Cursed computers
I have had more than my share of hardware problems. While I’m waiting for the electrician, or someone like him, to put a second circuit into my office, I’m having problems that defy the physics of electromagnetism.
Two days ago, my son’s computer crashed. The hard drive – about 1.5 years old, well within the MTBF for drives in our house – was making ugly, repetitive crunching sounds, as if it were doing sit ups, and Windows XP Home was refusing to boot because NTOSKRNL.EXE had gone all corrupt. The drive was so far gone that I couldn’t put a new copy of the file onto it. It wouldn’t even let me reformat it and reinstall Windows.
Three days ago, my father-in-law’s PC also bit the dust. The hard drive is fine, but Windows 2000 was refusing to boot because NTOSKRNL.EXE had gone all corrupt. I might have been able to copy that file onto it, but I didn’t have one with me, so I’m reinstalling Windows — it’s easy on his because he only runs one app: a browser.
Both machines are protected by Symantec AntiVirus. Both use RCN for broadband access. Other than that, they have different operating systems, different applications, different usage patterns. All they have in common is my aura.
Could be a virus, of course, although I haven’t found reports of one that eats that particular file. Apparently, this problem is sometimes caused by boot.ini crapping out. But why on both machines at the same time?
I should never have shot that guy in that graveyard that night.
The Head Lemur replies, via email since my comments are still down:
ck the harddrives. IBM 40GB made in Thailand have problems. The spindle bearings go bad resulting in the clicking of the armature hitting the surface, causing the disk to wobble, causing the armature to hit the surface, and so on. NTOSKRNL.EXE is one of the first files needed, sitting on the first track the computer accesses during boot. having the armature hitting the spot where it sits, makes this unrepairable. you can’t record data on a surface no longer there to recieve it. Maxtor drives suffer simular problems.
Categories: Uncategorized dw
http://www.apple.com
David…your problem might be keyboard related.
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win2000/r1074005625
Glad to see the Macintosh Mythologists are ever vigilant. This ludicrous, and patently false, refrain gets a bit tiresome.
About a year ago I went thru a series of electrical/computer traumas, losing four hard drives and a couple of motherboards. Some of the drives were IBM and no doubt suffered from the problems noted by the Head Lemur. But other problems weren’t so easily identified.
After about a month of research I settled on putting a ZeroSurge 2R15 line conditioner IN FRONT OF my APC BackUPS CS 500. My system is very similar to yours in terms of amp draw, except I have a 19″ CRT monitor and the addition of a LaserJet 1100 plugged in. So I don’t think your UPS is undersized.
I have had no failures since I adopted the dual line conditioning/UPS system. I also considered having a separate circuit put in, but the power coming in here from the utility isn’t all that good, so that wasn’t likely to help. And my electrician said my grounding was good as is.
I can’t say this will solve all your problems, but I found the extra $150 for the line conditioner to be well worth it. I’ll be running this combo on every critical piece of electronic/computer equip I own in the future.
Hope this helps.
— twf
Terry, thanks. Great info.
Since the ZeroSurge models seem to be specific to the particular amperage of the line, I think I’ll wait till our electrician upgrades my office to 20 amps.
I lost 5 network cards the same way.