computer hazzles
Jul. 29th, 2009 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacA couple days ago I accidentally dropped a small box on top of my computer case. This was a mistake. The machine whacked out of alignment, turning itself off without notice, turning itself on when I turned it off, and so on. This had happened once before, and I'd taken it in to the consultant who sold it to me. He'd fixed it and told me that something (I don't recall if he said what) had been loose inside.
So this time I opened up the case and looked around to see if anything looked loose. Nope. So I called the consultant up, and he told me it was the memory cards. They neither looked nor felt loose, but I gave them each a nudge, and it was fine.
Having had to unplug the computer to look at it, I plugged everything back in again, and soon found that my printer wouldn't work. I plugged it into various USB ports, and the screen messages assured me that my hardware was recognized each time, but any print jobs just went into a queue and stayed there.
More phone calls, aural shrug. Suggestion that I cancel the print jobs and start over, at which point I discovered that every time I'd re-plugged in the printer, the computer thought it was a new printer. I now had four phantom printer installations conflicting with each other. Uninstalled all but one, and all was fine.
This morning I discovered that the speakers are also not working. Probably for a similar reason, but if so I can't figure out what. In the process of fiddling around with that, I gently bumped my knee against the case. Whamo, the machine went back to its loose ways. Opened up the case twice to push on the memory cards before it fixed itself.
And this after months' worth of problems with DSL, apparently finally settled. Now I'm about to take the computer in for the consultant to look at it, so I may be offline for a while.
So this time I opened up the case and looked around to see if anything looked loose. Nope. So I called the consultant up, and he told me it was the memory cards. They neither looked nor felt loose, but I gave them each a nudge, and it was fine.
Having had to unplug the computer to look at it, I plugged everything back in again, and soon found that my printer wouldn't work. I plugged it into various USB ports, and the screen messages assured me that my hardware was recognized each time, but any print jobs just went into a queue and stayed there.
More phone calls, aural shrug. Suggestion that I cancel the print jobs and start over, at which point I discovered that every time I'd re-plugged in the printer, the computer thought it was a new printer. I now had four phantom printer installations conflicting with each other. Uninstalled all but one, and all was fine.
This morning I discovered that the speakers are also not working. Probably for a similar reason, but if so I can't figure out what. In the process of fiddling around with that, I gently bumped my knee against the case. Whamo, the machine went back to its loose ways. Opened up the case twice to push on the memory cards before it fixed itself.
And this after months' worth of problems with DSL, apparently finally settled. Now I'm about to take the computer in for the consultant to look at it, so I may be offline for a while.
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Date: 2009-07-29 09:41 pm (UTC)If it is the internal battery (as opposed to the main one), then you may have this problem again if you take too much time changing batteries. Presumably, you recharge, and should be fine.