Windows Weirdness:

Win XP Pro

Suddenly started shutting down (like power switch was hit) when I was
inactive for more than about 15 minutes.

Checked power settings, they were proper for "desktop" use.

Left them alone, problem continued.

Went back and checked power settings, but this time clicked OK.

Problem has ceased (for now :-)

Anyone experienced this?

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

On 06/30/2010 01:15 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:
Windows Weirdness:

Win XP Pro

Suddenly started shutting down (like power switch was hit) when I was
inactive for more than about 15 minutes.

Checked power settings, they were proper for "desktop" use.

Left them alone, problem continued.

Went back and checked power settings, but this time clicked OK.

Problem has ceased (for now :-)

Anyone experienced this?

...Jim Thompson

I stopped having odd Windows problems when I started using Linux.

Now I just have odd Linux problems. But I'm still cooler than you.

Neener.

No, wait -- let me channel all the Linux nerds in Portland; we'll abuse
you in one voice: NEENER!!!

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:03:59 -0700, Tim Wescott
wrote:

On 06/30/2010 01:15 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:
Windows Weirdness:

Win XP Pro

Suddenly started shutting down (like power switch was hit) when I was
inactive for more than about 15 minutes.

Checked power settings, they were proper for "desktop" use.

Left them alone, problem continued.

Went back and checked power settings, but this time clicked OK.

Problem has ceased (for now :-)

Anyone experienced this?

...Jim Thompson

I stopped having odd Windows problems when I started using Linux.

Now I just have odd Linux problems. But I'm still cooler than you.

Neener.

No, wait -- let me channel all the Linux nerds in Portland; we'll abuse
you in one voice: NEENER!!!

What we need is someone to write a Windows-like OS, so I can use all
my software without the pain of Micro$hit's continual tampering.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.

On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:32:27 -0500, flipper wrote:

On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:15:14 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

Windows Weirdness:

Win XP Pro

Suddenly started shutting down (like power switch was hit) when I was
inactive for more than about 15 minutes.

Checked power settings, they were proper for "desktop" use.

Left them alone, problem continued.

Went back and checked power settings, but this time clicked OK.

Problem has ceased (for now :-)

Anyone experienced this?

...Jim Thompson

No but just as a precaution I'd suggest doing a full disk scan.

Which tool is safest?

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.

On 06/30/2010 03:24 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:
On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:03:59 -0700, Tim
wrote:

On 06/30/2010 01:15 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:
Windows Weirdness:

Win XP Pro

Suddenly started shutting down (like power switch was hit) when I was
inactive for more than about 15 minutes.

Checked power settings, they were proper for "desktop" use.

Left them alone, problem continued.

Went back and checked power settings, but this time clicked OK.

Problem has ceased (for now :-)

Anyone experienced this?

...Jim Thompson

I stopped having odd Windows problems when I started using Linux.

Now I just have odd Linux problems. But I'm still cooler than you.

Neener.

No, wait -- let me channel all the Linux nerds in Portland; we'll abuse
you in one voice: NEENER!!!

What we need is someone to write a Windows-like OS, so I can use all
my software without the pain of Micro$hit's continual tampering.

Apparently someone is doing that, it's only real drawback is that it
doesn't work! Windows is so full of undocumented interfaces and
'features' that it's exceedingly difficult to replicate -- and if you
did, there's a good chance that half the bugs you're trying to dodge are
created by the interface itself, and not the underlying software.

I use Linux for most things, but I have a virtual machine with XP on it
for those times when Linux Just Won't Do.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

In article ,
Jim Thompson wrote:

What we need is someone to write a Windows-like OS, so I can use all
my software without the pain of Micro$hit's continual tampering.

Something akin to this has already been done - it's called WINE
(think "Windows Emulator"). It's an application which provides an
implementation of many of the Windows APIs, and translates them to the
native APIs of a different operationg/windowing system (typically,
Linux or Unix or a similar OS, and the X Window system).

Unfortunately, even this isn't immune to M$'s "continual tampering"...
Microsoft keeps adding new APIs (and changing the expected behavior of
old ones), application developers keep upgrading their apps to use
these new APIs, and so WINE is always playing catch-up.

It has even been necessary for WINE to provide support for known
bugs/inconsistencies in the Microsoft APIs... a surprising number of
apps require a "bug-for-bug compatible" implementation to work in the
expected manner.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

"Jim Thompson" wrote
in message ...
Windows Weirdness:

Win XP Pro

Suddenly started shutting down (like power switch was hit) when I was
inactive for more than about 15 minutes.

