Monday, July 30, 2001

The computer continues to shut down, and I continue to put off taking it to the shop for repair.  I thought I had it figured out.  I was looking for an image and I was clicking through a bunch of pages quickly looking.  It seems like that's what I'm doing most times when it shuts down.

After I was up and running again, I clicked through a long serious of image pages quickly and nothing happened.  So it may be that... combined with something else.

Sunday, July 29, 2001

Last night I tried working on the computer, but every hour or so, it would click off.  I hate to have to give up the computer to have the repair person look at it.  I'm afraid that I'll be worse off than I am now.  If I am going to take it in, I had better back up my files.

Thursday, July 26, 2001

I finally vacuumed behind the filing cabinets and pushed them back in.  I'm assuming that the UPS is not going to blow up or anything.  I hope I'm not assuming wrong.

I should take the tower down to have the power supply replaced.  Why am I dragging my feet about this?  I'm not sure.  Is it

• procrastination?
• I need to back up my files
• afraid I'll make matters worse?

Wednesday, July 25, 2001

On again, off again jiggedy jig.

At least I know how to get the computer to come back on a minute after it goes off.  I unplug it for a full thirty seconds as suggested by the repair person.  When I plug the computer back into the UPS, it starts right up.... well, after it runs scan disk.

Speaking of scandisk, I ran a thorough, surface scan and all is well.  Then I defragged. 

Sunday, July 22, 2001

I finally installed the UPS.  Apparently it is the right one.  I had to pull out a filing cabinet to get to the plug.  Then I had to pull out a cabinet drawer to thread the cord through the cabinet to get it behind the filing cabinet.  Actually it is behind the second filing cabinet, but I didn't have the energy to pull it out too.  So I wrestled the plug into the socket.

Then I plugged only the computer tower and monitor to the UPS.  The computer didn't make it four hours before it blipped off.  So I guess it's not Golden Valley's electricity generation that's causing me problems.

Sunday, July 15, 2001

The past two days I've been sick.

Keith picked up the UPS after work on Friday.  The first thing I noticed even before opening the box is that one of the corners was damaged.  When I opened the box, the top piece of styrofoam was sitting off to the side of the UPS.  The unit was sitting in the box at a tilt.

When we took the unit out of the box, the UPS had not been sitting cradled in the styrofoam.  The corner that was damaged on the outside had no styrofoam at all on the inside.  It had crumbled and broken.  I was hesitant to plug it in.

In fact, I haven't plugged it in.  What finally made the decision for me is that the unit is a BC PRO 600, not the one we ordered, even though Keith paid the price for the more expensive model.  We'll have to wait until Monday to return it.

Friday, July 13, 2001

Before I went to bed at 4 a.m., I set up scandisk to do a thorough scan, files plus a surface scan.  I figured it would take a long time, and I may as well be sleeping while the computer did it's work.

When I checked the computer scandisk log, I was anxious to see what it found.  It seems that someone canceled the scan at 6:47 a.m.  I wonder who that could be?

No, apparently that's not the problem.

I had PSP open and I had just finished a wallpaper project (it turned out great, btw), closed all the windows in PSP and emptied the clipboard.  I was saving each phase of the project to an open Windows folder.

As soon as I was finished with blogger, I was going to put the wallpaper on my screen to see how it looked, but first I wanted to finish with my weblog entry.

I pasted about Grandma from notepad to blogger and published it.  I opened another MSIE window to check the pages.  I was satisfied with the results so I closed the window.  I moved the mouse to close Notepad, blip, off went the computer.

So when the computer went off, I had open:

• Paint Shop Pro (PSP) - empty
• Windows folder
• Notepad
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 (MSIE) with blogger.com
• and I was connected to the Net.

The tech person told me on the phone that the next time the power went off to unplug the computer for a full 30 seconds before trying to turn it back on.  I did that this time.  It worked or I wouldn't be typing this now.  Learn something new every day.  grin

The repair place called and said, "Your UPS has arrived."  Then we discussed the problems with the power going off suddenly.  "I guess you'll have to bring it in so we can look at it."

