h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A while ago my PC froze. Nothing worked, no mouse, not even Task Manager. It doesn't have a reset button, so at first I waited for a while, hopinh whatever process was blocking it might finish. I then switched it off and left it for about ten minutes. When I switched it on again, it howled but didn't do anything else.
I'm just quickly posting this from my son's PC.
My husband thinks it's overheated. Let's hope it's just that.

Days without your serene presence...that is too much to bear...

I will hope you're right!!!

I certainly hope so - although there is the question what caused it.

Oh dear you do seem to be have a lot of PC problems

Does 'overheated' mean 'the fan's broken'?

I really don't know. I've now chased my other son off his PC.

My husband meant if it doesn't work, he'll try to get it exchanged for a similar model if possible. I so hate to start anew every other month.

However, I have some good news to throw into the mix: I'll go and apply for a job tomorrow afternoon. It's where my son does his work practice. I asked him to inquire about a possible job.He did this today, and although they've only recently recruited lots of new people, apparently, tehy said I should just come and introduce myself.
I know the family who runs the company, it's how my son got the place last year (they're neighbours of my m-i-l).

What do you do to them?

Seriously, with the recovery!

I'm inclined to go and buy a new one for a change.

If you can see inside you should be able to see how clogged up it is with dust. Id there's lots of dust chances are it's overheating.

As for a reset button have you tried pressing the power button once rather than holding it down to turn it off?

it howled but didn't do anything else???

using dogs is putting gremlins on the unemployment line

with both PC and job!

with the repair or the replacement!

Sorry to hear about your computer, Bel. I know you've had quite a bit of problems with your computers. I wish I could help.

1) the guts need to be cleaned

2) you need to clean out your unnecessary files. The more junk you have on the computer, the more it bogs it down.

3) your fan needs replacing (does it seem like the fan is pushing less air?)

4) you're system is over-taxed. It may mean you need a better fan and/or heatsink.

Certainly, you should clean the guts every so often.

Opening the side panel and getting the vacuum in there once in a while is a good idea. I also use a soft watercolour brush (only because I have one hanging about) to get in places where I can't get the wand. You can also get one of those compressed air canisters (available at any office supply or computer supply store) It gets into the really hidden areas.

However, you have to be careful not to actually touch anything with your hand or the wand unless you are grounded. You should get yourself a grounding wristband. I clips to the metal of your computer and you put the other end around your wrist.

If cleaning the guts and the hardrive of superfluous junk doesn't help, you may need to replace the fan and/or replace it with a better fan.

Cleaning the heatsink is also a good idea but you need to know what you are doing with it.

Bel, you really must stop pressing all those buttons

Buy a Mac

Yay, I'm back.

My youngest son works for an IT company three days a week (the other two days it's school). This company offers all sorts of services: softaware, hardware for printers, PCs, digital cameras etc.

Their clients are banks, amongst others. They exchange their old PCs against new ones regularly, and then the company removes all the data etc from the old ones and sells them cheaply. Now my son knows that I need a PC that works, so today, he asked if there was one he could have - and there was.

Don't ask me for the data, I can't remember. Something around 2GB memory or so. Celeron processor. He could have got one with a bit more GB and intel four or something, but he'd have had to wait for that one, and he decided it was urgent.

So now, I have yet again an empty PC (with just the basics), but I have a PC.

I've downloaded and installed avast and Firefox. The PC is doing updates (probably from SP2 to SP3 or whatever windows thinks it needs).

<< intel four or something>>

Intel Pentium Four?

Glad you're back, although You've lost your name!