Author Topic: That didn't take long (Read 1771 times)

Gary_C · « **on:** April 26, 2009, 05:12:59 pm »

This morning we were having our first thunderstorm of the spring and I was checking out who was drafted in the NFL meat market. There was a loud bang right near the house and my computer froze instantly. Could not get anything to work. Eventually pulled the plug to reset and all it will do now is make a clicking sound. The computer is toast.

I do have an APC battery backup and surge protector that all inputs go thru but still aparently no protection.

I sent APC an e-mail and they will get back to me next business day. But even if they cover it, that is many many days of work resurecting my old programs and files. I do have an external hard disc for backup, but of course it has not been hooked up for months. So I may loose months of accounting data, perhaps all of last years, recent pictures, etc.

So just a reminder, it's thunderstorm time again. Make sure all your backups are up to date and you know where all your program discs are located. Don't make my mistake.

Oh how I hate these laptops with their little keyboards.

Norm · « **Reply #1 on:** April 26, 2009, 05:24:17 pm »

Gary if you want to send me the hard drive I'll have Joel recover the data from it for you. If the clicking sound has a pattern it may be telling you what's wrong with the pc.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #2 on:** April 26, 2009, 05:31:31 pm »

We had a thunderstorm in the middle of February that fried my external modem. It came, BOOM!!, out of nowhere. I could here a hmmmzzzz.

Gary_C · « **Reply #3 on:** April 26, 2009, 05:37:20 pm »

Thanks Norm. I might take you up on that. The computer is older and needed updating anyway but I just hate losing the data, programs, and time to reload.

I will see how APC responds tomorrow and let you know.

Warbird · « **Reply #4 on:** April 26, 2009, 05:56:05 pm »

Clicky noises might mean the hard drive is toast. Good luck.

Dan_Shade · « **Reply #5 on:** April 26, 2009, 05:57:48 pm »

i had lightning strike a tree outside last june. toasted the video card, and the motherboard, and took out all the plugged in televisions.... my hard drive lived through the bang, hopefully yours did too...

DanG · « **Reply #6 on:** April 26, 2009, 06:24:42 pm »

OUCH! Sorry to hear that Gary! Hope you can recover your data.

One thing I learned from all those years with the phone company is that there is no defense from lightning. We get storms year-round down here, and I unplug mine from the power and the phone line at the first rumbling sounds in the distance. I've still lost 2 computers by surprise attacks though.

Ron Wenrich · « **Reply #7 on:** April 27, 2009, 05:48:22 am »

I had that happen a number of years ago. I found out that my homeowner's insurance had it covered.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #8 on:** April 27, 2009, 06:04:26 am »

My home owner's insurance has a deductible. Depending on that, the insurance may not be worth beans.

dewwood · « **Reply #9 on:** April 27, 2009, 09:01:14 am »

Gary,

I have an APC backup and had a similar strike a few years ago. I had to send the unit in to APC and they replaced like a diode or breaker which goes first to protect everything else. It protected everything plugged into it so it did its job. Have you tried plugging the computer into a different power source to see if it will work? Hope you are protected and have not lost everything that is very time consuming.

Norm · « **Reply #10 on:** April 27, 2009, 09:26:27 am »

Hopefully it's not the hard drive head that crashed onto the disk. That's one of those things that's not easily recovered. Joel worked for a company that would recover data from drives that had been shot, burned and such for the three letter agencies. It was not the area he worked in but he knew the guys that did. They had some pretty good stories of what would show up.

Gary_C · « **Reply #11 on:** April 27, 2009, 12:32:19 pm »

Well APC has been right on the problem this morning with a couple of e-mails already. Sent all the info back and will wait to hear.

When I plug the HP computer in this morning it makes a series of beeps. I am going to take it to the local HP repair for a diagnosis of the problem. Maybe it's something simple, not.

Warbird · « **Reply #12 on:** April 27, 2009, 12:35:28 pm »

Yeah, if it is throwing beep codes at you, that means the memory or motherboard could be fried. If you are hardware savvy, you could try pulling the RAM out and booting it to see if the beep codes change or not. Did the hard drive still make clicking noises?

Gary_C · « **Reply #13 on:** April 27, 2009, 12:56:59 pm »

Nope, no noise other than those beeps. At this point all I'm worried about is the hard drive. That would be good if it could be pulled out and saved. I will take it in and at least see what's wrong.

mburrow · « **Reply #14 on:** April 27, 2009, 01:54:18 pm »

here is the beep codes I have for HP's

HP Multimedia PCs:
Continuous tone - Power supply defective
Many short beeps - Defective motherboard
1 Long - RAM refresh
1 Long, 1 Short - Defective motherboard or RAM-Basic
1 Long, 2 Short - Video Card error
1 Long, 3 Short - Error on EGA card
2 Long, 1 Short - Synchronization of monitor adapter
2 Short - Parity error (incorrect memory checksum)
3 Short - Errors in the first 64K of RAM
4 Short - Timer or counter defective
5 Short - Processor failure or Video RAM
6 Short - Error in keyboard Processor
7 Short - Virtual processor mode det (AT)
8 Short - Incorrect writing to Video RAM
9 Short - Wrong ROM BIOS checksum

Ianab · « **Reply #15 on:** April 27, 2009, 05:56:07 pm »

A UPS, even a good one like an APC will save you 9 times out of 10. But those Flash/Bang stikes right outside the house, or even hitting the house, chances are the UPS AND the PC fries.

