Strange problems

[Shard92]

Has anyone else noticed an increase of system problems that can't be duplicated in the shop? Even if you've seen them happen onsite and bring the system back to the shop yourself? I have one now that is really weird, when typing in word perfect or AOL e-mail the start screen for the program in use shows up. The system itself is also having trouble starting in the field but none of these problems show up in the shop. Any clue? Thanks for any ideas. GLSmith

[BECO]

What is this system near,try moving it over a couple feet this may sound very dum but i have seen many systems moved a foot or two and it works perfect. It might be worth a shot. good luck

[WildTech]

Just a couple of thoughts here. Without seeing exactly what your talking about I might be off base, but heres what I would look at first. Its possible that the customers monitor, mouse, keyboard, or for that matter, speakers have some kind of a problem that is feeding back into the system. I had a customer recently that brought his machine in several times complaining of the same problem. Everytime it worked perfectly in the shop. The last time I had it for 3 days and used it to download drivers like it was my shop machine. It was flawless!! This guy was yanking his hair when I told him this, so I personally delivered and hooked his system back up and TA DA!, right away trouble. His monitor was dying and feeding back into his system. Now, when a customer brings in a system and I can't duplicate the problem, I ask them to bring in their other hardware. Hope this helps

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I'd rather be lucky than smart!!

[CyberTech]

I've had problems like this (intermittent lockups etc.) - some have been traced to bad power sources, or faulty/overloaded AC circuits. I've had clients plug the machine into a different power outlet or powerboard. This has fixed the problem on several occassions.

[shawnMt]

Actually I have 1 right now with that "onsite" problem. It's a brand new build w/98SE and when onsite it hardlocks while booting. It makes it to the desktop then freezes - no icons or anything - just desktop and hourglass.

Killed everything out of startup, msconfig, and runservices but no-go.
Booted with nothing connected except monitor - hardlock.

Bring it back to shop and it works like a champ! BTW it boots fine into safe mode onsite and in house.

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I ripped the head assembly out - it spins up fine now...

[Shard92]

Well with this last one it's not really near anything. I have another one though, that I did have try moving it a few feet but no luck. The problem system now though is plugged into an ups and I'm thinking mybe it's not working properly. I've had this ladies computer two days, scanning , diagnotic software, running the internet, and just general tinkering but not a single problem. Thanks for the ideas though guys.

GLSmith

[RGK01]

I had a customer would bring his computer back to the shop every other day. I would run it non-stop for 24 hours or longer and have no problems. He would take it home and it wouldn't boot. Finally when I asked if he had any electrical problems at home he said that he had to replace light bulbs every couple of days that they kept burning out!! Told him to get a small ups, solved his problems.

[Shard92]

I think that might work for one or two of my weird systems, but this last one already has a UPS!! We ran the machine for 4 days straight with no problems and we brought it back to her today so we'll see......

GLSmith

[fs1r]

I got a stranger one. The alphanumeric keys on the keyboards will freeze up at random times on random machines across our network. It occurs on both win 95 and 98 clients, with differing hardware and random users. The only common link between them all is the NT server that runs the network (90 machines). The exact same system and combination of machines is used in another 2 schools and they have never had this problem. Anyone think they can help? I'm willing to try anything - including an exorcism and/or witchcraft, to get this thing to go.

[The-Fro]

Just the alphanumerics, eh? Sounds to me like you're being played with. Find some good Netbus scanning tools and check out some of the computers that have been doing it. I know, because I've done this at my own school (only on my friends, of course). I'm not sure, but I bet it could be done with BackOrifice too.

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I can tell after the day I've had, it's gonna be one of THOSE milleniums.

[fs1r]

It happens at times when there are no other users online too. There is no connection to the outside world and we scanned the network for everything we can think of a week ago. It's only been happening since the server was shut down over the christmas break. When it was restarted for the new year there have been nothing but problems. Any ideas?