Checked power settings, they were proper for "desktop" use.

Left them alone, problem continued.

Went back and checked power settings, but this time clicked OK.

Problem has ceased (for now :-)

Anyone experienced this?

...Jim Thompson


I've had a similar problem before. It seems windows settings for power
management gets corrupted.
Resetting to the default and clicking OK cleared it for me. Might be a
registry corruption problem, but I never seen it since.

Cheers

"Tim Wescott" wrote in message
...
On 06/30/2010 03:24 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:
On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:03:59 -0700, Tim
wrote:

On 06/30/2010 01:15 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:
Windows Weirdness:

Win XP Pro

Suddenly started shutting down (like power switch was hit) when I
was
inactive for more than about 15 minutes.

Checked power settings, they were proper for "desktop" use.

Left them alone, problem continued.

Went back and checked power settings, but this time clicked OK.

Problem has ceased (for now :-)

Anyone experienced this?

...Jim Thompson

I stopped having odd Windows problems when I started using Linux.

Now I just have odd Linux problems. But I'm still cooler than you.

Neener.

No, wait -- let me channel all the Linux nerds in Portland; we'll
abuse
you in one voice: NEENER!!!

What we need is someone to write a Windows-like OS, so I can use all
my software without the pain of Micro$hit's continual tampering.

Apparently someone is doing that, it's only real drawback is that it
doesn't work! Windows is so full of undocumented interfaces and
'features' that it's exceedingly difficult to replicate -- and if you
did, there's a good chance that half the bugs you're trying to dodge
are created by the interface itself, and not the underlying software.

I use Linux for most things, but I have a virtual machine with XP on
it for those times when Linux Just Won't Do.

You mean Linux doesn't do everything?
Write a program.

Cheers

Tim Wescott Inscribed thus:

On 06/30/2010 03:24 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:
On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:03:59 -0700, Tim
wrote:

On 06/30/2010 01:15 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:
Windows Weirdness:

Win XP Pro

Suddenly started shutting down (like power switch was hit) when I
was inactive for more than about 15 minutes.

Checked power settings, they were proper for "desktop" use.

Left them alone, problem continued.

Went back and checked power settings, but this time clicked OK.

Problem has ceased (for now :-)

Anyone experienced this?

...Jim Thompson

I stopped having odd Windows problems when I started using Linux.

Now I just have odd Linux problems. But I'm still cooler than you.

Neener.

No, wait -- let me channel all the Linux nerds in Portland; we'll
abuse
you in one voice: NEENER!!!

What we need is someone to write a Windows-like OS, so I can use all
my software without the pain of Micro$hit's continual tampering.

Apparently someone is doing that, it's only real drawback is that it
doesn't work! Windows is so full of undocumented interfaces and
'features' that it's exceedingly difficult to replicate -- and if you
did, there's a good chance that half the bugs you're trying to dodge
are created by the interface itself, and not the underlying software.

I use Linux for most things, but I have a virtual machine with XP on
it for those times when Linux Just Won't Do.


WINE is a reasonable substitute for running the odd program, but I agree
a Virtual Machine beats it hands down.

--
Best Regards:
Baron.

"flipper" wrote in message
...
Which tool is safest?

Just right click on the drive, select properties, go to the tools tab
and "check now." Check both boxes and push START. It'll complain the
disk is in use and ask if you want to schedule a scan for the next
reboot. Say yes and reboot.

It'll take quite a while depending on drive size and speed of the
machine.

Surface scan and choose both options:
Automatically fix file system errors
Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors
Click Start. It will schedule the surface scan for the next reboot of the
computer.
May the force be with you - Oppie

Step 1 is to reduce to the minimum configuration and see if it fails.
Be certain to unplug whatever USB ports are not essential.

Assuming that it still fails, install a bigger power supply and test.
Every time this crashes it put your hard drive at risk for content
damage so get aggressive with quality compoent replacement.


On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:15:14 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

Windows Weirdness:

Win XP Pro

Suddenly started shutting down (like power switch was hit) when I was
inactive for more than about 15 minutes.

Checked power settings, they were proper for "desktop" use.

Left them alone, problem continued.

Went back and checked power settings, but this time clicked OK.

Problem has ceased (for now :-)

Anyone experienced this?

...Jim Thompson
John Ferrell W8CCW

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 09:42:39 -0400, John Ferrell
wrote:

Step 1 is to reduce to the minimum configuration and see if it fails.
Be certain to unplug whatever USB ports are not essential.