I feel like all this negative energy coming at me from all directions may be causing my computer to turn itself off in self defense. ;)

Although it's been running fine since Monday when I changed the power management settings to be on all the time.  I wonder if that was the problem?

Wednesday, July 11, 2001

Since the Sunday night shut down, the computer has stayed on.  I have a new theory.  It's me.  I have some sort of electrical interference running through my body.  When I get near the computer for any length of time, the computer turns itself off in self defense.  Each episode of blipping off has occurred when I've been working fast and furious on some project.

The new UPS is suppose to be in tomorrow.

Monday, July 09, 2001

The computer shut down around midnight.  I (jokingly) accused Keith of putting a timer on it.

Saturday, July 07, 2001

When someone dies, I find a whole new perspective for how I look at things.  Computer power supplies don't seem as important anymore.

Friday, July 06, 2001

Grandma Cleo died this morning.  Carrie called and said she "passed on", and at first I wasn't sure what she meant.  Did she faint or what?  I didn't even recognize her voice because it sounded so hoarse.  The twins were very close to Grandma Cleo.

I found out what was wrong with FTP.  My password had to be changed to set up the e-mail accounts for pamelajoy.com.  In the process, I had a typo in the password.  After I had the correct one, everything worked great.

The first thing I did is fix my blunder over at Reflections, so if you didn't catch it before, you've missed it.  See you should read my webpage every day. You never know what you are missing unless you do.

Thursday, July 05, 2001

While I was gone for a few days, I shut down the computer. When I got back, the computer ran continuously for 50 hours before it clicked off.

While the cover was off, the internal components were not hot to the touch. It's about 65 degrees in my house and the power supply feels cool.

I'm trying *one* more thing before I replace the power supply. I'm replacing my new surge protector with a UPS.  I decided on a Tripplite. I went to their site and according to their sizing guide, I need

VA: 633 Runtime: 3 min.

So I ordered the BC Pro 850 through the same place that fixed my power supply.

I do wonder one thing. I noticed on the specs on the new power supply, it listed a range from 230W to a MAX of 250 while the old power supply started at 235W.

Would 5W make enough difference for the computer to click off when I'm operating at maximum wattage?

...............

Well..... that is just great.  I mistakenly put the archive template into the main template of blogger for Reflections. Now the page reads like this:

BlogArchiveName-Value
BlogArchiveName-Value
BlogArchiveName-Value
BlogArchiveName-Value
BlogArchiveName-Value
BlogArchiveName-Value
BlogArchiveName-Value

As soon as I figured out that I made this mistake, the computer blips off. After an hour it was still off, so I went to bed. I get up and the computer comes on in safe mode. I have no idea what to do when this happens. I keep shutting down and rebooting until safe mode shuts its own self down.

Finally I'm online again and I go to blogger to update the template to the correct one, and now FTP to rivalpro doesn't work.

I should have never said anything.

Wednesday, July 04, 2001

whispering No perils to report today.  Everything seems to be going along just fine.

Tuesday, July 03, 2001

HKEd pointed out that the 250W may not be adequate for my system.  As I look at the stats that I copied off the bottom of the power supply, it says 230W MAX 250.  The old power supply ran at 235W.  I wonder if that's enough to make the difference?

My gut instinct has been that the new power supply is the root problem. The shut downs began after its installation. I've been tempted to request that it be replaced.

The power is not flickering. All the other electronic equipment in the house is working fine (We have five computers, two VCR's, DVD player, microwave oven... etc. and none of them are having any problems.)

Could it be that the new power supply is defective? It checked out okay on the diagnostic.

Could it be the power supply switch or cord that plugs into the motherboard?

Could it be I'm overloading it with all these fans!!! ? LOL

Jeff suggested I go to CNet and look at hardware reviews to choose my UPS. I looked under hardware; and I searched for "UPS", "power supply" and "uninterruptible power supply", and I didn't find anything that I recognized as a UPS.

After I didn't find anything at CNet, I went to Google and found the UPS FAQ.