Crashed Ward Computer

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
drepouille
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Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2007 6:06 pm
Location: Plattsmouth, NE

#11

Post by drepouille »

rmrichesjr wrote:If there is reason to believe the RAM is actually bad, you can test the RAM on many/most PCs by running a program called memtest86. It's best to run memtest86 directly from the BIOS. While I imagine there are other places to get it, one place is to download a Mandriva Linux installation ISO, find another ISO image called "boot.iso" in the "images" directory inside the larger ISO. Burn "boot.iso" to a CD and boot from it. Select memtest86 from the menu and let it run for several hours.

I didn't understand when you said, "run memtest386 directly from the BIOS." Booting from a CD makes sense, though.

Many modern computers have hardware diagnostics built in. You just have to know which key(s) to press during the POST to start the diagnostics.

In my experience, if RAM is bad, Windows throws a lot of Blue Screens of Death (BSOD).

Dana
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ericb
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Joined: Fri Feb 23, 2007 8:51 am
Location: Vancouver USA

#12

Post by ericb »

krhellyer wrote:I'm definitely not a computer guru, but our Stake IT guy first told us that our Hard Drive had "crashed". Later, we were being told that our "mother board" was also toast and nothing was recoverable and the entire needed to be replaced. I don't know enough about computers to verify or doubt what I was told, so we just waited until we got a new computer.

If you had a 4-5 yr old Dell Optiplex, it sounds like we had a similar experience about a month ago. Something on the motherboard of our system apparently started to overheat, which initially gave the appearance the hard drive was going bad. Our bishop was the one that noticed a burning smell coming from the PC, and was wise enough to unplug it.

When they priced the cost of just replacing the m-board, it ended up being too expensive relative to the value of the PC (thank goodness :)). Using another computer, we were able to connect the old drives and get at needed files, though we did have a recent MLS backup -- it pays to do those often!
russellhltn
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#13

Post by russellhltn »

I wonder if that was the failing caps I noted about a year ago. Seems like there was a bad batch of GX270s. The main symptom is a sudden shutdown. On restart, it said it shut down due to a "thermal event".
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aprayzr
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Joined: Mon Nov 03, 2008 7:37 pm
Location: Pueblo, CO USA

Service Tag

#14

Post by aprayzr »

MorettiDP wrote:I have another hard problem related. I'm the STS in our stake and a strong rain killed the computer of one of our wards. Brazilian Dell Support can't help me because the machines are purchased in Brazil with a worldwide contract with Dell in USA and I can't know what is the corporate name the Church used to sign the contract with Dell. Without this name we can't request support to call a technician. Anyone in the Brazil Area ICS office are available to help me... and the ward returned to the old weekly donations form for this week.
There should be a Dell service tag on the machine. All you need with Dell is this service tag number. Nothing else should matter to them. If it is a GX270, it will be in the door in front where the USB connections are located. Otherwise, it will likely be on the back of the machine.
pete_arnett-p40
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Location: Sunny South Florida, USA

#15

Post by pete_arnett-p40 »

As Dana.Repouille wrote, please contact your local Facilities Management (FM) office and ask them to provide a replacement desktop because it is not cost effective to repair the desktop
:cool: Your Fellow Servant,
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MorettiDP
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Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:15 pm
Location: São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil

#16

Post by MorettiDP »

Of course, my FM Group office... in the warning of the things I can't remember these things are in the FM Group umbrella... Thank you all!
rmrichesjr
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#17

Post by rmrichesjr »

Dana.Repouille wrote:I didn't understand when you said, "run memtest386 directly from the BIOS." Booting from a CD makes sense, though.

Many modern computers have hardware diagnostics built in. You just have to know which key(s) to press during the POST to start the diagnostics.

In my experience, if RAM is bad, Windows throws a lot of Blue Screens of Death (BSOD).

Dana
By running memtest86 (no '3') directly from the BIOS, I meant that memtest86 should be the only thing loaded into RAM, rather than running memtest86 while an operating system is also loaded into RAM. That way, much more of the RAM can be tested. While most RAM defects would likely be detected by an operating system failing to run normally, I understand there can be subtle RAM defects that won't show up without serious testing.
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