Assuming that it still fails, install a bigger power supply and test.
Every time this crashes it put your hard drive at risk for content
damage so get aggressive with quality compoent replacement.


On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:15:14 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

Windows Weirdness:

Win XP Pro

Suddenly started shutting down (like power switch was hit) when I was
inactive for more than about 15 minutes.

Checked power settings, they were proper for "desktop" use.

Left them alone, problem continued.

Went back and checked power settings, but this time clicked OK.

Problem has ceased (for now :-)

Anyone experienced this?

...Jim Thompson
John Ferrell W8CCW

How about the BIOS battery? This machine is quite old.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.

On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:36:03 -0700, Dave Platt wrote:

In article , Jim Thompson
wrote:

What we need is someone to write a Windows-like OS, so I can use all my
software without the pain of Micro$hit's continual tampering.

Something akin to this has already been done - it's called WINE (think
"Windows Emulator"). It's an application which provides an
implementation of many of the Windows APIs, and translates them to the
native APIs of a different operationg/windowing system (typically, Linux
or Unix or a similar OS, and the X Window system).

Unfortunately, even this isn't immune to M$'s "continual tampering"...
Microsoft keeps adding new APIs (and changing the expected behavior of
old ones), application developers keep upgrading their apps to use these
new APIs, and so WINE is always playing catch-up.

It has even been necessary for WINE to provide support for known
bugs/inconsistencies in the Microsoft APIs... a surprising number of
apps require a "bug-for-bug compatible" implementation to work in the
expected manner.



WINE stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator. It's actually a windows-like API
that converts calls from windows programs into calls to Linux. It looks
like Windows to the program, so well-behaved programs run ok. Programs
that use undocumented calls and "features" have problems!

--
Mick (Working in a M$-free zone!)
Web: http://www.nascom.info
Filtering everything posted from googlegroups to kill spam.

Hopefully ReactOS won't be dropped as an XP alternative...

Jim, there is a timer in your BIOS that can turn the system on or off.
Insure this isn't set and that no BIOS related power management is active.

Jon


"Jim Thompson" wrote in
message ...
On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:03:59 -0700, Tim Wescott
wrote:

On 06/30/2010 01:15 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:
Windows Weirdness:

Win XP Pro

Suddenly started shutting down (like power switch was hit) when I was
inactive for more than about 15 minutes.

Checked power settings, they were proper for "desktop" use.

Left them alone, problem continued.

Went back and checked power settings, but this time clicked OK.

Problem has ceased (for now :-)

Anyone experienced this?

...Jim Thompson

I stopped having odd Windows problems when I started using Linux.

Now I just have odd Linux problems. But I'm still cooler than you.

Neener.

No, wait -- let me channel all the Linux nerds in Portland; we'll abuse
you in one voice: NEENER!!!

What we need is someone to write a Windows-like OS, so I can use all
my software without the pain of Micro$hit's continual tampering.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.



--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:45:37 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 09:42:39 -0400, John Ferrell
wrote:

Step 1 is to reduce to the minimum configuration and see if it fails.
Be certain to unplug whatever USB ports are not essential.

Assuming that it still fails, install a bigger power supply and test.
Every time this crashes it put your hard drive at risk for content
damage so get aggressive with quality compoent replacement.


On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:15:14 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

Windows Weirdness:

Win XP Pro

Suddenly started shutting down (like power switch was hit) when I was
inactive for more than about 15 minutes.

Checked power settings, they were proper for "desktop" use.

Left them alone, problem continued.

Went back and checked power settings, but this time clicked OK.

Problem has ceased (for now :-)

Anyone experienced this?

...Jim Thompson
John Ferrell W8CCW

How about the BIOS battery? This machine is quite old.

...Jim Thompson

Looks like another NAV attack... ccSvcHst.exe using 100% of CPU :-(

Is there some genetic defect that causes all software authors to
"improve" themselves into a ****-hole ?:-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.

Jim Thompson wrote:

Looks like another NAV attack... ccSvcHst.exe using 100% of CPU :-(

Is there some genetic defect that causes all software authors to
"improve" themselves into a ****-hole ?:-)


I don't know if this helps or not:

http://www.ehow.com/about_5316341_ccsvchstexe.html

I quit using their software years ago. They refused to honour a rebate
offer on one of their packages. It was something like forty dollars. A
dozen emails to their head office did NOTHING.

I hate them.


mike

flipper wrote:
Just right click on the drive, select properties, go to the tools tab
and "check now." Check both boxes and push START. It'll complain the
disk is in use and ask if you want to schedule a scan for the next
reboot. Say yes and reboot.

