(no subject)

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

As I was getting out of the car at work this morning, I heard "Ah! I'm glad I've seen you!" The feeling isn't mutual.

"Hi", I reply, politely. "What's up?"
"One of the computers in room 22 has gone kaput" she says
"What happens when you turn it on?"
"I don't know"
"Do you get any error messages?"
"Yes"
"What?"
"I don't know"

Helpful. It's probably an inaccessible boot device - we get a lot of those for some reason. (Incidentally, anyone else experienced that? We have probably ten instances a week of inaccessible boot device on Windows 2000 with all updates. It's a quick fix, but bloody annoying. I want some real problems to solve!)

Comments

[tmercenary.livejournal.com]

The IBM machines here will give an "No Operating System Found" Error if the keyboard or mouse cable is to lose.

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

For some reason, these will boot without anything other than the power plugged in. It's really annoying at times.

[samwize.livejournal.com]

You kow, there's a shirt from Think Geek (www.thinkgeek.com) that I bought and really like. On the back, it says "I'M BUSY. GO AWAY." and on the front is says "Hi. I'm on my break.".

Yeesh.

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

There are so many shirts I need from there. I really want the one that says "No, I will not fix your computer". I might actually be able to get some work done if I wear that :)

[jazzmasterson.livejournal.com]

The coffee mug I am drinking from right now says that.

Best. Mug. Evar.

[residentgeek.livejournal.com]

I've got that one. People just laugh, and continue to bother me. :o)

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

Oh. Damn. :)

[jazzmasterson.livejournal.com]

Didn't you know?

Error messages are there to amuse the machine, not to provide you with any information.

Once, I installed a gag utility on a user's machine for April 1st; it displayed an error message that said "Click 'OK' to erase your computer's hard drive!" (with cancel greyed out).

He clicked it without reading it that day. And the next. And the next. And the next. And the next...

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha. The sad thing is we ALL know someone like that :)

[jazzmasterson.livejournal.com]

Or a whole company full of them. :P

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

Or an entire school - 1300 pupils, 200-odd staff.It's a miracle I'm as sane as I am :)

[jazzmasterson.livejournal.com]

o.0

You win.

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing!

[eightofspades.livejournal.com]

Post the fix and I may be able to discern the root cause.

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

Plug in CD drive, boot from Win2K CD, run "fast repair". Works 95% of the time. When it doesn't, I say "screw it" and format the blasted machine. :)

I know I should be using Ghost or Drive Image Pro or something, but I quite enjoy formatting (I'm weird like that) and have got it down to a fine art now..I can have a machine completely formatted / reinstalled and ready to go in under 2 hours

[eightofspades.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

Unfortunately that doesn't tell me what precisely is causing it since it can fix so many things at once with that. I'd lean towards either a hardware issue (if it happens only on one model) or something in your install corrupting the MBR, but that's just guesswork really.

Oh well.

Formattings a lot harder when you have oodles of proprietary applications to add on afterwards - and domain memberships, clients, etc. That's when Ghost is really useful.

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

If it were just one one model of PC, I'd agree it was a hardware issue. But it's not - it happens on three entirely unrelated models - they're not even the same brand. Ah well, it keeps me in a job :)

[eightofspades.livejournal.com]

What could be corrupting your MBR?

If you don't actually have an archaic MBR virus floating around (are they powering off with floppies in?) then its something either in the build or what they're doing. (Helpful, I know.)

Two things I'd wonder:

First, are there IRQ conflicts on those machines? Those used to cause MBR corruptions on NT machines at times, though the servers I have running with conflicts don't seem to suffer it now. (You'd think HP would have enough IRQs for system devices...)

Also, even with NTFS powering off during the shutdown process can sometimes hit the MBR. Are they hitting shutdown then flicking a power strip? FAT32, no questions that can happen with improper poweroffs nytime.

I found some quicker ways to do it then using the Win2k cd, as well, but the Win2k cd seems to be working for you.

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

are they powering off with floppies in?

Nope, they don't even have floppy drives :)


First, are there IRQ conflicts on those machines

Nope :\

Are they hitting shutdown then flicking a power strip?

Nope :)

It seems pretty random...we've got 500-odd machines, 400 of which are running 2K. They're in different locations across the site; they're three entirely different types of PC - the only real similarity is that none of them have floppy or CD drives (we're a school...don't want to give the little bastards anything else to break!)

I honestly can't think of what could be doing it. Bah.

[eightofspades.livejournal.com]

Unless they're FAT32 and getting frequently force powered off, I can't think of anything else either.

Good luck (:

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

Heh...no to both of those too! Thanks anyway :)

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Favorite response #1: "What makes you think that?"

Can be used over and over and over until the user actually supplies data or their head explodes from frustration. It's the tech equivalent of a two-year-old's "Why? Why? Why?..."

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I'll have to remember that one :)