black screen w/ cursor when locking keyboard

[the wharf rat]

A shotgunner is obvious.

Well, sure. They're pretty long and it's hard to make an
effective silencer because of that quick sharp pulse. Anyway, it'd
mess up your pattern. I've seen some short barreled tatctial models
that were ALMOST concealable though.

So little experience as to think
a diagnostic takes hours when diagnostics can identify a problem in
minutes - while a tech is doing other useful work.

Oh, come on. You don't just type "c:\diagnose" and get a
little popup that says the 15th contact on the front side of the
DIMM in slot 0 has excessive oxidation. How long does it take to run a
complete read/write pattern test on 4GB? A looonnnngggg time, huh? How
long does it take to check every sector of a terabyte hard drive? Lol,
and so after you get "write of 0707070707070707 failed" what do you
do next? Bad ram? Bad motherboard? Or just excessive oxidation on
that 15th contact? Let's see...well, I guess we could...swap in a known good
DIMM and see if that corrects the problem... Bwahaha.

I've had some success using diagnostic programs that stress
components to reproduce or rule out intermittent or load related problems.
"While the tech is doing other useful work"? Maybe. After she's spent
two hours pulling a motherboard to bench test it, or backing up the hard
drive so that we don't risk destroying a customer's data with one of our
fancy diagnostics... And you know what the kicker is? After you
fire up your 50K memory tester you STILL have to replace the part and
see if the problem goes away.

understand as to even call proprietary. Dell and HP design their own
disk drives and power supplies with proprietary interfaces?

Not so much now but they did. Dell used to cross power and
ground leads so you HAD to use Dell power supplies... Now they do use
custom firmware and certain parts (drive controllers and mobile video
cards) are if not proprietary at least only available from Dell.


Great Ghu, ever worked on a a laptop? Even the damn screws
are proprietary.

Those who never even saw a comprehensive hardware diagniostic invent
an accusation - it takes hours to run and must be supervised.

Lol. The guy who sees water cooled Vaxen is worried about us
making things up.

 

[the wharf rat]

mess up your pattern. I've seen some short barreled tatctial models

Lol, TACTICAL.... In a hurry when I was typing...

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

On Tue, 12 May 2009 08:48:47 +0000 (UTC), the wharf rat wrote:

Oh, come on. You don't just type "c:\diagnose" and get a
little popup that says the 15th contact on the front side of the
DIMM in slot 0 has excessive oxidation. How long does it take to run a
complete read/write pattern test on 4GB? A looonnnngggg time, huh? How
long does it take to check every sector of a terabyte hard drive? Lol,
and so after you get "write of 0707070707070707 failed" what do you
do next? Bad ram? Bad motherboard? Or just excessive oxidation on
that 15th contact? Let's see...well, I guess we could...swap in a known good
DIMM and see if that corrects the problem... Bwahaha.

Reminds me of an experience I've posted about a few times when people had
certain problems.

A few years ago, in another galaxy...no, I mean on another computer...I had
symptoms (random crashes) that sort of felt like memory problems, but I
wasn't sure. So, I ran hours each of DrMem and memtest86. The RAM was
perfect!

But I still got crashes, and it still felt like RAM. I got my shotgun out
and removed one stick (the MB allowed that). The crashes stopped.

I got a new stick to replace the bad one and was happy ever after for a
little while.

I would have saved a lot of time if I had used my shotgun sooner.

 

[the wharf rat]

I would have saved a lot of time if I had used my shotgun sooner.

The only problem you can't solve with a shotgun is one that's more
than 75 yards away.

 

[+Bob+]

The only problem you can't solve with a shotgun is one that's more
than 75 yards away.

westom is infatuated with his "shotgunning" metaphor and fails to
realize two very important factors today:

- replacing hardware sequentially as a test is often the fastest way
find a bad component

- Dell, HP, Compaq, etc love to make things proprietary by specifying
custom BIOS, custom drive firmware, custom video hardware and
software, custom PS configs, custom drive mounts, custom mobo
dimensions and mounts and case wiring, oddball chip sets no one else
uses, etc, etc, etc.

Meanwhile, the smart money buys quality mainstream STANDARD components
to build systems with and easily finds the latest drivers direct from
the manufacturers.

 

[westom]

  The only problem you can't solve with a shotgun is one that's more
than 75 yards away.

