as well as ever.


My powerbook is 7 years old and it still works, and it runs Snow Leopard! I couldn't even install Windows Vista on my 2003 PC. I've been using my MacBookPro (1st gen) since 2005, every day, and it hasn't failed once (knock on wood). Expensive as they are, Apple makes some quality shit.

[maestrowork]

However, you have the option of the Genius Bar which, right there, is already a step above the support you'll get on most machines.

No platform/OS is perfect, however.

Amen. When my PC crashed, I had to either a) fix it myself, b) shell out $$$ to get it fixed, or c) dump it. Genius bar? What was that?

[maestrowork]

YMMV Not every person behind the genius bar is one and it's about on par with PC support. So the guy who will lie to you get you to go away at the other end of PC support...they're behind the genius bar too.

Just trying to keep you people in reality. :D

The reality is you hate Mac. And that's okay, too. :)

I've had WAY too many PC tech support who had no frigging idea what the heck they were doing. I knew more about them. Are there people behind the genius bar like that? Of course. I've met them before and I complained. The thing is, those people don't last very long in that culture.

The point is, I have had PCs since the 80s. And I know plenty of people who switched to Macs in the last 3 years. The sob stories (including mine, and I AM an IT professional) I've heard about PCs outnumber Mac users' by a factor of 1000. I've replaced at least 8 PCs in the last 10 years and I am still using the powerbook I got in 2003. My iMacs seem to be resistant to failure. Is the Mac perfect? Of course not. Otherwise the geniuses at Apple Store will be out of business. There are always exceptions. But your reality certainly is NOT the reality I'm accustomed to. I know, YMMV. 10 out of 10 Mac users I know are very happy, and many are even IT professionals. I can't say the same about my PC user friends. They all "secretly" wish they had the money to buy a Mac.

Truth be told, before you said I'm a Mac cultist: A friend of mine did have his MacBook motherboard fried twice. A bad batch -- that's what Apple said. But you know what? He got a COMPLETE replacement (brand new MacBooks) both times, free of charge.

Shoot, here I did it again. OK, no more OS wars. Obviously you like your PCs. But don't tell us what "reality" is since I've lived in the Mac reality since 2003. Never going back.

And that's ironic given it's a thread griping about the death of a PC. I'll see you in a thread griping about the death of a Mac.

[thothguard51]

SP...

You are not allowed to get a Mac...

Why? Becaues I love the term, Tits up...

[amyashley]

:roll:


As long as you are happy with what you have. I am now and forever a Mac girl. My husband, who is in the IT field is a PC man....(don't tell anyone this) *he envies me*. He has his stuff, I have mine.

Thank goodness we don't argue over religion.

[maestrowork]

My PC friends do envy me, but their defense is: "But the Mac costs so much more!" Yup, that's true.

That's why I drive a sports car and you a Ford Neon, buddy.

[scarletpeaches]

Got the netbook back and yes, I'm glad it's working again, but I'm still in the market for a Mac when my finances allow a new machine.

[amyashley]

I'm just happy your machine didn't fry! Emergency computer purchases are never as much fun.

Now you can spend time drooling and lusting over what you'll buy when you can...

[AlexPiper]

My PC friends do envy me, but their defense is: "But the Mac costs so much more!" Yup, that's true.

Actually, only partially so.

Look at MacBook Pro. Now look at a Dell. Okay, so, the Dell is cheaper. But, hrm... doesn't have as good a graphics card by default, or as much memory, has a slightly slower CPU... okay. Let's make it more even. Pick a higher-end Dell, load the laptop up with the necessary optional features that come standard on the MBP. Now compare the prices again. Generally you'll find the price difference has shrunk considerably. It's still there, but now you're talking the difference between, say, $1850 and $1999.

The issue isn't necessarily that Apple's stuff is vastly more expensive, so much as that Apple doesn't believe in making the low-end, low-cost variants of their items the same way a lot of PC manufacturers will.

[scarletpeaches]

Just in the process of transferring all my porn photos of Aidan Turner, James Purefoy and Richard Armitage over to the netbook now.

[JulieHowe]

Just in the process of transferring all my porn photos of Aidan Turner, James Purefoy and Richard Armitage over to the netbook now.

Good girl.

Whistling innocently.

[scarletpeaches]

All research, dear heart. All research and, er, inspiration.

[Wayne K]

:nothing:

[maestrowork]

The p0rn is going to get your netbook tits up again...

[scarletpeaches]

Might be worth it. :e2brows:

[Tepelus]

My PC friends do envy me, but their defense is: "But the Mac costs so much more!" Yup, that's true.

That's why I drive a sports car and you a Ford Neon, buddy.

You mean, Dodge Neon.

[Margarita Skies]

You mean, Dodge Neon.



Oops!!



Scarlett, I am glad you got your netbook back. :Thumbs:

[maestrowork]

Dodge Neon, Ford Focus.... interchangeable cars. My point exactly.