It'll take quite a while depending on drive size and speed of the
machine.

Don't check the second box. It'll take hours to do nothing. For the
physical test, just run Everest free version, or smartmontools, which will
read out the SMART statistics on the drive.


--

Reply in group, but if emailing add one more
zero, and remove the last word.

Jim Thompson wrote:
On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:32:27 -0500, flipper wrote:
No but just as a precaution I'd suggest doing a full disk scan.

Which tool is safest?

Use chkdsk like he said, but without the 'detect bad sectors' option, and
also use Everest free version or smartmontools. The drive detects bad
sectors itself, and those tools display the SMART stats. Software like
chkdsk can't even see the bad sectors unless there are so many that SMART
can't reallocate them, in which case chkdsk can't do anything except take a
very long time to scan it.


--

Reply in group, but if emailing add one more
zero, and remove the last word.

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:02:52 -0500, flipper wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:17:11 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:45:37 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 09:42:39 -0400, John Ferrell
wrote:

Step 1 is to reduce to the minimum configuration and see if it fails.
Be certain to unplug whatever USB ports are not essential.

Assuming that it still fails, install a bigger power supply and test.
Every time this crashes it put your hard drive at risk for content
damage so get aggressive with quality compoent replacement.


On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:15:14 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

Windows Weirdness:

Win XP Pro

Suddenly started shutting down (like power switch was hit) when I was
inactive for more than about 15 minutes.

Checked power settings, they were proper for "desktop" use.

Left them alone, problem continued.

Went back and checked power settings, but this time clicked OK.

Problem has ceased (for now :-)

Anyone experienced this?

...Jim Thompson
John Ferrell W8CCW

How about the BIOS battery? This machine is quite old.

...Jim Thompson

Looks like another NAV attack... ccSvcHst.exe using 100% of CPU :-(

Is there some genetic defect that causes all software authors to
"improve" themselves into a ****-hole ?:-)

I dunno but if it's genetic then Symantec must be doing DNA scans of
prospective programmers to ensure they have it because their products
have become progressively more '**** hole' for half a decade.

And their general 'fix' is uninstall and reinstall, except the
uninstall rarely does so they then have to invent separate 'removal'
tools which often require uninstalling all Symantec products and
reinstalling.

I permanently solved the problem by skipping the reinstall step.


...Jim Thompson

Yep, I ponder if there's a need for any virus protection at all... I
have a hardware firewall that passes "Shields Up" 100%.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.

On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 10:45:01 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
wrote:


flipper wrote:
Just right click on the drive, select properties, go to the tools tab
and "check now." Check both boxes and push START. It'll complain the
disk is in use and ask if you want to schedule a scan for the next
reboot. Say yes and reboot.

It'll take quite a while depending on drive size and speed of the
machine.

Don't check the second box. It'll take hours to do nothing. For the
physical test, just run Everest free version, or smartmontools, which will
read out the SMART statistics on the drive.

Tom, Thanks for your suggestions!

Check out...

http://www.analog-innovations.com/SE...ScreenShot.jpg

I'm guessing -12V and -5V don't exist on my motherboard, so the
monitor reads "float" ??

That 0.35V VBAT concerns me!

What should I be looking for in the Drive section?

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.

On Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:02:26 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 10:45:01 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
wrote:


flipper wrote:
Just right click on the drive, select properties, go to the tools tab
and "check now." Check both boxes and push START. It'll complain the
disk is in use and ask if you want to schedule a scan for the next
reboot. Say yes and reboot.

It'll take quite a while depending on drive size and speed of the
machine.

Don't check the second box. It'll take hours to do nothing. For the
physical test, just run Everest free version, or smartmontools, which will
read out the SMART statistics on the drive.

Tom, Thanks for your suggestions!

Check out...

http://www.analog-innovations.com/SE...ScreenShot.jpg

I'm guessing -12V and -5V don't exist on my motherboard, so the
monitor reads "float" ??

That 0.35V VBAT concerns me!

What should I be looking for in the Drive section?

...Jim Thompson

Further perusal suggest "VBAT" would be if this were a laptop with
battery... other sections say "No Battery Installed".

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.

On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:15:14 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

Windows Weirdness:

Win XP Pro

Suddenly started shutting down (like power switch was hit) when I was
inactive for more than about 15 minutes.

Checked power settings, they were proper for "desktop" use.

Left them alone, problem continued.

Went back and checked power settings, but this time clicked OK.

Problem has ceased (for now :-)

Anyone experienced this?

