When you realize you know nothing
Normally I hate when bloggers – expecially tech bloggers – write about their pets or something like “I am not writing because I got flu”… but when illness refers to computers, it’s really something to talk about.
I was writing a post about online photo editors when my computer crashed.
Oh, well, who cares, I saved the post one minute ago – that’s what I said.
The problem is my computer still crashes and restarts about 20 seconds after the boot.
Every “break glass in case of fire” procedure has been tried, and the computer still crashes.
I called the guy who takes care of our servers and he asked me “did you *******?”
Feel free to replace the ****** with weird BIOS settings, hybrid startup modes, motherboard jumpers configuration, impossible-to-remember regedit paths and so on.
Damn, that sounded greek… and if you’re from Greece, imagine he was talking italian…
I had to bring my computer to his lab. My pride is under my shoes.
I realized there is no difference between me and Uncle Sophie (imagine Uncle Sophie as a fat mid aged woman using the computer only to play Window solitaire).
I can make (almost) everything I want just writing some lines of code, but when that big black box called “computer” seriously crashes, I know nothing.
How much do you know?
(8 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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This post has 18 comments
Andrius
Wow that’s sad Emanuele. My computer is kinda busted up. Now I don’t know how to write stuff because everything lags :(. It’s really nice to see someone keeping spirit of good flash games. It has been almost a year when I first wisited this site. I was a newbie on Flash. Now, when I know something, I can make a little game or some stuff. But when my computer crashes – nothing. It’s pretty boring whitout PC around. And now I don’t be much near Computer because I’m only 12 years old. OMG???!!! Did I started talking about myself?? Sorry, didn’t noticed. Well Emanuele, hope your computer is going to be all right. Good luck and thanks for great tutorials.
– Best whises
Andrius
alex_mc
Got Mac?
Josh of Cubicle Ninjas
Sorry Emanuele…hope things get better.
It must be in the water! All Adobe applications decided not to work today for me. I’ve spent the better part of an afternoon reinstalling these things and grumbling at the dranconian installation process.
But I have a Mac too, and it might be just what you’re looking for. It isn’t perfect but I find myself working more and fixing my computer less.
valentino
Ciao Emanuele, mi dispiace molto per il tuo computer, ma non credere… possono succedere talmente tante cose dentro questa scatola che uno non può sempre sapere tutto :) E guarda che la maggior parte delle persone vanno in palla a fare qualsiasi cosa che nn sia accenderlo/spegnerlo ahah
Sei pure bravo a scrivere codice! Non deprimerti!
In bocca al lupo!
Eugene
Now everyone is talking about the American economy and eclections, nice to read something different. Eugene
Jerry Young
I know quite a bit as a Systems Administrator/Engineer and do PHP and Flash programming as a hobby. I have several Microsoft Certifications, know some basic MAC support, and a small amount of Linux. Your issue sound like a driver or over heating issue.
Terry
do you know what happen with your computer?
1)over heat?
2)power supply was not working well? may need a new one..
Lhincy
Hello Emmanuele,
You’re really a geek. Can I request of something that I can’t find on the net. I been thinking of a lyrics site that is built on wordpress engine. Can you do that and it is great if it you could turn it to be free?
I think it is possible to build a lyrics site that is customized under wordpress engine. Is it?
Thank you.
Suely (Snakesue)
year 2006: imagine me like your Uncle Sophie, not fat but a mid aged woman using the computer only to play Window solitaire. Only few words in english. cv Then searching news games a found this site. Everything changed.
year 2008: i am a webdesigner,i know Photoshop, Pagemaker, corel, 3D Max, i make my own games with your help and now i am learning english to read your posts without dictionary and i am learning about assembly computers (i will conclude my study in ago/2009).
Thanks for all. I am a better person because you. You made the difference.
