something is wrong with my linux box – my main computer is offline, and i don’t know why!
i’ve noticed over the past few days that, when i run any one of the seven HTML browsers that are on it, that the HTML browser crashes intermittently, and occasionally the whole computer freezes up and has to be rebooted. i know that the 7.1 upgrade for feisty fawn is due out on friday, so i’ve been biting the bullet and not running a HTML browser on that machine except when i absolutely have to, and then shutting it down politely when i’m finished with it. i had also noticed that, occasionally, the power supply doesn’t completely turn off when i turn off the power switch, but continues running for a half-second or so before it turns off. then, yesterday, i did something on the web and the whole computer froze up, and when i tried to reboot it, there wasn’t even the “BEEP” sound to indicate that the POST had completed successfully.
so, i took everything apart, which meant totaly tearing apart my office, and plugged it directly into the monitor, to see if something was wrong with the KVM switch (i have three computers, but only one monitor), but it’s not that, because the KVM switch works perfectly well with my windoesn’t box and my mac, and the linux box doesn’t work, even when it is plugged directly into the monitor…
so, now, i have the linux box completely separated from the rest of the computer systems, and i don’t know what to do. i don’t have ANY money, so taking it somewhere is out of the question, and even if it was, i don’t have ANY money to buy new parts, no matter how inexpensive they are. also, my schedule is on the linux box, and, apart from an appointment with ned at 3:00 today – for which i have a paper reminder separate from my schedule – i have no clue what rehearsals are when. i think i have a trolloween rehearsal on sunday, and i think i have a banda gozona rehearsal on the 25th, but beyond that, i’m totally lost.
it doesn’t make a sound. the fan turns on, and i can hear the squirrels running around, but there’s no beeps or anything… just darkness and silence…
which does sound a lot like a power supply problem, now that you mention it…
i’m going to have to wait until that check from australia clears before i can do anything about it, though…
Hrm. That is weird. But if it’s not actually getting even to POST, then it sounds like the problem is somewhere in either power or the motherboard. Do you get any beep codes when you try to turn it on, or does it just refuse?
if it is the power supply, it would be strange, because the power supply and the mother board are the two newest components in the system: they were both bought brand new when i was building the machine to begin with, five or six years ago. i put the whole thing together with an old power supply that didn’t generate enough wattage to get the whole thing going, so i bought a new one that did, and that’s the one that is in there now. admittedly, it’s five years old or so, but the rest of the components are significantly older than that: some (like the floppy, zip and hard disk drives) are verging on 10 years old…
and if it is just the power supply, i still don’t have any money to buy a new one… 8/
Can’t really help you much, other than to suggest that perhaps it is the power supply that is at fault, and has died/is dying. If you have a spare somewhere that can take that computer’s draw, swap and see if things work. Power supply deaths are a pain in the ass. But if that’s it, and the dying supply didn’t damage other components in its swan song, that’s probably all you’d need to switch.