...Jim Thompson

Real Problem found... Thanks to Tom Del Rosso

Just quit again... reboot, Everest reports HOT CPU... looks like an
intermittent fan :-(

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.

Jim Thompson wrote:

Tom, Thanks for your suggestions!

You're welcome.


Check out...

http://www.analog-innovations.com/SE...ScreenShot.jpg

I'm guessing -12V and -5V don't exist on my motherboard, so the
monitor reads "float" ??

Mine doesn't show those values at all. It must depend on the chipset.


That 0.35V VBAT concerns me!

Mine shows 3.12V so I think it's the watch battery.


What should I be looking for in the Drive section?

Under storage / SMART.

Reallocated sector count
Reallocated event count

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T. especially the critical (red)
parts.

Also, the Read Error Rate is an amalgam of the total reads and failed reads,
so you have to split the number and turn it into a ratio. Where to divide
the number depends on manufacturer!


--

Reply in group, but if emailing add one more
zero, and remove the last word.

Jim Thompson wrote:

Tom, Thanks for your suggestions!

Also, one of the first things to do is always to look at the event log.


--

Reply in group, but if emailing add one more
zero, and remove the last word.

On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 14:22:12 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
wrote:


Jim Thompson wrote:

Tom, Thanks for your suggestions!

You're welcome.


Check out...

http://www.analog-innovations.com/SE...ScreenShot.jpg

I'm guessing -12V and -5V don't exist on my motherboard, so the
monitor reads "float" ??

Mine doesn't show those values at all. It must depend on the chipset.


That 0.35V VBAT concerns me!

Mine shows 3.12V so I think it's the watch battery.


What should I be looking for in the Drive section?

Under storage / SMART.

Reallocated sector count
Reallocated event count

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T. especially the critical (red)
parts.

Also, the Read Error Rate is an amalgam of the total reads and failed reads,
so you have to split the number and turn it into a ratio. Where to divide
the number depends on manufacturer!

Everything is "normal" or "always passing", so the drive looks AOK.

I'm seeing some speed fluctuation in the CPU fan, so I'll open 'er up
this weekend and see what's there. This is on my "communications"
machine... E-mail, Newsgroups and web surfing only. My PSpice machine
is separate.

In all these years I can't recall replacing a watch battery. Anything
touchy to watch out for?

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.

On Fri, 02 Jul 2010 15:53:01 -0500, flipper wrote:

On Fri, 02 Jul 2010 07:53:53 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:02:52 -0500, flipper wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:17:11 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:45:37 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 09:42:39 -0400, John Ferrell
wrote:

Step 1 is to reduce to the minimum configuration and see if it fails.
Be certain to unplug whatever USB ports are not essential.

Assuming that it still fails, install a bigger power supply and test.
Every time this crashes it put your hard drive at risk for content
damage so get aggressive with quality compoent replacement.


On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:15:14 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

Windows Weirdness:

Win XP Pro

Suddenly started shutting down (like power switch was hit) when I was
inactive for more than about 15 minutes.

Checked power settings, they were proper for "desktop" use.

Left them alone, problem continued.

Went back and checked power settings, but this time clicked OK.

Problem has ceased (for now :-)

Anyone experienced this?

...Jim Thompson
John Ferrell W8CCW

How about the BIOS battery? This machine is quite old.

...Jim Thompson

Looks like another NAV attack... ccSvcHst.exe using 100% of CPU :-(

Is there some genetic defect that causes all software authors to
"improve" themselves into a ****-hole ?:-)

I dunno but if it's genetic then Symantec must be doing DNA scans of
prospective programmers to ensure they have it because their products
have become progressively more '**** hole' for half a decade.

And their general 'fix' is uninstall and reinstall, except the
uninstall rarely does so they then have to invent separate 'removal'
tools which often require uninstalling all Symantec products and
reinstalling.

I permanently solved the problem by skipping the reinstall step.


...Jim Thompson

Yep, I ponder if there's a need for any virus protection at all... I
have a hardware firewall that passes "Shields Up" 100%.

Oh I still have a virus scanner, just not Symantec.


...Jim Thompson

What do you use?

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.

In article ,
flipper wrote:

Don't check the second box. It'll take hours to do nothing. For the
physical test, just run Everest free version, or smartmontools, which will
read out the SMART statistics on the drive.

That depends on how old his hard drive is and which version of
'S.M.A.R.T.' it implements. In particular, whether it supports idle
scanning of sectors.

For what it's worth: I've seen a fair number of drives for which the
basic S.M.A.R.T. health readout came back immediately as "All is well"
(i.e. the statistics didn't show a problem), but any of the sector
scans would show a failure almost immediately.

