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Computer troubles, I has them
Sep. 1st, 2009 09:53 amMy Dell desktop is getting a little long in the tooth. It's four, or possibly even five years old. So it's due to get sick. Also, it has 1 GB of memory, untold riches in 2004 but a little spare in 2009.
Lately it has taken to making an odd gear-slipping noise and hanging up somewhere in the course of a cold boot. Forcing it to turn off, re-starting in safe mode, powering back down and powering up again seems to clear whatever it is. Occasionally I can hear the hard drive mumbling to itself for no reason that makes any sense to me.
I left it on last night so Symantec could do its weekly thing. When I went upstairs this morning it was humming like a kitchen appliance; then it stopped humming; then it started up again. Meanwhile the hard drive was muttering under its breath, and it took it half of forever to close Firefox.
So here I sit on the ASUS -- about an hour after I powered down the desktop. I'm also blowing cool air on the outside of the machine from a portable electric fan.
Today would be a good day to back up my data to my external hard drive and work elsewhere, I think. But the larger question looms -- what to do about Old Faithful. Perhaps it simply needs a new fan and another memory chip. A conversation with My Son the Geek is called for, I guess.
Lately it has taken to making an odd gear-slipping noise and hanging up somewhere in the course of a cold boot. Forcing it to turn off, re-starting in safe mode, powering back down and powering up again seems to clear whatever it is. Occasionally I can hear the hard drive mumbling to itself for no reason that makes any sense to me.
I left it on last night so Symantec could do its weekly thing. When I went upstairs this morning it was humming like a kitchen appliance; then it stopped humming; then it started up again. Meanwhile the hard drive was muttering under its breath, and it took it half of forever to close Firefox.
So here I sit on the ASUS -- about an hour after I powered down the desktop. I'm also blowing cool air on the outside of the machine from a portable electric fan.
Today would be a good day to back up my data to my external hard drive and work elsewhere, I think. But the larger question looms -- what to do about Old Faithful. Perhaps it simply needs a new fan and another memory chip. A conversation with My Son the Geek is called for, I guess.
