Thanks, Igor - your explanation demystifies Event Viewer. I'm not seeing
anything that seems to relate to this problem though.
About the beeps - I'm familiar with POST error codes but this beeping is
different. Sometimes - rarely - during boot up the machine will just
beep continuously. Not an orderly sequent of beeps but just a seemingly
endless series of beep-beep-beep. Sometimes it pauses and restarts.
Also, If I enter the BIOS setup screen it will start beeping in the same
manner as long as that screen is up. It stops when I exit the bios
setup. I just tried it and counted something like 25 beeps before I
stopped counting. So I assume it is some fundamental hardware issue.
Regarding event viewer - first, I am using Windows 7 home premium
edition. I looked through the "system" events under the critical and
error tabs. No critical events were recorded. There were 25 recorded
under error section and almost all were failures to start services. No
notable repetitions or consistent pattens there.
With the restore points - I just looked again at system restore and
noted that "show older restore points" was not checked. Checking that
reveals a restore point from January 2014 and one from 2013 - both times
when I did a system backup. (I usually just backup data files and don't
often do full backups of the OS and installed programs.) So, I have the
6 most recent restore points and these two older ones. The problem with
the most recent restore points is that when I booted the PC Monday
evening and it installed updates, it created a series of restore points
during the update process. So I have 6 restore points all from Monday
and all made within the time span of a few hours. Those plus the 2014
and 2013 restore points are all I have.
I'll wait for the quote on the locally built machine and also do some
research on alternatives. Today the machine is much more stable than
yesterday - I'm getting an hour or so of normal usage before the issues
kick in, and rebooting seems to start that cycle over again. So I will
limp along till I get a new machine.
One symptom I did not mention - when the machine slows down Win 7 puts
up a notice saying that the computer is running slowly and asking if I
want to disable Aero effects. I assume that simply means that Windows
notices that the system is running slowly. Is that any sort of a clue to
what could be going on?
Thanks for the detailed reply!
Mark
On 3/15/2016 10:46 PM, Igor PDML-StR wrote:
Mark,
( Sorry, it's a long message, but I wrote a single message to address
several issues raised by you in this thread.)
Sorry, I had missed the part that relates to beeping and that it still
continues. That's the computer trying to blip the swearing words
coming out of your mouth. :-)
Actually, that BIOS' beeping is a code for the error (the outcome of
POST). Search in Google for "bios beep codes" and then add your
computer maker's name, e.g.,
bios beep codes dell
Or see them, e.g. here: http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm .
You'll see what different number of beeps mean.
E.g. 5 short beeps from DELL bios means CMOS battery failure",
which would be consistent with your leaving the computer off for a
week (as Darren has suggested).
As for the events viewer, - you may still get some additional
information about what's wrong.
I don't know if you have Win7 (or an earlier system, Vista or XP).
Under Win-7, there are two ways you can look at things.
On the LHS, click on "Event Viewer (Local)"
Then on the RHS, you'll see "Overview and Summary.
Under the "summary of Administrative Events, you can see categories:
Critical
Error
Warning
Information
...
And then there will be the number of the corresponding events within
the last hour, 24 hours, 7 days.
What you are interested in are the first two categories.
You can click on the "plus" sign to expand, and then see what type of
events there are.
You are interested in those events for which the column "Log" has
"System".
Double-Click on each of those and read what it says what was happening.
In principle, it's ok to have a bunch of those. But you want to see
what might be relevant to device drivers and timeouts.
You get back to that same list by clicking again on the "Event Viewer"
on the LHS.
Alternatively, you can click on "Custom Views" -> Administrative Events,
and go through the events.
Yet the second alternative, or if it is an older version (I don't
remember how it looks under XP, and I don't want know to fire up the
old XP desktop just for that, sorry), you can click on Windows Logs on
the LHS, and then on "System", and the scroll through tens and
hundreds of "Information" messages, looking only at the "Error" type.
Better yet, you can click on the first column "Level", and then it
will sort according to the level (it may take about a minute while it
does that). Then "Critical" and "Error" will be at the top (or at the
bottom, if you clicked twice).
As for restoring to just a few hours ago, that didn't make sense. It
was making sense only to restore to a few days ago, before you had
that mishap with the USB driver installation.
If your HDD space is really tight, the system may have removed the
earlier restore points, but if not, - you may still want to start
"restore" again, and look at the earlier dates.
Re: Custom build vs. off the shelf.
I've been buying custom-built PCs (from a highly reputable
custom-builder Kevin Chalker of KC-Computers, who retired some 3-5
years ago).
These days, you can buy a well balanced high[er]-end desktop from some
standard manufacturers, but I would steer clear from Best Buy.
I haven't used them for desktops, but had bought 1 or 2 customized
laptops from this shop:
http://www.portableone.com/Custom-Desktops
(And I had my laptop fixed couple of times while they were still doing
warranty repairs, which they stopped a few years back.)
They offer customized desktops. You can look at those.
They don't built computers from parts, but they customize the quality
off-the-shelf computer.
You don't pay too much overhead for the customization, but you avoid
the headaches and get some assurance that things will be tested to
work together.
HTH.
Good luck!
Igor
Mark C Tue, 15 Mar 2016 15:53:37 -0700 wrote:
Thanks Igor -
I don't know what to look for in event viewer... I read through all
the logs but the only entries that repeat over and over are ones that
indicate a normal state. The whole "Application and Services Logs"
section is blank - nothing in there, including the Hardware section
(where I expected there would be something.) Does that mean that it is
not turned on?
I did try a system restore but before this happened the machine
downloaded and installed 30 some updates and created 5 restore points
- at least. So the best I could do was restore it to a state a few
hours earlier. Not sure why I have so few restore pints... but with
the beeping upon power up, before windows loads, I assume this is a
hardware issue and not a windows issue anyhow.
Mark
---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
[email protected]
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow
the directions.