I've seen other drives which had a serious internal failure (as
confirmed after tests by the manufacturer) which passed all of the
S.M.A.R.T. tests, including the surface scans. Turns out there was a
type of write failure that the manufacturer had never considered, and
didn't have feeding into any of the S.M.A.R.T. statistics.

S.M.A.R.T. is useful but it's a long way from being the ultimate
drive-problem-detector.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 14:24:20 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
wrote:


Jim Thompson wrote:

Tom, Thanks for your suggestions!

Also, one of the first things to do is always to look at the event log.

Almost too embarrassed to tell what I think is happening.

I'm committed to partying until Monday, so I can't confirm until then
:-)

Watching the sensor outputs via Everest, I observe heavy CPU use
pushes CPU temperature up rapidly. At first I thought a bad fan, but
fan RPM's are bouncing around a bit but always between 2000 RPM and
2200 RPM.

So I think I'll find a CPU heat-sink fins filled with dust and cat fur
when I open up this box ;-)

What was happening _was_ Norton-induced... my idle time caused Norton
to go into idle-time-scan mode, pushing CPU up to 100%, and some kind
of thermal shutdown occurred.

Now that I've shut Norton down it's staying stable at a CPU
temperature of about 45°C... just like outside right now :-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.

Jim Thompson wrote:

Real Problem found... Thanks to Tom Del Rosso

By accident really. Reading the temperature isn't what I had in mind.


Just quit again... reboot, Everest reports HOT CPU... looks like an
intermittent fan :-(

Use Speedfan to monitor continuously. It can keep a selected measurement
visible in the tray. For my system the most touchy value is the temperature
in one of the drives, so I have that value always showing in the tray.


--

Reply in group, but if emailing add one more
zero, and remove the last word.

Jim Thompson wrote:

Everything is "normal" or "always passing", so the drive looks AOK.

The raw data sometimes tells you something.

BTW, the "value" is a score that goes down as the raw data gets worse. When
the value is less than the "threshold" it gets a failing grade. The initial
"value" is sometimes 100 or 200, but can be anything depending on which
parameter and the model of the drive.

Some have pointed out that SMART doesn't detect every bad sector, but I
wouldn't spend 6 hours waiting for chkdsk to test the drive unless I had a
good reason to think it would find something.


In all these years I can't recall replacing a watch battery. Anything
touchy to watch out for?

Don't short it.

Watch batteries must often get shorted when being changed. I guess they
have fairly high internal resistance.

You'll have to review and reset the BIOS settings of course.


--

Reply in group, but if emailing add one more
zero, and remove the last word.

flipper wrote:

That depends on how old his hard drive is and which version of
'S.M.A.R.T.' it implements. In particular, whether it supports idle
scanning of sectors.

If the error is in a sector that hasn't been used it wouldn't cause a
problem though. I know SMART isn't perfect, but chances are it will detect
a bad sector, and chances are an OS crash wasn't caused by a bad sector.


--

Reply in group, but if emailing add one more
zero, and remove the last word.

Jim Thompson wrote:

On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 14:22:12 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
wrote:


Jim Thompson wrote:

Tom, Thanks for your suggestions!

You're welcome.


Check out...

http://www.analog-innovations.com/SE...ScreenShot.jpg

I'm guessing -12V and -5V don't exist on my motherboard, so the
monitor reads "float" ??

Mine doesn't show those values at all. It must depend on the chipset.


That 0.35V VBAT concerns me!

Mine shows 3.12V so I think it's the watch battery.


What should I be looking for in the Drive section?

Under storage / SMART.

Reallocated sector count
Reallocated event count

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T. especially the critical (red)
parts.

Also, the Read Error Rate is an amalgam of the total reads and failed reads,
so you have to split the number and turn it into a ratio. Where to divide
the number depends on manufacturer!

Everything is "normal" or "always passing", so the drive looks AOK.

I'm seeing some speed fluctuation in the CPU fan, so I'll open 'er up
this weekend and see what's there. This is on my "communications"
machine... E-mail, Newsgroups and web surfing only. My PSpice machine
is separate.

In all these years I can't recall replacing a watch battery. Anything
touchy to watch out for?


Be careful not to break the battery holder. I replace a lot of bad
CR2032 coin cells in computers. Most holders have a clip at one spot to
hold the coin cell. You can test it with yor voltmeter. If it is
anything below 3 volts, replace it. Release the catch, and the coin
cell will pop out of most holders. Don't get fingerprints across the
insualtor, to assure maximum life of the cell.


