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Miscellaneous Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: MMiller8 on 2001-11-24 01:50:00

Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: MMiller8 on 2001-11-24 01:50:00
     There are a couple of things that i'm pondering now as I sit on my little rock, prodding my head and chanting "think... think... think...".  Will it hurt my computer to be on for about 7 days straight?  Because it has been.  And moreover;  bunnies.  What's up with them?  These are the little things that plague my mind.  Speaking of plague, I learned today that the bubonic one was started by pests.  I learned it from As Told By Ginger, a nickelodeon cartoon.  Imagine!  Is shocked me quite a bit; it was almost like the shock that I would get is someone told me that Germany was involved with WWII.  Anyway, i'm hungry now, and as Cole Richards would say, 'If you're hungry during thanksgiving, the terrorists have already won."  I gotta go get some pie.  And turn off my computer, bless him. :laugh:<---not laughing.  There wasn't a smiley for "talking too %$^# much, so I had to go with what I had.  It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world!
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: J*** H******* on 2001-11-24 02:16:00
Message!
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: eerrrr on 2001-11-24 14:24:00
Wow, a year? I thought something in the PC would've overheated and melted or something if you left it running for a month. Hmm, the longest I've ever had my PC on for was nearly 24 hours.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: ficedula on 2001-11-24 14:58:00
Why should it? If the computer runs at a reasonable temperature normally, there's no reason it shouldn't carry on doing so. Server's are only computers, after all, and they (try) to stay up permanently.

Jari's also right in that turning a PC on/off constantly causes more damage to the components than leaving it on. Obviously it depends - leaving it on all year is worse than having it on once or twice a month - but if you're going to use your computer within a few hours, you're better leaving it on than powering it down then back up again later.

Essentially its (partly) due to thermal expansion damage; certain PC components (CPU especially, but others too) run *very* hot internally, and it damages them to be constantly heating up, cooling down, heating up... a constant temperature is safer so long as it isn't a HIGH constant temp! It's like with light bulbs: they almost always go when you turn them on.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: J*** H******* on 2001-11-24 15:02:00
Message!
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Darkness on 2001-11-24 19:14:00
my computer is on 24/7 (minus crashes, of course) ive never fried anything in the computer.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: dagsverre on 2001-11-24 22:33:00
Mandatory comment: Oh, and if you are running any products by Microsoft you might experience a certain unstableness after some time and have to reboot anyway...

(The hardware should be ok though).
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: ficedula on 2001-11-24 23:51:00
Mandatory comment: Oh, and if you are trying to run any Linux products, you may experience a certain mental unstableness after some time and have to give up for a while in frustration...
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Sephiroth 3D on 2001-11-25 11:20:00
Mandatory comment: Oh, and... What was I going to say? :wink:

My system gets up with me in the morning and runs until sleep pulls me to my bed. Unless I'm downloading big things, which it will run 'till morning, then I'll shut it off for about a hour or so...

I shut my system down to keep the memory clean. Actually, my system is pretty damn stable considering I'm on a Celeron 300A overclocked to 450 running Win2k with 256megs of RAM. I've only had a the BSOD 3 or 4 times, and that was within a week of each other when I was seeing if my old hardware would work in 2k.

Sephiroth 3D

"I don't understand..." "You don't have to understand." - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Sephiroth 3D.com (http://www.sephiroth3d.com)
[email protected]
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Jedimark on 2001-11-25 12:08:00
When I was on Works Experience at out local newpaper company the computer I was working on had not been shut down in 3 months!
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: MMiller8 on 2001-11-25 16:05:00
Linux shall be stable until you try to run a program on it.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Aaron on 2001-11-25 21:32:00
I almost NEVER have any stability problems on any of my computers (all currently running Windows 98).  I just have all the Windows Updates (http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/) (I dunno if they help with stability?) and this nifty program called "MaxMem" which makes sure that you don't run out of RAM (most often, when your comp is on, all your RAM is used up and it spills over into your swap file, slowing things down -- this only happens because Windows doesn't always free up your RAM when its not in use).  My computer has been on and in use for days at a time with no crash.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Joey on 2001-11-26 02:20:00
That day, That day
What a mess what a marvel
I walked into that cloud again
And I lost myself
And I'm sad, sad, sad
Small, alone, scared
Craving purity
A fragile mind and a gentle spirit