The beeps may tell you exactly what section of the system board is fried, but in the end it doesn't really help unless it's just the RAM of a seperate video card. But in a lightning strike, the stray voltage has come through the system board to get to those bits.

There is a good chance the hard disk survived and can be plugged into another PC to recover files.

Depending on your insurance policy you should be able to claim, and as you cant buy old model PCs any more, you should get a shiney new one. Otherwise, well it was time to upgrade, at least the new one didn't get zapped.

Hope luck is on your side.

Ian

Gary_C · « **Reply #16 on:** April 30, 2009, 11:49:40 am »

Here is a good example of why I don't like dealing with these computer sales and service centers. It's an authorized HP reseller too.

I took the PC in to them and had to sign a paper authorizing 30 minutes ($70) of time to diagnose and let me know the full cost of repair. After two days of delays, I called and they basically told me it did not work and would cost $400 to fix, but the hard drive was OK. So I went ahead and ordered a replacement computer because the old one needed updating anyway.

Then he told me they could transfer over the data only from my old hard drive for $200 but I would have reload all my programs from discs. So I said then to just fix the old computer for $400 and I could just use it to store little used programs and save all the time and trouble of reloading all those programs. Then the repair cost of $400 went up to at least $700. So then I asked what is actually wrong with that old computer and he said he would have to go back and ask the tech.

So then I ask if my old hard drive could be just installed into the new computer and he said he didn't think it would be compatable because of operating systems differences. My old computer was running Windows 2000 and the new one is Vista with a downgrade to XP.

So why can't I just use that old hard drive on another computer? Would the programs on there not actually function and only the data would be useful?

Help!

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #17 on:** April 30, 2009, 12:15:34 pm »

Both 2000 and Vista use NTFS format on the hard drive, so I don't know what he was getting at. If you had Fat32 file system on that drive, you could still convert it to NTFS, but can't convert back to Fat32. I remember doing the conversion from ME to XP in the install, and being warned it was irreversible.

Some older programs may not function properly under Vista. I'm running Office 2000 under XP however.

DouginUtah · « **Reply #18 on:** April 30, 2009, 12:18:53 pm »

Gary,

Grab the computer and run!

There are many better options. For less than $300 you can buy a new computer (components) and just drop that HD into it.

PM me if you want details.

Warbird · « **Reply #19 on:** April 30, 2009, 05:10:35 pm »

Yeah... that doesn't sound good at all. Grab your computer, pay the first agreed upon price to evaluate it, and run.

Gary_C · « **Reply #20 on:** June 18, 2009, 07:16:31 pm »

Well I took Doug's advice, sent him a PM, and rebuilt that old computer. It was relatively simple and fairly inexpensive as compared to having the local computer shop recover my data.

Getting the system started was a little less than simple because of operating system trouble. On the old HP computer the Windows 2000 was preloaded and no discs provided. The new replacement HP computer had recovery discs but they would not recognize the older Win 2000 system as a HP computer. But finally today I was able to load a copy of XP Pro on a spare hard drive and then add that old hard drive as a slave and all my data is right there, the hard drive still works. It just is not bootable.

The problem is the copy of XP has no product key that works so I have 30 days and that system will not function. The solution for now, I am downloading a copy of the new Windows 7 Release Candidate. It will hopefully work till June 2010 and by then the new version will be released. I started the download and it said that it should take anywhere from 16 to 23 hours.

But I have all my data back. Now if I could just find all my old program discs or get that old hard drive to boot and all would be well.

That and if Microsoft does not want as much for the new Windows 7 as the computer fix cost. You don't get any break in price for testing the release candidate.

My thanks for all the good advice and help, especially from DouginUtah.

baronthered · « **Reply #21 on:** June 27, 2009, 03:09:27 pm »

Windows 7 is good I downloaded the beta too and am loving it. As far as formatting a NTSF drive back to Fat 32 it can be done it just takes some work. See micrisoft doesn't WANT people to be able to do stuff like that because Fat 32 system is old and to them obsolete. Sad thing is Microsoft takes away a bunch of things users should be able to do but they don't because they are old and according to them nobody should be able to do them now.

News:

Author Topic: That didn't take long (Read 1771 times)