--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:09:08 -0500, flipper wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:45:37 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 09:42:39 -0400, John Ferrell
wrote:

Step 1 is to reduce to the minimum configuration and see if it fails.
Be certain to unplug whatever USB ports are not essential.

Assuming that it still fails, install a bigger power supply and test.

John Ferrell W8CCW

What you described is inconsistent with a power supply problem because
you didn't say it 'crashed' but simply shut down, and at 'idle', I.E.
lowest load, to boot. Plus, it's unlikely a software setting would be
able to 'fix' it as you say it seems to have.

How about the BIOS battery? This machine is quite old.

A qualified unlikely. Symptoms of a low BIOS battery is usually time
stops running when power is off and/or a 'reset' to default values on
a cold boot because the settings were lost but you generally wouldn't
notice it for a while because, these days, standby power runs the CMOS
(and clock) as long as AC is present. You'd only notice it after a
house power failure or something else removing AC, like unplugging it
(or the rear hard switch) because you're working being inside the box.

The qualification is maybe you missed the defaults loaded notice and
the BIOS can generally be set for power off timing. They usually
default to no active power down timer but maybe yours is different.

I suggested a disk scan because data corruption can cause almost any
symptom and it's a good idea to periodically check anyway.

If you find the hard drive is beginning to pick up bad blocks you'd
probably be better off replacing it before a total failure.

...Jim Thompson

Unstable power can cause just about any symptom or fault.

John Ferrell W8CCW

On Sat, 3 Jul 2010 00:31:58 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
wrote:


Jim Thompson wrote:

Everything is "normal" or "always passing", so the drive looks AOK.

The raw data sometimes tells you something.

BTW, the "value" is a score that goes down as the raw data gets worse. When
the value is less than the "threshold" it gets a failing grade. The initial
"value" is sometimes 100 or 200, but can be anything depending on which
parameter and the model of the drive.

Some have pointed out that SMART doesn't detect every bad sector, but I
wouldn't spend 6 hours waiting for chkdsk to test the drive unless I had a
good reason to think it would find something.

I ran chkdsk overnight before I downloaded a copy of Everest. It was
clean also.

From the temperature readings I'm pretty sure it's crud... my machines
sit just inches off a carpeted floor, under my desk... plus the cat
loves the warmth in back :-)



In all these years I can't recall replacing a watch battery. Anything
touchy to watch out for?

Don't short it.

Watch batteries must often get shorted when being changed. I guess they
have fairly high internal resistance.

You'll have to review and reset the BIOS settings of course.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.

On Sat, 03 Jul 2010 15:10:38 -0500, flipper wrote:

On Sat, 03 Jul 2010 09:28:13 -0400, John Ferrell
wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:09:08 -0500, flipper wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:45:37 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 09:42:39 -0400, John Ferrell
wrote:

Step 1 is to reduce to the minimum configuration and see if it fails.
Be certain to unplug whatever USB ports are not essential.

Assuming that it still fails, install a bigger power supply and test.

John Ferrell W8CCW

What you described is inconsistent with a power supply problem because
you didn't say it 'crashed' but simply shut down, and at 'idle', I.E.
lowest load, to boot. Plus, it's unlikely a software setting would be
able to 'fix' it as you say it seems to have.

How about the BIOS battery? This machine is quite old.

A qualified unlikely. Symptoms of a low BIOS battery is usually time
stops running when power is off and/or a 'reset' to default values on
a cold boot because the settings were lost but you generally wouldn't
notice it for a while because, these days, standby power runs the CMOS
(and clock) as long as AC is present. You'd only notice it after a
house power failure or something else removing AC, like unplugging it
(or the rear hard switch) because you're working being inside the box.

The qualification is maybe you missed the defaults loaded notice and
the BIOS can generally be set for power off timing. They usually
default to no active power down timer but maybe yours is different.

I suggested a disk scan because data corruption can cause almost any
symptom and it's a good idea to periodically check anyway.

If you find the hard drive is beginning to pick up bad blocks you'd
probably be better off replacing it before a total failure.

...Jim Thompson

Unstable power can cause just about any symptom or fault.

Possibly but unstable power generally causes more problems that just
an idle shutdown, which is why I said "inconsistent" and not
"impossible."

On the other hand, his description of "idle" turned out to not really
be processor idle because Norton was deciding to run.


John Ferrell W8CCW

Yep, I was "idle", noticed the temperature climb, called up Task
Manager, there was NAV at 100%, problem solved :-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.

