(no subject)

[zig-mover.livejournal.com]

Just a quick question for someone:

What exactly do people mean when they say, "My computer crashed so I need help setting up my internet again."?

I've been using computers since 3rd grade on a regular (read: constant) basis, and still don't know what it means when people say their computer 'crashed,' although I hear it often enough from friends, family, customers, etc.

So what does it mean when your computer crashes?

Comments

[zig-mover.livejournal.com]

So it's possible that a BSOD can lead to a complete system failure? As in, you get it, but it won't boot up after that?

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

Or it could mean their hard drive died completely, or they had a virus which trashed things, or any of a million and one different things :)

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

Depends on the OS. On NT based systems (Win2K, XP, NT4) a BSOD can be terminal - but not always. On Win 95/98/ME a reboot will generally fix any BSOD problems.

[zig-mover.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh!

Like, NTLDR errors? I got that once when I accidentally kicked over a computer at school earlier this year. Oops

So I guess I do know what a crash is. But all it took was to redo the Win2k installation. But nothing got messed up.

[methedras.livejournal.com]

AND THE TROGDOR COMES IN THE NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

It's pretty unlikely that just kicking a computer over will cause problems like that - there was probably another factor involved. Trust me, I drop computers on a regular basis! But yeah, a simple overinstall of the OS will often help :)

[j-digi82.livejournal.com]

Not that I'm an expert but I always thought a crash was when the hardware or software was not in working order. Usually either the software was written shittily or the hardware did not have acceptable facilities (people and companies piece computers together anymore) to handle the software processing. Or of course the program was just erroneous or another erroneous program modified information it's address space. Either way it messes stuph up. Like a bad input string or an array that exceeds its length in C++, it can lead to uncontrollable results straying from a normal operating environment. I think when one of these errors causes the software to become out of service, it's called a crash.

Make sense?

[fnordx.livejournal.com]

in this day and age, someone saying 'My Computer Crashed' is like saying 'My car won't start'. They don't have any further information about what happened, and they don't want to know anything else, they just want someone to fix it.

Whenever anyone says 'My computer crashed', I generally take that to mean 'My computer is not working right now', and then you have to go through the troubleshooting ("Did you reboot the computer? Did you make sure the screen is turned on? Did you sacrifice a live chicken to the computer" etc.).

[zig-mover.livejournal.com]

hehe :)

[zig-mover.livejournal.com]

burninating the peasants.. oh so good.

[zig-mover.livejournal.com]

Well, my computer, i turn it on and it does that thing, and the other thing, and then it wont work. My uncle's friend's roommante's computer does the exact same thing, and his tech support guy told him to do X. No, I'm not in front of my computer right now. Does that matter?

[chaobell]

We've had more than one that crashed in the literal sense. As in, onto the floor.

And one that came in with a boot-sized dent in the case where the guy got pissed off and kicked the crap out of it.

crashed

[child2day.livejournal.com]

i had a guy bring in a computer that was totaly smashed up. peices broken everywhere internally and the case was all bent out of shape. the CPU had been cracked in half. turns out the computer had been in the trunck of a car that had gotten rearended by a truck. that computer had crashed!

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

"my computer crashed" is one of those vague statements akin to "my car broke down"

could mean anything from a freezeup to catastrophic motherboard/HDD failure.