February 16, 2010
Well this is was my first blog post but it got munged on the main page so I’ll try again. I don’t really subscribe greatly to the blog ethos, but having watched the recent click-online episode, I thought I’d give it a try.
I subscribe to quite few forums, some usenet, re my various interests, but occasionally I’m tempted to post something completely OT (off topic, usually a borderline rant) that I refrain from posting those items, for fear of of boring or alienating the regular readership.
An incident today reminded me of why blogging may be a suitable option.
Supermarkets often have shelving at the ends of the centre aisle. If you have a trolley, where do you place it to prevent blocking the best route through the entire supermarket? What you don’t do is face the end shelving, talk on your mobile, with your back to your trolley placed lengthwise across the centre aisle!
As I approached this trolley, all the adjacent shoppers were wending around it into neighbouring aisles. Not to be a follower of fashion, I decided to barge through the trolley, it being on nice runny wheels, moved politely out of my way clearing the path for everyone following.
In retrospect I could have moved the trolley to an adjacent clear aisle and sent it to a place of ‘safety’, but that would have probably been to OTT in the circumstances.
It did get me thinking about what trolley etiquette should be, after all if you need a trolley’s worth of goods you need the trolley, but they’re otherwise a hinderance to the user and other shoppers alike, especially if in the hands of a dope like the aforesaid.
I will be officially ‘old’ in a few weeks so I feel a few more of these ‘brewing’.
My next task will be how to deal with people who group together, actually within the doorframe of a building entrance, to hold a conversation, oblivious to those trying to enter/exit the building!
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February 16, 2010
I got a replacement PSU and installed it. I tried firing it up but the on/off status light kept cycling between red and green and the CPU fan stuttered accordingly. I wondered if the original PSU fault had damaged part of the motherboard or the installed cards, so I removed all the cards and tried again. The PC burst into life with a few ‘fault’ beeps which I couldn’t identify but at least it had stopped cycling. I assumed one of the removed cards had been the problem, possibly the graphics card, which was required to do *anything* as there’s no onboard graphics. The card was an AGP and I had no other AGP card but did have an older PCI graphics card. I installed that and I got the bios screen showing. I reconnected the hard drive and all appeared well.
As usual appearances were deceptive. After a few checks around various folders the cursor arrow froze on screen, requiring a reboot. Further use caused a repeat freeze, so I tried a ‘safe’ reboot, still the cursor eventually froze. I tried disabling various start-up programs with no success, the cursor always froze. The machine was effectively useless with that problem. So I switched off.
After giving it a rest I wondered if the grapics part of the motherboard had been damaged. As a last gasp I decided to try the original AGP graphics card again and, wouldn’t you know it, everything worked as if nothing had ever gone wrong in the first place. I’m writing this on that PC now and so far it’s still working, but I’m still wondering if there is some damage somewhere and it’s just ‘surving’. At least I have my other PC net connectable now, so less concerned if the worse happens to this PC, but it does serve to warn that there’s a lot of net ‘stuff’ on a PC like ‘bookmarks’ saved pages and passwords that tend to be taken for granted until you use another machine and can’t remember some URLs or passwords etc. and have to dig up documentation and CDs to do simple things.
I’ve always tried to keep two PCs net capable, just for the possibility one will fail for some reason, but I should probably take more steps to create a transferrable web environment too, so it’s less of a problem if the main PC fails to work.
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February 9, 2010
I don’t know which came first the TV problem or PC problem, probably the former. I noticed some discolouration on my LCD TV, looks like dust on an old CRT TV. but can’t be removed. Checking on the net it seems it’s some sort of ‘persistent image’ although not an image at all and can be removed by either switching off the TV for a few days or playing a ‘white screen’ on it for a few hours.
The latter seemed preferable, and the TV will play jpegs from the usb slot, *but* in that mode the screen controls are disabled so the backlight would be full-on and ideally the backlight should be turned down during this process, to preserve it, as it isn’t really required for ‘resetting’ the LCD display.