my computer crashes. :sad: You guys make me jealous!!!
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Sukaeto on 2001-11-26 03:30:00
My computer is very stable.  Especially now, with my new EPoX motherboard.  I rarely ever get any crashes (well, Soldier of Fortune has been crashing lately, but I think that's because Win2K got messed up when I installed my new mobo, and all I did was re-install it instead of doing a fresh install.  This problem SHOULD go away as soon as I get my new hard drive, and am forced to start over.)
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Aaron on 2001-11-26 21:57:00
Oh yeah... my computer (Win 98) almost ALWAYS crashes at shut down on the screen "Please wait while your computer shuts down..." or whatever it says.  Dunno why, but it doesn't seem to do any harm, except it doesn't automatically turn off.  I've seen other comps to this too..... annoying.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Sukaeto on 2001-11-28 02:27:00
There is a patch to fix that shutdown problem (if you have Win98 Second Edition)

Sometimes it just makes things worse, though.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Aaron on 2001-11-28 03:15:00
Yeah i have the patch.

Sometimes, it shuts down right... sometimes not.  Dunno, think its my board.  Maybe I should update the BIOS...?
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Darkness on 2001-11-28 03:57:00
where would i find this patch?
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Goku7 on 2001-11-28 04:51:00
Try this:

From the run dialog box, type "msconfig".  A new box should appear with different windows options and stuff.  If there's a box that says something like "enable fast shutdown", disable it.  The fast shutdown option makes windows literally pull the rug out from other programs when it shuts down, whether they're ready or not, causing crashes.

Hope that works.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Sephiroth 3D on 2001-11-28 06:05:00
Wow... Really? Cool... I guess you really DO learn something new every day...

Sephiroth 3D

"I don't understand..." "You don't have to understand." - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Sephiroth 3D.com (http://www.sephiroth3d.com)
[email protected]
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Aaron on 2001-11-28 19:19:00
Darkness: I believe the patch to fix the shutdown is available at Windows Update (windowsupdate.microsoft.com)

I'll try disabling Fast Shutdown.  I got the newest BIOS image for my board (claims to fix hang problems with a SoundBlaster PCI card... which is what I have) but haven't updated it yet.

I wish they'd update my BIOS so that the Windows XP installer didn't crash at "Installing Network" :razz:  E-mailed them about this.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Darkness on 2001-11-28 21:29:00
alright. sounds good. ill try it all.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Goku7 on 2001-11-29 01:41:00
Whoa!

I just looked through options given by the "msconfig" command (by the way, the "Fast Shutdown" option should appear when you click the "advanced..." button), and I saw something that may be of interest to you programmers and power users.  There's an option to limit how of the system's RAM that windows can use.  Now, I don't know if that means it limits how much RAM the kernel itself uses or if the limit applies to ALL the programs running under windows.

I found this out when I did the right-click "what's this" thingie on the option.

-edit-

Oh yeah -- One more important warning:
The "Enable Pentium F0 (Lock CmpXchg) workaround" option will (amazingly) cause a BSOD when you tried to play a MIDI file using XG hardware, and maybe the SoftSynth.

Strange, isn't it?
[edited] 239 2001-11-29 02:46
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Darkness on 2001-11-29 03:04:00
well big surprise, everything in windows causes the BSOD
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Aaron on 2001-11-29 03:05:00
Am I blind?  I can't seem to find the fast shutdown enable/disable option.

http://www.vanguard.org/students/wpd2/KelleyAaron/!stuff/2001_11_28_msconfig.jpg
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Darkness on 2001-11-29 03:14:00
i dont see it either
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Goku7 on 2001-11-29 04:07:00
Well, I'm running Win98SE, and it's there.

Maybe they either moved or got rid of it in later versions?

Search all the tabs carefully, if you haven't done so already.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Darkness on 2001-11-29 22:43:00
wait wait wait. so youre saying that they have it in the latest version of windows 98, but not in the latest versions of windows 98. :grin:
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Goku7 on 2001-11-30 00:05:00
Sorry.

I meant maybe it's not there in win2k, ME, or XP.  My mistake.

(looks at the url Aaron posted in the earlier message)

Vanguard?  As in Vanguard College?  One of their choirs just came to our school (Riverside Chrisitian) for a chapel performance yesterday.  What a coincidence.