By the way, jumper is a plastic piece to reset the BIOS(software inside motherboard – Basic Input Output Sistem).
limpeh
Well, that’s sorry to hear. However, when your computer reboots by itself, there might have few reasons :
1) Your CPU is overheating.
2) Your HDD isn’t running properly (bad sectors) if you can’t even restart to your OS.
3) Your motherboard / power supply is having hardware problem.
4) Your BIOS has problem (you can flash it but you have to take the risk of corrupting it which leads to hardware failure)
5) You have installed new softwares that are not fully compatible with your OS and will cause weird problem (I’ve experienced that with my Vista)
Anyway, I hope you will get back your computer soon, in a ‘healthy’ status. Thanks.
limpeh
By the way, I am not a computer technician, nor a flash / game programmer. I just have some knowledge on CG (Photoshop & 3DS Max) and a bit of simple web programming (CSS & HTML). I just got those ‘knowledge’ from time to time when my PC meets any problem and I have to solve them myself.
Jose
Hi:
first of all thanks for the great tutorials.
In that line of thought, should I feel stupid or have my pride in my shoes every time I come back to your site in another atempt to solve what was after all a really easy dilema? I don’t think I am stupid, neither are you, we all need to build the roads for thought in our brain before we can use it. Two analogies ‘cose I love them. A child at 6 yo is not stupid beccause she can’t read or add perfectly. The arpanet was not a useless piece of … because there was no web 2.0 experience. All the potential is there, just build the road.
Again thank you for helping me build the roads I need :)
Adam Owen
While computer failures are obviously a serious hassle, trying to fix them yourself can be very beneficial.
Not only do you learn more about the hardware side of computers, but you can develop great troubleshooting skills which ultimately can help your flash / php / C / networking etc.
Whenever someone tells me they wish they knew more about how their computer actually works, I tell them the next machine they purchase they should build themselves. Researching the different components and figuring out how and why they work will help you when they inevitably go wrong. If you can build it, you should be able to fix it.
Of course I’d rather have my head down in PHP or Photoshop, but these other skills are invaluable and don’t stop at computing. They can be put into practice in many areas of life (especially the troublshooting part).
Hope your box gets sorted out soon Emanuele.
Quintus
WHY does everyone have these standard Replies?
Emanuele you pwn! :D
roflmaopimp
tonypa
If you are using Windows then it can be hopefully fixed with clean install. Of course you need to install all your programs too, but overall it should not take more then couple of hours.
Unless your Adobe product hates you, just like Josh of Cubicle Ninjas I had to re-install my Flash CS3 recently. For whatever reason I never had problems with it before but now it took me whole day because the stupid installer failed every time after 30 minutes while putting some useless Adobe rubbish in. The Adobe installer is honestly worse piece of *** I have ever had contact with and its simply unbelievable how a company with such a nice products is only able to provide completely useless, slowest, buggiest installer for its paying customers. Trying to search for “cs3 install problems” will give over 3 million hits which shows the horror Adobe has managed to create. Even worse, they are using same stinking installer in CS4 too.
As about hardware problems, you dont need to know how computer works in order to use it. These days all electronics are designed to work for about 3-5 years, then they break and you throw it away because new, better, faster, bigger, shinier version is out. Trying to fix couple years old computer is pretty hopeless, all the standards have been changed, none of the components used in your box are manufactured anymore and overall it will cost about same as buying completely new one. Get Eee Box instead.
polok
hi emanulele. Sorry to hear about your pc. I am a great fan of you site. you really did some good job about flash games.
About your pc you can check out this site:
http://www.fonerbooks.com/pcrepair.htm
This site have some flowchart about how one can diagnose about their crashed pc.
Hope you will do better in coming days.
extra help
I had this problem once,
If it is the same type as mine, then the problem would be that the fan on the graphics card overheated.
And I hope you do realize an uncle is either someones mother or father’s BROTHER and the Auntie is the sister.
Emanuele Feronato
@extra help: my uncle is a drag queen