Solving freezing - success!

[Debbie]

Hello, you lovely people,

Months ago I posted to ask for some advice. My new xp computer was
freezing apparently at random, and after doing the usual checks -
internal temperature etc - someone on here suggested that it might be
an irq conflict, because the NVidia Geforce card and the Ethernet card
shared the same irq.

I contacted my pc supplier and was told that you can't reassign irqs
without reformatting and starting from scratch again, so I've been
living with these perishing freezes rather than give over a couple of
days to a full format and reinstall. Recently, someone told me that
I may be able to reassign irqs in the advanced bios settings.

A combination of resetting slots set to "auto" to various numbered
ports, and moving the ethernet card to a different slot resulted in
both devices having irqs to themselves, and I haven't had a freeze
since.

If anyone would like a fuller explanation of exactly what I did, feel
free to email. But I really posted to say many thanks to the very
kind person on here who first flagged up the irq thing as a possible
source for the problem - you were entirely correct

Debbie

--

Debbie
Urban Theology Unit, Sheffield
Views expressed in this email are my own and are not
necessarily those of the University of Sheffield or UTU.

 

[PCyr]

I would contact your PC supplier and ask them why they didn't tell you that.
Any reputable PC supplier should know that. In fact, I don't even know what
the IRQ is (well, I have a few educated guesses), but I still know that you
can reassign them. I would never buy a PC from a place like that.

--
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[BruceM]

Unfortunately we don't all live in big cities with a computer shop on each
corner.

 

[PCyr]

Well he had to contact them one way or another to buy his computer. There's
wonderful devices called email and telephones.

--
Check out http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com for amazing tweaks and fixes

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Email address is fake to prevent SPAM.
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------------------

 

[Debbie]

Well he had to contact them one way or another to buy his computer. There's
wonderful devices called email and telephones.

Actually, I do live in a big city. But I bought the machine online
from a company in another city some way away through a web form -
built to spec - after a long process of checking out suppliers for
price, reliability, quality and tech support. At the time their
support was highly rated - they changed the support system after I
bought the machine, and it's now little short of a joke.

Phone support is now only during office hours. And guess what - I
work full time. So I can't sit by my computer trying things out
while they talk. Emails get an auto response immediately then a
vague handwaving some indeterminate time later - or they did until
last week, when they lost all their current support stuff in a virus
attack (idiots) and sent out a different auto response to my reminder
that I was still awaiting a reply, to the effect that I'd have to
start the whole conversation again.

And he's a she, btw.

Debbie

--

Debbie
Urban Theology Unit, Sheffield
Views expressed in this email are my own and are not
necessarily those of the University of Sheffield or UTU.

 

[PCyr]

Sorry about the "he," it's a common typo I make. I will make a point of it.
Anyways... are you not able to get _anyone_, to get anyone to contact the
support for you?

A few words of advice, when ever you deal with with any salesperson or
company, you have to be just down right rude to get what you want. (Oh what
a world we live in). As well, any business that jerks you around is not
worth your time and respect. Pay an extra hundred or so, and go with a
company that treats their customers like people, not figures. But let's say
you don't really want to spend an extra hundred or so on a different
company, let me ask you this... You think it's hard to get support *now*?
Image if and when (because this place doesn't sound qualified to build and
service computers) your computer breaks down. Do you think you'll get much
support then? Some companies like that won't do anything unless you
threaten them with a lawyer. Pay an extra hundred or so and go with a
better company.
PMSL - did you just say you bought it over the internet from a company far
away? BIG MISTAKE, those companies *love* to jerk people around, because if
you can't reach their office in person, they'll hope you don't get a lawyer
and jerk you around until your warranty expires.

Note: The above does not apply to all companies, but the risk of getting
one of those companies is too high to ignore my advice.

--
Check out http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com for amazing tweaks and fixes

Member of "Newsgroups are for everyone"

Email address is fake to prevent SPAM.
Real email address is pcyr2000 AT hotmail DOT com
Change the obvious to the obvious.
------------------

 

[Debbie]

Sorry about the "he," it's a common typo I make. I will make a point of it.
Anyways... are you not able to get _anyone_, to get anyone to contact the
support for you?

No-one in my household is as familiar with computers as I am. That
is to say, my husband is a university research programmer, but he
knows sweet fa about what goes on in the box, and the kids, even the
21 year old, are really just dumb end users. Having been working
with computers since 1981 (no, that's not a typo) I can handle much of
this stuff myself. I regularly messed around with irqs in previous
versions of Windoze. I was (apparently) reliably informed that one
could not do so at all in xp - and actually, that's true, you have to
tweak bios settings.

A few words of advice, when ever you deal with with any salesperson or
company, you have to be just down right rude to get what you want. (Oh what
a world we live in). As well, any business that jerks you around is not
worth your time and respect. Pay an extra hundred or so, and go with a
company that treats their customers like people, not figures. But let's say
you don't really want to spend an extra hundred or so on a different
company, let me ask you this... You think it's hard to get support *now*?

Oh, do stop being patronising. One of the reasons I selected the
supplier I did was because their tech support *was* highly rated, both
by personal recommendation and by independent published sources.
They changed their tech support system several months *after* I bought
the machine. I didn't buy a cheap machine from a couple of kids in a
toolshed, I had a machine built to spec by a large, reputable, highly
recommended specialist company. The one thing I don't have control
over is boardroom decisions in big companies which lead them to change
their priorities in terms of customer care.

Image if and when (because this place doesn't sound qualified to build and
service computers) your computer breaks down. Do you think you'll get much
support then? Some companies like that won't do anything unless you
threaten them with a lawyer. Pay an extra hundred or so and go with a
better company.

If my computer breaks down, I'll repair it myself, as I have done with
all the other machines I've had, since it's out of warranty and
anyway, I can do most stuff better and faster myself than the chaps in
their workshop. It's a lot more fiddly than the mainframes I started
out with, but a couple of screwdrivers and a few pcbs don't fill me
with alarm. I find software a lot more difficult, because the stuff
keeps getting fussier and fussier about specs. The irq conflict
stemmed from an ethernet card I installed myself and an NVidia Geforce
card that is picky about what it shares resources with. I opted for
the easiest slot to get the ethernet card into instead of the best
slot for the card, and then didn't pick up that irqs for slots were
all set to auto on the advanced bios setup.

PMSL - did you just say you bought it over the internet from a company far
away? BIG MISTAKE, those companies *love* to jerk people around, because if
you can't reach their office in person, they'll hope you don't get a lawyer
and jerk you around until your warranty expires.

I bought from a London based specialist company because they were the
best at the time. Best for spec, best for quality, best for service,
at a realistic, but not by any means cheap, price. Their internet
outlet is reliable, safe, and covered by consumer regulation in the
UK. They've gone downhill - so it's a pain. But if you really
think it's better to settle for second rate stuff just because you can
buy it locally from a chap behind a counter, you really can't be very
fussy about the kind of machines you use.

Note: The above does not apply to all companies, but the risk of getting
one of those companies is too high to ignore my advice.

The above did not apply to the outfit I bought mine from at the time I
bought it and for several months afterwards. I'm reliably informed
that they still build good machines at good prices.

--

Debbie
Urban Theology Unit, Sheffield
Views expressed in this email are my own and are not
necessarily those of the University of Sheffield or UTU.