Posted by: lectric
Windows 3.11 Weirdness - 13/07/2007 03:37
I know, I know, it's ancient. It's a computer that we use in the Clerk of Court to run plates and licenses with the state. It just 'works' so they have no interest in upgrading to the new version of the software that just blows.
Anyway, Last week I got a call the the state computer was broken, so I sent a tech to fix it. The computer no longer boots into windows at all. DOS is working fine. Four hours later he came and told me he gives up. I sent the second (more experienced) tech the next day. After a few hours HE tells me he gives up.
I am now out of techs to send so I go myself. I spend 20 minutes trying to remember how 3.11 works (God, how did we WORK like that?!) and start troubleshooting. It appears that win /n will boot with no problems all the way into windows. Of course, this is little help as the whole point of the computer is to use the frame to talk to the state. I adjust the pagefile. Nope. I check the video card. Nope. I disable crap that shouldn't have been in the autoexec in the first place. Nope. Start pulling cards and reseating them. The computer IS 15 years old, after all. No dice. If I leave the nic out completely it boots fine. Again, no help as I NEED the network and there is no chance I'm going to be able to find a new nic that works with 3.11.
At this point I start looking at the back of the machine to see if the nic is completely dead. Sure enough, no lights. On a whim, I decided to trace the cable back to the frame to make sure it wasn't something stupid not lighting the nic up. Guess what! The 10baseT hub it's plugged into is off. Odd... Oh wait. The cleaning crew must have kicked the wall wart out of the socket. I plug it in, and the nic lights up. All of a sudden the computer boots with no issues whatsoever, connects to the state, and I can look up my license. Un-freaking-believeable. I just spent 2 hours troubleshooting an unplugged hub.
I simply CANNOT believe that something so simple as an unplugged hub would cause windows to fail to boot! Was it really that bad in the early 90's? I honestly can't remember. Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. I surely can't tell anyone at city hall know we spent ~9 hours to diagnose an unplugged power cord, but I figured you all would feel my pain.
Anyway, Last week I got a call the the state computer was broken, so I sent a tech to fix it. The computer no longer boots into windows at all. DOS is working fine. Four hours later he came and told me he gives up. I sent the second (more experienced) tech the next day. After a few hours HE tells me he gives up.
I am now out of techs to send so I go myself. I spend 20 minutes trying to remember how 3.11 works (God, how did we WORK like that?!) and start troubleshooting. It appears that win /n will boot with no problems all the way into windows. Of course, this is little help as the whole point of the computer is to use the frame to talk to the state. I adjust the pagefile. Nope. I check the video card. Nope. I disable crap that shouldn't have been in the autoexec in the first place. Nope. Start pulling cards and reseating them. The computer IS 15 years old, after all. No dice. If I leave the nic out completely it boots fine. Again, no help as I NEED the network and there is no chance I'm going to be able to find a new nic that works with 3.11.
At this point I start looking at the back of the machine to see if the nic is completely dead. Sure enough, no lights. On a whim, I decided to trace the cable back to the frame to make sure it wasn't something stupid not lighting the nic up. Guess what! The 10baseT hub it's plugged into is off. Odd... Oh wait. The cleaning crew must have kicked the wall wart out of the socket. I plug it in, and the nic lights up. All of a sudden the computer boots with no issues whatsoever, connects to the state, and I can look up my license. Un-freaking-believeable. I just spent 2 hours troubleshooting an unplugged hub.
I simply CANNOT believe that something so simple as an unplugged hub would cause windows to fail to boot! Was it really that bad in the early 90's? I honestly can't remember. Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. I surely can't tell anyone at city hall know we spent ~9 hours to diagnose an unplugged power cord, but I figured you all would feel my pain.
I used to keep a health stock of PSUs, as UPSes cost too much then to use on every machine.