OT: Kozmik Rayz?

R

Rich Grise

Guest
My system just locked up - it's been doing that lately, and I think
it might be the BIOS. This is OK, however, since it still boots off the
CD, and Linux bypasses the BIOS.

Anyway, at lockup-time, I saw something I've never seen before -
a black streak across the screen:

http://www.neodruid.net/images/screen-streak.jpg

it goes from about top center to about right middle. It's like a
perfect 1 pixel wide. I wonder if it _could_ be a cosmic ray line
or something? It would take a pretty precise stream of pulses to
create a line like that.

Thank Dog for Linux! Lose a drive, lose the BIOS - hey, who cares? ;-)
(although I have a crippled computer on my hands - but that's OK; the
drive is only Windoze, and it's the one from my very first W95 computer,
vintage 1996 or so, and I haven't stored anything of consequence on a
Doze system drive in quite some time.)

Cheers!
Rich
 
Rich Grise wrote:
My system just locked up - it's been doing that lately, and I think
it might be the BIOS. This is OK, however, since it still boots off the
CD, and Linux bypasses the BIOS.

Anyway, at lockup-time, I saw something I've never seen before -
a black streak across the screen:

http://www.neodruid.net/images/screen-streak.jpg

it goes from about top center to about right middle. It's like a
perfect 1 pixel wide. I wonder if it _could_ be a cosmic ray line
or something? It would take a pretty precise stream of pulses to
create a line like that.

Thank Dog for Linux! Lose a drive, lose the BIOS - hey, who cares? ;-)
(although I have a crippled computer on my hands - but that's OK; the
drive is only Windoze, and it's the one from my very first W95 computer,
vintage 1996 or so, and I haven't stored anything of consequence on a
Doze system drive in quite some time.)

Cheers!
Rich

Hi,
Click to expand...

That is a pattern generated when you hit memory locations that are
evenly spaced. It usually means some program went bonkers and started
writing thru system memory.

--
Luhan Monat (luhanis 'at' yahoo 'dot' com)
"The future is not what it used to be..."
http://members.cox.net/berniekm
 
Rich Grise wrote:
My system just locked up - it's been doing that lately, and I think
it might be the BIOS. This is OK, however, since it still boots off the
CD, and Linux bypasses the BIOS.

Anyway, at lockup-time, I saw something I've never seen before -
a black streak across the screen:

http://www.neodruid.net/images/screen-streak.jpg

it goes from about top center to about right middle. It's like a
perfect 1 pixel wide. I wonder if it _could_ be a cosmic ray line
or something? It would take a pretty precise stream of pulses to
create a line like that.

Thank Dog for Linux! Lose a drive, lose the BIOS - hey, who cares? ;-)
(although I have a crippled computer on my hands - but that's OK; the
drive is only Windoze, and it's the one from my very first W95 computer,
vintage 1996 or so, and I haven't stored anything of consequence on a
Doze system drive in quite some time.)

Cheers!
Rich
Click to expand...

More likely, it is an overheating chip. Check the CPU, GPU, any system chips
for loose heatsinks or frozen fans. I had a northbridge chip heatsink fail once,
and it got so hot the sticky conduction pad underneath it melted and the
heatsink fell off... symptoms was strange video glitches.
 
On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 22:37:09 GMT, Rich Grise <richgrise@example.net>
wrote:

Anyway, at lockup-time, I saw something I've never seen before -
a black streak across the screen:
Click to expand...
Got a good virus and malware scanner?

Could be hardware, but rogue software would be my first guess.

BTW how did you manage to capture the image, or is it a simulation?
 
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 00:41:58 +0000, xray wrote:

On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 22:37:09 GMT, Rich Grise <richgrise@example.net
wrote:

Anyway, at lockup-time, I saw something I've never seen before -
a black streak across the screen:

Got a good virus and malware scanner?

Could be hardware, but rogue software would be my first guess.

BTW how did you manage to capture the image, or is it a simulation?
Click to expand...
I took a snapshot with my little digital camera. :) (the crap image
quality is because I turned the flash off so it could see the screen,
and hand-held it for the consequent time exposure.) The computer was
frozen - the mouse pointer wouldn't move - you can see the artifact where
it was half-way through scrolling when it locked. (the top half of the
comic strip).

I haven't blown the dust out for some time - it could very well
be a thermal problem; oddly, in Linux, I can see drive 0 (/dev/hda, "C:"),
and LILO says it installs on the MBR, but it still won't boot off it.

I had planned to just retire the 4 GB drive and move the 80 GB from my
other broken computer (Athlon 2400 died )-; ) from hdd to hda and see
if it boots.

Also, I might power it down for the night. I have shop air, so blowing
the dust out is just a matter of getting up off my lazy ass.

Thanks!
Rich
 
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 02:34:25 +0000, Rich Grise wrote:
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 00:41:58 +0000, xray wrote:
On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 22:37:09 GMT, Rich Grise <richgrise@example.net
Anyway, at lockup-time, I saw something I've never seen before -
a black streak across the screen:

Got a good virus and malware scanner?

Could be hardware, but rogue software would be my first guess.

BTW how did you manage to capture the image, or is it a simulation?

Also, I might power it down for the night. I have shop air, so blowing
the dust out is just a matter of getting up off my lazy ass.
Click to expand...
I've just given my computer a blow job, and it seems I probably need
a battery for my CMOS.

Thanks!
Rich
 
Rich Grise wrote:
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 02:34:25 +0000, Rich Grise wrote:

On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 00:41:58 +0000, xray wrote:

On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 22:37:09 GMT, Rich Grise <richgrise@example.net

Anyway, at lockup-time, I saw something I've never seen before -
a black streak across the screen:

Got a good virus and malware scanner?

Could be hardware, but rogue software would be my first guess.

BTW how did you manage to capture the image, or is it a simulation?


Also, I might power it down for the night. I have shop air, so blowing
the dust out is just a matter of getting up off my lazy ass.


I've just given my computer a blow job, and it seems I probably need
a battery for my CMOS.

Thanks!
Rich
Click to expand...

Did your inner child enjoy it? ;)
 
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 10:38:23 -0500, Mark Jones wrote:
Rich Grise wrote:
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 02:34:25 +0000, Rich Grise wrote:
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 00:41:58 +0000, xray wrote:
On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 22:37:09 GMT, Rich Grise <richgrise@example.net
Anyway, at lockup-time, I saw something I've never seen before -
a black streak across the screen:

Got a good virus and malware scanner?
Click to expand...
I've got something better than that: Linux. :)

Could be hardware, but rogue software would be my first guess.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that happens when M$ infects your system.

BTW how did you manage to capture the image, or is it a simulation?
Click to expand...
It's a snapshot, which I answered upthread, but someone seems to have
snipped.

Also, I might power it down for the night. I have shop air, so blowing
the dust out is just a matter of getting up off my lazy ass.

I've just given my computer a blow job, and it seems I probably need
a battery for my CMOS.

Did your inner child enjoy it? ;)
Click to expand...
OOh, baby!

Yeah. Did you get my post last week where I said that my inner child is a
little girl? Fortunately for all concerned, she's a Lesbian. ;-)

Joking aside, I actually did rather enjoy it. I exorcised about three
generations of dust bunnies. Now, of course, I have to vacuum the floor.
TANSTAAFL. )-;

Cheers!
Rich
 
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