Yes. Once you have replaced 50% or 100% of the computer, then the
problem may be or will be solved. Shotgunning takes hours. Sometimes
replacing the same part multiple times. Finding before fixing the
problem takes minutes - fix it the first time. But that means the
tech needs some basic knowledge. Shotgunning means non knowledge -
just keep replacing good parts.

That Sata problem is soved by shotgunning when the entire computer
gets replaced - which is why shotgunning works.. Such techniques
enrich a repairman who takes a profit for each replaced part - and
gets paid for the labor of swapping perfectly good parts. Just
another reason why uneducated technicians love shotgunning. Learning
how to work smarter might harm their income.

Knowledge of electricity is not even required to become an A+
Certfied computer tech. Why would one need to know how to it works?
Shotgunning makes learning unnecessary.

Shotgunning would not solve the OP's sata disk intermittent.
Explains no useful solutions provide by shotgunners.

 

[the wharf rat]

Yes. Once you have replaced 50% or 100% of the computer, then the
problem may be or will be solved.

Yes, exactly! You didn't need that 50% anyway. It was broken.

I'm glad to see we're finally on the same page about this.

just keep replacing good parts.

Well you have to make sure you get the bad ones, too. As
long as you get the bad ones too it all works out in the end.

Knowledge of electricity is not even required to become an A+
Certfied computer tech.

That's not true. There are questions about about power, voltages,
and the proper use of a multimeter as well as about safety precautions. Have
you ever actually taken that exam?

Why would one need to know how to it works?

I don't much care about electricity but I wish I knew more about
the magic smoke. All I've ever been able to figure out is that if you let
it escape the machine won't ever work right again. I've even tried
to catch it but when I do get some in a coffee cup or something I don't
see how to get it back in...

Shotgunning makes learning unnecessary.

Depends on which end of the shotgun you wind up on. Try to stay
away from the end with the big hole in it. Some people get confused about
that because they don't put This End Towards Enemy labels on those.

 

[westom]

That's not true. There are questions about about power, voltages, and
the proper use of a multimeter as well as about safety precautions.

The A+ Certified exam has no useful multimeter questions. The
training guides only discusses existence of a multimeter - does not
even discuss how to use it or what the numbers actually report. But
it says enough that technically ignorant A+ Certified techs can
'claim' they know all about multimeters and electricity.

Training manuals for the A+ Certified tech exam do not even show how
to properly use the meter. But then knowledge of electricity really
is not required to pass that exam.

One reason why shotgunning is routinely advocated? A+ Certified
computer techs only know enough about electricity to be able to
shotgun. Same reason is why the Silicon Valley must recruit most
employees via immigration where immigrant technicians and engineers
actually learn how electricity works.

Meanwhile that Sata power intermittent means these same A+ Certified
computer techs would spend money like grenade. Replace memory, disk
drive, power supply, and even motherboard. Spend $hundreds and spend
hours of labor doing shotgunning when the simple solution was
provided by Dell in minutes.

But again, who keeps answering the OP's question? Who keeps
avoiding that question that shotgunning would have never answered? A
Sata power off problem cannot be identified and solved by
shotgunning. Shotgunning is recommended by those who do not even
know how electricity works - such as A+ Certified computer techs who
know they are experts because they passed an exam that has no
significant electrical questions (beyond how not to electrocute
yourself).

 

[Richard Urban]

What's the simple solution by Dell got to do with a multimeter?

You sound like someone who has just got their first multimeter and has to
prove how much greater he is than everyone else.

I have been using multimeters since the introduction of the Simpson 360. I
have never once told a person having a computer problem that he needs a
multimeter to solve the problem.

And yes, I do use one when necessary (not very often).

 

[the wharf rat]

The A+ Certified exam has no useful multimeter questions. The

That's not true. Here's a sample question:

"You are checking a faulty circuit board with your multimeter and
have placed the probes on either side of a suspect resistor. The reading is
nowhere near the value specified for the resistor. What should you do?"

More A+ questions requring an understanding of "electricity" can be
found at

http://my.safaribooksonline.com/078973043X/ch06lev1sec8

Have you ever actually taken one of these exams? Are you A+
certified?

 

[the wharf rat]

And yes, I do use one when necessary (not very often).

I use mine every day.

It holds up my coffee cup,

 

[Richard Urban]

<grin>

Unsolder one end of the resister so as to effectively take it out of the
circuit. Then check its resistance.

But, you do not have to know this to repair computers!

Paying attention Westom.

 

[Richard Urban]

That should be the Simpson 260 in 1962

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Lucky me - the computer and I were very close to each other. Verrry close