One recommended was to playout direct from the PC. I have 2 PCs, an older one, normally net connected and a newer one normally net disconnected and used as a HTPC and video processing. While I was considering using one or other of the PCs to play out the jpeg, I was aware of a slight noise from the older PC. When I looked at it I could see a bright light emanating from the PSU casing (the PC side case is still removed from a previous experiment). There are no lights inside the PC at that location so I realised all was not well. The computer was still displaying ok, but a distinct burning smell reached me. I darted to the PC and hit the main rear off button and unplugged it.
After that experience I decided that playing out from my remaining PC (intended to be unattended overnight) didn’t seem such a good idea, and began considering alternatives, but first I needed to connect the HTPC to the internet. Im not sure if I ever connected the HTPC to the net but I do recall trying some Powerline LAN adapters which came with a VOD system I tried last year. When I checked the HTPC it only had an old IE on it, so in the current climate I decided to try to get Google Chrome off my other PCs HD. Unfortunately after I’d lashed up a USB connection to that HD, Chrome setup file wasn’t showing, so I settled for some older Firefox and Opera files instead, and some firewall s/w. With Firefox and Opera installed I connected a LAN cable to the modem and tried to connect. No joy, so I fished out the modem CD and installed some drivers (usb) inc the url of the modem and tried again, still no joy. The usb modem cable I use for the old PC won’t reach to the HTPC, but with a bit of rearranging to get the modem closer I managed to make a connection and fortunately I finally got an internet connection. Relief!
I quickly d/ld and installed current versions of Chrome. Firefox and Opera. When I ran the modem diagnostics it ok’d the ethernet connection as well as the usb, so why wasn’t it working? The modem installation CD files gave no clue, nor the net. After a bit of head scratching and trial and error I finally got a LAN cable connection by using the XP Network Setup Wizard. I assume the modem suppliers assume all PCs have a network already set up, so don’t bother to mention what to do if you haven’t.
With that sorted I returned to the TV problem and recalling I had a DVD player which played jpegs. I duly copied the jpeg from a USB stick to a mini DVD+RW disk I had available. When I played the jpeg it wouldn’t fill the screen. I made another jpeg twice the width and height of the first and tried again, still no joy. I made two further jpegs one twice the height, and one twice the width, of the original. Despite much fiddling with the settings on the TV and DVD no jpeg could be coaxed to fill the whole screen, so I needed a Plan C. My Sony pvr was newer than the DVD payer and also has a DVD recorder section but I hadn’t checked if it played jpegs. I fished out the manual and found it did! I put the mini DVD+RW in the tray and waited. You guessed, the Sony doesn’t play mini DVD, at least not data+RW. I found a CD-RW and copied the jpegs. The pvr came up zero again, but I pressed the play button and a jpeg showed. You guessed, the jpeg couldn’t be sized to fill the screen either.
Next I tried an old video mixer, which would do this job and more *but* needs at least one video input to sync before it will output a white screen. Next I plugged an old DV camcorder into the PVR and found if I selected ‘negative’ then put the lenscap back on the camcorder would output a full white screen. Left that to record to a DVD, so now I have a 2.5 hour DVD recording of white screen. If I playback on ‘slow’ it will last much longer, but what a pallaver to get a white screen with a low backlight!!
I played the white screen for a couple of nights and it has changed the discolouration but not reversed it, so I may have to ‘rest’ the TV after all, as I suspect heat from the TV electronics may be causing the porblem. If so ‘white screen’ won’t cure it.
Back to the old PC I checked out some new PSU’s on the net but I have an older computer unused. I wasn’t sure about the PSU but it had an ATX sticker showing. I duly removed it from the old PC but nearly had to dismantle the casing in the process. Installing it in the broken PC was much easier but although it was an ATX PSU, it was 250w compared to the original’s 350w and lacks the additional 12v processor supply, so although the motherboard power light lit, the processor fan didn’t turn, even with nothing else connected. I’m not sure if there’s been motherboard or other damage from the PSU failing but I’ll probably try a new PSU just in case the HTPC PSU decides to fail at some point!
I think I’ll be giving it mostly a rest tomorrow and try to do something more straightforward, but knowing my current luck, that’s not a certainty!
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