Anyway, do you know anyone by the name of Dirk Dallas, by any chance?  I heard he went there after graduating last year.  I knew him personally.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: ficedula on 2001-11-30 00:20:00
Well, it's definiely there under my version of Win98...

http://hal2k.no-ip.com:9880/ficedula/adv.png

Which version of Win98 are you running? (Look in System Properties).
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Aaron on 2001-11-30 01:05:00
Goku:  Nope, not Vanguard college... I go to Vanguard High School (in Texas).  Vanguard college is vanguard.edu.

Fice:  I'm running Windows 98, Second Edition, 4.10.2222 A  Is yours newer?

Strangest thing just happened... it came up with "Explorer has caused an illegal operation and must be shut down" but all Explorer windows and IE windows work fine... odd?  I moved the box to the corner and am ignoring it (I hate quitting Explorer like that, it screws up my system tray).
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Darkness on 2001-11-30 01:42:00
hehe im running the first edition
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: ficedula on 2001-11-30 11:42:00
Aaron: Actually, I think mine's older ... 4.10.1998, probably one of the initial releases.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Sephiroth 3D on 2001-12-01 21:40:00
Hmmm... I can't seem to run it on my copy of Win2k... I get a "Cannot find the file 'MSconfig'. (Or one of it's components.) Please check your path and filename again."

Oh well...

Sephiroth 3D

"I don't understand..." "You don't have to understand." - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Sephiroth 3D.com (http://www.sephiroth3d.com)
[email protected]

*Edit: Forgot sig
[edited] 135 2001-12-01 22:41
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Aaron on 2001-12-02 01:33:00
Yeah, msconfig was not included in Windows 2000, I don't think.  Windows XP has it though.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: M0T on 2001-12-02 17:25:00
I had the cannot find MSconfig when I tried it in my copy of WINXP pro, but my copy of home has it in. weird
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Darkness on 2001-12-02 21:13:00
look around in you windows/ or windows/system/ directory (or the equivalent in XP). i bet youll find something.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Aaron on 2001-12-03 02:46:00
Well, the Windows XP Pro I have (build 2600) has it.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: BDA7DD on 2001-12-03 03:25:00
(http://zanyvg.overclocked.org/streetfighteralpha3/sfa3yahoo.gif)
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Sephiroth 3D on 2001-12-03 22:22:00
 :eek: What the...??

What's that from ID?

Sephiroth 3D

"I don't understand..." "You don't have to understand." - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Sephiroth 3D.com (http://www.sephiroth3d.com)
[email protected]
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Darkness on 2001-12-03 22:23:00
i cant tell if that was an "i found it" or "i like useless spam"
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Aaron on 2001-12-03 22:26:00
Oh yeah, Fice, about a while back up...

Anyway you could send me your msconfig.exe?  I wonder if I would get the fast shutdown option then?  Its like 60k and its in c:windowssystem

[email protected]
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Darkness on 2001-12-03 22:31:00
i think it requires some dlls, too.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: ficedula on 2001-12-03 23:37:00
Well, whatever...
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: BDA7DD on 2001-12-03 23:38:00
Quote

On 2001-12-03 18:23, Darkness wrote:
i cant tell if that was an "i found it" or "i like useless spam"


I'm just acting crazy like the thread starter is. I hadn't read the other pages before I posted it, so I hadn't known that the topic got derailed into technical issues. My apologies.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Darkness on 2001-12-04 01:36:00
... i dont get it :sad:
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Sephiroth 3D on 2001-12-05 22:09:00
Dark: He opened up, didn't read anything, and simply posted something to throw some chaos at us.

It's actually quite simple...

Sephiroth 3D

"I don't understand..." "You don't have to understand." - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Sephiroth 3D.com (http://www.sephiroth3d.com)
[email protected]
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Darkness on 2001-12-05 22:17:00
but it was technical by the 3rd post...... that would suggest that he only read the title...
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Aaron on 2001-12-06 02:32:00
Oh well.  Back on topic:

Fice, thanks, your msconfig.exe gives me the option to disable Fast Shutdown.  It works too.  Cool, cool.

I might try to get a WinME msconfig.exe though b/c it lets you tell Wndows what VXD's and Enviornment stuff to load as well as everything else.
Title: Curiosity... did it kill the cat, or is the cat just faking
Post by: Darkness on 2001-12-06 03:31:00
hey fice, would ya mind sending me that?  :smile: