My “Johnny 5 computer”

[zing]

A few years back, I had a similar problem with a computer running one of the xp versions and while I was going through the paces doing the ip config to look for reasons why and all that my son suggested it might be the internal battery inside the computer that was failing and then told me to also check everywhere possible where the time could be set on the computer including applications that start automatically on the start up menu.

It was almost a comfort to hear my computer might be as confused as I was.

I couldn't solve it on my own. He came to visit and put a new internal battery in and the problem was solved immediately . Before that I didn't know there was an internal battery the size of a coin in it.

Just a thought

Bill

 

[The Hat]

I spent the last couple of days going through all of the kind suggestions that I had received from you guys.

There were many so I reckoned I give each of them a good go in turn and see if one or more of them would cause a reaction or change, just as long as this cookie computer doesn’t boot up saying “to hell you will”.

The Corsair power supply was the first and it was easy to rule out any dip in supply, because it has built in diagnostic monitoring, also I have 60% more power that I need with this new configuration.

The hard disks were up next but I quickly found out to my surprise that they were change only a short way ago by my son and are also working fine.

He is not a fan of the solid state drives, he likes the wagon wheel type from the bigger slower drives and reckon if they work for years in a server then they’ll work for us, he checks them monthly anyway. (10,000 RPM)

We went on to pull the coin battery out and it too showed up very strongly, so no luck there, and the duel Ram sticks was check in both positions giving no loss of data either.

The computer gets a complete clear out of dust every twelve months and we check the operation temperature before and afterwards, we clean the Fans, CPU, RAM, Graphic card and Hard drives, the differences are surprising.(Air compressor)

I way beginning to think @Emulators suggestion might have some merit to it, and things might have been coming in by way of the monthly updates, but no one else has any similar issues, so it too has to be ruled out as pure Paranoia on my part.

It’s definitely an incompatibility problem of the O/S to maintain itself and remember where it stores its own hardware setting, (Maybe a ram issue ?) but yet it can find them on the very next boot-up.

The problem I had with the previous system was when the O/S would disable some of my printers in the middle of the day, (Not at boot-up time) they were connected to the Motherboard by six USB powered Hubs interlinked, so were my external hard drives and scanner and card reader.

Now you might say Ah ha, it’s the USB hubs that are at fault here, but no, the printers were picked at random when turned off (Greyed out and wrong Icons appear), and were connected to separate hubs, but none of the other components were ever effected, the printers would then be reinstall after an hour or so. ( Unaided)

I might leave the internet connected to the computer overnight, after shut-down of course, and then check the browser history in the morning, just to see what it’s interests might be …

@PeterBJ, I use a Flir C2 Thermal camera on my house too, but never taught of using it on the computer, the next time I clean the inside of it I’ll have a go at testing for hot spots..

The corny thing about this is that the computer works perfectly normal at all times..

click to enlarge.
My fly windows are leaking like a sieve..

 

[PeterBJ]

@PeterBJ, I use a Flir C2 Thermal camera on my house too, but never taught of using it on the computer, the next time I clean the inside of it I’ll have a go at testing for hot spots..

If you are the lucky owner of a FLIR camera I suggest using it to locate hot spots in your computer, I'm sure it will be excellent for this purpose, even if most of these cameras are used for finding cold spots due to heat insulation defects in houses. I do not own a FLIR camera, only a simple infra red radiation thermometer. The FLIR is 40 times more expensive than the thermometer, but even the simple thermometer is excellent for checking temperatures in electronics.

 

[stratman]

The Corsair power supply was the first and it was easy to rule out any dip in supply, because it has built in diagnostic monitoring,

The software tracks what happens during boot or after boot?

We went on to pull the coin battery out and it too showed up very strongly, so no luck there

Dependable or usable voltage tolerances on batteries can be tight. For instance, a 1.5 V battery may create issues in your computer if the voltage drops below 1.3.

Did you run Malwarebyte's free Anti-Malwarebyte software?

Have you tried running CHKDSK? (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2641432)

What about a REPAIR of Windows? (http://www.maximumpc.com/how-to-repair-a-faulty-windows-installation-without-reformatting/)

 

[The Hat]

Some great news to share, I may have found my achillies heel with this computer, despite looking, probing and examining everything (With encouragement from all you guys) I reckon I’ve got to the bottom of my crazy problems.

From what I can gather and from the few tests that I’ve carried out, it all seems to have come down to this new Feckin BIOS, a UEFI BOIS to be exact.

This is the first UEFI BIOS that I’ve used in my computer and that’s probably why I didn’t even consider it, usually if the BIOS is dodgy or incorrectly set you'll get on going operational problems.

I constantly blamed the current O/S, but I couldn’t get my head around how a freshly installed O/S could get that sloppy in just over two weeks, the previous installed O/S was about 5 years old, so anomalies can creep into an O/S of that age.

Here’s how I usually start up in the morning. (But anymore)

When I start-up my system from a UPS unit, I power on the motherboard and screen then from another location switch on all the other external peripherals.

My next step was to press the start button on the computer to get into Windows, and this is where I would usually discover I had a problem and would have to reboot to clear the issue, maybe up to 3 times before things were working normally.

To solve the problem.

I now power on all the peripherals first then wait a couple of seconds, then power the motherboard, screen and finally press the start button, so far this procedure has worked every time flawlessly.

From what I can gather, and don’t quote me on this, because I’m still in the dark on how the new BIOS actually works, this BIOS begins to work when the motherboard receives power and it must then seek and actively detect all of the internal peripherals before the post boot even starts, the jury is still out whether it needs to see the external ones too..

 

[mikling]

Some great news to share, I may have found my achillies heel with this computer, despite looking, probing and examining everything (With encouragement from all you guys) I reckon I’ve got to the bottom of my crazy problems.

From what I can gather and from the few tests that I’ve carried out, it all seems to have come down to this new Feckin BIOS, a UEFI BOIS to be exact.

This is the first UEFI BIOS that I’ve used in my computer and that’s probably why I didn’t even consider it, usually if the BIOS is dodgy or incorrectly set you'll get on going operational problems.

I constantly blamed the current O/S, but I couldn’t get my head around how a freshly installed O/S could get that sloppy in just over two weeks, the previous installed O/S was about 5 years old, so anomalies can creep into an O/S of that age.

Here’s how I usually start up in the morning. (But anymore)

When I start-up my system from a UPS unit, I power on the motherboard and screen then from another location switch on all the other external peripherals.

My next step was to press the start button on the computer to get into Windows, and this is where I would usually discover I had a problem and would have to reboot to clear the issue, maybe up to 3 times before things were working normally.

To solve the problem.

I now power on all the peripherals first then wait a couple of seconds, then power the motherboard, screen and finally press the start button, so far this procedure has worked every time flawlessly.

From what I can gather, and don’t quote me on this, because I’m still in the dark on how the new BIOS actually works, this BIOS begins to work when the motherboard receives power and it must then seek and actively detect all of the internal peripherals before the post boot even starts, the jury is still out whether it needs to see the external ones too..

Here is what I recommend. Switch on the UPS. Switch on peripherals, let them settle, turn on monitor, then start up computer and get into windows. That should solve your problem. I somehow suspect the slow startup with the HD, and the startup of the peripherals is getting the registration and assignment of the resources confused as things are coming on during/after it was determined it was not there. Hence, the requirement to restart to properly register the peripherals and get the resources sorted out.
The UEFI bios is is still a BIOS it will only detect stuff hooked up directly to the MB.

 

[Emulator]

I am finding "sleep" mode followed by the main switch, is now the quickest and most consistent way to switch off and on.

 

[stratman]

Article on power consumption when computer is hibernating, sleeping or after shut down:

http://www.howtogeek.com/181780/why...ou-shut-down-or-hibernate/?PageSpeed=noscript

 

[stratman]

I am finding "sleep" mode followed by the main switch, is now the quickest and most consistent way to switch off and on.

What is the "main switch"? The power button on the case, the power switch on the power supply, something external to the computer?

See article above. Sleep mode requires power in order to maintain the current session in RAM. Removing power to RAM defeats the purpose as the memory of your current session in the RAM, the reason for selecting Sleep mode in the first place, will cease.

 

[Emulator]

The main switch is the external mains power supply switch. The system is cleared by stopping applications, and then running CCleaner and then set to sleep mode, it powers down in about 10 seconds and the main switch is then set to off. Re-starting is: set main switch to on, press power button on case, the system powers up smoothly, "resuming windows" appears on the screen and then the normal windows screen awaits your input.