On Sat, 03 Jul 2010 15:28:44 -0500, flipper wrote:

On Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:19:03 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 14:24:20 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
wrote:


Jim Thompson wrote:

Tom, Thanks for your suggestions!

Also, one of the first things to do is always to look at the event log.

Almost too embarrassed to tell what I think is happening.

I'm committed to partying until Monday, so I can't confirm until then
:-)

Watching the sensor outputs via Everest, I observe heavy CPU use
pushes CPU temperature up rapidly. At first I thought a bad fan, but
fan RPM's are bouncing around a bit but always between 2000 RPM and
2200 RPM.

So I think I'll find a CPU heat-sink fins filled with dust and cat fur
when I open up this box ;-)

What was happening _was_ Norton-induced... my idle time caused Norton
to go into idle-time-scan mode, pushing CPU up to 100%, and some kind
of thermal shutdown occurred.

That's the most likely diagnosis yet. It's entirely plausible and
explains just about everything, except for why the symptom seemed to
go away when you reset the power settings but that could be explained
as coincidence with Norton's scheduling of when it needed to run.

Yep. Just a coincidence to confuse things ;-)


We do tend to forget about the lowly heatsinks and fans but they can
and do get clogged, especially with pets around. I've opened systems
up to find the interior looking like the insides of a vacuum cleaner
bag.

One of these days I want to redo my office with wood flooring... that
helps quite a bit.

Of course my oldest son chides me to have rack-mounted PC's inside an
filtered air containment, as he does ;-)


Now that I've shut Norton down it's staying stable at a CPU
temperature of about 45°C... just like outside right now :-)

Useful utilities for monitoring temperatures and fan speeds are
speedfan and motherboard monitor.



...Jim Thompson

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:41:20 -0600, m II wrote:

mick wrote:

WINE stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator. It's actually a windows-like
API that converts calls from windows programs into calls to Linux. It
looks like Windows to the program, so well-behaved programs run ok.
Programs that use undocumented calls and "features" have problems!



I found a helper script for Wine. It installs a lot more real Windows
components. Load the following page. Then select All and copy. Paste
into a word processor to save it as a normal Ascii file on your drive.
Set the properties on the file to make it executable from the command
line shell. Run it by doing a ./winestuff in the same directory you
stored it in.


http://scotiabunk.com/winestuff


There is information at the start of the script that should be looked at
before running. This script helped to get some Windows programs working
but is by no means magic.

I am not responsible if your computer has a meltdown. It is not my
script. It has worked for me and has not caused any problems.

A web search is recommended. You may turn up a newer version, I don't
know.



Cheers for that, mike. I might just give it a try.

--
Mick (Working in a M$-free zone!)
Web: http://www.nascom.info
Filtering everything posted from googlegroups to kill spam.

mick wrote:

Cheers for that, mike. I might just give it a try.


This may be of interest. I don't know how well it works but I'll try
it tonight.

http://dlc.sun.com/virtualbox/vboxdownload.html





mike

Jim Thompson wrote:

I ran chkdsk overnight before I downloaded a copy of Everest. It was
clean also.

Also, chkdsk is not so great at finding physical errors because it seems to
slow down on bad areas but sometimes still gives them a passing grade. So
it allows retries.


--

Reply in group, but if emailing add one more
zero, and remove the last word.

On Sat, 03 Jul 2010 19:25:36 -0500, flipper wrote:

On Sat, 03 Jul 2010 13:45:34 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

On Sat, 03 Jul 2010 15:28:44 -0500, flipper wrote:

On Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:19:03 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

[snip]

What was happening _was_ Norton-induced... my idle time caused Norton
to go into idle-time-scan mode, pushing CPU up to 100%, and some kind
of thermal shutdown occurred.

That's the most likely diagnosis yet. It's entirely plausible and
explains just about everything, except for why the symptom seemed to
go away when you reset the power settings but that could be explained
as coincidence with Norton's scheduling of when it needed to run.

Yep. Just a coincidence to confuse things ;-)

Don't you just love it when they do that?

Yep. BTDT so many times :-)

[snip]


Of course my oldest son chides me to have rack-mounted PC's inside an
filtered air containment, as he does ;-)

Well, if it's real time mission critical I might agree but that seems
a bit obsessive for a home PC.

It _is_ his _home_PC_, BUT he works from home... he's the chief
software guru for the largest call center company in the world...
sorry about that :-(

[snip]

[snip]

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Obama: A reincarnation of Nixon, narcissistically posing in
politically-correct black-face, but with fewer scruples.